My 6th Edition Experiences and a List

So in 4 days the 6th edition of 40k will be 4 months old and what a busy 4 months it has been.  So without spending ages on this intro let me hasten onto my ramblings.

It seems IMHO that 6th edition is just not a competitive game suitable for tournaments and that some serious   issues exist with the missions and their lack of balance.  Scouring the internet and looking at the various tournament packs that have been developed it appears that a variety of attempts to make it a tournament game are working to some extent.  The Nova Open format seems to have created NovaHammer with its quarters missions, The Bay Area Open format seems to favour Deathstars/Flyers, while locally the tournaments here are sticking pretty closely to the rulebook while still trying to provide the Primary/Secondary mission variety that the ETC inspired rulespacks had established in mid/late 5th edition. Having not played in a tournament yet myself I can't say exactly which I prefer but I know that nationally we will go with pretty much whatever the ETC favours, although I do hope some organizers looks outside of that and perhaps adopt another format for variety.

Saber Defence Platforms - Supposedly not all that bad 

Across in the UK it appears that there is much gnashing of teeth etc over 6th ed and its suitability for tournaments.  Points limits, time, mission/deployment selection and Flyers all appear to be issues that TO's are having to deal with.  Interestingly it appears that Forgeworld is been giving a much larger look in across in the UK than in Ireland with the GT qualifiers and other tournaments have allowed "40k Approved" Forgeworld models (which saw a spate of proxy/counts as AA defence models spring up everywhere) which completely altered the balance in terms of Flyers.  Perhaps not unsurprising the ETC captains in the first draft of next years tournament pack have voted against the introduction of FW into competition.

The Hyperios Defence Platform - every Space Marine's best friend 

One positive thing that I can say is that nationally not a single tournament has had the same rulepack/mission combo in operation.  This is a good thing in my opinion as it is keeping us as players sharp and forcing us to adapt our armies to the evolving game.  Indeed this weekend is Gaelcon, one of the largest 40k tournaments in the country, and I will be interested to see how it plays out with many of Ireland's top 20 players involved.

So with various TO's trying various ways to balance out flyers I have found myself in a quandary personally. As I previously mentioned in the last post I was eagerly building up a Space Wolves/Necron force.  While I got the Grey Hunters built, I haven't managed due to various reasons to get my Necrons finished.  So my last months playtesting was a modification of the original idea with some Space Marine Battle Brothers allied in.  Why this?  Well I quickly found out that foot wolves why they have resilience in numbers against flyers, suffer horribly against one of the armies of the moment - Tzeentch Daemons.  I have never been tabled so quickly in my life, as against 17 Flamers, 6 Screamers and infiltrating Thousand Sons with Ahriman - 3 turns was all it took in the first game.  In the subsequent games I have spaced out deployed less aggressively and been the recipient of bad reserve rolls by my opponent and still only manged to squeek out a loosing draw with VP's horribly skewed in their favour.  Indeed even Nullzone didn't make that much difference against the 2 wound updated Flamers and Screamers.  The reality is that until Daemons loose the Eternal warrior rule they are going to be tough to deal.

A really good choice for Daemons and Chaos Marines

For 25pts they are excellent - especially with there slash attacks and 4+ on the turn they deep strike

So I am at a bit of a quandary as to how to proceed with my wolves.  So I am considering the following options:

• Mech up in Rhino's to prevent the toast and slash on the turn the Daemons deep strike in
• Ally in some Grey Knights strike squads with Coteaz for Warp Quake bubble 
• Ally in some Eldar to get Eldrad for Misfortune/Prescience/Perfect Timing
• Ally in Guard for Blob/Manticore/Psyker Battle Squad 
• Ally in some Necrons for Flyers/Wraiths/Annihilation Barges

Rhino's would be great but they die so quickly and are a bit rubbish especially when "First Blood" secondary mission is in operation.  The Grey Knights will help with the Daemons but aren't going to offer a lot of solutions to Ahriman and the Thousand Sons, although the Eldar would help there by making Ahriman more likely to fail and offer Jetbikes for last turn contesting.  Guard are obviously a great choice especially with PBS doing the number on Fateweaver and Manticores being even better.  Blobs are also great for being home to Mortars for the Barrage sniping one needs to help pick out those important bits of squads.  Lastly Necrons as I previously mentioned but that is less to do with Anti-Daemon and more to do with generally being quite good - Night Scythes, Wraiths and Stormteks - but being desperate allies they can be ignored as they cannot score or contest.  

Dead but still good!

I also know that I will not get much gaming in before Moo8 so it will be most theoryhammer before I head on down.  Also it has been brought to my attention that the new Chaos codex has proved to be a less than thrilling codex with not that many folks jumping onto the bandwagon.  So I am guessing that it will be the usual mix of Guard/Grey Knights/Necrons with some smatterings of other forces like Chaos, Daemons and Tau.  

So onto my SW/Eldar list that I am currently favouring:

1 x Rune Priest with Chooser (Jaws/LL)

3 Wolf Guard - 2 Combi Melta, 1 Stormbolter

3 x 10 Grey Hunters with Standard and 2 Plasma Guns

2 x 5 Grey Hunters with Melta in Rhino/Dozer

 1 Aegis Defense Line with Quad Gun

2 x Predator with Heavy Bolter Sponsons

1 x Vindicator

Eldar:

Eldrad

5 x Fire Dragons, Exarch with Crack Shot/Tank Hunters, Dragons Breath Flamer

3 x Jetbike

3 x Shadow Weavers 

Naturally Problems exist with Flyer defense being limited to only the Quad Gun but what can Wolves/Eldar really do.  Also, Eldrad will make my Rune Priest quake in his boots about using Psychic powers but I don't fancy any of the other choices except perhaps a Wolf Priest but he can't prevent infiltrating but he does confer other benefits.  I understand some folks will wonder why I don't have Long Fangs but the MSU nature of there squads means they fold so quickly and often don't offer the value they did under fifth.  That is Why I am going for a mix of AV13 to hide behind the defense line and gain that 4+ cover save and to give me a variety of long range fire. The Eldar are there for psychic defense, last turn contesting, quad gun manning and barrage sniping.  So if anyone has thoughts or tried something similar, let me know how crazy I am and what I should change! 

Right this has gotten longer than intended so thoughts on 6th Edition and the Chaos Codex will have to wait.

Also here is my "shout out" to some great blogposts that I have read recently do yourself a favour and read these:

DGG/TLC massive Apocolypse game report:

http://dublingamesguild.blogspot.ie/2012/10/the-battle-for-valamur.html

The New Irish 40k ETC Captain telling us the cold hard truth:

http://warhamsandwich.com/2012/10/22/basic-anti-air/

Local Gamer/Painter/TO thoughts on Chaos:

http://blog--hammer.blogspot.ie/2012/10/purple-legion.html

One of Ireland best players thoughts on 2 special characters in Chaos:

http://touchedbygreatness.blogspot.ie/2012/10/kharn-betrayer-ideas.html
http://touchedbygreatness.blogspot.ie/2012/10/ahriman-ideas.html

Great FOW blog with loads of great ideas and linked resources:

http://citadelofwar.blogspot.co.nz/

Tzeentch Flamer tactica by the Traitorous Stowe:

http://midnightclad.blogspot.ie/2012/09/chaos-daemon-flamer-tactica-part-1.html

The Bi-Monthly Update - FOW/40K/Infinity

So another 2 months have passed since I updated.  A lot has happened since then but not much gaming unfortunately.  

So what then have I been up to?  Well July was focused on trying to get my army fully painted and based for Brocon - the last 5th edition tournament I would attend.   Although I ultimately failed in that goal, I had a great time with 5 excellent games and opponents, in a very well run tournament.  So it was I bade farewell to 5th ed and all its beautiful idiosyncrasies.  

Also in July I started to dig into Flames of War.  Now I am aware that this game has become increasingly popular and as a long time historical gamer I couldn't resist its allure.  So after purchasing a few boxes of Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) Shermans (€20+ for 5) and some Battlefront tank destroyers (M10 + M18's), I was well on my way to fielding a force out of Blood, Guts and Glory.  Ah but what a surprise it was to start assembling those kits - I had forgotten how small and delicate that scale was.  Still I must say the price and quality of the miniatures puts another larger company pricing to shame.  One thing I also hadn't reckoned was how complex a ruleset it was in comparison to 40k.   So many rules but in its favour the rulebook index is fantastic and there is so far nothing that I have come across that isn't covered in the rules.  So no waiting 2 months to see what an FAQ rules.  If anybody is interested in getting into FOW, then October is going to be brilliant with the release of a €60 starter set - Open Fire.  It is filled with 2 amazing forces (US/British versus Germans) and the models looks great.  The folks over at War Altar have done a great look at this:  http://waraltar.onthestep.net/2012/08/how-many-points-new-flames-of-war.html 

Yeah for proper terrain and not random ruins/ hills

So what about 40k?  Well family commitments have left me unable to play much but I have tried keeping tabs on what is hot/cold in terms of 6th edition.  While I haven't been chatting to many folks about the rules/armies, I have seen the internet froth over how "OMG, how OP are Flyers, they are the brokenz".  So have tournament results born that out here in Ireland?  To a degree yes.  I think (IMHO without too much gaming done) if one allows allies, fortifications and Forgeworld - the new Troika - then flyers don't dominate as evidenced by NWG results.  If one goes by straight rulebook missions with none of the above then Flyer armies are very strong (Conspiracy).  More so I think that the basic rulebook missions aren't balanced enough and this is exacerbated by the lack of AA in a number of codices.   

So what is the answer to this potential problem - is it the Troika or should GW release the much vaunted S7 Flakk Missile upgrade?  More likely I think the 170 point Chaos Dragon with Vector Strike and 4 S8 shots will help deal with some of the flyer issues currently vexing people.  I don't think the answer is what NOVA open did by including Table quarters and then not making any vehicle scoring, as that makes all foot just too strong.  Until this issue is dealt with, and the new DA/Chaos codices show GW's thinking, I think the Troika is the solution but understand reservations about them.  

Personally as I play both Necrons and Wolves,  6th has affected those forces quite differently.   The Loganwing I was running is now just no match for Flyer Spam and suffers with the problems of the new wound allocation rules - no allocating lascannons to grunts and small arms to terminators anymore.  That and the changes to power weapons means that all those Wolf Claws/Power Swords are now going to have to be snapped off and replaced.  I am wondering if a mix of Rhino and Drop Pod wolves might not be better as I think the day of 75 Razorbacks is gone.  Necrons though they haven't changed too much.  Most the of the staples of 5th ed are still decent (Overlords, Annihilation Barges, Pulsetek, Veilteks, Wraiths) and some have gotten better (Scythes).  Only thing that was a staple that is now poor/ok is the Command Barge due to the loss of 24" sweep attacks and not affecting flyers.  That and being a Chariot so that krak grenades toast it, means that it now suffers to find a place in most of my lists.  

Another game that is increasingly popular both locally and nationally is Infinity.  Well my local group has started to take it up and just this past week I got my first game in.  All I can say is wow!  Quick, clean, efficient rules that make you consistently think and are fun.  I am very excited that this has taken off and will be encouraging anybody who hasn't already looked into it, to do so!  The models are fantastic and cost a 1/3 of a single finecast model.  The whole game system is incredibly balanced with little potential to "break" it as far as I am aware.  That and terrain is very easy to put together - Marg tubs, pringles tubes, card boxes and a can of grey spray paint equals an Infinity board.  Another bonus is that there is even and Irish Infinity Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Infinity-Ireland/118289411588617) to post up and ask questions/arrange games.  

Enough sales pitch.  I should get back to prepping my 50 Grey Hunters, Drop pods and Night Scythes for my desperate allied force for what will possibly be my last tournament this year - Moo7.  Oh and finish painting those M10's and M18's so that by the time FOW has a tournament in the South (North is hosting one: http://onthestep.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2282) I will have my force ready should I want to compete.   The next few months promise to be quite a demanding time and I hope to be able to blog more frequently than I have.  

So long, farewell 5th Edition!

Or not until after Brocon in just less than 3 weeks time.  I have increasing apathy about playing 5th edition now, so thinking about taking something wacky but as lists only have to be in next week Friday, I might still go back to the Loganwing that served me well at Moofool in March.

Anyways this post is like so many others on the internet a farewell to 5th from me - what I liked and disliked, highs and lows.  As I only came into 5th edition in May 2009, after starting again in March that year with a 3rd ed rulebook we had rediscovered, it was a revelation in terms of detail and speed of play.  So here I go:

Liked:

- The lack of consolidation into combats:  My brother in law always managed to roll well and consolidate  into combat and soundly stomp my guardians/tactical marines

- Speed of play:  The rules played quickly with only really wound allocation being a little difficult to understand initially.  

- Cover saves:  Having my guardians/termangants/dire avengers able to grab a 3+ save when going to ground in area terrain was great. 

- Codex updates:  Although this slowed down in the last year (only 1 in the 12 months preceding 6th ed.) it seemed that dexes were coming every 3+ months initially.

- Model support:  From the Dark Eldar codex onwards it appeared that GW understood that if they produced models timeously, then people wouldn't be so prone to buy from other companies.  Indeed the Necron range has been produced completely in less than 9 months! 

- FAQs:  Still not often enough, still not consistent enough but they came out and answered most of the questions that seemed to generate discussion on the internet.  

- Forgeworld:  Over the course of 5th they released a number of excellent books and some amazing models.  Now almost as cheap as GW .... crazy

Disliked:

- Mech spam:  It only got worse with guard, then wolves, then BA, then DE and then finally reaching its pinnacle with Fortitude Psybacks of the GK.  I would have loved to be privvy to GW sales figures on Razorbacks in 2010 at the the height of Razorspam.

- Robin Cruddace:  Tyranids RIP 2010, courtesy Space Wolves, Dark Eldar.

- Dark Eldar:  Awful awful awful - they were worse than Space wolves at making sure I never unpacked my Tyranids.  

- Lack of Terrain:  I cried a little everytime I went to a tournament and saw the barren boards.  I think I was spoiled by Warpcon 2010 and expected that every tournament would be as good, many were not.  It is something that is going to become even more difficult to do in 6th as pointed out by the guys over at the War Altar (http://waraltar.onthestep.net/2012/07/getting-grip-on-6th-edition-terrain.html).  I would go so far to as say that we don't use enough LOS blocking terrain and this affects the ETC team as in general a lot more is used in Europe. 

- Covers saves:  Disliked the lack of diversification in cover saves and the 4+ standard for vehicles really became more irritating as the number of vehicles rose of the tabletop

Highs:

- Space Wolf Codex:  I was in the process of reading the Ragnar novels when I became aware of the release of a new codex in September 2009, not knowing that they would soon become a hated force on the tabletop with missile spam.  I now have more wolf models than anything else and they are my favourite force to use.  For Fenris!

- Tournaments:  Some great tournaments have sprung up over the last few years.  I have had the privilege of attending a few of them and want to give a big thanks to the TO's for organizing them.  Now if only more tournaments would be forgeworld friendly!

- People:  While I don't get to play often, I have had few bad experiences on the tabletop, with the crowd that attend tournaments here in Ireland being a great group.  I have had the privilege of playing some great players over the course of the last 2 1/2 years and learnt a lot from playing them.  Not going to mention names but thanks to all those who have put up with my indecision and forgetfulness when playing and being so gracious with allowing things that you had perfect right not to!  

- Necron Codex:  some 8 months later and few folks can be heard to say that the Necrons are a bad codex, yet the initial release was surrounded by noise over how terrible it was.  Probably my second favourite army to play and so full of tricks and shenanigans.  

- Rise of the Internet:  So much anger and rage, so much terrible advice but ultimately a good thing, the internet has brought players together, shared opinions and allowed forums (like http://w-ired.org/forum/) to thrive. 

Lows:

- Rankings HQ/ETC tensions:  bleah this was very disappointing as rifts evolved over what constitutes ranking tournaments, what time frames allowed, etc etc etc  This is a game with toy soldiers, to have fun, lets just all do that instead of arguing! 

- Tyranid Codex:  So much potential wasted, all to sell a few Trygon kits.  Oh and Pyrovores - yeah those sold well. 

- Price rises:  Yeah nothing more to be said here - I think that trading/ebay etc is now the only viable way of having multiple forces as prices are now too steep to purchase new, even from online retail stores. 

- Finecast:  Awful - have spent 6 months trying to get a proper Immotekh model that isn't bubbly/miscast.  

- Perceived Codex Creep:  No doubt that it existed to some extent but not to the extent that the internet ranted about.  

So goodbye 5th edition.  We had a lot of great times and some bad ones.  Overall it has been fun but now it is time to say so long and farewell.  

Tales of new versus old

This past Sunday I was invited over by Bruce (http://thedarkmechanicum.blogspot.com/) to his place to play a few games of 40k with him, Kevin and Jason.  We were going to be trying out armies for Skibbcon, with me teaming up with Jason.  I was initially going to be playing Guard, but due to circumstances changing Jason couldn't make it, so Bruce asked if I could bring Necrons and Space Wolves.      

I obliged and brought lists that were compliant with the Highlander "comp".  Roughly the lists were:

Space Wolves:

Wolf Priest with Stealth

10 Wolf Guard - 9 TDA with 2 Cyclones, 3 Wolf Claws 1PA with Fist + Combi-Melta

9 Grey Hunters with Melta,Standard in Rhino with Dozer Blade

5 Blood Claws with Flamer

6 Long Fangs with 5 Missile Launchers

Necrons:

Overlord on Barge with 2+/3++, Warscythe, Mind Shackles, Labyrinth, Phylactery, Res Orb

2 Crypteks with Solar Pulse and Veil

5 Tesla Immortals

5 Warriors

6 Wraiths with 1 Lash Whip, Pistol

1 Annihilation Barge

1 Night Scythe

Bruce and Kevin were bringing Space Marines and Eldar.  Their lists were:

Space Marines:

Lysander
10 Sternguard - MM, Combi-melta's in Drop Pod
10 Tactical Marines with Melta/Missile Launcher in Rhino
10 Scouts with Telion and Missile Launcher
1 Attack Bike with MM

Eldar:

1 Farseer - Doom, Guide, Runes
5 Fire Dragons in Wave Serpent with Shuri-Cannons, Stones
5 Dire Avengers
5 Pathfinders
5 Warp Spiders
Falcon with Scatter Laser, Holofields, Stones

The first mission was going to be pitched battle 5 objectives, with one centrally and the rest centrally in each quarter. I won the roll to choose sides and go first but gave it to Bruce and Kevin as it would deny the Eldar doing their last turn contesting shenanigans. As I didn't want to face a Drop Pod with Lysander and nasty Sternguard coming down and unleashing a dangerous number of AP3 rounds into my immortals/long fangs, I went full reserve.  

Marine Deployment - Scouts holding objective

Eldar Deployment - Pathfinders hunkered down in the ruins

Combat Squad Marine advance to centre, Sternguard pod in overlooking other objective.  Fire Dragon Serpent moves out.

Bruce's excellently painted Crimson Fist's.  

Lysander leading the Sternguard drop in on the far left side.  Intention was to dissuade me from challenging for that objective.  

Turn 2 the Marines run into the ruins, while the Fire Serpent turbo's behind the ruins.  The attack bike comes on from reserve and Turbo-boosts out of line of sight. 

Sternguard had run, the Rhino had moved up and smoked.  More importantly  the Warp Spiders had deep struck on but due to their poor scatter they couldn't jump back into terrain.

Turn 2 sees a good number of reserves arrive.  Everything excepting the Night Scythe, Long Fangs and Bargelord arrives.  My Wolf Guard attached to the Blood Claw pack unleashes a salvo of missiles killing 2 Warp Spiders in the open.  My Rhino moves on and smokes, while my immortals hide behind it.  My Annihilation Barge and Wolf Guard squad open fire on the combat squad in the ruins, killing everyone but the sarge.  

Turn 3 see the Sternguard and Lysander run across to a move central position.  The Fire Dragon serpent moves out and fires, doing no damage. 

 The Rhino charges forward blocking LOS and movement of the Terminators.  

Warp Spiders retreat to cover, while nothing can see, due to me using my Solar Pulse, and what does causes no damage.  

Turn 3 see all my remaining reserves come on.  My Bargelord sweep attacks and destroys the rhino, my long fangs move  and establish a fire base.  The Night Scythe moves onto the far flank.  My Terminators advance slowly through the crater of the rhino, while my rhino charges forward towards the objective the pathfinders were holding.  In the assault phase the Wraiths charge and annihilate the pathfinders.  

Night Scythe had multiple choices:  Wave Serpent, Drop Pod or Sternguard.  Decision was made to target the Wave Serpent and 2 penetrating and 5 glancing hits later saw it shaken, due to spirit stones and AP - 

Turn 4 saw the Eldar Farseer guide the Falcon and Doom the Wraiths.  The Sternguard moved into the central ruins.  The Attack Bike and the Tactical Squad fired at the Command Barge but the cover save was successful.  Combined fire of the Warp Spiders and Falcon saw the Wraiths reduced to 4.  Out of picture the Fire Dragon Serpent moved and they debussed destroying the Night Scythe.  

Turn 4 saw the Grey Hunters Rhino move up.  They debuss, Melta the Falcon but only manage to shake it.  The Necron Overlord sweep attacks the Attack bike but only causes 1 wound.  He jumps out of his Barge but fails to get into assault with the combat squad.  The Wraiths move up and then multi-assault the Warp Spiders and Combat squad, killing 2 spiders (except Exarch) and forcing the combat squad to fall back off the board.  The Long Fangs and Blood Claws fire at the Wave Serpent but do nothing.  The Annihilation Barge and Warriors that had come on from reserve manage to kill 4 of the 5 Fire Dragons.  Finally the Terminators open fire on the Sternguard but only kill a few.  

No Turn 5 pictures for Kevin and Bruce but neither had a lot to do.  Bruce moved the Sternguard and then ran them to block off the central objective from my Terminators.  The Warp Spider Exarch, who had hit and run from the Wraiths, and the shaken Falcon (a mistake) open fire on the Grey Hunters killing 3.  The WS Exarch then assaults and hits and wounds 3 times killing 3 more Hunters but is promptly fisted in the face for his troubles.  This still leaves the Falcon contesting the top right objective.  Telion and the scouts kill a good few warriors, while the Wave Serpent also kills a few, while contesting that objective.  

My Turn 5 sees me move up my Terminators, who unleash a torrent of fire leaving only Lysander and a few sternguard alive.  They are promptly massacred in assault with me losing nothing in return.  Lysander alone stands, down a wound.  In the far right corner, my single melta shots hits, pens and I roll a 6,6 for the holofields, exploding the Falcon.  My Wraiths who had moved up to assault the falcon then jump in the Farseer and remaning Dire Avengers, instant killing the Seer and running the Avengers off the table.  Objective secure.  A more bold move was my warriors veiling forward on the floor of the ruined building near the objective the scouts were holding.  I scattered poorly and subsequently they were out of range to contest.

Hidden behind the ruin there is my Command Barge, which was contesting the central objective, giving me the win 2-1.   

This was a close fought game, with the lack of  ranged shooting hurting Bruce and Kevin yet I think this was always going to be an uphill struggle for them with my superior ranged firepower and resilience.  Still they both played it very well and it came down to a lucky dice roll on the Falcon for me to take it.  I probably should have deployed but, I think if I had, the more likely result would have been even more favourable for me.

Game 2 saw us using the same terrain and me the same armies, with the same mission.  Bruce and Kevin pulled out their alternate lists, with Bruce taking up Tau and Kevin running out some Wraithguard in place of Fire Dragons and Warp Spiders.  Not sure of Bruce's exact list but it was something like:

Commander with Drones, Plasma and Missile Pods
3 Suits with Plasma and Missile Pods
3 Suits with Plasma and Missile Pods
6 Fire Dragons
17 Kroot
5 Pathfinders with Devilfish
2 Broadsides with drones

Bruce and Kevin lost the roll-off with me going first and deploying as follows.  My Long Fangs are in the top right corner, with a Pulsetek hiding behind a piece of wall.

Full Deployment - Bruce and Kevin fail to seize.  Both Crisis suit units are in reserve.

Turn 1 see the Wraiths and Command Barge advance. Rhino pushes up centrally but doesn't pop smoke.  Terminators shuffle to draw line of sight to Tau pathfinders killing 1.  The Long Fangs target the Wave Serpent but fail to do anything.  

My Turn 2.  Notice the Long Fangs are missing - the Eldar pathfinders had shot and wounded them twice (1 rending), 2 failed saves later they then failed the pinning and morale tests and ran off the board!  The Tau pathfinders and Broadsides targeted the Barge and unleashed a twinlinked salvo of rail shots into it but only managed to destroy the weapon with a glancing hit.  I promptly moved up and assaulted the broadsides with the Overlord, while the wraiths advanced on the pathfinders.  The Night Scythe shook the devilfish while the terminators shook the falcon.    

My Immortals (Top Right) veiled over and exacted retribution on the pathfinders, contesting the objective.  My Rhino advanced towards the Falcon and Wave Serpent, popping smoke.  

End of my Turn 3.  Calamity had struck turn 2 for Bruce with his Suit unit containing his Commander deep struck in and then suffered a mishap.  They were then destroyed in the warp.  His Tau pathfinders shot and did a few wounds to the wraiths but nothing much who I then promptly killed in my turn, while his Serpent moved back to help the Eldar pathfinders, who were killed by the Immortals on my turn.  

The game was called at the end of my Turn 3, with Bruce and Kevin convinced that I was going to mop up any remaining units.  Personally I think with the units on the board and still in reserve, they had a good chance to tie the game.  I had lost most of one troop unit and the others were small and could quite reasonably be torrented down.  Still we ran out of time and I can understand having lost 3 units so quickly that it looked bad.

Overall my impressions were that the following:

- Codex Marines struggle to keep up with the the mid/late 5th ed. armies as the troops are pretty dire.
- Eldar are not points efficient enough to run under the highlander comp with much success.
- Tau could be good a partner with another force that can shield the Broadsides.  Pathfinders aren't good enough for their cost.

It was a great time overall but I think going forward we will be playing other games, unless 6th ed. somehow balances out the armies a bit more, which I seriously doubt.  So big thanks to Bruce and Kevin for the games and time out and all the best to those going to Skibbcon 3, hope it lives up to the previous years!

The Last 2 Months

So 2 months on - where does time go?  So as my last post indicated I was at Moofool at the end of March and  it was a fantastic fun with the guys (and gal's) from Cork and Dublin.  I am definitely looking forward to the next time we can get to do it again.  One good thing is that I have had a little time to mull over the weekend and come up with some thoughts.

On the Sunday I faced Jazz with Razorspam Grey Knights and Mark with Mech Guard.  Both games were great and played in a good spirit!  I eventually placed 5th overall out of the 26 players and I am very happy with the result.  Interestingly enough, a number of other Loganwings have popped up on the Irish tournie scene since taking this down to Moofool and have been very successful... maybe mech isn't king?

Otherwise what have I been up to the last 2 months?  Trying to get a Team South Africa organized for the ETC.  What a ride that has been - a rollercoster of emotion.  The result?  Well we had a team, then we didn't, then we did, then we changed, then we were all good, then we experienced turbulence and now we are in a holding pattern.  Long story short - I have to have a Visa to enter Poland and I won't be able to get one in time, so I won't be going with the team.  That said we have 7 members (3 SA, 4 Cork) who are going to represent Team South Africa.  Hopefully they will do well and that this will be the launch of a yearly Team SA.  I am bleak that I won't be able to make it but hopefully the captain next year will consider me!

Otherwise I have been looking at Flames of War as my alternate game, along with Infinity.  The growing cost and time it takes to play a game of 40k, plus the increased storage space for ever larger models, is precluding me from purchasing many.  As a more casual player I don't often get 3+ hours needed for fun games of 40k - yes they can be over quicker but the social contract involved means that one can't impose tournament conditions on folks that don't enjoy that pressure.  If both players aren't enjoying themselves, then why bother, especially when not at a competitive tournament.

Back to Flames;  I currently own both German and Russian WW2 forces in 20mm scale, which I used to play Rapid Fire with.  Unfortunately, that ruleset didn't play out well on a 6x4 board, so my opportunities to play have been very limited.  So it was with the launch of V3 of FOW and the provision of a free rulebook, by this kind gent (http://dakeryus-blogofwar.blogspot.com/) that I have increasingly become interested in FOW.  That and its following locally has grown, so that games could be had.  Indeed the trend away from GW games is increasingly notable, with FOW, Inifinity and Warmahordes are being played increasingly locally.  So it is that I am interested in starting an American 1944 force, with massed armoured infantry, tank destroyers and lots of cheap disposable Shermans.  It is a force that always caused my German forces problems in Rapid Fire, so it would be nice to be on the other side... that and most folks plumb for the Germans, with their Tigers, Panthers and Panzergrenadiers.

Also played has been Killzone - a much better combat patrol set of rules.  Small, individualized forces with quick games, means that a whole series can be run over one afternoon.  I would recommend that anyone interested in this more skirmish based type of 40k, look at the ruleset, which can be found at this blog - http://www.thecodexproject.com/killzone - with battle reps founds here - http://agentlemansones.blogspot.com/.  One can buy the aids, cards etc but they aren't completely necessary but do add to the game.

Anyway end of wall of text, except to say that the rumoured 5+ cover save for flyers when moving at cruising speed, is not going to be enough to save most of the AV10 flyers out there.  Oh and GW can keep their hardback 6th ed rulebook if it is going to cost more than €55, which is less than double what a new codex costs, so I doubt it will be that "cheap".  Anyways first 6th ed. tournament is NWG at the end of August, so I am sure the "me hearties" would have provided access to the rules by then and hopefully the starter set rulebook will be available in September.  That is if the rules are any good... random psychic powers equals me not taking a rune priest.

Moofool Day One - Quick Recap

Quick post to update how Day 1 went at Moofool.  Unfortunately due to variety of reasons I was not able to take the Necrons, so plumbed for a untried Loganwing. 

So far I am 1-1-1.  I have played Blood Angels (Caolan with Blood Rodeo), Tremor Necrons (Darren) and Mech Guard (Daniel).  Three interesting games with me being unable to win any of the primary objectives so far but doing well on Killpoints - I think Neil over at 11th Company is really onto something here. Otherwise the atmosphere has been great, the company excellent and the games a learning experience... Highlight has been Marbo killing Logan in combat!!  Otherwise I am learning every game how to use the Logan and his boys and will be making small but important changes to the army the next time I take them out. 

Moofool and Further Thoughts

This weekend I will be heading down to Cork to take part in Moofool - the celebration of the coming of age of a certain young member of WAC.  I deliberated hard over what to take and submitted my list in the hope that certain items arrive via post in time to prep them.  Initially I was going to give my Wolves a last runout for 5th ed, but seeing the numbers at Itzacon, I decided to help bump up the Necron numbers.  In the previous post I gave my thoughts on HQ selections and as promised here are my thoughts/experiences on the other FOC choices and how it has influnced my army for Moofool. 

 I think skipping the Elites section of the Necron's at the moment is probably a wise choice.  Yes the Writhing Worldscape Ctan can be ok, but it requires too many factors to work out.  The Stalker too can be decent but easily tied up in close combat.  Lychguard are more expensive than Wraiths and while they benefit from Reanimation Protocols, they require court and character support to make them decent - they are a poor deathstar when compared to other codex equivalents.  That said, they can have a roll in some very specific armies.  I have tried them out and they have performed admirably if not spectacularly.  Deathmarks I have tried and found them lacking due to their limited range - you have one turn to kill whatever you want to and then you die.  Since early January I have too a large degree run without any Elite choices but would consider one or 2 again in the future depending on how things change in 6th Ed.

It is amusing that initially one of the complaints about the Necron codex was the paucity of troops selections and their apparent weakness.  I remember back in November, many people complaining that warriors were awful and not worth bringing.  Immortals, back then, were not much better and complaints about the lack of FOC manipulation were rife.  I think it is accepted now that much of the complaining was overboard and that indeed the Necron troop choices are solid.  Yes, mostly the troops are seen in the MSU flavour of 5 x "warriors/immortals with attached Cryptek" but due to RP they can be quite difficult to shift. The few times my troops have encountered death and destruction has been due to poor play or bad matchup - looking at you Ymgral Stealers!  Otherwise I have found and tried the following.  Large Immortal squads: they are not necessary - instead of two 10 man units run 3 units of 7, 7 and 6.  The choice between Tesla and Gauss is not so simple - I think Tesla wins out due to the ability to move and shoot but Gauss Immortals combined with a Veiltek can be nasty.  Large Warrior squads:  great with a Phaeron and res orb and even better with Zandrekh due to counter-tactics and Obyron.  20 Warriors counterattacking with Obyron and 2 Lords with Warscythes and Mind Schakle Scarabs is nasty but a huge points sink.  Still in the ETC Cleanse Mission it can be quite fun shifting the balance of points like that!

Fast attack has often been described as the juicest of the FOC slots in the codex and nothing I have experienced has challenged that.  Indeed with the choice of Wraiths, Scarabs, Destroyers and Tomb Blades there is too much to fit into 3 slots.  So my experiences have led me to this point - I won't be taking Scarabs.  While they are good versus Mech, the sheer number of counters and speed bumps that are finding there way into armies means that their efficiency has dropped.  Against certain armies they can be great, but increasingly I have found they simply don't do what they should.  I am talking here outside of the Scarab Farm idea where you are starting 2 large units and then building one up while holding the other back and then farming it when the first has gone off.  Instead the idea of running 6-10 as a single FOC with a small Farm just isn't as effective as it first was due to the counters.  I won't totally discount that some folks can get use of a 5 base unit but I am not convinced it is good enough to warrant a whole FOC slot to itself.

This is due to me liking Tomb Blades.  30pts for a T5 model with a S6 small blast is not something I can easily ignore.  Having a 36" range with RP and the ability to turbo-boost, contest objectives or tie up non-dedicated CC units (i.e long fangs) makes them IMHO just too versatile to overlook.  Yes, good opponents spread out so as to minimize the number of hits a blast marker can do but often the opportunity arises during the course of a game to land numerous hits on a unit that often is wounding on 2+.  I don't think I will change many folks minds but I am enjoying their functionality a lot.

I haven't tried Destroyers yet so I can't comment but I think competition in this FOC slot is too fierce to see them as anything but Heavy Destroyers for some extra AT firepower.  This leads me onto the my last choice.  In the last post I mentioned that at Warpcon I felt that I often needed an extra units of these - Wraiths.  To some degree they have stolen the thunder of Scarabs and have fast become the favourite choice of many Necron players.  In my experience they have proven to be simply brilliant.  In only 1 game at Warpcon did they fail me and that was my mistake.  Otherwise they outperformed themselves.  I know that certain internet pundits have called them useless but honestly I don't agree.  The ability to tie-up units, kill non-dedicated assault units and move about quickly has led to me include that second unit.  Natually they have their weaknesses - this being massed firepower and S8.  The former can be mitigated to some extent by wound allocation and having 2 wounds, the latter by a 3++ save.  Yet in my experiences so far the single biggest factor protecting them has been nightfighting.  The fact that in many cases they only suffer 1 turn of shooting before assaulting means that often they arrive at full strength.

The last FOC, heavy support, is for me decided by what has been taken in the other FOC slots.  Running Night Scythes, then Annihilation Barges fit.  Running Scarabs then Tomb Spyders fit.  I know an argument can be made for a monolith but I have yet to test it out so have no experience with it to give an opinion.  I have in the past run 2 Annihilations Barges and a unit of Tomb Spyders but recently I have found that since my swarm has been dying so quickly my Spyders are often left with nothing to do except trying to make CC.  I would take another Annihilation Barge over the 2 I already have but I don't have the model and won't be buying one until I know how Tesla will fare under 6th ed.  So therefore I am, unwisely, not maxing out my Heavy Slots.  Also I have such a love/hate relatiosnhip with Tesla as I just don't find it reliable enough in doing anything except supressing AV11.  That is a problem for me especially due to the number of GK, BA and Guard players one can potentially meet.  This problem is exacerbated on the Annihilation Barge due to its speed preventing it from getting into range until T2 often and hardly ever in the flanks.  This issue though is for a different post, perhaps.

So there are my thoughts and here is the army that I am bringing to Moofool:


Bargelord w/MSS, 2+/3++, Scythe
Bargelord w/Scythe

2 Pulseteks
1 Veiltek
1 Stormtek w/Lighting Field
2 Tremorteks w/Harps

2 x 7 Tesla Immortals
2 x 5 Warriors

2 x 5 Wraiths w/2 Coils, 1 Pistol
5 Tomb Blades w/Beams

2 Annihilation Barges

I will hopefully get in a few more games with this army before I go and then post up some thoughts on how it functioned and batreps when I get back.  Looking forward to the weekend and showing the upstart young races the glory of biotransference.