GO FAQ YOURSELF

Welcome to a new age of Warhammer ladies and gentlemen, an age where the company we know and love, Game Workshop, pays attention to the meta and works their teams around the clock to try and balance Warhammer 40k.  Regardless of what I think of their changes and rulings, which I elaborate on further down, I really appreciate the work that these guys are putting in to make this game fun and balanced.  I hope they can keep up the pace, and not get discouraged with all the rage that is the Internet.

There were plenty of changes made, but there were 3 really big ones that will change the shape of this game and how it is played.  You may not agree that they are the biggest, but you can't deny that they are super important.

First up is the limitations to "deep striking" on the first turn.  GW seemed to think that armies that took advantage of this were too powerful and beginning to dominate the meta so they decided that if you wanted to "deep strike" on turn 1, you had to land in your own deployment zone.  This does not apply to certain units that are "set up after the first battle round starts but before the first turn begins". This applies to Genestealer Cult units that Cult Ambush, Alpha Legion Forward Operatives, Eldar Rangers, and the like.

This makes sense from a thematic perspective, your army has not really had time to establish a safe zone to land in other than amongst their own army.  Added to this is that the power level has been added to restrict the number of units that can go into reserves as you now have to have half of your units and power level on the table at the start of the game.

This seems like a really big deal for some armies, Chaos Daemons with a Bloodletter bomb come to mind as do Blood Angels and Tempestus Scions.  I think that these armies will be able to adapt waiting for the second turn to come down and being able to take advantage of the turn 1 movement that has now spread the enemy thin, or if the enemy decides not to move out it has pinned their opponent from take board control.

This seems to really benefit static gun line armies who can wrap their powerful units in layers and layers of cheap troops, Astra Militarum and some Space Marine "all the re-rolls" death balls come to mind.  Yet as you will see later in this post, very few of those types of armies are making it to the top tables, so it may not be such a big deal.  And even then, some of those gun line armies will be affected by this next change.

Not a beta rule, but a suggested limitation on the number of duplicate units in an army.  They have added a column to their "suggested serving size" box that recommends how many detachments and size of table for a certain size of game.  This column limits the number of times each data sheet can be included in an ARMY.  Now keep that in mind, because some units have multiple data sheets, but some data sheets make up multiple units.  The Bloodthirster variants from the Daemons book come to mind, 3 different data sheets for 3 similar units, while the Astra Militarum have a single data sheet for the Hellhound, Banewolf, and Devildog.  This limitation does not apply to units with the TROOPS or DEDICATED TRANSPORT battlefield role.  This also does not affect unit that are summoned to the table using reinforcement points.  So Daemons can take 3 units of Seekers of Slaanesh, and summon a 4th and 5th even before the first 3 are killed.

I think this is a great addition.  Yes, there are many players out there who have half a dozen Hive Tyrants, or Plague Burst Crawlers, or you name it, but that is very clearly not the intention of what GW wanted their game to look like.  This change, while it may screw over a bunch of people who bought and/or converted more than 3 of anything, will add another level of tactics to the game other than "take the good thing lots of times".

The last of the big 3 is the very poorly worded and examined ruling that if you charge a unit in a ruin(or any upper level really) and you don't have room to place your models then the charge has failed.  This is, maybe, not such a big deal with regular sized models, even if the unit in the building is completely hogging the floor above, you can shoot one model dead and pop right up there.  Monsters and larger models with FLY are going to have a tougher time of it.

There is the actual FAQ.  Now looking at the expanded rules for ruins, as mentioned in the FAQ, VEHICLES, MONSTERS, and BIKES, cannot end their move on one of the upper floors unless they have the FLY keyword.  This essentially allowed Daemon Princes and the like to assault units that were hiding in ruins.  However, due to the actual terrain piece, it was very rarely possible to actually place said model on the level that it was assaulting and thus we had the Wobbly Model Syndrome rule that says if it doesn't fit because of modelling reasons, just pretend it's there.

"Hey guys, do you think you could scoot over a bit so I can murder you all?"

"ERRMEGHERRRD! I can't get you!?"

In the examples pictured above, neither the Daemon Prince nor the Great Unclean One(I use a Glottkin model, they are about the same size except for the back hunch and spikes) are now able to assault and kill the cultists on the second level of the ruin.  This is plain old bullshit.  GW has made a huge mistake in the simple answer that they gave for this complicated question and have now left the door wide open for blatant abuse of it.  This has not only made ruins far more popular, but once again has shifted the game away from assault and more towards shooting.  If you have units that can ignore cover, take more of them to clear out the cowards huddling in the upper levels of the ruins.

Slow down there champ, cause I'm not done yet.  While those were the big controversial ones, there are a bunch of little nuggets for us to discover that you may have over looked.

For example, you may have noticed the new Battle Brothers beta ruling, but you might have failed to notice that this leaves out units like Assassins, Legion of the Damned and Null Maidens.  Since they don't have a second faction keyword that matches anyone, and they don't have any HQ's there is only the garbage Auxiliary Support Detachment for them.  Well, now you can include them in their very own Vanguard detachment and you don't need to fill the requirement for an HQ.  It seems you still have to have 3 units though, and you don't get a CP from it, and it also takes up one of your coveted detachments.  Damn.  I wonder if you can take one assassin, one unit of LotD, and one unit of Null Maidens in one Vanguard Detachment?  JUDGE?!?!?

Battalions got increased to granting 5 CPs and Brigades went up to 12.  I'm not sure on this one, the GW guys said it was because elite armies were not able to field as many detachments and thus not get as many CPs and thus not use as many cool stratagems.  All this is true, except that non-elite armies can abuse the shit out of this and get a ridiculous amount of CPs.  A better solution would have been to increased the number of CPs granted by the Vanguard, Outrider, and Spearhead detachments as long as the army also did not contain a Battalion.  OR, if they didn't like that the game was beginning to become "Take as many Detachments as I can to maximise CPs", just set a standard number of CPs for the size of game the same way they set the number of detachments.

GW also put a bee in my bonnet when they ruled that you can only use one ability that "ignores wounds" even if you have 2.  That sucks for the Iron Warriors Slaanesh Daemon Prince who could get 3 FNP rolls.  How?  It doesn't matter anymore does it?

Units that arrive via reinforcements cannot be targeted by abilities that can make them move like the Warptime psychic power, the Swarmlord's Hive Commander rule, and Soul Burst.  This will hurt a few Ynnari lists that used the webway to deliver a big unit of Shining Spears then move them in the psychic phase with the Soul Burst power.

There are a bunch of other generic FAQ answers in the main rulebook and most of them make sense, but the main rule book wasn't the only one to get FAQ'd.

Now lets take a look at a couple other Codecies that I have already reviewed and see if there is anything crazy in there...

First up, Astra Militarum, and Commissar's Summary Execution now only works on the first failed Morale test within 6" of them, and it only allows a re-roll of the Morale test.  I know there was a previous errata on it, but I can't remember what the ruling was so I'm not sure if it was nerfed further or if they just cleaned up some wording.  They did drop pretty drastically in points though so it's not so bad.
Baneblade variants can not fire overwatch if there are enemy models within 1" of it.
Kurov's Aquila now only works if the character is on the table, and the Relic of Lost Cadia is only once per battle.

AdMech got Skryer Skull all cleared up, it only works in your shooting phase and it doesn't give you an extra shooting attack.  The Refusal to Yield Dogma can save your models from dying to supercharged plasma which is pretty damn amazing.

Chaos Space Marines see a really great boost for Chosen, ALL of them can take a melee weapon.  Not upgrade something to a melee weapon, take one.  Those same ones can still upgrade to get a special weapon.  So you can have a unit of 5 Chosen all of them equipped with plasma pistols AND power fists.  I think I'm gonna have some fun with this one.  Tide of Traitors gets a nerf and is relegated to once per battle.  I personally have never used it more than once a battle, by the time I want to use it again I'm usually out of CPs.

Death Guard get hit with a pretty hard, but very necessary, nerf to Poxwalkers having to pay reinforcement points for models that exceed it's starting number.  This does apply to all units that can "grow" units above it's starting number, but I can't think of any others who are likely to do it with the number that poxwalkers could.  The Daemon Prince can take a Plague Spewer!  Although it looks like he is stuck with the sword if he chooses to take it.

Unstoppable Ferocity for Khorne Daemons gets a solid boost, changing it's +1S to the weapons in the unit instead of the model.  This will affect things like the attacks made by Bloodcrusher's Juggernaughts, bringing their S up to 8 the turn they charge.  And Feculant Gnarlmaws get a points increase and some deployment limitations.

That's about it for the book's I've covered.  They also put out the FAQ's for the newer books like Tau, Necrons, and Drukhari.  I would not have a clue as to what they are referring to so I won't touch on them.

What does it mean?  Well, lets take a look at how some of the top placing lists from a couple of major events from the last couple months will be affected.

Check out LVO 2019 HERE

Lets start with the LVO as the top 3 lists were pretty close to each other.  Nick, Tony, and Brad's lists were nearly identical, each sporting 4 units of Dark Reapers and a big unit of Shining Spears which they would then put into the webway and typically use them to assault out of it.  They also took advantage of the cheap Kabalite warriors from the Drukhari to fill the troops roles in the Ynnari Battalion.  Their lists get affected on a fairly limited basis but it would have pretty drastic consequences.  First off, the 4 units of Reapers have to get dropped down to 3.  Doesn't seem like much, but you have to remember the Exarch's Tempest launcher is the big deal in the small units, being able to target units he can't see.  With the savings from having to drop a unit of Reapers they will be able to afford proper troops for the Ynnari detachment, which will now have to be from the Craftworld Eldar book.  Finally, their usual use of the Shining Spears will have to be adjusted as they can no longer cast movement spells on them after they come in from the webway, nor can they deep strike them outside of their deployment zone turn 1.  This will not hurt too badly though as with the Spears movement and the stratagem that lets them advance and charge, they can reach just about anywhere on the table without the webwey.

Check out Adepticon 2019 HERE

Next up lets look at Adepticon where top guy Andrew had Blood Angels loaded up with Sanguinary Guard and Primaris Agressors who were supported with a Battalion of Catachan Guardsmen and a Spearhead of Cadian Mortars.  This list is going get hit twice with losing half of his mortar teams and the Sanguinary Guard having to wait till turn 2 to bring the pain.  I don't think this will really hurt this list in the long run, swapping out some mortars for Wyverns or Basilisks and changing the target priority using the artillery to open up some room for the Sanguinary Guard to drop in on turn 2.

The next 2 lists are both Tyranids and are quite different from one another.  Matt has a whole list of just Flyrants, Mucolid Spores, and Mawlocks, more than 3 of each.  This list has been ravaged by the changes, from the deep striking limitations to the 3 max each unit and is essentially unplayable.  Stephen's Nid list actually doesn't get affected at all.  He does have 3 Flyrants, so he will have to wait to drop them in, if he decides to drop them in at all.  His list centres around 3 units of Hive Guard and 3 units of Biovores with a whole host of Termagant broods and a Malanthrope followed up by a trio of GSC Magus's.  His list should be good to go with some minor alterations to take into account the point increase of Tyrants and Biovores.

Now because I have the information right here in front of me, lets keep going down the list and look at Nick's Black Legion/Death Guard/Thousand Sons list.  The premise of this list is to grow poxwalkers, and if you paid attention to his games that he was streaming live on Facebook you have seen that in one of his games he had a conga line of over 100 poxwalkers that stretched across the entire table.  This list has only really been affected by the ruling that if the number of models in a unit increases over the starting number, you must pay reinforcement points for them.  The poxwalker farm  has been killed, which is fine by me, but replenishing a big unit of poxwalkers is still a viable tactic.  Nick will not likely hit those number again, but if you keep a couple reinforcement points open you can maximise the units growth, then focus on growing it when it drops back down below it's starting number(20).

Check out more info HERE

The Wetcoast GT was won by a Ynnari focused list, but this one is only hurt by the Battle Brothers beta rule as it used the cheap Kabalite warriors as troops.  Second place was a pre-codex Tau army with only 3 Commanders.  I guess the reserves coming in turn 2 will hurt this army, but it's not breaking any of the limitations on quantity or composition, it's also pre-codex, so all sorts of things changed.  Third place goes to a IG/Blood Angels list similar to Andrews from Adepticon except all his mortars are in the Guard squads, so while he has fewer mortars, his list is within the max 3 limitations.  Again, the Sanguinary Guard get hit with the reserves change, but other than that this list is still good.

Check out more info HERE

Josh landed the top spot at the Barrie Bash, and it looks like his list doesn't get hit at all.  Daemons supported by Death Guard, everything is in it's own detachment and he doesn't have more than 3 of anything.  There may be some set back because he has 2 large units of poxwalkers and a big unit of pink horrors, so he will not be able to use them to grow the poxwalkers over their starting number, however, unless I'm missing something, his list comes in a couple hundred points short of 2000, which he probably uses to spawn Blues and Brims, growing the poxwalker horde even more.  Now he will have to split them between the poxwalkers and the horrors.  Second place Dan's list is Nids full of Flyrants and Mucolid spores, which is now impossible to use.  Devin's 3rd place list has Robute and 3 Fire Raptors as his main punch each taking up a detachment.  The rest of his army has some some issues with the new Battle Brothers beta rule as he has some assassins and no spare detachments to use.  He could drop a Fire Raptor and only take 2 in his Battalion, take a vanguard with 3 assassins, and spend the rest of the points on UM heavy weapons to take advantage of Robute's auras.

At the end of the day, I think that most of the new changes are going to be good for Warhammer.  Balance in the game is something that we all want to see.  I looked at around 20 armies from the top placings of some pretty big events, and when over half of them are 1 of 3 armies, it's time to make changes so that we are not stuck playing with and against that same list over and over again.  Change is good people, let it happen.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

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ELDAR: WE ARE BETTER THAN YOU

I would first and foremost like to offer an apology.  In part for taking so long to do this codex review, and in part for the recent showing of elder at the LVO.  Had I done this review before hand then several of you out there would know just how to beat Eldar and Nick Nanavati would not have won.  Did anyone believe that?  I didn't think so.  Nick won cause he's good, and I have no clue how to beat Eldar any more than any of you, but lets see if I can at least shed a little light on what makes them so damn good.  I am also going to try and keep these a little on the shorter side from now on, limiting myself to reporting only on things that will likely change the game.  I don't need to write a paragraph on Guardians, we all know what they do.

So here we have another book with a host of different armies all within a single army, "Chapter Tactics" as they are generally labelled.  Let us take a gander at those, so we have an idea as to what works well with the units when we get to those.  There is also the Objective Secured rule that all Troops seem to be getting.
First up, Alaitoc, or Alpha Legion.  Enemy unit targeting a unit from this Craftworld from more than 12" away suffer a -1 to hit.  The Biel-Tan Aspect Warriors add 1 to their Ld and everyone can re-roll 1's when shooting with shuriken weapons...weapons that have shuriken in the name, duh.  Iyanden will never loose more than one model to morale, and unit that have a damage table will treat it as though the unit has twice as many wounds as it actually does.  Saim-Hann can re-roll failed charge rolls and BIKER units do not suffer the -1 to hit penalty for moving and shooting heavy weapons.  The Ulthwe unit gain a 6+ FNP that can't be used in addition to other similar abilities.

This leads into the Ynnari keyword for a Reborn army which is found in the Xenos Index.  Ynnari units lose the Craftworld and "obsec" rules and gain their own rule called Strength form Death.  Keep in mind, not only Eldar units can be Ynnari, nearly all Aeldari units can be taken in a Ynnari army, I won't go through the others, sticking with the Eldar Craftworld units.  Back to SfD, when a biker or infantry unit with this rule is within 7" of a unit that dies it can perform one of 5 Soulburst actions, move, manifest a psychic power, shoot, charge, or fight, but it can only perform one Soulburst action per turn.

I know that all of you out there dread that terrible word, Ynnari, but many of you may not really know what it is that makes the Reborn so powerful. The power lies in that you can take a normal Craftworld detachment, then create a detachment of Eldar soup, units from each different Craftworld, make them a Reborn army and give them the Ynnari keyword and they both get access to the Stratagems.  The combinations of Craftworld psychic powers, stratagems, Soulburst, and Ynnari psychic powers, there are some dangerous combinations.  This also lets you pick and choose which craft world your unit can be from in order to allow them access to the appropriate stratagem.

With the new FAQ out it does limit some of the soupy combos for Ynnari in that you can't mix and match your Eldar.  However this will only really mean that you will have to adjust some of the detachments.  With Battalions giving 5CP now, you won't have to take as man and buy those "tax troops" to get all the Cps.

Lets look at one such combo involving Shining Spears in a Ynnari detachment, and of course another detachment that is Craftworld, which gives you access to the Stratagems.  First off, you put the Spears in the webway and when they drop you can cast Quicken on them so they can move again, you can also use the Saim-Han stratagem so they can advance and charge and re-roll 1's to hit.  Then if they kill what they charged they can charge again with a Soulburst.  Alternately you could also Quicken them next to a unit that you then kill in the shooting phase, giving the Spears ANOTHER move with Soulburst, after which they can then charge a target that your opponent once thought was safe.  There is literally nothing on the table that is safe from this combo with their M16"

The new FAQ has limited this to some degree as you can no longer use movement powers or abilities on units that have arrived from reserves that turn.  This does not stop Shining Spears from hitting you from anywhere on the table.

I am getting ahead of myself, talking about combos and tactics and I haven't even talked about anything yet.  I'm going to take a page out of the Thousand Sons book, and go from here into the psychic powers, since the next half-dozen entries all use them.  There are 2 disciplines in this book, and unlike the Thousand Sons, both of these are unique to this book.

The Runes of Fate, available only to the Farseers, are the main set of powers that many of you are familiar with, and have seen for many many years.  Guide, WC7 24", lets the target unit re-roll all failed hit rolls when using ranged weapons.  Doom, WC7 24", targets an enemy unit and allows all units to re-roll failed wound rolls.  Fortune, WC7 24", gives a friendly unit FNP 5+.  Executioner is a WC7 Smite that deals an additional D3 mortal wounds if the first D3 kills a model.  Will of Asuryan and Mind War are not worth the attempt

Since these powers are only available to Farseers, that seems like the perfect thing to segue into.  The Farseer is your main HQ full of all the typical stats you would expect to see from a skinny little space elf, a 4++, and while he only has A2, he hits on 2+ and the Witchblade wounds on 2+ and deal D3 wounds.  Sure there is no AP value, but wounding on 2+ and D3 wounds isn't bad for a weapon that doesn't cost any points.  Of course he is not known for his combat abilities, he is known for his mental prowess, being able to cast and deny 2 powers from the support heavy Runes of Fate.  This guys makes everything in your army deadlier and more durable.  Along with being able to cast 2 powers, his Runes of the Farseer give the ability to re-roll any of the dice used manifest or deny a psychic power, once per psychic phase.  On top of that, his Ghost Helm gives a 5+ FNP on any mortal wounds he suffers, and if those mortal wounds were from Perils he ignores them on a 2+.  A very reliable force multiplier, whom you can also take on a sky runner jet bike for an additional 30 points.

The Runes of Battle are interesting in that each power has 2 effects, and counts as 2 powers when casting each effect, but only counts as 1 power when selecting them.  They are also only available to the Warlocks.  The beneficial half of the power can only be cast on Asuryani Infantry/Biker units, but the negative effects can be cast on any enemy unit.  Conceal/Reveal, WC6 18", either targets a friendly unit giving a -1 to hit penalty to unit targeting it, or removes the saving throw bonus for cover.  Enhance/Drain, WC7 18", adds 1 to a friendly unit's hit rolls made in the fight phase, or subtracts 1 from an enemy unit's hit rolls in the fight phase.  Protect/Jinx, WC7 18", add 1 to saving throws of a friendly unit, or subtract 1 to saving throws of an enemy unit.  Quicken/Restrain, WC7 18", allows a friendly unit move again or reduces an enemy unit's M by half.  Last, Empower/Enervate, WC6 18", adds 1 to wound rolls in the fight phase for friendly units, or subtracts 1 from wound rolls made by enemy units.  These are all really pretty good and definitely have a place making all your units that much more dangerous, durable, or faster.  All the things a unit in 40K needs to be.

Segue master strikes again!

Warlocks are the leaders of warriors, as you can tell most their power are highly combat centric, focusing on manipulating dice rolls, adding and subtracting from them as necessary.  Aside from their different set of powers, they are generally a junior Farseer.  They have a 3+ WS and BS and although they don't get a Ghost Helm or psychic power re-rolls, they still have the weapon options and a 4++.  The Warlock does get a neutered version of Smite, so forget about spamming that with a cheap ass 35 point HQ, it only has a 9" range and deals a single mortal wound.  We can also get these guys on a bike for an additional 30 points.
We are not quite done with the Warlock, because we can take a Warlock Conclave on foot and on bikes, which is a unit of 2-10 Warlocks.  They lose the Character keyword, so they can be shot up at will, but they get some boosts to their psychic power as the unit gets bigger.  When the unit is 1-3 in size, it still has the baby smite, but it gets normal smite at 4-6 models and when it hits 7+ models it's smite ALWAYS deals D6 mortal wounds.  That sounds great, but they seriously get nerfed in the normal powers department when in a conclave.  Units of 1-3 models can only cast one and can only deny one power, this increases to 2 powers and denies with 4-6 models and goes to 3 powers and denies at 7+.  Regardless of the number of models, they know Smite and 2 powers from the battle discipline(so actually 4 powers).  The thing is, aside from the smite getting better, taking individual Warlocks is WAY better.  3 Warlocks in a Conclave can cast 1 power, 3 individual Warlocks can cast 3 powers.  Now, Warlocks in the Conclave only cost 30 points, so you save 5 points each...

yay...5 points.

Next up in the long list of HQ units is the Autarch, and we got them is 3 flavours, on foot, winged, or biker.  These guys have 1 special rule that make them almost a must take for every army called Path of Command.  This rule actually has 2 effects, first is one of them re-roll hit rolls of 1 auras, everyone's got them.  The other, is typically saved for a warlord trait, in that you roll a D6 for each command point spent on stratagems and on a 6 you get that command point back.  Now I'm not entirely sure, but it doesn't specify who has spent those command points, so it seems to me that you roll for every command point spent regardless of who spent it.  If you combine this with the Ulthwe warlord trait (roll a D6 at the start of each turn, on a 6 get a CP), you will be swimming in command points.  They also have some punch themselves, the footarch having a star glaive(power fist), the winged one comes with a power sword and fusion pistol, and the biker can take a laser lance and fusion gun.  The bikertarch is likely the strongest option, but the one on foot has a strong combat weapon and the one with wings can Skyleap (leave the table and then deep strike again), so there really is a place for each and every one of them depending on how you want to use them.  You also can't forget that they still have access to all the wargear that was available to them in the Index thanks to this little puppy...

The Avatar of Khaine is about 200 points of beat stick flopping around in a 250 point bag.  He is essentially an expensive, slow moving, daemon prince with no re-roll aura.  He does have a 12" fearless aura, and does D6 damage...that's about it.  I'm actually kind of disappointed by this guy, he should have greater daemon stats and abilities.  From it's description, it should rival a Bloodthirster, but it doesn't.

Our last HQ is the Spiritseer, which is like a Warlock but has a 6" re-roll 1's to hit for Spirit Host units.  You can't take them in a conclave or on a bike, but that aura makes them more expensive.  If you are going for an army heavy on the Spirit Host units, you will want a couple of these guys to make sure your big guys are getting work done.

As usual, I will not cover the special characters, but I will say there are a lot of them, 9 to be exact.  And they all kick ass in a myriad of ways, but you will have to look them over yourself.

YAY sports!

The new hotness for the troops section is the Ranger.  With their -1 to hit, +2 to armour while in cover, and sniper rifles, they are worth their 12 points.  While all that is good, it's their old school infiltrate deployment that makes them really useful.  After everything else in on the table, before the first turn starts, this unit is deployed anywhere on the table more than 9" from an enemy unit.  This is great at creating a no land zone and bubble wrapping your truly important units.  Now, there is a downside to this type of deployment, as there are other units such as Nurglings and Scouts that deploy anywhere on the table during deployment.  This can really mess you up and work against you if your opponent really pushes the envelope and gets in your face.  So plan for a backup bubble wrap procedure.

Aspect Warriors

Howling Banshees, they are not as scary as they sound, which is why you don't see them much, but why?  M8, WS3+, A2, everyone is equipped with power swords, enemy units can't overwatch them, and they add 3" to their charge range if they advance because yes, they can advance and charge.  Why the hell don't you see these bad ass babes?  Especially when you can Quicken them and they are confidently charging a unit 30" away.  Maybe it's because while they are charging into a unit 30" away, they are only killing 2 marines, and when you're opponent can just step back and waste the T3 4+Sv wimps it's not enough.  They are absolutely non-threatening unless they have some serious back up, but if you can get them that back up, Empower and Doom, you can double their death toll.  If you also get Enhance then they are each killing a marine.  Then you can add the stratagem Supreme Disdain to add a couple more attacks.  That is a lot of shit that all needs to come together to wipe out a half dozen marines but keep in mind this is a 75ish point unit killing half a dozen marines, and that doesn't happen all the time.

Now, if you have yet to notice any kind of theme with the units in this book, it's that they have a very narrow focus of what they do well and this even translates into the undead wraith units, or at least the infantry based ones.  

You have Wraithblades, equipped with sharp objects, and Wraithguard, equipped with stuff that kill you from over there (although not from way over there). These guys have a pretty impressive set of stats, S5 and T6 with 3W, equipped with high AP weapons and rules that really let them use their strengths.  The Wraithblades get an extra attack the turn they charge and with their swords giving them another one they have 4 each at S6 -3AP.  You will likely have a Spiritseer nearby and if you get Enhance on them they are killing 11 marines or 4 terminators.  Alternately you can equip them with axes and shields which will kill fewer marines but more terminators and the shield gives them a 4++, which is smart if they are smashing into terminators or such.  That is quite a bit of death for little support, but those units run around 200 points (including weapons but not the Spiritseer).

The Wraithguard, while next to useless in combat, can put out some serious damage with their guns each being S10 and -4AP.  The D-scythe does D3 auto hits with 1D each, but the Wraithcannon does only one shot, but it's D6D.  This translates to the D-scythe being really good at eliminating medium infantry, killing around 8 marines, and the Wraithcannon being good at taking out heavy monsters or vehicles, putting 11 wounds on a Leman Russ.  The Wraithguard tend to run a little higher in points on average the wraith cannons being a little more expensive than the swords.

Their durability is nothing to sneeze at either being able to weather over 200 bolter shells before the unit falls and over 20 lascannon shots (with the 4++).  With that, we come to the end of our Elites section.

The Vyper is an enigma, basically it's 6 fast moving S-Cannons for 210 points.  I figure they would have replaced the bikes by now because of their increased durability, and if you have 3 of them in a squad their movement is almost as good.  They can take items from the heavy weapons list, but with the -1 to hit penalty when moving and shooting them, the assault weapons are probably the better option.  A unit of 3 with Shuriken cannons will kill 4 marines, with no boosts, from pretty much anywhere on the table, moving 20" and a 24" weapon range.

Swooping Hawks are good!  These sneaky gits are all nimbly bimbly jumping around dropping grenades on peoples heads.  With their typical Eldar stat line and low S weapons, it's their ability to skirt the battle field dealing mortal wounds that give them their appeal.  They are also surprisingly durable in that they only spend half the game on the table.  First off, they can deep strike, then at the start of their turn, if they are more than 1" from an enemy model, they can return to deep strike and arrive again NEXT turn.  That's pretty cool, Blood Angels players pay command points for that shit and Eldar just do it.  It get better though, because when they deep strike within 12" of a unit or move over a unit in the movement phase, they can drop grenades on them.  Roll a D6 for each model in the enemy unit UP TO the number of models in the Swooping Hawks unit.  Each 6 causes a mortal wound.  With the weird number of shots you get with the grenades, it's best if you use it to target a unit that is at least as large as the Swooping Hawks unit and is fairly durable with low number of wounds.

We now come to the question that everyone has been asking themselves since the day this codex was released.  How do we make Warpspiders look like Dark Reapers?  Cause they got not good.  Their guns don't do enough for the points you pay and their movement shenanigans are to unreliable to make them worth taking.

I've talked a little about Shining Spears already, but lets take a look at what they are packing weapon wise.  They are on a bike, which makes them T4 and W2 with a 3+ save.  That means they are durable enough to whether some minor firepower to use their laser lance, which had a ranged profile of 6", S6, AP-4, and 2D and a combat profile of S-user(S6 the turn it charges), AP-4, and 2D.  The Exarch gets a better version that has S8 attacks.  They are 30 points a model, but their mobility and damage output really makes them an invaluable unit to the Eldar army.  They are a great counter attack unit against a heavy assault army, they will be able to start on the table with little shooting coming at them.  And they can be put into the web way and attack just about anywhere on the table with a couple abilities.  You can take them in units of 9 and their damage output is pretty staggering.  They will wipe 8 marines off the table, or 5 terminators, or put 8 damage on most vehicles, WITH NO BOOSTS and that doesn't include their shooting.

Well, what can we say about Dark Reapers other than everyone wants them.  What makes them so good?  Could it be their 3+ save?  Or maybe their 48" range gun with 2 profiles, S8/5 AP-2, and 3/2D.  Or perhaps it's the Exarch who's weapon doesn't need LOS and puts out 2D6 S4 -2AP shots.  Are they expensive, sure they are and even more so with the FAQ knocking them up to 34 points each and limiting them to 3 per army.  You will still likely see 3 of them, just for the Exarch.

Aside from that, everything else in the Heavy slot is good and does pretty much exactly what you would expect it to do.  Warwalkers are sneaky and shooty, although less sneaky with the latest FAQ.  Wraithlords can be anything you want, and with T8 and 10 wounds they are pretty under appreciated for under 150 points.  The Night Spinner is pretty reliable at taking out infantry with it's 2D6 S7 shots.

The last unit I'm going to talk about here is the Hemlock Wraithfighter...

It doesn't look very scary...

That's a hemlock tree, not the extremely deadly fighter jet in the Eldar arsenal of extremely deadly things.  The long list of special abilities it has reads like a little kids wish list.  It can turn 90 degrees before and after it moves, it adds 20" to it's move when it advances it has a 6+ FNP, it's hard to hit and airborne(as per typical "flyer" rules), and it has a 10" -2 Ld aura.  OH, and it can cast psychic powers!  So Smite is a big one, but it can choose the second power from the Battle power that the Warlocks have access to.  They can't cast both, only the second one, which is typically the one that hinders the opponent.  I have seen these guys used to absolutely nightmarish levels and am baffled as to why they are not seen more.  I have forgotten something, their guns.  How could I have forgotten that?  They have 2 of them, they fire D3 shots at S12 and -4AP that do 2D...AND THEY AUTO HIT WITH A 16" RANGE!  Yeah, what the shit indeed.  You might be thinking to me, "So what, that's only 3 dead models for both guns and they are over 200 points each."  To which I say, they are far more than just their weapons.  Their -2Ld aura and their ability to move literally anywhere on the table greatly affects the morale phase.  I have seen it played so that a trio of hemlocks fly into the enemy deployment zone and deal a handful of damage around, then the rest of the Eldar army spreads it's firepower around, seemingly very sporadic.  Pretty soon a handful of units are down 3-4 models and effectively have a Ld of 1 or 2 for their Morale check and they each lose 2 more models, in some cases wiping out small units.  So the 3 models that the Hemlock kills now turns into 10-15 dead models.  This of course only works on units that can be affected by morale, but there are a lot of those out there.

Synchronization

That is all for the units, but we are not done yet.  This book is full of crazy combos and synchronisations that can make most units really powerful.  I've already talked about one involving the Shining Spears from a Ynnari detachment, but these are going to solely focus on the Craftworld abilities and units with no outside interference.

The Eldar have something that very few other armies have, the ability to soften the blow of that Alpha strike with a couple stratagems that are enacted at the start of your opponent's shooting phase.  You can give a Guardian unit a 4++, -1 to hit an infantry unit or a unit with the FLY keyword, or only hit a unit of Rangers on 6's regardless of modifiers.  Add to this the Alaitoc -1 to hit when over 12", or the Ulthwe 6+ FNP, you can really make your units that are on the table pretty durable with no added psychic powers, which will only make them tougher.  Add in an Avatar and no will even run away from Morale.  If your opponent "deep strikes" in the wrong spot you can shoot at it too, as long and the shooting unit is within 6" of a Farseer.  This is where those Reapers come in handy again because there is no range limitation to where the enemy unit lands that prevents you from shooting at it.

Eldar are good at killing things too, really good.  All their basic weaponry have old school rending, meaning on a 6 to wound they become -3AP.  Add Guide, Doom, Reveal, and Jinx into the mix and you have a serious death ball.  Lets look at a unit of 20 Guardians with 2 Shuriken cannons.  When in range they put out 7 wounds on a MEQ, Jinx increases that number by 3, Guide adds 2 more, and Doom brings the total up to 15 wounds.  From a unit of Guardians and 3 psychic powers.

If you don't want to rely on psychic powers, then Discipline of the Black Guardians, Runes of Witnessing, and the warlord trait Ambush of Blades will turn the 7 wounds into 12ish (the math is harder on this one).

And it's done!  You are welcome, 6 months too late.  Unfortunately I have not really enlightened any way to beat them, but I have pointed out a bunch of ways that they can kill you.  So I guess try to avoid those...good luck.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

It's time to plug the sponsor of this segment, Maxx Collectibles, which now has a Wednesday night boardgames as part of the CMON Play program.  Last Wednesday they previewed Zombicide: Black Plague.  In order to make sure players get the full experience, Maxx is open till 9:00 Wednesdays.  

Aside from the CMON games happening, the gaming room in the back is still open for the Shadespire League, the Guild ball League, and the Warhammer 40K league which is just wrapping up, and possibly an Infinity League.  That's a whole league of extraordinary gentlemen playing games at...

WESTMAN GAMING EXPO TEAM TOURNAMENT

Another tournament in the bag, this one being the first annual Westman Gaming Expo Warhammer 40K Doubles Tournament.  It took place at the Keystone Centre in Brandon and they had 13 teams enter.

Before we get into the games and such, I want to talk about the facilities.  We had a ridiculous amount of space.  Not once did I feel crowded or felt like I was crowding someone else.  This is particularly awesome in events like this where you have 4 players around a 6x4 table with army trays and books all over the place.  They had more than enough tables set up to accommodate for at least 5 MORE teams and more than enough terrain per table as you will see in the pics.

Supplier of terrain and prizes

This club is going places, and I can see them putting on some pretty big tournaments in the future.  Also, the entry fee was $10 per player.  Yeah, only $10, that is a pretty damn good price for a day of gaming.  Finally, they had a nearby pizzeria provide order forms for pizzas.  The pizzas showed up a little late so I did have to eat during my second game, but I didn't have to go anywhere or do anything other than check 2 boxes.  It was $20 for a 13" pizza and a canned drink, which is not a bad price.

Ok, enough of that, let get to our armies.  I was playing Death Guard and having never played a Poxwalker farm before, I thought a tournament was the perfect place to practice.  I had...

Daemon Prince with Supporating Plate
Typhus
20 Cultists
20 Cultists
10 Poxwalkers
10 Poxwalkers
Tallyman
Bloat Drone with flesh mower
Bloat Drone with flesh mower
35 extra Poxwalkers

I think in the future, I will take one unit of 20 poxwalkers instead of 2 units of 10.  Trying to find a spot where both units of poxwalkers are in range of both units of cultists was starting to get tricky.  I will also use this as a focus in larger games.  While my opponent is focused on making sure the horde doesn't develop the rest of my army can move up and blight grenade the shit out of him.


My team mate, Garth, has an obsession with terminators so he brought his Deathwing army...

Belial
5 Terminators assault cannon
5 Terminators assault cannon
5 Terminators plasma cannon
5 Terminators plasma cannon

So, there are a couple things wrong with Garth's list that I didn't notice until after we played with it a couple times, and this is partially my fault because we discussed his list at length before making the final decision.  We should have traded Belial for a Master in Terminator armour, then dropped the plasma cannons and taken the missile racks the terminators can take instead.  OR, again traded Belial for a Master, then taken one 10 man terminator squad with 2 plasma cannons, then we could have combat squadded them and put both plasma cannons in the same unit to take advantage of Weapons of the Dark age.  Belial was good for his re-rolls, but re-rolling those 2's would not have made much of difference if we had better weapon options while still re-rolling 1's.  Also, heavy weapons on terminators suck, especially plasma cannons, being able to put multiple of them in one unit is a good idea so it can stay still while rest can move and punch.  Hind sight is 20-20.

The tournament used the standard Maelstrom mission(draw cards til you have 3) as the primary, with a few changes.  Faction specific cards were not used, they just revered to the standard ones, card 66 was removed, and any D3 was changed to 2, and D6 was changed to 3.  Deployment was a bit strange too, each player deployed a unit per team.  So if we deployed first, both me and my team mate would deploy a unit, then each of the other players would deploy a unit.  The deployment zones and secondary changed each game, and I will discuss those, but the tertiaries all stayed the same.  First strike, which each team could score, slay the warlord, and line breaker.  Each player had a warlord, so you could actually score that one twice per game and each player could score line breaker for 2 points.  The primary was worth 5, the secondary 3, and each tertiary 1 for a max possible score of 13.

GAME 1

This game used the Dawn of War deployment and the secondary mission was to accumulate points equal to the Power Level of each unit you had in the enemies deployment zone at the end of each turn.

Our opponents, I have forgotten their names, were playing Eldar and Thousand Sons.  These guys were NEW, this was their first tournament, and they did not know the rules very well.  They explained that right up front and I totally understood, you don't get better unless you play more.  They were really nice guys, and I hope they leaned a lot from our game and enjoyed the rest of the event.

The Eldar list was Wraith heavy with 2 units of Wratihguard and a unit of Wraith blades with axes.  He also had 2 Farseers, one on a bike(his warlord) and the other with a relic that was basically a jump pack, he also had a Waveserpent that he put one of the unit of Wraithguard in.

The Thousand Sons player had a Daemon Prince, a Sorcerer in terminator armour, a small unit of Rubrics with flamers, a unit of Tzangor, a unit of cultists, 2 unit of disc Tznagors, a Helbrute with missile launcher and plasma cannon, and a Heldrake.

This game really went exactly how it was supposed to go on our end.  Like I said, our opponents were new, so they did not know about the Poxwalker farm and proceed to kill a ton of the cultists growing the mob.  I slowly ambled forward and my Prince and Drones took cover from a large piece of terrain in the middle of the table.

Turn 2 is when Garth brought in his army dropping the whole thing right in the middle of the table, he was able to shoot the Warlord Farseer off the table and assault and kill the Rubrics getting into their deployment zone.

The Heldrake came out to play and burned off a wound from a Drone, but failed a pretty easy charge to get stuck on top of the central coffee can.  Their Prince jumped on the terminators, but thanks to some luck a couple managed to survive the onslaught.  Things are pretty even right now in the primary department, and we jumped way ahead on the secondary with those terminators surviving.

This is the turn that breaks the bank, my Drones jump up and smack the Heldrake out of the sky while my Prince jumps up and beats down his prince.  Garth assaults the other Farseer and the Wraithguard while Typhus turns around and deals 9 wounds to the Sorcerer who dropped down in our deployment zone and assaulted the straggling unit of poxwalkers.  We scored a bunch of points and denied them a couple putting us way up in the primary as well as getting us the other warlord kill and double line breaker.

That's pretty much how the game ends, unfortunately we only got in 3 turns, despite turn 1 going by really quick due to Garth not bringing in his army.  But once things got on the table there were a ton of questions and lots to explain which really dragged out turn 2.  The end score was 12-0 for us.

GAME 2

This one was Vanguard deployment and the secondary was just to hold the objectives at the end of the game.  We played against "Blood Angel" Mike and his son Mitchel.  I have played Mike before and have seen him at many tournaments.  He is a super nice guy and he has definitely rubbed off on his son.

Mike's list was something like this...

Priest

4 Golden boys

Golden boy with banner

Dreadnought

5 Scouts with sniper rifles

Stormraven

While Mitchel took...

Tyrant with wings and scything talons

Broodlord

3 Venomthropes

15ish Genestealers

2 x 20 gaunts with guns.

Big tentacle creepy monster thing.  Not sure what it was called, but I couldn't kill it which cost us the game...spoiler alert.

Our deployment was pretty much the same as last time, Garth put all this stuff in reserve and I deployed in a ball in the middle.  Mike's whole army was in his Stormraven, except for a unit of scouts who took an objective just off to my left.

Garth brought all his stuff in turn 1 this time, right in the face of the Stormraven full of super Killy blood angels.  He shot the 2 unit of Gaunts to bits with his bolters while his heavier guns went into the Stormraven not doing much.  I moved the Prince and Drones up toward the Scouts looking to get a charge on them.  I was able to snipe off the scouts and not have to charge them, leaving me pretty well covered behind a hill.

So, if you can see Belial there, on the rock with his line of terminators in front of him, you will notice that his "O-Line" is not doing it's job and Belial gets sacked, hard.

This is what it felt like...

This is what it looked like

Belial took 4 melta-pistols to the face and then the terminators got assaulted.  That is pretty much what happened to the angels portion of both armies for the rest of the battle.  As for the Tyranids, the Genestealers rushed forward to get turned into zombies and the Tyrant dropped in to get charged and cut up by the Prince and Drones.

The game came to an end with Them managing to scoop a couple critical points on the last turn and taking the win.  I was unable to kill the big tentacle thing with a Drone and the Prince, which felt a little disappointing since it was half dead already, but that would have tied the primary and given us the overall win.  Unfortunately it ended 5-8 for them.

GAME 3

For our final game we played some Chaos soup, Death Guard and Thousand Sons.

The Death Guard list looked like this:

Prince with Supporating Plate
Chaos Lord
Contemptor dread with double C-beamers
2 Plagueburst Crawler
Predator with autocannon - lascannons
20 Poxwalkers

Thousand Sons:
Prince with 3++
Prince
2 x 10 Tzangors
10 Rubrics
3 Flamers which he summoned in.

We deployed in the typical fashion, my stuff in a ball and Garth's not on the table.  They deployed with the Nurgle stuff int he backfield and the Tsons stuff in the forefront looking to push forward.

These guys knew that the Poxwalkers were the main target so they shot them up right away.  They managed to do a bunch of damage to one unit and wipe one of the Cultist squads before I could get the stratagems up since they got first turn.  W responded by wiping out their big squad of walkers when Garth's stuff came in all along the left side of the table.

My army and the Tsons army converged in the middle with the Defiler leading the way, charging into the Drones.  It gets blown up, which takes out a Drone, which also blows up, after it kills another Drone.  Mortal wounds were flying all over the place.

Points are getting scored on both sides and it is at this point I set up a blitz.  We drew Defend Objective 1, which is right in the middle of the table under the floating grey mountain.  I move up my remaining poxwalkers to secure it, but I assault the Defiler with my cultists and move one model to within 3" of the Objective.  They focus all their firepower on the poxwalkers, then assault them with the 2 Tsons Princes and wipe them out, but the cultists were untouched and hold the objective for 2 points.  This is what ties the primary objective for us.

The real kicker comes at the end of turn 3 when the "comet" arrives.  If you have played the Open War card mission you may know this.  The secondary objective arrives on the table at the end of turn 3, teams roll off and the winner rolls a D6 and places the objective in a location according to the picture on the card.  Basically, 1-4 it's placed in the centre of one of the table quarters, 5-6 it's placed in the centre of the table.  Well it just so happens to land right in the middle of the, nearly untouched, Dark Angel terminators.  After it's all said and done, that secondary objective tied the game for us 9-9.  We also only played 3 turns, so that was literally the last thing to happen in our game.  While that was lucky for us, I'm not a huge fan of winning that way.  It's too bad for our opponents the game didn't go another turn or so cause they really had us on the ropes and would have likely won the game.

So we end the tournament with 26 battle points and a final score of 45 for a second place finish!

I know the pictures is blurry AF, but that creeper over Garth's shoulder is Sean, the guy playing the Thousand Sons in game 3.  He is a buddy of mine and he would really want me to mention this one time we played a game, I was playing Death Guard and he was playing Grey Knights...and that's all I'll say.

That's all for this post, thanks for reading.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

Once again I have to mention my sponsor, who was actually also my partner in the tournament and donated a Forgebane box for the draw that took place on Sunday, I didn't win it.  Maxx Collectibles has their monthly painting seminar still going on, happening on the 3rd Saturday of every month.  They will supply you with paint, brushes, table space, everything you need to learn how to paint.  Dave Zimmer and Paul Morrisette from the Manitoba Model Soldier Society will be handing out advice and painting tips.  There is always a group that shows up to these events, a lot of them young kids soaking up information and painting tips.  Some of them are getting pretty good, and they are only 10-12 years old.  Talented little punks.