Old Stuff Day: Some Shooting in 8E.

So, an article I'd written in the aftermath of 8th edition, turned out to be an almost clairvoyant description of 8E. Gun+Magichammer! Wooooo!!!

See, it's just shooting and magic are what the game revolves around at the moment. Thing is in WHFB mobile shooting is generally not as good as pillbox obliterate from across the board shooting, which, unlike 40k, makes for a boring game. As while movement in WHFB may be higher, mobility is generally lower, meaning that "gunlines" do well. Which is boring.

Yeah, I kinda fell out with 8th edition...Sorry, have a read.

 

Shooting attracted a lot of attention to itself in 8th edition. With the ability to fire in two ranks you can effectively double the number of shots you can produce in fire lanes/areas with limited frontage (and in empire handgunner spam, that can be the whole table). In addition, gunlines no longer have to camp on hills to receive bonuses like this. So gunlines have been cropping up a lot more lately. My own skaven army is shooty. But this article is weighing up the important pros and cons of the shooting phase in 8th edition.

Ok, let's start with the bad. BS reliant shooting. In 8E terrain barely hinders the game anymore, so people are in it quite a lot. In addition, units in the way provide hard cover. Finally, there's a lot more terrain on the board. What does this mean to you guys? Modifiers. Lots of them. Example. Unit in their deployment zone and in a forest. That means that your unit of Dark Elf Crossbowmen, or Empire Handgunners is hitting them on 6s. In their first turn they will move out the forest and hopefully in to/behind a nice terrain feature. In addition, against an army with a lot of BS reliant shots, I tend to put my 3 slave units (so that's 30 models wide) in a nice line in front of my army. Stormvermin are large enough to see over slaves (no, really) which means my whole army tends to get hard cover with no negative impacts other than a slightly hindered movement phase.

What this means is BS reliant shooting tends to need to be brought in absolute bucketfuls to achieve a significant result. Or be poisoned (which makes hitting on 6s a good thing). Or you could be Tomb Kings (whose archers actually gained by comparison this edition). Of course this isn't always the case, but it does mean an entire army of BS related shots isn't so good. Lookin at Woodies, for example. Dark Elves work out fine just cause they have the form of BS related shooting that IS good. Bucketfuls of it and...

Fast moving high BS skirmishers and fast cavalry (but the only good fast cav I can think of are dark riders and pistoliers). These guys are still good. Flamers, Shades, Gutter Runners, that kind of thing. These guys are good because they can march and shoot. This means they can get in to a position easily that doesn't suffer modifiers other than "moved". But by that point you wont be suffering long range, so it doesn't really matter. The ability to march and shoot really helps skirmishers with half decent/good ranged weapons, because now they're really really hard to catch, if they don't want to be caught. But they can still easily remain within short range and pelt your guys to death. You'll find these units tend to hit on 5s most of the time, with a lot of shots. Shades, being the cocky dark elf pricks they are, hit on 4s.

                                                             

Now, the shooting that really got buffed. We all know what's coming here. Yup, tequila. I mean, templates. This includes cannons, as that line is technically a template. More specifically I mean non ballistic related templates. The ones you just place and they go a random range. For example, short of a misfire, it's very hard to miss a monster/chariot with a cannon. And no amount of modifiers could save it. It could be 66" away in a ruin wearing a cloak made of shadow magnet trinkets and rings of darkness, while also being a single character and a skirmisher. Don't care, you're getting slapped by a cannonball, flying towards you which will wittily say "Buona Giorno" like Bradd Pit in Inglorious Basterds before scalping you and moving on to the poor block of infantry behind it.

Tangents aside, these kind of weapons are really really good in 8th edition. That's why my army has 8 of them. I can't really go in to this, but I can point out something important relating to army balance within your missile troops. As the number of enemy units decreases, the power of these weapons decreases. It's fairly simple, and you could work it out by looking at pictures of how these things fire, but it needs to be said. Moving on, because of that, as I found out, an army that uses templates and blasts to the exclusion of all else doesn't function so well. Because if you have a small cadre of elites left they'll munch your units anyway (4 chaos warriors or something like that). So, what can we do? In this hour of need who do we turn to?

Well, it's the underdog. The downtrodden unsung hero of 8th edition. No, not you Korhil, get back in your cage. BS-reliant shooting. BS reliant shooting doesn't change in effectiveness in relation to the size of the units you're shooting. They can shoot a unit of 50, 20, and 2 guys with the same effectiveness, all along the watchtower. BS-reliant shooting stands up tall, among the horde of template weapons you brought, holds his head high, swings his sling around his head and breaks the faces of that unit of 4 swordmasters you just can't get a good template hit on, before receding back in to the folds of mediocrity, and the bards shall laud that shot that did save your general from certain death for all of history.

Hope you guys enjoyed the article.

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"Aim Directly For His Crooked Brow, And Look Him Straight In The Eye!"

So, taking the bull by it's horns here folks. At the moment I'm putting up a kind of mishmash of articles relating to whatever crosses my mind, which I'm fine with.

Is there anything you guys would like my opinions/advice/thoughts on though? I might actually do something email related (no promises it wont end up on 3++ though). Dunno, feeling lost for direction since I fell out with 8th ed. (Rockethammer was an apt name, as shooting each other is the name of the game, and magic).

<3 Read more!

Dark Heresy Stuff.

Guys that wanted to do DH/were interested (That is Dathbryce, eathos and Wonna). I need you to get into contact with me like, ASAP, so we can discuss what nights of the event we can do this. Otherwise it's off. >: Read more!

A Fantasy Post?! On MY Blog!?

So guys, simple question. I want a shooty WHFB army that's not Dark Elves and I already play Skaven.

I also want it to be evil, or at least not goody two shoes. It also has to be, y'know, good. WE archer lines aint gonna cut it.

Any ideas? Read more!

Archnomad's 40k Gospel

So guys, I've decided to write something absolutely monolithic. My own 40k bible. Very much a WIP at the moment, but i'd like some community involvement here. At the moment, I'm starting with list writing. If you feel you have anything to add, please make it known. I'm just putting it up while I write it. I mean, getting C&C is better than having it sitting in drafts right?



Now then. Winning in 40k. In my opinion, this starts well before you roll your mission. Well before you find an opponent. You know what I'm getting at, this starts with an Army List. A successful army list is able to handly everything an opponent can throw at you, and anything you encounter. An unsuccessful army list can't deal with certain threats, or is spread too thin. So, lets talk about making army lists.

This obviously starts with your army of choice. Now then, for the purposes of this, I'm going to refer to Space Wolves as my default (as they're my default, and in my opinion have one of the most rounded codices in the game). I should note, that some armies simply have to build lists differently, but there's a certain amount of things a successful army needs to be able to do.

We've covered it already. Take all comers by the horns and punch them in the chops. So how do we do that? Well, what does all comers entail? Well, can your army list reliably (assuming 2kpts):

Deal with 200 models?
Deal with masses of 2+ saves?
Deal with masses of invulnerables (storm shields, fateweaver)?
Deal with being alpha struck?
Deal with lots of high toughness or very tough models?
Deal with gunlines?
Deal with combat armies?
Deal with being pressured by stuff in your DZ turn one?
Deal with armies staying 36" (or trying to) away from you at all times?
Deal with the top army builds at the time (as you're likely to encounter these)?
Deal with 20+ vehicles?
Push forward to take objectives against an aggressive opponent?
Push forward to take objectives against a gunline?
Remain potent while moving?
Operate reliably, with lots of redundancy, so deviation from the averages doesn't completely screw you, and you always have a back up plan?
Not have bad matchups (this isn't essential, but know the risk of running paper, when you run into scissors you cannot complain)?

Looks like a lot doesn't it? It's not really, most armies tick half of that off by just picking the codex. A lot of codices would have to build around not having this stuff. I should also note, not every unit in your army needs to be able to adhere to this, but as a whole this should be something your army is capable of doing. (:

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Ok, so next up, efficiency. This is big in army list design. Take for instance, the commonly doled out example of the predator's autocannon. Almost everybody you meet will tell you to not upgrade it to a Lascannon. Lascannons are better, sure. But they are not efficient. Ok, so what is efficient?

Well, efficiency is usually defined to a role. Very rarely will you find a unit that is efficient at everything. Lets rattle through a few examples. What I'll do is put say, 5 unit types and give a grade. The grade represents how good it is at a certain task. It'll be easier if you see it. So, sticking with some well known units here:

*disclaimer - these scales are very rough, they're there to get a point across! Don't call me out on it, as ultimately it doesn't matter*

Vendetta
Anti Light Infantry (guard, orks etc) - D
Anti Heavy Infantry (Marines, termies) - C
Anti Monstrous Creature - A
Anti Light Tank - A
Anti Heavy Tank - B

Dakka Predator
Anti Light Infantry (guard, orks etc) - B (would be A if it ignored cover)
Anti Heavy Infantry (Marines, termies) - D
Anti Monstrous Creature - D
Anti Light Tank - C
Anti Heavy Tank - F

Tactical Marines Rapid Firing
Anti Light Infantry (guard, orks etc) - C
Anti Heavy Infantry (Marines, termies) - D
Anti Monstrous Creature - D
Anti Light Tank - D
Anti Heavy Tank - F

Dreadnought with Twin Autocannons
Anti Light Infantry (guard, orks etc) - C
Anti Heavy Infantry (Marines, termies) - D (it's not much good against either)
Anti Monstrous Creature - C
Anti Light Tank - B
Anti Heavy Tank - C

Ok, so looking at that, you need to note they're pretty specialised examples. However, all but one of these units are considered "efficient". And indeed, all these weapons have their place. A Vendetta reigns over the skies. Hard as hell to get cover from, it absolutely destroys tanks. Very efficient for what you're paying. Versus infantry it's about as efficient as a teaspoon for cutting steak, however. In the same vein, a dakka pred is pretty good against light infantry. Now, the important thing to take away from this is how good they are for what you're paying. The best unit in that mix is the Vendetta. It's the most expensive, sure, but it's fantastic at what it does. I wish my SW got Vendettas. Seriously, they have everything you could want in a long range platform. Well, almost. If they were AV14 they'd be... In fact I don't even want to think about that.

Anyway, where I was going. A vendetta is horrifically efficient, and thus a very good unit. A dakka pred is not "that" killy. But it's cheap as all hell.

Another important note, it's the only thing there that ignores armour. I don't care what people say about riflemen dreads, I don't think they're all that. I think they and dakka preds are one of the reasons nilla SM can't compete. They have tonnes of AP4, and struggle to deal out wounds to things like Tyranid MCs. I do not give a shit how many people say "just pour wounds onto them", if the nid player knows what he's doing, you'll be firing at a 2+ save (2+ tyranno or 3+/FnP). And this leads us nicely into my next point.

The best units are often those that're efficient in multiple fields. Lets take the Vendetta again. It's great anti tank, but it's also a nice source of some AP2, AND it's S9, which helps instant kill a lot of stuff. Take a Rifledread. It fires a lot of S7, so it's good against light tanks. It doesn't fire that many shots, certainly not enough for torrent, so light anti tank is about all it does. One of the reasons I'm not a huge fan, it's a matchup dependant unit (in my opinion) and, I've already mentioned, because of that and the dakka pred I feel nilla can't compete. :D

Ok, while I'm here, have some units efficient in multiple fields. Autolas predators, Long Fangs, Lasplas Razorbacks, Crisis Battlesuits, Veterans in Chimeras, BA ASM with LCs, Sangpriests and meltas, Sisters/IST units in Immolators, Vendettas, Tactical Marines, TH/SS terminators, MM/HF Speeders, Manticores, Medusas, Demolisher Tanks...

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That looking familiar? Yeah, all those units are very common in tournaments. I wonder why that is. Now, if I may here is my Space Wolf army, as it appears on the table:

*reason I'm showing you is it can tick off the boxes on the list*

4 Good sized (7+WG) Grey Hunter units with a melta, wolf standard, combi melta and power fist in rhinos. So these units are good against light infantry (they'll scythe through guard type units), heavier infantry (if they pop the wolf standard they can really pile on the wounds with bolt pistols and stuff, you're talking like 12 wounds (so 2 die) before the fist), bigger monsters a la mephiston, tervigons etc as they have a power fist, allowing them to whittle them down, and they can also shoot them with AP1 weapons. They're good against tanks, as they have melta guns, and with the rhino, can catch them. A very good all purpose unit. Now, don't get me wrong, their preferred targets are things weaker than them that they have a good chance of killing (as is the way of 40k), but they will beat up most troops, and kill most tanks too. These are the guys I push forward with, and take objectives.

2 5 man grey hunter squads with flamers in lasplas razorbacks. The Stelek Surprise, no? These units will take potshots with flamers at units that get into that position. They are great in some games, as y'know, if you demech a unit of say veterans you can get these guys into a position so that if the vets come close, they're gonna get burnt. Remember, the IG player (worth his salt) will spread out, so you'll need to tank shock him back into shape. The lasplas allows this FOC to deal with MCs, Tanks, heavy infantry. Hell, in a pinch it's 3 shots, not bad by any standard. Yup. They're also scorers, these guys get the home field objectives.

2 units of 5 wolf scouts with a melta, and a WG w/Combi + Power Fist. Now, the WG is mandatory, but a lot of people question the fist. Well, it's good for assaulting tanks. Honestly, against some armies (particularly bad players) this is sheer awesome. The Scouts however fuck up backlines. The fist actually means they can beat up some squads like long fangs, which is fucking funny when it happens, just saying. But yeah, these guys are my wild cards. Cheap and cheerful, if you were to go to my checklist, they're also a major part in how I deal with gunlines and people who play defensively. They also allow me access to my opponents backfield if my Hunters are tied up in the midfield.

3 units of 5 long fangs with 4 missiles. Do I really need to explain? Really? Suffice to say these guys are ample anti tank, they're very good suppression fire, for shit like Vendettas, can shoot six targets, allow me to set up fire lanes, contest homefield objectives, have not bad anti infantry fire and surprise people (like Al'rahem) when they suddenly pull out pistols and dive in! Just generally a good unit, very efficient anti tank (115pts for 4 missiles that can split fire and also shoot infantry with blasts). The lasplas they bring is covered earlier. It acts as a backup for the Hunters if theirs gets blown up too.

Ok, the main point of contention in my list is Njal. I suppose he's another Wild Card. Let me explain. Njal, if he doesn't test quite well enough, will get swapped out. Probably for more GHs, another lasplas and a Rune Priest. However, Njal has been testing amazingly. Seriously, he's been ripping people's shit up. He tends to stay in his tank till turn 3-4. After that he's out and about, messing up people's days. Also, his personal force field/anti flyer(orDS) powers are nice to always have. Worth 145pts extra? Maybe. However, he also has Saga of Majesty (which is awesome for failed pins, ask my friends, I fail a lot), a chooser and a 3+ DENY on psychic powers. Honestly, pretty good. When his powers start getting serious, he's harsh. Personal best is either.... slowing down an army of horde orks, or wrecking 2 chimeras, blowing up a vendetta and immobilising a chimmy, all in one turn (Vengeful Hurricane + Living Lightning yo!). He also has a total toolbox of powers (well, the useful ones, having Murderous Hurricane, JotWW, Living Lightning and Tempest Wrath is nice). But yeah, testing well, but he's not quite fixed yet.

Now, where I'm going with this.

Deal with 200 models? Yes, the Grey Hunters can kill shit like this in infantry, and longfangs have blast templates, there's also murderous hurricane  So can Wolf Scouts.
Deal with masses of 2+ saves? Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts, Long Fangs.
Deal with masses of invulnerables (storm shields, fateweaver)? Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts, Long Fangs.
Deal with being alpha struck?Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts, Long Fangs.
Deal with lots of high toughness or very tough models?Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts, Long Fangs.
Deal with gunlines?Grey Hunters and Scouts pressure, while the rest shoot shit up.
Deal with combat armies?Grey Hunters, can fight them, while the rest shoot their support.
Deal with being pressured by stuff in your DZ turn one My army doesn't have much trouble with being pressured. It operates well at close range and can intercept stuff at close range. Most of the stuff that comes in close I can beat up. 
Deal with armies staying 36" (or trying to) away from you at all times? Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts, Long Fangs..... All my units don't mind. Hunters are fast in rhinos, scouts can come on AT the enemy units, and the rest shoots.
Deal with the top army builds at the time (as you're likely to encounter these)?This is a top army build (Hybrid wolves) at the moment, but yes I would say it has the tools to deal with them.
Deal with 20+ vehicles?Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts, Long Fangs. All have anti tank.
Push forward to take objectives against an aggressive opponent?Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts.
Push forward to take objectives against a gunline?Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts.
Remain potent while moving?Grey Hunters, Lasplas Razors, Njal, Wolf Scouts.
Operate reliably, with lots of redundancy, so deviation from the averages doesn't completely screw you, and you always have a back up plan?Grey Huntersx6, Lasplas Razorsx3, Wolf Scoutsx2, Long Fangsx3.
Not have bad matchups (this isn't essential, but know the risk of running paper, when you run into scissors you cannot complain)?Nope. List is really well rounded imo.

So yeah, the wolf list has a lot of units that can deal with everything. So do things like mech IG. This is why I think it's a really good army. It's something a friend of mine is calling army homogeny, and that's a fantastic term for it. Everything in my army can deal with most (or every) threat it encounters, especially if I gang up. It makes target priority difficult, and means that I can make comebacks from most situations, as it's not like you can remove all my anti tank/infantry/heavy infantry/bases/lps/mana without killing me.

;]  I miss my mana spring totem. Is cata really any good? I have an 80 shaman in like, 232-256 gear sitting about that I haven't thought about in a while...

Ok, so these principles. Now i realise this isn't possible for every army. Even most armies. But you can try, and make good attempts. A power klaw serves this function in Ork Boy units. Melta guns in veterans, especially if you bring straken and a Chimera. So yeah, having generalists is (in my opinion) the best way to go. Right, but if you can't have generalists, you need to bring specialists. Do not, ever, bring one specialist. You need multiple specialists. This is called redundancy, and this is huge.

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Redundancy. Well, I've covered why this is good previously. Basically, it means a single clinical strike can't remove your entire army's capability to combat certain types of unit. Tyranids are a fantastic example of lacking redundancy. In a 2000point game, they will normally bring 3 units of hive guard, and 2 tyrannofexes. Say I'm playing gunline mech IG. Turn one, I use my vendettas to nuke the Tyrannofexes off the board, and the rest of the army reduces your hive guard to cinders. Now what do you do? You have no reliable way to combat my mech. GG dude. Ok so that's a really extreme example, but it's why I believe nids aren't so hot at the moment, severe lack of anti tank units. Another example would be bad forum eldar lists. That bring a squad of dragons and 2 bright lances. When they're removed, you have no way to deal with tanks. Another GG, dude.

So combatting this. Well it was touched on earlier. Bring multiple units that fulfill the same role. That's why the tyranid player has 5 anti tank units. To reduce the amount he's hampered by harsh losses.

-To Be Continued. Again. Read more!

But I thought Stelek was a bastard?

Since I got into truly "competitive" 40k I've been sending some questions to "the best (by record)" in the hobby. So, I thought Stelek was meant to be a bastard. Yet here's his breakdown of the email I sent him:

In particular, the second one got a fantastic response, well thought out answer, and some good feedback from the community.

http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/02/skaven-in-8e/
http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/02/questions-about-40k/
http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/02/sw-40k-stuff-etc/


All the posts are below, but some of the comments are really good. Now, Stelek gets a bad wrap from a lot of people, but based on this I'm quite happy to say.

Good guy, that Andrew,

Thanks.

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So Kirby rescheduled my post and I'm putting it up here for feedback just now...



This man. I will gladly offer a pound of flesh if
someone can conjure me a machine to get to one of his gigs.

 Disclaimer: This is a rant. While it does cover some (very) important points, and some very good lessons as to playing 40k, it reads like a train of thought, or a conversation I would have with myself. Probably because I finished writing at 1:30am, and have been listening to a lot of 60s-70s rock. Just a word of warning.

So you're probably wondering what this article is about and you're not the only one. Well, it's about being good at 40k, and why I'm a better Warmachine player than I am a 40k player. Despite the fact I've had maybe 50 games of Warmachine in my life, and well more than that of 40k. So, I have some explaining to do I imagine. Well, let me lay out 3 very simple rules of "being good at 40k". If you follow these 3 guidelines I promise you your gameplay will improve. Hell, it sort of ties in with Kirby's eyeballing distance article. This is my personal 40k gospel in one easy checklist. Ok, so these 3 rules:
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Some Dark Heresy...

So folks, a friend of mine and myself are debating running a small Dark Heresy session at Centurion. Now, I'd need to know I had people interested before running it, so, if you're at all interested comment here or email me at archnomad12@googlemail.com

Now, for a bit of background, Dark Heresy is a pen and paper RPG which takes place in the 40k universe. You play as an acolyte of an Inquisitor (the GM, in this case me), and go off grinding XP and doing quests. You start at level 1 and can progress to level 6-

Wait. Sorry. ;] My games tend to take on a more "RPG" aspect with very few dice being rolled. I try to make it as much about the characters as possible, and only bring up combat when it's necessary. I don't think that the games that other people run, combat dice fests, are very fun. As frankly, DH combat... just play 40k? No? This is an oppertunity to get something much more. It's like the difference between a good video game (Bioshock) and a bad one (Kane and Lynch 2). Story, narrative, character development.


However, this session will only be a few hours long, so I'll try and make it as interesting a plot as I can. If you're interested, email me or comment. There's 5 spaces. (:

You don't need to bring character sheets, pens etc. If I can get enough people, we'll discuss the wheres and the whens.

<3 Read more!

NOVA Thoughts

This is early (I know), I'm debating what army to run to Nova. I'd like to see what kind of feedback I get on this, and I'll put a poll up tomorrow. However, the options we have are:

Blood Angels - Mech Chassis Spam
Blood Angels - TH/SS Raider List
Grey Knights - Something with scouting dreadknights and probably PAGKs. Maybe, depends on the book.
Necrons - Depends on when the book comes out. I hope to god it comes out for NOVA.
Orks - I've always wanted a mek army, like the one i'm running to Cent
Space Wolves - Hybrid SW (similar to the ones that've been up on here).
Tau - Dakkadakkadakkadakka.

I'll put up a poll however, listing all armies I can think of, just to see what kind of response I get. :D

But for now, thoughts? It's from the stand point of best chance of doing well. Crons is obviously up in the air at the moment, but I'm leaning on SW. Read more!

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste..."

So folks, events have transpired in such a fashion that i'm no longer running BA to Centurion. Nor am I running SW.

Now, as some (most?) of you know, I'm an author for 3++ is the new black, while sitting chitchatting in their chatbox widget (most amazing thing ever) we got into a jokey conversation about there not being any orks at cent and someone needing to represent them. I'd mentioned I'd love to run an army like MVB's (27 tanks at 2k), then it got half jokey.

Now I'm seriously running an army I've never played with, seen played, or will have even literally seen until the night before the event. Hopefully I can get that changed before then (going to a LGS here and doing some serious counts as, as well as some vassal). Yeah guys, I'm running in blind, dead in the water.

This is going to be fun. Read more!