tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44335512989887008412024-03-13T13:25:37.486-05:00THE 40K MISFITA blog about Warhammer 40kThe 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-35751950493330919732020-10-23T08:37:00.000-05:002020-10-23T08:37:43.163-05:00PRIMARCH PROFILE PART 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXf7IWrspJ-Cu6m75iB_Zzl8NIEHjWcHAV63zBd6rjTUii8IBvB5PWSIIxW-J5QX9wL2J-ejK6WVasOoakmJ_2CdbZISrqq6Ywq8HJtMwXeCfUDGu4qZbtWJ6OmfNOPPpMCmAgXL6afg/s1920/addams.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXf7IWrspJ-Cu6m75iB_Zzl8NIEHjWcHAV63zBd6rjTUii8IBvB5PWSIIxW-J5QX9wL2J-ejK6WVasOoakmJ_2CdbZISrqq6Ywq8HJtMwXeCfUDGu4qZbtWJ6OmfNOPPpMCmAgXL6afg/w513-h288/addams.jpg" width="513" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Hello everyone and welcome back to the Primarch Profile series. Last part covered the first 6 legions, Dark Angels, Emperor's Children, Iron Warriors, White Scars, Space Wolves, and the Imperial Fists. Each of the primarchs had pretty basic "rags to riches" stories that ended with them becoming ruler of their planet. Of those six, two turned to Chaos and sided with Horus, Fulgrim fell due to pride and vanity, while Perturabo fell from a lack of hugs. Neither one particularly had a great reason for denouncing their father and throwing the universe into war, but hey, families, amirite? This week is going to be a little different as some of our characters today have reasons. Lets start with my favourite...<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD_wVt0Hotz9Fd8Vpj6w1VLxkbkGxb3wTJse5q02UicsDeF0T-w091eT18r-uCuOZEZ5vUVAn3_HFwNChZq82OKkW_eqBQy6vr-DO6aDDVojzTkwVQDQ5QtHGSjiEargbC0T66w_k6WQ/s616/konrad.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="616" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD_wVt0Hotz9Fd8Vpj6w1VLxkbkGxb3wTJse5q02UicsDeF0T-w091eT18r-uCuOZEZ5vUVAn3_HFwNChZq82OKkW_eqBQy6vr-DO6aDDVojzTkwVQDQ5QtHGSjiEargbC0T66w_k6WQ/w394-h238/konrad.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>VIII - Night Lords - Konrad Curze</div><div>Konrad's capsule landed smack dab in the middle of Nostramo Quintus, the largest city of the planet Nostramo. Smashing through multiple levels of urban construct and the planet's crust to finally stop near the planet's liquid core, the hole that was made was covered over and forgotten. Unlike his brothers, Curze was not found and raised by a family or mentor, he was alone until the Emperor arrived. Now to describe Nostramo, it's basically Gotham City at it's worst, rife with corruption, crime, gangs, and all of the violence that comes with it turned up to 11. To say that Konrad rose to the occasion to become the hero the innocent wanted would be a complete fabrication, he became something so much worse, the hero they deserved. That was fun to say, but he really did become a Jeffery Dahmer version of Batman, given the name Night Haunter by the populace he haunted. Except replace the money and gadgets with inhuman strength, stamina, and agility. He brought the city to it's knees through fear by tortured and mutilated bodies of "bad guys" he displayed throughout the city. While his methods may be a little gruesome, his moral compass was relatively intact, exacting punishment only on those who were guilty of some crime. I could go on and on about how interesting this is because he had no one raise him, no code of honour handed down to him, no "father figure" or idol, his morale code was his own and it was not clouded by responsibility, greed, or devotion to any individual, but I really need to move on. Within a year crime had nearly ceased to exist and Curze presented himself to the political council and gave them an ultimatum, join him or die. This made Curze the first planetary ruler Nostramo had ever seen. For ten years he ruled Nostramo, brutally torturing and killing any who sinned and broadcasting the acts of "justice" across the planet enforcing his rule of fear and he accomplished what Batman couldn't, peace and prosperity.</div><div>It would be a horrible oversight of mine if I did not talk about Curze's visions, which showed him the future. They were never particularly pleasant visions, and they usually came in the form of a seizure or "fit" or sometimes a flash, but they ALWAYS came true. To him, they were visions of fate, not of possible futures, this is a very important distinction as it's the crux of his character. When the Emperor arrived he showed up with 4 other Primarchs, Dorn, Lorgar, Ferrus, and Fulgrim, and Curze saw each of their futures. Dorn he saw die in a dark tunnel stabbed by hundreds of blades, we know that Dorn will eventually die on a Chaos Space Marine ship. Lorgar was screaming at a burning sky wreathed in psychic power and as we will soon find out, he gains incredible gifts from the Chaos gods. Ferrus Manus is just an eyeless head thanks to Fulgrim at Istvaan IV. Lastly he sees Fulgrim as an ethereal snakelike being, and we know he ascends to Daemon Princehood. When the Emperor stepped up Curze was rocked by a vision so powerful it brought him to his knees. We don't know what it was but when the Emperor called him by name (which he had never heard before) and said he was bringing Curze home, Curze renounced the name and said "My people gave me a name, and I will bear it until my dying day. And I know full well what you intend for me." After Curze left, Nostramo eventually returned to it's former ways and began enlisting criminals for the ranks of the Astartes instead of the best and brightest. Curze would drive his Legion to further acts of violence and butchery using fear to conquer planets as only he knew how. Yet the Emperor did not openly punish him as he had with several other legions and Primarchs. All the while Curze is having visions of his own death at the hands of the Emperor and Astartes fighting Astartes, which is yet unheard of. When he reveals that last vision to Fulgrim and Dorn, Dorn rebuffs Curze which results in a fight leaving Dorn badly injured. It doesn't take much to convince Curze to go against the Emperor. After the battle of the Imperial Palace, Curze takes his Legion to Tsagualsa where he waits for the assassin to take his head which, of course, happens. He tells his Legion to let it happen, and they do. The thing to remember is that Curze saw all of this shit before it happened, and he just sort of dared the Emperor to let it happen, and was devastated when it did.</div><div>The Legion was not much better, half full of Astartes created using the dregs of human society, the downward spiral was a tight corkscrew. Once Curze realized that his Legion wasn't being stocked by the finest specimen he returned home and utterly destroyed the entire planet with lance strikes, but not before running amok on the surface first, making sure the populace remembered the rule of the Night Haunter before they died. Not all of the Legion were keen on this direction, but they also knew Curze's temperament toward people who didn't abide by his rules, so they went along, watching in despair as their "father" went deeper into madness. Many of them detested what the Legion had become, but could also see their effectiveness, for while they would decimate a whole city in the most gruesome and violent ways imaginable, it would scare the rest of the world into submission. Often times this would result in far fewer overall deaths and faster compliance. Much of this hatred wasn't entirely directed at Curze though, as it was believed that this must have been the Emperor's plan all along.</div><div>One final note on Konrad Curze, I like him as a character more than any other Primarch because he such a flawed and pathetic creature. His inner turmoil is clearly visible and he is one of the few Primarchs that I see as having a legitimate reason to turn from the Emperor. The Emperor made him what he was, and would eventually kill him for living up to his potential.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NWE8IOoRFScdJc5D5bB63t7yqzp3Z71mTUIyMqr9ib67glrzDdNyDJvSesyS7wiI9r5dl-uiWgiBfUf4oeNc1dt_xY4Myno5jzhvIYcBPPN_KpLBVkYDHc_LWUXLo7wS08dDyzt5hw/s2048/Sanguinius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1588" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NWE8IOoRFScdJc5D5bB63t7yqzp3Z71mTUIyMqr9ib67glrzDdNyDJvSesyS7wiI9r5dl-uiWgiBfUf4oeNc1dt_xY4Myno5jzhvIYcBPPN_KpLBVkYDHc_LWUXLo7wS08dDyzt5hw/s320/Sanguinius.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>IX - Blood Angles - Sanguinius</div><div>Landing on the planet Baal, Sanguinius had an upbringing similar to Dorn's in that he was good at everything and became the leader of the world. Phrases like "perfect leadership" and "total mastery of physical combat" are used to describe his war against the mutant horde that formed in the radioactive desert wastelands on Baal. He also had giant, white, feathery wings, so he was essentially an angel. If any of the Primarchs could be called a "good guy", it would be Sanguinius and many of these accolades could be indicative of his own form of foresight, much like that of Curze's. Yet unlike Curze, Sanguinius believed his visions were only possible futures and he could use them to change the outcomes he foresaw. The Emperor could feel the psychic power of Sanguinius and followed it to Baal where he bestowed upon him he Legion of Astartes, the Blood Angels.</div><div>Leading up to the Heresy Sanguinius's story is pretty much like most of the others. Until Horus sent him to Signus Prime where he met a great Khorne Daemon who killed hundreds of Blood Angels hoping that the forces of Chaos could infuse such a bloodlust into an already fairly bloodlusty Primarch and Legion and they would turn to Chaos. While that didn't work to plan, it did kill thousands of Blood Angels and delay Sanguinius from returning to Terra to defend it. He did make it back in time and during the final battle on Horus's ship, Sanguinius came face to face with Horus and came out on the losing end of that fight. Yet it is said that Sanguinius was able to crack the armour of Horus and the Emperor was able to use it to kill the traitor Primarch.</div><div>It might seem odd that Horus would have sent the Blood Angels to try and stoke their bloodlust as it seems that Sanguinius is the most noble and honourable of all the Primarchs, but Horus knew of a secret defect in Sanguinius's geneseed that reveals itself as a thirst for blood. It's typically seen as a particular bloodlust in battle, yet can also manifest as an insatiable, actual thirst for blood. Known as the Red Thirst, these warriors are generally "disposed" of quickly and quietly, at least as quietly as a giant semi-human genetically enhanced engine of war can be. This isn't the only flaw they have, since Sanguinius was slain there has been a psychic backlash that has occurred through the legion, and somehow continues to manifest today, where it makes the Astartes believe that they are back at the battle for Terra. This is called the Black Rage and these warriors are rounded up into the Death Company, who are then led to the front of the battle and thrown at the enemy in order to either dispose of them, or kill the enemy. Either way, this Legion has seen some ups and downs.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjL-SvpGDm9RAsSzpUQPYUiy5gD0dWUW4xH7Jq6qQIaQXxmPa8GA7lAdsOlme8mmm_dtdT9XDOZNP0N7CAmpNBbtRlHOdnLZbg0zjoqVkXdmzO-N69oh7Tpt_d5Ade_HEfPSbJjN3Xg/s833/ferrus+manus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="833" data-original-width="570" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjL-SvpGDm9RAsSzpUQPYUiy5gD0dWUW4xH7Jq6qQIaQXxmPa8GA7lAdsOlme8mmm_dtdT9XDOZNP0N7CAmpNBbtRlHOdnLZbg0zjoqVkXdmzO-N69oh7Tpt_d5Ade_HEfPSbJjN3Xg/s320/ferrus+manus.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>X - Iron Hands - Ferrus Manus</div><div>Ferrus Manus landed on Medusa, so violently that it shook mountains to the ground. Now there are several "meteorite hits the world and destroys everything" movies that really put a damper on my understanding of what happens when something hits a planet so hard it shakes down mountains, but lets put that aside. Ferrus spends the entirety of his formative years on the world in the mountains alone, fighting beasts and ancient robots and becoming Big Foot, Paul Bunyan, and Thor all wrapped up in one. One of these mechanical beasts is possibly a Necron construct whom he leads to the planets core and tosses into the liquid hot magma, only to get some of the liquid metal on him that then covers his arms, and he can't get it off. Now he has metal arms like Jax from Mortal Combat. He emerges from the mountains a fully grown man and fights his way to become ruler of the planet. He then leads the faithful followers to open a bunch of lost vaults and reclaim a bunch of ancient technology that people forgot existed and how to use it. This is probably the reason that he is a great artisan and blacksmith, all of his weapons being works of art and cause people to be inspired and yada yada yada.</div><div>When Ferrus was picked up by the Emperor, he quickly formed a bond with Fulgrim that started out as a rivalry. Through a contest of crafting a weapon they earned each others respect and fell in love, but it was a romance that was doomed to fail as Fulgrim ended up falling to Chaos and decapitating the love of his life and starting him on his path to Daemon Princedom.</div><div>The death of their Primarch broke the Iron Hands Legion, and in their despair they took to heart something that Ferrus said sometimes. "The flesh is weak." They took this to mean remove as many aspects of humanity as possible and replace it with robot bits. There isn't really much more to say about them, they like robot stuff.</div><div><br /></div><div>XI - Unknown Legion</div><div>Yep, the second one.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib9QSkRInIupvSh3QTpcfMy7Ga-4g9oIJDvoLZCe9wYYbo63IcoAHEDk97CF21gMW2p4xP944kptnLsUhyphenhyphenkXGh5GdEpwurhZNyxRhSbBz4Zg1ChOdYY0wJONH28EqvT8iXsJ_qbGCN1g/s1639/angron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1352" data-original-width="1639" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib9QSkRInIupvSh3QTpcfMy7Ga-4g9oIJDvoLZCe9wYYbo63IcoAHEDk97CF21gMW2p4xP944kptnLsUhyphenhyphenkXGh5GdEpwurhZNyxRhSbBz4Zg1ChOdYY0wJONH28EqvT8iXsJ_qbGCN1g/s320/angron.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>XII - World Eaters - Angron</div><div>Ok, ok, ok, check this out, Angron's original name is Angronius of Nuceria. Yeah, I'd be fucking pissed about that too. Nuceria being the planet he landed on, he was found as a young boy and immediately stuck into the gladiatorial pits. The "High Riders" were the rich ruling class, and the gladiator games were a way to appease the lower class, not unlike Ancient Rome. Now Angron wasn't entirely without some sort of mentor, and an older gladiator named Oenomaus took a liking to him. At this stage Angron is not very angry, and he almost even enjoys his time as a gladiator although does make the attempt several time to escape, none of which succeed. Now you might wonder what kind of civilization can contain the might of a Primarch and, as it turns out, the answer is a technologically advanced one. This is were we are introduced to the "Butcher's Nails" which is a device that is implanted into the skull and enhances aggression, adrenaline, and gives the subject a sense of euphoria while he is in battle while deadening the enjoyment of all else and causing pain when not killing. The device is from the Dark Age of Technology, so it is a wonder that this world still knows of it's use and how to use it. With these implants in place Angron, blinded by the induced rage of the "Nails", tore Oenomaus apart, and this is where Angron gets angry. He plots an escape Spartacus style and with 2000 other gladiators manages a daring escape into the mountains.</div><div>At this point the Emperor shows up and hangs out in orbit for months watching Angron slowly lose a war of attrition, with the only supplies being the ones they can pillage from the cities they raze. Yeah, Angron and his band of merry men would attack full cities and burn them to the ground. They were called the Eater of Cities for crying out loud. With half of his war band of gladiators left, Angron is finally surrounded by seven full armies and this is when the Emperor decides to show up. Oh, but not to help. He tells Angron it's time to go and Angron says "Next goal wins!" so Big E just teleports the both of them back up his ship in space and lets all of Angron's war band die. Of all the Primarch that turn traitor, I think Angron probably has the most legitimate reason to hate the Emperor. He becomes a giant Daemon Prince of Khorne and is part of the assault on the Imperial Palace.</div><div>The Legion, originally named the War Hounds, are in a really weird spot. First off, Angron is one of the last Primarchs to be found, so they were a little behind in their compliant world quota making them eager to please Angron. This made it easy to convince them to get the Butcher's Nails implanted, making them ravaging monsters on the battlefield. The World Eaters were not like most of the other legions, when they landed on a world they did not bring it to compliance, they razed it to the ground, as their name suggests. As with the Night Lords, the World Eaters hated the Emperor as Angron was his creation, and with his powers of foresight he must have know this would be the outcome.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmz5igL1E2DqlSp5_UkHj4dLUi5HY2TeRCe0OZPaaPiDBLIYMASBGNYHUC5czeqAPQMbRvlWHpX1tzyReieqiTwo2HuW_EHMxJAwu_7xpg7ICIdkOi49iHHGpo0ZRaJUgM2ikOPnN9Og/s1823/roboute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1823" data-original-width="1575" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmz5igL1E2DqlSp5_UkHj4dLUi5HY2TeRCe0OZPaaPiDBLIYMASBGNYHUC5czeqAPQMbRvlWHpX1tzyReieqiTwo2HuW_EHMxJAwu_7xpg7ICIdkOi49iHHGpo0ZRaJUgM2ikOPnN9Og/s320/roboute.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>XIII - Ultramarines - Roboute Guilliman</div><div>Every Primarch has their "thing", Perturabo knocks down buildings, Dorn builds them up, Curze is scary, and Manus makes things. Well Guilliman thinks. He is that guy you went to collage with who's always making lists, and has a tiny orgasm when he completes a "To Do" list. The choices he makes in life are usually the right ones but are also always the safe choice, the one with the lowest risk even if it means a low reward. This makes him a very efficient and successful leader. Otherwise his upbringing is that same old song and dance we see with many of the other Primarchs. Birth capsule lands on planet, infant Primarch found by person and raised to be awesome, became awesome and ruled the world.</div><div>When the Emperor showed up Guilliman fell in step conquering the galaxy. However one of the things that made Guilliman a little different that many of his brothers is that he often had a plan for the world after it was brought into the fold, and his plans often resulted in a more content and loyal planet. So much so that Guilliman had his own little empire called Ultramar, which he fell back to when he was cut off from Terra when the Heresy started. He didn't know whether or not the Emperor had been killed due to a Chaos infused warp storm that popped up around Ultramar so he did the safe thing and just stayed put. It turns out that that was the wrong thing to do as he did not make it back to Terra in time to help defend it when he found out that it hadn't been overrun. I feel it's important to mention that the worlds of Ultramar really feel like they were treated differently that many of the other planets. For example, when Caliban was "assimilated" into the fold huge machines were brought in to level the forests and turn the planet into the typical grim dark hive city taking advantage and abusing it's population. However any time they talk of any of the worlds of Ultramar they have beautiful landscapes, people are happy, and everything is full of unicorns and rainbows. After the Heresy Guilliman joined in the hunt and chased the Chaos Legions back to the Eye of Terror, but not before being mortally wounded by Fulgrim in his freaky deaky snake form. To keep him alive, the Ultramarines put Guilliman in a stasis field until a "God-of-the-dead-loving Eldar Priestess" managed to fix him, as long as he doesn't take off his new armour that Cawl made for him. I should also note that he is not happy with how the Imperium turned out, you know, with the whole worshiping the Emperor as a God business. That was kinda looked down on, and we will get into that more when we talk about the Word Bearers.</div><div>I've read a couple books with Ultramarine characters, and it is shit to read. They are so boring as they talk through theoretical and practical ideas ad nauseam. Every Legion has it's black sheep though, and there was one who was so deep in the theoretical thinking that he thought it a good idea to devise a tactical plan for fighting against another Astartes Legion before the Heresy began, and he was censured for that. Little did they know... Anyway, they read like they are all tactical geniuses and can play 4D chess with a blindfold on without a board or pieces, against 4 opponents at once. Boring.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxMT3NUK7fdBlQGtA1mIHj0lbQZ55xefhw90szf8obvKJNSgEQnRp8k3U5nQzLBFeMltBSERHRM6KN_An-yMbIA3WHFteIknTHEid9UDPyxV6h-IyZmglMfTn4yuktoU73F7Xutw_c6Q/s435/mortarion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="290" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxMT3NUK7fdBlQGtA1mIHj0lbQZ55xefhw90szf8obvKJNSgEQnRp8k3U5nQzLBFeMltBSERHRM6KN_An-yMbIA3WHFteIknTHEid9UDPyxV6h-IyZmglMfTn4yuktoU73F7Xutw_c6Q/s320/mortarion.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>XIV - Death Guard - Mortarion</div><div>Mortarion's story starts off fairly similar to many of the other Primarch's, he lands on some death planet and is found by a member of the ruling class who then raises him as an heir to their throne. Except the planet Barbarus was covered in a deadly poison fog and the ruling class preyed on the innocent population they used in their evil necromancy warp fueled experiments. As you got higher in altitude the fog got more poisonous, so the local human population lived in valleys while the Overlords lived among the mountains, able to withstand the poison. Necare, the Overlord that found Morty and raised him in a mid level tower, which was as high as Mortarion could go, while Necare lived on the top of the highest mountain. Morty learned all the typical things an heir who would eventually rule the planet would need to learn, except about the pitiful creatures in the valleys. Of course his curiosity got the better of him and Mortarion went to see what these little soft creatures were all about and he realized that they were humans, kinda sorta just like him. Well that didn't sit right so he traveled the valleys teaching the humans how to fight back which included special powered armour that allowed them all to travel into the poison fog where the Overlords lived. Soon there was only one Overlord left, Necare, but unfortunately the armour just wasn't strong enough to reach his sanctuary..</div><div>Here is where the Emperor shows up and we have another atypical meeting as he portrays himself as a humble "Stranger". The "Stranger" offers to help Mortarion and his lot to which Morty says "Stuff it, we don't need help from any outsider!" With those words in the air the "Stranger" offers up a challenge, if Mortarion can kill Necare the "Stranger" will leave, if not then Mortarion must swear fealty to the "Stranger". Of course the poison is too poisonous and just before he blacks out he hears Papa Nurgel call to him, promising him things, then he sees the "Stranger" stop Necare from delivering the death blow by delivering his own death blow with that awesome flaming sword. The "Stranger" reveals that he is the Emperor and Mortarion's dad. Morty honours the wager and swears to serve, but holds a grudge that's tied to an inferiority complex that stems from not being able to finish the job of killing Necare. Now the ironic part is that while Mortarion fought to free humans on other worlds from those who would shackle and enslave humanity, this is the very thing that pushed him away from the Emperor and right into the arms of Horus whom he was already quite close with. His ascendance to daemon princedom came at the hands of Typhon, who used his psychic powers to lead the Death Guard legion into the warp which infected them with the Destroyer Plague and Nurgle's Rot. Their bodies slowly rotted in their armour and it wasn't until they dedicated their souls to Nurgle that they were granted relief of the pain and the blessing of Papa Nurgle, although not of the affliction as their bodies remained bloated and decaying. He got some gnarly wings out of it though.</div><div>The Legion of the Death Guard are know for their durability and resistance to poisons due to their harsh upbringing on their home planet Barbarus. This made them an ideal infantry based army and on top of this Mortarion would have them train in multiple roles ensuring that a warrior was as self reliant as could be on the battlefield. This limited their need for specialist units, as most units could deal with any situation they could come up against. Their durability only increased after their fall to Chaos as nothing short of complete annihilations could put a Plague Marine down for good. The Death Guard played an integral role in the assault of the Imperial Palace being the unwavering rock in the center of the vortex of war. When Horus fell the Death Guard made an orderly retreat, falling back and giving supporting fire while the rest of the Chaos Legions made a mad dash to the Eye of Terror like the last one at the table had to pick up the bill. They hung out on their new Plague Planet for 10,000 years until they decided they wanted to come out and shit all over Ultramar, starting the Plague Wars which wrapped up recently.</div><div><br /></div><div>This concludes the second part of Primarch Profile, where three of the demigod-like beings turn traitor. Now only two of them have any real reason to turn traitor, Curze and Angron, due to their brutality which was secretly welcomed yet publicly shamed, among other things. Mortarion was just pissed he lost a bet. This one took me a long time to finish but boy was it fun, I hope you enjoyed reading it. Keep your eyes open for Part 3.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time, keep them dice rollin.</div>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-6398166827101945252020-09-01T11:55:00.001-05:002020-09-02T21:29:24.769-05:00PRIMARCH PROFILE PART 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0UwEOuvdiEWawh8uukJ5s8ELT74P-Vg_eTkmq7TFsq2z6R3PFm146r4JULYH1ph50Sdg0M3wBYQLTKopLUt_Gd_wlc2Maexfnylllk5Rr80j3mVr8ZZQ166zkWioDf28P89PGJ23kCQ/s1200/brady-bunch-cast.jpg.1200x1200.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0UwEOuvdiEWawh8uukJ5s8ELT74P-Vg_eTkmq7TFsq2z6R3PFm146r4JULYH1ph50Sdg0M3wBYQLTKopLUt_Gd_wlc2Maexfnylllk5Rr80j3mVr8ZZQ166zkWioDf28P89PGJ23kCQ/w328-h328/brady-bunch-cast.jpg.1200x1200.jpg" width="328" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Hello ladies and gents and welcome back to the 40K Misfit. This is going to be part 1 of a multi part series in which I discuss the Primarchs and their Legions. I'm going to try and keep things fairly simple so I'm not going to go into great detail, but I will cover some of their more prominent characteristics, their history, and where they are now. So think of this as the "Cole's notes" version of the Primarchs. Oh, if you're looking for in game tactics and advice, you might want to look elsewhere, this here is for fluff bunnies only.<div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfXWQPM8sw3fZ5mBivKubxuDDKt9EyovHvF7enAFA4T0Gm_0HQRp1udlY0UIydfcTmLfq5kQqdahDTm1k3sDOl_740FDXl1ehW7purHgqH8fJ5nIGXx_EH15UIAvJiasE30JDthPFLIw/s685/LionElJonson.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="600" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfXWQPM8sw3fZ5mBivKubxuDDKt9EyovHvF7enAFA4T0Gm_0HQRp1udlY0UIydfcTmLfq5kQqdahDTm1k3sDOl_740FDXl1ehW7purHgqH8fJ5nIGXx_EH15UIAvJiasE30JDthPFLIw/w287-h328/LionElJonson.jpg" width="287" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You're mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elder berries!"</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>I - Dark Angels - Lion El'Jonson</div><div>"The Lion", as he is nicknamed, landed on a forest planet populated by steam punkish knightly orders who protected the general populace from big scary warp fueled beasts. One of the knight heroes, Luthor, finds Lion living in the forest alone and raises him. Once he is old enough, Lion starts his own crusade to unite the knightly orders, whether they want to or not, and eradicate the monsters. As an individual Lion is lauded for his martial prowess which seems to be his "thing" imbued to him by the Emperor. He is severe and serious with little mirth or humour in his demeanor and an air about him as if he is always planning to launch an attack. As he spent the early part of his childhood alone in the monster infested woods, this is probably warranted. He is also VERY distrustful of EVERYONE which enforces his solitary nature and creates a burden of secrecy on himself which is emulated by the Legion warriors. From the beginning of Lion's Knightly Order there has been a position named Cypher, that's it, just Cypher. No one knows who he is, no one knows who appointed him, when he dies another one takes his place, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of reason for it, at least none is given, but he is a very influential advisor to Lion.</div><div>The biggest secret known only to the Dark Angels, and us as readers, is that after the Heresy Lion returned home only to be attacked by Luthor and friends who have turned to Chaos while left out of the Crusade. The Lion is hurt badly and put in stasis to heal (where he currently resides) while the "Fallen" flee only to be hunted by the Dark Angels for the rest of eternity. Due to this dirty little secret the Dark Angels pursue the Fallen relentlessly, even to the point of leaving allies in the midst of battle to follow up on a lead that a Fallen may have been in the vicinity once.</div><div>The Legion itself, named the Dark Angels, specializes in shock assault style tactics. The "Ravenwing" consisting of fast moving elements strike hard and fast which leaves a landing spot for the "Deathwing" which consists of Terminators, who then march forward and relentlessly murder everything. The rest of the Dark Angels move in the wake of combined assault of the "wings". They don't have much of a theme other than they have to keep their secret safe which has only really lead us to a bunch of shitty memes. This is too bad because they had everything set up for a Questing Knights of the Round Table theme.</div><div><br /></div><div>II - Unknown Legion</div><div>There is very little known about this legion, although it is hinted at that the Primarch was killed by Leman Russ on orders from the Emperor. The legion's warriors were then absorbed by the other legions. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKU55cyhs8QXEUX6CCYQoI4N5-lll8sbXfi3kNePPQLx2I7HC5aYOl5600wToMUEDjwCckdl5OcyRZqum6xJf0-8mYE2Fb7d88Aa4Gm3ddVDY_Zs-4NeUXk0t6TdBpaL2NN-43McPxw/s740/Fulgrim.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="740" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKU55cyhs8QXEUX6CCYQoI4N5-lll8sbXfi3kNePPQLx2I7HC5aYOl5600wToMUEDjwCckdl5OcyRZqum6xJf0-8mYE2Fb7d88Aa4Gm3ddVDY_Zs-4NeUXk0t6TdBpaL2NN-43McPxw/w328-h246/Fulgrim.jpg" width="328" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm sexy and I know it.</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>III - Emperor's Children - Fulgrim</div><div>Fulgrim landed on planet called Chemos that mined vapour. Tough life eh? Anyway, the mining equipment was slowly failing and revenues were down. This meant that people had to work longer, harder, for less food as the planet was reliant on buying food from traders, and had to give up art. Fulgrim grew up and figured out how to improve the mines and the planet made money again. This allowed people to pursue art again. Yay.</div><div>Upon meeting the Emperor, Fulgrim bowed his knee immediately and was taken to his new Legion which had been reduce to a few hundred Astartes due to an administration error and the destruction of the stock of geneseed that was used to create the Astartes. With the Primarch re-joining the Legion they could replenish their geneseed stock and make more Astartes. The Emperor himself named the Legion the Emperor's Children which lead Fulgrim to attempt to live up to the name and strive for perfection. This soon bled into their physical appearance and vanity, not only perfection on the battlefield. Fulgrim is soon possessed by a Daemon of Slaanesh a'la the movie "Get Out" but overcomes it to get his body back. No, it wasn't after someone took his picture, it was after hours and hours of horrible torture. He manages to kill Ferrus Manus at the "Drop site Massacre" on Istvaan IV and he eventually ascends to Daemon Princehood after trying to suck the essence out of Perturabo and gets a snake body and some extra arms just in time to assault the Imperial Palace. Perfection. Perhaps ironically, Fulgrim never seemed to be the best at anything, at least not among his fellow Primarchs. Half of them are better fighters, the other half are better tacticians, several are better artisans, and several are better engineers. Although his YouTube make-up tutorials are top notch.</div><div>The Legion follows their Primarch in his downward spiral of vanity getting a little mixed up on their way confusing perfection with sensation. They now seek extremes in any and every sensation they can conceive which has lead to them creating their sonic weaponry and taking immense amounts of stimulant drugs. That's about it, there isn't really much to go on here.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlK73UkY6p3DhKcxDe5WHDE0qTChak1KrzOQuhVJFEnach7YKTIm3oEnI3d8PKenWNY8jhJqDnkn2QP5aXO4_oL0DyJ0V8wHuwhDcgh9akEfZEwtzS-XSAvtsthncbuoXEYITBYAy1Yw/s936/Primarchs_Perturabo_coverart.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="750" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlK73UkY6p3DhKcxDe5WHDE0qTChak1KrzOQuhVJFEnach7YKTIm3oEnI3d8PKenWNY8jhJqDnkn2QP5aXO4_oL0DyJ0V8wHuwhDcgh9akEfZEwtzS-XSAvtsthncbuoXEYITBYAy1Yw/w210-h262/Primarchs_Perturabo_coverart.png" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daddy didn't love me!</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>IV - Iron Warriors - Perturabo</div><div>Perturabo's home planet of Olympia was a rather mountainous world with large fortress city states that were often at war.. His pod landed in a mountain range where he wandered somewhat aimlessly for a while working as a mercenary and handy man on the small settlements and communities outside the larger cities. His skills as a fighter and tradesman got round to a powerful warlord in one of the major cities who came out to the mountains to find the boy and adopted him. Unfortunately he didn't get any hugs from his liege lord, who treated him more like a tool than a son. Helping his "father" gain supremacy of Olympia, Perturabo became a master of siege warfare, but the dominance was not well accepted and several assassination attempts were made. All of these factors gave Perturabo a very sullen, brooding, cold, calculating, demeanor and he was unwilling to trust others. </div><div>When the Emperor picked him up to join the Crusade he was a little displeased with his Legion having not lived up to his expectations. So he held a lottery in which 1 in 10 Legionaries would be killed at the hands of their fellow warriors to, you know, set an example...or something. Due to Perturabo's excellence in siege warfare, this is the direction he took his Legion, becoming the first to call when an enemy's shell couldn't be cracked. By the time the walls came down everyone had moved on and claimed glory elsewhere leaving the Iron Warriors to bring up the rear deepening their self reliance and bitter resentment toward the other legions. The final straw that broke the camel's back was the revolt of Olympia and the uncompromising nature of Perturabo saw the entire population either killed or enslaved. Horus was able to use this to corrupt Perturabo further and gain him as an ally. After the Heresy Perturabo was able to ascend to Daemon Princehood after springing a trap in form of a massive fortress and utterly destroying the Imperial Fists, causing such damage it took 20 years to reform the Legion into Chapters. This was the battle of the Iron Cage.</div><div>The Legion, like it's Primarch, is cold and unforgiving. They excel at siege warfare because they are willing to make the sacrifices necessary in order to accomplish their task. There is also the nightmarish tale of the Daemonculaba, human women slaves genetically manipulated to be used as living incubators for adolescent males to be turned into Space Marines. Don't google it.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYXPatUHwDKCozQzPMnlC3QYG24pGWrIy1EB_BhhhjCdeTOQuzefeeUa1L41fRrL44kYsOOkZZRduPDbrARlT3oLiWLrVMi5meOLUncCiTgQyHElzC4OLU0Kd0Ihyp7fquJIHSES3fg/s1840/Jaghatai_Khan.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1840" data-original-width="926" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYXPatUHwDKCozQzPMnlC3QYG24pGWrIy1EB_BhhhjCdeTOQuzefeeUa1L41fRrL44kYsOOkZZRduPDbrARlT3oLiWLrVMi5meOLUncCiTgQyHElzC4OLU0Kd0Ihyp7fquJIHSES3fg/w165-h328/Jaghatai_Khan.png" width="165" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>V - White Scars - Jaghatai Khan</div><div>The story of Jaghatai is pretty much the quintessential story of every Primarch. He lands on a planet and comes to rule it though war and assimilation, killing hundreds of thousands people. His army consisted mostly of lightly armoured men on horseback with bows meaning his tactics were fast moving and flowing, always changing and adapting. Shortly after his ascension to ruler of the planet the Emperor shows up and takes him away to the Crusade, Jaghatai pledging his fealty without question.</div><div>Before he was to join the Crusade fully, he brought his entire Legion to his recently conquered home planet Chogoris and they all took part in ritualistic scarification of their faces. This was followed up by a brutal campaign against Orks on multiple worlds, bonding the Legion in battle as it had never been bonded before. Very dramatic. The Khan eventually made his way, with his Legion, back to Terra in time to aid in the defence against the forces of Chaos. After the battle for Terra, the Khan chased a bunch of Dark Eldar into the Maelstrom, never to be seen again.</div><div>The Legion is famed for it's fast moving tactics full of strikes, feints, and retreats all the while peppering the enemy forces with barrages of bolter fire before striking hard at the center. They are rather aloof from most of the other Legions, their tactics not matching with the idea of holding ground that most of other Legions fight for.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie4amKbTVQFb_S7qLMddhiZnSEQ8ewVeY8LTg0FgIxwNJx4amDqgLl3M-8FyPxUsOdeq03akq6WnX6LT9gHU9f4o_W6PX5_bjMgAXkNuil3b9piRN9mJ2A8Ula7JZuYl3WikPyMU8hbg/s2048/Leman_Russ.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie4amKbTVQFb_S7qLMddhiZnSEQ8ewVeY8LTg0FgIxwNJx4amDqgLl3M-8FyPxUsOdeq03akq6WnX6LT9gHU9f4o_W6PX5_bjMgAXkNuil3b9piRN9mJ2A8Ula7JZuYl3WikPyMU8hbg/w197-h262/Leman_Russ.jpg" width="197" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still has both his eyes</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>VI - Space Wolves - Leman Russ</div><div>Leman Russ is basically Thor, or Beowulf, or any of the other great viking warrior kings who do great deeds etc etc. Take any of those characters and stuff it into the cut and paste story of a Primarch, have him be raised by wolves, and you got Russ, the Wolf King. This, of course, includes all the simpler things in life that vikings love such as feasting, fighting, and fucking. You can argue all you want about space marine's genitalia and reproductive activities, but who are we kidding? Russ is DTF.</div><div>The arrival of the Emperor on Fenris, the frozen Hoth-like world, is very different than his arrival on most of the others. In true viking myth fashion, the Emperor arrives at one of Russ's great feasts dressed as an old wanderer in a grey cloak and challenged Russ to three challenges of the Wolf Kings choice. Since they were in the middle of a feast and Russ didn't want to spoil the mood the first and second challenges were eating and drinking contests which Russ won handily. The Emperor was a little disappointed at what a lout his son had become and told him so, to which Russ said "Fine, lets fight!" The Emperor whooped his ass as fathers are want to do when their kid is being sassy. As any good viking king would do, when he awoke, Russ laughed and swore fealty to the Emperor. Aside from being one of the most loyal Primarchs, he is often used to dish out punishment to the other Legions having been sent after the 2 missing legions, the World Eaters, and the Thousand Sons and after razing Prospero to the ground returns to Terra to defend it from Horus. After Horus dies Russ chases the traitor Legions right into the Eye of Terror never to be seen again.</div><div>With all the viking similarities it's stands to reason that the Space Wolves fight just like vikings, in a massive hoard sweeping across the battlefield. Their individual prowess makes up for their lack of tactics, but don't be fooled as they are still Astartes so there is still a semblance to tactical decisions being made.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1cvmhlxhA6tw-A8nmhjqZMy7baMMU8MYRiyPoWf7Nxi6RhNmhKEirjQjB_82G9xQvgD6XRlNZa_5RAfVSe3zs4gKJN9zm8WW_JzkS80oxVLleXiL4HC3V0UqLHpIR7a7h3YHp2X-JQ/s542/Rogal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="542" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1cvmhlxhA6tw-A8nmhjqZMy7baMMU8MYRiyPoWf7Nxi6RhNmhKEirjQjB_82G9xQvgD6XRlNZa_5RAfVSe3zs4gKJN9zm8WW_JzkS80oxVLleXiL4HC3V0UqLHpIR7a7h3YHp2X-JQ/w348-h196/Rogal.jpg" width="348" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>VII - Imperial Fists - Rogal Dorn</div><div>Hot take guys, Dorn is boring as fuck. This guy landed on a frozen planet next to a waning star, grew up with a paternal figure who he loved and was loved by, was taught everything available to him, and found and fixed up a fucking space station like it was an old Chevy. He was so god damn brilliant it doesn't even seem like he had to bring the world he landed on to heel with violence, he was just the best at everything so he became the ruler.</div><div>At the arrival of the Emperor, Dorn went out to meet him in his own fancy space ship and as with the 5 previous Primarchs, took a knee and swore fealty to the Emperor. Dorn was...great...at everything. Actually, he wasn't great at everything cause he was one of those guys that was all business all the time, no sense of humor, no room to breath, he was INTENSE all the time. The perfect tool of war. It was Dorn who headed up the defense of the Imperial Palace on Terra being the best defender and builder of the 20 Primarchs, and possibly the most trusted by the Emperor. After the Heresy Dorn goes into a deep depression believing that the Emperor is dead because of Dorn's failure to protect him. Shit is about to get a little more interesting and darker. Dorn had invented a body suit called the <a href="https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Pain_Glove" target="_blank">Pain Glove</a>. I'm going to leave this link here so you can read up on it yourself. It's brutal. Anyway, Dorn spends a week in this thing and has a vision that the Emperor was still alive and the Imperial Fists had to redeem themselves. This is where the battle of the Iron Cage comes in, Dorn using it as a metaphorical Pain Glove the entire Legion can use at once. While both Legions suffered horribly, the Iron Warriors came out on top and would have ended the Imperial Fists had not the Ultramarines come to save the day. During the 20 years to took to rebuild they applied Guilliman's Codex Astartes and broke the Legion into Chapters. Some years later Dorn died in an offensive attack during the first Black Crusade on a Chaos battleship. Failbaddon indeed...</div><div>While the Imperial Fists are your basic space marine chapter, their successor chapter the Black Templar are a rather zealous bunch with a real Knights of the Crusades vibe to them. They hate psykers and love chains and black armour. Now the Black Templar seem to be fairly successful in story terms, while the Imperial Fists seem to get wiped out to a man every other week only to be rebuilt once again. They remain one of the most loyal and trustworthy chapters.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, that's the first 6 legions. They all have that basic story line of them landing on a planet, being found and raised and climbing the social ladder to ruler of the world. Next episode is going to be different, I promise. Thanks for reading and if you know of anything really important that I might have missed feel free to leave a comment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Til next time, keep them dice rollin.</div></div>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-81670327794927656542020-08-18T14:24:00.002-05:002021-09-02T08:28:08.291-05:00UPGRADES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi44BC7eFmElaWctbM8H7iQJw-tJqhSz_hy__zaJmTaXiexHHnEb3Vmur5ttpGB4-ERspwE3HouLQ5UiICcGaesGwN2rzK3q4Z1Xoch3Pt26mIZDLREnyD9mHS0Wye0NGwif9x6nALVLQ/s2048/Upgrade.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi44BC7eFmElaWctbM8H7iQJw-tJqhSz_hy__zaJmTaXiexHHnEb3Vmur5ttpGB4-ERspwE3HouLQ5UiICcGaesGwN2rzK3q4Z1Xoch3Pt26mIZDLREnyD9mHS0Wye0NGwif9x6nALVLQ/w512-h288/Upgrade.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p>Welcome back to the 40K Misfit and today I am going to talk about the sneak peak dump that Games Workshop released about all the in game weapon upgrades that are due to arrive in October which I will link <a href="https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/08/13/new-boxes-new-rules-new-codexes/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikG4L_M7jzuRTakTeBjXAvnuxggD-GsdmMwQTLpMypIyP9eIEOBAuIY-MfUgloS32PV7iFmSVmho6L3d5IR-6aZKBRu8Uw2pDIJdp2d0g1PE8e6kqeyhyYy4zPrP2rl5oRBPhLUFlexQ/s443/heavy+bolter.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikG4L_M7jzuRTakTeBjXAvnuxggD-GsdmMwQTLpMypIyP9eIEOBAuIY-MfUgloS32PV7iFmSVmho6L3d5IR-6aZKBRu8Uw2pDIJdp2d0g1PE8e6kqeyhyYy4zPrP2rl5oRBPhLUFlexQ/s0/heavy+bolter.gif" /></a></div><p>First up we have Heavy Bolters going to 2D which is a much needed upgrade. This will bring the gun more in line with some of it's significant others like the Assault Cannon (for Imperials) or the Reaper Chain Cannon (for Heretic). While it won't kill as many models, it will do a better job of taking out more elite models. I do wonder if it will affect the price of the weapon since, as of right now, the Heavy Bolter is 10 points and a Reaper Chain Cannon is 20. If the price of the Heavy Bolter doesn't increase I can see them becoming far more popular if the meta continues to move towards a more Elite MSU style army compostion.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPqHLey4U0rNbJaiQujSF8gQnaqDbJCIvbHod6Uv7hTa-x066hZ8AwNFTdEeoy3Zo2zDpCuV9YQ2F4Shx7H0lBEBt6E8GHJ1KptRhAuU5TcCwL3qXsfWxZd5pqOQa6rnNJn2u9nm9vg/s480/flamer.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPqHLey4U0rNbJaiQujSF8gQnaqDbJCIvbHod6Uv7hTa-x066hZ8AwNFTdEeoy3Zo2zDpCuV9YQ2F4Shx7H0lBEBt6E8GHJ1KptRhAuU5TcCwL3qXsfWxZd5pqOQa6rnNJn2u9nm9vg/s0/flamer.gif" /></a></div><p>Next on the list is that Flamers and Heavy Flamers have has a range increase to 12" and while you might not think that's much of a boost there are armies that can abuse this. I don't know Salamander's rules very well, but I know they are all about the hotness with mortal wound bull shit, they also have a way to increase the range of Flamers as it is, so look for them to be getting even longer range Flamers Chaos can take a unit of 10 Terminators with 10 Combi-flamers dropping with MoS and killing almost 2 full units of Orks, or a full unit of Primaris Marines. Now, I don't entirely agree with this boost, but Flamers did need something to make them a little more relevant. I'm betting that this change was to give Flamers the ability to be used more often during Overwatch. Since deep strike keeps models outside of 9", it's impossible for your average Flamer to be usefull. I think they may end up regretting this change though.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNuGD4H_VHKXW7T-iMvgLWvWSAHjbVOd5GJqQWvLbjQ7c66vdjdroGKaPfc6zP-nFBxqv1cW-8xaLWiuybiHwI-dZ-mgqgQwY_1B5NPlk2rX2BNuhcLd2lj-x_9I1iAeEIAeksjnovhw/s328/melta.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNuGD4H_VHKXW7T-iMvgLWvWSAHjbVOd5GJqQWvLbjQ7c66vdjdroGKaPfc6zP-nFBxqv1cW-8xaLWiuybiHwI-dZ-mgqgQwY_1B5NPlk2rX2BNuhcLd2lj-x_9I1iAeEIAeksjnovhw/s0/melta.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I don't actually know what this is exactly, but it came up when I Googled Melta.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Melta guns get a little something in that they now get +2D at short range in stead of rolling 2D6 and picking the highest. This is ok, I don't see it as a huge change, but a good one that will make some difference in trying to decide if Plasma or Melta is better. Multi-meltas are getting 2 shots, which is actually a pretty huge deal combined with the damage buff. Considering it is currently one of the cheaper weapons a Helbrute can take, doubling the number of shots will make it a contender.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGmT-lpo-Vci4IR0dxW0RgasqBvAl97bjnhyphenhyphen3yNRA9RBNCDvcthBd3p6DrYPKAyhRoyxLC8AEHoG1ixpdPwOoosEZjsMXC7jPGqHSu6NJwwFGkAP33Z9gXY-Vl-jKICTav-emO_QcVw/s480/swords.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGmT-lpo-Vci4IR0dxW0RgasqBvAl97bjnhyphenhyphen3yNRA9RBNCDvcthBd3p6DrYPKAyhRoyxLC8AEHoG1ixpdPwOoosEZjsMXC7jPGqHSu6NJwwFGkAP33Z9gXY-Vl-jKICTav-emO_QcVw/s0/swords.gif" /></a></div><p>Power swords are getting a nice little +1S boost, although I'm not really sure why. The energy field around the blade is represented by the -3AP, but I guess they didn't see enough on the table so lets make them better. Chainswords are getting a much needed boost and becoming -1AP. This will go a long way to making Power armour units deadlier which is an issue I have been talking about for a long time. I have a couple articles on power armour, the last one you can find <a href="http://the40kmisfit.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-second-look-at-power-armour.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> which in turn links you to the first article. Not only does this make Space Marines better, but makes combat far more encouraging for them, at least for your basic Marines who don't have -1AP Bolter weapons. Once the Assault Doctrine hits it is going to be scary. The boost to these 2 swords is going to make me wonder what changes are coming to power and chain axes. Perhaps taking chain swords on your Khorne Berzerkers and having them keep their pistols might become a thing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkkx8FxaLG0H6RrLdLVbQe1e5YSEiXn2EUNxUsAOn1K2-2Q9N7kgmRzx0BwT6gIfCDTMogcvqcdx2TgTcUfJjGwcFE1gVOuqun5y77PHt7YYAiEU3LV7OF-OMnNsEyiFizfmQ3eVjc5A/s262/mitts.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkkx8FxaLG0H6RrLdLVbQe1e5YSEiXn2EUNxUsAOn1K2-2Q9N7kgmRzx0BwT6gIfCDTMogcvqcdx2TgTcUfJjGwcFE1gVOuqun5y77PHt7YYAiEU3LV7OF-OMnNsEyiFizfmQ3eVjc5A/s0/mitts.jpg" /></a></div><p>Everyone is going to get a pair of oven mitts when issued Plasma Guns because they will only "get hot" on an unmodified roll of 1. Neat.</p><p>All of these changes are going to come into effect in October when the Space Marine Codex drops and they are going to affect every army. This is going to be a huge change in that EVERYTHING is going to die really really fast.</p><p>There is one more little tid bit, and that is that Marines are all getting an extra wound. I don't think is going to be as big of a problem and some people are making it out to be. Not only do these extra wounds come with a significant point increase (18pts per model), but we have been dealing with 2 wound Marines, almost exclusively, for months now. However, what this change means is that you will likely see a few more of your old school Marine units due to their flexibility. Primaris Marines have a very 30K vibe to them in that the whole squad is armed with the same weapon. That makes a squad very good at one thing, but Tactical Squads can have a few models in a unit with special or heavy weapons allowing them to take on multiple roles and not find themselves in situations where they can do nothing useful. This will also see the return of units like Rhinos and Drop Pods.</p><p>This is going to make a big splash for Chaos Players though, who are happier than pigs in shit about this development. While the weapon changes will take place immediately the wounds are not going to be applied to the Chaos Marines until their Codex comes out. As I said, the rest of the meta has been dealing with 2W Marines for months, so this shouldn't be too big of an issue, but this could shake things up fairly significantly if Chaos Marines can continue to field units of 20 Marines.</p><p>Til next time, keep them dice rollin.</p>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-63477354232748679382020-08-15T15:28:00.000-05:002020-08-15T15:28:32.661-05:00CHAOS LEGIONS<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1yjaORcbUBO69VU4mBR6yYkFL2-RN00CbWi16DqpIEpKXcQQjPqAvF3GywyYYT-KNwAN0A7gdnG9-qqvEEog7WRf_yk8tIGph0LWXtBYbEpCvK_NuW63vongEr4z7whXZ9YrQlfFgCQ/s750/Pineapple.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="750" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1yjaORcbUBO69VU4mBR6yYkFL2-RN00CbWi16DqpIEpKXcQQjPqAvF3GywyYYT-KNwAN0A7gdnG9-qqvEEog7WRf_yk8tIGph0LWXtBYbEpCvK_NuW63vongEr4z7whXZ9YrQlfFgCQ/w513-h410/Pineapple.jpg" width="513" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...I like pineapple on pizza...</td></tr></tbody></table><p>For anyone who as been following this blog for any length of time knows that I play Chaos, particularly Space Marines, not well but almost exclusively. So I thought I would take a look at some of the options that we have available to us and see if there is anything we can work with until we get a new codex. I've had a good think about how I'm going to do this and I'm not going to do a microscopic look at the codex, every unit, and every piece of wargear. What I'm going to do is take a look at some of the phases of the game and pick out some strengths and weaknesses that can be found in the Chaos Space Marines Codex.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZey-CdKDKTvrZF94HtsUjM-EDIMPCKoUg3cyJuBfK6AEYL3cadNGN1srsypwYx-im66-MWFKyKGAyIsOVLjIEQpQLdEVzAtPtmE57Nhd-EU-DOTqcjxpn74v-9ySbBjtW952gO6iA0Q/s1280/command.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZey-CdKDKTvrZF94HtsUjM-EDIMPCKoUg3cyJuBfK6AEYL3cadNGN1srsypwYx-im66-MWFKyKGAyIsOVLjIEQpQLdEVzAtPtmE57Nhd-EU-DOTqcjxpn74v-9ySbBjtW952gO6iA0Q/w410-h230/command.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><p>Starting with the Command Phase and scoring objectives. So as we all have figured out that scoring objectives is going to require a fairly durable unit to weather the firepower leveled at them and Plague Marines and Rubric Marines do this better than most other units in the game. The T5 and DR of the Plague Marines and the Rubric's All is Dust make both units very resilient to small arms fire. Putting them in an Alpha Legion detachments is pretty obvious for the -1 to hit, but Iron Warriors have some pretty serious defensive abilities like Dour Duty (reduces incoming fire AP by 1) and Cannon Fodder (forces enemies to target nearby Cultists instead of unit). Pair those with a Dark Apostle for a 5++ or -1 to hit where appropriate and you have a hard to shift block. The downside is that they are not Troops, so not objective secured, unless they are in a Death Guard or Thousand Sons detachment, so you might want to get a Patrol Detachment of them. The other downside of these units is that they only have one wound each, so if not having Objective Secured isn't a deal breaker we could take a look at Spawn. They are T5 with 4 wounds each and can bee made incredibly durable with a ton of defensive buffs. They are also pretty damn scary in combat with -2AP and a flat 2D. I should also mention the Black Legion stratagem World Killers, which is a 3 CP stratagem played at the start of the battleround, gives all Black Legion units SUPER Objective Secured until the end of the battleround. This one is REALLY good.</p><p>As far as holding objectives with troops from the CSM book, well we fall short in that regard. You can throw a ton of buffs on them just to bring them up to tough, but any kind of dedicated firepower is going to annihilate them. A decent way to increase their durability is to toss them in a Rhino, then make that Rhino tougher, it also doubles their speed which brings me to...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcHvcusAqLADn9mOtmWbItKI_-3SyjMMmrtszpa9cz-tQ61wm59e7XfE254rcmI-GDGOVo-2bQvyxQ0u_6gmNsmQOVhq2Lie28kHmP0jpXRRbuDvLa4s56sepeWzMMD3sQFBCib2GXGA/s787/movement.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="787" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcHvcusAqLADn9mOtmWbItKI_-3SyjMMmrtszpa9cz-tQ61wm59e7XfE254rcmI-GDGOVo-2bQvyxQ0u_6gmNsmQOVhq2Lie28kHmP0jpXRRbuDvLa4s56sepeWzMMD3sQFBCib2GXGA/w410-h260/movement.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><p>The next aspect of the game is movement. For a long time this has been one of the more important aspects of the game and this edition is no different. Well, there are some differences, particularly when moving larger units cause of Unit Coherency and such, but movement is important, that's what I'm trying to say. Positioning is not the only important thing though as table control and durability come to play because movement and taking control of objectives go hand in hand. Unfortunately Plague Marines and Rubric Marines are particularly slow so putting them in a Rhino is decent way to get them where they need to be. We also have a good number of fast moving big threats like Disco Lords, Daemon Princes, Maulerfiends, and Heldrakes. Yes, you read that right, I said Heldrakes. Being the fastest moving, NON-AIRCRAFT, unit in the game for only 150 points makes this guy a pretty big deal not to forget he can still shoot that Baleflamer while in combat. Now don't treat him like the ultimate beast that he isn't, cause he is basically a flying Helbrute. Now you might be thinking "He hasn't mentioned bikes yet...", well, bikes. They are an incredibly good fast moving unit that can auto advance 6" for a total of 20" and you can assault with them if they are Crimson Slaughter, shoot with them if they are Black Legion, toss a bunch of buffs on them to make them tougher, and potentially move them twice. I like to use a unit of these guys to pressure my opponent's backfield, or dissuade him from sending off smaller units off on their own to hold objectives.</p><p>Besides fast moving units, we also have a bunch of units that can Deep Strike like Terminators, Raptors, Obliterators, and Mutilators. Now Terminators and Obliterators are good units and are both durable and dangerous, but they are also very slow once they hit the ground. Raptors on the other hand are able to land anywhere and still move very quickly, but their biggest downfall is that they are still only as durable as your average Marine yet you are still paying that premium for their mobility. Raptors take an extra knock with the introduction of Strategic Reserves, Chosen and Marines can now pull off an outflanking maneuver making the Raptors less desirable. Furthermore, the Alpha Legion have a bunch of abilities that help units move around the table like Forward Operatives, Renascent Infiltration, Mindveil, and Faceless Commander.</p><p>So as you can see we have a bunch of units that can reach any area of the table, but their biggest downfall is their need for support, whether it's more bodies, overlapping firepower, or buffs from characters. There are many ways to do this, but as soon as you start pumping more and more points and CP's into these units, you have to start building your army specifically to cater to them unless you're using them as distractions or sacrifices.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9rUUkesfjjKCoG3BWNTGtxgR8xBhBV_WLZg0BnL8s-8UlBxTQ8fY3ZerEftQzxxmN5htUgs5c2uc3n52d0XfNO729qYVoE9YEGbw9-EZ_pqLf7kr3eqzU2jQE4VprKJ-jRNozvhqlA/s405/shooting.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9rUUkesfjjKCoG3BWNTGtxgR8xBhBV_WLZg0BnL8s-8UlBxTQ8fY3ZerEftQzxxmN5htUgs5c2uc3n52d0XfNO729qYVoE9YEGbw9-EZ_pqLf7kr3eqzU2jQE4VprKJ-jRNozvhqlA/s0/shooting.gif" /></a></div><p>Now we come to the Shooting Phase and we actually got a decent boost in this phase, particularly with our Daemon Engines. Forgefiends and Defilers are now free to waltz up the field blasting away and with the Daemon Forge stratagem, and a Disco Lord nearby, they can put out some real damage. Also don't forget they can shoot many of their weapons while in engagement range, though not the Blast ones which means Defilers can still shoot while they are punching. The Helbrute is another mechanical monster that can put out some pretty potent firepower. I played a game recently with two twin-las-missile Brutes and I took turns moving them and using Fire Frenzy to great effect. Now, even though touching a vehicle or monster in combat does not prevent them from shooting, it does prevent them from shooting outside the combat they are in, so slapping a scourge on him for a whole mess of attacks will help prevent a couple models from stepping up to him and occupying his attention in his next shooting phase. We could add the Deredeo and Leviathan Dreadnoughts in here as well, but they are incredibly expensive and the Butcher cannon array (arguably the best gun available to them) is only -1AP making it a little lack-lustre for the 75 point price tag.</p><p>One of the downsides to the big monsters is that they are big and easy to see, but don't worry because we have a decent amount of infantry sized firepower. Obliterators are an obvious choice with being able to deep strike and shoot twice with Endless Cacophony and get a 5+++ with Delightful Agonies. Add a Master of Possession for defensive and offensive buffs or take them as Iron Warriors and you have yourself a solid firebase, typically able to take out just about any target (with a little luck). Even Havocs can put out a pretty hefty number of shots with the Reaper Chaincannon. However if you are looking for ultimate damage output your best bet is probably Emperor's Children Noise Marines. With Endless Cacophony, Excruciating Frequencies, the Remnant of the Maraviglia, Veterans of the Long War, and their ability to ignore the bonus to saves from cover they can remove nearly any unit from any objective (assuming its within 24"). Now if you are worried about not getting first turn and losing them, or getting first turn and not having a target, you can put that whole unit in Strategic Reserves for only 2 CP. You lose out on the Remnant of Maraviglia, unless you can get the Dark Apostle in position in time. We can also slide in the Rubric Marines into this area as their -2AP bolters can be incredibly potent especially in the Black Legion with Abaddon nearby and VotLW on hand, but they are probably still better off used in a Thousand Sons detachment as they also have a shoot twice strat there.</p><p>Now that seems like kind of a depressing list of able bodied shooting units, but we are not quite done. Units like Chosen, able to take 6 special weapons, can be put into Strategic Reserves so we don't even necessarily have to spend the points on a Drill for them. Even Raptors, as over pointed as they are, can take 3 special weapons and have most of the table to choose from. These units can be used to arrive on the battlefield, pump out not an insignificant amount of firepower and either kill something, or force your opponent to re-direct some of his resources to deal with them.</p><p>Again we come to the weaknesses of these units, and for most of them its a lack of range. Most of the damage being dealt by the infantry is limited to 24". While the Helbrutes and Forgefiends reach 48" and 36" respectively, they generally don't have the volume of firepower to put a large dent into any single unit. As you can see, our units typically have 2 of the 3 things you want in a "shooty" unit, range, efficiency, and/or durability.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVv_iCuDHaX7_4gqGynM6oNuuUsGL5k9zStEf7uksI11oNhaVjUa5ggWbA9foBzsYgJNKUrY9OOBh-nxAKrgFlrtR6FNnWeDzoMF3K9Ixj4z9GeyJQF2Dtro3UVr0bjGWLN14UTqz9nw/s452/fight.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVv_iCuDHaX7_4gqGynM6oNuuUsGL5k9zStEf7uksI11oNhaVjUa5ggWbA9foBzsYgJNKUrY9OOBh-nxAKrgFlrtR6FNnWeDzoMF3K9Ixj4z9GeyJQF2Dtro3UVr0bjGWLN14UTqz9nw/s0/fight.gif" /></a></div><p>Ok, here we go ladies and gents, we finally get to the section where we excel, melee combat. Now I can go on for days on units that are good at punching shit in the face, from most of our characters, to Khorne Bezerkers, to Possessed, to Maulerfiends. What we struggle with is getting those units in range to do the punching and keeping them safe once the punching is done. One of the most obvious, and old school, ways is to put your assault units in a transport. Rhinos are pretty good for this, particularly when you can put a Dark Apostle near a couple of them and use Illusory Supplication to give all of them a 5++ while the Smoke Launchers give them -1 to hit among other possible buffs. In those Rhinos you are probably better off putting in three 5-man units with some characters for supports, as opposed to large units. The one downside of this is that any stratagem you use will be less effective. Above I listed a good number of ways to make units more durable to hold objectives, the same tactics can be used to keep melee units alive so they can accomplish all that fun chopping and ripping.</p><p>Making units more durable isn't the only way to help ensure they make it to combat though as there are many ways to increase their movement and/or charge range. Night Lord have From the Night and Raptor Strike to increase their charge distances, although Raptor Strike is only really useful on Characters with jump packs, because Raptors and Warp Talons are kind of shit. Alpha Legion have a bunch of movement shenanigans which can help get units into position, the top of the list being Forward Operatives for that possible first turn charge. The Emperor's Children have the +2" movement from Combat Elixirs and the incredible Honour the Prince stratagem making the trek across the table and the following charge as easy as it can be. Honour the Prince is particularly nice for a nice big unit of Terminators that have dropped in from deep strike. Finally, the most blood thirsty of all Legions, the World Eaters have Apoplectic Frenzy which lets them move up to 9" before the first turn starts and Violent Urgency which is a Warlord Trait that gives all World Eater units within 6" +1" to their Advance and Charge rolls. Too bad they don't also have an ability that lets them charge after they advance. But you know who does have the ability to Advance and still Charge? Red Corsairs. This can actually surprise your opponents, when a unit gets a big Advance roll and is able to charge from what was thought to be a safe distance away. Remember that this applies to all Characters, Infantry, and Bikes. Bikes being a really key unit in this army for their auto Advance of 6" giving them a 20" move before they can assault. They could actually make decent use of Flamers, softening up a unit before charging into it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf4GRt3aJ7aVbpsuYRjyjeP-_GzzLmcbeh5R69Nr9gprNXnfjg2ov0vwRQP4E_d1JqVdPqOASBMUbai7X6XwsUdmPr5sQfcvgULI3VQqYF6xN3b8XnSJ_VpAef7NTgcnYhT4hzQy223Q/s670/morale.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="670" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf4GRt3aJ7aVbpsuYRjyjeP-_GzzLmcbeh5R69Nr9gprNXnfjg2ov0vwRQP4E_d1JqVdPqOASBMUbai7X6XwsUdmPr5sQfcvgULI3VQqYF6xN3b8XnSJ_VpAef7NTgcnYhT4hzQy223Q/w512-h282/morale.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p>The Morale Phase has become more important with the changes to Insane Bravery and how Combat Attrition works. Word Bearers get us the ability to re-roll failed tests which could be huge for smaller units that only took a couple casualties and rolled that unlucky 6 for Morale. Black Legion units all get a +1 to their Ld, and the Icon of Vengeance gives another +1, plus they have a strat that can pass a +1Ld buff to other nearby legions. We aren't quite done though as Crimson Slaughter can auto pass Morale tests after they kill a unit, and World Eaters have a stratagem that can do the same thing.</p><p>But we all know who the champions of the Morale Phase are, the Night Lords, but for the complete opposite reasons. With their -1Ld ability, they are pretty good at causing casualties from failed Morale checks. However, because the amount of damage done isn't determined by how badly you fail the Morale test by, piling the damage onto a single unit doesn't work any more. The best way to maximize damage in the Morale Phase is to spread out the damage over a couple units and pile on the Night Lords units to max out the -3 Ld penalty with Raptors increasing it to -4 and Butcher Cannons adding on another -2 Ld if they cause any casualties. Now lets be clear, this is not a great way to win games, but there are no other armies that really utilize the Morale Phase the way the Night Lords do, so if you have a chance to use it, make the most of it.</p><p>Now that we have that all out there, lets have a look at some lists and see what units can fulfil multiple needs.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBYIBDeZ8S8KtVC0EajB24VSblk-PbYPQKfqqweIDmOIwOQEsV9bvfjF-kaztPSnML_IULcDoLovM71ENj-r4V6C1TkYqeUSCwiDGKikMqWZQ9OIIzJLUYzFLDLYNWtgt4J7ypAc5LdQ/s1700/EC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1443" data-original-width="1700" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBYIBDeZ8S8KtVC0EajB24VSblk-PbYPQKfqqweIDmOIwOQEsV9bvfjF-kaztPSnML_IULcDoLovM71ENj-r4V6C1TkYqeUSCwiDGKikMqWZQ9OIIzJLUYzFLDLYNWtgt4J7ypAc5LdQ/w410-h347/EC.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><p>Lets start with an Emperor's Children list and a big blob of Noise Marines which will be backed up by 2 more units of Noise Marines with Rhinos. You'll want a Dark Apostle with the Remnant of Maraviglia and a Sorcerer with Delightful agonies and a couple big units of Terminators with combined-plasma and combo-meltas. You'll also want a punchy Character, whether or not you want him to be your warlord is up to you as he will likely die. The idea with this list is you only put one unit of Termis in deep strike (according to applicable targets) and the big unit of Noise Marines in Strategic Reserves. The other unit of Terminators moves up and takes the centre of the table with a 5+++ along with their terminator armour, the Rhinos move up supporting one flank and when you want all the Noise Marines jump out of their rides and surround the Dark Apostle who has popped the banner for all that re-rolling goodness. Your punchy character can either be a Lord or Prince, but he moves around offering his re-roll buff where it's needed and when the time is right, the big unit of Noise. Marines come in and blindside the enemy army, sprinkle liberally with Excruciating Frequencies. When the Terminators drop in they can shoot and nuke something, then charge and nuke a second thing using Honour the Prince to ensure the destruction. This army has durable units which can be buffed to be more durable, decent mobility with the Rhinos and Reserves, excellent shooting, and decent combat with the Terminators and punchy character. The Emperor's Children have a little extra in combat in that they always fight first which is huge with the new changes to the order you activate units.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQzh9_V4iOvbmjejgatAKRY3GSuZdOBhmbULCdTP2ohZOFvVRQGOWCnC79YzEykzuiBfafNqIvRLQyQeYsXJ9ejyQP9YLqNYQelbHPKe0QmkFUp9z-Ll0ijFwXaKTXwylpHOhw3yi2w/s475/Iron+within.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQzh9_V4iOvbmjejgatAKRY3GSuZdOBhmbULCdTP2ohZOFvVRQGOWCnC79YzEykzuiBfafNqIvRLQyQeYsXJ9ejyQP9YLqNYQelbHPKe0QmkFUp9z-Ll0ijFwXaKTXwylpHOhw3yi2w/s0/Iron+within.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iron within...<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Next up we have a Monster Mash Iron Warriors army led by a couple Disco Lords, a Sorcerer with Prescience and Delightful Agonies, and a Master of Possession with Cursed Earth and Infernal Power, and finally a Prince for the re-roll 1's and Warptime. You will need at least a couple detachments to get everything you need which is Defilers, Maulerfiends, and Heldrakes with some Cultists as needed for flavour, objective grabbing and action performing. The basics of this list are pretty straight forward, the monsters move forward, using all the defensive buffs from the spell casters and the Iron Warrior strats. Once they get close enough they do their thing and smashy smashy. Your biggest problem is going to be dealing with terrain as you have several large base models. The Heldrakes don't have to worry about that and they will have to be your first wave, holding up your opponent and drawing focus while the rest of your army maneuvers. If need be, you can put something in reserve, but that starts to take away from your threat saturation, letting your opponent focus on fewer targets. The monsters become incredibly durable, the Defilers, Heldrakes and Disco Lords can put out some firepower, but the real damage is in combat. You do have an issue in that you are relying on Cultists to hold objectives because the monsters are a single model and don't have Obsec and that puts you in a really weak spot, but if you press the advantage hard enough, and hide the cultists well enough, you should be fine.</p><p>Ok, here is a little behind the curtain for you guys. It's at this point, at the end of my article I re-read it and do some digging online to make sure I didn't miss anything or mess anything. As I was doing this I checked out what Goonhammer had to say on the subject and it turns we have VERY similar tastes in army lists. Eerily similar. So I though I would post up a 3rd list and while it does have some similarities to the Black Legion list they posted, I change it up enough so that it wouldn't be nearly as good as theirs. I can't be seen as being really good at this after all.</p><p>Oh, if have not heard of Goonhammer, go and check them out, they have several authors and pump out tons of articles full of interesting and useful information.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl43GUiv4O4MUeXpk3EBXckcArFyEUXajde9kYUS2XXWvz5265nEy39sLlhgiv-G1Dqewzc5Hc3VE9WxDbmur82pVP4a1cXyjn6P-zxZJQt6m7LJhYvEi-S6d9FcxhW2eUyE5YK1kMWA/s1024/words.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="1024" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl43GUiv4O4MUeXpk3EBXckcArFyEUXajde9kYUS2XXWvz5265nEy39sLlhgiv-G1Dqewzc5Hc3VE9WxDbmur82pVP4a1cXyjn6P-zxZJQt6m7LJhYvEi-S6d9FcxhW2eUyE5YK1kMWA/w512-h267/words.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I have the best words, everyone agrees, my words are superb...</td></tr></tbody></table><p>This list is going to use a Word Bearer's Detachment with a Dark Apostle praying double hard and a Sorcerer backed up by three BIG units of cultists. With the changes to how Morale works, I don't really think that making them auto pass is really necessary since it's unlikely that the rest of the unit will run away even if there are only 5 left. These bodies are going to surround a hit squad of Possessed with Greater Possessed in Rhinos. The firebase will be Las-missile Helbrutes who can alternate moving and using Fire Frenzy. Sprinkle with your God Marks of choice to keep everything alive as long as possible. The next Detachment could be a Patrol of either Night Lords or Emperor's Children with a Chaos Lord, required Troop tax, and a big unit of combi-plasma Terminators. If you go Night Lords, the Jump Lord can be given the Nurgle Fist and you can drop him in with the Terminators and use Raptor Strike to jump him out and smash some juicy target and Prey on the Weak evens out the hit penalty. If you go Emperor's Children you can put the Lord in Terminator armour instead and use Honour the Prince on the Terminators to (almost) guarantee their charge into something.</p><p>Well, there we have it. We got a couple lists out of all that hullaballoo and they are not terrible. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment.</p><p>Til next time, keep them dice rollin.</p>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-40072246956181193322020-08-08T14:43:00.000-05:002020-08-08T14:43:30.277-05:00MISSION STATEMENTHello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to my first thoughts on the Chapter Approved: Grand Tournament 2020 mission pack. This little booklet is a tournament goers perfect guide as it contains, not only, the 9 missions that are likely to make up the majority of tournament missions but also the rules that you need to play in such a mission.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrxrEi951JY92DviiC3ae8_Yed595cFvxn6OxzZubiV-fmvl32PmRGU5RblQG5WbXsGpMnkE7UFK22pGd3SI9VSjto0WM34VEjCLT_f9wASKM8eHMZkqwGED_ioVuYaNko3waxxDvlIg/s350/mission.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrxrEi951JY92DviiC3ae8_Yed595cFvxn6OxzZubiV-fmvl32PmRGU5RblQG5WbXsGpMnkE7UFK22pGd3SI9VSjto0WM34VEjCLT_f9wASKM8eHMZkqwGED_ioVuYaNko3waxxDvlIg/s0/mission.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Ok, so it's not a "perfect guide" and I'm a little disappointed in that it's not really written with a tournament in mind. Unless GW is actually suggesting that you could potentially re-write your list, at different points levels, for each game throughout a tourney. I mean it's great that the missions are supposed be play tested with a balanced tournament environment in mind, but wasn't the whole idea of the book to lay out how a tournament should be played? Instead you get a sequence of 16 steps that outlines how to play a single battle starting from select battle size through placing objectives, choosing secondaries, deploying armies, and determining the winner. In a tournament, you don't do steps 1 or 2, and usually step 3 and 6 are already done as well. </div><div>In the end, TOs will still have to come up with tounament packs outlining all things that GW has overlooked when creating their Tournament Pack. Unless they bring out an FAQ, which just seems messy.</div><div><br /></div><div>I would like to bring your attention to one fairly important line in step 6 after the battlefield size chart. It says that terrain features cannot be set up on top of objective markers (cause objectives are placed before the terrain is). Which means one of 2 things, TO's will have to find terrain patterns that don't cover any of the places where objectives are located, or that players will have to move the terrain if it happens to be in the way.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lets get to the Primary Objectives as there are only 2 of them and they are pretty much the same. They are progressive style meaning that you earn points throughout the game, similar to the ITC primary objectives. Points are earned, starting on the second battle round, at the end of each players Commend Phase. Take and Hold sees a player earn 5 points if they hold one objective, 5 more points if they hold 2 or more objectives, and 5 more points if they hold more objectives than the opponent. Domination is nearly the same except it's hold 2 objectives, 3 or more objectives, and hold more objectives than your opponent. This is for a total of 15 points per turn, and it caps at 45 points per battle.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Vt2sPWT5Z6_ajGYeVpGWn2NCYerpSdyMpEDAE1Ab3ZNRJanEC-irBSp_3Gc2AylcxJOfMay8WSs61jQYL8ToT5XR3DOIRkkLR-DUEhsOfPfA8QBgUKxGs3LCUhMZBXbrr_8O67IHXw/s320/turn+over.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Vt2sPWT5Z6_ajGYeVpGWn2NCYerpSdyMpEDAE1Ab3ZNRJanEC-irBSp_3Gc2AylcxJOfMay8WSs61jQYL8ToT5XR3DOIRkkLR-DUEhsOfPfA8QBgUKxGs3LCUhMZBXbrr_8O67IHXw/s0/turn+over.gif" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>This is going to turn the game on it's head. It puts an emphasis on unit mobility and even more importantly durability. Since points are scored at the end of your Command Phase and your Command Phase happens at the start of your turn, you have to make it to the objective then weather an entire turn of your opponent's shooting to score. Objective Secured is also a thing, making Troops valuable, so durable Troops are extra valuable.</div><div><br /></div><div>So now we get to try to figure out what is better, taking the first turn or the second turn and this is not an easy question. If you have the first turn you will get to move out first, claim the board, and strike first. However, as I mentioned, terrain features cannot be placed on objectives, and leaving them out in the open gives Player 2 a really good opportunity for a counter punch by either shooting the units out in the open or assaulting the ones that moved up to grab objectives and taking the objectives for themselves. Taking the first turn does give you an advantage at the end of the game as you will have the last crack at removing enemy units from objectives in turn 5, without really have to worry about consequences. You would have scored all your points and the only thing to need to worry about is if your opponent has a secondary focused on killing something. All in all, for the progressive scoring primary mission, I think it's probably a little better off to take the first turn.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0FIUzdCcTvR50-hD63qTGgSgUP_9JpMFeBP7PjmykFlqb3ykZmhfUZF9b7KkzoCx2xB6BuXZdhSHlrHcepIEE0IEN2eDvfBa78gd1KsXBmd27_xK4QgLCMifpgOKXJI-waJHJkYiOg/s920/secondary.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="600" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0FIUzdCcTvR50-hD63qTGgSgUP_9JpMFeBP7PjmykFlqb3ykZmhfUZF9b7KkzoCx2xB6BuXZdhSHlrHcepIEE0IEN2eDvfBa78gd1KsXBmd27_xK4QgLCMifpgOKXJI-waJHJkYiOg/w267-h410/secondary.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>On to the Secondary Objectives, and this is going to take us a while cause there are quite a few. First off, there are 5 different categories, each one having 3 or 4 objectives. You must pick 3, none of which can be from the same category, and each earning you a maximum of 15 points for a total of 45 points. Right off the bat I can see that it is going to be extremely difficult to score max points for all of these so you will really have to "hedge your bets" and pick the ones you can score the most on.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMSq3LJOvVunNMNyP2cn9SEDVjVg2GQbKSItB7ataZXeXs09Oky7RwUlfYNZ6vnGn1UkEP5BzvlbA2RgPaJ2_7zdDRbh-XqjvecBYXC8fYthRDy7FsYdJkc1gFUgm-et6OvkuJJ_5Kyw/s2048/control.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1229" data-original-width="2048" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMSq3LJOvVunNMNyP2cn9SEDVjVg2GQbKSItB7ataZXeXs09Oky7RwUlfYNZ6vnGn1UkEP5BzvlbA2RgPaJ2_7zdDRbh-XqjvecBYXC8fYthRDy7FsYdJkc1gFUgm-et6OvkuJJ_5Kyw/w410-h246/control.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>First up we have <b>Battlefield Supremacy</b> category which has 3 objectives in it, Engage on all Fronts, Linebreaker, and Domination. Each of these are pretty straight forward "control the table" progressive objectives and are scored at the end of your turn. Scoring them at the end of your turn is pretty big as it means you're opponent can't really stop you from scoring these.</div><div><b>Engage on all Fronts</b> is table quarters, you get 2 points if you have units wholly within 3 table quarters and 3 points if they are wholly within 4 table quarters. Your units also have to be more than 6" from the table centre. Since games are set at 5 battle rounds, this means you have to achieve this mission to it't full potential every turn in order to score max points, which is very unlikely. Although this mission is pretty good for certain fast moving armies with tons of little sacrificial units, Dark Eldar and Genestealer Cults come to mind. With the new Strategic Reserves rules you can put unimportant unit in reserve and bring them in mid game.</div><div><b>Linebreaker</b> has you scoring 4 points if you have 2 or more units wholly in the enemy deployment zone. This one gets you full points after 4 turns, and honestly isn't that hard against some armies, yet is down right near impossible against others. If you have a bunch of fairly durable units that can deep strike on their own, then this might be the mission for you, getting them in deep and in cover on turn 2 and get them stuck in, hopefully staying alive for the duration.</div><div><b>Domination</b> earns you 3 points if you control MORE than half of the objectives on the table at the end of your turn. Now this one seems like it would be really hard to accomplish, but with the right objective placement, and enough sacrificial units, and if your opponent is content with sitting back for a couple turns, you could score pretty high with this one, particularly on missions with an odd number of objectives like The Scouring or Sweep and Clear.</div><div><br /></div><div>The <b>No Mercy, No Respite</b> category has 3 objectives, Thin Their Ranks, Grind Them Down, and While We Stand, We Fight. Each of which you need to be focused on throughout the battle despite 2 of them having end game objectives.</div><div><b>Thin Their Ranks</b> involves killing vast numbers of models or monsters. Keep a tally of the number of enemy models killed (adding 10 to the tally for models with 10 or more wounds). At the end of the battle take the tally and divide it by 10 and round DOWN, thats how many points you earned. It becomes pretty obvious what armies this becomes good against as you have to kill 150 models, 15 models with 10+ wounds, or a combination of both. Orks, Tyranids, and Guard are examples of armies to take this one against. Because this one has an end game objective, taking second turn is not too bad. Your opponent will possibly make some aggressive moves on his last turn to try and push you off objectives, hopefully thinning his already thinned ranks, making picking off straggling models all the more easier.</div><div><b>Grind Them Down</b> earns you 3 points at the end of each battle round that you kill more units than your opponent. This one could actually come back to bite you in the ass if you happen to kill too many things too early on. You need to score this one every battle round to score max points, so going second and being able to know just how many units you need to kill is going to be very important. Then being able to restrain yourself to killing only the units you need to max out the points is going to be a challenge.</div><div>Finally, <b>While We Stand, We Fight</b> is basically keeping your 3 most points-expensive models alive till the end of the game, for each one that lives you earn 5 points. I don't like this one as I'll be throwing my expensive models at the enemy hoping to kill stuff. I'm not even too sure which army this one would be good for in general as all large models tend to bite the dust eventually. However, I have a suspicion that offensive tactics are going to take a bit of a back seat to durability in this edition, so perhaps there will be some armies that can take advantage of this. I could see some Chaos armies with Deamon Princes making this one work as Princes can benefit from Look Out Sir, but they would likely be Thousand Sons style armies with little assault offence. Again, being an end game objective means if you can push them out in to compromising positions at the end of the game and not worry about them getting killed, and if you can hide them well in deployment thats two turns you don't have to worry about them.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9HZ-Uz6MONcm3XpSJAisqrjWFk2SfyNtf7lPDzHace78LPMpmVra_n_YsYpsD_MaXgZ8ynpO4wHKmxZ3nKQ75xKSCQPkQcSyeJWsWZkS09Ys6JuVw4awGPiAtg1ve4WXaLVTGBUbVg/s400/purge.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9HZ-Uz6MONcm3XpSJAisqrjWFk2SfyNtf7lPDzHace78LPMpmVra_n_YsYpsD_MaXgZ8ynpO4wHKmxZ3nKQ75xKSCQPkQcSyeJWsWZkS09Ys6JuVw4awGPiAtg1ve4WXaLVTGBUbVg/w320-h320/purge.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Purge The Enemy</b> is a category that straight up requires you to kill shit which means they are all end game objectives.</div><div><b>Titan Hunter</b> requires you to kill Titanic models. 10 points for killing one, 12 points for killing 2, 15 points for killing 3. Now if you are up against knights, you will likely want to take first turn, even more so if you have an army that can kill knights pretty well. This one isn't even all that bad if your opponent only has one knight as 10 points is not a small number of points. Keep in mind, it not a good choice if your army is built around surviving, and not killing. That seems obvious but I have seen players make the mistake of taking titan slayer in ITC against a knight army when they couldn't easily kill knights just because that's what everyone did when you played against Knights.</div><div><b>Bring It Down</b> earns you 2 points for each Monster or Vehicle with 10 or fewer wounds killed and 3 points for each Monster or Vehicle with 11 or more wounds killed. This one is brutal for Dark Eldar as they seem to have tons of vehicles and monsters, all of which are not overly difficult to kill.</div><div><b>Cut Off The Head</b> is scored by only killing a single model, the warlord. However what turn you do it in determines how many points you get, 13 for turn one down to 1point if you kill him in turn 5. You saw that right, you cannot score the max points in this one, but if you get first turn and your opponent has a big model as a warlord, like a single Knight or Magnus, and you can kill it, then it's a no brainer. But they can put their warlord in Strategic Reserves now, they might have to pay some CP to do it, but it would be worth it for them. Keep in mind they will have to bring him in on turn 3 at latest, and all the while he is not on the table, so you may actually be able to use this as a valid tactic to keep the big scary thing off the table. There is also a weird interaction with Daemons that is going to need an FAQ(I think). At the end of the mission description it says that if a model is resurrected or "OTHERWISE RETURNED" to the battlefield that they have to be killed again to score the points. Now, there is a FAQ about summoning that says something to the effect of if a named character is killed can it be summoned again (assuming you have points available) and the answer is yes. So if you can summon a named character that was just killed, could you summon your warlord back to the table after it was killed? Maybe I'm just an asshole...</div><div>Finally we have <b>Assassinate</b>, which earns you 3 points for each Character killed. This one is actually going to be a little trickier than you might think as there will likely be fewer detachments taken in games, meaning fewer characters. While there are some armies that need a bunch of characters, your opponent can also put some of these models in Strategic Reserve if needed to keep them alive.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcgbUhdtdpQ4_aNmqOpS8ekP8KAgjhCWMjADA9vEIjBYlIi2_XTsxS-BKGru6PNgcz8jXFo9WwcwSXcQyB_CEMz-Fb8dnjHgJzW2N3AssEoAHXc-k4BmVzV1O_tBeq4fkBBV8_LO8roQ/s256/shadow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcgbUhdtdpQ4_aNmqOpS8ekP8KAgjhCWMjADA9vEIjBYlIi2_XTsxS-BKGru6PNgcz8jXFo9WwcwSXcQyB_CEMz-Fb8dnjHgJzW2N3AssEoAHXc-k4BmVzV1O_tBeq4fkBBV8_LO8roQ/s0/shadow.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Shadow Operations</b> is a category of objectives that use a new mechanic brought into the game, an action. In order to START to perform an action a unit must not be in ENGAGEMENT RANGE, have Advanced, or Fallen Back plus it needs to meet whatever criteria the specific action requires. While performing the action the unit cannot make a Normal Move, Advance, Fall Back, cast a psychic power, shoot, charge, or perform a Heroic Intervention or it will end the action. So the unit can still Pile In, Fight, and Consolidate. Also notice that most of these actions are started at the end of the movement phase, so you can make a Normal Move, Advance, and Fall Back before you start this action.</div><div><b>Raise The Banners High</b> combines end game with progressive objectives. It requires an Infantry unit to start an action at the end of it's movement phase and it must be within range of an objective that has no enemy units within range of it and is completed at the end of the turn. Multiple units may perform this action but they must be performed on different objectives. When this action has been completed place a marker on that objective and at the end of your Command Phase, and at the end of the game, you earn 1 point for each marker you have. Markers are removed if an enemy unit controls an objective with a marker. This one is pretty good since your going to be trying to hold on to those objectives for the primary mission anyway. This just doubles down on your objective holding abilities. It's also pretty good for taking the second turn as you can essentially score points twice on turn 5, once in your command phase and then at the end of the game without having to worry about any kind of retaliation.</div><div><b>Investigate Sites</b> requires a non-character Infantry unit to start to perform an action at the end of your movement phase if you are within 6" of the centre of the table and there are no enemy models within 6" of the centre of the table. This will earn you 3 points at the end of your turn making it a progressive objective. This one is pretty easy to disrupt especially if your opponent has quite a few throw away units like guard as all they have to do in their turn is get a model within 6" of the centre of the table to prevent you from starting that action since you have to start the action before you can kill off the enemy units. Very difficult to score high points unless you can completely cover the centre of the table and not get pushed off. Maybe Primaris Marine death ball, or Nurgle Daemons?</div><div>While <b>Deploy Scramblers</b> can only score you 10 points, it is an end game objective that is incredibly easy to accomplish especially if you have deep strikers. There is a bit of a gable in that it's all or nothing. In order to score those points a non-character infantry unit must complete an action in your deployment zone, in "no man's land" (6" away from any deployment zone), and in your opponents deployment zone. What makes it so easy is that the action is started at the end of your movement and completed at the end of your turn. Perfect for Genestealer Cults who are bringing in units all over the table. Keep in mind that the unit can't really do anything after starting the action, so it has to be somewhat a throw away unit.</div><div><b>Teleport Homer</b> is only a viable mission if you find that you have a couple units that make it into your opponents deployment zone and don't die...even when your opponent is trying to kill them. This action requires one infantry unit to start it at the end of the movement phase and be wholly within the enemy deployment zone and is completed at the end of your next Command Phase. If you can do this each action completed earns you 4 points. This one is really hard to accomplish multiple turns of but, as I said, if you happen to have units that spend 3-4 turns in the opponents deployment zone weathering turn after turn of punishment then perhaps this one is for you. While you're at it you might as well take Linebreaker.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIirbPdI9cHOm241f-idAevs90tNpAXz5pOn4e4p3sUgitJYiF-WrdhheBEzfsdVTOwZ-YqmZpU2LSk1aprLV_hpv0RWohRbGARTSmasIsIhA2APKOUKIYn8oFc6M1-Ln9_tMEsuvDcQ/s336/psychic+action.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIirbPdI9cHOm241f-idAevs90tNpAXz5pOn4e4p3sUgitJYiF-WrdhheBEzfsdVTOwZ-YqmZpU2LSk1aprLV_hpv0RWohRbGARTSmasIsIhA2APKOUKIYn8oFc6M1-Ln9_tMEsuvDcQ/s0/psychic+action.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time to start working on your chakras...</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>For the last category of objectives we have <b>Warpcraft</b> which require you to perform Psychic Actions, another new mechanic. A Psychic Action is performed the same way a power is manifested, can't be done if you performed a Fall Back move, can be denied with Deny the Witch, and can cause a Perils of the Warp on double 1's or 6's. If a Psyker unit performs a Psychic Action it cannot attempt to manifest any other powers. However, I do find it interesting that it looks like a model can perform both an Action AND a Psychic Action,</div><div>Ironically the first mission, <b>Abhor the Witch</b>, requires you to have no Psykers, and earns you 3 points for each Psyker unit killed and 5 points for each Psyker Character killed. Pretty straight forward. Now, from what I can see, there is nothing that stops secondaries from stacking, so if your playing against an army with a ton of Psyker characters this one goes well with Assassinate. Otherwise it's pretty much an auto take vs Grey Knights or T-Sons.</div><div><b>Mental Interrogation</b> requires one of your Psyker Characters to pass a Psychic Actions with a Warp Charge of 4 while within 18" of an enemy Character for 3 points. Only one of your Characters can perform this action per Psychic Phase, so you have to pull it off in all 5 turns to score max points. This is not too difficult to pull of if a certain number of boxes can be ticked. Your enemy does not have any Psykers that can Deny the Witch, your opponent is playing an army where his Characters needs to get into your face, you have the second turn, and you don't absolutely need your Psyker Characters to manifest other psychic powers. If you check all those boxes then this one is a possibility for you. I'm thinking maybe Guard with a couple Astropaths or something like that.</div><div><b>Psychic Ritual</b> is an all or nothing, for 15 points. One Psyker Character must perform a Warp Charge 3 Psychic action three times within 6" of the centre of the table. All three actions must be performed by the same Psyker. This one seems like it's an easy one to pull off, but again there are a number of things to check off. You have to be certain that you can keep your character alive to perform all 3, you also don't need that Character to be manifesting other powers. You also need to be comfortable holding the centre of the table which makes this one pair nicely with Investigate Sites. This is not an easy task but can be pulled off by certain army builds who can flood the centre of the table with extremely durable, and psychic, units.</div><div><b>Pierce the Veil</b> is another end game objective, but it has a middle point, 8 points if the action is performed twice, and 15 points if it's performed four times. The Psychic Action has a Warp Charge of 4, and must be performed by a Psyker Character within 6" of the opponents Battlefield Edge and more than 6" of any enemy models. This one is not for your typical army, you should have multiple Psykers, not need them to cast powers every turn, have them be very mobile or able to deep strike OR play on a map like Sweep and Clear or Vital Intelligence where their battlefield edge is not fully in their deployment zone. It is not an optimal choice, but it might be slightly easier getting 8 points on this one than more on some others.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicaYdlgZy-23MIqkQc42efX43EYJwzbw0jQoogFG6lvFeLun8VjWcW2kKp4seXV0l19qmUQNZ6Y3olWxdmexWFdUyGiwVOW0UOwsPnepfgpf30gU5ZkAdjePKOHri5ZPGK7vuQzBzAWQ/s616/more.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="616" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicaYdlgZy-23MIqkQc42efX43EYJwzbw0jQoogFG6lvFeLun8VjWcW2kKp4seXV0l19qmUQNZ6Y3olWxdmexWFdUyGiwVOW0UOwsPnepfgpf30gU5ZkAdjePKOHri5ZPGK7vuQzBzAWQ/w394-h262/more.png" width="394" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>We have covered all the basic Secondaries, but we are not quite done as I also want to talk about each of the missions, which have their own dedicated map and objective placement as well as their own Secondary Objective. Now I'm only going to talk about the Strike Force missions, the ones designed to be played at 2000 points because that's the typical tournament size.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Retrieval Mission</b> has the "Hammer and Anvil" style deployment with <b>Take and Hold</b> as it's Primary. It's fairly easy to score 10 points with this Primary as you have one objective in your deployment zone and 2 more just outside it. The key to getting 15 will be keeping your opponent off of one of his objectives so watch for your opponent to try and overwhelm one side of the table to take one from you and use that movement to to either counter strike and crush the forces he sent at you, or to move along the opposite side and do the same thing he is trying to do to you.</div><div>The Secondary Objective for this mission is <b>Minimize Losses</b>, which earns you points for NOT losing units. Before the battle starts count up all the units you have, if you have 75% or higher of the number of units at the end of the battle you score 15 points, 10 points for having 50% or more, and 5 points for more than 25%. If units split or merge as the game is being played you adjust the total accordingly. So if you have 2 guard units merge then you would reduce your total unit count by 1. I have very rarely played a game where I still had more than 50% of my units left at the end of the game, so this Secondary is limited to extremely durable armies where the whole army is durable, not just a couple key units.</div><div>Raise the Banners High is a pretty good Secondary for this map as you are likely to get 3 objectives with banners right off the hop. Engage On All Fronts also has potential, especially if you are the kind of army that is going to try and push to take one of the 3 objectives on the other side of the table.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Scorched Earth</b> has the good ol' fashion 12" from the centre long table edge deployment with 6 objectives. It has <b>Take and Hold</b> as a Primary Objective, although this one is going to come down to who can hold the objectives in the middle. This mission has a special rule to it that allows one player to remove an objective that is in the other players deployment zone by starting performing an action at the start of their movement phase. The primary mission is Take and Hold, so if you can destroy one of the objectives early in the game it could very well cripple your opponent. You shouldn't have too much trouble scoring 10 points a turn as there are 2 objectives at the edge of your deployment zone.</div><div>The mission specific Secondary Objective is to <b>Raze</b> the other players objectives. You get 6 points for one and 12 points for both, so you can't get your max number of points for this secondary AND it's not easy to accomplish unless you are a particularly aggressive army and plan on spending a good deal of time with most of your army in the enemies deployment zone. If this is the case, then Pierce the Veil and Linebreaker might not be bad choices to fill out your other choices. Here is a funny idea as well, if you manage to raze one of the objectives, then achieving Domination becomes significantly easier. You will still have a heck of a time getting all the points, </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Vital Intelligence</b> has an interesting special rule in that if you hold an objective at the end of your command phase then you count as holding that objective even if you move away from it until your opponent controls it at the end of any phase. This is important because the Primary Objective is <b>Domination</b>. This one has a diagonal deployment, and the way the objectives are place you will likely look to push clockwise around the table to the closer objectives.</div><div>The Secondary Objective is an interesting one called <b>Data Intercept</b> where one of your units starts performing an action at the end of your movement phase and you score a number of points equal to the number of objectives you hold when the action is completed at the end of your next Command Phase. You will need to be careful with this one as your opponent can toss quick cheap units at your objectives to steal them away from you if you're not babysitting them, and the objectives are placed far enough apart that keeping a firm hold on more than 3 will be really tricky. This is one of the maps where Pierce the Veil is an option as your opponent's deployment zone does not stretch across his whole Battlefield Edge. Also your deployment zone spans 3 of the 4 table quarters, so Engage on All Fronts isn't a terrible choice.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Surround and Control</b> has some pretty widely spaced out objectives which will really help out mobile shooting armies (like they need much help). The Primary Objective is <b>Take and Hold</b>, again helping out fast moving armies as holding 2 objectives for 10 points shouldn't be much of an issue. Getting that third one will be tricky.</div><div><b>Surround Them</b> is the Secondary Objective and requires you to hold both objectives in your deployment zone and one objective in your opponent's deployment zone at the end of your Command Phase to score 4 points, or to hold all 4 of the objectives in the deployment zones for 8 points. While this is scored in your Command Phase throughout the game, it is also scored at the end of the game which makes taking second turn a possibility to score this one in a late game dash and making it somewhat reasonable to pick up 12 points with this one. You are still probably better off not taking it though.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next up we have <b>Battle Lines</b> which uses <b>Take and Hold</b> Primary Objective and has only 4, fairly widely spaced, objectives. This makes it a little more difficult for death ball style armies to hold multiple objectives, but there aren't enough objectives for delicate fast moving armies to hold while easily avoiding enemy units. If you can push and hold the middle of the table then you are within striking distance of most of the objectives, but not necessarily within holding distance so you should probably look for holding 2 and then just preventing your opponent from holding any.</div><div>The Secondary Objective, <b>Vital Ground</b>, earns you 3 points for holding the objective in the opponent's deployment zone and 2 points for holding each of the objectives in "no man's land" for potentially 7 points at the end of your Command Phase. However it can't be scored on the first turn so your Scouts will have to hang tough and survive a turn. If you can hold the centre of the table, then you should be able to get both of the objectives in "no man's land" and while you're there you can Investigate Sites and/or Psychic Ritual some more secondary points.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Scouring</b> has a weird central Hammer and Anvil style deployment and 5 objectives all of them placed in "no man's land" making them all fairly close together which makes the Primary somewhat easy to achieve despite it being <b>Domination</b>. A highly durable army that likes to hold the middle of table is really going to excel on this map as all of the objectives are in no-mans land and are relatively close.</div><div>The Secondary Objective also has some serious potential to be achieved as it requires you to <b>Strategic Scan</b> as many objectives as you can by starting an action at the end of your movement and completing it at the end of your next Command Phase(or at the end of the game). You can't scan the same objective twice, but if you complete 4 scans that earns you 15 points. For a central table control army this should be pretty easy. Pair this with Domination and all you have to do is hold 3 objectives and easily win this game. I see this mission being a blowout one way or another.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Primary Objective in <b>Overrun</b> is <b>Domination</b>, which isn't too hard as 3 of the 6 objectives are close to or in each players deployment zone. While holding 3 objectives shouldn't be too hard, holding more than that could prove tricky as you now have to push deep into the enemy half of the table. If you can hold the centre of the table and hold the left or right side, that will give you access to 4 different objectives.</div><div>That brings me to the Secondary Objective which is also called <b>Overrun</b>. I guess the naming guys took the day off for this one. Anyway, you have to hold the objectives in the enemy half of the table at the end of your Command Phase. One objective earns you 2 points, two objectives earns you 3 points, and all three objectives earns you 5 points. The problem with this is is that if you push your army across the table to hold your opponent's objectives, he will likely be able to move across and take yours. So if you can hold the 4 objectives on the right or left half of the table you're set. Easy right?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Sweep and Clear </b>is another mission where you still count as holding the objective even if you don't have models near it until your opponent controls it. It also only has 5 objectives with <b>Take and Hold</b> as the Primary. The deployment is table quarters with a 9" no-mans land in the middle, so once again if you are a tough durable army who can push the middle of the table you shouldn't have much trouble holding the 3 objectives you need to fill our your Primary score.</div><div><b>Direct Assault</b> the Secondary Objective for this mission is holding the centre objective and the objective in your opponent's deployment zone. You score 3 points for holding one of them and 5 points if you hold both of them at the end of your turn. This map is one that makes Pierce the Veil possible, although Psychic Ritual might be better along with Investigate Sites. Move your whole army to the middle of the table and watch those points come rolling in.</div><div><br /></div><div>We have finally made it to the last mission, <b>Priority Target</b>, which has 5 objectives and <b>Take and Hold</b> as the Primary Objective. 2 of the objectives are labelled A and 2 are labelled B. There is a neat little back and forth that happens before deployment though and I really kind of like. Before any models are declared for reserves or to be put in transports the Attacker moves one of objectives labelled A or B 6" in any horizontal direction making sure it is not placed within an obstacle or Defensible terrain. The Defender then moves an A AND B objective that has not been moved yet, following the same rules, finally the Attacker moves the last A or B objective that has not been moved. Once all the markers have been placed players secretly mark one of the 2 objectives in their half of the table as their Priority Objective, the is really only important for the secondary.</div><div>Which is <b>Priority Target</b> in which you get 3 points for holding one of the Priority Target Objectives or 5 points for holding both of them at the end of your turn. This one is actually a little weird and seems like you can just score max points by holding your objective for the entirety of the game. If you are playing a mirror match where both armies are the slower moving durable table control armies that is what we will have. Then the game will basically hinge on the objective in the middle along with the other secondaries, which will likely revolve around holding the middle. The movement of the objectives will be key as faster, more agile armies will want to spread those objectives out and the "turtle" armies will want them closer together. If we have a mismatch in armies we will want to watch for the more dynamic army make a big move turn 3, bringing in a bunch of their army from reserve and striking hard looking to cripple their opponent and steal their objective for the last 3 turns to score max points.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbD6i0lE61LEkj9Y4CueG5V21D_hDYcdb07SfkXRwb9KRlxWuxZxPIHtxL_r8Jb8veOXSVYq_5_ykzCh7-6OUfJOg8b_axdlBAONcPe76eGRUlttJRhC0mJBxJ5i63JD6KTSNmBm0HWQ/s1200/ball+game.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="1200" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbD6i0lE61LEkj9Y4CueG5V21D_hDYcdb07SfkXRwb9KRlxWuxZxPIHtxL_r8Jb8veOXSVYq_5_ykzCh7-6OUfJOg8b_axdlBAONcPe76eGRUlttJRhC0mJBxJ5i63JD6KTSNmBm0HWQ/w410-h318/ball+game.jpg" width="410" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's a whole new ball game.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div>The game has changed pretty drastically from how armies are built, to how you score points, to how terrain works. You are going to start seeing fewer armies that are straight up dedicated to annihilating your army turn one and more armies designed to hold the table and not go anywhere. Now, we could simply move to a paper, rock, scissors type game where some players will build "turtle" lists which move to the middle the table and stay there, others will build "sledge hammer" lists which rush forward and smash whatever gets close enough, and others will play a scalpel style army that moves quick, strikes hard, and is generally anywhere and everywhere at any given time. All of these look like they fair well in 9th, but only the best will survive.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thank you for reading, I know this was a long one and you stuck it out to the end. Or just skipped ahead to see how it ended. It's the from dark, it doesn't end well. Feel free to leave a comment if I got anything wrong or if you have some insights.</div><div><br /></div><div>Til next time, keep them dice rollin.</div>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-65736269406304233412020-07-24T08:51:00.001-05:002020-07-24T09:07:02.941-05:00TACTICS TALK: THE LAY OF THE LAND<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiuEfC7eZBDpg5EyrkCKQGSeGE0w6apvlkUvTEJxmiBJ_bvun7CzZeyuKFzpvESjvdDj7cafAVDtRIDaB6OfINjSuxpYvDgHhtZoSl4FpHMZ7M6cQz5oCD4iywgiHI0MmH6Lre_1wazg/s640/lay+of+the+land.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiuEfC7eZBDpg5EyrkCKQGSeGE0w6apvlkUvTEJxmiBJ_bvun7CzZeyuKFzpvESjvdDj7cafAVDtRIDaB6OfINjSuxpYvDgHhtZoSl4FpHMZ7M6cQz5oCD4iywgiHI0MmH6Lre_1wazg/s320/lay+of+the+land.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And that is a hill...and that is a building...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Hello there everyone, with the release of 9th Edition one of the big topics is the new rules for terrain. This edition looks like it is going to have a significantly better grasp of rules for terrain being more clear and practical. Not to mention a bunch of new rules and abilities to add more tactical elements to the game. Terrain has been divided into four categories, hills, obstacles, area terrain, and buildings, then to further give pieces definition there are traits that can be assigned to them, but that is getting a little ahead of ourselves.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSDkN5M7QwlBt_iJQiEryWH9NDPUAUPBN_K2Gfnmg1L_pRzUOjpeclDKfsN_7xbBvvyWb0VUy8-_RAVhxKZUnzp3eW5td59njf38OrA9RBCBeROJk83SUfBahrjJWhyAmOc9UUol5fw/s300/hill.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSDkN5M7QwlBt_iJQiEryWH9NDPUAUPBN_K2Gfnmg1L_pRzUOjpeclDKfsN_7xbBvvyWb0VUy8-_RAVhxKZUnzp3eW5td59njf38OrA9RBCBeROJk83SUfBahrjJWhyAmOc9UUol5fw/s0/hill.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look, a hill.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>HILLS are probably the most basic piece of terrain. Models use normal rules for moving over them, standing on them, standing behind them, etc etc. HILLS can be modeled right into the battlefield, like the plastic Realm of Battle board, or they can be physical pieces added to the table, which is far more likely since most tables nowadays are covered with neoprene mats. Regardless of what shape they take, they are considered to be part of the battlefield itself.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8E8ABSRw0yrkg-A5T50zFhycgvuX6Nlt9A8m96q7h3XOXtYGgUqBAPKse3ZBzsDTNJ9ZkJlZ7EtKl5nKBvD293TeUb_bLgd-8HxhjZCMeQqErC7Y0t4ZTnTN53jkD6ysN344Fsx9X6w/s499/obstacle.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="499" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8E8ABSRw0yrkg-A5T50zFhycgvuX6Nlt9A8m96q7h3XOXtYGgUqBAPKse3ZBzsDTNJ9ZkJlZ7EtKl5nKBvD293TeUb_bLgd-8HxhjZCMeQqErC7Y0t4ZTnTN53jkD6ysN344Fsx9X6w/s320/obstacle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>OBSTACLES are a little more varying and can encompass things like barricades, ruined walls, barbed wire, or it could be just a huge rock. Infantry, Beast, and Swarm units gain the benefits of cover when they are within 3" of an OBSTACLE unless you can draw a line from the attacking model to any part of the target model without touching the OBSTACLE. Here is a funny little note, just gaining the benefit of cover doesn't do anything, you need to have rules on the piece of terrain or the models affected by the terrain that actually come in to effect when the unit gains the benefit of cover, but that comes later. Models can move up, over, and down OBSTACLES using the normal movement rules, and they follow the normal rules for determining line of sight through it.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB8Vlwft5FL4TtvtsUYgCtf2ueRWn-F25IurLn4YaTHLApCV4jB0vHYGRaggMEPMjqJwxgwNzOnVFEhuRWcG_R_DRA1f6oQgPre7zOGJf7nVXuvh-e2cesqeNZl8CSbwslB8B7-YePjA/s1024/area+terrain+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB8Vlwft5FL4TtvtsUYgCtf2ueRWn-F25IurLn4YaTHLApCV4jB0vHYGRaggMEPMjqJwxgwNzOnVFEhuRWcG_R_DRA1f6oQgPre7zOGJf7nVXuvh-e2cesqeNZl8CSbwslB8B7-YePjA/s320/area+terrain+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Area terrain...<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTMGvESdJ8vfhwtHPkOcdUzfncKGgjnW-0NYmLoODbAFUaVT_xcR8KyzLKxHdVDNECQJixMXtbIo4Y787g-5uvmihHJvRO4YWzVDE1UikM6d6yiPWMk-LNF3ta3rxn8fNPVGDqEWQRA/s870/area+terrain.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="870" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTMGvESdJ8vfhwtHPkOcdUzfncKGgjnW-0NYmLoODbAFUaVT_xcR8KyzLKxHdVDNECQJixMXtbIo4Y787g-5uvmihHJvRO4YWzVDE1UikM6d6yiPWMk-LNF3ta3rxn8fNPVGDqEWQRA/s320/area+terrain.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...also area terrain<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>AREA TERRAIN is where shit gets fuzzy cause it basically covers everything else that has a base or footprint which is defined as a boundary of the terrain feature at the ground level. This can include things such as ruins, forests, craters, mine fields, I mean the list really is endless. Keep in mind that the footprint will not always be obvious and should be discussed prior to the game. Infantry, Beast, and Swarm unit gain the benefit of cover while they are within it. Thanks to our new definitions of WITHIN, we know that this means every model in the unit needs to be touching the terrain feature. AREA TERRAIN follows the normal rules for movement and line of sight yada yada yada.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLA8_4JpiafmY9wSTHHbjUY5OMPcteJblovo3-AW2gGQlLfjAje80RB52DKwB0eUwpum9-DjMqnSvGdOpJSLArUm_rZYwSG2I04UHRO0cb7yKVq0k_DQ7r_rerabxAc0CXDBT9gKkZAQ/s950/building.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLA8_4JpiafmY9wSTHHbjUY5OMPcteJblovo3-AW2gGQlLfjAje80RB52DKwB0eUwpum9-DjMqnSvGdOpJSLArUm_rZYwSG2I04UHRO0cb7yKVq0k_DQ7r_rerabxAc0CXDBT9gKkZAQ/s320/building.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>BUILDINGS are typically things like fortifications. They follow the normal rules for line of sight, but they cannot be moved across, are considered units as opposed to terrain features, and enemy BUILDINGS can be attacked. I'm not going to talk about them much as they really don't show up in tournament tables very often, and they typically have a fairly well defined set of rules for them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now we get into the traits, which is where the real rules come from, and I have to start with a complaint. They have fucked up right from the get go and have failed to consistently use their special terms. Specifically "Within" and "receives the benefit of cover". The above rules specify what is required to "receive the benefit of cover" for each category of terrain, so why not KEYWORD that term and re-use it?</div><div><br /></div><div>The very first trait, DEFENSIBLE, is a perfect example of what I mean. They could have replaced the first two paragraphs with something like: If an Infantry unit would receive the benefit of cover while within a piece of AREA TERRAIN or an OBSTACLE when an enemy unit declares a charge against it, then it can either Hold Steady or it can Set to Defend, unless it is already in ENGAGEMENT RANGE of another enemy unit. I'm not going to drone on and on about this lack of consistency, but know that it is rampant through this section of the book.</div><div>Anyway...back to the point. Hold Steady allows the unit receiving the charge to fire Overwatch and hit on 5+, while Set to Defend prevents the unit from Overwatching, but gives them a +1 to hit in the next Fight phase. Take note that this +1 to hit has no restrictions as to what enemy unit you can attack, so you still get this +1 to hit bonus if multiple units charge you. This is a great little boost since Overwatch was turned into a stratagem. Its also a great boost for those times when units are not visible to the target of the charge as they will at least get a bonus to hit should they survive.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next trait is DEFENCE LINE, which basically changes the ENGAGEMENT RANGE to 2" as long as the enemy unit is within 1" of the terrain feature and you end your charge touching the terrain feature. This means that only a single model of the target unit has to be within 1" of the terrain feature, and there is no mention of having to be on opposite sides, or drawing a line over the piece or anything like that. There are stipulations on being on opposite sides of the terrain feature and within 2" in order to make attacks against the target, but if you are on the same side you should be able to Pile In to normal ENGAGEMENT RANGE. This eliminates players using wide barricade like pieces, where you can't physically get within ENGAGEMENT RANGE, as a way to keep from getting charged.</div><div><br /></div><div>BREACHABLE means that Infantry, Beast, and Swarm units can walk through any part of the terrain feature. Typically, you have to measure up, across, and down a terrain feature when moving over it, but not in this case. This makes things like networks of short walls and ruins much less tedious to navigate.</div><div><br /></div><div>DIFFICULT GROUND subtracts 2" when making a Normal Move, Advance, Fall Back, or when charging over this terrain feature, unless the model has FLY.</div><div><br /></div><div>DENSE COVER confers a -1 to hit penalty when shooting at a unit that receives the benefit of cover from a terrain feature. This does not apply if the shooting unit is within the terrain feature. The terrain feature has to be 3" or taller and does not give the penalty to unit whoa re shooting at Aircraft or models with a wounds characteristic of 18 or more.</div><div><br /></div><div>An UNSTABLE POSITION cannot have models be placed on top of it. They can move up, over, and down them, but they can't end their move on top of them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Models do not receive the benefit of cover from terrain features that are an EXPOSED POSITION while on top of them.</div><div><br /></div><div>OBSCURING terrain that is over 5" tall gets into some janky shit as it completely blocks LOS when looking through or over it but uses normal LOS for units that are within it. However it does not block LOS for Aircraft or models that have a wound characteristic of 18 or higher. So get this, an Infantry model on one side of an OBSCURING terrain feature could see a Knight on the other side of the terrain feature, but the Knight could not see the Infantry model.</div><div>I kind of like this rule, mainly due to how it kind of fucks over gun line static shooting armies. It makes seeing across the table is incredibly difficult, and if you can't navigate your way to a better vantage point and create lanes of fire, then you're BONED.</div><div><br /></div><div>A unit that is receiving the benefit of cover from a terrain feature that is LIGHT COVER gets a +1 to saving throws against ranged attacks. This does not apply to invulnerable saving throws.</div><div><br /></div><div>HEAVY COVER grants a +1 to saving throws against melee attacks, which does not apply to invulnerable saving throws.</div><div><br /></div><div>SCALEABLE terrain can be moved through horizontally and vertically by Infantry, Beasts, Swarms, and models that can fly. These models can also be set up on and end their movement on top of this feature. This is pretty much what ruins were in the previous edition. Note that they have not really solved the problem of putting a Repulsor on top of a Ruin. Unless they remove the FLY keyword from it and replace it with something like HOVER, which will need to be created still.</div><div><br /></div><div>INSPIRING terrain gives a +1 to Ld to units that are wholly within 6" of it.</div><div><br /></div><div>So there we have all the terrain traits, and thankfully they give us some common examples of terrain features that bring these all together.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjStZxHKgd0WOKEJftB73leED1zdHPIj8kRjY9moO3dSPV4ztphXn6D_Xd2t-86JmrsgaLaMQuaSm-brevsCqtLlv9XyV024LwAfliWca8wY7AOoirQqN7rhWp0-OqxrG9FTa5Bw6QdA/s1080/ruin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="806" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjStZxHKgd0WOKEJftB73leED1zdHPIj8kRjY9moO3dSPV4ztphXn6D_Xd2t-86JmrsgaLaMQuaSm-brevsCqtLlv9XyV024LwAfliWca8wY7AOoirQqN7rhWp0-OqxrG9FTa5Bw6QdA/s320/ruin.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Ruins are AREA TERRAIN that have the SCALEABLE, BREACHABLE, LIGHT COVER, DEFENSIBLE, and OBSCURING TRAIT. What they all means is that you can move through the walls and floors, get a +1 to your saving throws from ranged attacks, can't see through it or over it, but can see into and out of it. Also, you can Hold Steady or Set to Defend which I think is a great addition. I do have some reservations though as ruins tend to be a quite popular terrain feature, and they tend to be quite large to keep set up and tear down of tables relatively simple. I cold see the OBSCURING rule that these pieces have slowly see them taking the place of the "NOVA L" pieces that are popular in the tournament scene. Also keep in mind that the OBSCURING trait takes effect from the entire base, or footprint of the feature. In the case I show above that means that the empty front right corner will block LOS over it, even though you can clearly see past it.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHebiVGPXwxvhAfIrvbu8vW4Uj4FIbrFuVgcj7DkkeVvru6V2rwbFeJ3sGcQjldB7uXEFwcowHA34gNL7JbltTaVWLOSemfw3WmIj5XzuOf7eT8ohy1fUyVlFM789ctkAicrPuqj5kCg/s407/craters.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="407" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHebiVGPXwxvhAfIrvbu8vW4Uj4FIbrFuVgcj7DkkeVvru6V2rwbFeJ3sGcQjldB7uXEFwcowHA34gNL7JbltTaVWLOSemfw3WmIj5XzuOf7eT8ohy1fUyVlFM789ctkAicrPuqj5kCg/s320/craters.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Craters are one of the most under valued pieces of terrain out there and I really hope that they can make a bit of a surge to popularity. They are AREA TERRAIN that have the LIGHT COVER and DIFFICULT GROUND traits which make them a perfect position for small fire base units.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKUHSookzEQ8nMVX3E7o5OL0PEjocye5mDQb6w0rGjVuRXwr5uhfJ-KCnhcR25-te4xGXNwxCM4uUhwL2xXZa282ISfvTrCtCFsA52PXHBPGVXytko9OplchXBVqxfG0li4L3AztKJeA/s750/armoured+container.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="750" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKUHSookzEQ8nMVX3E7o5OL0PEjocye5mDQb6w0rGjVuRXwr5uhfJ-KCnhcR25-te4xGXNwxCM4uUhwL2xXZa282ISfvTrCtCFsA52PXHBPGVXytko9OplchXBVqxfG0li4L3AztKJeA/s320/armoured+container.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The armoured containers are OBSTACLES with the LIGHT COVER, SCALEABLE, and EXPOSED POSITION traits. This means that you can climb on top of them, but you can't walk through them. They give you a cover save, but not if you are on top of them, and the unit has to be within 3" of it to gain that cover save. I really like these containers and how they play on the table. They are typically used just to block LOS, but the way they are set up above, with little cracks in their set up is probably the best way to set them up now. They are serious deterrents to armies that need to be mobile, but don't have FLY or some other ability to ignore having to move up and down terrain.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypdYjK0YaPTyNalATY6WeTnnrvomDw2WA1v_eYL9t0gSKeqHu3Uv6mKUaB7iUZe6QlbwpjsLpOq731gEsS6tyD4LX49FPHYspjs2kasBMPIL-lKaySEHjOZf9TO-z2QGD45BvevclJg/s466/barricades.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypdYjK0YaPTyNalATY6WeTnnrvomDw2WA1v_eYL9t0gSKeqHu3Uv6mKUaB7iUZe6QlbwpjsLpOq731gEsS6tyD4LX49FPHYspjs2kasBMPIL-lKaySEHjOZf9TO-z2QGD45BvevclJg/s320/barricades.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Barricades have gotten a ton of rules and I think will likely see a ton of use. They are OBSTACLES, with DEFENCE LINE, LIGHT COVER, HEAVY COVER, DEFENSIBLE, UNSTABLE POSITION, and DIFFICULT GROUND. That's a ton of rules that make them really strong pieces to hide behind and they don't take up a ton of space which make them great pieces to fill out the spaces in between your larger terrain features. You will want to use them sparingly though as you don't want to saturate the entire table.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi261DDEE2BZpNhm3ZtI6Lum5Sw7GMUXUQ78LwrKKHPF6ddxh1FJ7NEZreoPByEwsgPitvPJXA4tenYkXjm6F29IbJ4Al_LzAsMkhforiuKNjyL6CJSKcLfR0A6UOUCNBM_QmmDO5_I0g/s1600/woods2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi261DDEE2BZpNhm3ZtI6Lum5Sw7GMUXUQ78LwrKKHPF6ddxh1FJ7NEZreoPByEwsgPitvPJXA4tenYkXjm6F29IbJ4Al_LzAsMkhforiuKNjyL6CJSKcLfR0A6UOUCNBM_QmmDO5_I0g/s320/woods2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Woods are another great piece of terrain that can break up the monotony of ruins and shelled out buildings. They are AREA TERRAIN that have the traits DENSE COVER, BREACHABLE, DEFENSIBLE, and DIFFICULT GROUND. I like the new addition of DENSE TERRAIN trait as it gives pieces of terrain different uses in different situations. For example, against units that have tons of shots, bonuses to hit, and re-rolls, the Woods is not going to help a lot. However, Tau don't deal real well with penalties to hit, and with a mediocre BS the penalty really helps.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-65lrdaJf-28KHHgmI1iQSgXeWKw4LIDl43S9obcX410tBHWTYGcTXPz6-QXMnPmAsCEWVK3I-avpElorcFtzihJm6PnA8QV17KPD_v-_WD3ARLmNMzhBJ97D_lLMboLijZ34sz0Ssw/s512/debris.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="495" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-65lrdaJf-28KHHgmI1iQSgXeWKw4LIDl43S9obcX410tBHWTYGcTXPz6-QXMnPmAsCEWVK3I-avpElorcFtzihJm6PnA8QV17KPD_v-_WD3ARLmNMzhBJ97D_lLMboLijZ34sz0Ssw/s320/debris.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Battlefield Debris is an interesting OBSTACLE that is also an EXPOSED POSITION. This means that it doesn't really do anything on it's own. It doesn't do anything unless the model itself has a rule that gives it some benefit from receiving the benefit of cover like the Raven Guard chapter tactics or Scout camo cloaks. For the most part, these things will just get in the way and slow down ground based models.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, I think these rules are really going to move the game in a better direction. There is going to be a couple months of playing around with quantity and variety of terrain, but after that things will smooth out and we will have ourselves a decently solid table set up. Thanks for reading.</div><div><br /></div><div>Til next time, keep them dice rollin.</div><div><br /></div><div>This post is sponsored by...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_SNpaITLwtCOlnDyt2HdN_ndOhyrLpxKmOfpSKcnAJUyGl110ZuVntr4Dovf4uPA5x6aA7xo7yxS_p2LxrcddmxmkWb4cQR5q6FTdMurB0Z9wb-KWiWRRcPBr6VWrL4ixZrQ6z20TA/s512/MAXX+logo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="512" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_SNpaITLwtCOlnDyt2HdN_ndOhyrLpxKmOfpSKcnAJUyGl110ZuVntr4Dovf4uPA5x6aA7xo7yxS_p2LxrcddmxmkWb4cQR5q6FTdMurB0Z9wb-KWiWRRcPBr6VWrL4ixZrQ6z20TA/w400-h176/MAXX+logo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>This shop has everything a nerd could want. Comics, collectibles, games, toys, miniatures, RPGs, books, paints, brushes, and hobby tools. I've been in there a hundred times and I still wander around in awe gawking at the wall of table top gaming.</div><div><br /></div><div>He also has some gaming tables set up in the back room, which are on a limited use to maintain social distancing. You'll have to call to get the full details.</div>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-50691177769452577412020-07-18T23:42:00.002-05:002020-07-19T12:50:22.917-05:00COMBAT IS DEAD, LONG LIVE COMBAT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHnvelqar6hYMGHkwv69K4pLuyE-G_R1U7N_YGaVLTpm7CixqRMEUUMD8JpdeZ80BGKMn3l8S_KRgUjIJHlYMK0K7hVXyGZSD0TfApHE1QudWyqa0p9JqISnH1KIxzIHCFfsJ3XhrAow/s432/hail-to-the-king-baby-main.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHnvelqar6hYMGHkwv69K4pLuyE-G_R1U7N_YGaVLTpm7CixqRMEUUMD8JpdeZ80BGKMn3l8S_KRgUjIJHlYMK0K7hVXyGZSD0TfApHE1QudWyqa0p9JqISnH1KIxzIHCFfsJ3XhrAow/s320/hail-to-the-king-baby-main.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Hey there everyone, welcome back to my flurry of posts that I've been pumping out. This one, as the title indicates, is going to cover some of the changes that combat units are going to have to deal with in the new edition. I won't stop there though as I will delve into a couple other areas of the game where I have noticed some "interesting" interactions.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Lets start with a change that I particularly dislike, which is the change to the "support" range for the "second rank" of models in combat. This has been change from 1" to 1/2". This means that you could get a model in ENGAGEMENT RANGE and not have any supporting models make any attacks. Now of course you can just PILE IN so you can get more models in range, but all in all you will not get as many models in range of making attacks which greatly lessens the effectiveness of combat. As you can see by the visual I have provided, the Black Legion models in ENGAGEMENT RANGE have a red bubble which represents the 1" "support range" from 8th while the Red Corsairs have a blue bubble which represents the 1/2' "support range" of 9th. Surprise, I can fit more models in the 1" bubble than the 1/2" bubble.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT95MQEz4EKLyh_moY_PwsNd-wsZufa_k2_s00i5CZ4gysU9pz6iHFM3dH1L_sZU1JKkx6Tnhv60ij0sEltZ8ApKFCiXXPsETpxqwFO6P1XkGcM560e2VqXJfQ8dmr3_JZmMfxMpXhCg/s2048/IMG_4028.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT95MQEz4EKLyh_moY_PwsNd-wsZufa_k2_s00i5CZ4gysU9pz6iHFM3dH1L_sZU1JKkx6Tnhv60ij0sEltZ8ApKFCiXXPsETpxqwFO6P1XkGcM560e2VqXJfQ8dmr3_JZmMfxMpXhCg/s320/IMG_4028.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Now I can only guess as to why exactly they did this, but I'm going to assume it might have something to do with models with 25mm bases being able to fight in "4 ranks" so to speak. Not only is this a hit against assault armies, it's a hit against horde armies who typically look for those overwhelming numbers of dice in order to make up for lackluster stats. Combat is supposed to be brutal and decisive, this change is going to draw out combats and make them less conclusive.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are some shenanigans you can pull with this and Heroic Intervention. Now that you have to be able to get into ENGAGEMENT RANGE with the target of a charge, or the charge fails, you can hide Characters behind the front line, 3" away from the edge of a friendly model's ENGAGEMENT RANGE and even make it impossible with model placement for the enemy unit to make it to the Character's ENGAGEMENT RANGE. Then you can HI the Character forward into the opponent's ENGAGEMENT RANGE or into a position that forces him to move a certain way. This could be either because he wants to try to avoid your Character, because your Character is now the closest enemy model, or because your Character made base contact with enemy models preventing them from moving further. All the while your Character is safe from being attacked that round.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the below visual the Black Legion charged the Red Corsairs and just made it into ENGAGEMENT RANGE with one model. The RC character HI out front and made base contact with the BL model, preventing that model from getting into the 1/2" range required for supporting models to make attacks. After piling in only a few BL models will be in range of making any attacks and none are close enough to get the second rank to fight.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IGGm8AsTu-IIS3EjbrXkHiRa6-RlF97cyU-M3L9Ml39vcUDHzj7p_-8kUyjzjHi6qoZmskbG869AE3xCxiFVuFArdbBRXY3VpS39edd-esHDZ2rnJ1P-LxuM-0HgIB2Dbj1FuS99Yw/s2048/IMG_3372.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IGGm8AsTu-IIS3EjbrXkHiRa6-RlF97cyU-M3L9Ml39vcUDHzj7p_-8kUyjzjHi6qoZmskbG869AE3xCxiFVuFArdbBRXY3VpS39edd-esHDZ2rnJ1P-LxuM-0HgIB2Dbj1FuS99Yw/s320/IMG_3372.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WYJ8igNd-TVBLQ0ePyReF6XoORJJ2Re0-WKFSNwW4EFg8a0Zzml_JK2r1tzMT_3Ug30l3kuIaSaeAweDcfdzxPRA_9sid4Ox9WquG4xuddS_7oZ1ucGI7lByViY4CJCB20oA39k0KA/s2048/IMG_5150.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WYJ8igNd-TVBLQ0ePyReF6XoORJJ2Re0-WKFSNwW4EFg8a0Zzml_JK2r1tzMT_3Ug30l3kuIaSaeAweDcfdzxPRA_9sid4Ox9WquG4xuddS_7oZ1ucGI7lByViY4CJCB20oA39k0KA/s320/IMG_5150.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>EDIT: Something has been pointed out to me on one of my Facebook posts that I missed. Charging units CAN attack a model that has performed a Heroic Intervention. So keep that in mind as this is still a valid tactic, but you are now putting your character at risk of being attacked.</div><div><br /></div><div>Keep in mind all of the above needs to be accomplished while your models stay in unit coherency, and now that your models have to be within 2" of two different models in a unit of 6+, this gets trickier to do.</div><div><br /></div><div>The easiest way to maintain COHERENCY with larger unit is to keep them all in a ball, but if you need to keep them stretched out then you can keep them close enough together so that the model on the end is 2" away from the 3rd model in line, then it gives you options from where to take casualties from as the pics show.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijLkU1Bozb3HU0WMN1Nz0axLihd0X3dFDlfWpzHo2jfkK1Wdq-Y-PQfDYcUvd-3FT-wjmr8narlSYkqzRFjruqJn2vQ-zonyBj1Mn_SQDkSXG2cZ3A1O_8h33ye3GjxkAC1iiGCVrg7Q/s2048/IMG_4460.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijLkU1Bozb3HU0WMN1Nz0axLihd0X3dFDlfWpzHo2jfkK1Wdq-Y-PQfDYcUvd-3FT-wjmr8narlSYkqzRFjruqJn2vQ-zonyBj1Mn_SQDkSXG2cZ3A1O_8h33ye3GjxkAC1iiGCVrg7Q/s320/IMG_4460.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgITsOf6uw9Owogl3lM1sUoUIoz6zZoZGT38lTF9ukZZLB7vId5pRFsrpkvEXYKQ28k9jJPJWkS-lqfBY1ONVDgKsCF9k-NQBr7buN4fxobcCGR5W7N4oJDS2WZdnMKotCdmEa-xbdbEg/s2048/IMG_7366.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgITsOf6uw9Owogl3lM1sUoUIoz6zZoZGT38lTF9ukZZLB7vId5pRFsrpkvEXYKQ28k9jJPJWkS-lqfBY1ONVDgKsCF9k-NQBr7buN4fxobcCGR5W7N4oJDS2WZdnMKotCdmEa-xbdbEg/s320/IMG_7366.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There is a way to use the UNIT COHERENCY CHECKS to your advantage, if you DON'T want to stay in combat. As you pull models, leave at least one model deep in the enemy unit. In the example below, the Black Legion unit has charged the Red Corsairs and killed 2 of them. As you can see there is one model left that the Black Legion can surround, it is also the closest enemy model for when the Black Legion consolidate. Further more it is also preventing the Black Legion from getting within ENGAGEMENT RANGE of the other 2 Red Corsair models, which means in the Morale Phase the surrounded Red Corsair model will be removed due to it being out of COHERENCY. This will leave the last 2 models completely free in their movement phase.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOQYo2K9fDrJ88sMf-nrEQFgyWP2eCQnr4xJD9rBHgGhVP33MBXSIREIzVbmjMRdHcWJLaFjy4FvwUW9nbHarwvJcJL01kKuR37y02rUD3KC7RthrfhSI6KZmWOHLpIIXiA1t_PR8ng/s2048/IMG_1450.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOQYo2K9fDrJ88sMf-nrEQFgyWP2eCQnr4xJD9rBHgGhVP33MBXSIREIzVbmjMRdHcWJLaFjy4FvwUW9nbHarwvJcJL01kKuR37y02rUD3KC7RthrfhSI6KZmWOHLpIIXiA1t_PR8ng/w256-h192/IMG_1450.JPG" width="256" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtc-S6B8UJVkNATLn51RMGN6eATN3HBbAB-dRDbzKai9ZY0ouVu8AMOfhNGSYA5qnBqL9n8-RmVnGV_9SvQtBEbDItdWIknPVUKr00mhfHj0Tsu2IvmGQNpYT9q8s7gmZLPLOpum49w/s2048/IMG_4235.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtc-S6B8UJVkNATLn51RMGN6eATN3HBbAB-dRDbzKai9ZY0ouVu8AMOfhNGSYA5qnBqL9n8-RmVnGV_9SvQtBEbDItdWIknPVUKr00mhfHj0Tsu2IvmGQNpYT9q8s7gmZLPLOpum49w/w256-h192/IMG_4235.JPG" width="256" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lastly, I have to complain a little bit, I don't really like the new COMBAT ATTRITION TEST. There is a weird bell curve that makes the test more deadly to units that lose fewer models and fail their MORALE TEST.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lets compare Cultists to Marines, them taking casualties, and how they respond to a failed MORALE TEST. Lets start with the Cultists, who will almost automatically fail a MORALE TEST (a roll of 1 is auto pass) after losing only 6 models. Assuming you have a unit of 30 that means the COMBAT ATTRITION TEST will likely cause 4 to flee. Yet if you compare that to the same unit of Cultists losing 25 models, they will likely only lose 1 to COMBAT ATTRITION TEST. A far more devastating volley of firepower which, you would think, would have a far more devastating affect on Morale actually has a less devastating affect. Compare those to the same unit losing 15 models, which would result in around 5 models fleeing from COMBAT ATTRITION.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now Marines are a little different in that it takes more initial casualties for them to fail a morale test, but once they do they lose a similar number of models compared to any other unit. If a unit of 10 Marines loses 5 models and happens to fail their MORALE, they are looking at losing 1-2 more models, however there is a chance that all 4 of the remaining models will flee. From only losing half of the unit from actual casualties. Going back to the Cultists, when they lose half of their unit, 15 model, they are very likely to fail their MORALE TEST, but far more likely to survive the COMBAT ATTRITION TEST with their remaining 14 models.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The fact that there are better odds of a unit of 10 Marines being wiped out from suffering 5 casualties than there is of a unit of 30 Cultists suffering 24 casualties is just plain wrong. Man I hope my math holds up to that statement, I had to do some number aerobics </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Until next time, keep them dice rollin.</div>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-13717506924958645612020-07-12T14:40:00.001-05:002020-07-12T14:42:10.613-05:00SNEAK PEAKS: NOT VERY SNEAKYHey there everyone, last post I take about the rules primer that is available to every one on the Warhammer Community website, and that post came with a lot of holes in it because it only covers the very basics of the game.<div>Well since then I have been digging through all of the sneak peaks that the Community page has released and each one has a little tid bit of additional information that slowly brings a little more focus into what the overall game is going to look like.</div><div><br /></div><div>Secondary Objectives are a new thing and it looks like GW has taken a page out of the ITC book and implemented a ton of varying ways to earn points throughout a battle</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifYW2fWd483G0P4NKWqbVaocYJpLBO6K82VUKPD7B04VhulnvB1tZsI8XUJFmxs8BAt7zxTunf5bHT83JMEoMHmI0SGQ_04ihhyu-v6qaUro6BmM4onbIgEb__6te-MDT3nCda29GU7A/s846/IMG_2192.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="846" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifYW2fWd483G0P4NKWqbVaocYJpLBO6K82VUKPD7B04VhulnvB1tZsI8XUJFmxs8BAt7zxTunf5bHT83JMEoMHmI0SGQ_04ihhyu-v6qaUro6BmM4onbIgEb__6te-MDT3nCda29GU7A/w500-h174/IMG_2192.JPG" width="500" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>These Secondary Objectives vary from killing CHARACTERS to performing psychic actions to holding objectives or table quarters. All of this is awesome and really gives players a chance use their armies strengths to their advantage while exploiting their opponent's. We did get a bit of a peak of what some of the Secondary Objectives are, but other than killing CHARACTERS, the description cut off after a couple lines.</div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgze0fy1IVVb13O42bdWgQZMolcWptWPjDGpDst_DpHHCoKCMiaPRpNuBSHQVbmoDWVLGNwQMv0ARwFt3s0RHa7vZq0avJECFh7Wv76r8BV2QViBHT3GXFtwJE2xhrfZKNwocBcdIsnpA/s846/IMG_2191.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="846" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgze0fy1IVVb13O42bdWgQZMolcWptWPjDGpDst_DpHHCoKCMiaPRpNuBSHQVbmoDWVLGNwQMv0ARwFt3s0RHa7vZq0avJECFh7Wv76r8BV2QViBHT3GXFtwJE2xhrfZKNwocBcdIsnpA/w500-h174/IMG_2191.JPG" width="500" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The Command Point system has been completely revamped as well, every one starting the game with the same number of CP and using them to buy detachments. So now, the more detachments you have, the FEWER CP you will start with. As a bonus, your CP are refunded from the detachment that contains your Warlord.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_mokFDItI3pOjTxpMCerYvKPIyhvOsfz9FTehT8NcRMgPtK6yFKNmoVRWE9Bg4YKLYsr44cP0mYQpwiA_XzKLMAHIfHco55BOA-cySmsqa9QRuxsgmhJierfG4Icau81sTsHpSZO4Q/s846/IMG_2189.JPG" style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="846" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_mokFDItI3pOjTxpMCerYvKPIyhvOsfz9FTehT8NcRMgPtK6yFKNmoVRWE9Bg4YKLYsr44cP0mYQpwiA_XzKLMAHIfHco55BOA-cySmsqa9QRuxsgmhJierfG4Icau81sTsHpSZO4Q/w500-h238/IMG_2189.JPG" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">So with everyone starting the game with the same number of CP and having to spend CP on detachments, it's looking like you will be seeing far fewer multi-detachment armies with the odd one to shore up some specific army weaknesses.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It looks like GW has also heard all the bitching and moaning about 8ths abysmal terrain rules and have cracked down on all that wishy washy rules writing. Terrain now has 4 categories, Hills, Obstacles, Area Terrain, and Buildings. There are also a list of traits that a piece of terrain might have, which is a list of rules that can be applied to that piece of terrain. This is potentially a great set of rules as this allows players to create their own terrain with rules that perhaps don't have an exact equivalent to the pre-made pieces in the book. Two of these traits are Light and Heavy cover, the former giving a +1 to saves from shooting attacks, the latter giving a +1 to saves from melee attacks. Another interesting trait is Obscuring...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8OQXlIQE4WcneOcxgcw4WGD7zlJ-TPQrBB_BH_GoTDWzLhoDNtVO3diLbjmFWpEVsDSOJTsSDaugQedwHu495L3PsUZhpivmYJZN_yemzdq2Qrqu2e9ldTo-URtbaMC9dFPATI88otA/s600/IMG_2186.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="600" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8OQXlIQE4WcneOcxgcw4WGD7zlJ-TPQrBB_BH_GoTDWzLhoDNtVO3diLbjmFWpEVsDSOJTsSDaugQedwHu495L3PsUZhpivmYJZN_yemzdq2Qrqu2e9ldTo-URtbaMC9dFPATI88otA/w400-h321/IMG_2186.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">This trait sort of incorporates the ITC rule that the bottom floor of ruins blocks LOS. Now keep in mind that these traits may not necessarily apply to every piece of terrain that meets the requirements. I see these working more like keywords, and the next slide will show you why I think that.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiawytgqZEO5Ew96jlx8VlDWPJEfoQ6Kia7A_vhQ7bitjMbJNb5ZL5LVXYasYu1i2Gs-fc2pshU8hv6SZ2DQZqP4l2mzoFZ3fi8Go-ywFfP0soK6ZluNQBzO8BryAfL6C8n9J5wPkNq7A/s600/IMG_2187.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="600" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiawytgqZEO5Ew96jlx8VlDWPJEfoQ6Kia7A_vhQ7bitjMbJNb5ZL5LVXYasYu1i2Gs-fc2pshU8hv6SZ2DQZqP4l2mzoFZ3fi8Go-ywFfP0soK6ZluNQBzO8BryAfL6C8n9J5wPkNq7A/w400-h341/IMG_2187.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">As you can see the different pieces of terrain have a different set of rules. Now, I can see the trait DEFENSIBLE listed in the ruins traits, and this is a new feature...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SFqI8pTL9oHP0_-BLA2poHde4Tz-JZcUZ7frMDp2yhMv6RUbjBbY40MNYyZtU_1XVFlx9SzE14NurAKfkZFkqoM9EXGtFBHXeHF7zb8K39UmVOIRSDurh8CedriveToigoFooOm4aw/s600/IMG_2180.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="600" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SFqI8pTL9oHP0_-BLA2poHde4Tz-JZcUZ7frMDp2yhMv6RUbjBbY40MNYyZtU_1XVFlx9SzE14NurAKfkZFkqoM9EXGtFBHXeHF7zb8K39UmVOIRSDurh8CedriveToigoFooOm4aw/w400-h193/IMG_2180.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">So, it looks like if a piece of terrain has the DEFENSIBLE trait your infantry units can pull off one of these 2 maneuvers. And speaking of Overwatch, it appears that this is now a stratagem. Other than only one unit being able to overwatch per phase it is pretty much the same.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYsCzijO6_m2L5_VbOqMZjlufPLopkevbdSuYlJBbLQhdbpJ7r_16b1KSwL3ay3aYGTMunLkryJKKu7wpcsfDOHrnfcr4i78hipy9SsV4r92QT_58qDSO5PTjufbbS0H_0CtME-Xlp6g/s600/IMG_2178.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYsCzijO6_m2L5_VbOqMZjlufPLopkevbdSuYlJBbLQhdbpJ7r_16b1KSwL3ay3aYGTMunLkryJKKu7wpcsfDOHrnfcr4i78hipy9SsV4r92QT_58qDSO5PTjufbbS0H_0CtME-Xlp6g/s320/IMG_2178.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;">The last thing to bring up today is Strategic Reserves. Units that don't already have the ability to be set up somewhere other than the battle field can be put into Strategic Reserves and kept off the table. This will cost a number of CP depending on the total power level of the units kept off the table, costing 1CP for up to 9 power and another CP for each 10 power after that. Bringing them onto the field is as easy as...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMhvoC8C2RbHN43Lc4-Pa9bINMYW75yONrauVUUzdpCdhjQ6jiIIm1p0ZCqRwNG1bk7KylRWmvg-5-TbRWyo78L1uvHv9RE0rDoU9kppFesiek-l2oQ3AQ8-9b2-RFRZKT_I-EB-S74A/s600/IMG_2177.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="600" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMhvoC8C2RbHN43Lc4-Pa9bINMYW75yONrauVUUzdpCdhjQ6jiIIm1p0ZCqRwNG1bk7KylRWmvg-5-TbRWyo78L1uvHv9RE0rDoU9kppFesiek-l2oQ3AQ8-9b2-RFRZKT_I-EB-S74A/w400-h316/IMG_2177.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;">Now there is a line in the article on the Community site that says it is possible for you to be able to set up your models closer than the required 9" if your models are set up within 1" of your own battlefield edge and that they could even be set up within ENGAGEMENT RANGE in that instance. Also note that there is no limit to how late in the game reserves can show up other than if they aren't on the table by the end of the game they count as dead. This comes into play more for AIRCRAFT as they can once again leave the table in their movement phase bringing back something from 7th edition.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuvZCPr1eZm5V8oUga7zb8uPVwosZE_XQQyg9Zn4k-B4aUD5ohe62szqbdXBCZpmdD0xgEdkNc_EAGeDFcQG02PjE_P8RleS4hlgahplDuq5wp9shgVFxYnnPI21ew2fDbBvihswTL4w/s600/IMG_2182.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="600" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuvZCPr1eZm5V8oUga7zb8uPVwosZE_XQQyg9Zn4k-B4aUD5ohe62szqbdXBCZpmdD0xgEdkNc_EAGeDFcQG02PjE_P8RleS4hlgahplDuq5wp9shgVFxYnnPI21ew2fDbBvihswTL4w/w400-h258/IMG_2182.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;">Well, that's all the things I could find on the Community site, I know there are tons of other leaks as several other online personalities have gotten a copy of the books already so they can do their hype articles and battle reports. So far things look like they are moving along smoothly.</p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;">I'll be posting another article shortly with a little bit of a deeper look into what I think the rules are going to do the game so keep an eye out for that. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.</p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;">Til next time, keep them dice rollin.</p>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-16292913617190460602020-07-10T12:03:00.001-05:002020-07-10T12:03:34.989-05:009TH EDITION: ANOTHER NEW DAWNING<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7gTBdHeM3V5jMvaEDUdbHjLJmAMMzkEV8IX9TKSo2I9czYoUCpLxER4eeJS4jLATzKXtj7DYVvgEeIb3fjq77BTF0ekd7Vl8yr5xCBj_ymqFJ3PPnLf-Uov79UTlQyz0hdt7kUWZhCg/s1280/i%2527m+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7gTBdHeM3V5jMvaEDUdbHjLJmAMMzkEV8IX9TKSo2I9czYoUCpLxER4eeJS4jLATzKXtj7DYVvgEeIb3fjq77BTF0ekd7Vl8yr5xCBj_ymqFJ3PPnLf-Uov79UTlQyz0hdt7kUWZhCg/s320/i%2527m+back.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>That's right ladies and gents I'm back. After a nice long hiatus in which I barely touched a model I've finished reading the Night Lords omnibus and have been reinvigorated to get back into the game just in time for 9th to arrive.</div><div>No, I did not get an advanced copy of the rules, GW does not deem me important enough, but the basic rules were released in PDF form on their website. So that is what I am looking at today. Bear in mind there are going to be more holes in my analysis than Swiss cheese as I do not know what many of the more nuanced rules are going to be such as missions and terrain and I am not going into the details of the other teased rules and stratagems. I'm only talking about the rules that I have in print right in front of me.</div><div><br /></div><div>So without any further self deprecation lets start this shit show off with a bang. COHERENCY is now required between 2 models if the unit is larger than 5 models. This means a ton of things but the most noticeable is that there will be no more daisy chains stretching across the table to hold 3 objectives, block "deep strikers" or assault lines hitting multiple units (more on this later). However it does still look like you can have small clusters of a large unit separated from each other and still maintain coherency. For example, if you have a unit of 30 cultists and lose 10 of them, you can pull 10 from the middle area so that you are left with 2 groups of 10 models, and as long as those individual groups of models maintain coherency then technically the whole unit is still in coherency.</div><div>To add to that there is now a UNIT COHERENCY CHECK which is done in the MORALE PHASE after a MORALE TEST (more on this later as well). If your unit is not in coherency, then you remove models one at a time until it is.</div><div><br /></div><div>These 2 changes to coherency have hurt combat units pretty badly. Not only can assault units not spread out as much to optimize movement from charges, pile in, and consolidation, but there is an extra step that can be used to remove models that the assault unit may be trying to tie up. I think this check should have actually been done in the movement phase, giving players a chance to bring their units into coherency before removing stragglers. Death to the Possessed Bomb.</div><div><br /></div><div>ENGAGEMENT RANGE is a new term that basically means that 1" bubble around a model that you can't enter except in the charge phase. When you are within ENGAGEMENT RANGE you are locked in combat. The ENGAGEMENT RANGE is not only 1" around the model, but it has a 5" vertical limit as well, meaning that your Knight, Mortarion, or any other big baddie can now smack those pesky scouts out of the first floor of that ruin, as long as they can get within 1" horizontally of them. There goes a whole knight stratagem out the window. This also means you don't have to actually get a model on the same level as the unit you are attacking, you can just stab your knife right up through the floor. However, that also means that enemy models can't actually move directly below you since they can't move within ENGAGEMENT RANGE.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbYvEMtMBhMUzklgmq5ImWYeVzM6sJZDDER7ZY84tTJHly8MZ4NX9bOn0v6I_pRPOqJ_P1ZHGB8wDGqnixCDyOB_WilxQANo2hGB-Amj-xgg431qxwYgJeB2Tn20yeqgFeN9BMgrQFGA/s425/get+in+my+belly.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbYvEMtMBhMUzklgmq5ImWYeVzM6sJZDDER7ZY84tTJHly8MZ4NX9bOn0v6I_pRPOqJ_P1ZHGB8wDGqnixCDyOB_WilxQANo2hGB-Amj-xgg431qxwYgJeB2Tn20yeqgFeN9BMgrQFGA/s320/get+in+my+belly.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Models and units WITHIN and WHOLLY WITHIN have been defined. This definition is pretty clear with little room for interpretation. Lets hope GW can stay consistent with this terminology and not add words to muddy the waters.</div><div>Wobbly Models have also been somewhat cleared up, which I now interpret as that this is a means of keeping models safe. You must be able to actually fit the model in the location, however, due to it's precarious position, you may want to place it elsewhere to keep it from getting damaged. Key words being "physically possible to place the model in the desired location".</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a COMMAND PHASE now, we don't really know what it does but there will be some stratagems or abilities that take place in this phase. Oh, and if you have a battleforged army you gain a CP. That's neat.</div><div><br /></div><div>Movement has changed a bit in that there are now modes of movement that apply to the whole unit. These modes are NORMAL MOVE, ADVANCE, REMAIN STATIONARY, and FALL BACK. Note that it appears you can no longer keep some models stationary while others move, if one model moves, the whole unit counts as having moved. Advance rolls only apply for that phase, so you will have to roll again if you have an ability that lets you move again, and it seems like reinforcements can come in any turn. Of course this is the basic rules, so there might be a match play rule in the actual rule book.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlQrtoiRLMTqDfa7E9mjdfsLiyRiH9Y1I-g_y1fSsmSM8B1RS_EFJHsm6jxoUsDrnaC9Qctc0JdZjIZlmZBhN_up5E8lP8MrWYNWQjOtpD6zO22D8DKTkUZtRb-LOnVLwA5OMX0nR0Q/s360/transports.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlQrtoiRLMTqDfa7E9mjdfsLiyRiH9Y1I-g_y1fSsmSM8B1RS_EFJHsm6jxoUsDrnaC9Qctc0JdZjIZlmZBhN_up5E8lP8MrWYNWQjOtpD6zO22D8DKTkUZtRb-LOnVLwA5OMX0nR0Q/s320/transports.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Transports have gotten a bit of an overhaul as well. While you can EMBARK on a transport if your unit is WITHIN 3", when you DISEMBARK your unit must be WHOLLY WITHIN 3". Also, you can't EMBARK if the transport is WITHIN ENGAGEMENT RANGE. How do you like the use of all those important keywords? I like it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The shooting phase has a couple big changes in it as well in that Monsters and Vehicles can shoot while in combat. They can only make attacks against an enemy unit within ENGAGEMENT RANGE but they can declare targets that are outside ENGAGEMENT RANGE. This only really comes into play if you can manage to kill the unit within ENGAGEMENT RANGE before resolving the other attacks, or if a weapon has an affect that only requires being able to target something. This is a huge boost for shooting armies and a huge detriment to assault armies.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg9iu5uJCdsCgDfNxHbUwzdwPUOxGve3AojK1r6hEh2EYzaLk-_jlOjpoF6zvLXcw0wMD65ul43fW0pkGUeKvmJ7PL0a-20iIzCUkjYzEQBAsIgFMsTZoyWoZdUzN8h23FE60Lcplw3w/s320/look+out+sir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg9iu5uJCdsCgDfNxHbUwzdwPUOxGve3AojK1r6hEh2EYzaLk-_jlOjpoF6zvLXcw0wMD65ul43fW0pkGUeKvmJ7PL0a-20iIzCUkjYzEQBAsIgFMsTZoyWoZdUzN8h23FE60Lcplw3w/s0/look+out+sir.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>LOOK OUT SIR has an neat addendum added to it as well, a character has to be within 3" of a vehicle, monster, or unit with 3+ models as well as not be the closest to be ineligible to target. So if your character spaces out more than 6" from any other units in order to maximize his aura abilities, he can get picked off even if he isn't the closest model. You also still ignore other characters with 9 or less wounds for determining if another unit is closer.</div><div><br /></div><div>BLAST is a new weapon ability that shows up on some weapons that have a random number of shots. When targeting units that have more than 5 models you can't score less that 3 shots when rolling for the number of shots. If you roll less than 3 it just counts as 3. When targeting a unit that has more than 10 models then you automatically make the maximum number of shots. Now the examples they give are grenades, and there are a couple armies out there that have stratagems that let them throw multiple grenades, can you imagine a buffed up Blight Bombardment getting max hits for each grenade? Mother fucking OUCH!</div><div><br /></div><div>There are a couple of real big changes to making attacks, first of which is the blanket statement that unmodified hit, wound, and save rolls of 1 always fail and unmodified hit and wound rolls of 6 always succeed. On top of that hit and wound rolls CANNOT be modified above +1 or below -1.</div><div>I like some of these changes, it brings some of the top units down and some of the bottom units up.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is one significant change in charging and that is that you have to make it into ENGAGEMENT RANGE against every unit you declared a charge against or else the charge fails. This makes it increasingly difficult to pull off charges against multiple enemy units while still trying to maintain COHERENCY.</div><div>It becomes even more difficult to kill things in combat now the "support" range is cut down to 1/2", and models can only support another model if it's 1/2" from an enemy model. So you can be in ENGAGEMENT RANGE but more than 1/2" away and other models that are beside it won't be able to attack since the first model isn't within 1/2". This is probably the most convoluted and asinine rule in this edition.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhissgC6vs2ln_bYrNYmtkSnRmza4Kc6qVYj7fTyT0EoYynluEkx0YGmGf8yus9cl1RPpngAKzc40zvVx4mkBlS3cwxHc8Nm2kGQK6oyPSm1MgOdVaHCFesauRjgnaJ2uQXFrg6klkj0A/s640/morale.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhissgC6vs2ln_bYrNYmtkSnRmza4Kc6qVYj7fTyT0EoYynluEkx0YGmGf8yus9cl1RPpngAKzc40zvVx4mkBlS3cwxHc8Nm2kGQK6oyPSm1MgOdVaHCFesauRjgnaJ2uQXFrg6klkj0A/s320/morale.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>MORALE TESTS got an overhaul as well. While the basic test works the same, if D6 + models destroyed is higher than your Ld then you fail, the result is drastically different. If you fail, you lose one additional model, then you make a COMBAT ATTRITION TEST whereby you roll a number of D6's equal to the number of models left in the unit and on a roll of 1 an additional model flees. If the unit is below half strength when the test is made then the COMBAT ATTRITION TEST fails on a 1 or 2.</div><div><br /></div><div>So far things are not looking good for horde or assault based armies. Blast weapons are looking to do a ton more damage against hordes and the new COMBAT ATTRITION TEST along with UNIT COHERENCY CHECKS are going to bring the end of high model count units. While UNIT COHERENCY, multi-charge requirements, and the 1/2" requirement for "support" attacks are going to make combat far less effective. Of course it's hard to tell really without the full book, who knows what terrain rules and stratagems will be available? Well, we know some of them, perhaps I'll dig some of those up for my next post.</div><div><br /></div><div>Man it feels good to be back in the saddle. Thanks for reading and, as always, feel free to leave a comment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time, keep them dice rollin.</div>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-31859282035195612792020-01-23T06:44:00.002-06:002020-01-23T06:44:20.588-06:00CHAOTIC COMBOS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkRDaX2XEE90LiuF1naw5nrPWKDVv-w46cx2sfuHczZX7uOsSA6Q3gsl_Kajshz7zigaRtfcxqQ4WMq1pBG02Dduni6UzyJTGBjSUnrOrsXaJksPWWQh3c9DmYYXHHH5nt91QphRPloQ/s1600/wombo+combo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkRDaX2XEE90LiuF1naw5nrPWKDVv-w46cx2sfuHczZX7uOsSA6Q3gsl_Kajshz7zigaRtfcxqQ4WMq1pBG02Dduni6UzyJTGBjSUnrOrsXaJksPWWQh3c9DmYYXHHH5nt91QphRPloQ/s1600/wombo+combo.png" /></a></div>
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With the latest couple of publications Chaos Space Marines have gotten a ton of new and exciting abilities to go with their rather boring and pathetic line up of units and Legion Traits. Without further ado I would like to compile a list of the most crazy combos in the Chaos Space Marine line up that I can think of.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvY9PDFGHeuGYAxrhrUzRP3eu1lDyjcwTwQQaLjSAkPGtIWc9i4IPTyetm36Lzh8qzkUc1ux63hIiSjj_6SOkYYiedGm6TJiFM9jsDRcjOpkltmh93XsR9mP7NSNirNrzNUhmc6vAmQ/s1600/possessed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="650" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvY9PDFGHeuGYAxrhrUzRP3eu1lDyjcwTwQQaLjSAkPGtIWc9i4IPTyetm36Lzh8qzkUc1ux63hIiSjj_6SOkYYiedGm6TJiFM9jsDRcjOpkltmh93XsR9mP7NSNirNrzNUhmc6vAmQ/s320/possessed.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
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Possessed have gotten quite a bit better, what with their points drop in CA19 and their buffs in Faith and Fury and Vigilus Ablaze and increasing the number of attacks is the way to go. So lets get down to the nitty gritty and start with a big old unit of 20 models in a Word Bearer Daemonkin Ritualist detachment for 340 points, then you take a Dark Apostle of the Dark Council with Soultearer Portent (+1 to wound) and Dark Zealotry (re-roll hit rolls) and a Sorcerer for Prescience and Warptime (you can also take a Master of Possession and use the Chaos Familiar strat to swap powers and can also cast Mutated Invogoration (re-roll Possessed number of attacks)). One of the characters can be the Warlord and take the Master of the Union trait (+1A for Daemon units within 6"), and the other can be a Field Commander and take the Shepard of the True Faith trait (additional mortal wounds on un-modified 6s to wound). Finally the use of the Vessels of the Neverborn stratagem (+1A and S when within 6" of a Master of Possession) and Revered Hosts (+1D for melee weapons of Possessed)<br />
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So, lets say you cast Prescience and Mutated Invigoration, and get Dark Zealotry and Soultearer Portent to go off successfully, also lets say all the stratagems are used and none are stopped with Vect or anything. However, in order to maintain the coherency to the buffing characters and due to taking some firepower lets say you can only get 10 models in range to actually fight which means 60 attacks which are hitting on 2+ with re-rolls, S6 with +1 to wound doing 2D each.<br />
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This means you will kill 56 Guardsmen, 40 Marines, 35 Primaris, do 46 wounds to a vehicle or Knight. 9 of these wounds come from Mortal Wounds from the Field Commander trait. Keep in mind these number do not take into account Death to the False Emperor, Veterans of the Long War, or attacking twice with Fury of Khorne<br />
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Those numbers are fantastic, but we have to contend with the troubles that all combat armies have to deal with and that's getting them into combat. Assuming we are going to keep them as Word Bearers, we could go with the Mark of Slaanesh. This not only gets us a FNP with Delightful Agonies, but with a Slaanesh Daemon detachment we can also charge after we advance if we are near a Herald plus another +1S bring it up to 7. You can also get a round of combat in the psychic phase with a<br />
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Now there is a solid argument to make your Possessed Alpha Legion with the Mark of Nurgle teamed up with some Nurgle Daemons. This takes all the damage dealing buffs that Nurgle provides while being able to essentially deep strike your bomb with Renascent Infiltration, and letting you do it again and again if need be. This is probably more effective in keeping the unit alive and being able to deliver the payload but you lose out on 2 attacks per model and rely on dice rolls more for that bonus damage.<br />
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Now, if you're not really into combat and would rather shoot stuff, there are a few decent combos you can take. First is an Iron Warriors death ball with a Chaos Lord with the warlord trait Daemonsmith (unmodified hit of 6 generates additional hit within 6"), a Sorcerer with Prescience, and a whole bunch of Obliterators with the Mark of Slaanesh of course. You could make the detachment a Devestation Battery as well for the Armour Bane trait (re-roll wound rolls of 1 vs vehicles) and the Punishing Volley strat (make a shooting attack at the end of the opponent's movement phase if they get the first turn) and you could take a Master of Possession for Infernal Power which lets you re-roll hits and wounds of 1 when within 6", so there are a couple ways to build the detachment. Now with the Tank Hunter strat this combo is best suited at taking out vehicles, and Rampant Techno-Virus makes it best suited with a unit of Obliterators. So lets take a look at the actual output of damage against a knight, or any T8 vehicle really, with one unit of Obliterators with maxed stats hitting on 2+ with re-rolling hit rolls of 1, wounding on 2+ (VotLW) with re-rolling all wound rolls, and extra hits on 6's to hit. With 18 shots you're likely to score 20 hits and convert most of those to wounds. It comes out to 19.8 something so I'm just going to say 20 wounds, 13 of those get through the 5++ which nets 39 wounds. Even if we reduce the stats of the Oblits to 8-2-2 you will still be scoring 24 wounds. Then you use Endless Cacophony and do it again.<br />
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Speaking of...You can also go for a more infantry killing method with Emperor's Children Noise Marines. With a full unit of 20 with 18 Sonic Blasters and 2 Blastmasters, Excruciating Frequencies (+1 to S and D of Sonic Blasters and Blastmasters), the Remnant of Maraviglia (Preist relic that allows models within 6" re-roll wound rolls), a Lord for hit re-rolls of 1, VotLW, and Prescience you are looking at killing 20 Marines or dealing 32 wounds to a large target with a 3+ save. These numbers are a little harder to duplicate over and over again because the Remnant of Maraviglia is a one use relic.<br />
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If you're looking for the character that can go the distance there are a whole host of options for you. Lets start with the Ninja Blender Night Lord Supreme. A Chaos Lord with the Killing Fury warlord trait and the Rapacious Talons daemon weapons gets up to 14 attacks, with re-rolling 1's to hit and all wound rolls and topping it all off with VotLW you'll be popping 10 guardsmen, 6 marines, and tearing 10 wounds off a large target with a 3+ save. Alternately, you could mark him as Nurgle and give him the Fist of Decay which increases your damage against large targets to 14 wounds, but reduces the number infantry models killed by a third. Plus you don't even need VotLW because the fist always wounds on 2+. Don't forget that there are ways to offset that -1 to hit, Prescience and From the Night are on the top of the list.<br />
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Well, there you go, a couple of the highly powerful combos you are likely to come across. Thanks for reading and if you have a combo feel free to let me know in the comments.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollinThe 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-62798429083765201542019-12-26T14:55:00.002-06:002019-12-26T14:55:09.949-06:00A SECOND LOOK AT POWER ARMOUR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEfJbLaf8c-7k_q8rdNdFZh1m4aWRJe-b-fLtmuhrE-TGI4USjEXPliHopFFgtM2pwHgTLAIi6pJwnJ1XL8tCcVq9sijdtxEKdirZZjZq4RR32pOn5MHGPgtx4SaWLGSm9mz6Q6Dq11A/s1600/chapter+approved+2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="208" data-original-width="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEfJbLaf8c-7k_q8rdNdFZh1m4aWRJe-b-fLtmuhrE-TGI4USjEXPliHopFFgtM2pwHgTLAIi6pJwnJ1XL8tCcVq9sijdtxEKdirZZjZq4RR32pOn5MHGPgtx4SaWLGSm9mz6Q6Dq11A/s1600/chapter+approved+2019.jpg" /></a></div>
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So Chapter Approved has drastically moved points around to try and bring units into balance, so lets go back and take a look at one of my previous posts and see if these points changes can bring balance to the force.<br />
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<a href="https://the40kmisfit.blogspot.com/2018/12/power-armour-balancing-act.html">POWER ARMOUR BALANCING ACT</a> is the name of the game and in that post I went through the lethality, durability, and table control of several power armour units comparing them to units that have similar roles from different armies. With Chapter Approved greatly dropping the points of several power armour units, and with some new rules increasing their offensive capabilities, I am going to go back to those units and see just how much the rules have improved them. I will not be incorporating every possible buff to the units, only the ones that come standard on their data sheet and the ones that are available to them as an army wide buff such as Hateful Assault. This assessment is to take a look at the unit at it's most basic version.<br />
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For 153 points you can now get 9 Possessed who have come down to 17 points per model, compared to 7 Possessed for 154 points and 22 points each. Adding an extra attack on the turn they charge means they now kill 12 guard, 8 marines, and take 4 wounds off a rhino, which is double to their previous damage output.<br />
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Their durability didn't really increase, but because there are more models it now takes 162 bolter rounds, 31 reaper launcher rounds, and 25 super charged plasma rounds. Now because things have changed in other areas of the meta, I feel like I should include an additional weapon since primaris marines are becoming so popular so 108 bolt rifle rounds will take out all 9.<br />
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The table control has changed a little with the increase in model count but it still does not compare to the Genestealers whose movement and ability to advance and charge greatly outpaces the Possessed however I think I would put the Possessed in front of the Nobs now that they outnumber them combined with their higher durability and movement.<br />
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Our second object of discussion was the Raptor which actually got a points reduction just after I wrote the previous article but did not receive a further points drop in the recent CA. For 154 points you can get 8 Raptors. Two of them have plasma guns and one is a champ with a chain axe and combi plasma. I had to change up the champ's weapons a little because I did get a couple extra points to play with. With the plasma firing overcharged and then the unit charging afterward this will give us 10 dead Guardsmen, 6 dead Marines, and 6 damage off of a Rhino which bring them into second spot on the lethality challenge. I didn't take into account any of the plasma guys dying because I'm working with base results with no modifiers. This is not a huge increase as the drop in points only allows for one extra body, however with the weapons changes and Hateful Assault I had thought that the numbers would have increased more than they did.<br />
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Furthermore the single extra body does not increase their durability that much only adding a few more rounds for each weapon. The Raptors were not that far behind the Scourges though so they end up edging them out. This pretty much sums up the table control aspect as well, as a single model is not enough to change this aspect.<br />
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Finally we come to the basic Chaos Space Marine. In the original post I upped the points level to 176 so I could take a 10 man squad to give them 2 special weapons. Since the last post we have had some drastic changes to the Chaos Space Marine which have decreased their points to 11 points per model and have seen them get a new weapon, the reaper chaincannon. So I have decided to make some changes and give them 2 of these new guns and increase the total squad size to 12 in order to hit 177 points. I also replaced the plasma pistol with a bolter on the champ but left the power axe. With these changes the lethality of this unit has increased to 20 dead guardsmen, 9 dead marines, and 5 wounds off a rhino. As you can see their effectiveness has greatly increased against infantry while the damage output against larger targets has waned a little. If your looking for more vehicle killing then you can go double plasma gun with a combi-plasma gun and power fist on the champ in a 12 model unit and score 16 dead Guard, 8 marines, and 9 wounds on a rhino for 174 points.<br />
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The extra couple bodies increases their durability but not by a meaningful amount. They still fall behind the Guardsmen in all categories and behind the orks in all but small arms fire. Plus they are still greatly outnumbered and not nearly as fast or versatile so they still come in last in table control. I was really looking forward to this change being enough to run a bunch of Marine bodies but after this post I'm not 100% sold on them.<br />
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Well, we can clearly see that the damage output of the power armour units has greatly increased and the durability of the unit has only increased in that there are marginally more models in the unit. However we are not out of the game just yet as <a href="https://the40kmisfit.blogspot.com/2019/12/faith-and-fury-new-sitcom-from-games.html">Faith and Fury</a> has added several abilities that can increase the durability of several of these units. I have started a post that looks at maximizing the potential of these units and others so keep an eye out for that.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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This post is sponsored by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IdleHandsCPU/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARBaqmpNoyVUx7v1of8sOgiN0BK_XR3iOYqtZ2MIeaUDldADL86Y_rW2QXg5KiwcAsh21WqQhW1bWANP">Idle Hands Commission Painting and Upholstery</a>. Yeah, that last bit always gets me too.<br />
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Donny has been painting like a mad man grinding through a ton of Astra Militarum and Car Wars models. If you need something painted give him a shout on Facebook.<br />
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Or if you need your couch fixed he could do that too. Shipping might be a bit harsh on that one though.<br />
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<br />The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-75355301710423612892019-12-06T07:56:00.003-06:002019-12-11T11:58:59.211-06:00FAITH AND FURY: THE NEW SITCOM FROM GAMES WORKSHOP<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdF5_Rxu9kFe3SRNFfTMTWeUIMXt_iJS5MwWMBnjbrkxC2UX842wTwPKegMnqrR5pxj6ebaEYbpZ0x2aCs2TIax_FlPvyoxJmwsWVUBHKfefXYQlDD_s26_tVeMkOJOFjsuPqNjAvqgw/s1600/friends.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="768" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdF5_Rxu9kFe3SRNFfTMTWeUIMXt_iJS5MwWMBnjbrkxC2UX842wTwPKegMnqrR5pxj6ebaEYbpZ0x2aCs2TIax_FlPvyoxJmwsWVUBHKfefXYQlDD_s26_tVeMkOJOFjsuPqNjAvqgw/s400/friends.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No one is comfortable about this but it had to be done</td></tr>
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I know Chaos Space Marines just got a bunch of new material from the last campaign, Vigilus, but they still suck, yes it's awkward, but with the "Good Guys" getting a serious boost with their new codex and all their supplements, GW has to give the iconic bad guy something or they just look like the idiot henchmen from Inspector Gadget.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 10 year old and a dog...C'mon guys.</td></tr>
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However, after having a quick look through this book there are some things here that can really give us an edge. The first thing I'm going to say, which is disappointing, is that none of the Legion Traits changed and its still only Characters, Infantry, Bikers, and Helbrutes that can benefit from them. What they did get was a full set of Warlord Traits, Stratagems, Relics, and a set of non legion specific Daemon Weapons although 4 of them are god specific. Before we get into those we have a couple official printings of Malicious Volleys and Hateful Assault. The former allowing you to "double tap" your rapid fire bolt weapons at full range if you are an infantry model that did not move that turn or all the time if you are a Biker, Terminator, or Helbrute, while the later gives +1A when a unit charges, is charged, or makes a heroic intervention. Keep in mind, Hateful Assault does not have the same restrictions on who can use it so it's available to any unit with the Heretic Astartes keyword which is a nice little boost to Daemon Engines.<br />
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So lets start us off with the Daemon Weapons which all have the rule that you roll a D6 before you fight and if you roll a 1 you take a mortal wound and can't use this weapon. The nice thing about these is that many can all also be taken by a Daemon Prince by replacing the appropriate weapon. <br />
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The first weapon is Q'D'AK and it replaces a power sword, helforged sword, or force sword on a Tzeentch model and is S user, Ap-3, d3D, and ignores invulnerable saves. We all know what ignoring invulnerable saves can do (Death Hex), well now we don't have to rely on that sorcerer to be int he right place at the right time, or we can push opposite sides of the table with 2 ways to ignore those invulnerable saves. Of course since the Thousand Sons Prince is still significantly better than a CSM Prince even with this weapon, I don't see it making a huge splash.<br />
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Next up we got the Rapacious Talons for a Slaanesh model that replaces a pair of lightning claws or malefic talons which is S user, Ap-2, D2, allows you to re-roll wound rolls, and grants you additional attacks equal to the roll for your Daemon Weapon ability, so 2-6. I'm at odds with this one, on one hand it's awesome to have 6 extra attacks on my Prince that re-roll wound rolls, on the other hand, I don't get the +3 attacks that the malefic talons give me so I'm only getting more attacks 50% of the time and if I roll a 1 for the Daemon Weapon rule I don't have a back up weapon to make any attacks with which means I'm hitting with the basic stat line.<br />
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The 3rd weapon is Zaall, a sword for Khorne models that replaces a power sword or helforged sword and is Ap-5, 2D, and adds the result of the Daemon Weapon roll to the model's S. So this one sounds really interesting, but only doing 2D makes it a little lacklustre even if you do get +6 S. You're more likely to take a Daemon Prince from the Daemons book for the axe of titan killing.<br />
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Next in line is the Fist of Decay, a Nurgle replacement for a power fist with flat 3D and always wounds on a 2+. I'm not sure why they give it a x2 S modifier if it always wounds on a 2+ though. This one can not go on a prince, but it basically turns your Nurgle character into a Blood Angels Smash Captain.<br />
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Finally we got the Black Axe that is not dedicated to a particular god, maybe because no one wanted it. It's got a stat line of a basic combat weapon but has the special rule that it deals mortal wounds on an unmodified 4+ to wound in addition to normal damage. So you're looking at dealing 2 mortal wounds and that's about it. If you can put it on a character that's guaranteed to get a mess of attacks it might be worth it, maybe a Flawless Host character with the Ultimate Confidence warlord trait.<br />
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There we have it, 5 new decent weapons to slap on your characters for busting heads. The Nurgle fist is my top pick even if it can't go on a prince, with the talons coming in second. On to the legions!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Let us pray...</td></tr>
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First up we have the warlord traits and the first one they present us with is the Voice of Lorgar, which is the one that's currently in the CSM book, you get +3 inches to your aura abilities. After checking the FAQ this extra 3" also applies to Prayers to the Dark Gods which is pretty amazing.<br />
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Exalted Possession is next and possibly the best of the 6, it gives your warlord the Possessed and Daemon keywords and +1 to S, A, and M. Now it's not these bonuses on their own that make this one superb, although an extra A and S to a Prince with talons makes him S8 with 8A, which is a great set of stats for taking out marines. It also pairs well with a stratagem I'll mention shortly, see if you can guess which one it is.<br />
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Daemonic Whispers gives +D3 CP and 1 re-roll for a hit, wound, damage, or save roll, so kind of an extra CP. Pretty average but not great with Red Corsairs available.<br />
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4th on the list is Masters of the Union, a 6" aura that gives Daemon keyword units +1A. Pretty good, especially on Possessed which will now have D3+2 attacks when they charge and have this ability nearby. Now of course Possessed are not great, but every time they get a little boost they get deadlier and deadlier. You can also take them in a Daemonkin Ritualist detachment from Vigilus and use the Vessels for the Neverborn Stratagem with gives them another attack. Plus a field commander can also hand out those mortal wounds from the Shepard of the Truth detachment warlord trait. Layers upon layers.<br />
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The Diabolist gets a 6+ FNP which turns into a 3+ FNP against mortal wounds. Could be useful depending on who your playing.<br />
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The last one, Sacrilegious Regeneration gives the warlord +1 W and they regain D3 wounds at the start of their turn. Not bad for a Prince as that one wound won't put him over the threshold to be targeted, but once units like that start getting targeted, they usually die. Potentially decent on a Disco Lord, but again, once it's targeted it's not likely to survive.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If only summoning was good...</td></tr>
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Malevolent Covenant is damn good, for 1 CP you use it when you fail a psychic tests, the test auto passes and you suffer a mortal wound. There was something else too...what was it again...? OH YEAH, THE POWER CAN'T BE DENIED! What the fuck?!? This one is brilliant for Death Hex as it's high casting cost means its likely you'll fail or roll high enough that makes it difficult to deny anyway. Careful though as there are some stratagems out there that negate the effects of the power and not actually deny it, such as Scorn of Sorcery.<br />
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I've mentioned Apostle of the Dark Council before, it's 1 CP and it upgrades one of your Dark Apostles to gain and chant an extra prayer. Do you want to give a 5++ aura AND +1 to hit to a friendly unit? Now you can. How about give yourself +3A AND +1 to wound, you can do that too! Combined with Word of Lorgar these are all getting an extra 3" range also.<br />
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Cursed Despoilers is 2CP , used at the start of the game after deployment and it makes a piece of terrain no longer give cover. I don't think it will stop Marines and their Stealth ability, and it does nothing to help about Prepared Positions. This would be worlds better if it said something along the lines of "unit don't gain benefits of abilities that require a piece of terrain to activate while on this piece of terrain.<br />
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The previous strat was 2CP but Revered Hosts is only 1CP and it gives a unit with the Possessed or Greater Possessed keyword +1D on their melee attacks. You heard me, Possessed can now have 2D attacks. Oh, do you remember that warlord trait that gives your warlord the Possessed and Daemon keyword on top of buffing their stats, well you can add another layer to the parfait.<br />
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You know what sucks, when that one shot gets through and does a whole mess of damage to kill one of your key characters. Well now for the low low price of 1CP carve a Hexagramic Ward and turn that save roll into a 6. This is a limited time offer and only one per customer, or character. Ok, this one is bad ass, I don't think I have to go into any more detail.<br />
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Vengeance of Monarchia is only good against Ultramarines, it allows you to re-roll all hit and wound rolls for a unit in the fight phase. At least it's only 1CP, and fuck the Ultramarines anyway.<br />
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The relics are a real strong point for the Word Bearers and the Crown of the Blasphemer gives the wielder +1 to their Invulnerable save to a max of 3+ and enemies within 6" get -1 to Ld. This one is pretty good on a DiscoLord as it would increase his survivability by quite a bit and your Lord gets to pretend he has a storm shield.<br />
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The model with a Baleful Icon get 6" aura that hand out a -2" penalty to enemies charging units within the aura range. Really good against those units who are coming right at you like Orks and Assault Centurions, especially if you're also in a piece of terrain that also reduces charge ranges, but situational at best.<br />
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The Book of the Reviler should have been a one use Stratagem as all it does is allow you to make 2 free rolls on the Chaos Boon Table, but you have to re-roll duplicates, Spawndom, and Daemonhood. Not worth the use of a Relic.<br />
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The Malefic Tome is for psykers only and lets you choose an additional power and give you +1 to cast. This is fantastic as we all know how awesome Arhiman is with his +1 to cast.<br />
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The Ashen Axe is where shit gets bananas as it replaces a chain axe and prevents enemy units from falling back. Units that are Vehicles, Titanic, or have a minimum movement are exempt from this, but everything else is in a tight spot. Oh, it's also +1S, Ap-2 and d3D, so better than a chain axe plus it traps unit in combat. You could pair this with something a little more deadly like a thunder hammer and put it on a Jump Lord or Terminator Lord, charge them into something that shoots really good like a Riptide or Devestator Centurions and watch them sit there and not run away while you pound the snot out of them and not get shot.<br />
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The last relic is the Epistle of Lorgar and it allows Dark Apostles to re-roll the die to see if their prayer was successful. This one is absolutely amazing when you make him an Apostle of the Dark Council with a stratagem I will talk about in a minute.<br />
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So I think the Word Bearers might fit best as a Supreme Command detachment. One guy with the fancy axe of you can't run away, a Dark Apostle praying double time, and a Sorcerer who can't fail backed up with a bus load of Possessed. Speaking of, it's combo time. If you take that Dark Apostle and give him the Exalted Possession warlord trait in a Daemonkin Ritualist detachment. Then you give him the Epistle of Lorgar relic and make him an Apostle of the Dark Council and take Omen of Potency and Soultearer Portent. All this means that, on the charge, with the Vessels of the Neverborn your Dark Apostle will have 9 attacks at S7 with Ap-4 and +1 to wound, +2 if you use VotLW, at 2D, 3D if you also use the Revered Hosts stratagem. It's 2CP pregame to set it up, and 2CP each turn to pull off the rest but that single dude will seriously chew through some shit.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Are you afraid of the dark?</td></tr>
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Night Haunter's Curse is the first warlord trait, right out of the book, once per battle round you can re-roll a thing. I have to say that with some of the boosts to charging that the NLs got this one is not that bad allowing you to re-roll charges. This can go along way to get your jump lord into combat to support the Warp Talons you will likely, now, take.<br />
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One Piece at a Time gives you a double whammy being able to assault after you fall back and enemies have a -1 to hit in combat when targeting the warlord. That's a pretty good one, making sure you get that +1A for charging and letting you jump deeper into the enemy lines picking off those more critical units and models.<br />
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If you're looking for mortal wounds, Murderous Reputation deals them out on unmodified hit rolls of 6 in addition to normal damage. So if you can jack up the number of attacks, perhaps with some daemon weapon talons, you'll reap some rewards for sure.<br />
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So you know how you get +1A when you charge, well if you have a Killing Fury you get another +D3A. Well thats just straight up good right there. So a Lord with a jump pack and the Rapacious Talons will get 4+1+D3+D6(as long as it's not a 1) for a total of 8-14 attacks. RE-rolling 1's to hit and re-rolling wounds your looking at killing around 6 infantry models on his own.<br />
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One with the Shadows has got some janky wording but there is a good reason for it. To put things in basic terms, while you are on a piece of terrain you get +1 to your save roll, and your invulnerable save is improved by 1 to a max of 3+. The reason they worded it the way they did is so that they can put a cap on your invulnerable save and so it can't stack with Weaver of Fates. If they just said you get +1 to your save roll, you could essentially get a 2+ invulnerable save, and no one wants to go back to those days<br />
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Or you can make your warlord a Dirty Fighter which gives him +1 on wound rolls if there are more friendly models within 3" of him than enemy models. I love this one mainly because of how thematic it is but also because getting +1 to wound is darn good. Stack that with a nearby Dark Apostle and VotLW and you are getting +3 to wound. Insert evil laughter here...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like this one for that "surprise" on overcharged plasma weapons.</td></tr>
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Vox Scream is 2CP and is used at the end of your movement phase, so after your reinforcements come in. Pick an enemy unit within 18" of any Night Lords unit and all of it's aura abilities stop working until the start of your next turn. Yeah, just turn off all their aura abilities. This is worth throwing out a cheap fast moving unit like bikes who move 20" and sacrificing them for the cause. It would be worth it to shut down a Chapter Master for a turn, especially if it's turn 2 and you've brought in all your reinforcements to charge.<br />
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Prey on the Weak is 1CP and gives you a +1 to hit if your Ld is higher than the targets. This works pretty well with your legion trait and it's nice to get a little boost to hit. You can use it for shooting attacks too, but with the legion trait it's far more likely to be useful in the fight phase. I actually kind of like this one if you have a Character with the Fist of Decay as it cancels out the negative to hit.<br />
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Another nice cheap 1CP strat is Hit and Run, which lets you fall back and still charge. We talked briefly about this ability in the warlord traits, but those 2 abilities work wonders when paired with the next strat...<br />
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We Have Come For You prevents non-vehicle, non-titanic units with no minimum movement (fliers) from falling back. This is unbelievably good, and when you couple it with Hit and Run or One Piece at a Time it gets better yet as you don't have to rely on being able to wipe the unit in their turn to move on to your next target.<br />
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One of the biggest problems that assault heavy armies have is making it into combat and avoiding overwatch. With From the Night you get an additional 2" to your charge move if you are entirely within a piece of terrain and you get a +1 to hit for 1CP. This pairs well with the Tip of the Claw warlord trait form the Host Raptorial detachment which provides another 2" to the charge but if you think that's good...<br />
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1CP for Raptor Strike will give a unit that arrived as reinforcements a 3D6 charge. Now, if I do my math right, you can get a 3D6+4" charge if you drop into a piece of terrain and are part of the Host Raptorial detachment. Warp Talons baby, coming back with a vengeance.<br />
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This last one is very situational but it has potential at the right time and could swing the tide if played right. You spend 1CP to play Flay Them Alive when a unit was destroyed by a NL attack and then for every morale test that is taken within 12" of ANY Night Lords unit an extra die is rolled and you get to choose which one they take. Now the first thought is that you pick the highest one for max damage, but that's not always the case. You may want to keep a unit around and then play We Have Come for You to keep them from falling back.<br />
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First relic on the table is the appropriately named Flayer, a power sword replacement with +1S, AP-3, and 2D. Further more each model killed counts as 2 for morale purposes. This might not seem like a huge boost but with 5 man squads of primaris marines becoming so damn popular, and with the Killing Frenzy warlord trait giving you D3 more attacks, it wouldn't be unreasonable for you to be able to kill 3 marines with this weapon, with your Legion Trait that puts the morale test at -7. Now you just have to be careful that you don't wipe out the whole unit and leave yourself hanging in the wind.<br />
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The Stormbolt Plate is some cool ass armour that gives an infantry model a 2+ save and they always count as being in cover, so they actually get a 1+ save. Now if you combine this with the One with the Shadows trait and are actually on a piece of terrain you would essentially have a 0+/3++ save. Fuck you and your -2 bolt rifles<br />
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Continuing to mess with your opponent's aura abilities is the Vox Daemonicus. This relic reduces the aura range of all enemy units that are within 6" of the bearer to 1". Now this is an awesome ability, but being able to pull it off is tricky and probably not worth the attempt. However, there is a secondary ability that prevents anyone from "deep striking" within 12" of the bearer and depending on the army this could be a big game changer.<br />
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The Talons of the Night Terror had me flummoxed for a second until I realized that they do not replace a weapon. They are straight up D3 additional attacks, or D6 if the model charged, was charged, or did a heroic intervention. The profile is +1S, AP-1, and D1, so not great, but these could really go a long way to help clear out some weak chaff or adding to your chances at getting mortal wounds with Murderous Reputation.<br />
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Next up are the Scouring Chains which improve the AP of all melee weapons AND reduces the number of attacks of enemy models within 1" by 1. This sounds perfect for a Lord Discordant who will be cannonballing across the table.<br />
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Last on the list is Mysery of the Meek which is a once per battle relic that regains D6 wounds to the bearer and gives +D3 attacks. This should have been a once per battle stratagem as no one is going to sacrifice a relic slot for this.<br />
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I picture an Outrider Host Raptorial detachment with a decent sized unit of Warp Talons, a couple units of Raptors, and some jump characters. They drop in, the Warp Talons charge first avoiding Overwatch and touching as many units as they can, then the rest charge in mixing and matching Raptor Strike and From the Night to maximize charge potential and touch multiple units. Then use Flay Them Alive and We Have Come for You to keep a key enemy unit alive and prevent it from falling back while maximizing failed Morale against other units. You're looking at spending a handful of CP to pull it off, but it would really disrupt your opponent's battle lines and give time for other aspects of your army to get into place. You can also tool up your characters turning them in little whirling balls of death.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Knock Knock. Who's there? I am. I am who?</span></div>
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Do you see what I did there? It's from when the Alpha Legion infiltrated those 3 legions after killing thousands of them on Istivan V. Remember that? That was fun times... where was I?</div>
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Warlord traits, well as per usual the first one is the same as the one in the CSM book, so when your warlord dies you pick a new one and randomly generate another warlord trait. It sucks because you can't choose one of these new fancy ones, you're stuck with the ones in the CSM book, but you don't give up slay the warlord unless all of your AL characters are dead, so that's pretty sweet.</div>
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Clandestine gives enemies a -1 to hit the warlord against all attacks. So if your more than 12" away your at -2. This is great for DiscoLords as they can't hide behind other units.</div>
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You can turn your warlord into a sniper with Headhunter as it lets him target characters and deals a mortal wound on an unmodified hit roll of 6. Now most characters don't have a ton of shooting, but a DiscoLord has an auto cannon which is not bad, but a biker lord can take 2 combi-bolters for 8 shots at 24". Plus there is a relic bolter we will get to. I like this one, taking out enemy characters is becoming a key component of this game with all the buffs they provide and this can go a long way to help with that.</div>
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Master of Diversion lets you re-deploy up to 3 Alpha Legion units before the first turn starts. If you pick a transport the units in side move also. I've been fooled by similar abilities before, it's really good for switching up tactics after you see your opponent's deployment and messing with his tactics. This can work great with Forward Operatives so you can re-deploy then move that 9", keeping all your units out of range or LOS until you know who has the first turn.</div>
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Cult Leader could become useful after Chapter Approved bring the points down for cultists. This improves the AP of an attack on an unmodified wound roll of 6+ for cultist units within 6". I don't think one does enough to make it worth taking. Even with a horde of 90 cultists all double tapping this only generates around 3 extra wounds against most infantry.</div>
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Another great little movement shenanigans warlord trait is Faceless Commander. At the end of your movement phase you can pick up your warlord and place it anywhere within 3" on an Alpha Legion infantry unit and more than 9" from an enemy unit. Unfortunately this one is only once per battle and you can pull of a similar move with a stratagem we will see so it's not high on the priority list.<br />
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Now, I don't know if this is ironic or not, but I could not find a picture of the Forward Operatives stratagem like I had for the previous stratagems that were in the CSM book. Anyway, it gives an infantry unit a 9" move before the game starts. We all know how it works now. It's not as good as it once was, but it has it's uses letting you get that much closer to the enemy or giving you a chance to find a hiding spot when your opponent seizes on you.<br />
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Conceal has shown up in plenty of other books, it's 2CP and it prevents anyone from targeting the selected unit with shooting attacks unless it's the closest unit. This one is particularly awesome because you use it at the start of your opponent's shooting phase potentially fucking up all his carefully measured movement. Great for keep those Obliterators alive for a couple more turns, as long as you have the CP for it.<br />
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Sabotaged Armoury is just plain old hilarious. If an enemy vehicle is destroyed, and you have any Alpha Legion units on the table, you can spend 1CP and add 3 to their explosion roll AND it can't be re-rolled. Let those Iron Hands and Imperial Fists castle up with their Leviathans and Redemptors in a nice little cozy ball of death. It doesn't even have to be an Alpha Legion unit that causes the kill, just be on the table, so have a Renegade Knight in your list pop a vehicle and watch it rip a hole in the enemy lines.<br />
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Scrambled Coordinates is another fun one that can mess with your opponent's plans. When they declare that a unit is arriving via reinforcements you play this stratagem and pay 1CP, they can't place that unit within 12" of ANY Alpha Legion unit. Now, if you happen to have some fast moving units you could potentially make it impossible for them to land on the table, basically killing the unit. This is not very likely, but it is possible. The real kicker is that you play this once they have committed to deploying the unit, so they have to place it on the table if they can.<br />
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They really pile on the movement mischief with Renacent Infiltration which allows you to pull an Alpha Legion Infantry, that is more than 1" from enemy units, off the table and re-deploy it at the end of your next movement phase with the typical reinforcement restrictions for 1CP. This is great for those times when you have a unit that has somehow found itself way out of position and you really need it on the other side of the table next turn.<br />
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Ambush lets you shoot a thing that arrived via reinforcements if it arrived within 18" of an Alpha Legion unit. That's 2CP and is pretty potent against the right army. Pairs really well with Scrambled Coordinates as it separates units planned on landing together for support.<br />
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Feigned Retreat is another great 1CP strat that lets you shoot after falling back. This one is incredibly powerful as there is no restriction on what unit can use this ability, meaning your opponent can't simple touch your leviathan dread and stop it from shooting. This makes nearly every shooting unit that much better, Havocs, Oblits, Forgefiends, Helbrutes of all shapes and sizes. This is something Chaos has needed for a while.<br />
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Last one on the list, We Are Alpharius, allows you to buy extra warlord traits. That is always handy especially when you look at the premium ones that we get in this book.<br />
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The Alpha Legion also get a new piece of armour that provides a 2+ save. The Drakescale plate also gives the bearer a 5+ FNP against mortal wounds. It's only available to infantry models but it's not bad if you're sick of getting picked off by snipers or psychic powers.</div>
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The Mindveil is a tricky one. At the start of your movement phase you roll 3D6 and the result becomes your movement stat. You also ignore terrain and models during movement and non-building models during charge moves and can charge after you fall back. This one has potential to be back breaking for both sides. When you get that 14-16" and fly across the table it's awesome but roll a 4 and it could ruin your day. Still, I could see it having some use on a Terminator character, jumping around all nimbly bimbly like a cat.</div>
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I honestly have a hard time finding a better relic than the Hydra's Wail. It's only once per battle but you activate it at the start of a battle round and it lasts for the entire battle round. Each time your opponent uses CP to use a stratagem roll a D6, on a 4+ they must use an additional CP. Yes it's only once per battle, but every army has that key turn that they end up spending half of their CP and this could royally fuck up their plans.<br />
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The Viper's Bite is the relic combi-bolter I mentioned earlier that goes really well with the Headhunter warlord trait. It's Rapid Fire 2, S5, AP-3, and 2D. Toss that on a biker or a Terminator lord to make sure he's getting all 4 shots all the time. Use Renascent Infiltration to move him around the table and pick off characters at will.<br />
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I just want to say that I love the Hydra's Teeth, which are basically bullets that turn a bolter into a super poisoned flamer. All the bolt weapons the carrier has auto hit, wound on a 2+ (except against vehicles and titanic units), and ignore cover. When you really want to force saves this is the way to go, especially when a biker lord can take 2 combi-bolters for 8 shots.<br />
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The Shadeblade not only has an awesome name, it also adds another -1 for attacks directed at the bearer. It replaces a power or force sword so put this on a Clandestine Chaos Lord with the mark of Nurgle and Miasma of Pestilence and you are looking at a -4 hit modifier for shots more than 12" away and -3 in combat.<br />
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I really like the combo of Renascent Infiltration and Scrambled Coordinates. On turn 1 you remove a large unit of Cultists and on turn 2 you deploy them back on the table in a way that completely blocks off anywhere your opponent can arrive, then you play Scrambled Coordinates to push that bubble out even further. You could even bait your opponent by leaving a hole somewhere in your lines where a unit could fit under normal circumstances, then you Scramble them and they can no longer put that unit in that hole you left. Gotcha.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That kid who knocks down everyone's sand castles at the beach.</td></tr>
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Cold and Bitter, auto pass morale. It's not great and if your building a list around it then just go Black Legion and take Abaddon.<br />
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Daemonsmith is pretty good. When a daemon engine or cult of destruction unit within 6" of the warlord score an unmodified hit roll of 6 they get an additional hit. Not an additional attack, an extra hit and considering the number of shots some of these units can put out it's pretty impressive. Works well with the re-roll 1's of a Lord or Prince.<br />
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Iron Without comes with a 5+FNP which is not great on an Infantry character but increases the durability of a Disco Lord quite a bit.<br />
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Bastion gives a 6" aura of "ignore AP-1" while you are in cover. Not that great now that marines can easily get AP-2 on just about anything they want. Decent against some other units though like Ork Lootas. The stipulation that you have to be in cover really detracts from this and forces a castle style build with minimal movement although could really help if you get the second turn.<br />
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Siege Master turns your warlord into a marine Lt giving him the 6" re-roll 1's to wound aura. The downside is that this only applies to vehicles and Havocs, so things like Oblits and Noise Marines get left out of the equasion. This initially sounded really awesome until you start to realize the limited use this warlord trait actually has. It could gain some potential depending on how Chapter Approved treats some vehicles.<br />
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Stoic Advance works amazing on a Disco Lord as it allows friendly IW units within 6" to ignore the negative hit modifier for moving and shooting heavy weapons. With the DLords +1 to hit for daemon engines, this makes defilers a real mobile threat. For things that have higher volume of shots you'll probably want Siege Master or Daemonsmith, but those things are not likely to be moving a lot. Defilers can shoot and fight and don't have a high volume of fire which gives a defiler list some viability with this warlord trait.<br />
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Iron Within, Iron Without is a reprint from the codex. Use it when one of your units loses a wound, that unit gains a 6+FNP until the end of the phase. 1CP and could save you a couple wounds in a pinch.<br />
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Methodical Annihilation teams up with Slaanesh marked Havocs with missile launchers real well. For 1CP you can re-roll damage rolls OR the number of shots for a unit. It lasts for the whole phase so you can double up VotLW and Endless Cacophany. This lets them maximize their number of shots if they use the frag rounds, or damage if they fire the krak rounds.<br />
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A little while ago we talked about how the warlord trait Bastion is easy to overlook because so many armies, particularly Marines, can get AP-2 shots. Well thanks to Dour Duty and 1CP you can reduce the AP of incoming fire by 1, when paired up with Bastion you can basically ignore all those bolt rifles, assault cannons, thunder fire cannons. This can be played in your opponent's shooting phase, or during your charge phase. Doodie....hehehehe<br />
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Iron Warriors are also good at healing vehicles, Unholy Vigor gives back up to 3 wounds to a vehicle. Like a fucking 1CP magic potion or something. Then a Warpsmith can heal D3 more, but no one takes Warpsmiths so...<br />
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Tank hunters lets you re-roll wound rolls against a target vehicle in the shooting or fight phase. Full re-rolls on the wound roll for when you really need that Executioner dead. This works really well with Methodical Annihilation for ALL THE RE-ROLLS. MUAHAHAHAHA...cough...cough...excuse me.<br />
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Have you ever rolled for Obliterators or Mutilators and got all 1's? Ok, so maybe not Mutilators, but either way it sucks. Well, for 1CP you can play Rampant Technovirus so you can re-roll any or all of those and just watch those knights fall down, especially when using Tank Hunters and near a Daemonsmith Chaos Lord.<br />
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Cannon Fodder may be 2CP, but it's a wonderful way to keep your key infantry unit alive and give it a shit load of "extra wounds". Basically, at the start of your opponent's shooting phase, you pick an IW infantry unit and an IW cultist unit wholly within 6" and the IW infantry unit cannot be targeted if the cultist unit is a closer target. I think the limitation of needing a cultist unit wholly within 6" makes this stratagem a bit over priced at 2CP, as there are others that do something similar but act more akin to giving the unit the "character" targeting rule. I think I would have preferred if this worked more like Grot Shield. Regardless, it'll keep your key infantry unit shooting which is a good thing.<br />
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The last one is another army specific 1CP strat called Bitter Enmity. It lets you re-roll all hit and wound rolls against Imperial Fists in the fight phase. This one is not entirely useless as since the IF got their supplement they have become vastly more popular.<br />
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The relics are mainly damage dealing related, and the first one up is the Siegebreaker Mace which gives you a dual profile for killing different things. The first profile is S+2 AP-2 and 2D which is not terrible but it's second profile is Sx2 AP-3, and 2D6-pick-the-highest damage. That sounds amazing but this is where we fall flat because you can only make 2 attacks with this second profile. This is not enough attacks to generate any damage worth noting. Especially when Chaos Characters can now take thunder hammers which statistically do more damage than both versions of this thing. This weapon should have doubled the number of lower profile attacks and gave the basic number of attacks for the heavier swing.<br />
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The Cranium Malevolus sounds like a Norwegian black metal band but what it actually is is a aura shooting attack. You use this instead of shooting and roll a D6 for every enemy vehicle within 9", on a 4-5 the vehicle takes D3 mortal wounds and on a 6 it takes 3 mortal wounds. This one is awesome because no Chaos characters shoot particularly well and this one just dishes out mortal wounds in an 18" diameter. Great on characters that are going balls to the walls and can move quickly, like a jump lord with thunder hammer. Get right in that parking lot and cause some damage.<br />
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The Insidium gives the wielder the Daemon keyword and +1S, T, and W. Not bad on a Prince or D-Lord where that buff to T7 can really help. This can also give you the option to play on some of those Daemon codex rules combos such as the loci and psychic powers.<br />
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The Axe of the Forge Master replaces a power axe or daemonic axe and is +3S, AP-3, and 2D. Which is not that bad but gets even better when you're fighting a vehicle as you also do an additional D3 mortal wounds on unmodified hit rolls of 5+. This is decent, especially in the world of flier spam, just put this on a Jump Lord or Prince with wings and watch them get work done.<br />
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Spitespitter is just nasty sounding, like an angry old hooker from a weird D&D campaign. Anyway, in this universe its a rapid fire 2, S5, AP-3, D3D combi-bolter. Kinda cool for that Lord who's babysitting some Oblits.<br />
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This last Relic is awesome, but I wish it could be put on more characters that it can be. The Techno-Venomous Mechadendrils replace mechadendrils on a keyword Warpsmith. They do 4 additional attacks at S user, AP0, D1 but for every hit they deal a mortal wound. Sure you can put them on a D-Lord, but he doesn't really need the extra damage output and this only makes him a higher priority target. You could put it on a Warpsmith, but then you're only hitting on 3's unless you put in the effort to buff him.<br />
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So I think Iron Warriors got a real significant buff and there is a good chance you will start to see some Devestation Battery Spearhead detachments full of Oblits and Havocs. I talked about the Bastion Warlord trait paired with Dour Duty, but there is also Cannon Fodder and Iron Within, Iron Without to boost durability as well as Methodical Annihilation, Tank Hunter, and Rampant Technovirus to boost lethality. Combine all this with ignoring save bonuses from cover and you got a real solid death ball albeit fairly static or at best, slow moving.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When I think about you I touch myself...</td></tr>
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Stimulated by Pain, get an attack for each wound lost up to 3, but you lose the attacks if you regain the wounds. The limit of 3 really keeps this one from making it into the decent pile. There are better ways to get attacks and I'm going to show you...<br />
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Intoxicating Musk is neat as it's a 3" aura that puts a -1 to hit on enemy attacks. This is nice in that it can also protect friendly units around the warlord, and they don't have to be EC to get the protection. But all in all, its a rather minor buff with a limited use.<br />
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Unbound Arrogance is a little mini game in where you and your opponent secretly pick a number from 1-3 and reveal it at the same time. If you chose different numbers your warlord gets a number of attacks equal to the number on your die, if they are the same nothing happens. Your opponent will likely always pick 3, so you will likely get +2A. That's not bad considering some of the weapons and other abilities available.<br />
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Faultless Duelist reduces D3 attacks from enemy models within 1". Again, decent for protecting not just your warlord but nearby units. Unfortunately it's short range makes it far less useful that you might think as the "second rank" of enemy models are unaffected. This would have been much better if it was -D3 attacks from models that direct their attacks at the warlord.<br />
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Now if you're looking to protect your warlord, Glutton for Punishment is the way to go. Reduce all damage that has been inflicted to your warlord by 1, to a minimum of 1 of course. This is really good for Disco Lords who are able to be picked off and generally have the big guns aimed at them.<br />
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Loathsome Grace lets you re-roll charges and nets you +1S and A when you charge or HI. All those things are good.<br />
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Combat Elixers. This 2CP strat is used at the start of the battle and you choose a non-cultist, non-vehicle unit and give it one of the following: +1A, +1S, +2"M, +1T. This one is pretty good on murder focused characters, but is an easy option for boosting a unit that almost does a ton of damage, like Warp Talons, Terminators, Possessed, etc. Lets not also forget a huge unit of Noise Marines all T5. The bigger the unit, the more value you get.<br />
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Excess of Violence is a reprint from the book. Make another attack when you kill an enemy model in the fight phase using the same weapon against the same target. Now here is an interesting combo using Music of the Apocalypse. You resolve the MotA after all enemy attacks have been completed, then before you remove the model it makes a shooting attack as though it were the shooting phase. This means that they are stuck using pistols until you remove enough models so that the unit is no longer within 1", then you can start using your sonic weapons. Then, if you kill an enemy model, your Noise Marine can shoot the same weapon again be it pistol or sonic weapon with Excess of Violence AND these extra attacks can also spark Death to the False Emperor as it's only restriction is that it must occur in the fight phase, not by a melee weapon.<br />
Here is a step by step breakdown of a potential situation:<br />
1. You charge with Noise Marines<br />
2. Each NM killed from overwatch may shoot a weapon and pretty much ANY target.<br />
3. You declare Excess of Violence strat.<br />
4. You attack in the fight phase. DttFE takes affect for hit rolls, EoV takes affect on models killed.<br />
5. Your opponent fights back.<br />
6. You shoot pistols, then remove models until you have no one witin 1". These attacks don't have to be directed at the unit you are combat with and will proc DttFE and EoV. These extra attacks have to be directed at the same unit as the original attack<br />
7. Once the models with pistols are removed you may start shooting sonic weapons or throwing grenades. Each of these attacks don't have to be directed at the unit you are no longer in combat with and will also proc DttFE and EoV. These extra attacks have to be directed at the same unit as the original attack.<br />
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KEEP IN MIND: DttFE states that it can not generate extra attacks, so models killed from DttFE attacks will not proc EoV. There will be some confusing dice rolls and I suggest you practice rolling this before hand so at least you know what you're doing even if your opponent is confused as hell.<br />
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Incessant Disdain is 1CP and allows one of your characters to HI up to 6" as long as it ends within 1" of an enemy character OR the nearest enemy model. The "OR" in that sentence is very important meaning that if you can get to within 1" of a character, you don't have to move toward the nearest enemy model. This is a nice little tidbit for those times when your opponent doesn't know about it. You'll catch some people as they meticulously measure outside of 3" from your character only to get a Daemon Prince in their face.<br />
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Honour the Prince is fucking fantastic for anything looking to charge. It's 1CP and you play it after you roll for a charge move. You can swap one of the dice for a 6. So, this is not a re-roll, it's a straight up swap which means if you have access to re-rolls you can still use this strat if you fail your re-roll. This makes a Host Raptorial unit with Tip of the Spear auto pass their charge roll and pairs really well with a Daemon Prince with Armour of Abhorrence (see below)<br />
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Excruciating Frequencies are something that I have endured a couple times during my youth listening to angry people play angry music really loud. This 1CP strat is not much different and increases the S and D of sonic weapons in a Noise Marine unit by 1 during the shooting phase. This lasts until the end of the phase so you can double shoot and retain the buff. For a little perspective, a unit of 10 Noise Marines with 2 Blastmasters, and 8 Sonic Blasters will do 7 damage to a knight with no other buffs. You can make them hit on 2s with Prescience and re-roll both hits and wounds with the Remnant of Mariviglia relic, which doubles the damage to the knight and you can shoot them again killing the knight. From 10 models. If you fire this combo into a unit of Primaris marines you kill 17, and you ignore cover.<br />
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If you like the idea of having a massive unit of close combat marines buffed up with Combat Elixirs you may also want to think of spending 1CP for Cruel Duelists. Pick a non-vehicle, non-cultists unit when they are chosen to fight and on an unmodified wound roll of 6 their attack is -3AP. You probably won't want to get into combat too often though as you can do all the cool shooting.<br />
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Last we come to Tactical Perfection which lets you re-deploy a unit for 1CP. Since this is done before the first turn starts you can basically re-deploy your entire army if you have the CP. I can think of a couple times where I could have used this...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If this doesn't give you an Endless Grin your not human.</td></tr>
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The Endless Grin is an interesting relic and copies something from the Night Lords book, it reduces enemy units within 6" Ld by 1 and then have to roll a additional D6 for morale and you get to choose which one they use. The Ld shenanigans just don't really work in this edition, and this isn't going to fix it. Skip.<br />
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Fatal Sonancy is a 12", assault D6, S6, AP-2, 1D weapon that auto hits. Kinda cool but there are better relics out there...<br />
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Speaking of which, we come to the Armour of Abhorrence. Enemy units can't fire overwatch against the model with this relic. It also causes one additional model to flee when enemy units with 6" fail a morale test.<br />
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The Remnant of Maraviglia possibly has the highest potential, but at the same time can be utterly underwhelming if not timed right. Only a Priest model has access to this and they can reveal it once per battle instead of chanting a prayer. EC units within 6" can re-roll wound rolls until the end of the battle round. I think this has some potential in a Devestation Battery Battalion with some Noise Marines sprinkled in. Because this takes affect at the start of the battle round the Punishing Volley can benefit form it, as well as the Music of the Apocalypse rule that let Noise Marines shoot when they die. See Excess of Violence.<br />
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Distortion is an Ap-4 power/force sword replacement that does D3 damage and can turn into an AP-4 power fist. Nice weapon with decent utility. Works well with Loathsome Grace and the Combat Elixers for 7 attacks on the charge.<br />
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The last relic is the Raiment Revulsice which give the bearer all the re-rolls. You can re-roll hit rolls, wounds rolls, and charge rolls. Pick a character, any character, they could use this relic, but I think it's probably best suited for a Disco Lord as he doesn't come with his own re-rolls.<br />
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So there are a handful of warlord traits that go toward keeping your warlord alive, this bodes well for Disco Lords. Combat Elixers work well on any big unit making them deadlier, faster, or tougher, while the Remnant of the Maraviglia combined with Excruciating Frequencies make a unit of Noise Marines absolutely murderous. While there isn't too much to make a terrifying death machine character, there certainly are a couple things that help your characters along like the Armour of Abhorrence and Honour the Prince for start. I think the best likely use is a battalion with a bunch of Noise Marines and some hard hitting, fast moving characters.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blood for the mother fuckin Blood God!</td></tr>
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Slaughterborn gives your warlord +1S and A for each character, monster, or titanic unit he kills, permanently. Nice if your facing armies that play into this, but you don't get anything until you start killing and honestly, if your World Eater warlord is in their lines killing their characters you're doing something right.<br />
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To continue with the slaughter theme, Arch Slaughterer gives you an extra D3 attacks if there are more enemy models within 3" of the warlord than friendly models. These attacks last til the end of the phase so if you kill a bunch of models and are no longer outnumbered, you can still Wrath of Khorne to attack again and still have those bonus attacks. Again though, as with the last one, you don't get any buffs until a condition is met and depending on the army you are facing, it might be tricky to meet that condition.<br />
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Disciples of Khorne get to re-roll hit and wound rolls against any character or a unit with a wound characteristic of 5 or higher. Again, stipulations in order to get anything. This one is surprising especially when there is a EC relic that does this and more with no stipulations.<br />
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Violent Urgency is the only unit buffer and it gives an extra inch to advance and charge rolls to WE units within 6" of the warlord. There is no stipulation on what unit benefit, so a WE Disco-Lord Soulforge Pact party would benefit form this increasing their movement even more, combine that with the Talisman of Burning Blood on the Lord and the advance and charge strat from Vigilus you're looking at a surprisingly fast couple models.<br />
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True Berzerker halves the damage the warlord takes from a melee weapon. With shooting being so dominant you really need to survive the trip to the front lines before you can worry about getting punched out. So it's critical to avoid getting shot for this warlord trait to become useful which is tricky.<br />
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Battle Lust lets your warlord HI up to 6" and always fights first in the fight phase. Being able to move that 6" is a pretty big deal, especially if you have a blender character who can really chew up the enemy. Just like Incessant Disdain it's great for those times your opponent doesn't know about, or forgot about it. Otherwise it can be played around.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burn the Witch!</td></tr>
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The World Eaters take a page out of the Alpha Legion play book with Apoplectic Frenzy which is 1 CP and played when you deploy an infantry unit. That unit can make a 9" move at the start of the battle round but before the first turn begins. If you have the first turn then you can use this to close the gap, if you don't you can use it to try and hide.<br />
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Skulls for the Skull Throne is an interesting way to earn a couple extra CP. This is a 1CP strat that you play when you kill an enemy character and you gain D3 CP. At worst it's a waste of a couple seconds, at best it's 2 CP. Think of all the things you can do with 2 CP...<br />
<br />
Like make a unit of Terminators Red Butchers. Ok, this one is done before the battle, you got me. So you'll have to make up the CP with Skulls for the Skull Throne. What it does, for the 2CP, is it gives a unit of Terminators the Blood for the Blood God rule that Berzerkers have allowing them to attack twice in the fight phase. You can only do this to 1 unit of terminators but Heaven's to Betsy could this be pretty scary. Potentially fighting 3 times with all manner of weapons really makes this unit deadly and their 2+/5++ will help ensure they stick around to fight all 3 times. Keep in mind they are not invincible and can be beat down by something competent at shooting or fighting, assuming they live long enough to fight back.<br />
KEEP IN MIND: This one is keyword dependent, not unit dependent, so you could put this on a character in terminator armour and give him a decent weapon and have him go ape-shit in the fight phase. Getting him into combat will be the trickiest part, as it always is.<br />
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Now if you've ever found yourself killing an entire unit and not being able to consolidate far enough to do anything this next stratagem is for you. Kill! Maim! Burn! is only 1CP but allows a unit to consolidate up to 6". Now this lasts until the end of the phase so those triple attacking Berzerkers or Red Butcher Terminators can really move across the table in the fight phase. This is a bit of a double edged sword though as you will want to start declaring everything in range as a target of a charge, which means you will eat a ton of overwatch.<br />
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Wild Fury improves the AP of a unit's melee weapons by 1. This is done in the fight phase for 1CP and is pretty damn amazing. It's almost like their very own little temporary combat doctrine. In general, this increases the damage output by around 30%.<br />
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Stoke the Nails is an interesting one for 1CP that affects a non-cultist Infantry or Biker unit. Until the end f the fight phase the Death to the False Emperor will generate extra attacks against all enemies, not just imperium units. If you are attacking imperium units you will generate extra attacks on 5+. This one is pretty good, if a little situational and probably best saved for when you have a mess load of attacks going into even more models.<br />
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The last one is Blood for the Blood God which is a little confusing because it has nothing to do with attacking twice in the fight phase. However it is used in the fight phase when a WE unit kills an enemy unit. Spend 2CP and until the start of your next turn all WE unit automatically pass morale. Swing and a miss, even at 1CP. The trouble with this one is that you don't even get to see if you will need to make morale tests. Yes, it could potentially be a huge saviour in very dire circumstances, but I challenge you to play a game where it does anything of use.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey, wanna borrow my axe?</td></tr>
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Well, it's relics time and I have to say that I was disappointed. The best one by far is the Crimson Killer. It replaces a plasma pistol, removes the chance of killing yourself, is S9, AP-3, flat 3D AND deals a mortal wound in addition on an unmodified wound of 4+. You also can't forget that you can use this weapon all the time, in combat, out of combat, the only thing that's limiting you is it's 12" range. Happy hunting.<br />
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Gorefather had such potential to be such a very powerful weapon but there are a couple things that hold it back. First off, there is a -1 to hit when using it, but it's +2S does not really warrant that penalty. It's only AP-2, but it does 3 mortal wounds on an unmodified wound roll of 6, but it's not in addition to normal damage. I think that if you change either the S modifier, the AP, remove the hit penalty, OR having the mortals in addition, this becomes a great weapon. As it is, it's only pretty good. There is some merit to putting it on an Exhalted Champion or a Disciple of Khorne warlord as you can fish for those 6's to wound.<br />
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The Banner of Rage has potential, but it can only be taken by a priest model, so a Dark Apostle. It can only be used once per battle and is used in the fight phase to give every WE unit within 6" +1A. Again, it's got potential because since it doesn't stop the Dark Apostle from chanting a prayer you can double up that buff aura with one of the combat prayers. This is not as good as it sounds though because you can't boost the mobility of a Dark Apostle with a jump pack or bike. So he's stuck either foot slogging it or riding in a transport, but if he's in a transport he can't use his prayers, so it's a lose lose situation.<br />
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Hey, do you remember a couple editions ago where the Berserker Glaive was the best, granting an extra 2D6 attacks(unless you rolled a 1 on one of the dice)? Well this isn't it as this one grants you no additional attacks, is only S+1, AP-2, and 2D. It's special rule is that it gives you a 5+ FNP. I could see this going on an Exhalted Champion as you'll need those re-rolls to wound, otherwise it's just not strong enough.<br />
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Speaking of not good, the Helm of the Furore forces you to charge an enemy unit with 8" for the trade off that you get +2S. Oh, and it's only available to infantry units. I only see potential for this one on a character with a multi damage weapon like a power fist or axe of dismemberment where the extra S is only going to help against things T8 or higher.<br />
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Lastly we have the Bloodhunger, and while most of the other sets of armour grant a 2+ save plus have an additional effect, this one lets you roll a D6 for each model killed and on a 4+ you regain a wound. Again with the theme of "you get nothing until you meet this requirement" although it could go a long way to keeping a Prince alive if your opponent couldn't manage to finish him off.<br />
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Wow, I'm finally done. That was a long one, thank you sticking around this long. It's time for some final thoughts. I think this book went a long way to closing some of those glaring gaps in the Chaos Space Marines game plan from getting into combat quicker and safer to making our shooty units more lethal. We can also affect the enemies game plan with movement shenanigans and messing with their CP usage and increasing our durability. There is something for everyone in this book and I am really excited to see what comes from this. Paired with some of the points drops that we have seen in Chapter Approved, I can see Chaos Space Marine finally stepping into the light, even if it's not to the top podium.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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This review has been brought to you by Maxx Collectibles. This shop has almost everything you could possibly want in a collectibles shop. Card games, comics, toys, D&D, minis, you name it. It also has the largest selection of Games Workshop product in Winnipeg (other than the actual Games Workshop store).<br />
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There are also tables in the back room for playing said games. While Warhammer is a pretty popular game in the shop he often has a variety of games being played. There was even a long running multi party D&D game that was being run where 2 groups of players were playing in 2 different rooms at the same time in the same campaign but separately from each other. It was quite the undertaking that is wrapping up the campaign with the 2 groups coming together.<br />
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There is also a Blood Bowl tournament being held in the shop on Dec 14th.</div>
The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-19652430982032903632019-11-11T08:14:00.001-06:002019-11-11T08:14:22.317-06:00EVOLUTION OF THE GAME<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ok ladies and gentlemen, I went a DEEP dive on this one. With the new Space Marine codex and Supplements I started to think about Codex Creep. Previous editions were ruined by the continued ramping up of Codex's in order to attempt to balance the game and bring some semblance of order to the system of chaos. The problem at the time was that GW was investing so little time into actually fixing any issues that you ended up with huge units that could get 2++ saves, could only be hit on 6's, had FNP, and could pass around wounds willy nilly to maximize survivability. Not only could these things survive anything you threw at them they could dish out an incredible amount of damage and were typically regarded as "Death Stars".<br />
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This edition has something similar to Codex Creep going on but up until recently it wasn't quite so apparent because there are a couple books that sit at the top of the heap and have been there for a while, Astra Militarum, Dark Eldar, and Craftworld Eldar come to mind. However, there are still little bumps that each army get when their book comes out and you tend to see more of them place well at events until everyone can get a handle on dealing with the new "hotness" or the FAQ rectifies some broken aspect.<br />
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So lets get into our way-back machine and head for June 2017 and start to draw some connections to book releases and the results at tournaments. Now, this is a shit ton of information to process, so I have only decided to focus on the top lists of some of the Major Events in the ITC system, and all of this info I found on Blood of Kittens, from June 2017 until September 2019. So there may need to be an asterisk next to these findings as they are not "all inclusive."<br />
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GW starts off the codex release with the Space Marines in July and there are a number of events starring a Space Marine Captain or Chapter Master with a jump pack following around several fliers. It was not uncommon to see 4-5 Stormravens with very little to no ground presence. As we all know, this was quickly "kiboshed" with the "Boots on the Ground" rule. This is also the time that we see the first Ynnari Dark Reaper list with several units of Dark Reapers and Brandon Grant introduces us to Conscripts and massed drop units loaded with plasma weapons, at the Bay Area Open, which will not be the last time we see it.<br />
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The Grey Knights and Chaos Space Marines codexes and a couple of Strike Squads make an appearance at GenCon paired with Elysian drop units while a bunch of Berzerkers, a Fireraptor, and Magnus take the Brawl. The North West Open shows us what 10 deep striking Tau Commanders can do while Ynnari Dark Reapers make another appearance at Wargames Con.<br />
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September gives us a Death Guard codex which helps Matt Root win Iron Halo by giving him the Fetid Bloat Drone to go along with his Alpha Legion Berzerkers and Slaanesh Cultist bomb amidst a bunch of Astra Militarum Conscripts, drop troops, and smite. The Adeptus Mechanicus book is also released, no one notices.<br />
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The Astra Militarum and Craftworld Eldar get their books in October and dominate the scene for the next couple of months despite Tyranids being released in November and the Chapter Approved arriving in December along with Blood Angels and Dark Angels.<br />
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For the first couple months we don't have any clear Codex Creep until we get the Eldar and AM books bringing Scions and Conscripts to the forefront along with multiple units of Dark Reapers in a Ynnari detachment for that oh-so-sweet double shooting with one of the most effective and deadly units in the game to this point, combined with the fact you can move them again after they shoot with Fire and Fade. You can see in some cases that armies get little bumps when their books come out, but the majority of the armies are still using index books so this is to be expected.<br />
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2018 begins with Ynnari Dark Reapers and Shining Spears dominating the tournament scene with sporadic occurrences of Hive Tyrant/Mucolid Spore spam and Poxwalkers backed up by Plagueburst Crawlers and Typhus. Our first big FAQ is release in April and that kills a bunch of lists with limitation to arriving from reserves, the "Rule of 3", Battalions and Brigades getting more CP, and the change that prevents you from charging units on the second floor of ruins if there is no room for the charging model to sit.<br />
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Now in May is where I see a very obvious spike in codex power as people start to explore the world of triple Dark Eldar Ravagers as that codex was release in April. 6 of the 7 majors held in May and June are won by Drukhari with 3 Ravagers. Although that is the only real constant as some lists have Wytches, others have Talos, and some have Eldar allies. One of them even incorporates Skyweaver Jetbikes form the Harlequin book that is release in May alongside Deathwatch.<br />
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Our next spike in Codex power comes in July due to the Imperial Knights codex released in June, which brings in the Catachan Brigade paired with a Castellan and a couple "Smash Captians" from the Blood Angels book. This is a perfect example of not only Codex Creep, but how a single model can change the entire meta of the game not only bringing back Astra Militarum, who have been out of the lime light for months now, but also finding a place for the Blood Angel Captain. This list requires a ton of CP and thus the CP battery is also created. This is not the last change that the Knight codex brought to the game, due to the Castellan being able to put out such a huge amount of damage with it's Volcano Lance the game starts to shift to a "kill denial" meta. Large vehicles and monsters are too easily picked off by the Castellan so armies begin to adopt ways to either negate the Knight's effectiveness or to take it out pronto which we will see evidence of.<br />
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The Space Wolves codex is released in August but no one cares and in September we start to see a couple armies that have learned to deal with the AM Brigade/Castellan list with the Genestealer slingshot and Tau Riptides covered by Drones. Genestealers don't really care about the high AP and high damage characteristics, and can avoid the small arms fire before being thrown across the table and charging headlong into the soft bodies of the Astra Militarum. In a similar fashion, the Tau Riptides can shrug off all the large damage weapons on the Drones and soak up the small arms fire themselves while pumping out tons of bullets killing the soft squishy targets.<br />
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September also sees us get a FAQ that has some huge changes to it that increase the CP on many Blood Angels and Knights stratagems and limits the number of CP that can be "farmed". It also changes the FLY rule so that units no longer ignore terrain or models when making a charge move which kills the Smash Captain who can deep strike on top of a building but only need a 3" charge.<br />
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Harlequin Skyweaver Jetbikes start making a showing as they can put some serious damage on a Knight with their haywire weapons, as can Dark Reapers and Shining Spears as Eldar make a resurgence in October but the AM Brigade/Castellan still win SoCal and Barn Yard Brawl. Orks round things out by winning Renegade Open in November.<br />
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So 2018 comes to an end with a couple of very dominant builds. Eldar Dark Reapers and Shining Spears lists, Drukhari triple Ravagers with Haywire weapons mixed in, and Astra Militarum Brigade with Castellan Knight and fast moving hard hitting characters(typically Blood Angel jump captains or Custodes Shield Cpatains on jet bikes). We have seen a little evidence of Power Creep in Eldar, Dark Eldar, Astra Militarum, and Orks all started winning games shortly after their books came out AND kept winning in the following months. The Chapter Approved came out and gave us a couple changes, one of which increases the required psychic test for subsequent castings of Smite excepts of units that have "Brotherhood of Psykers" rule, or something similar. This primarily affects Thousand Sons which we will see very soon.<br />
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2019 starts with some really wacky lists that we haven't seen before like 8 Eldar Fliers, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Tyranids spamming termigants backed up by GSC Genestealers just before the GSC codex is released. The Catachan Brigade is still winning games although Bullgryn are becoming more popular over the Smash Captains. This is where we see the first Daemons list with big units of Plaguebearers and a Thousand Sons Command Detachment which pops up frequently. The next couple months are pretty spread out without too many wins by a single army. Tank Commanders, Talos with Haywire, and the T-Sons Command Detachment being the most popular but we also see Broadsides, GSC flamer bombs, and Deathwatch with Assassins. Genestealer Cults got their new book in February and Chaos get their updated book in March and the 2 Vigilus books are released. This is also the time where Ynnari got their White Dwarf rules and that's why you're not seeing them any more and why Daemons are making a surge.<br />
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This brings us to the second half of this year and what we are seeing now. I'm going to take a look at a handful of the more popular armies and take a quick look at what makes them so powerful.<br />
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One of the top contender armies continues to be the Daemons and Thousand Sons combo. Neither of these book are particularly new, and neither seems to use any Vigilus units or detachments, but since the update to how TSons use Smite they have become pretty good. Psychic powers cause mortal wounds, you don't need to roll to hit or to wound and they ignore most saves so it's not really a surprise it pops up so often. Plaguebearers are the other main part of the army and we all know why they are good. Penalties to hit them, 5++ save which can be boosted to 4++, and 5+FNP ensure they stick around. Not to mention the Bilepiper who lets them roll 2D6 and pick the lowest for Morale, and the banner that brings models back if a 1 is rolled for Morale. There are a couple differences in certain builds, one has a big unit of Death Guard Terminators, another has some Pink Horrors and Bloodletters. When you look at them, they pretty much do the same thing but one has it's shooty and punchy in 2 units instead of 1 unit.<br />
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Orks are doing really well with some help from a Vigilus relic Shokk Attack Gun. Most armies have this relic and a couple non-relic SAGs along with a ton of Boyz and Smasha Gunz or Lootas, or both! This list has some limited mobility with Da Jump, durability with numbers, the ability to kill big things with the SAG and the ability to kill heavy infantry with the Smasha guns. What else could you ask for?<br />
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Eldar Fliers are becoming a fucking nuisance. While some lists have lots of them, all of the lists have some, and there are a ton to choose from so you have options for what you want them to do. We all know they have been around for a while, but why have they not been popular in the past? Well probably because Ynnari Dark Reapers don't really care about their negatives to hit them and would just shoot them out of the sky, and Ynnari Shining Spears could still assault them not to mention Smash Captains. Funny how that works out huh? In general they are tough to kill because they are hard to hit, and can pump out a ton of really decent quality firepower perfect for taking out large targets. The Drukari ones focus a little more on taking out infantry, but still do it really well.<br />
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Those are the main winners, but there are still Tau, Chaos Disco-Lords, Astra Militarum, Genestealer Cults, and Custodes who are finding top place in more than one major tournament over the last couple months.<br />
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So this has brought me full circle to the idea of Codex Creep and as you can see, while many armies do get a bump when their book comes out, for the most part it actually seems like GW is just trying to keep up with some of the overpowered original codexs they released like Craftworld and Drukari. The one outlier that may come to pass is the Space Marine codex which is definitely going to change up the Meta, but as we saw from the SoCal Open, that Meta change simply made it possible for Tau to step up to the bully who's been beating everyone else down and push back.<br />
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Well I hope you guys have enjoyed this little look back in time as much as I enjoyed writing it.<br />
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Til next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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As usual this article has been brought to you by Maxx Collectibles. Check out the Workbench Wednesday post on their Facebook page. Every week a person who has posted up a work in progress on that post will win a free pot of GW paint. You have to show up in person to claim your prize though so you kind of have to be local.The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-60018400052083972892019-09-29T15:51:00.000-05:002019-09-29T15:51:01.013-05:00MIDDLE OF NOWHERE GT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There is a tournament coming up and on the heels of finishing up my Chaos Knights codex review, I've decided to take a Chaos Knights army with a little Red Corsairs help. Here is what my list looks like:<br />
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Infernal Household Knight detachment - 6CP<br />
Despoiler Knight - 2x Gatling Cannons, 2x heavy flamer, heavy stubber<br />
Despoiler Knight - 2x Battle Cannons, 3x heavy stubber, iron storm missile pod, Warlord<br />
Rampager - Dreadblade<br />
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Red Corsairs Outrider detachment - 2CP<br />
Chaos Lord on bike, power sword, combi-flamer, Mark of Khorne<br />
Chaos Lord with jump pack, power sword, combi-bolter, Mark of Khorne<br />
5x Bikers, 2 plasma guns, combi-plasma, chainswords, Mark of Slaanesh<br />
5x Bikers, 2 melta guns, combi-melta, chainswords, Mark of Slaanesh<br />
5x Raptors, 2 plasma guns, combi-plasma, Mark of Slaanesh<br />
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For a total of 1999 points and 11 CP.<br />
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I have several plans for this army and I feel that it can be quite flexible. In general, the Bikers and Raptors will deal with light and medium infantry as well as putting pressure on medium vehicles. The Lords provide re-roll bubbles keeping the plasma safe, but I can also buy one of them the Murder Sword and name an important enemy Character. With every hit counting as a mortal wound, this should keep most characters at bay, especially considering the mobility of the Biker Lord. The Knights can deal with everything from medium infantry to heavy vehicles with their array of gatling and battle cannons, stomps, and heavy close combat weapons.<br />
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Now as I briefly mentioned in my <a href="https://the40kmisfit.blogspot.com/2019/09/chaos-knights-less-filling-more-taste.html">Chaos Knight</a> review, they have a huge amount of flexibility in their warlord traits and relics. If I'm up against a cheeky Eldar list with a ton of negative hit modifiers I can take the Helm of Warpsight to ignore them. Typically Eldar lists don't have a ton of bubble wrap either, so I can give the Rampager the Quicksilver Throne and buy it the Eager for the Kill warlord trait and have it charge something 30" away. If there is a Primarch or other really tough unit with a good invul save, out comes the Khornate Target. If there is a ton of psychic powers on the other side of the table I can take Tzeentch's Pyrothrone and Warp Haunted Hull for 2 attempts to Deny the Witch and use Diabolic Rift to force Perils on any caster too close to any of the Knights.<br />
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I'll be trying to get in a couple practice games by the time the event comes around and I would like to get in a couple progress report posts so keep your eyes peeled for more articles from the 40K Misfit. In the mean time, let me know what you think of this list and the thoughts behind using it.<br />
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Til next time, keep them dice rollin.The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-23187489660874991262019-09-25T20:10:00.001-05:002019-09-25T20:10:29.086-05:00CHAOS KNIGHTS: LESS FILLING, MORE TASTE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welcome back ladies and gents, I managed to get my hands on the Chaos Knights book then promptly went on vacation. That means the book has been out for a while and everyone and their grandmother has done a review and found all the cool combos and shit. I am likely to go over a bunch of the same, but I'll try to keep it interesting.<br />
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Let me start with my very first impression of the book, before I even unwrapped it...<br />
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This is a pretty damn small book and there are 2 main reasons for that. First is that all of the knights of the same chassis have been consolidated to a single data sheet. This simplifies things immensely as all of the weapon options are available and you only have to look at one data sheet. This also means that we can get all of the dual wielding gatling cannons we can choke down. The second is that there are only 2 household equivalents which also reduces the number of specific stratagems, warlord traits, and relics. So we don't have quite as much to choose from, but as you will see shortly, the options we do have are really quite strong. There is also a new chassis that gives us a Desecrator and a Rampager. The Desecrator gives nearby War Dogs unit re-roll hit rolls of 1 and it has a Laser Destructor which sounds a lot better than it is. Sure it's S14, AP-4, D6D and does D3 mortal wounds on wound rolls of 6, but it only has D3 shots. This means it has a lower average damage than every other weapon in almost every other circumstance but it has a relic version of the gun that brings it's damage up, but the Desecrator isn't really worth taking unless you were already planning on taking a bunch of War Dogs. The Rampager is a combat only knight that scores an additional hit on an unmodified hit roll of 6 but only when it's using its sword or fist. It also has a WS of 2+ and 5A much like a Despoiler with 2 melee weapons.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">-The slaughter of millions of innocents</td></tr>
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Lets start with a rundown of the 2 Household Ambitions, the first of which is the Iconoclast. Knights of this House get an extra attack and improve their melee weapons AP by 1 when they charge, are charged, or performs a heroic intervention until the end of the turn. In addition, enemy units within 12" that fail a Morale Check lose an additional model. Now, this sounds pretty darn good, especially with titanic feet on a Rampager, 18A hitting on 2's and AP-3.<br />
Knights of the Infernal Ambition get access to a chart, at the start of each movement phase they may suffer a mortal wound so they can roll on the chart or they can suffer D3 mortal wounds to choose the result on the chart. It's a D3 chart and the first ability gives the knight an addition 2" to it's move and adds 1 to advance and charge rolls. The second result adds 1 to the knights T making the big guys T9 and the War Dogs T8. Finally, and the "piece de resistance", the third result on the table allows you to add 1 to the S and D of one ranged weapon. 3D gatling cannons, S9 battle cannons, S8 and 3D conflagration cannons (which auto hit as well), all that sounds really good.<br />
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Next up we have the stratagems of which more than half are the same as the Imperial knights, such as Full Tilt, Rotate Ion Shields, Thunderstomp, etc. Trail of Destruction is still kicking around from the Index, allowing a Knight to re-roll ALL hit rolls when it is chosen to shoot, fight, or perform overwatch. There are also a couple of highly popular new stratagems such as the Vow of Dominance which you use once at the start of a game for 2CP, on an Iconoclast knight, which causes all the unmodified wound rolls of 1, 2, or 3 to automatically fail for the entire game. Think on that for a minute, of the things that knights fear the most like Morty, BA smash captains, Magnus, and other Knights. they can all go fuck themselves cause the best they can wound you on is 4+. The Infernal Knights have their own way of staying alive using Pact with the Dark Gods, which brings the model back to life with D3 wounds on a 4+, and Bind the Souls of the Defeated which restores a lost wound on a 4+ for each model the Knight kills in the fight phase, up to 6 wounds.<br />
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When I read, and re-read this next section I was certain that GW either made a mistake or they would shortly amend the Imperial Knight book to read the same way. It turns out that you can be both a Dreadblade and have a household ambition, not only that but negative abilities only take affect if you roll higher than your models Ld stat on 2D6, which you must roll for at the start of each of your turns. Also, you don't HAVE to generate abilities if you don't want to but if you do, you generate a series of positive and negative abilities from 2 lists, which is done before the game starts. You may choose a single good ability or you can roll for 2 good abilities, while you can choose 2 bad abilities or roll for 1. These abilities range from dealing mortal wounds when the knight charges and reducing weapons with AP-1 to AP0 to not being able to use stratagems on that knight and always fighting last in the fight phase even if it charged. While none of the good ones are game breaking on their own, some of them can be used to great effect in a couple combinations which I can elaborate on later. However, the bad ones can be quite crippling if you happen to fail the test at the wrong time.<br />
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With all the amazing abilities and stratagems, I really think it's the Artifacts of Tyranny that will ultimately make the difference between a good knight build and an incredible knight build. We have weapon upgrades for the chainsword and gauntlet, both of which are pretty good, a 4++ vs shooting and a 5++ all the time but here are a couple that have incredible potential. The Khornate Target is only one use per battle at the start of the fight phase, but for the rest of that phase a model hit with attack made by this knight cannot make invulnerable saves against those attacks. There are a handful of units that can completely stall a charging knight and all of them have a really good invulnerable save, Guilliman, Magnus, Ogryn. There is another sweet thing about this relic, it doesn't apply to a single enemy target, it effect is applied to the knights attacks so if you happen to move in against multiple units you get to ignore all of their saves. If you think that one is good, the Helm of Warp Sight allows the knight to ignore all hit modifiers, so those dirty Eldar units can go straight to hell, with the help of an Avenger Gatling cannon or 2. Death Guard Daemon Princes love the Suppurating Plate armour, well now your Knight can have it too. While the Putrid Carapace of Nurgle doesn't give you a 2+ save, it still bounces mortal wounds back to enemy on a 4+ each time you pass a save in the fight phase. This is good against units that can put out lots of attacks and have some way of getting a lot of successful wound rolls with low AP.<br />
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Finally we come to the warlord traits, none of which are terribly great on their own, but none of which are really terrible. Infernal Quest gives the knight "obsec." and it counts as 10 models, Knight Diabolus gives it an extra attack and Warp Haunted Hull allows it to Deny the Witch once and a 5+ vs mortal wounds suffered in the psychic phase.<br />
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Now to look at a couple combos, and there are a couple pretty extreme set ups that could surprise you in their sheer single-mindedness, if you aren't prepared for it. First up we got the Turn-One-Charge Knight. Take a combat knight, like a Rampager, with the Infernal Household Ambition, have it take the Daemonic Hunger which adds 2" to it's move and 1 to each of it's advance and charge rolls. Give it the Quicksilver Throne of Slaanesh relic which adds 1 to it's advance and charge rolls and allows it to attack first in every fight phase, then give it the Eager for the Kill Warlord trait which gives it another plus 1 to it's advance and charge rolls and gives it an extra attack if it's entirely within the enemy deployment zone. Finally, and you need a little luck with this one, you can make it a Dreadblade and give it the Daemonic Vigor which adds another 2" to it's movement. When it's all said and done you have a knight moving 16", advancing D6+3", and charging 2D6+3" for a range of 25" - 40". You will have to use the Full Tilt stratagem in order to be able to charge, so if you happen to get the Forsaken Damnation and fail that LD test then you could be in trouble, but for an average charge of 32" on a knight, that is damn scary.<br />
The next big combo is centred around a combat knight again, this time form the Iconoclast Ambition. Give him the Teeth that Hunger and the Knight Diabolus warlord trait for a whopping 8 attacks on the charge or 21 stomps and 1 chainsword attack. Oh and you gave him the Vow of Carnage so every 10 models he kills he gets another attack.<br />
For the last build I have in mind I'd like to take care of something that pure Knights lists have a little trouble with, psychic powers. There are only 2 things required and that is the Tzeentchian Pyrothrone relic, which turns your knight into a psyker who can smite and deny, and Warp Haunted Hull warlord trait, which gives your knight a second deny and a 5+FNP vs mortal wounds suffered in the psychic phase. Combine this with the Infernal stratagem Diabolic Rift which affects all enemy psykers within 12" of any Infernal knight on the table and causes them to Perils on any doubles, not just 6's and 1's.<br />
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There we have it, a nice quick review of the "new" Chaos Knights. I think there are a couple things is this book that are going to make some waves in the meta. Thanks for reading and leave a comment if you think I've overlooked anything.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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Once again this codex review could not be possible without Maxx Collectibles as my sponsor. He had his monthly painting day again, which is the 3rd Saturday of every month, and it drew a rather large crowd yet again. All you have to do is show up, you will be supplied with a mini, paint, brushes, and some coaching if your new. If your not new, show up with your models and feel free to just hang out with some of the up and coming gamers.<br />
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Don't forget to look for me and other Team Maxx Warhammer 40K players at the Middle of Nowhere GT in Shilo MB coming up Oct. 5th and 6th. It's a 5 game GT with a 50 player cap and 48 of them are signed up already. I'll be doing a post on my list and my lack of practice shortly, then of course a post tournament post on how I did.The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-27127130840037660902019-08-06T12:46:00.001-05:002019-08-06T12:46:47.746-05:00POW 4: GOING IN BLIND<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello everyone, a couple weeks ago I took part in the 4th annual Plains of War GT Warhammer 40k tournament. It's run by the 40 Below Gaming club here in Winnipeg. This is the second one I have been to, and I had an absolute blast. So lets get right into this review starting with all the boring stuff that's surrounds the games themselves.<br />
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First off, the space is great. It's a hotel meeting room, so carpeted floors, water stations, nearby restaurants and you could pre-order your food so it would be ready for you at lunch. Lunch break was an hour and a half so you certainly didn't need to stick around and there are plenty of locations to eat at in that area of the city. There is one downside to such a nice event though and that's the $90 ticket price which is STEEP, considering previous years the ticket price was only $60. It did come with a sheet of raffle tickets and three 3D printed objective markers but they were hoping to make this event a Major and hit 60 people, unfortunately they barely broke 30 players and I think the price tag had a lot to do with that. However, that might have been the only downside. The tables had plenty of space, each with 360 degree access, and the terrain was some of the best I've seen. None of the tables I played on had too little terrain and all of the terrain was well painted, looked good, and matched the FLG mat that was on each table. They had some pretty sweet raffle prizes as well including a Battlefoam 720 full of pluck foam. All in all, the event was run very well.<br />
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So the list I was running was a gamble, both in that it had more power armour bodies than cultists and I had not actually played a game with it yet, or at all in over a month. So I was a little rusty. My list looked like this:<br />
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Black Legion Battalion<br />
Abaddon<br />
Sorcerer, combi-bolter, force axe. He usually got Angles Bane, the Balck legion relic combi-bolter<br />
10 Marines, 2 melta guns<br />
10 Marines, 2 melta guns<br />
10 Cultists<br />
5 Havocs, reaper chaincannons<br />
5 Havocs, missile launchers<br />
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Scourge Battalion<br />
Sorcerer in Terminator armour, combi-bolter, force axe<br />
Sorcerer in Terminator armour, combi-bolter, force axe<br />
10 Marines, combi-plasma, 2 plasma guns<br />
10 Cultists<br />
10 Cultists<br />
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Crimson Slaughter Air Wing<br />
3x Heldrakes<br />
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For game one I was asked to play on the stream. The organisers have actually tried to get me on the stream a number of times at different events but my opponents had declined, not wanting to be on the stream. So I finally managed to make it onto the stream, got all mic'd up and promptly got tabled by my opponent, Marcus, and his dirty Tau which looked like this:<br />
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I don't know Tau really well, but he had 3 commanders, 2 other small characters, 2 Riptides, a Y'Vahra, a handful of Strike squads, a couple units of Pathfinders and a mess of drones.<br />
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So although this game was on the stream, the mics weren't working so there is only the hum of the crowd for audio so I will give a quick rundown of what is happening. Marcus gets the first turn and jumps the Y'Vahra up who takes out both red Heldrakes.<br />
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Now, I knew the Y'Vahra was good, and that you should never charge it, but that was ridiculous. The rest of his shooting takes out most of the chaincannon havocs and one of the Marine units. Now, I chose to use the Punishing Volley stratagem at the end of his movement phase, but made the mistake of using my missile launchers to shoot the Y'Vahra. With a 2+ save and the ability to pass off to the drones it's unlikely I'll actually do any damage, but one missile does manage to make it through for a couple wounds. What I should have done was to use the chaincannons in hopes of forcing more saves and/or passing off more wounds to the drones, likely getting more damage though either way.<br />
During my turn I killed off the Y'Vahra, cause I sure as shit don't want to have that happen to me again. Then I made my second mistake, I assaulted a unit of Firewarriors with my final Heldrake which allowed them to pile in and consolidate onto an objective losing me a point and giving him a point. Stupid move. Things continued to sway his way for several reasons, mainly because he's better than me and his army is more "honed" than mine.<br />
Abaddon manages to take out a Riptide which is only the beginning of a bloody path that he will reap though this tournament. Finally, we ran into a really weird situation at the end of the game, because we were playing with a clock there was a rule that was implemented in that you can opt to not make any attacks in combat, but if that's your choice then your opponent gets to determine the outcome of the combat. Meaning he can choose to wipe the unit out, kill everyone but a few models, etc etc. Now I had a unit of Marines in combat with his 2 little characters and a Strike squad, this unit of marines happened to be my last unit on the table and if they stayed in combat he would not be able to table me. So he opted not to fight with his units, and since I took Head Hunter, I opted to kill everything I was in combat with to get 4 points on the last turn so he could clear me out. I lost 26-17, although now that I look at the score I realised that he should have gotten an additional 8 points for tabling me on turn 4. As it turns out, he didn't really need them as he won best general anyway.<br />
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For game 2 I sit down across from another Mark, this time playing Orks. He had a bunch of characters on bikes, a couple Weirdboyz, 3 units of 30 boyz, a unit of 10 Meganobz, 15 Lootas, and a mess of Grots.<br />
We deploy and he puts one unit of boyz and the Nobz in reserve. I get the first turn and manage to completely wipe a unit of boyz and push my Heldrakes right in his face putting some wounds on the smaller outlier Grot units. His turn sees his second unit of Boyz Da'Jump'ed right at me and stall out on the Black Legion and Scourge Marines while he tears 2 of the Heldrakes down with Lootas and power klaws. I pulled back and shot the boys off the table, put some firepower into the Grots holding objectives and took out a handful of Lootas. I also moved around to defend against the reinforcements that would be coming in. The Boyz arrived right in the middle of the table taking up the position of the unit that was wiped out the previous turn and the Nobz showed up on my left.<br />
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The Boyz failed their charge and got shot up pretty bad in my turn. The Nobz made their charge and hit a couple of units but failed to really inflict any kind of serious damage. I backed out of combat with the Nobz and fired everything I had left at them which only amounted to 3 dead Nobz. I was really hoping to kill a couple more because Abaddon was going into them and I was not confident that Abby could kill the 7 that were left. Well I was wrong, he did. This lead to the slow demise of the Ork army and I pulled out a victory 26-20.<br />
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Game 3 pairs me up against Ryan with 6 Dreadnoughts, 3 Razorbacks, 3 Thunderfire cannons, and some random other stuff. It turns out this is a pretty good list against mine as I don't have a lot that can deal with T7 at any range over 12", other than the ML Havocs which died right away along with 2 Heldrakes. I did manage to Devastating Volley off one of his TFcannons though. My turn sees Abaddon smack down both a Smash Captain on bike and a Razorback.<br />
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The rest of the game is me walking up and slowly getting shot off the table. I do have to say, Ryan used the Slamander Chapter Tactic to great effect as each marine unit was small and had a meltagun and a combi-melta and the Dreads had Lascannon/missile launchers. This allowed him to maximise the effectiveness of the high quality shots without the necessity of a support character. I lost 30-21.<br />
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At the start of day 2 I get approached to play on the stream again. As I mentioned the audio from my first game didn't turn out so well so they decided to give me another shot to redeem myself. I don't, but Abaddon kills 2 Defilers before the last one explodes and kills him. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrSwYoZDnpQ">link to that game is here</a> so instead of me talking about it, you can just watch it. Although I did just give away the best part.<br />
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Game 5 is against my good friend Sean. He's got a character heavy list with 3 Princes, Arhiman, and Magnus and a big blob of Tzaangors. Now I have played Sean a couple of times, and he really likes to get aggressive with Magnus, buffing him up and then Warptime him right in your face. I was kind of hoping he would do that this time and set up so that Abaddon could counter charge and he did exactly that. The problem is that Abaddon completely bounced and then got absolutely smashed by Magnus.<br />
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I was able to hurt Magnus pretty bad with shooting though, and managed to kill him turn 2. Meanwhile Sean is racking up points like crazy. Around turn 4 I finish off the Tzangors and my Heldrakes come back and I am able to start picking off all his characters, slowly clawing my way back. When it was all said and done, we had gone through 6 turns and ended in a tie.<br />
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So far my record is 1-1-3 and while I'm not particularly well in the scorecard area, I've played 5 really great opponent's which means I'm going into this game with high spirits and looking to have fun. I get to play Ronnie and his mechanised Orks.<br />
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This game is probably the most fun game I've played this event as almost everything dies, and I've made it a personal mission to kill as much of it with Abaddon as possible. Ronnie puts 3 Deffdreads and a unit of 6 Killa Kans in deep strike and the rest of his big toys around the middle of the table. His grots and Slaver sit on an objective. I've got my cultists forming the obligatory speed bump with the Black Legion on my left and the Scourge on my right and the Havocs take up an elevated position in the backfield.<br />
Ronnie gets the first turn and the big orange "Naught" moves up and shoots away one of the cultists units and then charges the Scourge unit behind them wiping them out. I managed to shoot a couple wounds off of him with Devastating volley, and a couple more in the shooting phase before Abaddon steps up and rips a hole in the beast and it explodes. This happens almost every turn with a bunch of stuff moving up, killing a bunch of models around Abaddon and then Abaddon killing it. It happened with the other 'Naught, a couple Killa Kans and a Deffdread. At the end of the game the table looked like this...<br />
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Not a lot left for either side, but I managed to win 29-19 mainly due to Abaddon's murderous rampage and and picking Gangbusters as a secondary.<br />
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All in all I had an awesome experience, even if my list was kinda shit. As for my list, it had several issues. Mobility (outside of the Heldrakes), durability, and the ability to deal damage at more than 24". I was really counting on the Heldrakes to fill all those roles, but I was sadly let down. Which was my own fault for not play testing at all.<br />
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Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this write up and feel free to leave any comments. Thanks for reading.<br />
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Until next time, keep those dice rollin.The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-75144217093203804682019-06-08T21:14:00.002-05:002019-06-08T21:14:57.476-05:00OBLITERATORS: OLD VS NEW<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There has been a lot of talk as to whether or not the new Obliterators are worth their new points cost. They went way up from 65 points to a whopping 115 points. This points increase includes a lot of things, but most of them are combat related and many don't see this as a viable upgrade. I on the other hand, see this as a vast improvement on the unit and a total change to how it operates. Lets plug some numbers into the machine and see what kind of results we get.<br />
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So for the comparison I am going to use a number of models that has approximately the same number of points, which means we will have a unit of 4 new Oblits and a unit of 7 old Oblits for a point cost of 460 and 455 respectively. The comparison will consist of 3 sections, shooting, combat, and durability. So without further ado, lets get into the swing of it.<br />
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First up shooting, which is very "swingy" at best so I'll use the extreme range of damage from worst stats to best stats, all the while using math to determine average results. So for the old rules, we got 28 shots which will result in 13-16 dead GEQ, 6-13 MEQ, 5-31 damage to a VEQ, and 3-24 damage from a KEQ which comes out to an average of 33 points of unit to inflict 1 point of useful damage. Now to clarify what I mean by that, I took the average damage inflicted and divided it by the cost of the unit counting a 3 damage hit against a guardsmen as 1 point of useful damage. The new guys results don't surprise me that much with 24 shots killing 11-14 GEQ, 5-11 MEQ, 4-26 damage on a VEQ, and 2-21 damage on a KEQ for an average damage output of 39 points of unit to inflict 1 point of useful damage.<br />
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Lets put this into some perspective here, if we take an equal points value of Chaos Space Marines, that would work out to 3 units of 10 each with 2 plasma guns. This works out to 21 dead GEQ, 11 MEQ, 12 damage on a VEQ, and 7 damage on a KEQ for an average of 36 points of unit to inflict 1 point of damage.<br />
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In the fight phase things are different. While the new rules gift them with a little more punch, their attacks characteristic stayed the same. The new Oblits will only put out 12 attacks which will result in the slaying of 6 GEQ, 3 MEQ, and 3 damage on VEQ and KEQ. The old models will have 21 attacks killing the same number of GEQ and MEQ but only half of the damage on VEQ and KEQ. This gives us 123 points of unit per 1 point of damage vs 152. Lets face it, these guys are not meant for punching, but with their relatively short range they will likely see some combat and the newer rules will help them keep their head above water.<br />
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When comparing defence I am going to look at 3 different weapons and how many shots from each it takes to completely wipe out all of the Obliterators. The 3 weapons I will use will be bolters, super charged plasma guns, and lascannons which are basic enough to easily transfer the idea and results to many other weapons of similar profiles. I find these results interesting, yet again they don't really surprise me. The older rules will find that 378 bolter shots, 37 plasma shots, and 19 lascannon shots will kill off all 7 models. The newer rules will withstand 432 bolter rounds, 27 plasma, and 25 lascannons before bring removed from the table.<br />
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Now you'll notice that there is a weird swing where plasma takes less to kill the new models but everything else takes more. It takes 2 plasma rounds to kill both the old guys with 3 wounds and the new guys with 4, but lascannons average 3.5 damage. Which means that when you take the averages it will take 2 lascannons to kill a new guy while only 1 will kill an old one. On top of this there is the extra point of toughness which now makes successful wounds a 3+ instead of a 2+. So there is this spot of strength 8-9 weapons that deal 3 damage that the new rules are significantly better at resisting. Reaper launchers, thunder hammers, power hammers, pulse lasers, and ork rokkits are all examples of these and considering their prevalence in the game, this is a decent upgrade. Even weapons that deal D3 damage have a chance at killing an old Obliterator, but now need at least 2 hits to kill a new one.<br />
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My final thoughts are, the sky is not falling. Obliterators have changed, that much is certain, but they have not gone the way of the dodo and I am 100% certain that there is still a spot for them in your lists. While they don't quite put out the same amount of damage as they did before, they have become more durable in many ways and can actually fight their way out of a paper bag if they happen to get touched by a rogue guardsmen looking to pin them in combat. While the models are bigger, you don't need as many which makes them a little easier to deploy and hide (in some circumstances). Finally, any buffs you do cast on them will be more effective as there is more power in each unit than before. In all transparency though, any offensive buffs bring them closer to the same damage output, but not quite the same (when using the above examples). However the defensive spells take them way beyond the durability of the older models. At the end of the day I don't see these guys going away, and it's likely that you will start to see them come back as 1 or 2 man units hanging around a Master of Possession.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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This post has been brought to you by my good buddy at<br />
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He just finished up a job painting up the new Shadowspear box and they look damn good. Don't believe me?<br />
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So if you like what you see get a hold of Donny at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IdleHandsCPU/?tn-str=k*F">Idle Hands CPU</a>The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-46024970703026348792019-04-17T19:11:00.001-05:002019-04-17T19:11:50.986-05:00SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A couple weeks ago I saw a post on one of the many Warhammer 40k Facebook pages where a player was complaining about his Defilers and how poor they were doing. He described as they charged into a "Smash Captain", didn't kill it, and died in return. Many of you may be thinking "Well duh!" and that was my first reaction. This led me to writing this post on how to set yourself up for success.<br />
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First off, this is a lot harder to do than you might imagine, mainly because your opponent is trying to set you up to fail. Secondly, because you might have an unrealistic idea as to what is actually going to happen when you charge a Defiler into a thunder hammer wielding psychopath with a storm shield.<br />
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This all starts from the second you begin to build your list. As you are doing so you need to be acutely aware of how your army functions when you lose certain aspects of it. Lets take a look at an excellent example, LVO winner Brandon Grant. Brandon had a Castellan Knight backed up by a metric shit ton of Catachan Guardsmen, a massive squad of Bullgryn, and a couple Wyvern. Turn 1 Brandon lost his Bullgryn and turn 3 his Castellan. A ton of people were counting Brandon out of the match, however he knew his list could flood the table with bodies, and thanks to some seriously good calls on target priority, his opponent didn't have enough anti-infantry firepower left to kill them all.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It might be small, but it's powerful</td></tr>
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Now that we are confident that there is still hope after we lose that critical part of our army, we have to know what our opponent is trying to do. This is going to change from opponent to opponent, some are going to come out swinging for the fences, others are content to whether the firepower and sit on objectives. Brandon's opponent, Alex, had a ton of anti-tank firepower and, with Doom and Jinx in place, is capable of killing that Castellan in a single turn. Knowing this, and knowing that the Knight was the biggest threat to those fliers, Brandon deployed his knight far enough back, and with enough screening units in front, to ensure that Alex could not cast Doom and Jinx on it turn 1.<br />
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Moving on from there, we come to the part where we look ourselves in a mirror and say "That Defiler can't kill a Captain with a stormshield, even with Daemonforge." Knowing what your units can and can't do is critical. Spend time figuring this out, even come up with scenarios on your own and roll some dice to see what could happen. Does a 5 man Berserker squad kill that Smash Captain? Most of the time. Does that Defiler kill a Rhino? He can with Daemonforge. Knowing these match ups will help guide you to make smarter decisions during a game, and all you have to do is fuck around with some dice by yourself for a while.<br />
I have to emphasise one thing, and that is DO NOT base the effectiveness of a unit based on what it did that one time. We all have those moments when something crazy awesome happens and those are super fun when they happen, but don't get caught up in the moment and forget that that is not going to happen every time.<br />
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Brandon knew he was going to lose the knight, it wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. He was able to delay it a turn by good deployment, and another turn on some lucky dice. All the while he was making decisions for the late game as though he had already lost the knight. Do you know what Guardsmen can't do? Survive Eldar Jetbike shooting. What does a Castellan do better than shoot down fliers? Shoot down Jetbikes. So lets get rid of those Jetbikes. Come turn 3 this is now a game of "Can Alex kill enough Guardsmen with Eldar fliers?" Alex tries, but Brandon manages to keep enough bodies alive and score enough points to win the game 33-29.<br />
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I hope you can apply some of these ideas to your games to make you a better player.<br />
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I'd like to give out a huge thank you to Brandon Grant who took a couple minutes out of his day to cast with me about his game and his list.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-83776908700788702972019-04-15T15:45:00.001-05:002019-04-15T15:45:21.135-05:00FROM VIGILUS WITH LOVE: CHAOTIC COMBOS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, there it is. That's the planet that gave us Chaos players our new set of updates. Last post I went through all of the new stuff, but in this post I'm going to pick out a couple of awesome combos and go into a little more detail. Some of these are going to be a little convoluted and pretty difficult to pull off, involving a bunch of parts, but are undeniably powerful. It's time to rule the world, just like Chaos is meant to.<br />
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My first combo is a "Smash Captain" the likes of which the Imperium has never seen. Now to be fair, there are more version of this guy than you can shake a stick at so I'll talk about a couple. A think to mention before hand though, Chaos lacks in the region of weapons that deal multiple damage with no penalty to hit. We can get some relics that do that, but they typically don't offer the same AP or S values.<br />
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First on my list if a Flawless Host Chaos Lord with dual-lightning claws and Intoxicating elixir and Ultimate Confidence warlord trait. Now the first thing you will notice is that he only does single damage attacks, but if you cast Prescience and Diabolic Strength on him he is getting 7 attacks that explode on 5+ resulting in 13 attacks. Now, if you have an ability that lets you re-roll all hit rolls, like the Flawless Host stratagem you can fish for those 5's and 6's reliably racking up 16 attacks plus another 4 against Imperium units because Death to the False Emperor stacks. You're looking at 10 dead MEQ's (12 if they are actually marines). Now, instead of Intoxicating Elixir we could give him the mark of Khorne so he could attack twice with 1 less attack.<br />
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The next one-man wrecking crew is a Black Legion Lord with the new relic chainsword, Ghorisvex's Teeth and the Flames of Spite Warlord trait. Now, you may have heard of this guy already, a couple other podcasters and youtubers have been talking about him, but with the potential he can put out, I can't not talk about him. First off, you get 2 extra attacks, if you include Diabolic Strength, that's 7 attacks, and any wound rolls of 6+ inflict a mortal wound in addition. Since he already has a relic we might as well give him the mark of Khorne so he can attack twice. I've seen some guys talk about giving him a second chainsword, but that attack will only benefit from Flames of Spite and have the base stats, not any of the stats from the Teeth, but lets do it anyway. So, we have 7 attacks, hitting on 2's, at S6, AP-3, 2D and 6+ is 2 mortal wounds (one from the relic and one from the warlord trait). If you have a nearby Dark Apostle you can give him +1 to wound, and if you can use VotLW to give him another +1 to wound meaning that those mortal wounds are now scored on 4+. That means those 7 attacks will likely score 7 hits, then half of them will score mortal wounds in addition to the normal damage for a total of 10 dead MEQ or 11 wounds off of a Knight (not counting Death to the False Emperor).<br />
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Next up we got a combo that will help deal with armies that love to get right in your face ASAP. Now, while this is not a difficult combo to actually pull off, it could be really tricky to know when to use it and when it's just a gimmick that's going to lose you a Havoc squad. So the first thing we need is a Havoc squad, and I recommend the new chain cannons. This unit of Havocs needs to be in a Scourge detachment and that detachment needs to be a Devastation Battery. Now the Scourge have a stratagem that lets you shoot at a unit that has arrived as reinforcements if it lands within 12" and the Devastation Battery has a stratagem that lets you shoot at the end of enemies first movement phase if they have the first turn. That means if someone uses one of those fancy re-deployment abilities like Da Jump or Dark Matter Crystal on their first turn, you could potentially shoot them twice. Once at then end of the Movement phase and once when the unit is re-deployed (which may also be the end of the movement phase). One round of 4 of those chain cannons can take out 7 MEQs, so 2 rounds does double that. Here is the kicker though, since it's the first turn, and it's not your turn, and its not the shooting phase, it's tricky to get any kind of buffs off on the unit. The best you can hope for is a Dark Apostle since their abilities activate at the start of the battle round, and a Lord nearby for re-rolls. Even still, those 2 buffs will score you 3 more MEQ kills.<br />
However, as I said, not every army will charge forward and it's likely that they will be able to stay back 24" and shoot that forward unit of Havocs off the table, but it still creates a zone of "don't go there" which you could use to deny objectives or board control.<br />
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Possessed have gotten a TON of love in the last couple sets of rules we got, but the biggest one just might be the Black Legion stratagem Chosen of the Pantheon which gives you ALL of the daemon gods key words. Think about that for a second...ok, now take a look at the Chaos Daemon book and have a look at all the abilities and psychic powers that affect them. They get +1S for being near a Herald, and that would be +1S for each god specific Herald. If you have a specific god detachment they also get that Locus, so extra damage for Nurgle, re-roll charges for Khorne, Advance and charge for Slaanesh, and a weird "you can't hit me" thing for Tzeentch. Boon of Change (+1A, S, OR T), Fleshy Abundance(regenerate D3 wounds), Virulent Blessing(+1 to wound and 7+ is double damage), Miasma of Pestilence(-1 to hit the unit), and Historical Frenzy(fight in the psychic phase) are all possible powers that can be used on them. Add on effects from artifacts like the Crimson Crown and extra attacks on wound rolls of 6+. There is also the Daemonkin Ritualists detachment with the warlord trait that makes all wound rolls of 6(unmodified) add a mortal wound and the stratagem that gives +1S and A. We can't forget the Hereticus and Malefic powers either as Prescience and Warptime are powerful additions as well as Mutated Invigoration (re-roll number of attacks), Cursed Earth(+1 to invulnerable save), and Infernal Power(re-roll 1's to hit and wound). PLUS we can add the every familiar Stratagems of VotLW and Fury of Khorne. Our final addition to the stack of buffs is the Dark Apostle and he has a +1 to wound buff.<br />
So lets look at some math here, you can get +3 to wound(VotLW, Virulent Blessing, and Soultearer Portent), each 6 doing a mortal wound(Shepard of the True Faith), and each 7+(so a roll of 4+ on the die) doing 2 damage(Virulent Blessing) and each 6+(so 3+ on the die) gets you another attack(Crimson Crown). You can get +6S (1 for each Herald, Vessels for the Neverborn strat, and a Greater Possessed) for S11, +1 to hit(Prescience), and re-roll all hit and wound rolls of 1(Infernal Power) and +2A (Vessels of the Neverborn, Boon of Change - not guaranteed).<br />
Lets say you have a MoP, Sorcerer, Dark Apostle, Greater Possessed, and a Herald of Nurgle and Khorne with the Crimson Crown all getting their buffs on the unit of Possessed. That means each Possessed will get 2-4 attacks hitting on 2+ at S9. Wound rolls of 3+ will get you another attack, 4+ will deal 2D, 6 will do a mortal wound, and you can re-roll wound rolls of 1. Assuming you roll a 2 and get a total of 3 attacks each Possessed, this will result in...<br />
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Now, I don't normally do this but I'm going to break down the numbers because this just seems fucking crazy to me and I'm going to do this against a knight, just for shits and giggles.<br />
So, with the assumption that there are 20 Possessed all getting to attack, rolling 2 attacks, getting Prescience, Putrescent Vitality, and Infernal Power off and being within 6" of a Nurgle Herald and a Khorne Herald who has the Crimson Crown(neither of them are in pure detachments), a Greater Possessed, and a Dark Apostle with Soultearer Portent.<br />
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Of those 60 attacks, 58 will hit, 56 will wound - 38 generating extra attacks, 28 dealing 2 damage, and 9 dealing mortal wounds. Of the 1D wounds, 18 get through dealing 18 damage while the dual wounds deal 36 damage for 54 damage. Add on the 9 mortal wounds for 63 damage.<br />
Then the 38 extra attacks will hit with 37, wound with 36, 18 of those dealing 2D and 6 of them dealing mortal wounds for a secondary total of 42 wounds.<br />
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FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF 105 WOUNDS!!! AGAINST A KNIGHT!!! 109 dead GEQ, 78 dead MEQ, 105 damage to pretty much any vehicle without an invulnerable save. I went over my numbers a couple of times, and used an online app, and even with all the multipliers and potential errors and fractions, I came up with the same thing. If I fucked up somewhere, please, please, please let me know and point it out to me cause this seems to crazy to be real.<br />
Anyway, that is quite a few things that have to happen in order to make this work, but there is room for error. No one thing will cause this to fail. If you remove the Khorne herald and all his bonus attacks, you are still S8 with +3 to wound and still dealing 63 damage. If you also remove the Nurgle Herald you are S7, with +2 to wound, still dealing 9 mortal wounds, but your normal damage drops to just under 30. Boo hoo, your still killing a knight. REMEMBER, this is all possible because of one stratagem called Chosen of the Pantheon.<br />
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I think I'm actually going to stop there. There are a couple other more obvious combos like a Lord Discordant with Maulerfiends or Defilers in a Soulforged Pack detachment, stacking buffs on an Alpha Legion unit to get -3 to hit it, and using a bunch of the above buffs to make Obliterators way more dangerous, but they all seem rather superfluous compared to what I just showed us. Thanks for reading and I am really curious to see all of your comments and remarks.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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This post has been sponsored by...<br />
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My good buddy Donny is painting up a storm pumping out minis from a game called Monster Slaughter.<br />
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And some from Artizan Designs Wild West line<br />
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Don't, worry though, he's still keeping his skills sharp and getting in some 40K minis.<br />
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If you need some models painted check him out at his Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IdleHandsCPU/">Idle Hands Commission Painting and Upholstery</a>. Yes, he also does upholstery work, so if you have an old chair in your gaming room that you want refinished, and you live nearby, he could do that for you too! What a talented guy!The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-61641393983296892222019-04-04T21:26:00.001-05:002019-04-04T21:26:41.101-05:00CHAOS SPACE MARINES 2.0 AND VIGILUS ABLAZE: SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Any of you who have been following me for any amount of time know that Chaos Space Marines are my army of choice. I have been collecting them for many years in almost every shape and form. So much so that my collection looks very disjointed and...chaotic. This new release has me super excited and I am really looking forward to seeing what some of these new rules bring to the game.<br />
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I am going to start with the new units, mainly because I can see a good number of them fitting in some of these fancy new specialist detachments and leading us off is the bad guy himself, none other than the Lord of the Black Legion, Abaddon the Despoiler. He got a fucking beautiful new model, a decent stat line increase and some boosts to his weapons, however all his abilities stayed pretty much the same. He got +1S and +1W, while Drach'nyen went to a straight 3 damage and the Talon went to -4AP in combat. His Lord of the Black Legion rule changed slightly so that Black Legion units within 6" can re-roll hit rolls, not failed hit rolls. This is a minor change in wording, but a huge change in mechanics due to the order of application of hit modifiers.<br />
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The next big awesome model coming out for GW is the Lord Discordant on Hellstalker. Now I have heard a ton of backlash about this guy being a character with 12 wounds, which allows your opponent to target him, but if this guy didn't have 12 wounds, he would have to cost easily as much as Abaddon. He has a 2+/5++, regenerates a wound at the start of your turn, gives enemy vehicles within 6" a -1 to hit penalty AND gives <LEGION> Daemon Engines within 6" +1 to hit. Then every time he kills a vehicle in combat he can either heal a nearby Daemon Engine for D3 wounds or hit an enemy vehicle within 12" for D3 mortal wounds on a 2+. Oh, and if you think that might be a little out of his capability, he has 4 attacks at S6 (or S8 if he charges or does a HI) -2AP and 2D, PLUS 5 attacks at S7 AP-2 D3D, PLUS one attack at S8 -4AP D3D that if it successfully wounds a vehicle it also does D3 mortal wounds. All that means that he is dealing around 8 wounds to a T7 vehicle with a 3+ save. This does not factor in his Autocannon which he can also swap for a Baleflamer, or any outside buffs he may get. He can also swap out that one big attack that can do the mortal wounds for a Magma Cutter, it's a pistol and does a flat 3 damage, but since you can't shoot anything else if you shoot a pistol it's probably not worth taking. His biggest failing is that he is only T6, which makes all those Autocannons and shoulder cannon on the Castellan that much more deadly. But with a 2+ save, he isn't all that worried.<br />
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The next new kid on the block is the Master of Execution and I have to say I am not impressed. His big thing is that he can HI 6" toward the closest character and he has an axe that's basically a power fist with no -1 to hit and a small chance of doing mortal wounds. He should have been an Elites choice as there are way better HQ choices to choose from.<br />
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So the Dark Apostle is not a new character, but he got a serious overhaul in the rules department and now has a list of prayers he can choose from. He starts with the basic prayer we all know, friendly <LEGION> units within 6" can re-roll hit rolls in the fight phase. He has 10 others to choose from but the main ones you want to focus on are the -1 to hit penalty when enemy units target the friendly <LEGION> unit with shooting attacks, a +1 to hit buff for shooting attacks made by a friendly <LEGION> unit within 6", a +1 to wound in combat buff for a target friendly <LEGION> unit within 6", and all friendly <LEGION> models within 6" get a 5++. The way the prayers work is totally different as well, taking effect at the start of the battle round on a 3+ and lasting until the end of the battle round. You can boost this roll by +1 if you have a couple Dark Disciples around for a couple points. They sort of have the character rule while they are near a Dark Apostle without having the Character keyword.<br />
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The last big unit change is the Havocs. They went to a straight 5 man unit and now come standard with a Heavy Bolter or Lascannon and can swap it for another from the heavy weapon list. This seems like a huge nerf until you recognise they went up to T5 and can move and shoot without penalty. I'm not 100% about this change and I'll have to play it a little to see how it goes. I know no one was playing with them, but this move was too much. I think just the addition of moving and shooting without penalty along with the new Reaper Chaincannon would have been a good start. Limiting them to 5 man squads and forcing them to take a heavy weapon means that each lost model is going to hurt a lot, and it's not hard to kill 5 marines, even if they are T5, but we will see. You will likely want to start them in cover, or possibly in a Rhino, to keep them safe from that first volley of incoming firepower.<br />
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We also got a new heavy weapon, the Reaper Chaincannon, which is a heavy bolter on steroids. 24", Heavy 8, -1AP, and 1D. You can put one pretty much anywhere heavy weapons can be taken on infantry units, except terminators. Oy-vey, I would love to see this in the hands of a terminator.<br />
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Lets move on to the new rules for a Black Legion Detachment. This is not a specialist detachment, but a new set of rules for a Black Legion army, which leads me to believe that each Legion is going to get some sort of update like this. This is a nice little upgrade which offers up a handful of new stratagems, relics, and warlord traits that they can take, however it does not show up in the Codex 2.0.<br />
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The first stratagem that I want to highlight is Chosen of the Pantheon which gives a unit that has no mark of chaos ALL the marks of chaos until the start of your next turn. This might seem a little weird, but you really need to think of the potential. Think of all the stratagems and powers that require a unit to have a specific mark, Miasma of Pestilence, Delightful Agonies, Weaver of Fates, Fury of Khorne, Endless Cacophony, Grandfather's Blessing. The trick is what do you put it on? This leads me to Merciless Fighters which gives a unit +1A if there are more Black Legion models in that unit than there are enemy models within 3" of it. Then there is the Tip of the Spear which you use on your first turn shooting phase and lets the Black Legion unit closest to the enemy re-roll hit rolls.<br />
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The Sightless Helm is one of the relics, it reduces the models BS by 1 (so 2+ becomes a 3+), but increases the AP of ALL of it's weapons by 1(-1AP becomes -2AP). How about this on a Lord Discordant? With most of his weapons only -2AP, this really makes him dangerous and since he gives a +1 to hit to nearby Daemon Engines, which he is, it pretty much makes it a free AP boost. The Angelsbane is pretty much the bolter of Fuck you Imperium. If the beta bolter rules work on it, you'll see a couple of these S5, -2AP, D2(D3 vs Imperium units).<br />
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There are 6 new Warlord traits also bringing a lot to the table, one of them refunding CP you use on a 5+, another gives wounds back after a unit is destroyed, and a third is a 6" aura of 5+ Death to the False Emperor.<br />
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Now, the Black Legion was not the only army to get a makeover because the Renegade Chapters was given a makeover and fleshed out with some actual rules from popular Renegade Chapters. Lets start with the Red Corsairs who kept the ability to charge after they advance, but also grants +1CP if there are 3 units with the legion trait in the detachment, or +3CP if there are 3 units of Chaos Space Marines. That's 8CP for a battalion with 3 units of Marines in it. Their Warlord Trait gives a Red Corsairs character an extra relic and when the Warlord kills a character he get +1A. With all those extra CP that you get from a RC battalion you can afford the 3CP stratagem More Where They Came From, which is basically Tide of Traitors for a RC Chaos Space Marines unit, get ready to see big units of Space Marines. As for that relic, well its a combi-melta with a S9 meltagun and a rapid fire 3 S4, -1AP, D2 bolter. That's 6 shots at 24" on a terminator or bike.<br />
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Then we have the Crimson Slaughter who auto pass morale tests during the turn they kill a unit, also roll a D6 and on a 5+ you get a CP back. Their Warlord trait is nothing to mention, but the Stratagem is pretty special. For 2 CP, during your opponent's shooting phase, you pick a terrain feature within 12" of a CS unit from your army and all enemy units within 3" of it have a -1 to hit until the end of the phase. The Blade of the Relentless is a rather plain power sword, until it kills a model, then it auto-wounds for the rest of the battle. That wounds really awesome, until you realise your average lord has 4 attacks.<br />
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The Purge are going to be a huge factor in the future and their trait is only one of the reasons why. When you attack an enemy unit that has lost at least one wound this TURN, you can re-roll hit rolls, and those wounds could have come from ANYWHERE! Their warlord trait is good allowing the warlord to re-roll damage rolls for all his weapons and wound rolls of 1 which sounds awesome on a Lord Discordant. The second big reason the Purge is going to be popular is that for 1CP, a unit that is not in combat can shoot into combat, but for each unmodified hit roll of 1 hits a friendly unit instead, so it's a good thing you will likely be re-rolling hit rolls when the unit in combat inflicts a wound with pistols, right? Their relic is a miniature line breaker bombardment hand grenade.<br />
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The Scourged can overwatch on a 5+ and units can re-roll a single hit roll each time it shoots or fights. Their warlord trait is a 3" version of the Vexator Mask, forcing a unit to fight last in the fight phase. Their stratagem lets you shoot at reinforcements for 2CP and their relic deals damage to psykers on a 5+ when they successfully cast a power.<br />
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The Brazen Beasts get a -4AP on wound rolls of 6 when they charged or were charged. Their warlord trait adds 2 to the warlords S and A every time he kills a character and the relic is a nice stack that adds 1 to the bearers A and M as well as giving him a 2+ save. Their stratagem targets enemy units within 1" of a Daemon Engine and on a 2-4 is suffers D3 mortal wounds or on a 5-6 3 mortal wounds.<br />
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Our last renegade chapter is the Flawless Host, who get Death to the False Emperor against everyone, and it stacks with actual Death to the False Emperor. Their warlord trait doubles down on those extra attacks, granting them 3 additional attacks instead of 1, their stratagem lets a unit re-roll hit rolls in the fight phase, and their relic adds 3" to aura abilities and +1A. Everything points to combat monsters. Sorcerers with Prescience will do wonders for all those extra attacks.<br />
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Now that we are done with the Renegade Chapters, we can finally get into the Specialist Detachments. Some of you may not exactly know how these work, so lets go over that. First, each specialist detachment is accessed by using a stratagem. You pick a detachment in your army and the stratagem gives specific units in that detachment a new keyword. This keyword is then used to gain access to certain new abilities, stratagems, warlord traits, and relics. You also gain access to the Field Commander stratagem which allows you to give a character, who is not your warlord, the specialist detachment specific warlord trait.<br />
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So to start us off, the Bringers of Despair is a specialist detachment that can only be used on a Black Legion detachment and it gives every unit in Terminator armour the keyword Bringers of Despair. The first stratagem is used in the fight phase and targets a Bringer of Despair unit, each model slain by the target unit counts as 2 for the next Morale phase. The other stratagem is used in the Morale phase and it makes a friendly Heretic Astartes unit automatically pass it's Morale test if it's within 18" of a Bringer of Despair unit. The warlord trait gives the character a re-roll hit rolls of 1 and if your character has the Lord of Chaos ability(re-roll hit rolls of 1) it improves it to re-rolling any hit rolls. These re-rolls only affect Bringer of Despair units though. The relic is a really cool axe that gets +1 to hit Imperium units. now you might not think that's particularly great since most of your characters hit on 2+ already, but it makes a difference for Death to the False Emperor, especially if you also have Prescience cast on him which means DttFE triggers on 4+ AND if he has the warlord trait First Amongst Traitors it triggers on a 3+. That's pretty cool.<br />
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Next up is the Devastation Battery, it can be used on any Chaos Space Marine detachment and gives all <LEGION> Chaos Lords, Warpsmiths, Havocs, and Obliterators the Devastation Battery keyword. The first stratagem lets you kill buildings good, while the other is amazing. At the end of your opponent's FIRST movement phase, if your opponent' got the first turn, pick a Devastation Battery unit and shoot with it as if it's your shooting phase. With a unit of Havocs all toting those new chain cannons this will create a nice little buffer zone against anyone looking to get right in your face right away. Perhaps your opponent has a unit of Harlequin bikers with haywire guns looking to get at your knight in the backfield. 32 S5 shots with some buffs would really make them think twice. This doesn't work against everyone though as some armies are just perfectly fine sitting back and blasting that softball you just lobbed up to them. The warlord trait sucks, it basically turns you into a Marine Lt. that only works against vehicles while the Relic lets a single DevBat unit within 6" of the bearer ignore cover.<br />
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Since Cultists no longer have access to the legion's traits, they had to do something to make them useful. The Cult of Damned gives Dark Apostles, Dark Disciples, and Cultists the key word. The first stratagem is used when a cultist unit destroys an enemy unit in the fight phase and it makes them auto pass morale for the rest of the battle. That's really good, but you have to kill something first, in combat. The other turns a unit of cultists into a unit of Dark Disciples and gives the Dark Apostle +1 to pray, essentially making it impossible to fail that check. The warlord trait will help you get that kill as it lets you re-roll charge rolls and the relic is a heavy flamer that does d3 damage.<br />
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Daemonkin came out with their own codex, well they get a specialist detachment too affecting Dark Apostles, Masters of Possession, Possessed, and Great Possessed. This one has some potential with it's warlord trait a 6" aura that gives unit the ability to deal mortal wounds on an unmodified wound roll of 6. Possessed have gotten a ton of buffs in the last little while and Greater Possessed are monsters in their own right. The relic is a staff that deals a mortal wound to a unit within 1" at the end of the fight phase. No rolling, no ifs, just straight up one mortal wound. Stratagem number one gives a Daemon unit within 6" of a Master of Possession in the same detachment +1A and +1S. The other one deals wounds to a unit of Possessed to give wounds to a Character.<br />
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The Soulforged Pack is designed with Daemon Engines in mind, affecting them and Warpsmiths. Remember, the Lord Discordant has the Warpsmith keyword. The relic is not good but the warlord trait increases the movement of Daemon engine within 6" of the warlord by 2". Remember, the Lord Discordant has the Daemon Engine keyword. Stratagem number one doubles the number of wounds a Daemon Engine has for the purposes of determining the result on it's damage table and stratagem number two lets a Daemon Engine charge even if it advanced. It feels like this detachment was built for 3 Maulerfiends and a Lord Discordant.<br />
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We are getting close to the end, I promise, but next on the list is the Host Raptorial which affects all <LEGION> Jump Pack units in the detachment. Their warlord trait adds 2 to the charge roll made by units within 6" of the warlord. This is huge for Warp Talons who don't have any sort of ability to help them get into combat short of a Khorne Daemon Detachment. The relic is pretty cool too, you roll a D6 for each enemy unit that you moved across in the movement or charge phase and on a 4+ they take D3 mortal wounds. Now, I know what you're thinking, you can't move across enemy units in the charge phase and for that I say 2 things. There is a FAQ coming out shortly, and if you make a charge move and move your model through the gaps in between 2 models, that counts as moving across that unit. Their stratagems are goo, the first giving re-rolls to hit to a unit that deep strikes until the end of the turn. So for shooting and assault, which is pretty damn good for a unit of Raptors with plasma and champ with combat weapons. This takes a little heat off them having to be near a Lord to prevent the plasma backfire. The other stratagem is less good, but has a place if you are really looking to mess with your opponent in the morale phase. If a Host Raptorial unit kills another unit, enemy units receive a -1 to their Ld if they are within 6" of any other Host Raptorial units. This has some potential when paired with Night Lords and Butcher Cannons as you can spread out the wounds, then hit them with a powerful Ld curse and watch as even the bravest units start to break and run. The biggest problem is that this ability, along with the Night Lords and the Raptors Ld reducing abilities have such a short range to them. This is also a huge double edged sword because if you have positioned yourself to surround an enemy model when you consolidated, he can fail his morale check and remove that model that you surrounded, leaving him able to fall back and shoot you.<br />
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The Fallen got a detachment and it allows you take a Sorcerer and a Rhino, it strips away all the "bad guy" keywords and replaces then with Fallen and Imperium. Their stratagems are a -1 to hit in your enemies shooting phase and a re-roll all wound rolls in the fight phase against Dark Angels. There is no warlord trait so to speak, but Cypher gets an aura that denies CP regenerating and the relic is a somewhat disappointing force sword. It's a really interesting idea, but I think that there just isn't enough here to make them a worthwhile faction.<br />
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Chaos Space Marines are not the only ones who get a fancy detachment, Khorne Daemons get one as well which affects Bloodletters. The warlord trait gives +1A and another +1A if there is an enemy character within 6" while the relic heals back D3 wounds on a 4+ if models were killed in the fight phase and on a 2+ if a character was killed. One stratagem is a grenade that does D3 mortal wounds and the other gives +2 to charge rolls when charging a unit that has already been charged by a Bloodletter unit, as long as you don't declare a charge against anything else. The trick here is to use your big unit of Bloodletters to use the Banner to 3D6 charge multiple things, then have your secondary units and characters charge into other key units for maximum damage output, and don't forget your Locus re-rolls.<br />
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Well, there we have it. Those are all the new units and specialist detachments in the Vigilus Ablaze book. I hope this was useful to you and feel free to leave a comment.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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Maxx collectibles has a bunch of leagues going on and starting up soon. There is a 40k Escalation league that just started going from 500 points to 1000 and 1500. There is also a Kill Team league starting in a couple weeks. There are never any fees for playing in the Leagues, and there are no table fees, yet every league has prize support. There's even free parking.<br />
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Don't forget the paint days that happen on the 3rd weekend of every month. There's more free stuff there as all you need to show up with is your enthusiasm. You will be supplied with a model, paint, and brushes. When you're done, you can take the model home.The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-39786909050320727482019-03-31T09:06:00.001-05:002019-03-31T09:06:46.956-05:00GENESTEALER CULTS: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What, wrong cult? No matter, just another set of crazies hell bent on preparing the world for their overlords eventual arrival. Are you sure I have the wrong cult?<br />
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Genestealer Cult baby! I was never really one who held much credence with this army, not really knowing much about them. However, after reading this book I have fallen in love with them. Now I'll be straight with you and say that I still don't give their actual story a whole lot of validity, but I'm not here to talk about that. Rules, that's what you came here for and so I will deliver...<br />
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First things first, this is not going to be an easy army to play. They are very fragile, most of their army consisting of Infantry, and most of them only have a 5+ save and T3, however, they can hit really, really, hard. This is where their movement shenanigans come in handy. Which is where we begin.<br />
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The Cult Ambush rule is used in the deployment phase and consists of 2 ways to deploy your units when deploying your army, in ambush or underground. Underground is simple, only infantry and bike units can deploy underground and it's basically "deep strike". You show up at the end of a movement phase 9" away from an enemy unit. When deploying in ambush, instead of placing the unit on the table, you place a coin sized token called a Cult Ambush Marker (provided with the codex) anywhere wholly in your deployment zone. If the unit is a transport, you mush declare if there are any units embarked inside of it. Each unit being deployed via ambush will have an ambush marker so when you are done you will have a deployment zone with dozens of these little red tokens.<br />
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Revealing your army is the kicker and will be critical to your game plan. This is essentially a second chance to either succeed at, or fuck up, your deployment as you replace all of the markers with units that were put into ambush. You do not, at any point, have to record which unit corresponds to which marker, you get to determine that when you place the unit on the table, not the marker. You start by placing one model from the unit within 1" of the marker, then place the rest of the models from that unit within 6" of the first model.<br />
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What is the point of this? Well it lets you adjust your deployment depending on your opponent's. I've run into several cases where I've deployed a unit, only to have my opponent deploy a counter unit across the table from it. That's not an issue now because you get to see where your opponent's entire army is before you put models on the table. On top of that, if your opponent takes the first turn, you get to also see where he is moving everything before you put stuff on the table. This sort of goes both ways as your opponent can sort of dictate where you put your stuff. For example, if the north side of the table has quite a few objectives, he could move a lot of his anti infantry firepower to that location, dissuading you from putting your objective holders there. Your opponent also can't move any of his models to within 9" of any of your markers.<br />
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We are not done with deployment though, as there are a bunch of stratagems that work in tandem with your fancy deployment rules which jack the shenanigans up to 11. First up is Meticulous Uprising which allows you to move up to 3 of your markers up to 12", keeping it in your deployment zone and more than 9" from an enemy model. So if he has first turn and uses something like the Dark Matter Crystal to move a unit of his into your deploy zone, you can move something towards it, or away form it.<br />
You can also put up blank markers with Scanner Decoys which allows you to place 3 extra markers. This really helps protect your back field from things like the Dark Matter Crystal. You can only use it once, so there's no flooding the table with red dots.<br />
Next up is They Came From Below which allows you to remove 3 of those markers and place 3 units in "deep strike". Now, it has been clarified that markers on the table count toward the number of units and power level that counts as on the table for purposes of reserves. So you can exceed half your units and power level with this stratagem.<br />
Lying in Wait is one that you use when you bring in a unit from reserves and it allows you to set up a unit within 3" of an enemy unit, instead of the normal 9", but you can't charge. This is perfectly fine if you are bringing in 20 Acolytes all armed with hand flamers. You can use them to clear out your opponent's screening units so when you bring in your real scary units turn 3 they have an open pathway.<br />
Finally, The Perfect Ambush allows you to move D6" OR shoot with a unit that you have just brought in from reserves. This one is pretty expensive at 3CP, but it can get your Purestrain Genestealers or Abberants that much closer to lay that smack down.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hand signals are an important part of every ambush</td></tr>
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Another very useful special rule they have is Unquestioning Loyalty, which basically turns every unit with it into Tau Drones that work on a 4+. The one exception is that the model that takes the hit is straight up slain.<br />
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Lets talk army building, starting with the Patriarch. Take one. Every time. Just for the fact he makes everyone within 6" of him fearless, and of course for the +1 to hit he gives to Genestealers. He is nearly a Daemon Prince for 125 points, with more and better attacks, better buffs, and better spells. Now, you don't have to limit yourself to just one, but you can only take one per detachment. That way one can sit back and protect your back lines while keeping your infantry from running away, and the other can lead the Genestealers on their way to the Perfect Ambush. I don't have to go into how good Genestealers are, you've know that for a long time now.<br />
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The Magus and Primus are nice little secondary characters who basically take the good parts of a Patricarh and split them to 2 models. The Magus can cast a spell and the Primus buffs units with a +1 to hit in combat. The nice thing is that the Primus' ability is not limited to Genestealers.<br />
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To take a quick detour, lets go to a quick combo using the Primus, Abominant, and a unit of Aberrants. The Primus gives everyone +1 to hit, making the power picks hit on 2's and the power hammers hit on 3's again. The Abominant, not only being devastating on his own, he turns unmodified hit rolls of 6 into 2 hits for nearby Aberrant units(that would include himself). Power picks being S5 AP-2 and D3 damage, while power hammers are Sx2 AP-3 and 3 damage, and the improvised heavy weapon is Sx2 AP-1 and 2 damage but it makes 2 hit rolls for each attack, this is some serious damage output. So you have all those units as part of the Bladed Cog and use the Overthrow the Oppressors stratagem which means, for each hit roll of a 6, counts as 2 hits, and each hot roll of a 5 or 6 generates an additional hit roll, which will count as 2 hits if they are 6's. Math time:<br />
Lets take a look at a unit of 10 Aberrants, 2 of them will be upgraded to Hypermorphs with heavy improvised weapons, the other 8 will split between hammers and picks. So that will be 8 hammer attacks hitting on 3's, 8 pick attacks hitting on 2's, and 12 improvised weapon attacks hitting on 2's. 5's and 6's generate extra hit rolls for the picks and improvised weapons, while generating extra hit rolls on 6's for the hammers.<br />
That will be, approximately, 16 improvised weapon attacks with 3 bonus hits, 11 pick attacks with 2 bonus hits, 9 hammer attacks with 1 bonus hits, and 5 rending claw attacks with 1 bonus hit resulting in 2 and a half dead generic vehicles, or a dead knight (as long as it doesn't have a 2+ or invul in combat). That's just the Aberrants. Alternatively you can forgo the bonus attack stratagem for one that simple allows you to attack a second time for 3CP. That requires you to be the Twisted Helix Cult instead which gives you +1 to your S characteristic, so if you are going heavy into melee, that might be a good one.<br />
Now, you are looking at nearly 400 points all said and done to pull this off, not to mention a handful of CP, particularly the 3 to ensure that charge.<br />
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Moving onto something new, the Jackal Alphus, that's the biker dude with the sniper rifle. If combat isn't your thing then this is the guy for you as he can give friendly units within 6" of him +1 to hit an enemy unit of your choice (visible and within 36" of the Alphus) at the start of each shooting phase (each enemy unit can only be chosen once per phase). With a 14" move and a -1 to hit it in the shooting phase, this model is a steal at 70 points.<br />
Here is a neat combo, have a big unit of something that shoots belonging to the Hivecult cult. With that shooty unit next to the Alphus, have the Alphus target unit X with his ability, and have the Alphus shoot it. There is a pretty good chance he will deal a wound, at which point you use the Chilling Efficiency stratagem so that any one who targets unit X also gets a +1 to hit and the Extra Explosives stratagem. So, any unit that targets unit X, and is within 6" of the Alphus, will have a +2 to hit. We are not quite done though because if you also have a Kelermorph in that bundle of death, and he also kills a model, then you will be able to re-roll 1's to hit. And we are still not done because if you also have a Primus nearby, he can use his Meticulous Planner ability to allow unit within 6" re-roll wound rolls of 1 against a unit of your choice.<br />
Ok, this is the biggest and craziest combo I think I've ever seen in this game, so lets take a look at a couple of units that you would like to use in this death ball of bullets and explosions and see what kind of damage we can actually accomplish. First, a unit of Jackals, at least 5 have to have demo charges and 5 more with grenade launchers. Then a unit of 20 Neophytes with Seismic Cannons and grenade launchers.<br />
So, math says that should be 44 dead Guardsmen, 26 dead Marines, 3 dead Rhinos, and 23 wounds on a Knight. WARNING: This is assuming that all of these wounds went onto the same unit! As some of the abilities target a specific enemy unit, they obviously can't apply to multiple enemy units and expect the same results.<br />
Now that whole schmozel will cost you 450 points, and is 23 PL for the purposes of tactical reserves, if you wish to put the whole cluster in tactical reserves. This will also cost at lease 2CP for the 2 strats, and a possible 2CP more if you wish to use Lying in Wait to pull it off. The nice thing is that you don't have to reserve everything, the Bikes are quick enough to get into position and the Alphus gets a +1 to hit from himself so it basically ignores the -1 for moving and shooting heavy weapons. The grenade launchers allow you to trail the bikers back to be within 6" of the Alphus, and most of the other units don't need to be closer than 9".<br />
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I mentioned the Kelermorph in the above combo, but I didn't really elaborate on his rules, which are pretty incredible. First off, he has 3 pistols, each pistol is 2 shots, S4, AP-1, and 2D. He hits on 2+ and for each hit he gets to make another attack, so it is not unreasonable for this guy to rack up 12 hits each shooting phase. On top of that he can target characters even if they are not the closest model. Lying in Wait lets him get inside that deep strike bubble, as players typically plan out for the 9" bubble, this allows that single model to get inside the lines and pick of a potentially critical character. While the Perfect Ambush allows him to shoot twice! That means there is a really good chance of him acing any character he points his guns at.<br />
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There are a score of elite slot characters, the Clamavus can deal out some mortal wounds in the shooting phase and give nearby units +1 Ld and +1 to advance and charge rolls. Locus is a nifty bodyguard type character that hands out a -1Ld to enemy units. Now if you also think about allying in some normal Tyranids, they have a power called The Horror that inflicts another -1 Ld. I mention this because of the GSC psychic power called Mental Onslaught which forces a contest of wills between the caster and a single target model within 12". You each roll a D6 and add the Ld characteristic, if you roll higher then you deal a mortal wound and roll off again. You keep rolling off until you either tie, lose, or the model dies. With your Patriarch at Ld 11, and that enemy Knight at Ld 7, you would have to roll a 1 or 2 AND your opponent would have to then roll a 5+ or 6 (respectively) to tie and end the effect. This is by no means an EASY combo to pull off, but with those numbers there is a pretty good chance of doing some serious damage.<br />
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All those combos seem absolutely deadly, and they are, but they require one very important fact, that your opponent's screens have been destroyed. That's where we run into a little bit of trouble. I think that you will have to ally in some aspect of either Tyranids and/or Astra Militarum in order to wipe out those screens early enough for you to get those deadly combos in the right spot. There are plenty of options available though, Kraken Genestealers can wipe out nearly any screen. You also have access to Tank Commanders with punisher cannons, Vultures with punisher cannons, Wyverns, Basilisks, etc etc.<br />
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So, aside from all those combos, there are a ton of other rules that I haven't covered yet and I'm not going to get to them all but here are a couple that perked my interest.. The cult creed Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor is a popular one as it gives a +1 to charges on the turn that the unit is deployed on the table. It also gives you access to A Plan Generations in the Making, which lets you stop an opponent's stratagem. We all know and love Agents of Vect and this different only in that you can only use it once per game while it costs 3CP opposed to Vect's 4CP and no limit. The Bladed Cog cult creed gives a +1 to their Invulnerable save or gives them a 6++ AND allows infantry to ignore the penalty for moving and shooting heavy weapons.<br />
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Before I close out this post I would like to call back to an issue in my previous post about game balance because the Cult Creeds only affect Infantry and Bikers EXCLUDING genestealers, so the Patriarch and Purestrains. This is a pretty limiting factor considering that one of your strongest units is the Genestealers. I feel this change is partly why players ally in Tyranids with a Kraken-Swarmlord-Genestealer bomb instead of taking genestealers from this book. Anyway, this book has a ton of potential and I highly expect it to do well in the upcoming tournament scene. In fact Stephen Fore just came in second at Adepticon with a pure GSC list full of Acolytes and Metamorphs in a Deliverance Broodsurge specialist detachment and bikers with demo-charges in a Brigade.<br />
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As always I look forward to hearing your opinions and reading your comments so feel free to let me know what you think. Tell me if I missed something or just plain old got something wrong.<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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So this post has once again been sponsored by...<br />
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So the Maxximus Hobby Experience is over, but I have to make a mention of it, especially after having seen the make/paint and take tables. Which were busy all weekend.<br />
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I want you to take a good look at the people at those tables. We have grandchildren and grandparents, mothers, daughters, boys, and men. This is the future of the hobby. Bringing in new people of every spectrum of society and getting them interested in gaming and hobbying.<br />
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This also happens once a month at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Maxx-Collectibles-162041860581809/">Maxx Collectibles</a>. Check out the link to the Facebook page to see when he is doing his next one because they are 100% free to attend. All of the hobby tools, paints, and models that you will need are all provided and you can take the model home with you at the end of the session. He very regularly has 10 people attend these things in his shop, right by the front door, every month.<br />
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If you are already an experienced hobbyist he does games too. Leagues of Kill Team, Guildball, Blood Bowl, Warhammer 40k, Infinity, events for Shadespire, Magic the Gathering, Adeptus Mechanicus, Zombicide are all things that are on the horizon right now.<br />
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And if you are just a collector of toys, action figures, or comic books, he's got them in spades. So if you live in Winnipeg Manitoba or the surrounding area, I highly suggest that you, at the VERY least, go and have a look at the shop, you will find something that interests you.The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-28583007732337863082019-03-18T18:19:00.002-05:002019-03-18T18:19:21.197-05:00META TALK: IS THE GAME BROKEN?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ok everyone, buckle in cause this could get a little rough. Today I am going to be talking about balance in the game today and how it's out of whack.<br />
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You can argue all day long about how the game is better now than it has every been. GW is putting out regular FAQs, adjusting points in the Chapter Approved books, and have been putting out rules, content, and models at a rate that has never been seen before. I would agree with you, but with all of that growth comes growing pains. Particularly the ability to play test on a large scale and quickly and efficiently change any errors or misinterpretations that may be a real or perceived problem. So where do we begin?</div>
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Well, this may be an obvious one, but there is a serious problem with units in power armour. I've talked about this before in my <a href="https://the40kmisfit.blogspot.com/2018/12/power-armour-balancing-act.html">Power Armour Balancing Act</a> post. GW has been trying to improve the Astartes by dropping many of their points values, but I don't think that adding Space Marines to the table is going to fix the problem. They introduced the Better Bolter Beta rule, which actually goes a long way in the right direction to making them better, but it only improves their damage output in a very specific range. Unfortunately, I don't think they will really be everything an Astartes is supposed to be without a total revamp of their rules. Right now, in the game, with as many ways of getting re-rolls and buffs, lots of dice is better than quality dice.</div>
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The next couple issues has to do with "soup". Now I have to state first that I am not against soup lists and love the idea of having multiple factions like Knights and Guard working together. However, I think that by combining these factions together, and being able to cherry pick all the best bits from each army with minimal penalty is too much, especially considering that there are many armies that don't have as many factions that they can choose from.</div>
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Now, when considering multiple factions and cherry picking units it's fair to take a look at the Auxiliary Support detachment. This allows you to pick a single unit from any faction, but at the cost of 1CP. Combine this with not being able to take relics or use stratagems from that faction. This is a really smart way of keeping things balanced as there is a down side to taking just a single unit from another faction.</div>
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Then there is the Super Heavy Auxiliary detachment which does not follow any of those rules. In this instance you can take a single Lord of War with no other requirements other than your army stays battle forged. The most prevalent case would be the Castellan Knight. Even though Knights are an army of their own, you can cherry pick this one unit from the army and take it in another Imperial army with no downside. Now, the Castellan is a great unit, but it's the stratagems that make this unit a must take for nearly every Imperial army out there. If you disagree, why don't you see Chaos Castellans in such numbers? The Super Heavy Auxiliary detachment needs to have similar restrictions as the Auxiliary Support detachment.</div>
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We are not quite done with soup, and I would be an idiot if I didn't mention Ynnari. This one, to me, is pretty simple. Remove the access to the Craftworld strats and powers. Now I know that they can take a Craftworld detachment to get those powers, but if you can't cast Guide and use Fire and Fade on Ynnari Dark Reapers, or Quicken and Raging Winds on Ynnari Shining Spears, they really lose some of their extra teeth, yet are still really strong. Not being able to do so much stuff twice also brings their capabilities back in line with what they actually cost.</div>
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Now I know that I just said that there is nothing wrong with the Castellan, but that was a lie. To be honest, it's only the Nova Cannon that's broken. With no re-rolls, it will kill your average vehicle in one shot, from 80" away. When you start adding the effects of stratagems, relics, and house traits, the damage skyrockets and that is just one of it's weapons. The simple fact that that is possible is a huge deterrent to taking any sort of large model, especially if it doesn't have an invul save. Now, I'm not entirely sure how you would fix this. You could reduce the damage, the number of shots, the range, the S value, but whatever happens, something needs to tone down this gun.<br />
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The last thing on my list of balance issues is the "Chapter Tactics" and how they apply to each of armies. Taking a look at Orks and Eldar, every single one of their units gain access to their Kulture and Craftworld Trait. Vehicles, tanks, walkers, super-heavies, infantry, bikes. etc etc. Yet when you look at the Astartes, both Adeptus and Heretic, their non-dreadnought vehicles don't get access to their Chapter Tactics or Legion Traits. Why does an Iron Warrior's Helbrute ignore the cover save modifier but a Defiler doesn't? Why do Crimson Hunter's get the -1 to hit modifier for their Alaitoc Fieldcraft but Alpha Legion Heldrakes don't? Aside from some thing being able to make use of these abilities, they need to figure out how to make them all valuable in the game. The Alpha Legion Trait, -1 to hit them when more than 12" away, is far better than the Night Lords, -1Ld when within 6" (to a max of -3). Night lord armies have no interaction with an opponent's Ld except for Morale, and there are several ways for that to be ignored or mitigated. There are no powers or stratagems that make use of the Ld penalties or anything like that, so for the most part, their Legion Trait goes unused.<br />
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Well there we go. I know that with the upcoming FAQ that some of these issues may be dealt with, but one what scale and in what manner only time will tell. Thank you all for reading the ramblings of an "old man".<br />
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Until next time, keep them dice rollin.</div>
The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-2061069660882874872019-03-07T15:48:00.001-06:002019-03-07T15:48:21.034-06:00TACTICS TALK: COMBOS TO WATCH OUT FOR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In this crazy mixed up game of ours there are a handful of situations where you take a unit or 2, combine it with some psychic powers, add in a pinch of stratagem, and you have yourself a combination of dastardly proportions. I'm going to tell you what some of those game winning combos are and how you can avoid falling prey to them.<br />
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The first one up is the Loota mob that Orks seem to be favouring. This is basically 2 units of Bad Moon Lootas that are Mobbed Up to one unit, then they use More Dakka so they hit on 5+, re-rolling 1's, and get another shot for each roll of 5+. Then they can shoot again with Showin Off. With an average of 2 shots per Loota, this works it's way to 36 dead Guardsmen, 16 dead Marines, 2 and a half dead rhinos, and 18 wounds taken off a Knight. This combo is further strengthened with Grot Shields allowing the Lootas to live through all sorts of firepower levelled against them.<br />
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Our first option to avoid this firepower is to be out of sight. This is not an infallible plan though as a Wierdboy can cast Da Jump on the unit and not effect their damage output at all. However you can use this movement to launch a counter attack as the Lootas will now likely be out of their protective bubble of Grots.<br />
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Another thing that Lootas struggle with are good armour saves. Any sort of cover basically negates the -1AP of the Deffgun, so that Prepared Positions stratagem starts to really come in handy. It reduces the dead models from above by about 40% to 22 Guardsmen, 9 Marines, 12 wounds on Rhinos, and only 10 wounds on a Knight. I know it's tough getting cover on a Knight, but there is a relic that gives a knight a 2+ save which is pretty much the same thing.<br />
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The last way to protect yourself from getting shot up is to shoot them up first. Now that is a little tricky since they will likely deploy out of LOS and/or across the table since they have a 48" range, so it really only works if you have a bunch of firepower with long range. Now since Grot Shields is a thing, you will have to have enough firepower to threaten both units of Lootas. Target the smaller unit first, if he uses Grot Shields then switch it up and put the rest of you're firepower into the bigger unit. Your goal is to bring them both down to below 10 so they can't mob up.<br />
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Our next super combo is the Kraken Genestealer slingshot in which a unit of Genestealers can move 40" across the table and assault. Kraken's hive adaptation allows them to roll 3D6 when advancing and choose the highest, they also have a stratagem, Opportunistic Advance, that allows them to double the value of their advance result. Thanks to the FAQ, you can use this stratagem again in the shooting phase when the Swarmlord uses his Hive Commander ability to move the Genestealers again and since Genestealers can assault after they advance, this is a fairly reliable 42" threat range, reaching to a maximum of 52". Now if they happen to kill what they charged, and lets be honest, they probably did, and be more than 3" from and enemy model they can use the Overrun stratagem to move and advance again. Then, just to keep them from getting shot at, they could use Adrenaline Surge to activate in the fight phase and hug someone.<br />
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Proper bubble wrapping is key here, and positioning is going to be critical. Your first layer can be something cheap and plentiful. Grots, Cultists, Conscripts, etc. Your second row needs to be far enough away so they can't be declared as a target of the initial charge to prevent the Overrun and Adrenaline Surge. It also needs to be positioned in a way so that they can't get hugged. There is also a chance, due to positioning and movement, that he won't get all the Genestealers close enough to attack and your unit may live. Don't celebrate yet as he has likely wrapped you up preventing you from falling back. This means that your second layer can actually be a counter punch unit like Berserkers.<br />
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Alternately you can set up your front line to be something so durable that it can actually withstand the charge. Bullgryn can mix and match 2+ and 4++ saves which comes in handy against the various AP profiles. They can also get a +1 to their saves with a psychic power called Psychic Barrier. Plaguebearers are also incredibly durable with -2 to hit, a 5++(or 4++ with Warp Surge) and a 5+ FNP. A more sacrificial take on a front line is something that can put out a ton of damage on overwatch, like Kastellan robots with flamers in double shoot mode, or Hellhounds.<br />
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Last on my list today is the ever spectacular Ynnari Shining Spears and Dark Reapers combo. So, hold on to your hats cause this one gets confusing. First off, we need Yvraine, then we need at least one unit of Shining Spears with the Saim-Hann keyword, one unit of Dark Reapers, and finally a Warlock on a jet bike with Quicken. So, you can move the Shining Spears, and with the Raging Winds stratagem so they can advance and still charge, then in the psychic phase you cast Quicken on them so they can move again and you land them near an enemy target. Now you cast Word of the Phoenix on the Dark Reapers so they can shoot, and if you need more movement than the 44" the Shining Spears just moved, you target the unit they landed next to, wipe them out and use the Soul Burst to move them AGAIN, or you can use it to make them shoot as their shooting isn't too bad either. Then in the shooting phase the Reapers and Spears can shoot again and if you didn't Soul Burst before you can do it now. Then the Spears can charge and fight, and of course if you haven't Soul Bursted yet you can do it now if you kill something, say if you charged a couple of smaller units.<br />
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To give you some idea of the damage output of just the 2 units, with the support of some casters, there is no reason why they can't kill 2 knights in a turn, or over 40 Marines or 60 Guardsmen. Now keep in mind, that is average dice rolling, with all of the planning working out optimally. Meaning killing a unit at the right time to trigger Soul Burst, etc etc, so there is some wiggle room to those numbers.<br />
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This combo works very much like the Genestealers slingshot with potentially significantly more damage output but with a higher scale of risk. There are a bunch of psychic powers that need to get off, and as I mentioned before, the right things need to die at the right times. So with that in mind, any kind of stratagem or psychic power, like Cloud of Flies, Psychic Barrier, or Catalyst, that can skew the odds of them getting the critical kill to trigger the Soul Burst, are pretty good. Even better are the ones that can be used mid phase, like Lightning Fast Reflexes. On top of that, being able to Deny the Witch is huge as well.<br />
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This combo is a little easier to hide from as well, as long as you're not a knight. The Dark Reapers need LOS to shoot you, and the Shining Spears aren't Infantry so can't go through the walls of a ruin. The ITC terrain rules help out here with the bottom floor of ruins blocking LOS.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the "magic box" everyone talks about.</td></tr>
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Not all tables are created equal though, and if you find yourself without a large ruin to hide in you are going to need to bubble wrap your precious units. There are a couple things to remember though, the Spears can FLY, so move blocking them is not an option. They can also move, charge, or fight after killing something by using Soul Burst, and I have seen this used many times to actually move across and over terrain and models to get to a safe place or to get to place to charge a more important target. Proper bubble wrap has to form a large cloud of models around your army, preventing the Spears from charging multiple units at once. This will likely force you "castle" up most of your force, which has the benefit of the rest of your army being able to counter attack the Spears after they charge but also has the drawback that most of your army is now very close to a big unit of Shining Spears.<br />
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If all else fails, a good offence is a good defence. A strong assault unit hidden in your lines is a great deterrent. The Spear's invul save only applies to shooting attacks, so something that can punch them real hard will make them skittish about charging headlong into your lines. The above mentioned Genestealer slingshot is a really good counter to this combo as the Genestealers can run through walls and have nearly as long a threat range as the Spears.<br />
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Well, there they are. I hope this little article has helped you in some way. Let me know if any of these worked, or if there was something that I missed. Thanks for reading.<br />
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Til next time, keep them dice rollin.<br />
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This tactics post is brought to you by my good friend at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IdleHandsCPU/">Idle Hands Commission Painting</a> and Upholstery. Yes, he fixes furniture too, no it's not weird.<br />
Here are a couple of his latest commission Warhammer 40K models.<br />
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If you don't play 40k, fear not because he will paint any kind of mini. Here is a bunch of models he has painted from a board game called Monster Slaughter by Ankara Board Games<br />
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<br />The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-24455975816478554592019-02-24T09:40:00.001-06:002019-02-24T09:40:57.016-06:00TOURNAMENT REPORT: WHEAT CITY OPEN 2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, the day has come and gone and it's time for us to discuss the Wheat City Open 2019 that was held Feb 16 and 17. It was a blast. I had 5 really awesome opponents, and awesome for various reasons.</div>
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Before I get into my games though, I have to discuss the venue as it was held in one of the Keystone Center's large convention halls. The Keystone Center is primarily a sports complex so the hall was all concrete and high ceilings and an industrial finish. This led to a couple issues, primarily the noise level (it was LOUD), but it also had some temperature issues and at one point it got so cold that my fingers started to fumble models a bit. However, this was easily overlooked because each table had at least 10 feet of space on all sides of it. I could have done cartwheels mid game and not hit anything. This goes a long way to not only prevent a "moon landing"...</div>
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...but also keep models safe during movement from table to table. We also had our own "parking stalls", a table with our name on it, to put all your stuff before, during, and after games. It's also where you would set up your army for paint judging. I absolutely hope they keep getting this location for future events.</div>
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I do have a couple pretty large gripes though. Things were getting answered way too late, and the things that were getting answered were getting changed late in the process. For example, they announced in the players packet that they would be using the ITC rules for terrain, but during the morning announcements they decided that enclosed ruins would be impassable. This had a huge effect on the event as there were a handful of flier heavy Eldar lists that really got a boost due to infantry not being able to hide from them.</div>
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Secondly, the terrain was very inconsistent from table to table with very little variety of terrain on many tables. One table I played on had nothing but shipping containers, and while there was quite a few, with decent LOS blocking, there was nowhere to get a cover save. Another table had only blocky rocks, and too few of them. Again nowhere to actually get a cover save from, or hide from fliers, of which I played against 3 on that table. While on another table, there were 6-7 very large enclosed buildings, it almost looked like there was more table taken up by buildings than was open.</div>
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On to my list and how I hoped it would work.</div>
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Battalion 1 - Alpha Legion</div>
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Sorcerer, force axe, combi-bolter, Nurgle</div>
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Sorcerer, force axe, combi-bolter, Slaanesh</div>
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10 cultists, flamer, Nurgle</div>
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10 cultists, flamer, Nurgle</div>
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40 cultists, autoguns, 4 heavy stubber</div>
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Scorpius, Nurgle</div>
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Scorpius, Nurgle</div>
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Outrider 1 - Alpha Legion</div>
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Chaos Lord with Jump pack</div>
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8 Raptors - 2 plasma guns and a combi plasma</div>
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3 Bikers, 2 plasma guns</div>
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5 Bikers, 2 melta guns and a combi melta</div>
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Battalion 2 - Undivided Chaos Daemons</div>
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Khorne Daemon Prince with wings</div>
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Khorne Herald</div>
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25 Bloodletters</div>
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3 Nurglings</div>
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3 Nurglings</div>
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My Sorcerers took Prescience, Miasma of Pestilence, Warptime, and Delightful Agonies almost every game. They were support units, but a couple times, particularly in the last game, I found that I could have used a couple more offensive spells. The cultists got a flamer, mainly because I would find a time in many of my practice games where I would need the cultists to do SOMETHING. They didn't break any backs, but they contributed in some games. The big unit of cultists didn't do what I thought they would do, and that is because they didn't have Abaddon for re-rolls. With Alpha Legion traits, they would have been better used as multiple smaller units and grab objectives. The Scorpius tanks worked really well for me in my practice games, but were utterly underwhelming during the tournament. </div>
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I had included the Raptors to go into the enclosed ruins so they can both hide and flush out the other infantry in there. It never came up as you can probably guess. I used Forward Operatives more often than not because most of the tables I played on really had nowhere safe for them to drop in. This also allowed me to get a first turn charge off a couple of times which was kind of handy.</div>
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The bikes and cultists were primarily there to open a hole for the Bloodletters to get in and do what they do, and for the most part they did.</div>
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On to my games, which I won't go into great detail on but touch on a couple insightful moments and thoughts.</div>
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GAME 1</div>
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I played a fellow Team Maxx member named George and he was playing Drukari. He had 3 Ravagers, 3 Talos, Venoms with dudes in them, and 2 units of Reavers all in 2 Battalions.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4H7Gtg0NzcBTCO1PRHzVWIn-rSzjXHnAPCD8NdiX8DuBwUu1ZWiWa58oaDATyS2zH4BuzYZdB8d2fah8qaPu4QFZ2zY6g81SOaefI83wO49uId3X2UdN5eolNBiX0XyWUQO2lRtnRQ/s1600/IMG_0135.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4H7Gtg0NzcBTCO1PRHzVWIn-rSzjXHnAPCD8NdiX8DuBwUu1ZWiWa58oaDATyS2zH4BuzYZdB8d2fah8qaPu4QFZ2zY6g81SOaefI83wO49uId3X2UdN5eolNBiX0XyWUQO2lRtnRQ/s320/IMG_0135.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpIE-JQY2GQLZ24UMyvph9iTXzyC-pNg7MGQgI-ZAlkF2oWXEpf83FrA2zZMpa0WFOeTu4ArY3yj4nJmNqtuh9421Gk614xNrD0ojOMTH-Gy8H8ion_t91Jv8fKkTpby3OwSVUUHvhg/s1600/IMG_0136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpIE-JQY2GQLZ24UMyvph9iTXzyC-pNg7MGQgI-ZAlkF2oWXEpf83FrA2zZMpa0WFOeTu4ArY3yj4nJmNqtuh9421Gk614xNrD0ojOMTH-Gy8H8ion_t91Jv8fKkTpby3OwSVUUHvhg/s320/IMG_0136.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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George is not a very experience player, so he didn't protect himself from the Bloodletters or keep his back line secure to stop me from using Tide of Traitors to move the cultists behind his army. The Bloodletters came in turn 2 and got a 15" charge which allowed them to kill all 3 Talos and surround a character to prevent getting shot at.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD13rZXoHz89pj5RNOxBP7ET0gybIPkZlhJ9U9he5gAy4JO7lW_yp2lzX6EdzusTm9gCs0qh7Rd-WZ8co0337sz3qX0H8OVWRNNoCttKzargT2Zb2eoFRFZS5Lzct2VN6JbI-Oi2ouvA/s1600/IMG_0140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD13rZXoHz89pj5RNOxBP7ET0gybIPkZlhJ9U9he5gAy4JO7lW_yp2lzX6EdzusTm9gCs0qh7Rd-WZ8co0337sz3qX0H8OVWRNNoCttKzargT2Zb2eoFRFZS5Lzct2VN6JbI-Oi2ouvA/s320/IMG_0140.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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He put 2 of the Ravagers into the Webway, but by the time they came in I had the game in the bag. There was also a very large pile of shipping containers, that blocked LOS, right in the middle of the table which made it pretty easy to avoid the Ravagers. I pushed my Bikes up the Right side, and my Raptors up the left which really limited his choices for deep striking. Against me, he should have just started the Ravagers on the table.</div>
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GAME 2</div>
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I played Patrick, and Patrick was under the same impression as me that there would be those enclosed ruins. He brought a Castellan and 2 Armigers, a Battalion of AdMech, and 10 Paladins with Draigo, a Banner dude, and a Librarian. His thought process before the tourney was that the Paladins would drop in in one of those "magic box" ruins, cast Astral Aim, then stormbolter things to death while staying out of LOS, and if anything got close he could jump out and lay the smack down.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4oW3J_tw0hTzwQVqjaDXXjokUKhBCPoFqCVzQnazC1EJSfZjbWBd0PnAWlSCJyqtbMO0WsdLO6MVVgiCbnJ5R3hUeZeLm3PFt6hRVwC52lCG1TQsr7n8MEYDo2Viuzqy04FtF41L3A/s1600/IMG_0142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4oW3J_tw0hTzwQVqjaDXXjokUKhBCPoFqCVzQnazC1EJSfZjbWBd0PnAWlSCJyqtbMO0WsdLO6MVVgiCbnJ5R3hUeZeLm3PFt6hRVwC52lCG1TQsr7n8MEYDo2Viuzqy04FtF41L3A/s320/IMG_0142.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This table had some variety in terrain, but there was still nowhere I could actually hide any of my Scorpius tanks and one got nuked right from the get go as the Nova cannon tore it a new one. However the other Scorpius managed to wither 2 full rounds of Castellan fire before finally dying. Patrick was very focused on making sure I could not deep strike anywhere in his deployment, and so had his whole army spread out across the table. This worked to my advantage because it meant that he had fewer things to block the Castellan and on turn 2 my Deamon Prince charged in and ripped 17 wounds off of it, and thanks to some wounds suffered earlier, left it on 5 wounds.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFadi6OmuTMQxRD7mvtTqTrddjF5ALPvqH-mP4VF9Va-ugnve9b3sz0_NHofQdj3DXhDvblEOo1axdNSN4_6NRRrES1032sxh2AcUA0AyofSYM0B2yiSzBwG4s0cesLYvjodHjMnDRuw/s1600/IMG_0147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFadi6OmuTMQxRD7mvtTqTrddjF5ALPvqH-mP4VF9Va-ugnve9b3sz0_NHofQdj3DXhDvblEOo1axdNSN4_6NRRrES1032sxh2AcUA0AyofSYM0B2yiSzBwG4s0cesLYvjodHjMnDRuw/s320/IMG_0147.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think I finished it off with Cultists and Veterans of the Long War.</td></tr>
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I brought in the Bloodletters and sent them right after the Grey Knights, which was maybe not the greatest idea, but if they had all died I would be able to bring back that whole squad for 2CP. They managed to kill Draigo, the Banner, and half the Paladins, so not such a bad move. Thanks to the work the Bloodletters put in I managed to take the game 18-17.</div>
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GAME 3</div>
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This game was against Noah, who took the Favourite Opponent award, and for good reason cause he was an awesome guy to play against. He had a very nicely painted Tau Army made up of a Brigade. I don't remember exactly what he had, and his list isn't posted, but I got a pic of his army set up on his display board.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8oM6hxNLgabadmIgL315Y8qbWQtvKxrACOZnZr440zD8rmv2iO-Ltkbc8WbCGyl9KSeq_eg2GwOzuu_h1JzlGVlVfyVXCPv-pCno7aMVSxz6dMRhqTPGQ9GzdI1Zcin6SdOX6O6e1Gg/s1600/IMG_0125.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8oM6hxNLgabadmIgL315Y8qbWQtvKxrACOZnZr440zD8rmv2iO-Ltkbc8WbCGyl9KSeq_eg2GwOzuu_h1JzlGVlVfyVXCPv-pCno7aMVSxz6dMRhqTPGQ9GzdI1Zcin6SdOX6O6e1Gg/s320/IMG_0125.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Units to note are the Stormsurege, the unit of 10 Breachers that went in the Devilfish, the Riptide and the 2 Broadsides.</div>
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For the only time in this tournament, I got the first turn. So I did what most people do when playing Tau, charge them turn 1. I moved my red bikes up the right side and the raptors over to the left, and the Daemon Prince right up the middle because...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rqRKfWufwGGklArFoCBREPfZH-GRtruy5ZkIMnH8WuLqLrgA4-65Q5L-i841l0IB123oCdWQOv6mMv3gUgoU-s7xuD0jMud5oGXvvsnECdbPnhwMU8WUG8R6lizIRbW9qLEMg193Qg/s1600/IMG_0150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rqRKfWufwGGklArFoCBREPfZH-GRtruy5ZkIMnH8WuLqLrgA4-65Q5L-i841l0IB123oCdWQOv6mMv3gUgoU-s7xuD0jMud5oGXvvsnECdbPnhwMU8WUG8R6lizIRbW9qLEMg193Qg/s320/IMG_0150.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdn71lN6Yy2ANCxaX-12V-XX3aE0e_b8uk0TG11E6Hr6mz3TRCqOneYiGnWycRrI8H1BMQTwjElyvjADvjbVDghOzvjEc3lJNPXLNf0RC_5m_w6kXNZAKYakBr1io-Nxgu9SJDVKreuQ/s1600/IMG_0151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdn71lN6Yy2ANCxaX-12V-XX3aE0e_b8uk0TG11E6Hr6mz3TRCqOneYiGnWycRrI8H1BMQTwjElyvjADvjbVDghOzvjEc3lJNPXLNf0RC_5m_w6kXNZAKYakBr1io-Nxgu9SJDVKreuQ/s320/IMG_0151.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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...That is the Stormsurge on top of that mountain in the middle of the table. Turn 1 goes pretty well for me, I kill a ton of infantry. I charge the Broadsides with the bikes and while I nearly get wiped from the Tau overwatch, I manage to make it through and tag one, preventing it from shooting next turn.</div>
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My next turn is bat shit crazy and I charge my Daemon Prince into the Stormsurge and promptly die to overwatch. He rolled two 6's for his big gun to hit, wounded both, and I failed both saves, 12 damage. Ouch.</div>
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I'm not 100% sure how I managed to pull out a win, maybe because I chose the right secondaries, but I came out on top 18-17.</div>
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So that was the 3 games from day 1 and I went 3-0. I was pretty nervous as this is the best I have done in a tournament of this size and was excited to see what kind of game I was going to have tomorrow.</div>
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I was also a little worried as despite my 3 wins, I had scored pretty low due to my games only making it to 3 or 4 rounds. I'm a pretty veteran player and think I'm pretty fast at playing the game but these 3 games gave me some doubts, and one of the last things I wanted was to get called out on slow playing.</div>
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GAME 4</div>
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I played Jon, and Jon was there to play Warhammer. That is not to say that he was not a nice guy because he was very nice, but he was far more serious than the other guys I played and had a far more serious army. He also brought a chess clock, which had me worried due to my last games not finishing and having never used a clock before. Jon was very understanding and actually took care of the clock for most of the game switching it back and forth, which I appreciated a great deal. We made it through all 6 turns and we each had about 7 mins to spare, and I didn't feel rushed at any point. I felt I played at my regular pace as I had through the previous games.</div>
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As for the game, this was one of the most intense and competitive games of 40K I have ever played, and even though I lost 31-18, I felt like I could have won if I had made a few different choices. First up, save the CP for the big Daemon axe and ignored the Knight. Jon is too good of a player to let me get to grips with it. I should have moved everything to my right side and pushed harder, bringing in my Daemons there. I made a few game play mistakes, but I don't think they really determined the result of the game, it was my overall plan that was flawed.</div>
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GAME 5</div>
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I played another Team Maxx player, Lawrence, and thanks to him I have a newly replenished cup full of rage and hatred for Eldar despite of how nice of a guy Lawrence is. He had a bunch of Fliers, Rangers, and Hornets, all of which get negatives to hit, and then he took them as the Craftworld that has additional negatives to hit. To top it off, I chose the absolute worst secondary mission I could have picked.</div>
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Have you ever had an idea that you focused on too hard? So hard that it drove out other reasonable thoughts? That's what happened to me as I had the thought that if I managed to kill his Hornets and Fliers then I pretty much win the game. So I chose them for Marked for Death not really taking into consideration how hard they are to kill, and that he doesn't really need to get them anywhere near me to use them effectively. I could have literally chosen ANY other secondary and done as well or better. I lost this game 18-17.</div>
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It was a frustrating game, not being able to hit anything, until the Bloodletters came in and started doing what they do. They racked me up a handful of points and dragged this game closer to what it felt like.</div>
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So after 5 games I went 3-2 and came in 18th out of 38. Not too bad, although I was hoping for a 4-1 finish. I learnt a great deal and I will do another article on that at another time. For now, I will be jumping into a project that I have been wanting to work on for a while...</div>
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NIGHT LORDS!</div>
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I would like to thank all of my opponents, the Westman Gaming group as well as the TO's and sponsors. This was a good event and I can see it getting better and better. Good luck and I will be attending next year.</div>
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Tip next time, keep them dice rollin.</div>
The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433551298988700841.post-40269813588039762562019-02-14T11:36:00.002-06:002019-02-14T11:36:12.295-06:00ROAD TO SUCCESS 2.0<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mBKV8OJ1YTHgtPGTfikQIWY-DvmD2YyJaaG2Gna1gt2iUl0xSTI8MXVLVy3N8jJigFu4VwzUNPmx2GiyD2iN_mFTJbhmUY4UTtkdUA42MK-COTB51FTbQ9kndNwqtQ0mDGLcDIOXXw/s1600/practice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="666" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mBKV8OJ1YTHgtPGTfikQIWY-DvmD2YyJaaG2Gna1gt2iUl0xSTI8MXVLVy3N8jJigFu4VwzUNPmx2GiyD2iN_mFTJbhmUY4UTtkdUA42MK-COTB51FTbQ9kndNwqtQ0mDGLcDIOXXw/s320/practice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I finally got in a couple more practise games, after 5 failed attempts. I had made some changes to my list after a hand full of realisations, and some new rules. Since my last game I have had time to peruse the ITC terrain rules a little closer and have learnt that the Wheat City Open will be allowing the use of the Beta Bolter rule. Wanting to try that out I took a unit of bikes and a unit of terminators, and they did not disappoint.<br />
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With that out of the way, lets take a look at my list. I had a Alpha Legion Battalion Detachment lead by a Lord with Jump pack, combi-bolter and Hydra blade but I'm considering swapping him for a Lord on a bike. He was my warlord with the extra attack WL trait. He was backed up in the leadership department by 2 sorcerers. For troops I had 2 units of 10 Cultists and a unit of 30 cultists. I had the aforementioned Terminators and bikes, each 5 models. I gave the bike a couple plasma guns just for kicks, but I was really looking for those combi-bolters, and the terminators had combi-bolters with an assortment of cheaper combat weapons. I also had a unit of 7 Raptors with 3 plasma guns. Rounding out that battalion is 2 Hellforged Scorpius tanks, which are really good and expensive whirlwinds. I had a second battalion that was Daemons, it had a Khorne Herald, Khorne Daemon Prince with the Relic Axe, 2 units of Nurglings and a unit of 24 Bloodletters.<br />
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Now before you get on my case I know Raptors are not great, but I really think they have a place in the ITC rules, particularly in my army because they are able to jump through ruins walls and flush out those units hiding inside. Even as a last resort they are a decent unit to cause some pressure against my opponent and make him deal with them. The general plan with this army is to use the Cultists and combi-bolter units to open up a hole in the deep strike defence line so the Bloodletters can get in and wreak some havoc.<br />
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My opponent, Keenan, was playing a vehicle heavy Guard list with one of the fancy new Vilgilus detachments that allows his tanks within 6" of his warlord to re-roll his failed hit rolls during overwatch. He had 2 battalions, both of which were Cadia, and I'm not 100 % sure which units were where, but he had Pask and 3 other tank commanders, a company commander and a Priamis Psyker for his HQ. Then he had 6 units of Guardsmen, 3 units of mortars, 3 basilisks, and 3 manticores.<br />
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For my secondary missions I chose butcher's bill, big game hunter, and reaper. My army does not have a whole lot of anti-tank other than the Daemon Prince, but I figured that 6 of his tanks are rather weak and I should be able to grind them down especially if the Bloodletters can get into them with their potential of extra damage attacks.<br />
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So during deployment I had a dilemma which was; I could either go balls to the walls and hope for first turn, or deploy cagey in case I go second. His list actually made this decision really hard to make because he had so much that straight up does not care about LOS so typically you would line up on the line because it doesn't really matter where you deploy. This is when I realised exactly why those damn units of IG mortar teams are so popular. With the bottom floor of ruins blocking LOS, as per the ITC terrain rules, anything that can target a unit that isn't in LOS is amazing. However, because he also had 4 tank commanders I can't deploy in the open. Either way, I'm going to get the shit shelled out of me unless I get the first turn. I decide to play it careful and deploy as much out of sight as I can. Which paid off because he got the first turn and I used the Defended Position strat which really came in handy.<br />
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This game went all my way, and I don't think I made too many large mistakes this game. He put some damage in on my Cultists, but not enough to force me to use 2 CP to auto pass. I used Tide of Traitors, putting my cultists on me left flank, and used Warptime to move the bikes right up the middle. The cultists wiped a unit and the bikes wiped out a unit and charged a second, able to wrap them up and avoid being shot for a couple turns. My Scorpius was able to take out 2 of the mortar teams.<br />
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Turn 2 was a big one for me. I deep struck the Bloodletters and was able to charge them into 2 units but pile in and consolidate into a 3rd and wrap it up, keeping them safe. This also kept my Daemon Prince safe who charged in to 2 tanks turn 3 and started earning me some points. That pretty much sums up the game.<br />
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My second test game was using the same list against Stephen, an AdMech player. He had 2 Battalions and a cheap Gallant Knight. Battalion 1 was Stygies and had a big unit of Kastellans and a bunch of Vanguard. The second Battalion was Ryza and had a small unit of Kastellans with a large unit of Destroyers with plasma and some rangers with sniper rifles. This game came down to 4 things; the large LOS blocking piece of terrain that I was able to hide behind, my Khorne Deamon Prince killing the Gallant in one round of combat on turn 2, and the Bloodletters killing 3 of the Kastellan robots when they charged through a ruin to avoid overwatch. Lastly the terminators were able to charge the Destroyers, while doing no damage, it stopped them from shooting on turn 3.<br />
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Overall, the bikes were awesome. I'm not sure that the Terminators are still worth their points as that 5 man unit is 181 points, while a 5 man bike squad is 137 with 2 plasma guns. What I think I might do is drop the terminators and take another unit of bikes and bump up my cultist squad to 40.<br />
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During the second game, we were playing the pointy hammer and anvil deployment, and I should have used the Forward Operatives to deploy the Raptors. This would have given them a 9" move before the game started allowing me to move into the large ruin in the centre of the table. From their they would have been safe from any shooting and could have struck out and assassinated several characters that were scattered around the table.<br />
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I have noticed a couple things with my list. I have quite a few units off the table which has it's ups and downs. On one hand, they can't get shot and killed, on the other, if he pressures my deployment zone I won't have as much return firepower turn 1. I also have to make sure that I can carve out a gap in the screens so that my deep strikers have somewhere to land. This will primarily be done with the Bikes, the Cultists who just Tide of Traitors over to the other side of the table, and the Scorpius tanks.<br />
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I have made a few changes to my list, and my next post will likely be of the event itself. Wish me luck, and maybe I'll see you there.<br />
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Til next time, keep them dice rollin.</div>
The 40K Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847769538828380226noreply@blogger.com0