Geneseed

Painting the Stormtalon

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 21:14:00 +0000

Seems a fair few people have some hate for this Space Marine flyer, but personally I really like the boxy Space-Marines-make-an-Apache look it has. So I bought two (one is still boxed, but that's a different story) to add to the Sanguine Swords. Let's have a look at what I did to ruin this particularly nice bit of grey plastic:

Airbrushing Basecoat

I'm well aware there should be the boring business of cutting, cleaning, gluing, undercoating here, but y'all know how to do those things, right?

It's a vehicle, so out came the airbrush and the lovely Mordian Blue and away we went. From black boxy thing to almost-flyer in a few passes. You can see there's some detail on the pilot at this point - if I'd known I was going to do an article on it I would have taken photos of that too, but I was rushing this for a tournament (which is why all the photos are iPhone quality too).

The raised plates and the gaps really helps define this model - something that the Rhino kit is showing its age on. Even with just a blue basecoat the model has a very defined shape with detail showing up well. Which helps in the hands of someone like me who hasn't got a steady enough hand for really good infantry, but gets bored on large vehicles easily.

Washing the Gaps

Those plates and the gaps in them help this next step work. Taking a dark blue wash and washing the plate gaps brings out even more definition to the edges of the plates. Because I'm going over the plates themselves again with the basecoat colour once I'm done this is really, really easy. You could just slather the wash on there and let it fall naturally, but I was a bit more careful so I'd have less cleanup work to do on the plates.

There's nothing clever going on elsewhere on the model - the pilot is painted my standard way for a 3rd Company Sanguine Sword (orange trim means SPEED, BABY), and the metal parts are based in the whatever the new GW boltgun metal is called again (leadbelcher?).

You can see how the wash brings the plates "up" from the body of the Talon though, even with my limited handiwork. I might shut up about those plates by the end of the article, but I wouldn't count on it.

Trim and Highlights

After the wash I went over the edges of the plates with the basecoat colour to redefine the edges and remove some of the splatter from the wash. Really easy, even I can do it without paying attention.

Once that's done I added the orange trim to designate the 3rd Company, which again is really easy thanks to the well-defined plates. The canopy is a bit tricky to paint, but as long as you take your time it isn't so bad. Worth having a damp brush and some wet cotton-buds nearby just in case you do slip onto the windows though.

You can see that my initial line highlight is fairly sloppy. I hadn't intended it to be so, but I was rushing this a little bit and my hand isn't very steady at the best of times. As we've not washed the plates themselves though it's very easy to touch up. I've also hit the metal with a wash of Nuln Oil to define the sections of the engine and add a bit of dirt to the look.

I'm still fairly unsure where to add line highlights to big flat sections when they join up. I usually just go for one of the edges, but often I can't be sure if I shouldn't do both when actually painting them.

Glazing and Touchups

I might have mentioned before, but I love the new GW glazes. For someone like me who hasn't got the time or the talent for some really good blending or layering technique, they let me emulate the basic look without triggering the "Tron-effect". What the glazes do is tone down the brightness of the line highlight to match the darker colours, which helps keep the highlights looking like highlights rather than as if someone just randomly vandalised the craft with some bright blue paint.

You can also see that I've touched up some of my more shoddy-looking highlight work, as some of the thick blodges really ruined the time I'd put into the model. Painting the edges of the canopy bars was rather a difficult task for me, which is why there's no highlighting on the canopy at all - I just couldn't hold steady enough without running the risk of ruining the clear canopy.

I really like the model, and I'm pretty proud of my work on it (even if I am self-deprecating). She's not all that in game terms, but as a model in my collection I'm happy to have her.

Lost In The Warp

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 07:08:00 +0000

Been a while, huh? Some of that is due to family problems, but mostly it's because I've been too busy doing actually hobby stuff to write about it. It's safe to say that I'm very happy with how Sixth Edition is working out so far, and it has shook the meta up enough to encourage new builds and new lists (despite Necrons supposedly being the top dog right now, I've been playing Space Marines for the additional choice their Codex brings). Everything old is new again.

What's Coming Up?

I've got 40k Doubles coming up in September, for which I need to paint only half a dozen models. This is a first in that I'm actually taking an army that's nearly complete, but I somehow still suspect I'll be painting like a daemon that last week before the event. I'm trying out the new Citadel paints properly for these models and so far it's coming out well.

I've also been expanding the Sanguine Swords with flyers which so far consists of two Storm Talons and a Storm Raven (used under the Grey Knight allies rules). The new Dark Vengeance set will help fill out the Tactical Squads, as I'm unhappy with what are now ten or eleven year old paint jobs and would love to redo those models.

The Necron army has embraced Sixth with gusto, with Necron Warriors returning to the fore and the Scythe kits being a huge boon. They're still odd when you're used to playing Marines, but they work very well. Compared to the suffering of pre-Codex fifth, it's nice to be able to use Necrons competitively again. My beloved Deathmarks are now worthwhile too, but join Tyranids in waiting for the spam to pop out the can.

Now if you'll excuse me, I really need to get back to painting...

First Thoughts on Sixth

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 10:04:00 +0000

There is only war!

Sixth edition hit yesterday and after some quick skimming (not giving it my full time until Monday night) it looks like it's going achieve most everything I want from it. I wasn't going to make a post at this point, but the amount of DOOOM posting I see again made me realise that I have to raise my voice, lest the signal get lost in the noise. You can't stop the signal.

Fifth's Bugbears
The biggest issues with fifth were undeniably a slant towards mechanised armies (that is, armies with copious transports) and wound-allocation stupidity ("I have to do HOW MANY wounds to kill just one Paladin?!").

The first issue has been fixed, but it's too early to tell if it's going to hold. You can glance transports to death easily now, transports cannot claim NOR contest objectives. You can only assault out of Open Topped or Assault vehicles, even if stationary. No more parking Rhinos on objectives to add its ablative armour (and probably its smokes) to the squad while they claim. No more tank-shocking empty Rhinos onto objectives to contest them late-game. Transports bring mobility and some protection against small-arms fire (unless said small-arms are pulse rifles, then you're in trouble), but in return you lose your assault potential, you lose shots on the move, you gain vulnerability to anti-tank fire and you lose your ability to claim objectives. That's a pretty fair trade I'd say - you'll still see transports, but they're no longer an auto-include for every squad.

Flying transports are an interesting one. The Necron Night Scythe can deploy units while zooming and doesn't auto-kill the squad inside if it blows, so it's an edge case. The Valkyrie and the Storm Raven have to hover or use their special deployments (which allow units to Deep Strike from the cargo bay, essentially), so it's going to be interesting to see how this pans out. You rarely see the Valkyrie due to its better-in-all-ways cousin the Vendetta though and I don't expect this to change.

Wound allocation is now "From the front" - you roll against majority toughness (as now), you then roll armour saves and allocate unsaved wounds to the closest models to the enemy inflicting the wounds. I love this. I really, really do. Fast units with anti-infantry fire can now break your formations (it was a good idea keeping that guy at the back, until I was behind you), and attempting to bubble-wrap your special infantry results in an almost-perfect large blast formation. Moving that meltagun right to the front for that six inch melta shot now means he's the first to die in the retribution, as well as the most likely to die in the explosion.

Fantastic Men in Their Flying Machines
Fliers look good. The rules are solid, they actually feel like fliers and they're going to bring a useful and interesting addition to the game. The Razorwing is still horrendously good, as is the Vendetta, but as this category fills out it's going to be interesting. The only flier I'm not convinced about is the Storm Raven - its role as heavy-flyer/transport is a little odd, but I don't use one so I'll wait to see how they play out.

The Necron Night Scythe and Doom Scythe actually perform as advertised now, which is a good thing. The Space Marine Storm Talon looks like it's going to be a fun unit for my bike army, which is where it lives at the moment anyway.

Making More Sense
Night Fighting now gives a set restriction based on distance and those with Night Vision ignore it completely (Dark Eldar continue to rain on my parade). No more firing from 36" and hitting like it was day time, and no more missing from 7" on a bad roll.

You no longer put twenty holes in a tank and still have it live on through shaken/stunned results. Hull Points has made this a thing of the past (thankfully).

No longer can you fire your guns better if the vehicle moves 12" and then you get out than if you stay inside.

Models with a "Repair" rule, such as Tech-Marines and Canoptek Spyders can repair hull points, and their repairs now take effect immediately. You no longer have to wait for next turn to use that repaired gun.

Whip Coils and Lash Whips override Grey Knight Force Halberds again. Finally.

Be The Soldier We Need

There's a lot of doom and gloom out there. Ignore it. Read the rules carefully and then think clearly about your army. Adapting to this edition faster than those around you is going to win you many, many games. My favourite Dark Eldar opponent is already focusing on what he can do to his "Nearly always tables you" army to swing Sixth to his favour. You can be sure he'll do it too. I think this edition is a good thing for the game, but whether it's a good thing for you depends solely on your ability to adapt well and play well.

It's an edition change - throw away all your previous conceptions of how to build an army and start again. You'll find things that weren't accounted for and things that weren't viable last edition suddenly being powerful.

We have the ships. We have the weapons. We need soldiers.

Sixth Edition Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:21:00 +0000

It would be fair to say I'm kinda excited.

That is all.

Unboxing: Super Dungeon Explore (Re-Print)

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000

YAY! I've been waiting for this box for a little while since I discovered it, and I was very happy when it arrived.

Firstly we have the box itself which is cute, colourful and pretty sturdy. It'll survive a few knocks, and is more stubborn than say, an Island of Blood box or similar. It's also packed to the brim with stuff.

I must say I love the art style of Super Dungeon Explore - one of the contributing reasons to getting the product was that the OH wanted to play too, and that's down to mostly the art style.

Contents

Open up the box and what do we get? Well, the top of the box is the token sheets - about 180 of the little things. They're all bright, easily recognised from a distance and easy to pop out of the sheets. Took me just a couple of minutes to pop the whole lot out.

The tokens are fairly sturdy for cardboard and probably won't take much damage in handling. There's also a lot more of them than you'll possibly need, so you can afford to sacrifice some to your toddlers / cats / over-zealous vacuum cleaners.

There's a couple of omissions, like a smoke marker (unless I'm blind), but nothing devastating.

Under the tokens we have the floor tiles. which make up the game tracker and the board. You use one tile per hero in the game, which is one of the ways the game scales up. The art on them is wonderful, but they could have done with being a bit more diverse than they are. They fully embrace the SDE aesthetic and are wonderfully colourful.

I had a few problems with these tiles and they aren't as durable as I'd like, but I'll discuss that later.

Under the tokens we have the rulebook which continues the generally gorgeous look and feel of the box. Every page is lavished with art (often of the Soda Pop mascot Candy) and threaded-through with little references to the feel of the game. The rules are fairly straight forward and easy to pick up, but the book does involve rather a lot of flipping between pages then realising an ability is defined on a card. A careful reading gets you about 80% of the way to understanding the game though, so that's pretty good.

Next up we've got the dice, which are little coloured cubes with icons on them. You might have used some before. These ones are in a set of three colours of power - first we have the blue dice, which only go up to two stars and have a lot of blank faces, then we have the red dice which go up to three stars, and finally the green dice of win, which go up to four stars.

I like the special dice, and it adds another quirky feel to the game. Again I had a few issues with the dice, which I'll spell out later.

Finally, let's talk about the minis. They are gorgeous and there's a lot of them. You can see over there to the right the stupidly large bag of them (I was trying to get a picture of them laying down but the camera kept playing up with the bag, plus my OH is rockin' the Soda Pop hair, so...).

You get ten heroes (well, nine, but one can become a BEAR), twenty-two minions, two mini-bosses and a final boss. You also get a whole host of little minis for treasure chests, spawn points, etc.

All the minis come in about three or four parts, and there's a helpful little guide on how they all go together. I only had two problems with mine, one was easily fixed and the other needs a bit of hot water and a repositioning. they're about the difficulty of Games Workshop's snap-fit models for the most part (though they're not designed to go together without glue like those). A bit of thin superglue does wonders for the material, which is porous enough to form nice bonds.

The chibi art style of the minis is very pleasing, and the hero models are very detailed for such little things. Each piece is packed with character and it's obvious a lot of love went into them. You'll need to clean up a few of the edges to drop the mould lines if you're going to paint them (which we are), but otherwise you can use them straight after assembly.

The material is strong, doesn't bend except in very thin pieces and seems fairly durable. I'm a bit concerned about long, flat pieces like the dragon's wings but we'll see how they hold up - I'm naturally concerned about materials that seem strong but brittle. Nothing snapped while I was handling it though, and I put a fair bit of force into some pieces.

Last of all we have the cards - lots of treasure cards, then the monster and hero cards. Again the artwork is fantastic and playful, which fits the minis and game perfectly. The card stock isn't as good as Magic: the Gathering cards, but it's not that far off. It'll withstand a few games without getting beaten up, but I'm going to get some clear deck protectors for mine.

The Problems

Unfortunately all that lovely doesn't come without it's own set of problems. I've got a couple of minor annoyances and one that's rather miffed me.

Firstly, as you can see on the right, my ranger lost part of her ear in transit. I managed to find the part and get it reattached, but if there are fragile minis in your box I expect them to be protected.

Obviously some breakages will occur, but still this was annoying.

The second problem was the printing on the dice. I know this is a very minor thing, but if you're going to make special dice for your game at least get the printing right. Some of my red "Three Star" dice have only two stars! The blue hearts are decided half-hearted too.

Finally, we have the game tiles. Several of mine are very bent, as you can see below. It's mainly an aesthetic thing, but it really ruins the look of the game when it's all arranged. It's such a shame to see some beautifully designed tiles with some truly great artwork ruined by such a simple thing. I've got mine under a pile of very heavy books, but I don't hold out much hope for rectifying this.

All In

I'm still very happy with my box of Super Dungeon Explore and have already knocked a couple of trial games out. Once I've got some decent games under my belt I'll get a review written up. I can't wait.

Throne of Skulls, April 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:04:00 +0000

Wheeew. This Throne of Skulls was my first solo Games Workshop event and even though I was sick, I still had a blast. I didn't have a bad opponent all day and the events team were their usual enthusiastic selves, which I find really adds to the atmosphere.

You can see the list I took in one of my earlier posts, here, but without further delay let's get to the games!

Game Zero - Blood Angels
Ok, so I lied, we've got one further thing to cover before I start the true run-down. One of our members of "Team Fail" had to drop out at short notice, so we press-ganged a replacement. This man had no 40k experience whatsoever, though he did used to play WFB with us waaay back in the distant past of our student days.

I. Got. Trounced. By a man who had never played the game before. There's something about that particular Blood Angel army I just can't counter and a lot of my planned changes to the army were inspired by this game.

Game One - Tyranids
My first game was Annihilation against the Tyranids. Two Tervigons, two Trygons (one Prime) and misc gribblies rounded out the force. The first few turns didn't go well for me - Tesla wasn't kicking off fast enough to rip squads open and I wasn't concentrating my fire properly. The arrival of the first Trygon off to my right flank provided all the motivation I needed to get focused though - tesla fire ripped several holes in it before my Overlord charged it and convinced it to claw itself to death (go Mindshackle Scarabs!).

Defeating the first Trygon deepstrike was the turning point. Bringing the force around I knocked off the few remaining Tervigon wounds and set about destroying weakened squads for the Kill Points. When the second Trygon arrived I backed off, took it's armour off with a lucky Harp of Dissonance wound and then blasted it to oblivion with small arms fire.

The game ended with a solid Necron victory.

Game Two - Imperial Guard (WWI Style)
I wish I had some photos of this army. I'd stopped taking them when I realised that using the camera was making my already pounding head much, much worse. I was sitting across from a fully infantry, fully ratling, WWI-themed Imperial Guard army. It looked great.

The game was three objectives with Dawn of War deployment. He deployed his entire army, with nine missile launchers, three heavy bolters and three mortars all sat on top of what can only be described as the Hill of DOOM. I deployed one measly Ark, but I managed to hide it behind the one piece of line-of-sight blocking terrain I had on my side of the board. This building proved absolutely vital to the battle.

Nothing hugely dramatic happened during the course of the fight. My forces constantly and consistently took wounds off the infantry squads and pushed them further and further from the objectives. My opponent's deployment and army were a perfect tutorial in using terrain to cover an advance - if I stepped into the wrong fire lane I would be obliterated without mercy.

Necron resilience played a huge part in this fight, as did his repeated failures to make order rolls (which often stopped his orders dead on double six). If he's gotten more "Bring it Down!" and "First rank fire, second rank fire" rolls off, it would have been a much, much harder fight. As it was, Necrons stomped to victory with all three objectives in our cold, metal hands.

Game Three - Space Wolves
Oh boy, did I handle this badly. Panicked by a front-line Drop Pod assault and worried about Long Fangs I spread out in a really stupid way, then failed to contract and focus in the margin where I could have pulled it back.

The Long Fangs didn't really do anything, but the sheer assault weight of the Wolves tore my troops apart and left me tabled on turn five. Playing it over in my head I think I could easily have won this one but I panicked, I didn't think straight and I played right into his hands. Necrons don't like assault, Space Wolves do.

No pictures of the GK game,
instead here's our sexy DE player.

Game Four - Grey Knights
This was a fantastic game and took home my "favourite game" vote. The Grey Knights were fielding a Storm Raven, at least three Strike Squads with Razorbacks, one Psyfleman dread and another Lascannon dread. Oh, and seven Death Cult Assassins all named after the seven deadly sins. Nice.

The game was again objectives, this time with four points of control, and pitched battle. I deployed to solidly hold one of the objectives and positioned the Ghost Arks to make a slow move onto another one just outside my deployment zone. It didn't go exactly to plan.

I misjudged a distance early on and got charged by the DCA just before I intended to wipe them off the field with Tesla fire, losing me a unit of Scarabs. My second unit of Scarabs and eventually some Eldritch Lance fire managed to obliterate the opposing HQ, but not without giving up the last of my Scarab bases. Focus fire from the Annihilation Barges brought the Storm Raven down, but not before it knocked one of the Arks out of the sky before it got to the objective. The Lascannon dread charged the Warrior unit before it could get clear of the wreck and they were both stuck there for the rest of the game.

My Overlord got his ride taken out from under him and was left in combat with the Psyfleman for most of the game, completely failing to land useful hits despite his tank-killing scythe of win. The final turns ended with a mad dash to the remaining objectives. After the second Ghost Ark disgorged its cargo onto the 3rd objective (which made the game one to the Necrons, one to the Grey Knights and one contested by both) it moved in on a strike squad and immobilised them in the middle of the field but failed to strike a killing blow.

The game ended on turn six with a very close draw. I think turn seven would have seen a Necron victory, but then I would think that, wouldn't I?

My opponent in this game was really good fun to play against as he took both good luck and bad luck with the same equal humour and really got into the narrative of the battle. It really does make all the difference when you realise that you don't care if you win or lose a game, you're just having a blast fighting tooth and nail with a fun opponent.

Game Five - Imperial Guard
This game was less fun - Kill Points against a tank-heavy, mech-Guard army. The moment I deployed I could see that I was in for a real slog against the firepower opposite me. There were more than enough guns to punch my Immortals off the field without risking return fire and I could be consistently out-ranged by most everything in his army. It got worse from there as I realised I was playing a true competitive player - he really knew the rules and he was playing for every last advantage he could get. I think he made one bad decision in the entire game, whereas I made several within my first turn. I spent most of the game hunkering down in a ruin, afraid to step into the open and waiting mouths of the battle cannons (which continued to pound the ruin, but at least I got a save then).

I fought hard, but I was out-ranged and out-gunned. I managed to collapse a flank but he brought his army further back out of my reach, leaving me holding another worthless clump of dirt and a couple of KP.

This game really pushed home both the weaknesses of Immortals without transports and the liability that Scarab Swarms can be when your opponent really knows how to deal with them. I'd been mulling over swapping the Swarms out for the Triarch Stalker already, but after this game it was a done deal. More AV13 is a lot better than the multilaser-bait that Scarabs are when facing mech-Guard.

Final Standing

The only picture of a nearly-complete Team Fail

Two wins, two loses and a draw. This put me slightly higher than average for the Necron armies present (even if there were at least two in the top five tables), and that's ok with me. Next time I'll do better, several weaknesses in my list/play were exposed by facing off against opponents I hadn't seen before so that's added to my experience. I still have only one Dark Eldar game under my belt with the 'Crons, so hopefully I can get a few of those in before the next Throne of Skulls.

Our stand-out member of "Team Fail" was our Dark Eldar player - four wins and one loss put him joint-top of the Dark Eldar players, but as his list was hand-written he lost out on the top slot. Next time, it shall be his.

Tentacle Bento - Will Not Be Silenced

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Recently there was a Kickstarter campaign by the fairly well known Soda Pop Miniatures (Relic Knights / Super Dungeon Explore) to make a parody card game based on the dating-sim games of Japan. I was totally all over that. Quick, silly card game with cartoon schoolgirls is pretty much top of my "pay attention to me" list.

Until a blogger got upset and Kotaku kicked up a fuss - that caused Kickstarter to pull the project at about the 210% funded mark without even speaking to Soda Pop or seemingly doing any research at all. Which is a major bummer and rather a nasty mark against Kickstarter. I don't like censorship in my media, especially uninformed censorship.

Soda Pop have moved their fund raising efforts to their own website, so if this game sounds like it might appeal to you at all (if you've bought anything from Soda Pop in the past, you're likely to at least want to take a look) please go and have a gander at the project over at Soda Pop Girls.

You don't have to like it, but I'd appreciate it if you took a look. If you'd like a slightly longer version of events and some links to other crowd-funded projects that are worth a look, jump over to Frontline Gamer's post here.

Games That Define Us

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:25:00 +0000

(As suggested by Frontline Gamer's post here).

Ten games that define me as a wargamer, well now, that's rather a difficult one. You should all know these games, or at least most of them, but they're what brought me to where I am today (and will explain a large portion of my unwillingness to abandon the Big Dog). The years are roughly when I started playing them, according to the dim haze of my memory.

Game One: Warhammer Fantasy Battle Fourth Edition (1995)

This was my first wargame, if you're not counting Chess. I split a starter box with a friend, though I had to paint the horrible little goblin spearmen for him, just so I could get the High Elves. I doubt we played it right, and my Prince Imrik spent longer off the table "Flying High" than he did actually involved in the games. I loved every game of it as only a child could.

Game Two: Warhammer 40,000 Third Edition (1996)

By this time I'd found other people who played Games Workshop games, and they had been playing since long before me. They combined my true loves (wargames and sci-fi) and showed me Warhammer 40,000. It sunk it's claws in deep, I'll tell you that. I remember being so excited at the launch of the plastic Falcon kit for the Eldar (I got one for my birthday, as well as a Jetbike from a friend I still play with). The game took hours to play, but we talked about it for weeks. I found both my old Eldar army and some of my old High Elves in my parents loft a few months ago - I gave them to a new blood friend of the family who was just starting, and he was so happy with them ("This is the old stuff... You can't even get this anymore! THAT'S THE OLD IMRIK!").

Game Three: Necromunda (1996)

I remember being shown a few games of this in the store. I used to go into the Wolverhampton store just to play demo games of Necromunda. Without this game I wouldn't have even taken a second glance at Infinity, so it still has a major impact on my thinking. There's no doubt that it planted the seeds of the experience-based campaigns in my mind that would later blossom into my Dungeons and Dragons obsession. The image of wounded, one-eyed gangers throwing one last shell into the mix was a spark to my imagination.

Game Four: Magic: The Gathering, Tempest Block/Rath Cycle (1997)

Oh dear. Magic: The Gathering. If you don't know this, you can give up your geek cred right now. I must have played this on and off for at least a decade. Introduced to me by the same group of friends that brought me to Warhammer 40k, it was an immediate hit with us. The Tempest Block was our first major set, and we played well into Urza's Saga and beyond. Some of us still play, though I only take part sporadically. What Magic gave me was an appreciation for deck-building, a love of CCGs and a desire for a black-and-white ruleset that defines everything in completely unambiguous terms.

Game Five: Dungeons and Dragons, Third Edition (2000)

We skip ahead a fair few years to my college/sixth form years and my weekly obsession with Dungeons and Dragons. Roughly the same group of friends, though split into two groups, ran two seperate campaigns. If I won the lottery I'd still be playing D&D every waking moment. The love of narrative and story weaving has never left me (I was DM most often), and I still spin ideas for campaigns I know I'll never play. There are characters my friends played within my worlds that I'll never forget (Violet, Avelon, Vall being the Holy Trinity of my memory). I still play when I can set aside enough time, but that grows harder each day.

Game Six: Risk 2210 A.D. (2003)

Ha! This game gets a mention just for making Risk so damn fun. Any game where "NUKE THE MOON!" is a valid strategy immediately wins points from me. This game is so much fun, and I have no idea why. It has nuke cards that are the equivalent of vaguely waving your hand over a continent and firing, it has invisible tanks, it has space elevators and moon bases! Proof that sci-fi can turn most anything around from drab and boring historical game to awesomesauce with NUKES.

Game Seven: Warhammer 40,000 Fourth Edition (2004)

After another brief flirtation with WFB, we ended up playing 40k again during our uni years. The birth of the Sanguine Swords came during this period, though they were often shot to bits by the unforgiving Tau. Death trap transports, unstoppable melee units (consolidate into combat, whee!!) and Fish of Fury dominated this edition, but didn't dampen the fun. My appreciation for painting started to take hold again during this era, and reawakened the seeds of wargaming that had sat buried for so long. The Necrons began to take precedence as my army of choice.

Game Eight: Warhammer 40,000 Fifth Edition (2008)

Fifth edition, for me, has represented the birth of competitive 40k. I joined a local club, go to more events and organise gaming weekends with my old friends. My lists have become more tightly honed, my tactics more solid and my play improved. Watching the painting of my friends improve has caused me to try newer things in my styles and even start writing this here blog. 40k Fifth Edition has so far represented my "Golden Age" of gaming, and I go into Sixth Edition with my head held high as a lover of the game.

Game Nine: Warmachine Mk II (2010)

Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade drew my attention to this game, and if I can best describe it it's as "Magic: The Gathering" if it were a skirmish wargame. It's harshly competitive, lists have obvious auto-win and auto-loss matchups and games are often won or lost in single turns. It reminded me that there are other games out there that speak to different tastes. I don't see Warmachine as a "fun" game, I see it as a competitive skirmish wargame, and it gives me another way to express my (fairly limited) competitive streak.

Game Ten: Infinity (2011)

Infinity, such a beautiful game that's really struggling with it's identity at the moment. As a "High Sci-Fi" version of Necromunda, but without the campaign rules, I was always going to give this a try. I really like it as it forces smaller decisions to come to the fore (I've written about why I love this game before on this blog). It has helped me improve my painting techniques on single models in small forces where each model has to stand out. It's still early in its life, with a fair share of growing pains, but it's fun and has the high-technology I crave. It's also really brutal and newer players get routinely decimated. It's a fairly hard game to teach, but it's given me an outlet for my Necromunda itch after I fell out with that ageing game.

We Are The Sum of All That Came Before

So there you have it, that's how I came to be as a wargamer. Some of the games aren't wargames but they are all tributaries to my current state of play. While I play a fair smattering of games, nothing is more fun for me than Warhammer 40,000 and that "fun" factor just hasn't been replicated in other games I've played. I appreciate them all in their own ways, but it's still my primary and shall most likely remain for a long time. I've got plenty of games though, if you'll just stay awhile and listen...

Gearing up for Throne of Skulls

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:39:00 +0000

You might have noticed a severe lack of content around here lately. The reasons for that are three-fold, starting with this one:

This game owns me. Totally. The ending sucked all the donkeys, but it was a few minutes of poor in a world of awesome.

Alas, it did stop me from doing what I should have been doing, which was this:

ARGH! So, as if my other addictions weren't enough to slow my painting progress it was also a heavy time of work and family commitments (my spawn just had his second birthday, yay!). So I've not been painting in preparation for Throne of Skulls, which in turn means all my spare time that I would be blogging has instead been in painting. I'm getting there though, some of the models might even look half decent but I wouldn't count on it.

The list I'm taking is exactly as posted about here, as my weeks of play-testing haven't revealed any major issues that aren't inherent to the Necron army as a whole. I'm feeling pretty confident with that list, but I'm going to have to be on my toes. There's a lot of nasty things that can happen and make my entire battle plan collapse around me if I'm not watching the basics.

Sixteen painting-hours to go. Five infantry models to paint, three barges and ten swarm bases. It's all doable. If I survive the caffeine overdose. If.

Gallery: Funfest, March 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:19:00 +0000

Most of you will be unfamiliar with Funfest. That's primarily because it only exists between about half a dozen of my fellow gamers, but the concept is quite simple - go to a venue with great tables and bring your "fun" lists rather than the competitive list you're grooming. So, early in March we went to Warhammer World in good old Lenton Lane and played some great games. I love Warhammer World - if you're in the UK and you play Games Workshop games you should get down there on a weekend, it's a great place.

The armies in attendance were seven thousand points of Dark Angels, around three thousand points of Tyranids, two thousand of Chaos (Wordbearers), two thousand of Imperial Guard, some one and a half thousand of Ultramarines, one and a half thousand points of Draigowing (Blood Raven Librarian army) and two thousand of my own Space Marines (Sanguine Swords).

The two battles I took part in were a seven and a half thousand point mashup of Wordbearers, Sanguine Swords, Imperial Guard and Tyranids versus the massive Dark Angels force and a three thousand Dark Angels / Sanguine Swords alliance against the Tyranids. I also played the Draigowing, but I'm not going to talk about how badly that went. Without further rambling, here's the photos from the day:

Review: Infinity Markers by Micro Art Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:07:00 +0000

This is less of a review and more of a gush. You've been warned.

Now that's out of the way, I love these markers. Given Infinity's reliance on markers (there's usually more markers on table than miniatures) I wasn't particularly pleased with the print-outs-on-slottabases approach, and just leaving coloured dice works for a while but bogs the game down with "What's that one mean again?". These markers solve that. They're at-a-glance clear, they have the name of what they represent printed on them and they use the exact symbols from the rulebook. All this leads to a very nice set of markers that enhance the game.

I'm going to address the main issue I hear raised about these - they're too expensive. In my opinion, they're not. Some of Micro Art Studio's stuff is (£15 for something GW sell for £5 being the optimal example), but these are worth the price without any reservations. I bought three sets, broken down as follows:

Special Markers Set 2 - 1x Suppression Fire, 2x Immobilise, 2x Disabled, 1x Possessed, 2x Prone, 1x Fox Hole, 1x Team Leader and 1x Unloaded.
Deployable Markers Set 1 - 3x Repeater, 3x Mines, 3x E/Mauler, 3x Unloaded.
Camouflage Markers, Urban - 5x Camo (1-5), 1x Burnt.

That whole lot set me back around £15. GW's 40k markers (I think I'm the only person who ever bought these) which are just green acrylic with rather arcane symbols on them are £10 and while there are more of them in the GW set the quality just doesn't compare. That set above covers my Nomad army without any issues and I'd only need maybe a TO Camo set or the Special Markers Set 1 to cover most any Infinity army I go on to from here.

Right, that's enough about the price let's get on to the product itself. They are clear acrylic disks with the official markers on the back, and then covered on the underside with a protective coating. They look fantastic and have so far stood up well to being tossed around. I might add a quick varnish layer or something to the bottom just to make them really durable, but I don't think this is necessary really. The quality of the prints is a little lacking up close (you can see the pixels), but on the right is the closest shot I could get and you can't really see it. From anything other than a few inches in front of your face the quality is perfect.

The clear acrylic gives them a rather pleasing "glow" effect when viewed from an angle (such as on a table top, unless you play harnessed to the ceiling for the true orbital-command experience), and allows the markers to be identified from across the table with ease.

The bottom line is that you don't need these to play Infinity, but they make it so much easier. No more home-grown tokens littering the nicely-created battlefield and no more trying to remember what the red dice mean (or was it the green dice?). The only markers I think are a waste are the Order markers, but even they will have a use for some people.

Details

Product: Infinity Markers from Micro Art Studio
Purchased: Here from Maelstrom Games
Retail Price: £4.50 for the sets of six, £7 for the sets of twelve.

Gallery

Review: District 5 Holo Ads

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:27:00 +0000

I have a fair bit to review from the folks over at Micro Art Sudio, but I want to start with my favourite piece - the District 5 Holo Ads. MAS have promised us another set of these sometime in the future, which I'm very much looking forward to, but this is what we have released right now.

As you can tell from the intro up there, I liked the Holo Ads. I think they bring something to an Infinity board that was previously missing, and that's character. You can spot 40k terrain miles away from its style and that elevates it over "generic sci-fi battlefield", these ads do exactly the same thing for me in regards to Infinity - it takes the battlefield from generic sci-fi and uplifts it to an Infinity battlefield.

I know that some people pick issue with anime-style art and they aren't going to be happy with these boards, but that's where Infinity has its roots. You're going to need to come to terms with that sooner or later (or just ignore the fluff/art and play the game).

All the pieces for the small stand

The Holo Ads come as a single sheet of HDF with three printed 3mm thick acrylic panels for the holographic projections themselves. The HDF is laser-cut, so expect to be hit with the smell of burnt wood the moment you pop open the shrink-wrap, but I kinda like that smell. Each piece has been cut almost completely through, with a couple of tiny joins on each one to stop it falling out. My package had a fair few that were detached, but it's no big issue. Make sure you use a craft knife to break the tabs on those that are still attached - HDF is fairly strong, but it'll rip like cardboard if you pry the layers apart.

The fit of the pieces is fairly tight and I had to put a lot of pressure into getting the boards together, but thankfully none of them snapped. You'll have to put more force than you're expecting into them, but they'll hold. Just be careful of the smaller pieces. It's fairly hard to get the acrylic panels into position once the stand is fully assembled but if you're patient and careful it can be done (and has to be done - you need to paint the stands separately to not ruin those lovely prints).

Once complete they do look good though. They don't have a large footprint, so you're not getting much on the pounds to inches ratio of board coverage, but they're tall and adaptable. I know some people play them as a zero-vis grenade, selectively blocking line of sight, but you could play them as anything you fancied for the holographic part. The ability to take cover behind an item that can be fired through is an interesting idea, and one that enhances Infinity's natural play.

Quick size comparison

I have concerns as to the durability of the print, as a tiny part of the print on the larger board has scratched off on my set. I'm hoping that a thin layer of varnish or watered-down PVA will protect it, but I can't say for sure that this won't damage the quality of the pieces. I'll have to work up the courage to try it and see where it leads.

The price is fairly steep for the three boards, coming in at around £12 RRP. Again, in terms of board coverage you don't get much, but I feel that the character they bring to the board is well worth it. Some folks only want terrain that affects the game and that's fine - these boards probably aren't for them, but I like the field I play on to have a bit of character. Plus I love the image of a sniper firing a long-range shot from behind a holo ad, disrupting the image briefly before impacting. A bit of character is very welcome and Infinity's small scale lends itself perfectly to these emergent situations.

So, all in all, I like them. I really like them. As I said above, they're my favourite piece of the stuff I purchased and I can't wait to see what else Micro Art Studio can do with their mix of HDF and acrylic. If you're the kind of player who adores the look of a masterfully crafted board, these do the job without needing all that difficult work.

Now, where'd I put that Multi-Sniper Rifle?

Details

Product: District 5 Holo Ads Set One - by Micro Art Studio

Purchased from: Maelstrom Games - product link

Gallery

Video Review: Broadsword Class Dreadnought

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:46:00 +0000

My first video review. I'm so proud.

No, wait, I'm not. The audio is terrible and the picture is out of focus for most of it (I blame never having used this camera to take video before). I'll do better next time. Let me know what you think below, but be gentle.

Summary

The Broadsword is an impressive model and well worthy of being the centrepiece of any Sorylian fleet. A few problems in casting quality mar the experience, but otherwise a very nice piece that addresses one of my key issues with Firestorm Armada quite well.

Links

Monday Musing: Is the Combined Army a Metaphor for Games Workshop?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:34:00 +0000

That's a bit of an odd title, isn't it? This is because it's a bit of a tongue-in-cheek response to Frontline Gamer's lengthy and fan-favourite article "Is the Imperium a Metaphor for Games Workshop?" (here).

I say tongue-in-cheek because his article is fairly long, obviously has had a lot of thought go into it and expresses the rage at the very centre of his dark being. I, on the other hand, don't write articles that long, generally don't put that much thought into them and am just running with the idea. Don't be too offended, it's all in good fun.

Born Amongst the Stars
For those of you who don't know (shame on you), the Combined Army is the Xenos faction for Infinity. While all the lovely humans are busy smiling and stabbing each other in the back the Combined Army just wants to take everything, enslave everyone and generally be a bit of a dick on route to it's own goals. Think the Borg with less cybernetics and more religious fanaticism.

Like our fabled company, the Combined Army didn't always exist. Great minds worked together to give birth to EI, the artificial intelligence that rules the Combined Army. It wasn't trying to rule everyone, it just wanted to be happy in its own little corner. So, too, our little store thrived. Picked up a few distribution licenses, got a few people under its wing and away it went. They both wished to understand and to be something greater, having run to the end of what they could achieve in their limited existence.

The Push
They both grew frustrated with their small size. Unable to comprehend the reason for their failures, they pushed out into the wider world. Games Workshop's goal was transcendence - to change from a niche store serving the nerdiest of the nerds into something mainstream. To this end, they consolidated their power into a few key games systems and conquered all others. Sometimes through legitimate competition, other times through abuse of their position of power as chief importer/rights-holder, but they grew. So, too, does the EI wish to expand and conquer, through strength of arms, through corruption, through subversion. It too is driven to achieve it's own transcendence and become something so much greater.

Like the aggressors of so many battles, Games Workshop has earned itself long-lasting ire from these moves (seriously, people are still angry over this and most of them weren't even born when it happened). Gaining momentum and becoming vastly popular (within the wargaming community, at least), it spread further and further throughout the hobby. Soon signs of Games Workshop were everywhere to be found, if you knew what to look for. The Combined Army would bring hundreds of smaller systems under its wing and rule, as Games Workshop had expanded its reach into most populated areas of the UK.

The Great Setback
Games Workshop entered a period of rapid growth with the launch of the Lord of the Rings system. The films were wildly popular and Games Workshop planned to use the influx of fantasy into the mainstream to leverage Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the less accepted and nerdier brother of its Warhammer 40,000 franchise, through side-selling from the Lord of the Rings games. For a while it worked, Lord of the Rings was successful and getting new hobbyists into the stores is the very nature of the goal. Then Lord of the Rings was over and Games Workshop had failed to gain the mainstream recognition for its core fantasy game that it so longed for. Having over-extended their resources Games Workshop fell into a sudden and rapid decline, the shock-waves of which can still be felt to this day. They failed to understand themselves, their market and their product, and so fell by the acts of their own foolishly-exploited creation. Only by vast restructuring did Games Workshop mange to ensure the presence it had worked so hard to gain could be maintained in the face of such disaster.

Similarly the EI, pleased with it's own success, planned a great project of the moment. Born of itself, the new Intelligence would allow it to finally achieve the transcendence it so craved. Impatience and a failure to understand its own flaws brought forth Nemesis - a rival intelligence that waged war upon the EI from within. Resources were spent, whole systems destroyed in the civil war before it was finally brought under control and Nemesis defeated. The Combined Army continued, but at a great cost and in a new fashion. The EI was forced to realign it's goals, restructure and consolidate its power, and think more carefully about its next move in its attempted transcendence.

The Young Races
So, as we approach the present day, what are these two concepts to us? How are they similar as we come to them today? As unifying forces.

Both Games Workshop and the Combined Army represent the inevitable. They are the supreme power, for whom resources seem endless (from the perspective of the young) in the pursuit of their goals. But they are also flawed and unable to perceive the very weaknesses that keep them from their transcendence. They provide the great unifier to the "alternate" gaming scene - something to abhor, to fight against, to compete with. Together the Human Sphere stands united against the Combined Army, or it will fall divided. Together, the smaller companies (Privateer Press, Corvus Belli, Spartan Games, etc) unite against the unstoppable, yet slow-to-change, behemoth that is Games Workshop.

They have great power, vast armies and limitless resources. But they give us hope by building communities and forging alliances amongst those of us who would otherwise quarrel with each other. They will never be defeated, but even when their own methods are questionable, their very presence can be a force for good.

The End Draws Near
So, did Corvus Belli intend the Combined Army as critique/appraisal of Games Workshop? Of course they didn't, don't be so silly. It's just amusing to me how they line up, and hopefully hasn't been a huge waste of your time reading the workings of my brain.

Also, Frontline complained that nobody seemed to take up arms against his article, so I thought I'd oblige. It's not the shot across the bow I might normally write in defence of Games Workshop, more of a light-hearted wink at the silliness of it all.

Mars Hungers, the 1500pt Version

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:04:00 +0000

Throne of Skulls is in April.

APRIL.

That's less than 80 days. Must get the metal men painted. As I've changed colour schemes I can't even use my older troops (painting over silver is rather annoying when you're using black as a secondary colour). I refuse to do another caffeine-fuelled week of pain as I paint the whole force - the come-down migraine after the event hurt too much to consider doing that again. I doubt my performance at work was particularly good that week either.

The list is progressing though, even if the painting isn't and after about a dozen battles this is what I'm looking at:

Mars Hungers, 1500pts

HQ
Overlord, Warscythe, Mind-Shackle Scarabs, Command Barge - 195
3 Harbingers of Destruction, Harbinger of Transmogrification, Solar Pulse, Harp of Dissonance - 180

Troops
7 Immortals - 119
7 Immortals - 119
9 Warriors, Ghost Ark - 232
9 Warriors, Ghost Ark - 232

Fast Attack
5 Scarabs - 75
5 Scarabs - 75

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90

Straight up and honest. There's few tricks here, focusing more on weight and positioning. We've got six AV13 vehicles (well, until that first penetrating hit, which usually destroys them anyway) providing enough vehicle cover to keep the heavy hitting weaponry off our troops. We've got our assassin-style Overlord skimming about on his surfboard taking out anything proving difficult for the ranged fire power and providing a lovely distraction. The Scarabs give us something to threaten high-AV vehicles with or to surprise and obliterate stationary vehicles. If nothing else the Scarabs provide a high-threat unit that keeps vehicles away from them and their large charge distance makes them pretty good area denial while they last. If the Triarch Stalker kit gets released before ToS I might consider swapping him in and them out, but I'll have to think long and hard about that.

Then my favourite part - the Annihilation Barges. Oh, baby. As you can see, we don't have much anti-vehicle fire in this list - mostly the load falls on the Scarabs and the Harbingers of Destruction, which doesn't add up to much (if you've faced down Long Fangs before then only three S8 shots per turn seems like Christmas). This is where the Harp of Dissonance and the Barges come in. Averaging a little over five hits per barge with their S7 weapon, the barges are a good anti-infantry platform (along with a little bonus from their unreliable "arc" rule), but they really shine if you can get a point or two off an enemy vehicle with an Entropic Strike. That's the Harp's job, along with the Scarabs. Just knocking a point off an AV12 vehicle can double the effectiveness of the Barges against that target. Don't rely on the Harp too heavily though as it only gets (on average) around two points off per game. Anything that can't be dealt with using the Barges should be the top priority of our Overlord. The Harp is our best bet for stripping the armour of Tyranid MCs and similar, though this is a lucky shot when it occurs - we must assume we're going to have to overwhelm their save, not circumvent it.

Keeping out of close combat but within range of the Barges is the difficult proposition here. Enemies allowed within that 24" bubble must be defeated in detail before they can close further. We cannot allow half-strength infantry units to sweep us off the board, which they will do if they make close combat. Even if not wiped out we lose a portion of our all-important shooting. Position well, de-mech the enemy early, keep them within the sweet spot and you've got everything but the dice wrapped up.

(Next time I might even use photos of my Necrons. If you're lucky.)

Replacement Flying Stems

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Don't you just hate it when a flying stem snaps? I mean, they're cheap enough to replace but it's not the cost that's the problem. You're going to be spending at least thirty minutes drilling out the old stem then repairing, repainting and reflocking the base. All in all it's a complete pain. I was just becoming comfortable with using the original stems "as is" (I magnetise all my Land Speeder stems, but that's not necessary or easy for the Necron vehicles) when disaster struck and I decided to investigate sturdier options. I wasn't particularly happy with just replacing it with brass rod and was left thinking "Why oh why do they have to be stupid, brittle acrylic?". Then a lucky Google turned up a thread on Warseer (rare to get something useful there, I know, but bear with me) that led me to the following person.

Enter Speepy
He makes replacement flying stems out of aircraft-grade aluminium and sells them on eBay, and they're great. These things are solid and aren't at all brittle like the clear acrylic ones. Given that Games Workshop have seemingly learnt their lesson with the new Necron skimmers and the sockets take the stem proper into the model rather than just the nub on the end this should result in a very solid flying stand. Watching a case collapse onto my Ghost Ark and snap the flying stand in half (leaving a lot of it inside the model), I'm especially concerned about the strength of the stem itself. These stems are slightly rough on the surface too so that they're easy to prime and paint.

Having played with those wonderful blue boxes for so long, the Necron vehicles feel fragile in comparison. These stands are great and go a very long way to sorting out that problem. If you really like that transparent look that the acrylic stands provide then they're not for you, but they're exactly what I was looking for. Including shipping to the UK and six 3/4" stems I paid about £12, which is a little steep but nothing insurmountable when you consider they'll be used on roughly £140's worth of models and time.

Link to Speepy's eBay store here, and the stems I bought here.

Vallejo Polyurethane Matt Varnish Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I'm not a massive fan of varnish. At least, I've always found Purity Seal a bit lacking and gloss varnish horribly off-putting, not to mention some of the cheaper varnishes I've ruined models with. So I thought I'd get some of Vallejo's Polyurethane Matt Varnish (Vallejo number 27.527) and give it a whirl.

Unfortunately the only painted, metal model I had was from years ago and looks horrible. At least it didn't matter if I ruined it. Here are our initial shots.

I really, really hate the paint job on this guy. I loved the idea of using the missile launcher hand, but my painting has come a long way since this Librarian. I'd also convert him out of plastic if I were using him today, man I hate metal. As you can see, not much in the way of detail to ruin, but it's a good enough surface to see any colour distortion.

I didn't clean him, dust him or anything before applying the varnish. I figured if we go for worst case scenario and we came out good, that'd be proof of the product. The varnish itself I applied through my airbrush - one of the big advantages for me of this varnish is that I can shoot it through the brush. I'm not a massive fan of brushing varnish on.

See that peeling as the varnish holds to the coat?

A little drop of airbrush thinner (also from Vallejo) and it went through the airbrush without any issue at all. Make sure you clean the brush after using this stuff and you should probably wear a mask (I didn't, because I'm an idiot and don't like my lungs). Again, I didn't give the varnish time to set properly because I wanted to show one of the properties of this stuff that it shares with its primer siblings - it forms a plastic-y coat that peels away if you abuse it while it's still dying. This is the polyurethane part of the mix, and one of the reasons it's a good varnish once it's dry. The primer in the product family does the same thing, but takes longer to dry before it starts displaying this behaviour.

No colour distortion.
Only poor paint jobs.

One of the biggest issues I have with varnish is the colour distortion (especially on matt varnishes), but from what I can see this Vallejo varnish doesn't distort the colour noticeably. Guess I could have used a decent miniature after all!

According to the manufacturer you should leave the model to dry for at least four hours, then apply another coat. I didn't do that, because I like to abuse products when reviewing them. By about thirty minutes after application it was resisting nail scratches, which is pretty impressive, though it was still tacky and a determined attack would peel the varnish off.

A day later and with another coat applied it was taking a really quite violent attack to peel the varnish off (and nothing that could possibly happen during play) and I couldn't visually detect the varnish itself at all. The model feels a little tacky, even when fully dry, and stinks of Polyurethane, but it's solid as a rock and that horrible, horrible paint job isn't coming off any time soon. It's not shiny, it's the same colour, but it's protected - where I come from we call that a win.

If only I'd varnished my Moderators before having to remove their bases, I wouldn't have to retouch the paint jobs...

What's Wrong with the Doomsday Ark?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Recently I was asked "What's wrong with the Doomsday Ark?" after I expressed some distaste for the unit, which resulted in a rather ranty and overlong response for the medium (Facebook isn't suited to these kinds of rants). Here's the tidied-up, reasonable and hopefully useful response for you to digest, dear reader. It's still fairly opinionated, but hopefully with enough logic to explain those opinions.

The Doomsday Ark is an expensive (just a few points shy of being our most expensive) Heavy Support choice for the Necron army. It carries a long-range, high-strength, low-AP, large blast weapon that becomes significantly weaker when the unit is moving. Its primary role is stand-off fire power, and suffers greatly if it has to move. In a lot of ways you can think of it like a Devastator Squad without the cover save.

What It's Good At

It's a long-ranged area weapon in a codex stuffed to bursting with short-range pinpoint weaponry.
It's another AV13 vehicle in a sea of AV13 vehicles.
It brings one of our only options to defeat AV14.

Those are the major features of the unit on the "pro" side. They can be summed up as "it's different to everything else we bring to the table" which can be an advantage, but here I think it's not.

What's Wrong With That?

It's only got one gun worth talking about, so a weapon destroyed result is pretty much a wrecked result. An immobilised result is likely to leave it without any targets as it is a hull-mounted weapon.
It's a long-range stand-off weapon in an army that wants to control midfield. It's massively vulnerable to Deep Strikers or Outflankers and you can't bubblewrap it without sacrificing even more points.
It's very easy to deny its line of sight or gain cover from it. It cannot move if it wants to fire, and it isn't a Barrage or an Ordnance weapon. The gun is also on the bottom of the model, obstructing its view of the battlefield.
It's huge, on a skimmer stand, and can't move to gain cover from incoming fire.

All its problems stem from its inability to move and fire. You know what makes Vindicators scary? They get closer (and there's probably three of them) and manoeuvre so you can't hide. Once they're in midfield they can reach out and touch you almost anywhere. They also don't cost as much and fire a stronger weapon with a better chance of breaking your armour (ordnance rolls two D6 and takes the highest). Cover is prevalent in Fifth Edition so when you're firing your big, nasty, one-shot-per-turn gun you better be sure your target isn't negating half of its effectiveness. The Doomsday Ark cannot prevent that from occurring as a canny opponent will always advance down fire-lines that avoid the Ark's return volley. You can either sit there and let them have cover saves or attempt to move and fire your much weaker, less accurate and rather underwhelming secondary cannon profile. With the expense of the unit you're pushing it trying to take two at 1,500 points which limits your ability to pull the opponent into a crossfire.

Yeah, But That's a Scary Cannon

No, it's not. You might remember Fourth Edition, when high-strength, low-AP, large blast weapons ruled the roost. They don't any more - they miss important targets, they only fire once a turn and most targets negate the AP with cover saves. Fifth Edition is the era of the Autocannon, the Meltagun and the Dark Lance. Let's look at some examples comparing it with two Annihilation Barges which are almost the same number of points. It's worth remembering that throughout these examples I'm being deliberately generous to the Doomsday Cannon's ability to catch lots of targets under its marker.

Against Terminator-Armoured Targets (TEQ)
5 hits (This is assuming a hit on the scatter dice and poor squad placement).
4.17 wounds.
1.35 unsaved (Don't forget the Storm Shields! What, you were expecting Storm Bolters?).

Similarly, two Annihilation Barges fire on the same target:
10.6 hits.
8.83 wounds.
1.47 unsaved.

Against Power-Armoured Targets (MEQ)
6 hits (Again we're assuming a poor squad placement and a good shot. More targets to be hit though).
5 wounds.
5 unsaved / 2.5 unsaved in cover.

Our Barges again fire on the same targets:
10.6 hits.
8.83 wounds.
2.91 unsaved / 2.91 unsaved in cover.

Against Flak-Armoured Targets (GEQ)
8 hits (I'll give you a few more hits to allow for the densely-packed nature of the Guard).
6.66 wounds.
6.66 unsaved / 3.33 unsaved in cover.

Our Barges open fire:
10.6 hits.
8.83 wounds.
5.8278 unsaved / 4.415 unsaved in cover.

What we can see here is that the Doomsday Cannon is pretty lame against infantry in cover and that's assuming some very optimistic numbers for the number of hits. The Barges are using their straight averages. A good Marine or Guard player isn't going to be in the open and clumped-up when you're raining down large blasts. It would be twice as good against Terminators that don't have Storm Shields (scoring 2.7 unsaved wounds), but that's not a major feature of Terminator units in Fifth.

It Busts Tanks!
Let's try it out against some vehicle targets and see if it really does bust tanks. Remember how single Lascannons are the king of anti-tank weaponry in Fifth? Nope, of course you don't. Single shots miss and don't get enough rolls on the damage chart. We have an AP1 weapon here though, is that enough to make it work?

We're making some serious assumptions to shift the balance in the favour of the Doomsday Cannon - The target is large enough that we can scatter 3" in any direction and still keep the hole over it, that the Annihilation Barges have to move to get into range/arc so can't use their second weapon, that there's no cover between the stationary Ark and its target. Results are displayed as number of effects per single turn of shooting (a "2.5 Suppress" would be two and a half Shaken or Stunned results per turn of shooting, "0.5 Damage" is half a Weapon Destroyed or Immobilised result per turn of shooting, etc).

Against an AV14 Target
Doomsday Ark: 0.08 Suppress, 0.08 Damage, 0.08 Destroy

Annihilation Barge: The Tesla Destructors cannot hurt AV14.

Against an AV13 Target
Doomsday Ark: 0.1 Suppress, 0.12 Damage, 0.14 Destroy
One Annihilation Barge: 0.74 Suppress, 0.15 Damage

Against an AV12 Target
Doomsday Ark: 0.12 Suppress, 0.16 Damage, 0.18 Destroy
One Annihilation Barge: 1.19 Suppress, 0.45 Damage, 0.15 Destroy

It gets worse for the Doomsday Ark from there. Those numbers ignore the shorter range of the Barge, but it can move, the Ark cannot, so I think this evens out in the long run. The numbers are for a single Annihilation Barge, which is roughly half the cost of the Ark. The only major advantage is the Ark's ability to hurt AV14, but there's another factor in play.

Entropic Strike
The lower the AV of our target the better our Annihilation Barges become. Also improved are our Eldritch Lances, though not by nearly the same amount. The Doomsday Ark sees a minor increase in power with each step of lowered AV. An Annihilation Barge sees a big jump in effectiveness with each point of lowered AV (14 to 13 and 13 to 12 being the two big steps). If you don't have any Entropic in your army then the Doomsday Ark becomes a more viable platform (though I'd argue it still pales next to the Doom Scythe, which is the same cost). If you've got Entropic, you need to consider that it's being mostly wasted on targets the Ark is firing at.

Conclusion
The Doomsday Ark is bad.

It costs too much, is too limited and is too vulnerable to being rendered even less effective by a good opposing general. Compared to the cheaper Annihilation Barges it doesn't offer a sufficient increase in fire power and reduces the number of AV13 hulls on the table. Compared to the equally-priced Doom Scythe it doesn't trade its survivability well enough when the Doom Scythe brings a better weapon, synergises better with the rest of the Codex and has some serious mobility on its side. If you start to consider the Triarch Stalker as your AV14-breaker, the Doomsday Ark doesn't compare well to that either, but that's another article entirely.

Monday Musings: Lady Luck Can be Defeated

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:02:00 +0000

The Lady herself

I dislike "pure" strategy games - chess holds no real attraction for me (though I played it obsessively as a child), nor do regional variations on these styles of game. Having Lady Luck play her hand by involving dice in my games engages me. Conversely anything that is too focused on chance ruins my enjoyment - if one dice roll can define a whole game, why didn't we just play dice?

This is why I play Warhammer 40,000. I have my goals, my list, but I must also contend with the actions of my opponent and the knowledge that no action within the game is a certainty. A perfect plan against a robotic opponent would still fail if the general cannot adapt to the whims of the dice.

What does all this have to do with the post title? Well, generalship within these types of games comes down to attempting to limit the affect the dice can have on your victory. Your grand plans mean nothing if they are going to rely on a fifty-fifty chance towards the end of the game. There are more than a few methods to limit this exposure to risk, and setting them up is the basis of generalship in Warhammer 40,000. Here's some of the easier ways to keep Lady Luck from interfering in your games.

Defeat In Detail

I don't believe in luck...

This is the simplest concept in 40k generalship: engage as little of the enemy force with as much of your force as possible. This limits the enemy's ability to retaliate and ensures their destruction. Continue engaging each portion of the enemy force in turn and each unit's respective strength won't be enough to hold off your whole army.

How do we achieve this? The easiest method is with speed. If you're playing a high-mobility army such as (Dark) Eldar against a slower opponent then this is the route for you. Use your superior speed to bring your units to bear where they can concentrate fire on small portions of the opponent's force. Remember that you can re-deploy quickly so encouraging a bad deployment from your opponent helps.

If you don't have a speed advantage then the tactics begin to change, beginning with deployment. You can set yourself up for defeat in detail tactics by starting with a refused flank deployment, where you pick a particular flank and deploy solely on that side of the board. You want to move as rapidly as you can to get into range and defeat any units on your flank while the rest of your opponent's army has to wheel around to get to you. Destroy targets quickly and focus on the incoming units across the middle of the board. If your opponent is using a static gun-line then breach the line on your flank and move laterally across the board, using their own units for cover.

Low-Hanging Fruit
This applies mainly to Kill Point games. If you're presented with low-threat but low-survivability targets, take them. Often this becomes the tactic around turn five as you're desperately trying to up your KP total, but it should have been part of your plan from the start. You need to deal with those high-threat targets, sure, but you should engage any low-survivability targets you can just for the kill points. Rhinos are beautiful for this - very easy to kill with a competitive list, often available in great numbers and each one is a delicious kill point. That doesn't even begin to take into account the tactical advantage of de-meching any mechanised army.

A similar concept can be applied to objectives. Find the easiest objective to hold and keep it. Make your opponent pay heavily for each of the others. You don't need to hold more than one to win if you can contest your opponent's objectives. To that end you should hope to push your opponent into trying to overreach and take more than one objective. While his forces are split in bad positions, start disassembling his force with defeat in detail tactics.

Random Game Length

...But I do believe in this.

This particular mechanic deserves a special mention. Do not leave yourself open for a loss on turn five because it'll leave you in a better position for turn six. Ensure you are in the best position possible and the end of each of the end-game turns (five, six, seven). Abandoning turn five because it'll make your turn six really good is just asking to lose. "Oh, but I would have won on turn six." Great, good for you, but you didn't, the game ended on turn five and your Troops were standing around picking their noses rather than scoring. In Kill Point games don't spend too long getting into firing positions, you need to start racking up those points as soon as you can - you might only get a few turns of optimal shooting, so you need to pick up as many "stray" wounds as you can.

Show the Lady Who's Boss
That's a few of the simple concepts you can use to take Lady Luck out of the equation. Nothing for you veterans here, but should help some of the newer guys who want to improve their game.

State of the Game - Infinity (Part One)

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:46:00 +0000

I've talked about Infinity a few times and you've seen posts about the models I'm very slowly painting for it. You might also have gotten the feeling that I'm a little bit opposed to the game, which is not the case at all. While I tend to react to the "BEST. GAME. EVAR." praise that gets thrown around, I do like the game a great deal.

So here's my attempt to give you a run down of how I see Infinity. I'll probably put this out as a few short articles to try and give a balance of points, then move on to other gaming systems I play. These will be fairly opinionated, but maybe they'll help someone looking at a new system make better decisions. They'll also be very high-level, as I could write a complete article on each point but I'd not be finished until half way through next year. Expect not in-depth reviews, but rather what I would bring up if a new club member asked me "What do you think of game X?"

We'll start with the best parts of Infinity.

Great Miniatures
I love the designs for a lot of the Infinity minis. Like all ranges there are bad ones (especially amongst the early sculpts) but the style is consistent, intriguing and fresh. Take every sci-fi trope that infests anime and mash them all together - you end up with the visual style of Infinity. It makes for some damn fine minis.

Personal favourites (go Nomads!) include the Sin-Eater, Prowler and Reverend Custodier, though there are plenty amongst each faction to fall in love with. Each faction has a distinct style (and often several distinct styles within the faction), so you're almost guaranteed to find at least one set of models that take your fancy. I'll stick with my hack-tastic, robot-loving, gene-splicing Nomads though.

Community Support
A forum? Well, that's to be expected. All rules available as PDFs? That's useful. A rules wiki with every single rule and most of the FAQ entries? That's great. A polished, constantly up to date army builder program that links to the wiki for its rules and checks your army for you? Oh my gosh!

Seriously, the community support from Corvus Belli is outstanding. Not just "for a wargame" outstanding but genuinely outstanding. The community is what gives life to Infinity, otherwise a very niche wargame in a market dominated by few (one?) big names. Without the word of mouth Infinity wouldn't be anywhere near as big and it's the support Corvus Belli has given its community that has bought them this sales-driving goodwill.

Balance Through Vulnerability

Infinity is balanced, at least for the moment. There are tricks that can make your opponent weep but cross-faction balance is pretty strong. Internal balance is lacking in some places but with a wealth of options to choose from this isn't yet anywhere near an issue (and is usually a small enough factor to be overridden by the Rule of Cool when picking a model).

Infinity achieves its balance through vulnerability. Anything in the line of fire is probably dead. You bring a scary man-tank with world-ending levels of weaponry but leave it in the open with no support? Watch it get hacked, lit up by spotters for missile obliteration, glued to the floor, disabled with an EM pulse, or sliced in half with a mono-filament weapon. Everyone has skills, weapons and equipment to render most any threat meaningless when properly deployed.

"It's not your list, it's you."
Following on from that last point, Infinity respects your tactical acumen as a general much more than it respects your list-building skills. As long as you have a rough number of guys and a decent smattering of gear your list is probably fine. Play it well and you'll do well. Play it badly and you'll be obliterated. Covering fire, manoeuvring, deployment and secrecy all play a big role in Infinity. You can bring a list that's full of all the good stuff but a general who is better than you can probably take it apart with fewer points. To me, that's the sign of a good game.

That said, you're not without options. With the small number of units in a force and a wealth of models/loadouts to choose from you could conceivably play for months without using the same list twice. The point is that you can pick what you like, not what's best, from your chosen force and still expect to perform to the same level.

You're A Big Boy Now
Infinity trusts you with some pretty nifty mechanics that rely on sportsmanship, but greatly enhance the game. The best example of this is Therm-Optic Camouflage - the model isn't deployed on the table at all (the camo is so good even the advanced scanning systems of the future can't detect the hint of its presence) but you mark down its location on the field. At the opportune moment you reveal the model and strike. An attack out of camo by a model so equipped is usually pretty devastating and can turn the whole battle.

This isn't a computer game though. You can't note down with exacting precision where the model truly is. Nothing stops you being deliberately ambiguous. Even if you call over a third party (if you have one to hand) you still have some leeway. Infinity trusts you to use the rule in the way it was intended - to provide true invisibility in return for a stationary model. So far I've not had a single person abuse the ambiguity of this rule, which has led to some tense and amazing games simply not possible if Infinity worried about such abuses.

Skirmish, not Warfare
The small number of models in a given force lets you keep real-world costs down and the quality of your painting high. An advantage for these kinds of games and with the models used in Infinity it's an advantage not wasted. You simply couldn't play this game on an army-level scale - the rules are too complex, the interplay of units too intertwined. It emulates being in command of an elite strike team, and it pays off. You might not feel like you just won the whole war, but victories on this scale have a much more personal quality.

Low price-of-entry also cannot be overlooked - you can convince a few friends to try this game out with a relatively small up-front investment. I've had a very good hours : price ratio of enjoyment from Infinity, and I'm still buying models. You also avoid the line trooper painting disease with a skirmish game - as long as you plan your painting you'll never have to paint the same (or a very similar) model twice in a row. You can also give a new faction a try with another small jump, though the differences in how factions play aren't as pronounced as in some games.

Moderators WIP 2: Grey and Violet

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:18:00 +0000

More in progress shots of Grey and Violet, my first two painted Moderators for my Bakunin force. I shall attempt to excuse myself by pointing out that I play Necrons and Space Marines - I don't have to paint flesh or faces, ever (no super-soldier would ever leave his helmet at home) so this was my first real painting experience with these things in a long, long time. Excuses aside, let's see the shots.

Grey
This is the same moderator from my last post, with a little more work. Primarily this has revolved around me trying to remember how to use washes. The armour plates have been line-highlighted with a 50/50 mix of Hawk Turquise and Ice Blue, then washed twice with Asurman Blue. The flesh was highlighted in Elf Flesh before having several coats of Ogryn Flesh washed over the top to bring out the musculature. The hair was washed with Badab Black (this was the single easiest and most striking of the washes, and really helped create a head of hair rather than a grey blob).

The metal and trousers were also washed with Badab Black, and the orange parts of the armour washed with Baal Red. The wash on the orange didn't do much and I'm not sure I'll bother on the next model. Maybe some Devlan Mud might have brought out the shadows better there?

I'm pretty happy with Grey at this point. I'm not going to risk ruining the face with painting the eyes as they're too close to the gun. He's by no means perfect, but he's a good start for my Nomads.

I really must get around to painting his resin base so that I can see the completed effect. As a friend is fond of saying, "bases and faces" can save a mediocre model. I hate that no matter how proud I am of a model in actual, the camera always shows up areas that need redoing. I think if I actually redid each mistake I saw in the photographs I'd never field a single model!

Violet
Violet has also come along a bit. She has a rather uncomfortable resemblance to Morph at this point, but she's getting there. Again, I can only make the excuse that it's been probably about half a decade since the last time I had to paint an actual face. All the colours are the same as for Grey above, though her hair is a layer of Liche Purple that's been dry-brushed with Warlock Purple and then washed down with Leviathan Purple. This was a really pleasing combination and the dry-brush of Warlock toned down into the Liche much better than I was expecting once the wash had been applied.

She still needs the line highlighting on her armour and weapon, along with some touch up work in quite a few places and her coat of washes. I'm still rather happy with how she's turned out though. A definite improvement for me.

Deathmarks Vs Immortals

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:44:00 +0000

I love the look of the Deathmarks - when the pictures of the models were first leaked I'm on record as saying "No matter how bad they are, I'm getting them into a list". Then I made my lists (and assembled my Immortal/Deathmark kits) and there was nary a Deathmark in sight. Was I wrong? Let's take a look with the help of some wonderful mathhammer!

Hunters from Hyperspace
Deathmarks are an Elites choice (boo!) sharing the slot with some very nice choices (the Stalker being the big stand out), but are actually released. They cost slightly more than an Immortal, which given their similar roles will serve as our point of comparison. Like Immortals they can choose a Night Scythe transport, but can also Deep Strike if you're so inclined. They do not score, however, and this can be a big factor.

They have identical stat lines, so let's look at their primary role - shooting the face off the enemy:

10 Deathmaks firing their Synaptic Disintegrators:

At 24" (while stationary) - 10 shots, 6.6 hits, 1.82 unsaved wounds against MEQ
At 12" (Rapid Fire!) - 20 shots, 13.2 hits, 3.64 unsaved wounds against MEQ

10 Immortals firing their Gauss Blasters:

At 24" (while stationary) - 10 shots, 6.6 hits, 1.44 unsaved wounds against MEQ
At 12" (Rapid Fire!) - 20 shots, 13.2 hits, 2.88 unsaved wounds against MEQ

So, when comparing Immortals and Deathmarks in this manner the Deathmarks come out on top (even adjusted for the higher points cost the Deathmarks are more points-efficient in killing MEQ). Gauss Immortals do more damage to 4+ save targets due to their AP4, but this isn't a common enough enemy to really work out (you want to kill Space Marines, not Fire Warriors).

Lightning Manipulation for Fun and Profit

Immortals don't only come with Gauss Blasters though...

10 Immortals firing their Tesla Carbines:

At 24" (we're Assault 1) - 10 shots, 10 hits (Tesla ftw), 2.18 unsaved wounds against MEQ

So. now we're better than Deathmarks at range and we can even move around and still reach out and touch someone at full distance. Up close the Deathmarks run away with it, but if you move around a lot on foot then the Tesla Immortals have more turns of shooting to make up for their lower efficiency.

Marked For Death
We are ignoring a key role that the Deathmarks can fulfil here though. They're assassins and they're good at it. If they mark an MEQ unit, the numbers start to change. If they mark a monstrous creature they can really cause trouble.

10 Deathmarks against a marked MEQ target:

At 24" - 10 shots, 6.6 hits, 2.54 unsaved wounds.
At 12" - 20 shots, 13.2 hits, 5.08 unsaved wounds.

Those are better numbers. Ripping half the Marines out of a unit opposite is pretty powerful, but you can only mark one unit so you better be sure you want them dead. But we've already said Deathmarks shine in taking down those pesky MCs, so let's take a look at that:

10 Deathmarks against a marked Tyranid MC (T6, 3+):

At 24" - 10 shots, 6.6 hits, 2.54 unsaved wounds.
At 12" - 20 shots, 13.2 hits, 5.08 unsaved wounds.

Oh yeah, Sniper! Same numbers against any target with the same saving throw. MCs rarely get cover too, so we don't have that to worry about. Five wounds is nearly a whole Tyranid MC right there in one turn, but it has cost you nearly two hundred points for that kind of fire power.

Winter is Coming

Bring out the Wolf Cheese!

Long Fangs are pretty damn good at the MC hunting job too, let's take a look how they stack up.

6 Long Fangs (5 MLs) against a Tyranid MC (T6, 3+):

At 48" (stationary) - 5 shots, 3.3 hits, 2.75 unsaved wounds.

The Long Fang unit is cheaper, but if we adjust for that, we find we get the following figures:

Long Fangs at any range: 1.96 wounds per 100 points
Deathmarks at range: 1.34 wounds per 100 points
Deathmarks up close: 2.68 wounds per 100 points

Comparable. Given the Deathmark's ability to Deep Strike (and their odd "probably designed for 6th" ambush rule) you could conceivably be in Rapid Fire range on your first strike. You need to hit hard and you need support otherwise that whole 190 point unit is lost after the first strike though. Long Fangs bring range and the ability to sit in cover affecting three quarters of the board space. Difficult to compare but Necrons are a mid field army. We don't hunker up at the back - we simply don't have the range for that kind of play. If the Deathmarks had a way to threaten the back of tanks we'd be set for all comers but until the FAQ we have X strength on our rifles and thus no ability to harm any AV over 9.

The Bottom Line
So, what's my point with all this? If you've got the Troops choices you need you'd do a lot worse than considering Deathmarks to fill out some more anti-infantry fire. They serve us well as MC hunters and we don't have much else to fill that role for us (though our Annihilation Barges make a good showing and Wraiths can really do this well). If you can get a lucky Entropic Strike into the MC your Deathmarks will truly shine in eliminating them (think Harp of Dissonance).

I really like how Games Workshop are filling more and more of the armies with these choices that don't stand up to direct mathematical comparison due to movement concerns and other gameplay effects. Any unit that favours being played well over simply being flat-out better for the points is a well-designed unit in my book. Really makes coming to a satisfying conclusion on articles such as this difficult though.

I'd really like to see more on this unit. I love the fluff and aesthetic of the unit, so let's get them working people!

Necrons: Post Battle Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:44:00 +0000

I've played just over half a dozen games with the new Necrons now and am starting to get a feel for how they operate, at least for me. They've surprised me in a few ways and an old friend and I have had our relationship come to a rocky end.

Ark of win

The Initial List
Overlord, Warscythe, Command Barge
Two Harbingers of Destruction, One Solar Pulse
One Lord, Ressurection Orb

Nine Warriors, Ghost Ark
Nine Warriors, Ghost Ark
Ten Immortals with Tesla Carbines

Two units of five Scarabs

Two Annihilation Barges
Monolith

This was the initial list. The two Crypteks joined the warrior squads in their Ghost Arks while the Lord joined the Immortals squad to up their staying power when squatting objectives. The Monolith was to give something to absorb firepower and to allow the teleportation tricks that I had relied upon during fourth edition.

It didn't work out that way. While the Arks proved to be much more durable than I had anticipated (AV13 is a lot tougher of a nut to crack than the AV11 I'm used to) they were still taking the majority of the firepower. Opponents didn't rate the Monolith as a threat and it simply has no way to convince them otherwise. By the time the Monolith is in range it's easy prey for melta and other short-range tankbusting weaponry. Hell, at 24" you're going to end up with close-combat tank squads easily popping you (it can't move faster than 6" a turn, so it's always hit on 4+ in close combat). Even when you do fire it lacks any kind of real punch. A battle cannon is scary because it can hit you from across the board - at 24" range it really isn't a worry.

The Arks put out a respectable amount of firepower though. They can reliably inflict 3/4 glancing hits per turn on vehicles nearby, potentially even better if your Eldritch Lance hits home. I'm not used to having Troops choices be worthwhile, so it took some adjusting to before I started using them properly.

Scarabs are great. Opponents haven't yet learnt to prioritise them properly and the vehicle-heavy metagame means that template/blast weaponry that makes short work of them simply isn't present right now. Expect their usefulness to drop as people gain experience and adapt their tactics, but for now they are amazing. Once people are dealing with them they'll still be good, but not so stupidly powerful. Annihilation Barges are a great use of just under a hundred points and let you use the funky Tesla mechanic.

The Adapted List

Box of fail

Overlord, Warscythe, Command Barge
Two Harbingers of Destruction, Solar Pulse

Nine Warriors, Ghost Ark
Nine Warriors, Ghost Ark
Ten Immortals with Tesla Carbines

Two units of five Scarabs each
Three Wraiths, two Whip Coils, two particle pistols

Two Annihilation Barges
One unit of two Spyders, one Gloom Prism

It's been fun, Monolith. You've inspired great songs ("Monolith... monolith... MONOLITH... Mono-D'OH!") but your role in this list is over, gone, kaput. Sorry. We can still be friends.

Dropping the Monolith and the Lord (if the opponent REALLY wants those Immortals off the board, he'll make sure they're all gone. The 5+ RP roll protects you well enough against random shooting) gives us 265 points to work with.

Scarabs are great, so let's get them some support. Two Canoptek Spyders comes in at a hundred points, adding a Gloom Prism to one of them gives the Scarabs some psychic defence and allows us to do wound-allocation tricks. You won't get to make more than four bases at most before the Scarabs leap away from the Spyders to do their work, but that's about half the cost of the unit recouped. Not too shabby. When the Spyders DO catch up to the Scarabs they'll make short work of slow-moving vehicles or non-cc infantry. In the best world our opponent sees the Spyders create Scarabs and focuses on bringing them down rather than taking out the dangerous Scarabs.

That leaves us about 150 points left. We could do with a decent counter-charge or front-line unit to give our opponent something to worry about other than the Scarabs (we want to distract as much attention as possible from our vulnerable little friends). Canoptek Wraiths fit this role perfectly. A couple of lash whips, because frankly they need them to do the job, and a particle pistol or two gives us yet more wound-allocation junk.

Throw a 2+ save on the Overlord, because that invulnerable save is just too expensive when you're using him as a missile, and we're done.

Extra Note

Disco Necron of necessity

You need the Solar Pulse. Without this you'll die horribly to the first-turn shooting. You literally cannot build a Necron army without the pulse or Imotekh. Be afraid of Dark Eldar and Space Wolves, as they WILL hurt you earlier than you're used to, and don't rely on the pulse to protect you - position yourself as if Night Fighting wasn't in effect, and take the shots that miss as a bonus.

Either take at least one Harbinger of Destruction with a Solar Pulse, or take Imotekh. Not taking either invites destruction for this midfield-centric army.

Charity, The Tomb World and the Necrons

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:38:00 +0000

Things have been very busy (personally, professionally and hobby-i-lly?) in the Geneseed world recently so as a quick update here's what's going on and what you can expect to see full articles on:

Charity Efforts
I won't be doing a full article on this but last Friday was Children In Need here in the UK (http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/) and I took up the call by shaving twelve years of hair off my head (which came out at about 22" on the longest part). You can find out more about this on my Just Giving page here We raised £777 for Children In Need, I'm so proud of all those who donated.

For the sadistic, you can also watch the video of the event below.

The Tomb World

I've started work on my board (finally) primarily using a mix of B&Q paint, builders sand and PVA glue. It's worked a lot better than I expected on my test tile, but I haven't had time to finish it off or begin work on the other sections of the board (it takes over a day to dry). Quick picture of awful quality. The surface has come out great, though it really needs sealing with a few coats of watered-down PVA. We played a few games on it over the weekend that took their toll on the surface without having that sealant in place. I'll need to touch up the damage, get that lava-glow finished and tidied up and then sealed all over.

Still happy with the Realms of Battle Board, it was a great (impulse) purchase. I'll be doing a simple step-by-step on the next tile for an article.

The Necrons Awaken

With the new release I've been scrabbling to get my Necron army to a playable state based on our shiny new Codex. Finally got 1500 points assembled for the weekend of Nerdvember and they played much better than I expected.

I might be in love with having AV13 transports rather than watching Rhinos get blown away by small arms fire. We're tough and our auto-glance rule is now worth something again with our newly found mobility. I really enjoy the Tesla mechanic, which is similar to Spartan Games' "Exploding Sixes" without causing the complete randomness that I dislike so much in those games. My current list is doing well so far and I'm confident going forwards. I can't wait to see the lists and strategies that my opponents come up with to counter me.

Why I Buy Games Workshop Stuff From Games Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Ant Holloway) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:06:00 +0000

This is going to seem like a bit of an odd one, especially given my recent article praising Maelstrom Games, but bear with me. When I buy Games Workshop stuff I buy it from my local Games Workshop despite having to miss out on at least fifteen percent discount from the independent retailers. Buying my haul of Necrons this last weekend means that this meant I missed out on about two "free" units I could have had. Consumers act in their best interests, so why did I do this?

I Support Their Business Model
There, I said it. Man, that's a tough one to get off your chest. I might go and have a lie down for a bit.

In seriousness, I really value having a local Games Workshop store. I love that I can pop in, chat to the Store Manager for hours, grab an impulse purchase or a random pot of paint. So many times I've realised a paint had run out or I needed just one more model and being able to run down to the GW and get them without hassle is worth a lot to me. As such, I don't mind paying the "store tax" of their RRP price-tags.

Store Managers are the Heart of Games Workshop
My local Store Manager is a great guy. He's enthusiastic about the hobby, knowledgeable about the other games out there (though he has to sport the company line, of course) and seems to genuinely want to be helpful. He's offered me plenty of help, and I often see him handing out good advice to the younger gamers. This is the image of the company I like to see spread - helpful, friendly staff that provide the anchor point to the hobby. A lot of the staff aren't so good, or are so blatant in their company line that you feel like you're talking to a GW-programmed robot, but when they are good they are great for the hobby as a whole. I know he's being paid for it, but if I could I'd waste so much time just hanging around the local store talking to the manager.

This is the kind of staffer that got me into this. Sure, my friends introduced me to the little toy soldiers you have to paint yourself, but it was the staff that drew me in, showed me new games and how to play, offered advice that I couldn't go online to find (this was many years ago before the advent of the great Internets and also back when White Dwarf was worth reading). I compare the service I get from him to some of the local independents I've had to deal with and it's obvious whose sales I'd rather be boosting.

The Bottom Line
Is this: I value the store and the staff Games Workshop provide for me. I often hear people tell me that prices are high because they maintain all these stores, that they should do without and lower prices. I think not. I happily pay RRP for their product, and I'm happy to have the stores available to me in return. The prices aren't even bad compared to other games either (Nomad Uberfallkommando unit is £20 for four true-scale metal models, Necron Immortals box is £20.50 for five heroic-scale plastic models with a complete second set of options for all of them and alternate weapon loadouts for all of them). So while I know I pay a few percent for those local hobby stores, I pay it gladly.