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Unit Reviews: Imperial Armor Aeronautica

2012-09-03T22:00:00.000+10:00

I had been relatively impressed with the Badab War 1&2 releases as well as Doom of Mymeara- while not without their flaws (such as the Siege and Tyrant lists), they were a real notch up in terms of rules-writing for Forge World, offering a lot of pretty decent options to players looking to do something unique with their armies without being either over- or underpowered in most cases; it seemed that FW was trending upwards in their understanding of the game and attempts to make their products balanced and usable for everyone. Unfortunately Imperial Armor Aeronautica basically wrecks that trend. Its units vary widely from incredibly broken ("Hi, I'm a flyer with a 2+ cover save!") to utterly worthless (110pts for a twin-linked Burst Cannon and a Markerlight.)

If that were the worst of it, though, it would simply be another early-type Forge World book. However, this time around it really seems that FW simply doesn't know what any of the rules do.

I get that FW is not big on balance and rules and all of that; I don't agree with the way they view it, but I can live with it. But IA: Aeronautica fails to even meet that minimal standard, as the writers refer to rules that don't exist, add rules to units in ways that are counterproductive or even useless and worse.

As an example, the Auto-Targeting rule in the book has the following text: "Weapons with this special rule ignore any cover saves or cover save bonuses provided by the Supersonic and Jink special rules, and from moving Flat Out." Which sounds really reasonable and fairly useful until you remember that the Supersonic rule has absolutely nothing to do with cover saves at all.

In fact, the Supersonic rule is one of the worst offenders in the book, as it's plastered all over all manner of units for no apparent reason.Similarly, many of the transports in the book are Supersonic, which for those of you keeping track at home means that units can't disembark from them except via Crash and Burn. While this is somewhat humorous (it makes the Aquilla less a transport and more a flying prison for criminals who they can't allow to set foot anywhere on the planet, a la Avengers), it's a colossal rules oversight that has no excuse- so many of the units in the book simply don't function at all, much less function as advertised. In a fandex that might be understandable, but a professional game company with worldwide recognition? No, I'm sorry, that's just not appropriate.

Complaints aside, let's take a look at the specifics of some of these units.

New RulesMost of these are not new, but rather old rules from the IA series slightly updated to be (somewhat) more accurate with the new flyer mechanics. With the exception of Auto-Targeting none of them are grossly mistaken, though the Heat-Seeking rule is redundant on several of its platforms (granting rerolls to hit on twin-linked weapons, etc.) Flare/Chaff Launchers are also a bit weird, as they grant a 4+ invulnerable save against Missile weapons... which, oddly, Missile Launchers are not. It also raises the issue of whether one-shot in this case means a single attack (i.e. one unit's shooting), a single hit (i.e. one missile) or a single turn (i.e. one enemy shooting phase.)

Thunderbolt Fighter
A standard AV11 airplane with 3HP and the Repair rule (exactly as per a Rhino). A TLAC and TL Lascannon simply aren't anywhere near enough for 180pts, even on a flyer- the ability to sink 40-60 more points on wing mounts doesn't help its case any. There is no real reason you'd take one of these over a Vendetta or such.
VERDICT: Nah

Lightning
AV10, 2HP puts this in the distinctly fragile category (no tougher than a Land Speeder? wow) and it comes in at the non-insignificant price of 145pts, though it does benefit from Agile (giving +1 to cover saves from Jinking.) (Note to self: "jinking" sounds like a Roaring Twenties-era hate crime.) It has a TL Lascannon and Autocannon with extra range, but honestly if you 36" move vehicle with 48" range gun is unable to close with something, the problem isn't in the weapon's statline. Like the Thunderbolt it comes with a ton of extraneous wing point mounts that you can fill up if you hate points.
VERDICT: Better, but still not good.

Aquila Lander
Ah, here we go, the first of the colossal cock-ups that FW put in the book. The Aquilla "Lander" is has both the Hover type and the Supersonic rule, the latter of which prevents it from using the former. Oops. Fortunately, with its massive transport capacity of seven models, the inability to disembark is all but irrelevant. The Aquilla comes with a nose Heavy Bolter, but you can pay to get a Multilaser or Autocannon. Um, you can pay as many points as those weapons would normally cost to add to any other platform, in fact. But that's only fair, since it comes in dirt-cheap at... 110pts? What? For 30pts less than a Vendetta, you lose the ability to disembark, five transport capacity, one AV all around, three Lascannons and a Heavy Bolter? What the hell, Forge World?
VERDICT: Worth less than the electrons used to display this sentence.

Vulture Gunship
Take a Valkyrie; take away its transport capacity and give it Vector Dancer, Strafing Run, and a Heavy Bolter. That's a long ways from great, but it's certainly a good start- and it really is just the start, as the Vulture comes with a plethora of options. It can go with an Autocannon, Missile Launcher, or Lascannon replacing the Multilaser (all twin-linked) or it can take a pair of Multiple Rocket Pods. It can also swap the wing missiles for a variety of the standard missile/bomb options OR yet another pair of MRPs- yes, for 155pts you can have four large blasts spewing out of this thing each turn.Better yet, for the same price as the above you can swap all its weapons (except the Heavy Bolter) for a twin-linked Punisher Cannon, which is a lot scarier when you're BS4 and rerolling misses and also getting into whatever firing arc you want.
VERDICT: If you need to murder infantry, the Vulture is a go-to.

Valkyrie Sky Talon Transport
It's like a Valkyrie, but instead of carrying some troops it can carry a Tauros or two Drop Sentinels. Also it's thirty points cheaper and comes with Vector Dancer for some reason. It's not exactly great, since the ability to carry around Fast/Deep Striking vehicles isn't all that fancy, but they're pretty much the cheapest flyer you can get and they don't take a FoC slot, so there can be some silliness there.
VERDICT: Eh, could be worse.

Marauder Bomber
Weighing in at a hefty 400pts but only managing to pick up AV11 (albeit with three structure points), the Marauder is off to a middling start right from the beginning. Its weapon loadout is quite weak, with a TL Lascannon in the nose and a TL HB in the tail, but it does bring twelve bombs (each S6 AP4) to the party, which it can rain down using the Apocalyptic Blast template. It can also trade all of its regular bombs for a pair of Hellstorm Bombs, which are S7 AP3 and use the hellstorm (i.e. mega-flamer) template. The latter is probably not a very good choice, since 7"/10" AP3 blasts are a dime a dozen in Apocalypse, but the ability to drop fairly accurate AP4 barrages is more useful, if not 400pts of useful.
VERDICT: Okay if you want to pretend you're fighting WWII.

Marauder Destroyer
25pts more expensive than the regular Marauder but with the same stats and the Strafing Run rule, it trades half of its bomb payload to upgrade the Heavy Bolter to an Assault Cannon, the Lascannon for three TL Autocannons, and add a pintle Heavy Bolter. Able to pour out a fair amount of firepower and still drop a pretty dangerous rack of explosives, it still suffers from the problem of just being really, really expensive for what it does. However, thanks to both bombs and guns it has an excellent ability to deploy its firepower against whatever target is needed- there are few good places to hide from its weapon arcs.
VERDICT: Better, but still not great.

Arvus Lighter
This is another one of those units that is basically in here as a joke, like the tractors and construction Sentinels and such. It doesn't really do anything in particular (holds twelve duders) and it's explicitly terrible at combat (it can only fire snap shots ever.) There is a point cost and stuff listed, but even Forge World knows that you're never, ever going to use it. You are going to paint your pretty model- or your ugly little stub-winged box, as the case may be- and put on the shelf and be done with it.
VERDICT: How can you have an opinion if the model has no rules, Mr. Anderson?

Avenger Strike Fighter
With an unusual statline (12/10/10, 2HP) and highish cost (150pts), the Avenger is certainly worth being skeptical of. However, it does have Strafing Run and a pretty significant armament, bringing two Lascannons and a Bolt Cannon (S6 AP3 Heavy 7) as well as a rear-facing Stubber. It can also bolt on a pair of extra wing-mounted guns, either Multilasers/Autocannons for 15pts each or Missile Launchers for 20pts each; various missiles and bombs can also go in these slots. Since it comes in the HS slot of Guard and Sisters, that gives it a reasonably-unique role compared to most of the other flyers and it makes a pretty solid ground-attack vehicle, albeit a rather fragile one due to its weird armor values. Though it's expensive, I think tagging on the Missile Launchers is your best bet, as this gives you a plethora of anti-tank and options as well as the ability to hunt heavy infantry fairly well. However, if you're looking to diversify its armaments a bit the Multi/AC options are not bad, either, and can allow it to rain down some pretty enormous amounts of fire from above.
VERDICT: One of the few actual flyers that is balanced for its cost. Thumbs up, Forge World.

Manticore Air Defense Tank
Coming in 15pts cheaper than the regular Manticore, this version reverts more to the old pre-IG codex statline for the missiles (S9 AP2 Ordnance) and tags on the Skyfire and Heat Seeking properties as well. However, lacking the Interceptor rule it is not only likely to get alpha-striked out of existence but also is unable to meaningfully threaten any non-air targets. So, uh, buy a Hydra instead and save yourself 70pts. Note that because its missiles have the Ordnance rule, you effectively can't shoot more than one of them per turn (unless you want to snapfire, which is a pretty poor plan.)
VERDICT: Forget it, Sam, it's Chinatown.

Imperial Support Weapons Platform
A Hydra or Air Defense Manticore, minus the tank part. They're AV10 all around and immobile with two HP, and in return you save 25/45pts. Oh, and you can cram 1-3 of them into a single slot, in the case of the Manticore version.
VERDICT: Making a bad thing cheaper only works if you make it enough cheaper to matter.

Praetor Armored Assault Launcher
Well, it's pretty ridiculously expensive, but it does at least come with some survivability for that price, having the same armor and structure points as a Baneblade. Its armament is... less impressive, however, being a two-short Skyfire/Interceptor Missile Launcher. The ability to reroll penetrations (thanks to Primary Weapon) is certainly nice and means it stands a pretty okay chance of its hits going through even against the AV12 flyers, but on the other hand BS3 means that its two shots each turn are probably not going to do a lot. (Ask the Tyrannofex how that works out for him.) The minimal secondary armament of two Heavy Bolters does little to make up for this lacking, so in the end the Praetor is mostly just a big hulk of metal that will annoy you by missing a lot.
VERDICT: Swing and a miss.

Sabre Weapons Battery
An option to replace the Heavy Weapons Squads in IG Platoons, Batteries are artillery (giving them significant survivability in this edition) and bring one TL Heavy Bolter each with a single crewman accompanying. They are immobile (okay, makes sense) and Scouts (wait what) which means they will usually have pretty good firing positions and you have a number of upgrade options. They can add Searchlights for free, which... well, why wouldn't you? I mean, they're free and all. They can also trade the HB for two TL Heavy Stubbers (10pts), a TL Autocannon (also 10pts), or TL Lascannon (20pts) as well as adding one extra crew each for 2pts. Oh, and all of the guns are Interceptor and Skyfire, giving you a flexible and effective tool.

Comparing, for 25pts you can get a T3 two-wound Heavy Weapons team with an Autocannon, or for 42pts you can get a T7 four-wound Sabre Platform that is twin-linked alongside its ability to shoot down arriving aircraft and such. Uh... yes. Yes I will take those. The only downside is their inability to move or be loaded into vehicles the way HWTs can later in a game, but since you're perfectly free to mix the two of them that's not really a problem.
VERDICT: Imperial Guard gets another excellent anti-flyer tool. As if they needed it.

Storm Eagle Assault Gunship
See, it's like a Storm Raven but different, right? It has a capacity of 20 and the same four doors, etc, but it... wait, it's not a Transport vehicle but has transport capacity? Damnit, Forge World. Anyways, it gets the extra capacity and a free HP in the mix, but can't carry a Dread like the Stormraven can. The weapons are also notably weaker, with the nose TL Heavy Bolter backed up by some Whirlwind-style missiles (with two shots). It can buy some missiles or Lascannons on the wings for a fairly absurd price and can trade the nose gun out for a Multimelta (at +15pts for some reason) or Typhoon.

Oh, and CSM get a version that shaves 20pts off the cost and loses PotMS as well as having worse weapon options. Because, you know, Chaos has to suck at everything.
VERDICT: It's just worse than a Stormraven. Sorry, other Marines.

Caestus Assault Ram
Forge World loves to make Unique and Special Flowers, and this is one of them. See, it's 13/13/11 (basically telling all the other flyers to suck on it and incidentally having as much protection as a freaking Manta Carrier does) and is a tank that is allowed to make Ram attacks because it's so very different. Oh, and it gets to roll two dice for penetration and add +1 on the damage chart when ramming and also has a 5++ against any hits from the front and also Terminators don't count double and it has a super-duper large blast Melta and you can assault out of it and its the MOST STRONGEREST DUDE EVAR.

Unfortunately, in the process of bolting on every special rule they could think up FW once again forgot to read the actual rules of the game and thus, like several of its brethren, it has the Supersonic rule and so leaves its passengers unable to disembark. But I guess maybe that's a design feature, right? Since it can ram into something and explode and then the guys can assault, right? Right?
VERDICT: Broken, but not in the way the internet thinks.

Land Raider Helios (Hyperios Anti-Air variant)
Pretty standard Land Raider numbers and rules all around and coming in at 280pts, except its transport capacity is... six. That's not even enough for one squad of Terminators, its nominal cargo. But that's another thing Forge World loves to do, so we'll ignore it. It comes with the Godhammer sponsons and a Skyfire/Interceptor missile launcher on the top, which is kinda cute. Heat Seeker means you're almost always hitting your preferred target, making it a pretty strong little platform against most airplanes. However, the downsides of low transport capacity and inability to bolt the Multimelta onto the top are pretty annoying, so it probably isn't something you're gonna be terribly happy about.
VERDICT: On the weak side of passable. It can, you know, sit on an objective somewhere and protect some Scouts I guess.

Whirlwind Hyperios
95pts for a standard Rhino chassis with the above gun stuck on the top. Oh, this one is twin-linked, so you can reroll misses against flyers while you reroll misses against flyers (Forge World herd u lieked dat) but is otherwise a fairly trashy little thing. Again, not horrible, just a bit over-specialized; a hundred points is just too much to pay for one mediocre shot per turn.
VERDICT: guys i hav a gun can i play in ur game to??!

Thunderhawk Gunship
Apocalypse is basically a game of pulling your models off the table. Units like the Thunderhawk are basically why. See, it's pretty okay statwise (AV12 all around, 4 structure points) and can carry thirty dudes, which is a nice little bonus. And it comes with some Lascannons, bombs, and Heavy Bolters, all of which are amusing. But it has a Thunderhawk Cannon for a main gun (7" blast, S8 AP3), but you're never gonna use it because for a trivial amount of points you can upgrade to a Turbo-Laser (large blast Destroyer weapon) and you always, always will. Admittedly, it costs a fairly stupid number of points (nine hundred and then some), but there's no meaningful way to shut it down for most armies and the Destroyer gun will just kind of murder most things pretty instantly.
VERDICT: Destroyer weapons flyers- making Apocalypse not fun anymore since 2005.

Grey Knights Thunderhawk
You pay 100pts more, you get the standard array of GK vehicle rules (including Reinforced Aegis, just in case that one psychic power someone tried to use on you might have had a minute chance of working) and get the option to pay 40pts to turn all your Heavy Bolters to Psycannons. It's really not all that different at the end of the day, but its secondary guns will cause a bit more damage and be a bit more annoying to everyone you use it against.
VERDICT: Getting kicked in the balls 10% harder isn't meaningfully worse.

Thunderhawk Transporter
It's half the cost, and instead of having a gun that cleans things off the board, you... you can carry two Rhinos? What the hell is this garbage.
VERDICT: At least the Arvus is a cutie-pie; this thing has no excuse.

Land Speeder Tempest
See, it's a Land Speeder that can activate its super-engines and go rilly rilly fast so much that it flies! Except then it can't shoot or do anything else. And it costs more than twice as much as a basic Land Speeder and is only AV11. So, uh, yeah, probably not going to be making an appearance on the tables near you anytime soon.
VERDICT: If you didn't want to spend points on a Stormtalon, you can take this instead and be strictly worse.

Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought
The big ol' Eggnaut from days of yore; it may not be great, but it does at least have some advantages. AV13 in the front and a 5++ against shooting are both pretty nice, and if it sits still it becomes Skyfire/Interceptor for the turn. Its basic armament of a pair of TLHBs is pretty atrocious, but you can get Multimeltas for free, TL Autocannons for 10pts TL Lascannons for 30pts, or six-shot Assault Cannons for 25pts (in all cases the cost is for the pair.) With BS5 and a pretty good array of guns to pick from the Contemptor is actually well-seated to shoot down most types of flyers, and the ability to bolt a Cyclone Missile onto its noggin (for the usual cost) is cute. Its main problem is that it is rather pricey overall, but no more so than a Venerable Dreadnought and it comes with a variety of advantages compared to that alternative, so I think it ends up looking favorable.
VERDICT: If you want a big egg in your army, this is definitely the one to take.

Hyperios Air Defense Battery
35pts per platform and artillery statline, except that it's T6 instead for some reason. It's only BS3, but has a twin-linked Missile Launcher with Skyfire/Interceptor (and Heat Seeker again, because FW doesn't learn), which ends up being a fairly reasonable price to pay for scaring off enemy flyers. It also has the distinction of being the first model to have access to the Split Fire rule. Unfortunately, due to Split Fire requiring a Ld test and FW being derpy, it can never pass the test and thus sadly cannot take advantage of it.
VERDICT: If you ignore the parts that don't work, these are actually pretty good.

Fighta-Bomma
Because we didn't have enough nearly-identical Ork aircraft quite yet, here's another one. But see, this one has, er, five Big Shootas and six Rokkits, so that's totally different! Also it can get an Apocalyptic Barrage (8) weapon instead of its BS2 Rokkits for a fairly small number of points, so maybe you ought to do that instead.
VERDICT: At a certain point, AV10 flyers with four mediocre guns on them become redundant. That point was about six chassis ago, I think.

Attack Fighta
No. No. I am not going to even bother. It has some crappy guns and bombs and is a stupid garbage plane with absolutely nothing of interest about it.
VERDICT: In the case of Blah Blah Blah vs. The State of Whatever, we find that no one gives a shit.

Flakk Trukk
Trukk stats (including 3HP) and keeps the unfortunate Ramshackle rule, but gains the ability to move Flat Out and still shoot at a flyer. They come in squads of up to three and are 75pts, which is a bit much given their armament (Flakka-Gunz, which are just a Quad Gun minus the twin-linked quality, and a Big Shoota.) Given the minimal penalty Orks take for shooting at a flyer and and the price (an Aegis is 50pts and has better numbers), one must conclude that the Flakk Trukk isn't really a particularly strong choice.
VERDICT: At least it's not another identical airplane.

Flakk Battle Fortress
Yikes. Well, um, 460pts is an awful lot to be paying, but let's keep our minds open here. It's got good AVs (14/13/12) and three structure points, so it's pretty survivable (though it is still open-topped.) Surprisingly, the only guns it comes with are three Flakka-Gunz, although you can bolt a number on for extra points. Given its fairly absurd cost, only having three weapons is... well, it's not great. Yes, sure, they get four shots each, but you're still BS2, so that's just bare compensation for Ork stats. So it's tough enough to eat up most shots from flyers and volley back in return, but you could instead take... six Flakk Trukks (which we've already established are kinda mediocre) and have twice as many guns and the same number of hull points in effect. The transport capacity of thirty is a nice add-on and since it's a superheavy you could maybe put Lootas or something in there, but at the end of the day I don't think it's really going to be that great for you.
VERDICT: You do not always get what you pay for.

Flakk Trakk
Not to be confused with the above entry that is a single letter different. Damnit, FW. So it's 15pts more than a Flakk Trukk and comes with 12/11/10 armor (which is a huge improvement) and the same traits/special rules, minus Ramshackle- looking good so far. It can carry six mans (as opposed to the Trukk, which can't carry any) and comes with... wait, two Big Shootas and that's it? That can't be right. The picture shows it with a Flakka-Gun, so we're going to assume that it has one (because it has the statline printed with it and the illustration has it and everything) because this is far from the first fuck-up FW has made. Presuming that, the Flakk Trakk is a pretty good buy, as it is significantly tougher than the Trukk and can tote some guys around (Lootas, Burnas, or Tankbustas, perhaps?) It can also reroll terrain tests when moving 6" or less, an added bonus.
VERDICT: Orks join the "we have a reasonable anti-air unit" club.

Phoenix BomberOh goody, the Eldar section. See, Eldar are supposed to basically be the kings of the air and FW certainly gives them enough toys to compete for that title, but whether or not they're good enough to hold it... well, we'll get to that in time. Anyways, the Phoenix is rather pricey at 225pts and has a shoddy statline (10/10/10 and 3HP, but at least they finally pried those damn Guardians out of the gunner's seat so it's not BS3 anymore.) It does have the Vector Dancer and Shrouded rules, which make it quite able to hit what it needs and gives it a boost to survivability above and beyond its weak statline... you're just gonna need to Evade a lot to make real use of it, which limits your firepower. Oh, and Strafing Run also, so if you're hitting ground targets... well, you're gonna HIT those targets almost all the time.

It comes with a Pulse Laser (which can be swapped to a TL Bright Lance or TL Starcannon for free, but given you're BS5 that's probably unnecessary), two Shuriken Cannons and two missile launchers. They come standard as Phoenix launchers (S5 AP3 Heavy 3) but can be swapped into Nightfire (S4 AP3 Small Blast Pinning No Cover Heavy 3) for 10pts. Its primary configuration is pretty brutal against heavy infantry and light vehicles, which taking the Nightfires will shred light infantry pretty quickly. However, in either case you are probably going to eat a lot of firepower and even those small arms can potentially bring you down, so it makes the price tag a bit tough to stomach. However, at the end of the day you're still a flyer with a lot of firepower, so bar Interceptor you're going to cause a lot of damage quite quickly.
VERDICT: Not the best, but will tear up the unprepared.

Nightwing Interceptor
Alright, this guy is what makes the Eldar air force scary. The Nightwing is an absolute monster, as will be clear in a moment here, and it comes from a wide variety of reasons. 145pts for AV10 all around and two HP is quite bad, but once again it at least gets BS4, so that's good (and 145 is pretty cheap for a flyer.) It comes with Vector Dancer (making targeting a cinch) as well as Shrouded and Agile- for those keeping track at home that means a permanent 5+ save and a 2+ save when you Evade. Since it comes with almost as many guns as the Phoenix (two Shuriken Cannons, two Bright Lances) and is 2/3 the price, the Nightwing ends up being a wonderful deal- maybe quite on par with a Vendetta, but thanks to maneuverability and a good weapons loadout it is quite capable of going toe-to-toe with one if necessary.
VERDICT: Good lord yes. What part of 2+ cover save didn't you understand?

Lynx
Another superheavy with a Str D weapon, but despite its inclusion in Aeronautica, it's not actually a flyer. It gets standard Eldar tank stats, but with two structure points due to being a big honkin' thing and BS4 due to them realizing that BS3 on the tanks was ridiculous. As a superheavy it naturally comes with Titan Holofields (for a 4++) and Targeting Matrix Override (giving its primary weapon a 3+ to ignore shaken/destroyed results). It also has the Sky Hunter rule, which is what justifies its presence in the book- it can choose to Zoom just like a flyer, but isn't allowed to shoot while doing so. It comes with an underslung Shuriken Cannon (which can be traded up for any of the other Eldar heavy weapons at a cost) and a Pulsar, which is a cute little Str D two-shot large blast. If you're a stupid head you can take a Sonic Lance instead, which is an Apocalypse-sized flamer that you can throw 18" (it's AP2 and always wounds on a 3+, rolling 3d6 pen against tanks.) Since the Pulsar ignores cover saves and auto-wounds/auto-pens, the only benefit to the Lance is better accuracy- not a huge concern on Apoc tables.

Vampire Hunter
Here's where we get into the stupid stuff- more flyers with Str D guns. At 730pts the Vampire is noticeably more affordable than the Thunderhawk and comes with AV11 and for structure points, so virtually the same survivability. It's also got Strafing Run, giving it unmatched accuracy, and though its weapon complement is pretty limited in number, it can still put out a lot of hurt. A Scatter Laser and Phoenix launcher (which you may remember from the Bomber, above) are all but extraneous beside the twin-linked Pulsar, and with BS5 and rerolls it should be a rare day that you don't hit your target with at least one of the shots. With the ability to vaporize most targets pretty reliably and remain untouched itself, the Vampire will always be annoying and usually be fairly deadly.
VERDICT: Its only weakness is the army supporting it.

Vampire Raider
Like the Hunter above, but trades out minimal firepower for a transport capacity of thirty. It notes that it isn't allowed to carry MCs or vehicles, but since it's supersonic (and thus nothing can disembark) that's pretty irrelevant. Its only actual losses are the Phoenix launcher (boo hoo) and twin-linked status on the Pulsar- a disadvantage, to be sure, but not a particularly terrible one. If/when it gets errata'd to actually be able to disembark its cargo it will be a holy terror, bringing the trifecta of Str D, hit on 6s, and scoring units to the table.
VERDICT: Amazing, contingent on an FAQ document; otherwise merely excellent.

Firestorm
Previously a garbage variant chassis based on the Falcon, the Firestorm is merely underwhelming with the advent of the new rules. It gets stuck with BS3 still, despite everything, and has a transport capacity of six to tote around some DA or whatever for late-game, but the main "attraction" is the Skyfire/Interceptor gun on top, which is an up-ranged Scatter Laser with six shots and twin-linked. Unfortunately this leave it barely able to do anything to the main flyer threats these days, the various AV12 airplanes, but against AV11 or AV10 targets it's fairly effective, if not outstanding. Unfortunately you pay a heavy premium for all this (180pts) and thus the Firestorm is simply not a vehicle that most people are all that interested in shelling out for.
VERDICT: Bad at its job, but at least flexible.

Harridan
Oh, Tyranids, Tyranids, Tyranids. For as bad as Forge World is at designing flyers and such, they're even worse at designing monstrous (and gargantuan) creatures, which means that all of the FW Tyranids are inevitably awful. The Harridan is a perfect example of this: to start with, it's 900pts, which is as much as a Thunderhawk. It's WS4 and BS3 because god forbid you actually get decent stats. It's T8 W8, which at least means it's sort of protected, but it STILL can't manage a 2+ save and it falls well behind units like the aforementioned Thunderhawk and their twelve "wounds."

But it's got something cool and awesome like the destroyer weapons on the Thunderhawk/Vampire, right? No, no it doesn't. Its combat capabilities are dual Scything Talons (which is admittedly fairly decent in a fight, though remember you can't assault when you're in flyer mode) and twin Bio-Cannons- S10 AP3 six-shot weapons. If you think that's pretty excellent, remember that it's lowly BS3 and is getting no bonus on the vehicle damage table, so while the Destroyer weapons are shearing tanks to pieces three at a time, you're having to roll to penetrate, letting the enemy roll cover, and then hoping for a six on the damage table. Derp! Oh, and you can carry a (not even full size) brood of Gargoyles, which will undoubtedly swing the course of your Apocalypse game.

Oh, and it's the only entry in the book Tyranids get. What, did you want a way to kill airplanes? Well fuck you, sir, you are the game's punching bag and you will like it. The Harridan isn't even Skyfire (it's only considered a flyer for purposes of movement and being shot at, not for its own shooting.)
VERDICT: I think having the same Ballistic Skill and Initiative as an Imperial Guardsmen says it all.

Barracude Air Superiority Fighter
Tau, like Eldar, should be one of the game's nominal "best air support" factions, but unlike Eldar they don't get any really broken choices- in fact, most of their stuff is pretty underwhelming and/or overpriced. The Barracude illustrates a lot of these problems pretty well- it's one of the AV10 2HP frames, costs 130pts, and comes with an Ion Cannon, two Burst Cannons, and a TL Missile Pod. Now, that's not actually a bad weapons setup, but it's only BS3 and isn't allowed to buy a Targeting Array for some reason. Being as fragile as it is and also not having the weapons to actually win a shootout with most vehicles puts it in a bad place- obviously it's not fair to compare it to an all-star like the Vendetta, but it's still hard to avoid mentally lining the two of them up and shaking your head.
VERDICT: Not what was advertised.

Tiger Shark
Ooops, looks like we have another Forge World screw-up here; the Drone Rack rules let the Tiger Shark's fourteen (why fourteen? that's not even a legal squad size) drones deploy "as if they were jump infantry," but jump infantry don't get any special exceptions for the disembarkation rules. Come on, FW, can't you at least try a little harder than just copy/pasting stuff over? Anyways, it's 520pts for 12/10/10, which has got to be one of the weakest statlines for a superheavy ever, and a mere two structure points. Targeting Array + Strafing Run does mean that it's pretty adept at hitting targets on the ground, but its armament of a TL Ion, TL Missile, and two Bust Cannons really do not impress. Bizarrely, it has the option of trading all fourteen drones (10pts each) for... six Seeker Missiles? That it isn't even allowed to fire on its own? Weeeaaaaaaaaaak.
VERDICT: Maybe the air caste should let the earth castebe the ones to build things from now on? Because it seems they're pretty terrible at it.

Tiger Shark AX-1-0
A significant price upgrade (660pts) over the basic Tiger Shark, the AX-1-0 does at least boast a number of upgrades that make it a lot more suited to taking the battlefield in Apocalypse. Well, okay, basically one upgrade- it trades the drone rack and Ion Cannon for a twin-linked Heavy Railgun; just like the normal Railgun it has two modes, solid shot (Str D AP1) and submunition (S7 AP3 10" blast.) Now AP1 is exactly no better than AP2 on a Destroyer weapon, but we still can't complain because it's all but guaranteed to hit and mashes things up pretty good. It's also one of the few non-blast Str D weapons, making it capable of shooting down other fliers (and, thanks to the Networked Markerlight it carries you're still going to be rerolling to hit and looking for 2s most of the time.) Its blast mode is similarly pretty devastating, although allowing cover saves means that models will sometimes live through it, pity.

The AX-1-0 is probably the only useful Tau aircraft, despite its weak armor facings, and if allowed to live and do its thing it can gun down virtually any other planes around as well as massacre troop formations. However, unlike the Thunderhawk/Raider, the lack of a Destroyer blast means that enemy armor formations on the ground are largely beyond its reach- you'll have to rely on Broadsides and the like for that.
VERDICT: Fragile, but still pretty nasty.

Orca
Note quite a joke entry, but pretty close. At 400pts and 12/12/10 with three structure points the Orca is at least not plagued by the fragility of the other Tau chassis; however, carrying a single TL Burst Cannon and a Missile Pod, it's woefully undergunned compared to... well, compared to a single Crisis suit, really. As compensation you do get a transport capacity of 57 (no vehicles allowed, suits count triple), which... well, you're probably not ever going to need it. What, exactly, are you doing carting that many infantry around, anyways? And why did you need to pay a Baneblade's worth of points to do it?
VERDICT: This is named after the "killer whale" why, exactly?

Manta
Oh, the Manta- pinnacle of wasteful-but-pretty hobby purchases. Representing perhaps the largest of superheavies around (ignoring things like the Imperator Titan that don't have an official model), the Manta weighs in at a massive 2000pts and has 13/12/11 armor as well as a resounding TEN structure points. It... it also has the Supersonic rule, because fucking Forge World- yes, let's prevent us from using those 55+145 transport slots. -_- It comes with two Heavy Railguns, three TL Ion Cannons, one TL Missile Pod, and sixteen Burst Cannon because... because I don't know why. (The Ions and Bursts, like many found on Tau flyers, are "long-barreled" variants with double the normal range, making them at least able to shoot- if not realistically affect- targets.) Oh, and there are also ten Seeker Missiles, a lone Markerlight, and most all of the Tau vehicle upgrades, because at this point, why not?

Here's the awful part, though: the Manta basically doesn't count as a flyer. It's got such a big fat butt that you roll to hit it with normal ballistic skill- you might think that something so huge and designed to fight in space battles against orbital weapons might have an AV better than measly thirteen, but nooooooooooo. It does get a 4++ to try and protect it, but given its point cost you can expect rather a lot of firepower to be coming its way. (It does, at least, benefit from the standard flyer immunities to assaults and blast/template weapons.) Oh, and FW forgot to take out a 100% meaningless rule (negates increased scatter when firing ordnance on the move) that has been redundant since not 5th Edition but 4th Edition. Forge World, you suck at your own rules. How is that even possible?
VERDICT: Why am I even reviewing this? No one who bought one cares and no one who didn't will ever use or see one.

DX-6 "Remora" Drone Fighter
Huzzah, a way to waste large numbers of points! Coming in squadrons of up to five and with the bare-minimum stats (AV10, 2HP, BS3) in addition to a 110pt cost, the Remora is here to show you just how awful a unit can be. It does have Shrouded, a long-barrel Burst Cannon, two Seeker Missiles, and a Markerlight, all of which sounds pretty impressive until you realize that all it does is put one wound per turn on a Space Marine. So yeah, it's sorta a little tough to kill... OOOOOOOR you could pay 35pts more and get a Nightwing, which has a second spamfire gun, S8 guns that don't get used up after one shot, and BS4 and also a better cover save.

Gauss Pylon
Like Tyranids, Necrons get the short end of the stick in this book with only a single entry. However, the Pylon is a bit of a monster- it's 420pts, which is hardly inconsiderable, but it's AV14 all around and has two structure points, so it's not exactly easy to drop. Living Metal helps and the Phase Shift Generator gives it any any Necron unit within 12" a 5++ save- and on top of all that, Weapon Destroyed results just reduce its number of shots and it utterly ignores Immobilized results because Necrons are assholes. The Pylon is completely immobile and can arrive by Deep Strike, pushing enemy models out of the way old-Monolith style (it's pretty clear that FW doesn't like the new Necron book, as they basically didn't use any of its rules or anything.)

The Pylon can choose to fire on either of two modes and comes with a respectable BS4; the anti-infantry mode is a pretty standard "random shots at short range" thing, getting 2d6 of them out to 18" with S6 AP3. For some reason, it's not Gauss, though. On focused mode it's Str D AP2 Heavy 3 and can cross the board, but FW also tacked on Skyfire and Interceptor so that when your fancy airplane shows up this thing blows it right out of the fucking sky, no questions asked. Problem, Imperium?
VERDICT: It's too bad the model looks like the blandest, most uninteresting thing on Earth because it's got pretty cool rules.

Raven Strike Fighter
205pts, standard DE paper plane stats (including the ever-popular 2HP) with, uh, every flyer-specific special rule they could think up: Evasive, Vector Dancer, Strafing Run, and some more. It comes with... a TL Dark Lance and a ten-shot Splinger Cannon? Seriously? That's it? The Nightwing has twice the armament for 75% the price and has better special rules to boot. Oooh, I can reroll scatter when arriving from Deep Strike if I do so near an enemy flyer!
VERDICT: It stinks.

Hell Blade
115pts, same paper stats and BS3. Wow, uh, BS3 for Chaos Marine vehicle, huh? Yeah, sure, it's "piloted by a servitor" and stuff, whatever; if that's what you've gotta tell yourself to give Chaos shitty stats on their vehicles then go for it. It does at least have a pair of Reaper Autocannons, which is sorta okayish I guess? But it's still too little armament for something that otherwise does very little and is extremely easy to kill.
VERDICT: Better than some, worse than anything you care about.

Hell Talon
Just like the above but 4HP instead of just two- which is nice, but when you're getting exploded so easily that may not matter. Also 185pts, which seems like a lot, but it does get Strafing Run and some better weapons. A Reaper Autocannon and TL Lascannon are its direct-fire weapons, along with eight bombs (S6 AP4 blast) which can be upgraded to Heavy Bombs (basically large blasts) in Apocalypse games. You can also swap the Autocannon for a Havoc Launcher for free, but I don't think you really want to.
VERDICT: It at least has some weapons on it, unlike its crappy little brother.

Dreadclaw
Hey, did you want a Drop Pod? This... this isn't a Drop Pod, but it's a little bit like one, I guess? The Dreadclaw is 85pts and takes up a nonexistant (FA) slot; it carries ten dudes or a Dreadnought. It's got the same stats as a loyalist pod, but no guns (and the Frag Assault Launchers/Assault Vehicle rules.) It has to be filled with a unit and always arrives via Deep Strike... after which it bizarrely gets a normal move. But you still can't assault from it that turn (since you Deep Struck) so you basically want to just fly around for a turn and hope you don't get shot down. Oh, did you not realize? This thing is a flyer and stuff. So yeah, pray for a turn, then go Hover mode and let some dudes jump out and punch things. I guess you can actually run around and pick up more guys if you want to, but honestly it probably won't live that long.
VERDICT: Worse than a Drop Pod, but much sillier.

Blight Drone of Nurgle
At 125pts for 12/11/10 and two HP along with BS2 the Blight Drone starts off looking kinda weak, but gets better from there. It's a Daemon (which gives it a 5++) and comes with a Reaper Autocannon and Mawcannon, which has two modes. One is a S6 AP4 flamer and the other is a non-ordnance Battle Cannon, so that ends up working out pretty well overall. Coming in the FA slot means it has no competition, although you are required to take a unit of Plague Marines to unlock it; if you really wanna load up they can even be taken in squadrons of up to three.
VERDICT: Not gonna kill any flyers, but pretty scary to most ground troops.

Looking Back
So okay, where does this leave us? I'm not going to worry too much about who got good new flyers, but who got good new flyer defense is incredibly important. And, looking at things, the field is not a whole lot better. Orks, IG, and the Marine variants (SM, BA, DA, BT, SW all got some very good defenses, and along with Eldar's new super-flyer that basically rounds up the list of who can handle aircraft. This does at least help out some Xeno, it doesn't come anywhere even close to actually "fixing" the flyer problem as many people predicted Aeronautica would- indeed, with the Nightwing, Vulture, and a few of the others around the problem is if anything worse than before.

The ratio of good-to-bad units isn't all that different from many of FW's other books, to be honest, but their sheer ignorance of the basic rules of the game and apparent unwillingness to make even the most cursory reads of units before "updating" them really makes the book feel like a particular travesty. We can only hope that this is a temporary slip, as the three prior Imperial Armor books were all quite nice

Warmachine 35 point Battle Report - pKreoss vs Strakhov

2012-09-03T10:00:00.000+10:00

So played some Warmachine this past week rather than 40k - didn't want to muddy the waters too much with the ATC this weekend. Here's a game of my Menoth versus a friend's (not Vince's) Khador. He used Strakhov and I had brought...well an odd pKreoss list honestly. We played a DKFJDKJF mission and the Khador player went first after winning the roll. Here are lists:

Khador -

Strakhov
Beast 09
Full Iron Fangs + UA
2x2x Kayzay Eliminators
Great Bears
Duramuv (dude on horse...)

Menoth -

pKreoss
Reckoner
Redeemer
Full Errants + UA
Min TFG + UA
Full Choir
Rhupert
Covenant
Vassal
Wracks

As I said, odd.

Deployment

With there being two control areas off to the sides, Khador deploys his fast units (Eliminators + Solo Cavalry model) on the flanks with the IFP, Bears, Beast & Strakhov in the centre. I deploy off to the right essentially giving the Khador player the left control zone but also ignoring the Cavalry solo and Eliminators on that side. Without any shooting Kreoss is going to be pretty safe as long as I deny charges on him and I have excess choir boys... TFG deploy the most centrally to delay the Eliminators/Cavalry if they flank with the Reckoner + Redeemer up front and all the support behind them. Errants Advance Deploy on right where the other control zone is.

Khador Turn 1

Everything runs up with Occulation cast on the Great Bears and Superiority on Beast. Eliminators + Cavalry solo make the control zone on the left whilst the Eliminators on the right hang back a little bit.

Menoth Turn 1

The IFP didn't shieldwall so that's the order of the day against them. I'm very aware of Strakhov's feat and how fast...well everything can suddenly become - especially since a lot of the opposing army has Reach. I therefore give two focus to the Redeemer but none to the Reckoner. The TFG advance and shieldwall up the middle and behind the linear obstacle. The Errants run just into the zone on the right to be out of the Eliminators charge range and everything else advances behind the two Warjacks with the choir casting Battle Hymm. The Redeemer lobs three shells + Vassal and takes out four of the Iron Fangs. pKreoss casts Defender's Ward on the Errants & Lamentation on himself.

Khador Turn 2

Strakhov maintains both upkeeps but doesn't allocate any focus leaving himself on four (out of range of Kreoss). The Eliminators on the right move up to jam my Errants on the edge of the control zone whilst the Eliminators + Cavalry model on the left move out of the control zone to harass my flank with large run moves. The IFP advance further and Shieldwall with Strakhov moving behind them and a fence. Great Bears & Beast move up into the middle of the table.

Menoth Turn 2

I thought about popping Kreoss' feat but since he's immune to fire, the Reckoner isn't going to be able to add two POW15s to the game and Strakhov was camping four focus - too much for me to drop him with the Redeemer and the few Errants in range I think. So I move onto normal movement...having forgot to allocate despite upkeeping. Doh! Oh well, means Kreoss can camp & cast spells I guess...

TFG charge/jam Eliminators & Cavalry on the left killing one Eliminator. The Choir cast Battle again (no need for anything else!) and half of them move up in front of where the Jacks will be placed to protect them from charges. The Reckoner moves up and blasts the Beast with a shell doing three damage - it promptly moves forward. The Redeemer stands still and lobs a couple (one + Vassal) shells at the IFP again but only manages to scrap one this time. Support moves behind the Jacks with Covenant casting no-KD aura, Rhupert Tough on Errants and Kreoss Purification to get rid of Superiority. The Errants then go and start charging stuff with four getting into contact with Beast, one with the IFP (and in the control zone) and five on the Eliminators on the right (and in the control zone). Beast takes some moderate damage, one Eliminator dies but everything else whiffs.

Khador Turn 3

Strakhov doesn't upkeep Occulation and gives three focus to Beast. He pops feat and moves towards the lone Errant engaging the IFP and tries to smack him silly with that rapid firing gun of his. He gets two shots but kills an IFP instead unfortunately. He's now centrally placed for extended charges on everyone basically. The Great Bears then activate and charge the Errants around the Beast to clear some of them out - two survive thanks to Tough but get trampled down anyway by Beast as he closes in on control zone on the right. There he threshers to kill some more Errants (no tough rolls here) and smacks another in the face before he runs out of focus. The IFP then activiate to try and finish off the Errants but only kill one near the Eliminators - they use their mini-feat to reform into Shieldwall. The Eliminator on the right fails to kill any more Errants leaving the Officer + two left alive.

The Eliminator + Cavalry on the left take down two TFG as well.

Menoth Turn 3

I only upkeep Defender's Ward here though it's probably not needed anyway. Three focus goes to both Warjacks. With Strakhov only on one focus it's all about feat time now - I don't pop it immediately though as I want to make sure if it fails, Kreoss is safe. The Choir activates to engage the Great Bears (doing no damage) and then the Reckoner smacks into the Beast where he kills it easily thanks to the Errant damage before. Kreoss moves up then and pops feat, getting all the IFP, Eliminator on the right & Strakhov. Redeemer moves up and drops all three Rockets on him with one boosted damage and overkills by a couple points with the extra Vassal shot to spare and game ends.

Conclusion

I felt the Khador player was trying too hard to get the scenario win Turn 2 which was going to be hard when there were seven Errants in one control zone with Defender's Ward, Tough and no-KD aura up. This put him in a position to be hit by the classic pop&drop when he could have defended against it with focus camping and/or trying to drop the Redeemer with extended charges from Beast/Great Bears. Even doing what he did but keeping focus on Strakhov would have proved a better idea IMO though he was losing the Beast without getting to any of my Warjacks.

Otherwise pretty basic from me - Errants on a control zone, TFG jamming and Menoth fire shooting away! The list was pretty blah - particularly given I only had Reckoner + Redeemer to utilise on pop & drop... and Strakhov is Immune to Fire. Chuck in the Full Choir...? And ya, thrown together list though I did like having both TFG & Errants with pKreoss - something I haven't done before.

Back from ATC & results

2012-09-02T23:04:00.000+10:00

Just got in from ATC! NOVA is in full swing I see... anyway. 5th edition is finally out of the way so here's how it unfolded...

1st - New Zealand (boo hiss)
2nd - New South Wales (go team)
3rd - Victoria (go Crynn's team)
4th - Western Australia (go Matt's team)
5th - Queensland
6th - South Australia
7th - Australian Capital Territory
8th - Tasmania

NZ thumped the competition with their only loss coming final round (when they had already won) against Western Australia and looked to get tough match-ups to...test their skills? I.e. gloat. Bloody kiwis! 3rd/4th were once again seperated by a single Battle Point and last year's top two teams slipped to 5th/6th, so some good competition overall.

Time was an issue across the board for all teams - Turn 5 was being rushed for most games as the match-up process took too long (not enough alloted time). Most games were being played in under two hours and this led to some issues here and there for many teams. Need to work on that as a community for next time (and the answer is not the insane three hours the ETC allows). Terrain was fairly decent across the board as well which was nice and it was a good atmosphere with the chance to meet up with people I don't run into regularly around the local scene. And I got to plug 3++con :P.

Team-wise was a lot better as we actually had some pre-tournament work done on match-ups and were able to minimise the number of crappy games we had. Less group think! This shows with the improved result so good job team NSW! We ended up three wins (QLD, ACT, TAS), two draws (SA, WA) and one loss (NZ).

Anyway, individually didn't drop a game again though had two draws. First game against Dark Eldar (SA) didn't get a Turn 5 and my opponent only had two Venoms + Ravager left versus most of my army. Might not have killed them obviously but would have liked Turn 5 at least... Either way, team got a win which was the important bit. Then win against Necrons (QLD). Win against Dark Eldar again (NZ). The other controversial draw against Tyranids (WA) where the TO said you do not measure 3" up from the objective despite my opponent and I having played that the entire game. This did change the result from a Team Win to Team Draw but it didn't affect the final standings so again, no biggie. Final two games were wins against Dark Eldar (TAS) and Space Wolves (ACT).

I'll put up more detailed analysis of the games later but I didn't do battle reports sorry. Old edition at this point and most games were being pressed for time where those couple minutes for photos made a difference.

All up - great fun again and nice to do something different with a team focus.

And yes. Well done Kiwis.

NOVA GT round 2 results

2012-09-01T11:20:00.006+10:00

Things have been super hectic here so I apologize for the late results. ( shot a NOVA video for KR and Basic Black )

NOVA OPEN invitational round 3

2012-09-01T11:03:00.003+10:00

ATC & NOVA weekends

2012-09-01T07:00:00.000+10:00

Right laddies! I'm not here this weekend thanks to the silly super awesome ATC in 5th edition rules. And this is the same weekend as the NOVA. Luckily there's no live streaming at the ATC so we don't have to feel neglected as everyone else pays attention to the first big 6th edition tournament! Here's the stream feed for the NOVA top table and we've also got one of the NOVA staffers signed up on 3++ to post round updates as they finish for the 40k GT (who's already done some of the Invitational stuff).

NOVA has gone in with a lot of hype this year being the first major 6th edition tournament so I look forward to seeing what has happened.

This means the blog won't be as pretty along this weekend but you should have up to date information about what's happening at NOVA. I'll try and put up ATC results as I can throughout the weekend but don't count on it - in Australia tournaments are for drinking =D.

Have a good weekend all and see you at the end!

NOVA OPEN invitational round 2 pairings

2012-08-31T23:33:00.001+10:00

NOVA OPEN invitational round 2 pairings

Aleong, Aaron
9
Ball, Vaden
11
Blackwell, Andrew
10
Born, Werner
8
Boucher, Kenny
13
Clauss, Kurt
4
Cox, Kyle
13
Daze, Pete
9
Dobkin, Gabe
14
Esposito, Troy
16
Fennell, Alex
5
Gilstrap, Neil
7
Gonyo, Andrew
4
Haley, Kelsey
1
Hernandez, Allan
6
Hoerger, Eric
2
Holliday, Ryan
12
Horwath, Tim
12
Kopach, Tony
8
Krueger, Hans
11
Lovett, Zachary
5
Matulich, Dan
10
McFadden, Bill
7
Miller, Ed
16
Nanavati, Nick
15
Schafer, Devin
15
Souza, Bill
3
Stevens, Nate
2
Tautic, Ray
3
Taylor, Mike
6
Therkorn, Rich
14
Townsend, Brad
1

NOVA OPEN invitational round 1 results

2012-08-31T22:34:00.003+10:00

Round 2 underway!!

NOVA OPEN invitational

2012-08-31T07:44:00.002+10:00

Things are going great so far this year. Plenty of last minute sign ups have skyrocketed attendance for gaming and seminars. The first up is the 40k Invitational!!!

40k Invitational Pairings are up for round 1!!!

Dice start in 15 minutes

Aleong, Aaron
1
Ball, Vaden
2
Blackwell, Andrew
4
Boucher, Kenny
16
Clauss, Kurt
16
Cox, Kyle
15
Daze, Pete
12
Dobkin, Gabe
13
Esposito, Troy
3
Fennell, Alex
2
Gilstrap, Neil
9
Gonyo, Andrew
5
Haley, Kelsey
15
Hernandez, Allan
3
Hoerger, Eric
12
Holliday, Ryan
7
Horwath, Tim
5
Kopach, Tony
4
Krueger, Hans
14
Lovett, Zachary
1
Matulich, Dan
9
McFadden, Bill
6
Miller, Ed
11
Nanavati, Nick
6
Riabowol, Lucas
14
Schafer, Devin
10
Souza, Bill
7
Stevens, Nate
11
Tautic, Ray
10
Taylor, Mike
13
Therkorn, Rich
8
Townsend, Brad
8

Vehicles in 6th: Damage Table & Cover

2012-08-30T22:00:00.000+10:00

The damage table in 6th edition has also been changed. Last post we looked at a new type of damage for vehicles: hull points but this post is looking at something we should all be used to by now (assuming we've played the game before). In 5th edition gone are the different damage tables - there is one table to rule them all and depending what weapon and what type of damage you did to the vehicle would provide positive or negative modifiers to this table. For all intents and purposes this construct is the same - base table and modifiers however are different.

First and foremost, every damage result you do is essentially a 50% less chance compared to 5th edition to outright destroy the vehicle. That's because the damage table now looks like this:

1 - Shaken

2 - Shaken

3 - Stunned

4 - Weapon Destroyed

5 - Immobilised

6 - Explodes!

One more Shaken result and no more Wrecked - that happens from Hull Point removal. For weapons without any modifiers, vehicles now essentially have a 2++ in terms of survivability based on the damage chart alone. Compare this to a 3++ from 5th edition.

However, modifiers bring this 2++ right down on many occasions. AP1 is still the best thing out there for destroying vehicles with a +2 modifier this time around. That's essentially the exact same as in 5th edition but there's no Wrecked result and therefore a greater chance of getting Explosion results and causing further damage to Infantry. However, in the middle of the AP1 and everything else weapons are AP2 weapons - finally getting a nod at their increased ability to punch through tanks over their AP3 or worse brethren. They get a +1 modifier on the vehicle damage table which essentially brings them back to the 5th edition table - but again, no Wrecked results. This means if you want to destroy vehicles outside of Hull Point removal, you're really going to need to bring AP1 weapons. AP3 or worse is generally going to kill a vehicle through attrition & hull point removal before they actually explode a vehicle and AP2 weapons are on par with this method. AP1 weapons though have a fairly decent chance of simply bypassing the Hull Point system all together so if you're looking to drop vehicles, use AP1 weapons or torrent of fire.

The other really big and important change to the vehicle damage chart is the removal of rolls on such a chart when Glancing Hits happen. In previous editions Glancing Hits had their own table which was much more forgiving for the vehicle (i.e. half Shaken results, only one destroyed result [if any], etc.). In 5th edition it was a simple -2 modifier which meant the vehicle could not be destroyed but still suppressed. In 6th edition all Glancing Hits do is remove Hull Points. This makes suppressing vehicles harder - you need to outright penetrate them or destroy them to generate some form of suppression on vehicles. This makes higher AV vehicles, particularly cheaper gun tanks, more attractive in 6th edition as they are less likely to be suppressed. Your average Autocannon can now not even suppress AV13 and a Missile Launcher has effectively had their chances to do so halved.

Glancing Hits are still important though - see Hull Points. Just their ability to stop vehicles from shooting is now non-existent. This makes suppression resistant items less important as well such as Fortitude and Living Metal. They're still great for when those penetrating hits do happen - but all vehicles now come with some suppression resistance.

Over-arching all of this is the new cover system. Cover is as a rule of thumb, weaker than in 5th edition. In 5th edition cover was a flat 4+ no matter what was giving you the cover. There were modifiers on this but in general if you had cover, you were stopping 50% of shots coming towards you. However, you had to get 50% of the individual facing cover and with vehicles, this wasn't always possible. Intelligent positioning of vehicles could generate this but there were ways around this (i.e. destroying the lead vehicle). There are two large changes to this system. First, cover is now 25% - much easier to get now even from infantry on vehicles. Secondly, cover as a general rule of thumb is 5+.

Together this means you'll be getting cover...well nearly all the time now. It's pretty damn easy if the board is covered appropriately so make sure your vehicles have cover 99% of the time. However, it's not as effective before across the board but since its so easy to get, this is generally more than enough compensation. The biggest drawback here is self-generate cover (i.e. Jink, Smoke, KFF, etc.) isn't a 4+ anymore either and this makes leading vehicles more susceptible to death. Remember as well, with the Hull Point system, torrenting vehicles is the easiest way to remove them and a 4+ would be miles better here than a 5+.

Conclusion

In conjunction with Hull Points vehicles are now very vulnerable to being torretened away but against single shots are much more survivable. This means as the game goes on, vehicles can become harder and harder to put down as the amount of firepower available to each army becomes less. You're then looking to break vehicles based on the damage chart and unless you're AP2 or AP1, that's only going to happen one every six penetrating hits. This means higher AVs, particularly at range where melta weapons are less likely to get to them and combined with their new suppression resistance, have gotten a little boost. These are the vehicles you're more likely to see alive at the end of the game whilst transports and midfield based vehicles are far more likely to meet a fiery end as their hull points run out.

Infinity Authors

2012-08-30T16:25:00.001+10:00

Infinity is a game which really seems to be gaining traction and from the outside looking in, looks like a pretty enjoyable game. There also doesn't seem to be many places to discuss or learn Infinity outside of their main website/forums. Not a bad thing but broader discussion elsewhere is always nice!

So this is a shout-out to experienced Infinity players. We've got several introductory articles out there about Infinity already but I'm certainly interested, and I'm sure the readership would be as well, to see more in-depth Infinity articles such as unit analysis', battle reports, tactics, etc. If anyone is interested put your hand up with an e-mail to me and we can work something out hopefully!

300pt Dust Warfare Recap

2012-08-30T09:25:00.001+10:00

Yes it did.

I played a 300pt game of Dust Warfare on Tuesday and it was quite enjoyable. As most of my BRs are more self-reflection and bullet point analysis these days, this will be short and to the point. I'll talk about some of the stuff I found interesting and tactical mistakes and good plays that happened during the game.

First, the army lists--

My 300pt Axis force had..
PU: Implacable = 15

C: Heavy Kommandotrupp + Lara = 64
1: Axis Gorillas + Markus = 48
2: Heavy Recon Grenadiers = 30
3: Battle Grenadiers (+Pzshrek) = 20
4: Battle Grenadiers (+Pzshrek) = 20
S1: Sniper Team = 12
S2: Medium Pz Walker-B "Ludwig" = 40
S3: Medium Pz Walker-B "Ludwig" = 40

My opponent (Chris) had:

Combat Platoon
C: Ranger Command Squad
1: Ranger Combat Squad
2: Ranger Recon Squad
3: Ranger Weapon Squad
S: “Pounder” Medium Walker
S: “Steel Rain” Medium Walker
S: Observer Team

Elite Platoon
C: Ozz 177
1: Heavy Ranger Assault Squad
2: Heavy Ranger Attack Squad
3: Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad
S: Sniper Team

Ozz 177 attached to the Heavy Ranger Assault Squad.

Game Summary:

Some key notes to point out here about faction playstyles: Axis likes to entrench and play defensive, utilizing their long range firepower to whittle down and destroy the enemy. The Allies like mobility in the form of jumping tanks and infantry while using close-ranged tactics to lay on the hurt.
We went with the competitive mission builder to select our mission and my opponent, Chris, got to go first when picking. The mission eventually turned into Eliminate the Enemy (Kill Points), which I forced and he went for Close Engagement (for 2 scenario points). Close Engagement means I wouldn't be able to bring my long range advantage to bear.. or did it?
After terrain was setup, I noticed that the center of the board was literally a kill zone. There was hardly any cover, maybe 2 pieces of hard cover, and the rest of the map had ranges of soft/hard cover as well as LoS blockers from ruined buildings. I chose to setup most of my units in close proximity to each other while Markus and his battle monkeys took shelter out in hard cover and out of LoS from his Sniper unit.
Initiative went to me in the first round of combat because I rolled "low" and had fewer dice to roll initiative because of my smaller pool of units. The first thing I did was use one of my orders in the Command phase to shoot my Ludwig at his Pounder. I managed to do 3 solid points of damage to it as he was unable to save any with his armor value of 4. He only has 1 more health left but he has his Ranger Command Squad next to it. That squad also had a mechanic in it. My second course of action was to use my Sniper team to counter-snipe his Sniper. I put a wound disallowing cover or armor saves onto his Sniper team and he was forced to pull the spotter. Without the spotter, his Sniper will be needing 5s to deal damage instead of 1-4.
This round was absolutely brutal as the true sense of unit lethality was brought into the light. Since the deployment was relatively in short distance, I was able to move my heavy MG units (Lara and the HQ unit and Heavy Recon Grens) into firing rang of two of his units deployed in buildings. With tons of dice to throw down from 16", Soldiers 2s just can't take much firepower even in hard cover. After Lara and her unit fired, the Ranger Command Squad loses 3 guys out of 5 and the Heavy Recon Grens mow down another Ranger squad. With Suppression markers on both squads, Markus and his unit of battle-frenzied apes charged across the battlefield and ripped the RCS into pieces.
Winning the initiative seemed huge at first, but the more I realize it, I think it was a deployment error that caused such losses. One of the things that kept coming up during the game was the lack of a valid target via LoS. If you can't see a model in the unit, if that unit gets shot at and killed via forced wounds or something, the model that can't be seen can't be pulled as a casualty. In a mission like this kill point mission, players might be able to constantly hide the last remaining model to deny the enemy victory points.
Another thing that's huge is not allowing your enemy any reactions from giving them suppression. If you shoot something first and give them a suppression marker, your assaulty units just get so much better. Think of it like covering fire, as long as enemy units are keeping their heads down, they don't have time to react to something like steroid-driven super apes.
Speaking of the apes, I think I'll be taking them in every game that I can. Markus has 6 wounds and with Soldier3 and cannot be suppressed, he can literally soak up enough damage to cover the squad twice over. Markus had something like 4 wounds towards the end of the game and he just kept on trucking. His Charge ability also gave his apes insane coverage of the battlefield. In close quarters fighting, he was able to jump from place to place (literally) and rip limbs off of his victims and beat them with it.
Reactions are huge in this game. I think Chris used his reactions quite well in some circumstances where he was able to evade damage and deal damage decisively. Once, he Jumped in with his AT Ranger squad and put some serious damage on the rear of one of my Ludwigs. On my unit phase, I declared Sustained Fire from one of my Battle Grenadier squads onto his ATR squad and he just jumped away! I wasted my turn with them basically and because they were just standing there, they were susceptible to damage from other, shorter ranged units that were closing in on the flank.
Another good reaction that Chris pulled off was when I left hard cover with my Heavy Recon Grenadiers. He simply shot them to oblivion with his Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (2x 30cal MGs each) as a reaction after I ended my movement. Since I left cover, the damage was greatly amplified and I took serious damage (losing 2 out of 3 dudes). I got him back with Markus and his apes though, since his reaction marker means that he couldn't react again on my unit phase. Later in the game, one of his Soldier2 Ranger squads left cover to shoot at Lara's HQ unit and she just lit them the fudgemuffins up on reaction. Four twin MG44s shooting back at Soldier2 units with Burst activated is just all kinds of hurt.
Burst weapons are insanely ridiculous. Denying cover in a game with high lethality is a great way kill units like crazy. Those Allied UGLs are insane.. I gotta watch out for that.
Indirect fire from artillery pieces from an Observer Team is pretty cool. It basically allowed Chris' tank to fire unopposed the entire game because I was unable to get to him and draw LoS. I might need to look into some Nebelwerfer options of my own.
Marching is a great way to save some units from that's taken severe damage. Since when you march, you basically ignore terrain, 12" goes a long way to hide your units behind buildings and out of LoS. For each model you save, that's an entire unit your opponent gets no points for. I think in this case, shooting a unit with multiple units would be better than trying to annihilate it because you'll probably force a good number of wounds, plus the fact you'll give it multiple suppression markers. The more markers a unit has, the higher the chances he'll break once his unit dwindles in size.
Snipers definitely make up their points with good placement. Winning initiative on the first turn allowed me to take down his spotter and render his Sniper battle ineffective. Not only was I able to neutralize his Sniper unit, I was also able to take down a Heavy Assault Ranger with them before they got mowed down by MG fire from his jumpy 30cal dudes. Still a great use of points imo, as it allows the player who has the Snipers to control shooting lanes and take down more, heavily-armored troops.
Even though I killed a bunch of models in the first turn, I lost initiative for the rest of the game. I think clever use of cover, reactions, forcing suppression markers and unit preservation is more important in this particular mission. This of course means that target priority is really important and you can never be too gracious on the amount of firepower you want to poor into a unit. I think shooting it till it dies or is combat ineffective (in games other than KP) is king.

Vehicles in 6th: Hull Points

2012-08-29T23:00:00.000+10:00

GMorts

New series - well an extension of the Articles in 6th series! Vehicles were huge in 5th so how they transfer to 6th is obviously a very important topic. This series will look at a bunch of the rules which affect vehicles and their transition across editions. This will allow a summary post at the end which should hopefully make an easy reference point for future recollection.

Hull Points are one of the biggest changes for 6th edition and it really has one major impact: destroying vehicles is more RELIABLE. Repeat this to yourselves over and over as this is the key point of understanding the impact of hull points on vehicles.

So looking at Hull Points from a very basic sense. On average, the number of penetrating hits to drop a vehicle is the same. Most vehicles have been given three hull points so anything which is a closed vehicle required three normal pentrating hits to be destroyed on averagein 5th. This is the exact same in 6th except for any vehicles which are open-topped and not two Hull Points (stronger) or AV14 with four hull points (stronger). However, these percentages are off-set by the 1/6 chance of each pentetrating hit out-right destroying a vehicle on the damage table. This is not off-set by much however and that's before we get to AP2/1 weapons - which are basically the same as before in terms of chances to destroy a vehicle outright. Rather, the greatest off-set comes from Glances. Previously, you were generally impervious to continuous glances. An opponent required, at a minimum, three weapon destroy/imobilise results to Wreck a vehicle with a weapon which due to averages, generally required nine Glances. Compare that to three now.

And this is where the Hull Points system really kicks in - Glances do lasting damage, even if you would have just shaken a vehicle before. The net result is vehicles are weaker in terms of durability from sustained firepower mostly due to glances removing Hull Points. Ultimately vehicles are more reliable to remove from play and overall, easier thanks to Glances removing Hull Points.

So what does this mean for vehicles in general? Tiny changes. Tiny changes which have huge impacts. This is what we will cover in this series but don't expect vehicles to survive as much as they used to or soak up as much firepower as they used to. The main bit here is the firepowe soaking. Again, the durability changes aren't severe (like say 4th edition where every single penetrating hit had a 50% chance to remove the vehicle from play; every single hit) but the ability to soak firepower is...vastly diminished. Most games in 5th ended with barely functioning vehicles anyway - this is more likely in 6th edition but what is less likely is single vehicles to take insane amounts of firepower and just keep on trucking. There's a ceiling each vehicle has set by their Hull Points value - once that ceiling is hit, no matter the dice rolls after that, the vehicle is no more. This is the biggest impact of Hull Points - at some point that extra dice roll on the vehicle damage table becomes unnecessary as the vehicle has been attritioned away. Vehicles can still soak firepower through normal means - missed shots, failure to glance/penetrate, etc. but the old 3++ save the 5th edition vehicle damage table brought in, it isn't in play all the time anymore.

And this makes vehicles more reliable to bring down and predicates everything they can do from this point on... So, vehicles are generally a bit weaker in terms of raw durability and basic statistics and are a lot more reliable in being taken down.

Next post we'll cover the damage table.

The 40K Australasian Team Challenge – Sept 1st 2nd

2012-08-29T09:00:00.000+10:00

The Australasian Team Challenge (ATC) will be held in Melbourne this coming weekend. Seven states of Australia and the nation of New Zealand will be battling for supremacy at this event. Inspired by the European Team Challenge, this is one of the largest events in the Southern Hemisphere, and we are extremely pleased to welcome the new contenders from Tasmania (home of the Devils) and New Zealand (home of the Hobbits [and kiwis]).

While still smaller than the European equivalent, the ATC is well on it’s way to fulfilling the goal the organisers gset when they stated that, “Ultimately, what the event is about is introducing a new style of event to the Australian gaming scene and to try and encourage a large amount of people from various states to travel and meet each other and help promote interstate rivalries / friendships”

The format is similar to the ETC, with teams of 8 players restricted to only using each codex once, which helps ensure a decent spread of armies and creates a tense matchup process as Captains alternate in pitting armies against one another.

And speaking of a spread of armies, the venue this year is the Abbotsford Convent, which was enough to inspire at least one player to bring a Sisters of Battle army to the event. May the Blessings of our Lady of the Immaculate Bolter bring him victory despite the odds!

The Contenders:

New South Wales – Including Kirby (Blood Angels)

Western Australia – Including Matt-Shadowlord (Imperial Guard)

Queensland - Reigning Champs

South Australia

Victoria

Australian Capital Territory

New Zealand

Tasmania

The Armies that made the cut - if you ever needed more proof of just how much a gain Necrons made with their new book.

8 Blood Angels
8 Grey Knights
8 Imperial Guard
8 Space Wolf
7 Necrons

6 Dark Eldar
4 Orks
3 Dark Angels
3 Chaos Space Marines
3 Space Marine
2 Nids
1 Black Templars
1 Eldar
1 Sisters of battle
1 Tau
0 Chaos Daemons

With several of 3++’s authors & regulars going along for the ride, you can expect to see some coverage, photos and battle reports. Good luck to everyone who is going, especially the new teams and players. But not Matt in the only game that counts on the weekend - our 6th edition one!

Feel free to cheer for your favourite state - and if you don't yet have one, it's Western Australia.
-Matt

P.S. Here’s a sneak preview of the end of a practice-battle I played which shows just how bad an idea it is to mix rules. The BA rhino is on top of an objective, which my men have decided to charge into to claim. They had no reason at all to leave their nice safe chimeras under these rules, and their grenades were rubbish against the fast moving rhino, leaving it looking like I have definitely been infected by the 6th Edition cinematic-bug.

I got away with it in this game, but if I try forge narratives like this on the coming weekend I am totally screwed.

Space Marine Deimos Pattern Predator Review

2012-08-28T23:00:00.000+10:00

Had a few questions about these new Predator variants we are seeing from Forgeworld and since we can expect to see one in the upcoming Dark Angels release, thought it might be a good idea to look at them. The Predator is a very nice gun-tank platform with AV13 so good additions to the Predator which might see trickle-down use are good signs...

So, there are two options here: the Executioner and Infernous. We'll take a peek at the Executioner first as we are more likely to see it come into being with Dark Angels.

Predator Executioner

It's basically a Leman Russ Executioner but in Space Marine form with the added advantages and disadvantages. Its base price is already that of an upgraded Predator meaning this vehicle isn't going to be cheap but it comes a heavy 3 plasma cannon. Not bad, particularly in 6th edition where cover is less and far less prevalent unit wide and where big gun tanks are a lot less vulnerable to being suppressed or having their main gun shot off. Oh and no Gets Hot! which is nice.

The Executioner has the usual upgrades and sponsons allowed as well. Heavy Bolters at 20 points are a decent buy - they give some reliable firepower outside of the blasts and with the new way wound allocation works, the plasma wounds won't be wasted like before. Lascannons at 60 points are way too steep though - that brings the price close to 200 points and although it becomes more reliable against vehicles, there are way more efficient choices out there. The Plasma Destroyer may also be replaced with a Heavy Conversion Beamer (aka Conversion Beamer with a 5" blast) which is only really nice at 42"+ - not something which you can always rely upon getting.

All in all it's not a bad option for busting low AP models in 6th edition though a bit pricier than your average Predator (145 with HBolters).

Infernous Predator

The other new Predator from Forgeworld is the Infernous. Not hard to guess what it does. Five points more expensive than your basic Predator, this replaces the autocannon with a Flamestorm cannon. This sucks unless your Blood Angels with the Fast rule and hey...don't you have that option already? Shockingly Blood Angels can't take this option but the other Marine variants can but it's still not something you're looking for.

However, the main weapon can be upgraded to a super duper Melta cannon. Think Devildog but with a 5" blast. With the new blast rules this is pretty good as you have a longer ranged melta weapon than normally (though not as long as an MM) and even if you nick opposing tanks, you're going to be landing S8 AP1 hits at the minimum. It's an expensive upgrade though at 30 points and along with potential sponsons, again makes the Predator a bit more expensive than usual at 140 points with HBolters (again, the best choice). However, range 18", side AV11 and combat changes to tanks makes this option a lot more vulnerable to being, well smashed in the face. Glancing AV11 three times is a lot easier than AV13. 18" range puts you in enemy melta range so AV13 is less of a deal to cope with. 18" also puts you within combat range of even the slowest enemy Troops and that surely spells Doom for most vehicles sooner rather than later. And that's before you get to melta-range at 9".

Conclusion

All in all, not bad in terms of the top guns (Plasma Destroyer & Magna-Melta Cannon) options. They are both blasts which are better in 6th and low AP, also better in 6th though the Predators are still more expensive than what one is used to paying, even for the ACLC Preds in Blood Angels. And these variants certainly don't have fast but they aren't breaking the bank significantly either - both clocking in less than 150 points. Standard Predator chassis is nice as well with front AV13 but the Infernous variant isn't going to be able to maximise this as much as the Executioner due to the shorter range on its main weapon which opens it up to side shots at AV11 - much, much weaker. This, in general, makes the Infernous variant a lot less viable as a solid option compared to the Executioner.

Placed an order for Dust Warfare

2012-08-28T08:08:00.000+10:00

The shiz just got real.

I was so impressed with my last game of Dust Warfare that I placed an order for an army today. I decided to go with the Axis because I have a long standing fascination with the Wehrmacht. As for the actual design of the army itself, it's only fair that I take you guys through my thought process and why I chose the units I did. Before I do that though, I'll show you guys what I ordered exact:

Core Set Revised - Gets me Lara, Sturmpionieres, Heavy Laser Grenadiers, Heavy Flak Grenadiers, "Hans" Light Walker.

Axis Gorillas box + Operation Seelowe for Markus

Axis Observer Squad + Sniper Squad box

Axis Heavy Kommandotrupp box

Axis Heavy Recon Grenadiers box

2x Axis Battle Grenadiers box

2x Axis Medium Panzer Walker box

All this costs ~182 with free shipping from Miniatures Market. I'm planning to split the Core Revised box with someone so -25 for me there and I'll probably sell the Allied Hero from Seelowe for another 12. This equates to the entire Axis army worth just shy of 400 or so points for a price of 145 dollars. Considering how the competitive level to play Dust Warfare is 300 points, I just bought myself a full army for less than 2 GW Land Raiders. I think that's enough said right there.

As for the army itself, I decided that the Heavy Kommandotrupp will be my Command Section. They're tough, well-armed and look awesome. Lara will join them to give them another fat body to put wounds on as well as providing the unit with 2x more MG44s for anti-infantry power. My 2nd Section also brings in anti-infantry firepower in the form of Heavy Recon Grenadiers. Their heavy armor in combination with their 3 MG44s will tear up the house for any infantry without cover.

My 1st Section features Markus and his pack of Kampfaffe while my 3rd and 4th Section consists of Battle Grenadiers. Markus and the Gorillas will be my fast, dedicated CC element that I can use to pounce on people while my Battle Grenadiers are fitted for anti-tank duty. I gave both squads extra Panzershreks just for enough AT coverage since I feel confident I have enough MGs for infantry. If any infantry do manage to survive the barrage of MG fire, they'll hopefully get their shit pushed in by gorillas.

Lastly, I have a Sniper Team and 2x "Ludwig" pattern Pz walkers for my support. Four sections buys me 2 support and the Sniper Team is from my additional support choice. The Ludwigs will preform long-range AT duty where the Pz-totting BGs will fulfill a more medium-range AT role. My Sniper Team will hopefully work on enemy heavy infantry and or playing cat and mouse with the opponent's snipers.

Overall, I think I got a pretty decent force here. Very balanced and it looks like it'll be a lot of fun. My total number of units is 8 and I'm a few points shy of 300 so I took the Platoon Upgrade: Nebelwerfer Barrage. It's either that or Implacable but I'm willing to experiment as I get more games in. Interestingly enough, I can also switch out my Heavy Recon unit for Heavy Laser Grens to spice things up.

Welp, that's it folks. Looks like I'll be playing Dust Warfare in the near future!

Allies, Fluff & It's Cinematic

2012-08-27T23:59:00.000+10:00

Reader's beware: not a happy post :P!

It's Cinematic. Forging a narrative. It's the 6th edition catch phrases and of course we love applying them to everything. Want to know what it's best applied to? Allies. The universe we all love and enjoy is bloody vast. We've all read lots of fluff background, books, stories, etc. and we've seen lots of crazy combinations. Off the top of my head I can remember Eldar & Imperial Guard allying, Space Marines & Tau, Blood Angels & Necrons, etc. I can remember Grey Knights allying with anything. And then killing them once their task is done.

It's fucking Cinematic.

And you know what? Allies allows you to do this. Things might not make sense on the face of things. Imperial armies and Xenos don't generally get along and although it's very possible to see Imperial Guard allying with anyone and anything (humans suck - they are so corruptable and easy to seduce with boobies), the entire Allies matrix doesn't always make sense. Guess what? It doesn't have to.

It's bloody Cinematic.

The fluff has a well-documented history of alliances forged under necessity. Hey mortal enemy! The Tyranids are coming and going to EAT us. Want to stop our pathetic mortal battle and like...live? Sure says the mortal enemy and then both of them plot how to screw the other royally once they both live but band together to blast those crazy bugs back to space! Because living and stabbing your mortal enemy in the back rocks. Haven't I seen a movie like this? Or read a book about it?

It's damn well Cinematic.

Dying isn't. Dying ends the Cinematic and that's clearly why Tyranids cannot have allies. They are un-Cinematic. I've figured Games Workshop out. The most Cinematic stuff is heroic individuals like Space Marines kicking arse. They get lots of Allies to therefore be the most Cinematic dudes possible. It's harder to be Cinematic without showing off to your best buds or worstest enemies. You're not being a show-off - you're just one of those sad guys who thinks their heoric stand will go down in history and people will toast them with ale later in the millenia. But if you've got all these randoms watching you?

It's stupendeously Cinematic!

And Imperial Guard can ally with lots of people because...boobies. Didn't I explain this before?

It's erotically Cinematic.

What's the point of this you ask? If you don't like fluffy play, that's okay. You've got Allies to make a wealth of really good & balanced lists which just wasn't possible before in 5th over so many books. If you do like fluffy play, that's okay. YOU'VE GOT A CINEMATIC MATRIX. And that movie was Cinematic A+. Some of them might not make sense to you but it might make sense to someone. Someone might find it fluffy & interesting or think of a good background story for such a combination of armies & units. Good for them. They're helping Forge the Narrative and making your game Cinematic. Don't cry and whine about the system, particularly if your issue is someone using it to make their army better. Because...

That's not Cinematic and that's poor form laddies.

Played some Dust Warfare

2012-08-27T08:33:00.000+10:00

I finally got to test out Dust Warfare today and I'm quite pleased with the result. The game was very brief for 150 points on both sides and it gave me a pretty good idea of how the game functions.

Here are my thoughts:

The game runs very smooth. The dice rolling is very straight forward, the model rules are very straight forward and the weapon rules are... very straight forward. There's special rules to remember, but the easy rolling keeps everything moving at a good pace.
With that said, we were able to play a 150 point game in a short amount of time. There were 4 units on each side with 1 Light walker for each player. We were both pretty familiar with the rules from reading them over, but we were still new at playing. I think more experienced players can play a 300-point tournament game in ~2 hours without a problem.
To go with the above, the ~2 hours of playing will be highly interactive, engaging and will not be boring for either player. The reason this is so is because of the reactions (and therefore, decisions) the opposing player gets to make when you do something. E.g. There was one time a unit of allied close combat troops (flamers and shotguns) got too close and I reacted by moving away. Even though that's one less action for me, it prevents them from tearing me up damage wise.
Another time that keeps the game moving is lethality and damage. Damage in this game is no joke. If your infantry is marching out in the open and you get lit up by a unit with multiple machine guns, you're done. Lethality is similar to that of Infinity (and therefore realistic damage) where you best be jumping from cover to cover if you're planning to live. Using LoS blockers such as buildings and wide flanking attacks will serve you much better if you don't want your units being shot up. You should only lose infantry if you're charging in heroically and giving your other units a chance. Things really get busy once you hit the 16" range. Weapons start opening up, units start dying and the battle really starts moving forward.
Suppression is also super important and love the idea of it. By shooting your opponent's units, you are limiting his options in the next few phases. You are putting a strain on his troops and forcing him to make decisions to keep his units combat effective. Since this game is reactionary, each and every action you make as a player is important, even the ones that inflict no "real" damage.
Now that I've seen 150 points, I want to see 300 points immediately. I want to start buying models, I really do. I'm almost begging FFG to take my money, but the muffins don't know how to properly release a full-fledged miniatures game. I want to buy Markus, plain and simple. The same reason I want Heavy Laser Grens and just Totenmeister by herself. Why don't I have the option to do this? I'm practically begging FFG to take my money but they're not giving me the option to do so. I find that to be utterly, and I mean utterly ridiculous.

I'll add some more thoughts tomorrow if I come up with any, but overall I want to play again. Now.

Some thoughts on Dust Warfare

2012-08-26T23:00:00.000+10:00

Let's do this.

I was reading through my Dust Warfare rulebook today and I just wanted to share some thoughts on the book. I will talk about the gameplay design, the units, initial thoughts on unit design/balance, some theorycrafting and some random shit that'll probably pop up in my head as I write this review. Keep in mind this is not a gameplay review. I have not played the game yet but I'm hoping that I'll be able to this coming Tuesday because my friend's got an assload of minis. This review will primarily capture what I think of the rules. Alright, let's begin.

I read the background fluff on this once and I was decently impressed. Historically, it's got all the right pieces in place with some major alterations done to fit the theme of this alternate reality WWII world. I'm not a huge fluff fan, but I'm a huge historical buff. In terms of connecting major historical events with the storyline, kudos to FFG for not screwing it up too badly.

Now that my review of the fluff is done, let's talk about the gameplay. From what I gather, the game looks pretty easy to play. By easy, I'm strictly talking about playability. It's not a shitstorm to read through like Infinity and a lot of the combat system is streamlined. For example, everyone gets dice that says you hit (or rather, Combat, or "do shit") or you don't. If you don't use their Dust Warfare dice, you will just use 5+ on a standard D6. Pretty easy right? Yes it is. When you get into some other features, you'll notice that some weapons or special abilities will let you count the misses as hits instead (for damage purposes, or something else), so if you needed 5+ to hit, now you need 1-4. That makes for a very easy system to wrap your head around, but I'm not too impressed with the statistical flexibility of the game system itself. Since I'm a old-time GW fan, 2+, 3+ and the like up to and including bullshit Pendant of Kaleth Inverse Ward saves are all too familiar. From a dice standpoint, that's just one thing I noticed.

Sorry, I ranted a bit on the 5+ to hit system (I'll go back to this later), but back to game playability. When I said easy, I actually mean what I say. I rarely had to read rules over and I understood most of the rules perfectly. There's Initiative where the player with the fewest models normally has the chance to go first in a turn. This is done by rolling Hits (5+, just going to say Hits for now) for the # of units he has left on the table. The fewest goes first. Second, there's a Command Phase, and most importantly, the # of Orders he can issue during this phase. Keep in mind that this game is an "interactive" minis game; meaning, you go, I go kind of thing. One player starts it off and then players trade Command Phases, followed by Unit phases, in combination to opposing players being able to react during the active player's turn. This makes for a very enjoyable and interactive playing environment. No more of the you go, watch me get my shit blown to pieces and I go with nothing left on the table kind of deal that you see in 40K sometimes.

Anyways, the Initiative phase is when the player with the lowest # of orders rolls Hits. Lowest # of hits means he goes first, but the Hits also represent the amount of Orders he has to issue in his Command Phase. Command Phase happens with the player that has Initiative and he pays these "Orders" to make his units do stuff that the opponent can't react to. I may move, I may shoot, but which ever of these I choose, I must spend a Order. In addition to this, if I do something in this Command Phase, it takes up one of my actions in my Unit phase. Every normal unit gets 2 actions during his Unit phase. These actions can be.. move and then shoot, shoot and then move, or spend 2 actions to Sustained Attack (re-roll hits) or march (double move). Simple right?

The big thing here is that when you do something in the Command Phase, your opponents can't react. Player reaction is very important because once something you control gets within 12" of an enemy unit, they can pay an action to do something (considering this is the normal unit phase). You can choose to fire at an enemy coming close to you and pay an action point on your unit on his turn, or you can choose not to fire at the enemy and on your turn, you can Sustained Attack him for more damage. This also means you can choose to move away and gain some ground, or you can stand close to draw him into more fire. What is this? Both players have to think on the same game turn? This makes for some great mindgames, tricks, bluffs, and a general asston of gameplay-related tactics. Another thing to note about the Command Phase is that whoever is barking these Orders have to be in-range of a unit to give them. This actually makes unit formation important as certain strategies can only be executed within the right range. Another reason to bait various units out of formation ho ho ho.

I guess the next big thing to talk about is Suppression. So let's say one of your units gets shot. Which by the way, is an incredibly easy system in this game. Everyone hits on 5s right? So let's say you have a gun that has 1/1 vs. Soldier types 1 and 2 but not 3 or 4. That means he shoots once, (and if he hits) for one damage, and it only works on Soldiers with an armor grade of 1 and 2. He can't hurt 3 and 4. Pretty easy to understand. So if that number reads 2/1 on Soldier 3, it means he can shoot twice at Soldier 3 for damage purposes. Yeah, that's basically how combat is done in a nutshell. Back to Suppression: If any unit gets hit (doesn't even matter if he's doing damage), he gets a Suppression counter on his unit. He can get more Suppression markers if say, 3 units shot (and hit) his unit, but for the purposes of actual suppression, nothing really changes. A unit with one or more suppression markers cannot make reactions and get 1 less action during the Unit phase. That means if I Command Phased shooting at one of your units, and you can't react to it, I can pin one unit down completely if I shot it with 2 units. Likewise, if you only have 1 Suppression marker on the unit and you chose to do something with that unit on your Command Phase, you have no more moves with that unit during your Unit phase. What really matters is that a unit with more Suppression markers than it has remaining dudes in the unit has to fall back. Suppression makers can be removed though so its not the end of the world. When a unit is activated, the controlling player can roll a combat die for each Suppression marker on the unit. For each hit (5+), a marker is removed. Also, at the end of the turn, each unit that has a marker on it removes one. To really get a unit's shit back together, you can Order them to "get it together", also known as a Regroup Order.

Sorry, I know I'm jumping around with this, but they're all connected. Back to combat really quick: Say a Soldier 2 gets hit by that rifle that did 1 point of damage to it. Being Soldier 2, that means you have 2 chances to save for your squad. Roll 2 dice, if any are 5+, the damage is resolved. If it goes through, one of your dudes take a damage. There are units in the game that can take multiple hits (beefier units and Heroes for example), but the vast majority only has 1 wound. The combat system works the same for vehicles and their bigger guns, as do the range of their weapons measured in inches. The only difference for vehicles is that there's a vehicle damage chart that you roll on depending on how much damage your vehicle has already taken. Much better from the 5th Ed. 40K rules where a LR can get stunned 40 times (note that I said 5th Ed :o). There's also cover in the game denoted by Soft and Hard Cover where Soft Cover automatically saves one of your wounds. Take 2 wounds cause from failed armor saves but is in Hard Cover? No problem, no damage.

There's a bunch of other shit in here that has to do with special rules on units, weapons and Heroes, but I'm not going to spoil too much. The books cheap as chips for a BRB, so IF alternate reality WWII is for you, I'd suggest picking it up. However, I must say I do have some suggestions/complaints. First, checking out the units and trying to decide why you want to take them must be the biggest pain in the ass I have ever seen in a minis book. For example, I want to take a Heavy Laser Grenadier squad and I'm looking at the unit entry.. I see a special rule that takes me back 50 pages so I can read WTF it does. Not only this, but did you know the weapons they're carrying also have a special rule associated with them but is NOT listed under the unit's Special Abilities? Now I have to go back to see what Laser does (in some other section of the book, "USRs" are all spread out). There's tons of examples of this throughout the book, but it makes army construction a pain because I have to skip around all the time.

Second, some of the things here doesn't make sense necessarily. This is kinda hard for me to explain, but the best example would be: When you roll the Combat dice for results, you don't actually "hit" your target despite the giant crosshair, it just means Combat. Otherwise, it doesn't makes sense that your MG fires more times at a lesser armored target than a heavily armored one, or why your 17 Pounder gun would shoot 7 times at a Armored 1 vehicle. Think of the Combat dice strictly as a possibility generator and use your imagination to derive everything else. I mean, it's confusing because even the combat system: hitting first, then armor saves modified by cover saves, denotes the concept of "hit" when it actually doesn't. I don't know, it's just something my GW-spoiled brain hasn't wrapped around fully yet. Whatever, 5+ equals Good.

Third, the concept of Fearless troops vs. merely "confident" troops. You know, something like Flames of War. I want the concept of morale and motivation to actually mean a little more in this game. Imagine a Space Marine wearing a suit of Terminator Armor being "suppressed" the same way as a Guardsman in Flak armor. Is that outrageous or what? Well you know what? It's this game. Units only need to be "hit" to be forced the Suppression marker regardless of what they got going on. To make matters worse, because more elite units are smaller in unit size, they actually have a greater chance of running away from being overly suppressed. Talk about nonsense! Take this into consideration fluff where the Axis troops are supposed to be borderline fanatical and have the best veteran troops in the world (seeing nearly a decade of war) and I find this prospect highly ludicrous. I might need to houserule some shizzle in for this, because this is just something that needs fixing, or is overlooked due to time, or Andy Chambers never heard of Flames of War, in which case I question this entire book.

Last, and this is strictly from a theory standpoint, but what if you purposely take smaller units to gain Initiative advantage while playing within 16" of the enemy units? You get to go first, maybe inflict serious damage and if you keep your distance outside of 12", your opponents will never get to react. You could potentially devastate your opponent's army before he can do anything and all of a sudden, you'll be playing a GW game. I don't know, but it seems like something good players can accomplish with pre-measuring and a good army list.

Overall, just from reading the book and not having played a game, I'm really excited to test this game out. I love the setting and environment, the idea of interactive turns, and facets of deep-decision making on a simple to use game system. Sure, there's some kinks, but I think the game is well worth a try. I've heard a thing or two about the miniatures being kinda rubbery and prone to bent gun barrels, but honestly, in a time where a Land Raider costs 80 bucks because GW has nothing better to do, I don't give a rats rear. When you can buy the biggest thing in this game for less than half that cost, I think it's time to experiment. The most your going to lose is a few bucks and a couple of hours of your time because this game plays fast, keeps you engaged and you know you're not going to be bored. Here's to hoping the SSU will be out soon (3rd faction) and continued product support will be on its way.

TLDR: MUST TRY, even if it's just for the game mechanics.

Back-to-Basics: 6th edition 40k Acronyms

2012-08-26T07:00:00.000+10:00

Okay guys, we've updated the Acronym page with everything you've given us and some more we could come up whilst editing the post. Here's all the listed ones currently so let's see if we cannot fill it out a bit more for all the new guys coming through.

General Rule Acronyms

#+ - model's save value

#++ - model's invulnerable save value

ATSKNF - And They Shall Know No Fear

AV - Armor Value

B2B/BTB - Base to base (contact)

BRB/BYB - Big Rule/Yellow Book

Dakka/Torrent - lots of shots

FC - Furious Charge

FNP - Feel No Pain

FMC - Flying Monstrous Creature

GEQ - Guardsmen Equivalent (i.e. T3/5+)

HP - Hull Points

ID - Instant Death

IWND - It Will Not Die

LoS - Line of Sight

LoS! - Look out Sir!

MC - Monstrous Creature

Mech - Vehicles

MEQ - Marine Equivalent statline (i.e. T4/3+)

MSU - Multiple Small Units

RCL - Random Charge Length

RGL - Random Game Length

TL - Twin-linked

TLoS - True Line of Sight

WAAC - Win At All Cost

WYISWYG - What You See Is What You Get

General Acronyms

AC - Autocannon (or Assault Cannons)

Assback - Razorback with Assault Cannons

Asscan - Assault Cannons

Bolterback - Razorback with Heavy Bolters

CML - Cyclone Missile Launcher

DP, DPod or Pod - Drop Pod

Flamerback - Razorback with twin heavy flamers

HB - Heavy Bolter

Lasback - Razorback with Lascannon

LasPlas - Razorback with Lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns OR squad with lascannon and plasmagun

LC - Lightning Claw (commonly written as LClaw)

LC/Las - Lascannon

LR or Godhammer or Land Raider Phobos - Land Raider
LRC - Land Raider Crusader
LRR - Land Raider Redeemer

melta/mgun - meltagun

ML - Missile Launcher

MM - Multimelta

PA - Power Armor

PF - Power Fist

Plasmaback - Razorback with Lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns

plasma/pgun - plasma gun

PW - Power Weapon

RBack - Razorback

SS - Stormshield

TDA - Tactical Dreadnought Armor aka Terminator Armor

TH - Thunder Hammer

Specific Army Acronyms

(BT) Black Templars -

EC - Emperor's Champion

PotMS - Power of the Machine Spirit

(BA) Blood Angels -

AB - Attack Bike

ASM - Assault Space Marine or Assault Squad Marine
ACLC/Autolas Pred - Predator with autocannon and lascannon sponsons
BP or Baal - Baal Predator
Dakka Baal - Baal Predator with twin assault cannons and heavy bolter sponsons
Dakka Pred - Predator with autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons
DC - Death Company
DC Dread or DCD - Death Company Dreadnought
Devs - Devastators
GE - Glaive Encarmine
Flame Baal - Baal with Flamestorm cannon
Hammernators or TH/SS - Assault Terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields
IP or Infernus - Infernus Pistol
JP - Jump Pack
LS or Speeder – Land Speeder

Mephy - Mephiston
MMAB – Attack Bike with Multimelta
PP - Plasma Pistol
RAS - Regular Assault Squad (not as commonly used anymore)
SG - Sanguinary Guard or Sternguard

SP or Priest - Sanguinary Priest
SR or Raven – Storm Raven
Tac Squad or Tacticals – Tactical Squad
Vindi - Vindicator
VV - Vanguard Vets
WW or Whirly - Whirlwind

Chaos Daemons -

Fatecrusher - Build relying on fateweaver and a bunch of bloodcrushers
MoS - Master of Sorcery
WaL - We are Legion
BoT or Bolt - Bolt of Tzeentch
DP - Daemon Prince
SG - Soul Grinder
oT, oK, oN, oS, oC - of Tzeentch, of Khorne, of Nurgle, of Slaanesh and of Chaos respectively

Flying Circus - army based upon lots of Flying Monstrous Creatures

(CSM) Chaos Space Marines -

DP - Daemon Prince

MoCU - Mark of Chaos Undivided

MoK - Mark of Khorne

MoN - Mark of Nurgle

MoS - Mark of Slaanesh

MoT - Mark of Tzeentch

(DA) Dark Angels -

DW - Deathwing

RW - Ravenwing

(DE) Dark Eldar -

DL - Dark Lance

FF - Flickerfields

PGL - Phantasm Grenade Launcher

NS - Night Shields

Eldar -

BL - Bright Lance

DA or Avengers - Dire Avengers

DAVU - Dire Avengers Vehicle Upgrade

DR or Reapers - Dark Reapers

EML - Eldar Missile Launcher

Falc - Falcon Grav Tank

FD or Dragons - Fire Dragons

Footdar - Eldar army based on foot

GJB - Guardian Jet Bike

HB or Shees - Howling Banshees

Jetcouncil - Seer Council on Bikes

Jetseer - Farseer on a Jetbike

Mechdar - Eldar army based on vehicles

PL - Phoenix Lord

Prism - Fire Prism

SC - Shuriken Cannon

Seer Council - squad of Warlocks often led by Farseer

SL - Scatter Lasers

Spears - Shining Spears

Spiders - Warp Spiders

SS or Scorps - Striking Scorpions

SW or Hawks - Swooping Hawks

underslung/chin cannon - upgraded Shuriken Cannon on vehicles

WL - Wraithlord

WS or Serpent - Wave Serpent

WW - War Walkers

(GK) Grey Knights -

DH - Nemesis Daemon Hammer

Halb - Nemesis Halberd
Stave - Nemesis Warding Stave

Psyback - Razorback with psybolts and a twin-linked heavy bolter
Passback - Razorback with twin-linked assault cannons and Psybolts
Psyfledread - Dread w/two twin-linked autocannons and Psybolts
GKGM - Grey Knight Grand Master
GKSS - Grey Knight Strike Squad
GKT - Grey Knight Terminators
PAGK - Power Armoured Grey Knight

Psybolt - Psybolt Ammunition

(IG) Imperial Guard -

BiD - Bring it Down

CCS - Company Command Squad
PCS - Platoon Command Squad
MBT - Russ main battle tank (standard variant)
HWT - Heavy Weapon Team
SWS - Special Weapon Squad

Chim - Chimera

Detta - Vendetta

Flashlight - Lasgun

FOMT - Fire on my Target

FRFSRF - First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire!

GBITF - Get Back in the Fight

Manti - Manticore

RR - Rough Riders

ST - Storm Troopers

Vets - Veteran Squad

Necrons -

CCB - Catacomb Cmmand Barge.
RP - Reanimation Protocols (may still get called WWB, or We'll Be Back, the similar rule from the last codex that was more fun to say).
somethingTEK - Any of the various Harbringer upgrades to a Cryptek. Cryptek with Harbinger of the Storm shortens to Stormtek, Cryptek with Harbinger of Destruction becomes Lancetek (named after its weapon, the Eldritch Lance), etc.
RO or Orb - Resurrection Orb.
PS - Phase Shifter (3++ save)
SW or Semp Weave - Sempiternal Weave (2+ save)
ES - Entropic Strike
WS - Warscythe.
PS/DS - Phase Sword and Dispersion Shield combination for Lychguard.

EL - Ever-living
MSS - Mindshackle scarabs

Orks -

KFF - Kustom Force Field

PK - Power Klaw

(SoB) Sisters of Battle -

(SM) Space Marines -

TH/SS - Thunderhammer/Stormshield Terminators

Rifleman - Dreadnought with 2x twin-linked autocannons

(SW) Space Wolves -

CotS - Chooser of the Slain

RP - Rune Priest

TW/C - Thunderwolf Cavalry

WL - Wolf Lord
Thunderlord - Wolf Lord mounted on a Thunderwolf
WG - Wolf Guard
WGPL - Wolf Guard Pack Leader
WGBL - Wolf Guard Battle Leader
LF - Long Fangs
GH - Grey Hunters
BC - Blood Claws
WP - Wolf Priest
JoWW - Jaws of the world wolf, some times just called jaws.
LL - Living Lightening
MH - Murderouse Huricane
Loganwing - Army built around a solid base of WG and Logan Grimnar. The latter enabling WG to be taken as troops.

Tyranids -

BS -Bonesword
SC - Syanpse Creature

HG - Hive Guard

SitW - Shadow in the Warp
TS - Toxin Sacs
AG - Adrenal Glands
Dev - Devourer
HT - Hive Tyrant
Devilgaunt - Termagants with Devourers
IB - Instinctive Behaviour
VC - Venom Cannon
HVC - Heavy Venom Cannon
CS - Cluster Spines
LW - Lash Whip

Terv - Tervigon

Tfex - Tyrannofex

Tau -

ASS - Advanced Stabilisation System

BSF - Blacksun Filter

BC - Burst Cannon

BK - Bonding Knife
DC - Drone Controller

F - Flamer

FB - Fusion Blaster

GD - Gun Drone

HW - Hard Wired

IA - Iridium Armour

MD - Marker Drone

ML - Markerlight

MP - Missile Pod

MT - Multi Tracker
PR - Plasma Rifle

PR - Positional Relay

TA - Targetting Array

TL - Target Lock, also Team Leader, these must be figured out contextually
SD - Shield Drone

SG - Shield Generator
Stimms - Stimm Injectors

6th edition starter set Dark Vengeance - preorders

2012-08-25T22:00:00.001+10:00

So the shiny 6th edition start set of DA & CSM is finally a week out so pre-orders are up. And to eek that extra bit of moneys from you all, there's a limited edition which gets you everything normal and this...

And then all the pretty models below as stock standard for those of you who haven't seen them yet...

All these for the paltry cost of double what Assault on Black Reach started out to be. If you live in Australia that is. AoBR was $90 AUD when first released, DV is $180. Inflation sucks! And of course if you really want to go all out.. a customised carry case!

*wonders whats wrong with your basic carry case*

They've also released a novel and "audio drama." So go nuts and question aloud when the mini-rulebook might be sold solo.

Ally Template: Ork Green Tide

2012-08-25T07:00:00.000+10:00

CSM, Necrons, Imperial Guard & Tau can all take Orks as Allies of Convenience and with Fearless not being a liability for hordes in close combat now, Orks aren't a bad choice as your Ally at all. In this post we're going to look at the 'Green Tide' for Ork allies where those large Boyz units are going to come to play. This is a great option for shooting armies and with three of the strongest shooting armies in the game available as Allies (Necrons, IG & Tau), this should be a good plug-in to protect those shooting elements with more aggressive units.

Big Mek w/KFF

30x Boyz w/Nob, PKlaw, Bosspole
30x Boyz w/Nob, PKlaw, Bosspole

3x Kannonz w/6x extra crew, 3x ammo runts

Totals: 612 points

A very cheap 612 points which brings a lot of bodies. The main point of this list is to bring those bodies (most of them scoring) and plop them in midfield - there's very little subtlety about it. This helps the shooting and more combat vulnerable units of the parent army to continue what they do best - shoot from far away and avoid combat. By being large and decent in combat, the Orks force the opponent to deal with them or suffer the consquences all the while being pummelled by actually good shooting rather than the

Now the Boyz are written down as Boyz because both Shoota & Slugga are the exact same in terms of points but I prefer the Shootas as they make a better deterrent in midfield. Orks do not have to blindly run forward and smack people around and having 60 odd shots, even at BS2, while sitting on an objective puts the opponent in a mini lose-lose situation. Sluggaz don't have this option but if you have solid scoring backing up the Boyz, pushing them forward might be a better idea and thus the extra attack in combat can be very useful. Remember, vehicles will now very reliably drop to mass S4 attacks assuming they are rear AV10. The PKlaw can take care of anything else.

The Big Mek makes getting cover for these very large squads easier - always very useful, particularly given the reduction in the cover mechanic as a general rule of thumb. The Orks are more vulnerable to being shot off the table but at least they'll have a save each time and even with a 5+, the opponent has to inflict ~46 wounds - not an easy feat. Adding a PKlaw to the Mek makes him a scarier opponent in combat as well so isn't a bad option to consider.

The Kannons are cheap firepower and quite durable with the extra wounds bought. The firepower isn't fantastic but it's cheap and in any mission where Heavy Support can score, well they're scoring so that's a nice bonus.

Options: You really want to keep the Mek + Boyz here, otherwise you're looking at really changing up what this Ally Plug-in does (which is fine but not what this template is for). There's very little which can be of use in the Heavy Support slot other than a Battlewagon and only if you bring along some Nobz to get a second Battlewagon (who with four Hull Points and being cheap, aren't too bad). Otherwise your main options to look at are Fast Attack & Elites.

With Scout being nerfed and only having one Fast Attack option available, about the only good thing here is the Dakkajet but even then, it's not great and there are better Flyers for half the armies which take Orks (Necrons & Imperial Guard) and rumor has flyers coming for Tau & Chaos soon, too. Elites also have very few choices here that are viable as one-offs. Nobz/MANz, as mentioned, can help bring a second Battlewagon but what do they themselves do? They can help out midfield but unlike Boyz, aren't cheap and plentiful and thus generally need the Battlewagon to be useful. Burnaz & Tankbustas are likewise more expensive than Boyz and generally need something to help push them up the field though Burnaz can be an excellent "assault me if you dare" choice. Shame they are still just as weak to shooting as every other Ork. This really leaves Lootas who can act as a semi-cheap firepower unit where the duality for such is taken up by the rest of the army they are allied into. Not necessary by any means but something to think about.

Conclusion

Orks are much improved in 6th overall and this transfer over to their ability to Ally to other armies. By bringing in units which are more capable of operating in midfield and in combat, you're getting the best of the Ork world with the best of the parent army which is generally going to be oriented around shooting. This can be useful for options with stronger Troops (Necrons, Chaos) or weaker Troops (Imperial Guard, Tau) as the Orks can play differently depending upon what's backing them up in the Troops department (i.e. can the Orks run across the field and trap the enemy in their Deployment Zone and have sturdy Troops move behind them to claim midfield objectives or do they need to pressure the opponent into pushing them off the midfield objectives, etc.).

If you've got a fast, zippy army which doesn't really have a midfield core then Orks probably aren't going to be a great asset as they get minimal support from behind. However, none of the armies they can be AoC to can do such a list without spamming flyers (Necrons) so such a plug-in is generally going to be a good idea if you're looking for such a force.

Tyranids in 6th Part 4: Cut to the Quick (Fast Attack)

2012-08-24T23:15:00.000+10:00

Fast Attack is a slot that went from being usable, if not exactly impressive, to being excellent. You can't call it the best in the codex because Elites still has your tank-hunters, but it's an excellent place to find (surprise, surprise) fast assault units to keep the enemy busy. Unfortunately, that's only true for the top couple of units in the slot- from there is goes downhill VERY quickly, bottoming out with some of the worst units in the codex (though admittedly still better than the poor, benighted Pyrovore.)

The FA slot is mostly about supporting the rest of your forces with aggressive attention-drawing units. Rarely will they survive the battle, since their job is essentially to crash headlong into the enemy formation in order to delay them, but that isn't really a big deal, as expendable units are just fine for the Hive Mind.

Gargoyles
By far the "best" choice in the codex nowadays, Gargoyles give you a fast, threat-projecting element that can screen other element of your force in a pinch. At practically the same price as Termagants (but unable to get free Toxin/Adrenal) but significantly faster and better in combat, Gargoyles can be a serious pain for many armies to face early on, as they can get up close very quickly and clog movement/shooting lanes, giving the main body of of the army time to arrive.

However, they are not without their faults, which (along with the annoyance of transporting the models) is why I have wavered on them. For one, with the new cover rules (needing 25% obscurement for infantry models), Gargoyles are sometimes hard-pressed to get a save against anything, especially with their tendency to rush forward at full tilt. This same behavior also can mean that they are put out of Synapse range in the early turns, likely causing them to do something annoying like race for cover or pew-pew worthlessly at a tank.

However, for the aggressive Tyranid army, Gargoyles are a real godsend and running 40-60 of them will be fairly common. Gargoyles should always be equipped with Adrenal Glands to ensure that they can charge/hurt tanks early on- fifteen or so of them will generally be enough to glance a Rhino to death, which may not be an amazing use of them, but all those squishy bodies will still be getting in the way and getting in the enemy's face. Toxin Sacs can certainly be worthwhile if you have some points available, but I don't consider them a high priority- rerolls to wound are nice and all, but killing models is not really your main goal. You want to get stuck in and be annoying- anything you kill is just a bonus. Broods should never be less than fifteen models strong, as you simply crumple too easily under firepower; twenty is probably ideal at lower values, going up to thirty in 1750 or 2K.

Raveners
Though suffering significantly compared to Gargs, Raveners may still have a place in the arsenal because of their rare ability to ignore cover combined with excellent speed. On the other hand, 5+ cover combined with T4 is a recipe for disaster against the many, many heavy weapons out there, which is a major limiter on what they can do.

Beast status is now a pretty huge deal, giving you 12" move and Fleet as well as ignoring all cover at all times, giving Raveners effective assault grenades. Though they are not particularly deadly, a significant number of WS5 attacks with Rending will at least not just be shrugged off by most Marines. Raveners are quite capable of chewing up small squads of MEQs or GEQs in significant number with relative, as they have a fairly good set of numbers behind them, but the 5+ save will usually give them trouble if anything survives to swing back.

Raveners are likely a niche choice at best, but unlike their unlucky Warrior cousins, they seem to still be a reasonable pick in the right army. Rending Claws are pretty much a given for them, though you shouldn't feel too horrible about taking running twinned Talons. The various guns are likewise okay but not awful- if you go with one of them, Devourers or Spinefists are probably best because of cost.

Harpies
Now, unfortunately, we start to get into the more mediocre options. Harpies benefited a lot from some of the new changes, specifically becoming Flying Monstrous Creatures, but with a pathetically-weak Vector Strike and low survivability otherwise, their place in "real" armies is questionable. I do love the flying doofuses, but I can't in good conscience claim that they are powerful or effective.

Being hit on sixes is a pretty excellent place to be, especially combined with the maneuverability options of a FMC and ability to start on-board in all games, but with flyers running rampant in the game, everyone and their brother is bringing ways to shoot down such targets, and as an FMC you have a risk that comes with going high- Grounded Tests. Every time you take a hit, you've got a 33% chance to take another bonus wound on top of it, and unlike Daemons you don't have a save to shrug those off with. Add in your mediocre regular save (4+) and utter inability to shoot at enemy flyers and you're looking less and less viable. Oh, and don't forget that the change to the damage table means you can't kill a tank unless it's open-topped.

As a result of all of the above factors, the Harpy is something that should be left in the box unless you are looking for a kooky conversion project, a gimmick FMC army, or have never seen an Autocannon or Heavy Bolter in your entire life.

Spore Mine Clusters
A very cute gimmick, but not one that really ever works due to their awkward deployment rules. And since pretty much all of them will vanish as soon as the game begins, a pretty expensive one. Servo-Skulls cost 3pts and do basically the same thing, except they actually start where you want them to every time.

Skyslasher Swarms
These are like Rippers, but more expensive for essentially no benefit. Oooh, they can fly- that means fewer cover saves as I rush in to get into combats I can't win.

Shrikes
The winged Warriors suffer just as much as their compatriots do from the changes to cover, all the more so because their natural save is weaker and they are more likely to be in isolated positions. They can provide forward Synapse, but unlike the Parasite they can't really hide anywhere, so they will generally be shot down quite quickly.

Though hardly as bad a choice as Sky-Slashers or Spore Mines, they're not something you will really ever see on the battlefield because they just don't have much of a role. If they were some sort of non-Monstrous FMC, on the other hand...

Gundam Boyz - Tau & Orks

2012-08-24T09:23:00.002+10:00

Dakka

So I've been playing around with the basis of Gundam Tau and trying to find an Allies fit which I think works best at 1750 points (the commonly played points level in Australia currently at tournaments). The problem was, even cutting back a bit on the suits there weren't that many points to play with for getting 2x10x MEQs + goodies to support the Tau in midfield and provide mobile scoring options. You could do it but it always felt stretched at 1750 and worked much better at 2000. Orks didn't have this issue however and thanks to Fearless changes, are a lot scarier in combat now since they don't fold like a wet paper bag.

So here's what I've come up with. We have the core of the Gundam Tau template and then we'ved added in two large Ork Boyz squads for midfield supporting & scoring, a Big Mek for utility on said Boyz and a small Loota + Kannon squads for even more firepower on the cheap which can be spread around. The end result:

Shas'el w/Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker, HW-BSF, Drone Controller, 2x Gun Drones

3x Crisis Suits w/Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker, Team Leader w/HW-BSF, Drone Controller, 2x Gun Drones
2x Crisis Suits w/Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker
3x Crisis Suits w/TL-Missile Pod, flamer, Team Leader w/HW-BSF, Drone Controller, 2x Gun Drones

8x Fire Warriors
8x Fire Warriors
8x Fire Warriors

1x Broadside w/BSF, Team Leader w/2x Shield Drones
1x Broadside w/BSF, Team Leader w/2x Shield Drones
1x Broadside w/BSF, Team Leader w/2x Shield Drones

Big Mek w/KFF

5x Lootas

20x Ork Boyz, Nob w/PKlaw, Bosspole
20x Ork Boyz, Nob w/PKlaw, Bosspole

3x Kannonz w/3x Ammo Runts, 6x Extra Crew

Totals: 1748 points

Lots of shooting and there's the two large Ork squads in midfield any opponent has to battle through to get to the main lines of guns. Only five Troops at 1750 is my major worry here, though I could take the 24 Fire Warriors and split them into groups of six and get six scoring options. Stil have 10 Crisis Suits though which gives the army a lot of firepower backed up by Kannonz, Lootas, Fire Warriors & Broadsides - though with only three Broadsides we also have to consider if that's enough? Potentially dropping the Lootas to get an extra Broadside in might be useful.

Anyway, discuss away.

Battle Report: Grey Knights + Deathwing vs Space Marines

2012-08-23T23:00:00.000+10:00

So today got a game in with Vince so decided to take some pictures. Acotez + Deathwing against Lysander Marines. We rolled a random mission and got Relic with Vanguard deployment. Night Fight in effect Turn 1, Warlord trait useless for Vince, Move Through Cover within 12" of my Warlord. Lists are below.

Space Marines:

Lysander
10x Shootynators w/2x CML
2x Rifledreads
2x10x Tacticals w/meltagun, MM, combi-melta, Rhino w/Dozer
5x Scouts w/heavy bolter, snipers, cloaks
2x1x Speeder w/2x MM
2x Dakka Preds

Grey Knights & Deathwing:

Coteaz
2x8x Psykers, 1x Aco, Chimera w/searchlight
5x Acolytes w/bolters, Psyback w/searchlight, Dozerblade
3x6x Acolytes w/bolters, Psyback w/searchlight, Dozerblade
3x Psyfledreads
Belial
2x5x Deathwing Termies w/CML, 1 Apoth

Deployment

Relic mission is really just a cute name for 40k dog-pile which is anything but not cinematic! Vince won roll-off and elected to go first for the opportunity to get First Blood in case neither of us controls the Relic (quite likely). He then deploys his double Tacticals directly across from the Relic with the Terminators nearby to support them. The goal here is to dump said Tacticals in midfield and have one squad scoot away with the Relic - Terminators provide a screen. The Preds & Dreads were off to the sides to limit my ability to hide behind the central terrain piece.

My deployment plan is likewise similar though I'm looking to ferry in my Deathwing units and due to my weaker Troops elsewhere. I use my RBack hulls to protect the Deathwing models and the Chimeras - trying to show as much AV12 as possible despite the far flung Preds & Dreads. My Psykers can really ruin the day of the Tacticals + Terminators so I want to keep them safe. My Dreads bookend my army so they can move into midfield, pressure side armor of Preds & shoot around central terrain piece. I fail to seize and thus lose the opportunity to Relic sit.

Space Marine Turn 1

Vince's first turn is all about getting his Tacticals into position and protecting those Rhinos - so both Rhinos move up behind the central piece of terrain. One combat squad with an MM jumps out however to try a snap shot at a Razorback which fails (the Rhino then flat outs in the movement phase to protect said squad). One Speeder follows the Rhinos to try its luck with double MMs whilst the 2nd speeder jumps behind the building on the left to protect itself. The Terminators move up keeping themselves in the gap between the central terrain piece and building on the left to shoot at the Grey Knights. Both Preds & Dreads spread out to get better firing lanes.

Shooting sees the right most Razorback lose a hull point and the left most Dread (who also loses an arm). The left most Razorback is wrecked after Night Fight cover saves failed to stop the damage. The Acolytes inside are pinned and Space Marines get First Blood.

1-0 to SM

Grey Knight Turn 1

Night Fight stopped a lot of shooting there which was nice but it will likely stop a lot of my shooting back. I'm very aware of the anti-infantry firepower the Space Marines have and want to ensure my Terminators can get to the middle of the board and still be strong enough to smack his Terminators & Lysander around. With this in mind I move two of my Razorbacks up on the far left to cover shooting from that entire side and move the Deathwing up behind them. The hull point damaged Razorback on the right moves up as well with the Deathwing walking behind it. The Dreads spread out and both Chimeras reverse a little bit to clear shooting angles.

Everything opens up with my Razorbacks opting to snap-fire due to twin-linked. I manage to take down the right most Rhino to one hull point and shake it and drop the midfield Speeder. Both my psychic blasts failed to go off unfortunately. I also shot my Terminators when I really should have run them and then determined what to do with my Razorbacks (i.e. flat-out to protect them?).

1-0 to SM

Space Marine Turn 2

The push to the Relic continues with the Tacticals & Rhinos moving up onto the central piece of terrain - the Rhinos in a V position to allow Tacticals to still shoot out. The right Rhino is now empty with the melta/combi squad jumping out whilst the left Rhino has the MM/mgun still inside and the Sarge + four plebs outside on the Relic (Relic held by Sarge). The Terminators move up but not too far to make sure the Deathwing isn't going to smack them next turn.

Remaining Speeder zips in to a position where it can melta many a target whilst the fire support elements wiggle for best shooting. All the melta then opens up on the leading Razorbacks but it takes them all to drop just one. But that's enough for shooting to now converage on the left-most Deathwing squad with Belial & the Apoth. Mass shooting ends up killing three whilst the Tac MM on foot drops the right most RBack containing Coteaz & co - half the Acolytes inside die.

I feel the Terminators should have been moved up more. Yes, Belial & co might have gotten to them but it means they weren't munching on Tacticals. And if they munched on Tacticals, the Terminators were at full liberty to mess around with my entire army. Push the threats to the fore - keep the Troops safe.

4-0 to SM.

Grey Knight Turn 2

The Tacticals on the Relic need to die - or they are going to move off with it and there's not much I can do about that. This means dropping the right most Rhino and pouring as much firepower as I can into those measly guys. My two large blasts should be useful here... Both Deathwing squads move up and Coteaz being silly tries to join them. Except he's not allowed. Woops! The remaining RBack moves in front of the enemy Terminators to minimise their return charge/shooting potential. The Acolytes jump out before this and setup in the crater of another RBack to provide more bolter firepower. The Dreads start to move forward from their firing positions and the back most Chimera immobilises itself.

To begin shooting we start with the Psyker blasts. Both go off but one misses towards my guys but only nicks the RBack who passes his cover save. The other blast is on target and drops four Marines + the damaged Rhino. This allows the rest of my shooting to come to play from that side of the board. But first, the undamaged Psyfledread drops the other Rhino on the PC-CDROM hill which forces the Tacticals out in front of my lines. Extra shooting sees one Tactical completely destroyed, the other reduced to two men and four men but the Space Marine vehicles are untouched.

The damaged Psyfledread therefore throws himself at it in combat and drops it whilst the Deathwing kill three of the newly disembarked Marines who escape (we forgot Stubborn!) leaving Vince with eight Tacticals left in total.

1-0 to SM.

Space Marine Turn 3

The fleeing Tacticals rally and move back towards the damaged Dreadnought with a meltagun left. The other Tacticals all move up onto the hill to layer against the one guy who picks up the Relic and passes it to Lysander as he joins the squad and moves into Base to Base contact with him. The Terminators again edged forward but didn't really press up leaving the Tacticals at the forefront of the fight.

Shooting does very little, dropping the Razorback in front of the Terminators and one Deathwing from the right most squad. Coteaz luckily gets away with being all alone. The rallied Tacticals fail to drop the Dread with their meltagun so decide to assault and get hit by two Overwatched autocannons! Luckily the Cinematics held and they passed both their saves only to fail to damage the Dreadnought, lose a guy to a chest bump and then flee. The Dreadnought consolidates behind the building on the left.

4-0 to SM.

Grey Knight Turn 3

Tacticals are exposed - must kill. Both Deathwing squads move up to the central terrain piece, Belial's squad on top to get at the Relic & Lysander, the other squad down below to get the Tactical squad not on the hill. Dreadnoughts continue moving forward and now would have been a good time to bring in all my Psykers + Acolytes as well to try and flood the Relic with bodies. I didn't however as I was still very much aware of the Terminator squad. Too cagey.

Shooting sees all but the fleeing Tactical and the Tacticals not on the hill removed and I get some lucky damage rolls against Lysander to drop him to two wounds. One Terminator also dies from a scattering Psyker blast (only one went off - this was the last one to go off all game). Both Deathwing squads assault with the Tacticals on the ground being wiped out (leaving the one fleeing meltagunner) - they consolidate away from the Terminators. The other squad reaches Lysander and Vince forgets to challenge (we had talked about challenges moments before so I thought he was aware of them). Lysander kills the extra two Deathwing Terminators but all combined they drop Lysander's final two wounds. Belial consolidates onto Relic (we rolled the challenge to see what would have happened and Belial lived, Lysander lost a wound and then failed his Leadership...so similar result thankfully).

1-1 draw (claimed Warlord secondary).

Space Marine Turn 4

Terminators move up to exact revenger on Lysander and the meltagunner Tactical hides as best he can. The Dreads and Preds position for best shooting and throw everything at Coteaz who manages to save all of his instant death wounds but takes two normal wounds from Heavy Bolters and is thus left with one wound. The Terminators drop Belial handily but lose two guys to do so.

1-1 Draw.

Grey Knight Turn 4

Coteaz moves back down and joins an Acolyte squad for ablative wounds. The remaining Deathwing squad moves around to engage the Terminators whilst trying to avoid needing to go through terrain. Dreadnoughts keep moving up looking to help the Terminators out. Acolytes re-position for better shooting and once again, I don't get Psykers out so they are just sitting pretty in the back.

Shooting sees several (aka 3) Terminators dropped as all my firepower goes into them with an assault follow-up by Deathwing and a Dreadnought. The Dreadnought takes a hull point of damage and one Deathwing dies (plus one from Overwatch, doh!) but two Terminators die (leaving three remaining) for a drawn combat. I pile-in one of my Terminators so the lone meltagunner cannot move to claim it.

1-1 Draw.

Space Marine Turn 5

Little the Space Marines can do at this point other than try to kill Grey Knight Warlord (Coteaz). Scouts have been doing the same as Psykers and just sitting in the back all game long so aren't really in a position to do anything to swing the game unfortunately. Dreads + Preds again position to drop Coteaz who loses all his Acolyte buddies (after they go to ground) but still manages to shrug off all the firepower directed at him. Insane.

In combat one Terminator from both sides falls over so combat continues on its merry way.

1-1 Draw.

Grey Knight Turn 5

I attempt to move my mobile Chimera to a position where it can flat out in front of Coteaz but it immobilises itself, leaving Coteaz out in the open to get trashed unfortunately. Dread on the right moves behind Space Marine Dread on the right for some rear shot action whilst the Acolytes there move up onto the hill in case they can take the Relic or move into the Space Marine DZ. The other Acolytes shuffle sideways to shoot through the gaps at the lone meltagunner Marine and the Psykers finally jump out of their rides and start moving though far too late.

Shooting sees the lone meltagunner die from the bolters and the right most Dreadnought. Combat continues where we both fluff and smile happily at each other.

1-1 Draw.

Space Marine Turn 6

Game goes on for a Turn 6. Fire support units against position to shoot down Coteaz as well as the Acolytes on the hill which could capture the Relic. The Acolytes die in a hail of fire but Coteaz just stands there and laughs, passing all his saves (insane man). Combat sees one Terminator die but doesn't flee. Scouts cannot take the final hull point off the damaged Dreadnought's rear.

1-1 Draw.

Grey Knight Turn 6

Coteaz hides on the right of the central terrain piece where he cannot be seen. Psykers continue moving but too slowly whilst Dread on the right moves into side arc of the Pred to shoot and assault follow-up if necessary. The damaged Dreadnought moves up to assault the Scouts and the rest of the Acolytes move forward as fast as possible to the centre of the board for the Relic/enemy DZ.

Shooting sees the right Pred dead and nothing else - most things are running forward at this point. The damaged Dread assaults the Scouts and kills one but they stay and do no damage in return. Pillow-fisted combat in the centre also does no damage and the game ends on a 1-1 Draw.

Conclusion

An interesting game and what we will commonly see with the Relic - secondaries decide the game as everyone just ends up dog-piled on the damn Relic. Still not sure about the Acolyte based list for 6th - once again the extra Troops were doing the hefty lifting though the Acolytes got a lot of bolter firepower thrown in this game, any time they were looked at funny they died. And the Psykers passing a whole three tests the entire game made them a useless paperweight. In terms of mission design extra secondaries, objectives, etc. would have made this more interesting. To the actual game :P.

The Dreads and Scouts for Vince never moved in - I'll take blame for that as we were trying to make this a learning game to bring Vince up to speed but by leaving them in the backfield they never contributed in the melee around the Relic. An extra unit or two could have swung favor in any direction. Same with my Psykers though each time I tried to advance, I immobilised the Chimeras, the Psykers still should have gotten out and started moving forward. In the end I had few Troops near the Relic and this is part of the list design I feel. I was too afraid of their fragility to commit them.

Both of us played a bit too cagely as well - I think Vince should have been more aggressive with the Terminators and moved them around the Tacticals to stop my from assaulting them and allowing them to move backwards with the Relic. Yes they'd have died facing all that shooting and Deathwing in combat but it would have allowed the army to hold onto the Relic and kept me pinned down for a while. I think Vince was afraid of what the Deathwing + Psykers could do and I was relying on the Psykers to do more - but as we saw they are unreliable (though I must say, this is the worst I've seen them in 6th so far. Newbs).

Also interesting to note despite the Internet crying foul on vehicle durability...there were four Dreadnoughts, a Predator and two Chimeras left at the end of the game. Despite some 12 autocannons (+ psybolts), 11 heavy bolters (+ psybolts), 8 missiles, two S10 AP1 blasts, two multi-lasers and a lot of PFists + Kraks in combat. It's really the same as before - the mobile stuff dies because it's generally high on the opponent's priority and does so much but the fire support stuff unless it gets in the way generally doesn't. Again, killing vehicles is just more reliable - no more "damnit I got three pens but got three shakens!"

Anyway, GG Vincey and still need to work out what to do with my GK... And Vince needs Allies :P.