Battle For Salvation RTT Report

This past weekend was the Battle For Salvation RTT which saw 27 players @ 2K point playing three games over the day. Let’s start off with the tournament itself, my games, and then some observations with how I plan to move ahead for the next event with Tyranids.

While it’s true that I am a member of the BFS gaming club and do help out with events from time to time, for this RTT I was pure player- show up, play, and leave, so what I say is with a critical eye with no offense intended…

Terrain. Terrain was fantastic on all levels. “Themed” boards with LOS blocking center pieces, and even ruins, area, effect terrain on each side of the board. There was no lopsidedness, the last few boards with little to no terrain, etc. Everything was fair and based so there could be no argument. Visually they were also great being fully painted, modeled, and with details. Most of the pieces made you want to pick them up and borrow them for your army display board. Kudos to Ed and John for painting and building them.

Logistics wise the event started more or less on time, games and lunch went as scheduled, and the missions were clearly defined/NOVA format. Bobby the TO was walking around during each game, keeping an eye on the tables, players, and with rulebook in hand in case there were any questions. Hard to find any complaints about the event for the day.

Onto the armies…

Twenty seven players, three IG, two Dark Eldar, one Ork (!) and one Tyranid player- the rest all power armor. No Tau, Sisters, Eldar, or Necrons, pretty much the state of “competitive” 40K today. List wise everything was rock solid- all mech, lots of land raiders, jacked up terminators, and rifleman dreads- gone are any other tank variant like vindies or predators- also pretty much “competitive” 40K today. What I found very interesting was that Jawaballs brought his four land raider + Mepheston list which I think got rushed ahead a bit of schedule thanks to the changing of the meta that Grey Knights are bringing.

Onto the games…

First matchup was completely random and I drew a Space Marine bike list for Annihilation as the primary battle points and then victory points, objectives, and table quarters for the bonus points. The marine list looked a lot like my Saim-Hann list only for marines at less cost and more effectiveness in shots and the assault. Deployment was dawn of war and I took first turn putting out my HQ and two TROOPS tervigons, deepstriking the trygons, and then walking the rest on turn one, with my y-stealers going dormant…

Tactically I needed to get up there and tie those bikes up right away with spawned gaunts till my trygons could come in and deepstrike. Normally I would have just walked everything on turn one and then marched forward but with the shots and fast moving speed I’d never catch the marines and they would just dink me on kill points and run away- no hard feelings there because I would and do the same thing with my Saim-Hann.

Tarpit the bikes, and then finish them off with the trygons. It’s a plan!

Turn one I march the tervigons up and wait, figuring my T6 could hold a round of shooting and then start spawning as the marines move on- four bike groups lead by a captain, a group of scouts in reserve, three rifleman dreads, and three speeders move on and open up on my big bugs dropping two of them- plasma and melta suck. I’m like DAAAMMM this could be the game already since they are now going to sweep into my hive guard and gaunt fodder in the back lurking on objectives, and without synapse I’ll run at the drop of a hat.

I need those trygons to come in now, but they don’t, at least the y-stealers make an appearance and bust out of the center terrain- the question is now what to do with them? Get greedy? Gamble? I have a tendency to do that in tourneys and it usually costs me. Best example was when I was playing my Necrons once and my opponent deepstruck his termies and chaos lord and got a mishap. Now rather than me placing them far far away and out of the game, I drop them right into the core of my Necrons. Why? Kill points were bonus points and I wanted all those bonus points.

Mine, mine, mine!

On my turn I rapid fire thirty warriors into them and kill nothing. Fire off the monolith…nothing. Shoot six destroyers, kill nothing, charge with the “C’tan and miss! Lord strikes back with a poisoned demon weapon scoring tons of hits, I fail my 4+ saves and the C’Tan goes down. Now on my opponent’s turn his termies are running all around in the heart of my Necrons. Needless to say I lost that game.

So that’s what I’m thinking about wondering what to do with the y-stealers and since I’m already down so much I’m like let’s do it, and assault three bike units. I make lots of hits, but score one rend I think and the bikes win combat by one and then tie me up. Not what I was hoping for but at least I’ve stalled them.

Captain bike squad swings around and assaults my hive guard and venomthropes- losing one or two bikes on the way in due to dangerous terrain from the venom cloud as the captain takes on the venoms- with lash whips bringing him down to I 1 and poisoned attacks wounding on a 2+. Venoms hit! Venoms wound! Captain fails his 2+ armor saves, swings back, and misses! Hive guard vs. bikes are a wash. ‘Nids win the combat, and the bikes fail LD and run! On the stealers side I hit up some awesome rends winning the assault as the bikes break and start running. A round of stupid dice rolling has now shifted the game back to the center and maybe I can come back as long as the marines don’t break.

Eventually my last tervigon goes down, my spawned gaunts die, but the trygons finally come in. Most of the bikes run off the table but one squad regroups since I screw up with the massacre roll on the y-stealers and move them into terrain for cover saves pushing them farther away than 6” from a bike squad.

I keep the pressure on, the speeders and dreads continue to fire away, but once my trygons finally do arrive they get into the fight and at the end of the game I’ve tables the marines and captured all the bonus points.

At lunch Jawa and I grab some pizza and talk about his four raider list. The thinking is this- with grey Knights spamming so much AV 11/12 killing shots per turn, and with the ability to reliably alpha strike your list those points put into AV 11/12 boxes will be wasted. On the other side foot lists will get beat down even worse since all that psybolt stuff will be hitting and wounding like crazy. So what to do? AV 14 is the only conclusion.

Sure you can still get rended by psycannon spam, and will, but if you are not playing Grey Knights with Grey Knights what are your other options? What do you guys think? Only time will tell. In an iron twist currently the worst army in 40K NECRONS has the BEST vehicle in the game vs. Grey Knights- the monolith with living metal. I look forward to GW dropping living metal in the next codex since the monolith is already overpowered just like warriors which need to go down to a 4+ save and 5+ WBB to keep thing fare between them and Space Marines.

So apparently in round one only two guys scored a max/perfect score- Tyranids and a purifier/henchman/psyrifle dread spam Grey Knight list run by a gantleman named Nick. I was hoping to avoid this army and any DE armies, and I know I'm in trouble. I can see he is very confident with the match up, and why not? Pretty much an auto-win, but I'm not going down easy!

Mission is table quarters with bonus points for kill points, objectives, etc. The Grey Knights are all meched up, psybolted out, purifiers, basically a netlist. I’m trying to figure out what to do as we set up. Do I go for the win or be a jerk and play for a draw? I told myself that my goal for the day was to place in the top five with Tyranids. A draw or a loss would not do that, I needed the win. I was also kicking myself for not moving off some of the bonus objectives in the first game and scoring a few points less than max. I should have been smarter. There is no reason why I should have been facing this type of list. I should have been snacking on other Space Marines. Be that as it may, I decided to 100% got for the win, full attack. Zerg rush, punch him in his table quarter, box him up, bring in the stealers from dormant reserve and outflank, and then branch out from the center for table quarters and bonus objectives.

I take firs turn, Grey Knights try to seize twice with the re-roll and fail so the zerg rush is on. I take LOTS of shots going in but the venom cover saves and FNP means only one trygon goes down and a tervibug takes a few wounds. If I had any type of mech I would have been smoked before I got out of my deployment zone.

Zerging forward I finally crash the front lines and go to work on the razorbacks I managed to pop with the hive guard…and I just basically die…

Purifying flame kills my gaunts before I can even assault. Force weapons dink and instant kill my trygons and tervigon. Y-stealers do hit and do some damage which makes me happy, but even they die to purifying flame. Basically my assault army dies before I can even assault and get an attack off. My entire army is tabled without even getting to really hit back. WOW!

To say I was really deflated is an understatement. 100% not my opponent’s fault, he was a great guy, everything on the up and up, and played very well from a tactical point of view, but basically vs. Tyranids the core rules of the Grey Knights just wrecked me. What was GW thinking with cleansing flame? What were they thinking with mass force weapons?  Might not be bad against power armored armies, but against models with 5+/6+ armor saves? Force weapons instant killing 200 point + bugs with me not having a reliable way to try and stop them? I was pushing the shadows from the tervibugs up and forward but we all know how Tyranid psychic defense is... 

So now this means Dark Eldar not only rock Tyranids, which I can live with since it takes a rare player to play perverted space elves and I can play the odds at not facing them in a tourney, but now against Grey Knights which I can bet all WAAC players will be fielding to some extent. Am I being way dramatic here? Time to regroup for round three at at least not finish in the bottom five...

So turn three has me facing an IG army for objectives. Pretty standard IG build with chimeras and support tanks instead of valks, which is actually worse for me since the tanks put out more shots. I take first turn and start zerg rushing with FNP and the venoms up for cover saves. Chimeras roll up and plasma vets with take it down orders zap three of my trygons and a tervigon before I can crash the ranks. With my two remaining tervigons they basically spawn gaunts to glance and stun the chimeras as the tervibugs punch chimeras spilling the troops.

I then try to get them tied up in the assault so they won’t be shot to death. Pask plasma Russ rocks my hive guard and everything else it hits till my y-stealers can finally come in and punk it. I do a lot of damage but thanks to the tanks and shots a lot of guard stuff is still up.

I’ve got two objectives with some lurking gaunts and my opponent has one with some vets. He tank shocks one of my gaunt squads but get immobilized on the terrain on the way in next to an objective, blasts my other gaunt unit off as they fail LD thanks to no synapse, and my last tervigon finally kills a guard unit in the assault and massacre rolls onto an objective to contest.

Game ends and it all comes down to either a tie if an immobilized tank is contesting my objective, or a win for the space bugs if it isn’t. Of course I say it’s not contested, and my opponent says yes. I don’t want to be a jerk, and of course we are both going to say yes/no after such a hard fought game, so we get the TO to make a decision and the bugs have the objective for the win.

So two wins and a loss for the day ends me in 10th place, way short of my original goal, but with lots to really think about moving ahead over the next six months with Tyranids.

Are big bugs dead thanks to Grey Knights? Little bugs sure are. If I drop the big bugs then how ill I bust open all those land raiders that suddenly start appearing as the other marine armies start responding the ‘knights. If assault bug lists are dead what about shooting? Just as bad I’m afraid since warriors will get instant killed by pretty much every GK shot with a failed cover save and at the end of the day I can only get three hive guard.

Lot’s to think about. Grey Knights are the future of WAAC and I can’t count on Necrons or Sisters to offer an alternative to fighting them, so it is going to be a long next year plus till we hit 40K 6th edition and maybe some of the other xeno books...

Tyranids Vs. Dark Angels

Some interesting observations from this week’s game vs. Black Matt’s new Deathwing army, but more of that in a bit. 2K points, five objectives, and experimenting with my five tervigon list. Deathwing might be easy for most armies to deal with but for ‘nids they can be an uphill battle.

I know the trend today is to run all your termies on foot, but three land raiders as fire platforms, and mobile bunkers is really strong. I was pretty much eating las cannon shots the entire game since I had to focus on the terminators and not the bank ranks land raiders. Termies are also a hard nut to crack for nids since we have no AP1/2 and even my MC bounce off them with the 3+ invil save. Video battle report below, keep in mind that Matt and I are good friends so the all around trash talk is always in good fun…

So what did I learn? Tervigon spam sure is fun, but lacking some disruption units or alternate entry like outflank, deepstrike, or infiltrate means I have to walk across the table. One dimensional that basically relies on me overwhelming my opponent. Can I reliably do this each game? Maybe. Probably not against the new Grey Knight lists now hitting the BFS club- 6-9 psy razorbacks, 6 psy rifleman dreads, etc. I really need those back field units.

Let’s Talk Grey Knights! The Librarian.

I’ve been promising to get the ball rolling with Grey Knights for a while here on the blog so let’s get that ball rolling…

My Grey Knights date back to third edition I think, can’t fully remember when now, but basically the Grey Knights back then where anything but “grey”. Black power armor with gold highlights was their “official” color and my first knights looked just like that.

Later on with the previous codex I added some assassins, inquisitors, and storm troopers, which leaves me with a wealth of models to play around with, everything but a storm raven and Drago model.

Where to begin?

Basically I’m seeing the Grey Knights break down into two main lists- a pure GK list with no henchmen which is going to be very small, very elite, and perhaps unplayable due to the volume of shots coming down the table, or henchman spam lists with a spear tip of Grey Knight purifiers to spam those psycannons. Psybolt upgrades on razorback and rifle dreads are going to be stock and standard. The sad part that I am afraid of is that the WAAC netlists really are that good to play so in a tournament where the goal is to win, why would you play anything else. Shame since they book with henchmen opens up so many fun army builds. I’ve got two “fun” lists which I’ll post up next- one as an inquisitor leading an all assassin/death cult army, and the other as an inquisitor who has gone radical and embraced daemonhosts and the dark powers to fight chaos- fight fire with fire. Kudos to GW for allowing you to do these things, but for the most part they won’t see the light of any gaming tables.

So are you going to go henchmen/GK speartip spam or pure Grey Knights? Same question as in the old codex but the power levels of both have been bumped up.

At the core of a GK list is the librarian. Expect every list to have one, and make sure there is on in your list. Grey Knights are the masters of psychic powers and the librarians will kill and bury any Space Wolf powers and further make a mockery of Eldar farseers. In many ways the librarian IS a farseer in that he buffs your entire army and select situations. Long time Eldar players will feel at home right away, marine players who are used to psychic powers just being another special shooting attack will have a learning curve.

What am I doing with the librarian? Defensively shrouding is the BOMB with the +1 cover save. If you are playing pure Grey Knights and are a defensive army you are going to want to sit back in cover and claim that 3+ cover save for your models- including vehicles and walkers. Now layer this a bit more and combine that with venerable dreads. Take three dreads, make them venerable, put them in cover and blast away.

First my opponent has to hit, then pen, then pass my 3+ cover save, THEN destroy me, with a venerable re-roll and if they shake/stun me I just fortitude that off and keep firing away. Can you start to see how an elite “small” model army can hold its own? Having a small model count is fine if your opponent can’t reliably kill them and it takes lucky rolls to do so.

What if you are playing offensive ‘knights? Storm raven rush?

Personally I have my doubts about the storm raven just based on its flight stand. For the points it is a steal, it’s both a transport and gunboat, and I actually like the model, however since it stands so tall getting cover saves at the start of the game is very hard. If your opponent is going first and you start on the table, those ravens might go down. Reserves or not is a different post.

But if you do go first move fast for the 4+ cover save and then shroud for the 3+ cover save. Most of the time (read reliably) you will be in assault range on turn two. Defensively if you have cover you can still shroud them.

 

Librarians are also important as part of the terminator blob. At the start of the game you are defensive with them, but mid to end you are going to want to push those termies mid field to help secure objectives. Since this is a libby article we will talk about regular termies vs. paladins another time.

Think about this.

Ten termies with a libby push to the center in cover and hit shrouding. Now you have a 2+/3+ save making them essentially thunder hammer/storm shield models. You do have halberds right? Now if anybody is crazy enough to assault you, you are dinking them first AND your librarian is going to cast for difficult AND dangerous terrain. Your terminator blob is just going to sit there and well kill stuff without you having to kill stuff.

That is just a taste of what the librarian is going to bring to your army, let’s look at the grand master next...

Painting Space Bugs 101

One of the most challenging things about starting a new army, especially a horde heavy build like Tyranids is the overwhelming amount of space bugs that you have to paint over a more traditional/mainstream army like Space Marines.

How long should it take to get your army to a tabletop or better presentation? Months? Weeks? What about a day? Get your models built and primed and you can easily field a 2K point army the next day. Technically this is an “unpainted army” since everything is done with washes and inks…

First step is of course to build and prime your models. Priming is the most important step of the entire process. You need to use a smooth non glossy white primer covering all of the surfaces/angles of your models evenly. Give it a good two coats and make sure you use the same primer for all the models- color and texture of the primer will affect the outcome, so you need to do it all in one shot, or at least save a can or two for when you add more models to your army later.

Ok, step number two…

Primer is dry and now we are going to apply Gryphonne Sepia Citadel Wash over everything but the armored plates. Keep in mind that the wash will go on very light, but darken as it dries. The nice thing about the wash is that it is quick to apply and will fill in all the details/crevices in the model highlighting and contrasting them in one shot. Don’t worry about any overflow on the bases for now.

Step three…

You don’t have to wait for the wash to dry if you handle the model by the base, so the next step is to hit up the armored plates with Leviathan Purple Citadel Wash. Same thing, it will go on a little light and then dry out so one pass is more than enough. (Keep in mind the color on the plates is what gives the army a uniform look and you could go with any other color wash for your own hive fleet.)

Now onto the details…

For this part I like to let the models fully dry since you are going to have to get in close, and if you are painting them assembly line style, by the time you reach the end of the line the models at the front will be good to go.

Grab some red, green, and yellow ink. Bio hoses on the buggies and guns get inked red along with the implant tongues, etc., bio ribbing on the legs and arms gets hit with green, and finally the base of the feet and teeth get hit with yellow.

Let it dry and we are onto basing…

Horde armies soak up lots of basing materials so I wanted to go with something simple which I could later remove as I switched over batches of the army to some resin Jawabases, which get painted in the same manner as the models I might add, prime, wash, ink, and done.

Being the middle of winter at the time, with lots of rock salt being dumped on the roads (natural salt I may add) I scooped up lots of crystals and washed them with some homemade blue ink, and then set them out to dry. Add some bits of rock and rubble, paint the base black, and then flock with some snow basing and add a few “rock crystals”, done and done.

If anything I hope this offers some encouragement to the new painter out there to show that it is possible to get a decent looking army out on the table in an efficient manner so you can enjoy playing the game with a fully built and painted army.

Fritz out.

Tyranids Vs. Space Wolves

It's an ugly planet; a Bug planet. A planet hostile to life as we know it…

This week’s matchup at the club for my Tyranids was Space Wolves- a full on “competitive” list, 2000 points, NOVA mission format. The primary mission was objectives, with kill points, and then table quarters as the tie breakers. Given that my army bleeds kill points, design nature of the codex, I had to play for the primary win, while considering that the ‘wolves had two win options- go for objectives, or a tie on them so we go to kill points.

My list? Standard 2K- four tervigons, three trygons, hive guard/venoms, and Deathleaper filling in for DOM in a pod as I’m still tossing around ideas for both of them- I sure wish I had DOM for this battle.

My opponent’s list? Logan/Bjorn for the bonus objective (critical for the NV format), grey hunter/razor spam, two rifleman dreads, two MM/HF speeders, and three groups of long fangs- two missiles and one multimelta in a pod with Logan attached. I actually really like this wolf build even if it is spammy. You have the shots and redundancy in the long fangs and grey hunters, the bonus objective for Bjorn, and the multimelta pods with Logan to drop in the back ranks, split fire, and be relentless.

I won the roll off to go first, and passed first turn since the secondary objective was kill points-I wanted that final bottom turn to make sure I was on objectives, etc. so it didn’t go to kill points. Normally I want to go first.

Trygons in the front, tervigons behind, and gaunts behind them. The plan? Push forward and to the left a bit to maximize cover, spawn gaunts with the HQ tervigons, eventually drop back with the TROOPS tervigons and spawn to hold the two objectives on my deployment side.

Turn one has the usual krak missiles, las shots, and autocannon fire coming at me taking two wounds on a trygon and a wound a piece on the tervigons, along with losing a hive guard. I start moving up with the venom bubble and throw FNP on the trygons who move/run. Hive guard shoot a speeder stunning it (?) and gaunts fire some pew pew shots at it.

With all that firepower and me running forward the ‘wolves just sit there shooting away throwing on another wound or two but then my tervigons get into range and start spawning. I drop a load of gaunts who move, shoot, and then assault the first group of long fangs in some ruins. I don’t have grenades of course but with adrenals and poison on the tervigon they re-roll wounds. I lose a few, a few fangs drop, and combat is tied up. Next turn more gaunts pile in and the first fang group is down.

Wolves just keep on sitting there and shooting as the panic sets in that my big bugs are going to crash the front ranks and all the spammy shots aren’t going to stop them. In fairness what helped was some less then optimal rolling for a turn for the ‘wolves, and Logan’s pod not coming in till mid game.

More gaunts keep on spawning, moving and shooting the second long fang group, killing a few and then getting lucky with the wolves rolling a “12” twice in a row for LD as the run off the board. Pure luck, but I would have assaulted them anyway if needed.

Mid game the first tervigon and trygon go down, but I’m already in the back ranks blowing up dreads, razors and cutting down grey hunters. Small groups of grey hunters counter attack and for a mere 16 points a model, these guys sure are the best non dedicated assault troops in the game- they make quick work of two spawned gaunt units. Tell me again why Khorne Berserkers are 20+ points?

Bjorn starts making his way up and my plan is to just not kill him, ignore him so he can’t spawn an objective, unless he comes into my mid core where I have a tervigon and gaunts parked, then I’ll gamble at killing him to get the objective for myself, but no way am I killing him near the grey hunters.

Deathleaper pops in, shoots, does nothing, assaults next turn, kills a grey hunter and then gets cut down like nothing….sad face.

Logan and the last fang group finally comes in and they vape a tervigon, but they now have to deal with another backed by two already spawned group of gaunts, and they pounce along with a third spawned group- all striking with furious charge and poison makes quick work of the long fangs and drown Logan in the mob.

Now we are at the top of six with the Tyranids currently holding three objectives, and the ‘wolves one. Bjorn moves to the center and contests the one I’m holding there, and the last of a grey hunter group moves and contests the one that I hold in my opponent’s deployment zone, which means we both now hold one and if the game ends is a tie.

And I make the mistake that could have cost me the game…

What I can’t accurately capture in words is my attitude and feeling during the game. I have to eat two turn of shooting, lots and lots of shooting, 10 missiles, 2 TL auto cannon shots, 4 las plas, speeder shots, pod shots, etc. As I close with my Tyranids taking those shots it’s like a fury building in me, waiting to unleash the gaunts and run like crazy smashing things with the trygons…so when it happens I tend to go a little berserk and get excited. Sure that little group of three grey hunters is tactically out of the game and no threat, but I’ll swamp them with dozens of gaunts anyway to drown them in a sea of dice. That las/plas razorback has no weapons and is immobile, tactically move on, but I’ll hit it anyway with a trygon exploding. Against Space Wolves I want blood…

So in the final turn before we see if the game ends I forget to move my trygons like a n00b so focused on trying to drown Logan, that when I move into the assault phase they fail to hit range on the charge for the grey hunters contesting an objective. Blinded by visions of Khorne there is a good chance this will cost me the game. I charge a group of gaunts that kill a few hunters but they hold.

We are now tied for kill points and if the game ends we go to kill points which toast me. If the game goes on the hunters will go down and Logan will go down giving me three objectives to one for the Space Wolves…we roll it…game goes on, and they Tyranids secure the win.

After battle observations, the important stuff to walk away with from a game?

What has been encouraging me the most about Tyranids, confirmed on multiple occasions is that since they ‘SUCK” form a competitive point of view and at least around here 95%+ is marine mech there is no frame of reference in dealing with them, so marine players fight me like I’m space marines.

Examples from this game?

Why drop Logan and the multi-melta guys in the pods? From a marine point of view vs. marines this is SOP- drop it down and vape two mission critical vehicles, especially if they are land raiders or storm ravens with death star units inside. But for space bugs? A waste. Better to deploy them out center, and even with the 24” range on the multi-melta shots that is a turn or two of shooting as I’m on the way in. This unit alone shooting from turn two would have dropped a big bug.

Speeders were also tactically used wrong. How do marine players use them? Cheap fast moving suicide units to take out incoming mech or a shooty bunker tank like a predator. Makes sense fighting marines, but again, vs. space bugs? What is there to suicide? You zerg rush with the speeders, pop off shot which can’t kill anything single shot, and then the speeder dies.

Marines inside of transports. SOP is to just stay inside since they really don’t do much other then make the vehicle scoring, can’t shoot out of the razorback and no special weapons. Against SB? Deploy out and in front- every bolter shot at 24” is a potential wound, even against a trygon. When the buggie horde gets close then hop back in the transports and zip away.

Dave, I’m not busting on you here, just pointing out that my win was really because you didn’t know what you were fighting and what to expect. Hands down you had the better list and army, but no frame of reference at how to apply it vs. space bugs. Now you know, and if we face each other at the BFS tourney I’m toast. You also freaked a bit mid game once I started spawning all those gaunts turn after turn and zerged you. I took the momentum, dictated the fight, and never looked back.

From the bug perspective?

Need to keep my cool once the slaughter begins. Such a n00bish mistake could have cost me the game. A good example of when you are “losing” to hang tight and wait and see what mistakes your opponent makes. I had the ‘wolves 90% wiped out and most of my army intact but still could have lost. Need to stay focused.

Deathleaper…sigh…I should know better, DOM back in the list, or even Y-stealers for that matter.

Tervigons- man if only I could get five in the list at 2K AND have enough points for my other toys.

I have a game lined up for next week so can’t give away all the secrets of how I’ve been playing them since said opponent lurks here. You better be ready for me next week, I’ve got you in my sights locked and loaded…

Fritz & Jawaballs Tournament?

First up, as long as we are talking tournaments I am going with the ‘nids tomorrow and for the next few over the summer. I made a personal commitment to this, to try and show what space bugs can do, and I want to see how it plays out…just praying not to face Dark Eldar. Have to stay the course...

I’m going to continue working on my Grey Knight plans, and they will also roll out over the summer but just at the club with pickup games, with the results and ideas posed of course.

But back to tournaments…

For a long time JB and I have been thinking about running our own tournament, a series of tournaments that run each year, and recently I’ve been thinking about this idea more and more.

What kind of tournament would I run?

First, there is no need for me to recreate the wheel or infringe on any other events given the blood, sweat, and tears these guys have put into them. I’ve ran big events for my job before and I respect what goes into them. I don’t need or want another competitive tournament. I would like a smaller intimate event- feeling is most important for me.

I want to recreate my early 40K experiences when I use to play with my buddy Naps in his basement. Maybe I’m getting to that point in my 40K career where nostalgia is hitting me hard, or I just need a break from the current razorspam 2K competitive environment.

What is that feeling I want to create?

I want you and your opponent to sit down at a gorgeous themed table like you would see in White Dwarf, play a smaller tactical based mission, and leave the game as best friends with fun memories that you will have for a long time. I want to create a hobby event that is FUN, but rewards good tactical play. No setting up, rolling to see who goes first and that determines the winner. I want to give out prizes for first, second, and third place, best painted, but also for cool events that happen on the table over the course of the three games. I want the players to feel the fluff, like they are really a part of the 40K universe and on the table with their models, not just rolling handfulls of dice...

Can something like this be done?

I’ve already started working on the overall format and the twelve missions- each event will feature three random missions. When I’m done and have play tested everything to death it will all get rolled up into a packet and available for everybody to see, so guys (and gals) can know beforehand if it is the type of event they would like to play in.

We’ll see…

Kick Jawaballs In The Jawanutz For Me!

So here we are two days out to what is shaping up to be a fun tournament this weekend and I haven’t really slept for the past two night…

Why you ask? Busy scheming with my Tyranids? Up playing DDO? No, and that is the problem!

I WAS, and perhaps still am, ready to field my 2K Tyranid list and bring the pain, but thanks to Jawaballs all I can think about is bringing my Grey Knights to the tourney, and this isn’t the usual last minute Fritz switcharoo- I only do that with Necrons.

JB and I have been cooking up some fun Grey Knight stuff for both our armies and I have to say I’m really pumped and excited with the possibilities. I love my paladins, dam the cost! Just the FACT that I can field a two wound termie is all I need to know regardless of they suck or not. Jawa this is all your fault!

So what to do?

On the one hand I’m kind of ok with not playing Tyranids since, at least for me, I’ve “unlocked” them and have had a good showing with them in the past two tourneys and recently at the club. I could be ok with letting them sit for a bit…

…but on the other hand I KNOW the space buggies at this point and a few of the players that I know will be attending this event are..well…how to put it nicely, huge WAAC guys. Nothing wrong with this being a tournament and all, but with the bugz if I face them I feel like I could put up a good fight, while the Grey Knights ARE still a work in progress at this point from a tactical level even if I have a solid base.

What to do…

A little more on Grey Knights?

Basically I see them breaking up into two camps- Grey Knight vs. Henchman spam. I understand and applaud GW for including henchmen so your model collection isn’t void, but personally if you are going to spam henchman to just get the psybolt vehicles on the table plus some psyrfile dreads you are really just playing Imperial Guard…boring and ho hum.

What is shaping up as the competitive GK list is of course rhinos/razors with psybolt ammo, small psycannon squads, and the three psyrifle dreads. Lots of shots, lots of rending, and some good assault ability. More of the same for 5th edition and well…boring also.

What I do see happening is the possibility of AV 10/11 going bye bye since GK’s are going to fill them with so many holes and kill them all by turn two/three- you just can’t repel fire of that magnitude. AV 14 is going to be the way to go, but even land raiders can be hit with the lucky rend.

Personally my GK list will have a solid group of paladins at their base and build from there. The nice thing about the ‘knights, being a Space Marine ‘dex is that there are really no bad choices in the book. Unlike Tyranids where GW wanted you to buy the new models they killed/nerfed ALL the old stuff, with GK’s all their models are new so there is no nerf bat.

Grey Knight players, what are your plans? Still in the build phase or are your ‘knights on the table?

Malifaux: First Play

So last Friday the Warmaster Black Matt and I went down to the Complete Strategist in NYC to play some Malifaux and maybe throw down some 40K with some of the guys at the Warmongers club: http://warmongers.ziggyqubert.com/tiki-index.php  .

Matt and I had been itching to play some Malifaux for a while- him from the miniature paint perspective, and me from the small skirmish game perspective. I have been really enjoying my Mordheim games and so was looking for something from a non GW “system” to compare it against. We also figured having some of the guys at the WM club help us with the rules would cut down on the learning curve, which it did tremendously- much thanks. Matt has some vids up on his blog with the game, which I’ll sum up nicely before me review of the mechanics.

Matt’s crew lead by some undertaker dude had to kill my crew, while my crew lead by Pandora had to retrieve a treasure marker from the center of the table and then make it back to my table edge. Matt’s strategy was to dig up and raise some punk zombies along the way and overwhelm me, while mine was to grab the treasure and then run away as fast as I could. In the end the game was a tie, Matt killed some of my crew and I grabbed that loot so we were both 50/50. I should add that while techincally it was a "tie" any game where Black Matt doesn't win is a default win for me...

Game Mechanics?

The critical look at it.

I’m going to be honest here with Malifaux, putting it under the microscope from my point of view as an avid miniature wargamer, board game player, and RPG player dude…

GOOD

Miniatures- The minis for each crew are fantastic right out of the box. Nothing needed to convert. Easily on par with the new plastics and metals coming out of GW. From a game perspective this is huge, as the looks and flavor of the minis are half the game. Nobody wants to play with bad looking stuff. Personally I like the fact they are metal and your entire crew is $50 or less- no GW money grabs here.

Gameplay- Nice and fast, even with Matt and I fumbling through the rules from time to time. Being a skirmish game it’s nice to be able to get in two or three games in the same time a single 40K game would take.

Game Involvement: Alternating turns by activating models was really fun. Unlike 40K/Fantasy there is no sitting around while your opponent makes all their moves, shots, and powers. There is an added layer of depth almost like chess as you move a model based on what your opponent has moved or can move.

Powers: Each model has a number of unique powers you can activate which is really cool- from the 40K perspective imagine if each model was its own psyker or HQ like unit with cool wargear and stuff. Matt was using a number of “hanged” models which throw out their noose and pull your model closer as an example- still can’t get away from playing lash! On my side Pandora had enough powers going off that would make Eldrad jealous.

First Turn: Each turn both players draw a card to see who goes first, followed by possibly countering said card. This was really cool- sometimes you want to go first, other times you don’t. No IG parkinglot alpha strikes here from what I can see.

BAD

Cards: Malifaux uses cards over dice to propel the game which while not really a bad thing lends to an even more random nature then dice in my opinion- kind of like the board game Talisman if you have ever played that game, which for the record I have to say is my favorite all time game, more than 40K! This isn’t always a bad thing, but could really play havoc with any type of strategy you may have. Combined with the powers of each model it really felt like I was just playing Magic The Gathering with miniatures as tokens. If I wanted to bust out cards and combos, interrupting my opponent, etc. then well I would play Magic and not a miniature game. Played Magic, been there and done that…

INDIFFERENT

Two things I also noted which personally don’t really influence me one way or another was the use of terrain and the background fluff of the game. Terrain is like 40K 4th edition with different elevations, and movement rates depending on terrain. Is this good or bad? Just something to get re-used to in my case, taking a step back from 40K 5th edition to 40K 4th edition. While it might not make sense visually on the table, it certainly cuts down on potential arguments.

Fluff: Wyrd, fantastic miniatures, interesting mechanics, but really, couldn’t you come up with something even remotely more original?

The game takes place in a ruined city where various guilds control crews that enter the city in search of “soul stones” which have magical properties = Malifaux.

Vs.

The game takes place in a ruined city where various warbands enter the city in search of “wyrdstones” which have magical properties = Mordheim.

Kind of a letdown on that one.

The final verdict?

Interesting enough to play as a hobby to 40K and I’ll be picking my primary crew out, but I can’t see (and don’t have) the time to devote to the meta of it enough to play in tournaments. Fills an interesting spot when you want a break from GW rules or don’t want to push around 100+ models or play something in power armor…

Starting Harlequin Exodites

Hey Fritz,

Recently after selling my Tau I have had an obsession to start a Eldar Exodite force.

For obvious reasons I'd like a foot list that is still somewhat fluffy, hence my choice for a Harlequin themed army.

This is where I ran into a snag.

Wraithlords are hard to justify for use in a Exodite army (Read: Utterly Unfluffy) and so decided on war walkers instead. Now I know they are the sub prime choice etc etc but I was wondering what a 500 point army would look like that could be relatively easily (And hopefully cheaply!) be expanded into a 1000, 1500 and 1750 point list?

Hope to hear from you,

Adam

Reply Out:

Adam, thanks for emailing, interesting times for harlequins/exodites since you can go down both the Eldar AND the Dark Eldar path with harlies making an appearance in both books. The reason I have wraithlords in my harlie army is b/c if you are playing a full harlequin list (read 30 clowns) you don’t have many points left over so your other models need to fill multiple roles. The wraithlords have survivability, can shoot, and have some punch in the assault- not in a dedicated unit kind of way but there is that crossover there.

War walkers have to shooting and can assault in a pinch to tie up a unit till the harlies can come in and rescue them, but where they fall short is in survivability. The army design you need to think about is this.

You are sitting across for an IG/Space Wolf spam army with a ton of shots- thanks to veil of tears they can’t target your harlequins at all, so where are all those shots going to go into? That is why in my design of pathfinders, harlequins, and wraithlords they are all hard to shoot- can’t target the clowns, the pathfinders get the 2+ cover save, and the wraithlords are T8 with a 3+ save- throw in a farseer with fortune and the army can stand up to much much more then guys see on the surface, so they have to close with you, and when they do, the harlies pounce, but we are getting away from your exodie theme here…

If you use warwalkers you are going to need a dedicated farseer to sit there next to them and throw up fortune. With them behind cover for the 4+ they can be around for a bit. As long as the farseer is there throw up guide on them so you are getting even more out of them. The plus side of the walkers is that they are cheaper then wraithlords so you have more points for troops.

At 500 points I’d start with a farseer with guide and a singing spear, two ranger groups five strong, and eight harlequins with a shadowseer, death jester, + kisses.

Basically you sit in cover and force your opponent to come to you. If the rangers take a lot of shots they go to ground for the 2+ save. You stay just at 20” or so with the deathjester so he can take pot shots but your opponent can’t shoot back. Use him to open up razorbacks and the like, and when your opponent closes assault with the harlies. Farseer joins the harlies to take some wounds and to throw on guide for the jester to make sure he hits. Mid game the farseer can break off as a speedbump or to contest something if he/she is still alive.

At 1K+ points you start adding more harlequin units and war walkers, while upgrading the rangers to pathfinders, and eventually switching your farseer over to Eldrad- he is also critical in the list for the number of powers he can throw around each turn plus the divination redeploy.

That should give you some starting points to think about, hit me back up if you have some more ideas, or maybe want to go with guardians as your troops.

-Fritz

Edit: Shameless plug for my harlie guide.

There Be Dragons Here…

Are things coming together for another army? Aren’t two Tyranids armies enough? Depends on what the upcoming Harpy looks like, I’m hoping it looks like total crap so I don’t have to add it to the collection of man-toys…

I’ve already decided that if I’m doing another Tyranid army I want to do an army of all "dragons". Hive Tyrants that look like dragons, harpies that look like dragons, gargs and warriors that look like dragons, and I’ll throw in some lizardmen that worship them as gaunts. I’ve already been looking through some of the fantasy stuff for ideas.

I saw the Forgeworld model above on display at one of the Games Day a while back before I was even playing Tyranids and it always kind of stuck with me, something like this leading the army. Then there is a guy at the club with this beauty, a Harridan I think? It is so bad ass for the simple reason that it casts a shadow on the gaming table. Epic.

So if I was going to do a dragon themed army what models/conversions should I be looking at?

Fritz, what about Necrons!

Based on the rumors of lords opening up different force org configurations (why couldn’t Tyranids have done this..agghhhh) I’m planning on two lists, and I don’t have a leaked codex or anything of the sort yet, but I’m sure I will in time…

First army is to do all destroyers and flying Necrons. Bolt on my tactica and experience from playing Saim-Hann and I’m ready to come out swinging as soon as the bell goes off. I’m also really interested in the construct lord- lots of MC’s and tomb spyders.

In time…

Soon...

Tyranids: 3 x 3 List Explained

Battle for Salvation RTT is like two weeks or so away, here is one last plug for the event for the few open spots still left: http://www.battleforsalvation.com/rtt/ , but that isn’t what this post is fully about…

You guys want lists? Here is the list I’m running for the event, how it works, and what I’m (hopefully) going to do with it, I’ll also follow up in a bit with my commando ‘stealer list which was a close second. No harm in posting it now since I’ve been playing it at the club for the past few weeks and talking about it bit by bit here on the blog, not like it is a "secret" or anything.

Fritz's Tyranid 3 X 3 List

== HQ ==

Tervigon (1) - Scything Talons, Stinger Salvo, Toxin Sacs, Cat = 190 pts.

== Elites ==

Venomthrope Brood (3) = 165 pts.

Hive Guard Brood (3) = 150 pts.

The Doom Of Malan'tai Brood (130 pts.)

The Doom Of Malan'tai (1) = 90 pts.

Mycetic Spore (1) = 40 pts.

== Troops ==

Tervigon (1) - Stinger Salvo, Toxin Sacs, Cat = 185 pts.

Tervigon (1) - Stinger Salvo, Toxin Sacs, Cat = 185 pts.

Termagant Brood (10) - Fleshborer = 50 pts.

Termagant Brood (10) - Fleshborer = 50 pts.

Broodlord Brood (116 pts.)

Broodlord (1) = 60 pts.

Genestealer (4) = 56 pts.

Broodlord Brood (116 pts.)

Broodlord (1) = 60 pts.

Genestealer (4) = 56 pts.

== Fast Attack ==

Spore Mine Brood (3) = 30 pts.

== Heavy Support ==

Trygon (1) - AG, Instinctive Behavior - Feed = 210 pts.

Trygon (1) - AG, Instinctive Behavior - Feed = 210 pts.

Trygon (1) - AG, Instinctive Behavior - Feed = 210 pts.

== Total ==

1997 pts.

The core of the list is the three trygons in front and the three tervigons behind them casting feel no pain. Sandwiched in-between them is the three venomthropes. This group moves and acts as a bubble, at best the trygons get a 4+ cover save potentially followed by FNP, second is a 5+ from the venoms and FNP, and at 100% worst a 5+ from the venoms. I don’t expect the trygons to last till the end of the game if they are doing their job right. As this mass moves forward mid game the two scoring tervigons break off, pull back and secure objectives, while the HQ tervie keeps pushing forward, throwing FNP on the last surviving trygon.

Hive guard deploy on the left or right hopefully using cover or at last touching the venom bubble for the 5+. They like to target rhinos, razorbacks, and especially speeders with multi-melta shots. Not going to waste my time on land raiders. If I can get them into position where they can 100% hide and shoot around stuff, even better, but actually, against common sense it is better to have them exposed with a cover save so they CAN be shot at- shots on them are not shots on the trygons. The guants move up as blobs, extensions of the tervigons for counter attack and poison. While they can be used for scoring and sometimes are, their real role is to tie stuff up and swarm kill things. If my opponent tries to overload my trygons with more targets then they can handle, and tervigons suck in the assault, then I’ll use a group of gaunts to tie up the unit- perfect for tarpitting dreads and the like. Throw and speedbumps or single deathstar units my way like Mepheston and I’ll swarm him with dozens of attacks that wound on a 4+ and force as many “1” armor saves as I can. Gaunts die in droves, who cares, I’ve got more on the way. I also use them to pull units out of cover, tie them up for a turn, and then hit the out of cover unit with a trygon to get around not evolving grenades yet.

For backfield disruption I’ve got DOM coming in on a pod for those pesky heavy weapon teams, at best killing guys, at worst buying a turn of non-shooting on the big bugs. Three spore mines are there since 30 points is nothing for the potential of what it buys. To have any chance of working I need to go first so they scatter a bit, since if my opponent goes first they just get shot and blow up. 50/50, but again its only 30 points.

And then there are the two commando stealer groups which have been my recent favorites and MVP’s. In this list I was first running a big blob of stealers as a disruption unit. They got shot up, killed, and bought time for my trygon core to come forward. Worked ok, but I wanted worked better. Problem with ‘stealers is that if they don’t get shot up they charge a unit in cover and die from being hit first and lacking an armor save. It sucks. You get around this by running multiple large groups like in my null deployment list(s), or you go commando.

In this configuration it is all about the brood lord, and the other stealers are kind of like bodyguards. Small in size means they can actually (potentially) infiltrate and hide behind LOS blocking stuff, especially in certain deployment types and zones. They aren’t a super threat like the three trygons or a swarm of ‘stealers, but they aren’t a non threat like the spore mines or gaunts. Plus, having two small groups means I have the potential to outflank them in certain deployment zone missions where my opponent castles up. Would like hive commander, Swarmy’s side re-roll, but the points invested are ok even if I miss the table side I want to come in on. If that happens then I just hide, go to ground, use them to run and hold back objectives, contest table quarters, etc.

So there you go, the 3 (tervigons ) x 3 (trygons) list, plan, and mini tactica primer. We will see how it plays out, battle reports, comments, etc. to follow after the event…

Last Call For The BFS RTT On 5/21!

One last round up for the Battle For Salvation RTT on May 21- right now we have just under ten spots left with no room to add or expand tables- once the event is full that’s it…

2000 points, three round battle point format with awards for best general, best painted, etc. You don’t have to have a fully painted army to play, but everything must be WYSIWYG.

If you have been following my blog for the past few weeks you know what I’m bringing and what I’m planning to do, but a bunch of the other BFS guys will be bringing their best game against you also…

Black Matt is on a Deathwing kick, Brother Captain James with his first turn Shrike infiltrating terminators spam list, Jawaballs with his new tri-raider blood priest BA list, not to mention a bunch of the guys bringing the Grey Knights to the table.

No quarter asked, none given.

If you have been sitting on the fence, the immortal god emperor of mankind orders you to register now!

http://www.battleforsalvation.com/rtt/

Codex: Escalation

Ahh, I feel much better now that I got all my nerd rage out regarding the new Necron rumors. My favorite LOL! moment was a comment an another board that Necrons had to be reduced to a 4+ save and 5+ WBB roll since the current 3+/4+ is just way over powered. Really? How is that working out for ‘crons right now?

But what I found most interesting was a personally confirmation about the trends GW is going with regarding imperial books vs. xeno books as we build the lead up to 40K 6th edition. We may not know when 6th is coming, but it is coming sooner rather than later…

The trend now seems to be that marines get across the board T4 and a 3+ save while “xenos” get majority T3 and maybe T4 but a 4+ to no save. Marines can count on the base stats throughout the game while xenos get some sort “gimmick” to make up for it and balance it out.

But what happens when your gimmick doesn’t work out or take into account other effects in the game?

What do I mean?

Tyranids gimmick is that they can do some awesome stuff in the assault. Reroll hits, wounds, etc. rending, MC status. On paper it looks great, but GW failed to stack it up with the rest of the game. I have to get to the assault but have no transports, have to engage the assault, but I have no grenades, and then I have to take a round of shooting before the next assault but have no armor saves or vehicles to get back into.

Let’s look at Necrons?

Lose a point from the armor save but I get a 5+ WBB that can’t be negated? Well pump enough shots into my unit and they all go down as opposed to just half going down from the armor save and now I have a 5+ which relies on chance- thanks, you can keep that, I’d rather have the T4/3+.

It’s kind of like the article I wrote a few weeks back regarding building a tournament list- you go with things you can count on like more units over things that rely on chance like rending or regeneration.

Please don’t take my tone for hating on ‘nids or Necrons- I’m having a blast playing Tyranids especially since guys can’t believe they are losing to them, and they cry like crazy at the overpowered ability of trygons and tervigons, AND I will be playing Necrons no matter how good or bad the ‘dex is- I’ll make it work…

So how am I adapting my thinking to this trend if it is emerging and what I’m seeing for 40K 6th edition?

I think 6th edition is going to be about finding ways to make sure your xenos keep their gimmicks and how you can prevent marines from taking them away. Not really related, but I am concerned about the release of Eldar and other xeno books in 6th.

So next up is Necrons, and then an imperial book- doesn’t matter which one, let’s say SOB for now to get it out of the way, and then probably 6th edition.

6th drops and what needs to be updated?

Imperial: Dark Angels, Black Templars.

Xeno: Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Tau, Eldar, Maybe Chaos Daemons.

Xenos are the majority of the books, which will be written with 6th in mind, the others playing catch-up. Is GW going to let its flagship book of SM/BA/SW languish for a moment? I don’t think so. I’m hoping they don’t but I can totally see the imperial books heading back to the front of the line for 6th edition updates as the remaining xenos again wait their turn. Why can’t all the books be updated in a timely manner- ready within a year of each edition happen? Please tell me why other than $$$$$.

I’ll finish this rant by saying overall I do think it is a good thing that GW is getting rid of the MEQ stat line across all the books, as long as the xeno books can keep what makes them special, different, and worth playing.

Upcoming post on the third wave of Necron rumors, and just for fun, based on the hyped rumors what kind of armies I’m looking to build.

Rant over.

Fritz out.

More Tyranids Disruption Units?

So a lot of my recent posts have essentially been a flowing stream of Fritz experimentation and consciousness as I shape my Tyranids up for tournament play- and time is running out! Three weeks or so till the first one of the season! Sometimes I contradict myself, other times it seems so obvious what I’ve “discovered” after the fact- at best I hope my fellow Tyranid players are getting some new ideas, and for the non-xeno players out there what you can expect to face…

So back to disruption units…

Here is a quick recap- while my big bugs advance I need something to “disrupt” the back ranks of my opponent’s army- something to occupy the long fang spam or X heavy weapon spam firing down shots before I can close. Now way I am going to “kill” 2-3 teams of ‘fangs or devastators, but If I can prevent them from shooting for a turn that is a huge deal.

First stab at a disruption unit was a group of y-stealers. Fun as hell to play, but entirely dependent on terrain. Fine for a NOVA format tourney where terrain is set to what is supposed to be played in 40K, but in other tourneys where the terrain is VERY light I’ve wasted the points and effectiveness of the unit. Plus assaulting into cover or through cover kills them.

Next up was DOM.

Well he needs a pod adding to the cost- 140 base, but the pod can scatter. I’m over the hurt feelings of the Tyranids FAQ, but anything DOM will be zapping will be getting a cover save, and then next turn he essentially dies, which I am ok with, but the scatter on the pod made it hit or miss.

Followed by spore mines.

On the plus side they used a fast attack slot and are cheap for what you get in terms of points. Down side is that if your opponent goes first they are 100% wasted and even if you go first they tent to wander off like squigs. Same kind of problem coming down in a pod.

Finally onto lictors, which is where I am at right now…

While my first instinct is to take deathleaper for the –LD hit and ability to pull out and contest an objective turn five, I have to keep in mind the OBJECTIVE of the model- a one way suicide trip to cancel a turn of shooting. Deathleaper is a lictor for an entirely different list- Null Deployment, for this a regular lictor will do at 65 points.

With his ability to place anywhere and go to ground if needed for terminator like cover saves he fits in perfectly.

Of course all these options work off reserves and even with a 50% chance of coming in on turn two things can go wrong…

Tervigon Spam For Tournaments?

Fritz: I need more gaunts stat!

With four tervigons on the table at 2K points spawning 80-100 gaunts a game is an awesome sight. Sending them out in droves to die, and if I even kill a marine or two I’m ahead of the game. Swamping IC’s that have broken off as speed bump to hit them with dozen of shots followed by poisoned attacks in close combat, tying up dreads in the assault, all awesome to behold and soooo much fun to play…

…but what happens when they all constipate out by turn two?

And this is the dilemma I’m facing. As much as I have been rolling like a champ in the past few games, so much that I want five, even six in the list, I am playing a numbers game. Am I going a bit extreme? Am I better scaling back my list a bit taking less tervigons and more stock units like warriors and ‘stealers?

Is it better to start the game with less, but know I can count on it or gamble with possibly creating more, but then winding up with less?

While I am known to take extreme and stupid risks in tournaments which usually don’t work out, just can’t seem to back down from a challenge, the logical side of me says to error on the side of caution and go with the guaranteed results, as much as anything can be guaranteed.

Necron Rumors?

So BOLS has some more Necron rumors that they pulled from somewhere. Awesome that the rumors are trickling down, which means ‘crons might actually be the next ‘dex to drop, but I also have to get my Grey Knight stuff finished first! Here are my first thoughts on the rumors…

13) Necron Warriors have the same basic statline they had before except they now have a 4+ save. Now before you go crazy, also note that their points cost is 12 points, which is a 1/3 price drop (down from 18 points). That means you get 1/3 more Warrior models in the army for the same amount of points...it also makes losing an entire unit due to sweeping advance, not nearly as painful.

4+ save? Really. This sucks, ask any Tyranid player. Paying points for a 4+ stinks b/c you can get them for “free” via terrain or cover saves from other models. 3+ is a big deal. Ok, they cost less in points, which does reek of a GW money grab, but what about C’Tan technology and living metal? Oh right, only Space Marines can have a 3+ save.

14) Immortals have lost their T5 (down to T4), but keep their 3+ save. However, their points cost has dropped to 17 pts a model, which is an 11 point drop (more than 1/3 a drop from the previous cost of 28 pts)!

Ok so if this is true why do I want to take immortals? 17 points for a “Space Marine” that knows fear, can be cut down, no special upgrades, and can’t assault for anything? Assuming they still keep the two S5 shot blaster I’m still not fully convinced here either. Compare that to a Grey Hunter and everything they get as both a single model AND a unit.

15) All units in the army benefit from the new WBB rule, not just the units that were formerly classified as 'Necrons' in the current codex (even Scarabs!). So although you're only getting a 5+ save in many cases, you're still getting it on some of the more expensive stuff in the army as well (and there are some pricey new units to counterbalance the relatively cheap Warriors and Immortals). Also the vehicle that can add models back into the unit is also able to use this ability on any unit.

WBB on a 5+ WTF? Again, not as good as it sounds with SO many things that deny WBB- not just AP 1/2 weapons which every marine and guard army packs like candy, but also sweeping advances will destroy the army. Me thinks the original commenter doesn’t play Necrons...

15) Rez Orb is still in the game and boosts the new WBB rule to a 4+ instead of a 5+, but only affects the unit it is in. I have a strong suspicion that this is an upgrade that Crypteks can take (I'll confirm if I find out), so I'd imagine you can get quite a few units in the game getting the 4+ bonus save if you want to pay the points to take them for your Crypteks and then split those Crypteks off to lead units.

Is paying for a 4+ going to be worth it? Is it entire army wide or just X range? Either way it will cut into other wargear options.

16) Veil of Darkness is now definitely something Crypteks can take (so you can have a bunch of 'em in the army), but it no longer allows a unit to be pulled out of combat (and neither does the Monolith), except in the case of the Veil carried by one of the named Lords.

Not that bad anyway since with the changes from 4th to 5th most Necrons don’t hold in combat anymore to pull out of anyway. Here is keeping my fingers crossed that you can still veil out and then veil back in on the same turn, and that it doesn’t work like Deathleaper.


17) In the new fluff it sounds like the C'Tan were mainly killed off by the Necrons (or something like that), so the C'Tan that you field in the game are just remaining shards of their power. They're naturally still a really mean Monstrous Creature who rocks in combat, but you can also purchase a bunch of different abilities. These abilities are in line with a lot of the things we've seen in the last few codexes, things like: messing around with Deep Striking enemy units, making enemies moving through terrain differently, and allowing the Necron player to change some of his deployment, etc. So it sounds like you have a lot of different options with the C'Tan that really mess with the enemy army and/or supplement your own. And they are not one per army (so you can have 3 if you want to use up all your Elites on them, although it sounds like the other Elites choices are pretty awesome as well).

Star Gods are gone, they are back in, then gone, will just have to see on this one…


19) Besides a few units that are Fearless (Wraiths, Tomb Spyders and Scarabs), the army doesn't have any sort of blanket immunity to morale. They are still Ld10, but obviously we know that still leaves them very vulnerable to being run down in combat, and it looks like that will remain a big Achilles heel.

Really GW? How are immortal undead space robots NOT fearless? With 80% of the codex sucking ballz in the assault, they will still get cut down like grass. More and more from what I hear it is looking like I’m going to be right that there are only going to be two “killer” Necron builds- fast destroyer spam so at least they can’t catch you, and MC spam so at least you are big, bad, and fearless. So far warriors, immortals, and the like are just ho hum fodder.


20) Scarabs sound great. They are cheap, have the new WBB rule, move like beasts and have an ability that erodes enemy armor when they get into combat with it. Any non-vehicle model they wound, but don't kill, has its armor save turned to a dash (i.e. nothing) for the rest of the game. If they hit a vehicle, on a 4+ the vehicle loses a point of armor value on ALL facings, and if any facing is reduced to zero, then the vehicle is destroyed (I'm not sure if this ability kicks in for each hit they get on the vehicle, or just once no matter how many hits they cause). There are some items in the army that also have a similar ability to erode armor, including one of the C'Tan powers. So it sounds like Scarabs may play a major role in most Necron armies!

Good thing I have like 60 bases! Suicide units to blow stuff up before the destroyers and MC;s move in?


21) Overall, CC is definitely still the weak point of the army, but it looks like they've got a lot of different places they can take special rules to slow down or screw with approaching enemy, including some of the C'Tan powers, but also some of the different gear they can take. But they also have some different potential counter-assault units, which mainly come out of the Elites section (besides the new Walker, the C'Tan and the flayed ones in Elites there are 3 OTHER brand new units in there as well, for a grand total of 6 Elites choices). The Flayed ones are, being consistent, cheaper than they were and now have 3 Attacks base (but their save is now 4+ as with standard Warriors). One of the other new Elite units is also CC oriented, but is very pricey points wise (but is S5/T5/3+save). This unit can wield a Warscythe, but they are not called Pariahs (no idea if that's what Pariahs have 'turned into' or not).

Me thinks this is going to be the Tyranid problem all over again… COOL & EFFECTIVE elites, but you can only take three = FAIL. Unless, GW writes it so your lords and HQ’s can open up other slots which seems to be a possibility.


22) Fast Attack has 4 choices...Wraiths, Tomb Blades (jetbikes), Scarabs & Destroyers.

Wraithwing? Time to start stocking up on wraiths?

That said, now is a great time to be buying up stock Necron units like wraiths for next to nothing since nobody wants them.

Other things that I want to know as I prototype out my new army...

Monolith living metal? In/Out? Take that away and they are junk in the melta/las meta of today.

Heavy Destroyer stats? Can I take 5 in a unit?

Destroyer Lord? In or out?

Can Tomb Spyders still poop out Scarabs, maybe they will work like undead tervigons?

Developing....