Return Of The Swooping Hawk?

Return of the swooping hawks- no that isn’t a mistype, I’ve been reevaluating my position on swooping hawks and their place in the Eldar warhost. More than ever we have to move past looking at the points = base line stats + wargear in evaluating Eldar units. T3, 4+ save, and essentially a las gun for 20+ points a model? Sounds about right for Eldar, just because they are Eldar- you wouldn’t dare see IG or imperials with that stat line and points.

But what else do we gain?

Templates and skyleap.

I’m particularly interested in the skyleap and template combo each turn, effectively turning them into an invisible whirlwind on the table. Gives me something to drop on those back supporting long fangs or units out of cover if they aren’t Space Marines, heck I’ll drop it on Space Marines anyway and force them to roll those armor saves. Is 200+ points worth it for a harassment unit that can’t be killed? It can be negated by reserve manipulation if your army has it, but many don’t and even with the doors that allies open up I’m not seeing the points being spent there.

Have you heard the chaos legions rumors?

Reduced cost for cult troops, and dirt cheap cultists with lots of special weapons- think IG vets for less points. If we see wave of cheap expendable cultists on the table, well those templates will blast them even more.

I can also see the timing of the swooping hawks to contest objectives, or even hold them as they are fast attack depending on the mission as a secondary use.

And then there is that fact that they would just look cool on the table. I consider the ‘hawk models to be one of the top models in Eldar aesthetics- AND when is that last time you saw swooping hawks on the table? I didn’t see any in 4th edition 40K and none in 5th edition 40K so bringing the rainbow would be fun.

Games Day 2012

Games Day 2012 is right around the corner and as always Jawaballs, myself, and golden demon winner Mike Cho will be heading out for a weekend of mancation antics. Jawa has been working on his banner behind closed doors and he is aiming to bring home another win, Cho has his models ready, and I’m wondering what army to bring this year for the open gaming?

For me Games Day is about checking out all the cool models on display, playing in the “big games” that I don’t have to later clean up, and meeting other 40K enthusiasts who I would never meet in real life except for the event based on where we all live. The social aspect of the day is really cool, and I’ve often said Games Day needs to be two days to really enjoy the full scope.

Personally I’ve committed to bringing my Eldar this year as I’ve rolled the dice for the Grey Knights the past two years, and I think Necrons before that so naturally it’s time for the Eldar.

So are you going to Games Day and want to play a game?

Since I don’t have a club table to hang out at this year I figure myself and Jawa will hang out at the open gaming tables from around 2 PM onward if anybody wants to find us- just look for the banner, Eldar and Blood Angels- shouldn’t be that hard to spot. I’ll bring as many space elves as I can fit in one travel case, so maybe let’s plan to play 500-1000 points or so- quicker games and more time to hang out and roll the dice!

And course lots of pictures and youtube vids when we return!

Eldar Ranger Tactics In 6th Edition

Time to revisit my Eldar Rangers and their place in 6th edition. In most of my lists they work as a troop choice for my harlequins and they are the primary troop choice, but this doesn’t really hold up in a generic Eldar warhost list.

As always my observations are based on where I play, and the games I play…

Rangers and by default pathfinder discussion starts off with the fact that one now needs six troop choices fully filled out as standard for 6th edition. I say this from the following observations- more objectives to take, reduced cover saves so space elves die faster, and that fact that more guys seem to be shifting to infantry and allies over mass tank spam (although still seeing lots of tanks!) means two or three Eldar troop choices just don’t last as long as they do.

Rangers are a troop choice but I think we should think of them more as elites or a heavy support- something to enhance your warhost and not as the base troops for capturing objectives. Rangers need cover to survive, and they also need to work in isolated places on the table where they will get hit with single shots or only three or four a turn due to their range. If a unit can rapid fire on them, then they die, even if they have the 2+ cover save.

The problem with taking them as your primary troop choice is that in 2000 point games or higher there is literally nowhere to hide and be isolated from enemy attack- the entire opposing side of the table is full of units- rangers are in the line of fire everywhere and they are to fragile and expensive for this. Mass ranger armies just don’t have the terrain and range to hide to make them viable troop spam choices- of course if you are playing a “themed” list and don’t care about competition then that is different of course.

Does this make sense?

So for “troop” choices I’ve been using a mix of guardians and dire avengers. Guardians to sit on the back objectives and spray and pray with the weapon platforms, while farseer supported dire avengers forage ahead to mid field objectives. (3 guardian + 2 dire avengers)

My final troop choice is a group of pathfinders since I have the points to pay for them in a 2+ plus game. Ten strong they try to sit on an objective if they can, or if not they take to tall terrain and use the range and sniper rifles to support the dire avenger advance.

I take ten of them so I can maximize the odds of getting a 5+ for the AP 1 hit, and for the 6 to hit to assign to models- trying to literally snipe away troublesome guys. More pathfinders gives me more weight of dice- this is what I mean by thinking of them as heavy support units- they sit and shoot, not go out and get objectives actively mid field.

End of game, if needed they start to move on any back field objectives if they are not there already.

This is the primary way I use them- secondary options are not great, but they are there…

Depending on the army I face and the situation the ability to infiltrate with a large cover augmented unit is nice- get to that mid field gun emplacement or building quicker. Control the center terrain piece and soak up shots as a sacrifice/place holder unit so the rest of my warhost can advance.

Perhaps even outflank for the linebraker bonus point?

Other options to keep in mind, although again not exactly optimal with how I want to use 20+ point models.

Incoming Broadcast: WarTv.tv

Join us this Saturday July 21, 2012 for another afternoon of live 40K gaming from 3 PM to 10 PM EST time through our Ustream channel HERE or our website HERE.

What do we have lined up for this show…

Jawaballs’ Blood Angels will be taking the field in his newly refined drop pod dread list of doom applying a new set of tweaks and unit adjustments as he prepares for a number of upcoming tournaments…

Stout Smurf will of course be representing Ultrmar with a focus on a thunder fire cannon heavy list thanks to the changes in artillery and blast templates- has this effective unit become even more so with the changes in 6^th edition? Is the ability to augment sparse 4+ cover even more important?

As for Fritz, the warhost will be returning to humble the mon-kei, but will it be the fury of the Saim-Hann or the first blood of the Altansar?

…plus some more loot giveaways, Q&A session, and perhaps a sneak peek at the Games Day 2012 banner?  

Necron Overlord = Slay The Warlord Bonus Points?

Old assumptions have been shattered and the playing field of the game has been reset. As a long time 40K player one has to reevaluate everything in the game to not only understand and apply the new rules, but look for the hidden gems and the not so apparent tactical angles one can exploit for the win. I’m in the process of this now with all my armies but am especially focusing on Necrons since I have three variants of the army- scarab farm, warrior horde, and now air force to experiment and play with.

A few posts back I talked about going for the secondary mission objectives in relation to Eldar so you have the option to then play for a tie on the main objectives- focusing all your resources on the “tie” by killing troops and scoring units, etc. and securing the win by then picking up the secondary objectives.

I’ve been figuring out how to do the same thing with Necrons, and for this post let’s look at how to secure the slay the warlord bonus point since that is a double edged sword for Necrons…

In the transition from 5th to 6th Necron HQ choices kind of took a hit- night fight is no longer useful to prevent shooting as your units get to mid field where they excel, lightning strikes are also hurt as guys start shifting to less low AV tanks and more troops, and the other special quirks and abilities of the HQ choices while fun for fluff don’t translate over well tactically. Among other things this has forced me to drop Stormlord from my HQ roster, despite how much I love him, and it pains me greatly to let him go, but the points are just too high and his two abilities (lightning + night fight) are no longer top notch. The 4+ seize is, and is a component in getting the first kill point bonus point, but there are other ways to make this up.

I then went to the cheapest HQ I could get, essentially place holder to fill the mandatory slot, and nothing else, of which the Necron Overlord did the job. Of course he was weak in the assault as all Necrons are, and he mostly hid in the back trying to look heroic, skulking away from other Space Marine killy HQ choices looking for the warlord bonus point.

I tried to use this to my advantage, putting the overlord in a place where opposing HQ choices had to wade through my warriors and rapid fire spam to tag my overlord in an attempt to gun them down. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn’t, and most of the time it was just ignored.

Had (have) to find another way.

I don’t mind spending the points on an HQ choice, even dropping 200+ as long as it furthers the goals of the army. Many of us have a bias to spending points on an HQ choice since they are pricey and only one model- quantity vs. quality perhaps being the issue, but sometimes we have to get past this mantra also.

So now I have an overlord right at the front of my army- attached to a quad of 20 strong warriors with a res orb to start. This huge warrior block is an important first thrust of my army using strength of numbers to both stay a threat and get some nice long range and rapid fire going- 20 to 40 shots while the res orb goes a long way to keeping the unit up while on the march.

The large group also protects the lord for a while from being taken out from saturated shooting which means an assault on an HQ choice or even me launching the assault against an HQ choice.

So when the challenge is accepted, and many will see the overlord as an easy push over they hit the first layer of mindshackle scarabs which have a good chance of causing some wounds. Of course I then have to survive the assault since the opposing HQ is most likely striking first- the weave and invil save + T5 try to minimize this, and then when I strike back I unleash the T. labyrinth, hopefully at reduced wounds and take the HQ out of play. Failing that next turn I then rely on the war scythe. Of course if I die, we then try to get the point back through regeneration…

So will using my overlord as a high priced trap work? Dangle the bait, and see who takes it? I’ll see in a few games and report back…

Necrons From The Front Line

So this past Monday I got to go up against Lil Will’s Chaos Space Marines, and one has to have respect for a guy who has been playing the Chaos codex and sticking with it all through 5th edition and now into 6th edition. Will knows his stuff, which is a threat right there regardless of codex creep or how outdated your book is.

His list has plague marines, oblits, a daemon prince, dread, and some Chaos Daemon allies in the form of plague bearers and a Khorne daemon prince. Mission was objectives and I was doing rather well at the start of the game thanks to my destroyers bypassing the armor save on the plague marines so all they had was FNP. When both princes landed and attacked this is what got interesting…

Already across the board I’ve seen a reduction in the assault in guy’s lists and from the perspective of a Necron player this is a good thing since we are so vulnerable to the assault and I’d like to divert for a moment to talk about what I’ve been seeing.

We know shooting got a boost, and with overwatch and random assault ranges it is perhaps a knee jerk reaction to go with less assault power, but what I think is really killing it for guys is the random assault range. I believe that many people see the possibility to assault 8”-12” inches and they go for it as if it has a good chance of happening outside of some REALLY lucky rolling…

…so they go for it, fail to get the 10” charge, get rapid fired on via over watch and complain that assault sucks.

From playing my harlequins which is a fragile assault list, if you stick to the 6” assault range you will be fine. The ~10” assault is there to go for when you are desperate, like going to eat rapid fire next turn anyway, so you go for it. Keep your assault expectation down to normal and you will be fine. Softening things up is also more important than ever- example with my harlequins I pop off the shuriken pistols, fusion pistols, and the ‘jester cannon to kill a few marines and then charge so over watch isn’t that bad- and with fortune up you are even better.

I didn’t intend for this to turn into an assault based article, as that one is upcoming from the perspective of if everybody is saying assault is dead, then THAT is an angle I want to exploit since it will be used less and less.

Back to Necrons…

So the princes hit, and start wiping out warriors with sweeping advances, as a Necron player this is expected so you don’t get upset- you just make sure you have enough to torrent down what is hitting you, and I’m able to do that to the first prince, and wound the second, but I can’t stop it and this costs me the game as I get crushed.

What happened?

I’d like to blame it on the dice, but it is something else…

When things like this happen, an event that causes you to lose it’s time to examine the WHY, and it often is not the event itself. Looking a bit deeper, it was the oblits who hit me with some big losses to my warriors and destroyers over the course of the game- they had the range to sit and plink away, and with too much invested in mid field I couldn’t really stop them. I did have enough models to take the losses, but not enough to stop the second prince.

This has gotten me to thinking again that while my Necrons are an advance in your face and torrent mid field army, I need some back field stuff, stuff that can suddenly appear and deal with losses over time stuff like oblits, devastators, long fangs, etc.

I previously did this by shutting down my opponent’s back field assets through Stormlords night fight + chrono, but now night fight is a joke. I need new elements in my list to take care of this, and I’m sure if I did have that, then I would have suffered less losses to the oblits, and could have torrented down both princes…

…back to the tomb world for some Necron refits.

Tanks In Warhammer 40,000

So now are vehicles officially dead? A dozen or so games into 6th edition now and I’m shocked at how easy they go down to focused fire as hull points are easy to strip, and that isn’t taking into account that you can still “kill” them in a single shot. I won’t say that they are broken and worthless, but rather perhaps adjusted to be in line with how powerful the weapons are in the game. So is your razorspam army officially dead? Are IG parking lot armies done for?

Not fully.

In their 5th edition incarnation yes, but if we go to a hybrid list then perhaps the opposite. Realize you razorback is not a gunboat that shoots for six turn while sitting on an objective. Transport vehicles are there to transport you to the front line so you can at least not take any losses on the way in from anti-infantry fire. I already see the return to full 10 marine tactical squads with plasma and missile launchers so you kind of need a rhino- plus is it worth the points to take a razorback that isn’t going to shoot, or maybe snap fire at best and then die in two turns? Razor/rhinos will transition back to their intended place as transports and not gunships- leave that for the flyers.

Where I do see a return of tanks is in long range support where they always kind of have been for Space Marines- predators all jacked out, perhaps even a whirlwind or two due to the return of infantry and for IG some leman russ tanks- battle cannon, plasma cannons (or heavy bolters if you worry about getting hot), las cannons, etc. Park in cover and blast away.

And what about AV 14?

Running my dual land raider grey knight list and my two monoliths for lolz I’ve noticed that they are still very strong- sure they don’t last as long as 5th edition, but they last long enough and make up for it by being able to snap fire and protect guys inside, or teleporty in with Necrons.

What are you guys seeing in your segment of the galaxy?

Do you think we will see more hybrid tank/infantry lists?

At the end of the day will AV 14 be the only vehicles on the table?

Warhammer 6th Edition Secondary Objectives Tactics

For those of us in the tournament scene secondary objectives are nothing new to the game- you get your primary victory points according to the mission, and a few extra ones for doing stuff like controlling table quarters, killing a particular unit, etc. Well, now it seems that has carried over into 6th edition, and if realized can have a huge impact on the game since you can earn up to three bonus points each mission. Let’s look at how to grab the first one- first blood- be the first to destroy a unit and you get a point.

In my mind that has made taking first turn even more important than every- with the shift to shooting and the reduction in cover saves it is possible to grab this on turn one. Doubly true if guys are still running small MSU armies.

I want you guys to design your armies to both get this point and keep it away from your opponent.

Do you have a mechanism to help steal first turn in your army like Stormlord’s 4+?

Are your units big enough so they can’t be “killed” in first turn shooting- say like 20 strong warrior blocks?

Do you have a way to take out a unit firs turn either with range saturation or speed?

I’d like all of us to start thinking of the secondary objectives AS primary objectives. Just as we have the familiar units in our lists to grab and deny objectives, we need to have elements in our list to grab all the secondary objectives.

Thoughts?

WarTV.tv Broadcast This Thursday: Tau Allies

So by now allies are everywhere, and Tau axillaries seem to be quite popular due to their marker lights, suit spam, and rail guns for a little extra extreme firepower…

This Thursday July 12th at 10 AM EST time Jawaballs and the Stout Smurf will be doing a step by step tutorial on how to pain classic Tau, and if you have some models and paints in hand you can follow along with them and start bringing some allies to the table.  

The live broadcast will be though our Ustream channel HERE, with more information on our site HERE and of course the mailing list HERE.

Eldar In 6th Edition

So now that I’ve had a chance to play a few games with my Saim-Hann what am I seeing in terms of Eldar on the table, and how to adapt?

On the one hand things have changed again, yet as always, they seem to be the same- how is that for a cryptic Eldar-ish response?

Well, no doubt we are dealing with a 4th edition codex in terms of assumptions about the game- point costs, scoring units, and specialist units- all things that are now no longer exclusive to Eldar (like psychic powers) or even effective anymore (banshee vs. terminator?). Just like in 5th edition we can’t try to play the game as if we have a current viable codex.

Now of course the first place to look is allies, and you can go with that to make up for your shortcomings on the table, but is this the best way to go? I can’t and won’t tell you how to enjoy the game as long as it is “legal” it is a go, but personally I feel this ruins the look of Eldar- I’m playing space elves and that’s all I want to play. That said, with allies I’m still not that impressed with what it brings since Eldar are expensive to begin with- it’s not like we are playing cheap space marines and taking even cheaper IG units to compliment them with- making a better list even better, over making a mediocre list a bit more mediocre.

Of course the first place we are going to start with is a dual farseer build. I’ve been saying forever that one of the few things Eldar have going for them is psychic support, and now more than ever that is true. 1500 or more points = two seers standard. Period.

The return of the seer council…

You need a seer council, get over the huge cost of points, it’s the nature of Eldar- nothing is op, cheap, or easy like marines. Five warlocks as a minimum, embolden, destuctor, and then two ‘seers- one with fortune and the other with stones and two+ powers from the book or cards. The one seer keeps the group alive and the other abuses powers while the warlocks are expensive wound counters. You also really need the bikes for mobility and the 3+/4+ save + re-roll since you will be taking more fire than ever.

Tactically on the table, Eldar can get some nice AP 2 weapons, and with the death of vehicles, and a shift to more infantry based lists + reduced cover you might not feel as bad paying for all those prism cannons and star cannon, but we will get into this in a bit.

Missions.

Same game as before even if we can’t contest objectives anymore on turn five with our grav-tanks. Don’t cry over the rules chance, it’s ok, besides it’s not like this didn’t become standard operating for Eldar and thus was expected.

Here is where we are now, and what I’m working on for the missions…

There are two ways to get points in the game- control objectives and then the secondary list of killing the HQ, first blood, line breaker, etc.

Half way through 5th edition I gave up trying to kill stuff with my Eldar- marines got cheaper in points, more numerous, and more pumped up with special stuff and rules- more so now.

It’s often hard to win a game playing Eldar, but not hard at all to tie the game- if you have ever faced a good Eldar player you know what I’m talking about- I may not win, but you won’t either- especially frustrating in tournaments.

SO, since my warhost can’t kill much, its one job is to make sure my opponent doesn’t get the primary missions objectives- focusing on troop killing or scoring for the mission, contesting with jetbikes, etc. While my opponent is trying to “win” I’m just trying to “tie”. From there, I 100% am trying to win, need to win, the secondary objectives- first blood is easy, kill HQ we set up with opportunity form the seer council, and line breaker is easy as pie with jetbikes. Eldar need to secure these secondary mission objectives, and make THAT the focus of their game over direct confrontation.

Remember, you can still lose 90% of you models, hardly kill anything, yet still win the game.

Hope I haven’t been so cryptic here, more details, battle reports, and the tactical how to plans to follow as I work my way through 6th.

And of course as always Harlequins are a different game altogether.

Tyranids In 6th Edition

So what is the deal with Tyranids in 6th edition? I was reading a post on BOLS that they got a huge boost- where? I’m just not really seeing it, and this is coming from a huge fan of the models and race in the game. I WANT Tyranids to be good, the game needs more xeno alternatives to the marine game.

Please explain to me, and again, I’m not trying to be argumentative, but HOW are Tyranids better in 6th?

FNP is now a 5+ so my tervigons casting it on big bugs and smaller bugs took a hit.

Generally cover is now a 5+ meaning there is less places to hide.

Assault is random AND I get hit with defensive fire without the benefit of armor saves (most of the time).

I can’t reserve my entire army.

Tyranids can’t assault when they arrive on the outflank- so how are genestealers supposed to work now? Carnifexes are going to have more competition on the unemployment line now that genestealers join their ranks…

Sadface bugface no allies for us.

Where did we gain a boost?

Flying creatures- perhaps, but they are still over costed compared to SM flyers, and they will get torrented down no problem with the return of plasma spam.

Impact hits are nice on the big bugs, but I have to get to you with less cover, increased range of shots, still no grenades, and over watch.

Psychic powers, well actually they did get a nice bump here- I was hoping to run a magic user elf army, but now I can’t, so maybe a magic user space bug army instead.

Fearless also got better.

So is all lost for our space bugs?

I’m….not…really…sure.

Been trying out a few things, especially with a double force org chart at 2K points since everybody likes to play 2K and all the major tournaments are 2k+.

Shooting is king now in 6th, and even from only being out a few weeks this is fact. Torrent of fire is the way to go- forget guns that shoot only one shot, 2+ shots are key.

What if we had three “waves” of bugs?

First I take all the gaunts that I used to have for spawning with my five tervigons and deploy them as large groups of gaunts- 150+ on that front line.

Then we have the next layer of warriors for synapse and scoring with a prime, mixed in with 18 hive guard.

And finally in the back some biovores- yes I said biovores. With the rise of infantry they can lob templates and actually hit something- and they are scoring for back field objectives if the mission is right.

A true wave of bugs, and not a single tyrant or MC in sight.

Time will tell.

Necrons Vs. Ultramarines Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report 6th Edition Relic Mission

This week my Necrons took the field vs. James’ Ultramarines as we played out the relic mission. James was running a fast assault based list including Shrike with vanguard vets, scouts, a jacked command squad on bikes, terminators in a land raider, tactical in rhinos for support and two groups of land speeders for some fire support.

My list had fifty warriors, some spyders + scarabs, deathmarks, destroyers, a destroyer lord and of course Stormlord.

Deployment was the short side table edges, which I’ve been playing a lot and of course I’m wondering about how this deployment will work logistically in tournament play- you know with a row of tables set up side to side with no end room. Till now all our 40K games were played across from the table, and now I’ll be bumping into guys playing a similar mission or worse having to run all the way around to the other side to access half my models, unless you have freakishly long arms and a back of iron. Trivial points perhaps?

So what’s the plan with the mission?

I’ve kind of been developing this plan as a starting template for this mission- take or steal first turn, run up with a warrior squad and grab the relic, and then swarm the other side in warriors, gauss, and scarabs as I run with the relic. Destroyers act as a reactionary unit as needed.

I won the roll for first turn, and deployed making a mistake. I put my warriors out in a line, but then destroyers on both the left and the right flanks. This allowed James to deploy castled up and half my destroyer group didn’t make it to him till turn two rather than blasting right away. Should have put them center and then they could have hit from anywhere.

I expected James to heroic intervention his vanguard vets, but instead he infiltrated them with Shrike to the front…in front of 50 warriors (soon to be 80) and ten destroyers. Needless to say with the new shooting rules they didn’t survive even with the 4+ cover save for the trench they were hiding behind. Stormlord lightning also got really lucky and took out two speeders….which brings me to how I’ve updated my thinking for 6th with him.

Previously I took Stormlord + chrono to give me the night fight to protect my advancing scarabs and units, but now that nightfight has changed do I still need him? Yes!

With the advent of bonus points err…secondary goals, first blood is a big deal, so not only do I want to go first if I can, but also I want first blood. Stormlord lets me do that- with the 4+ steal, and the lightning strikes (potentially) on vehicles, speeders, etc. Of course I’m still trying to get first blood with my shooting, but as much as I can stack in my favor I want to do. On the flip side I’m also in the process of streamlining my Necrons so nothing can be killed easily first turn thus denying my opponent the first kill bonus point.

Back to the game…

I know I need to slow down James’ bikes so I move up a destroyer group to blast them with the AP 3 and I kill one as James makes those 3+ SS saves. Bikes then of course assault the destroyers and I later on pile on the scarabs to keep them in place.

James then has the dice gods turn against him as his Land Raider get’s immobilized and now the terminators have to walk- well this changes everything since I grab the objective on turn two and start moving away from it- throwing warriors and destroyers at his marines gunning them and the rhinos down with gauss as the terminators get stuck with my second destroyer group and my lord who accepts the challenge from James’ librarian and cuts him down before the terminators beat face on my destroyers and the lord breaks (He’s out of my list now, for many reasons…) From there is piling on robots and rapid firing gauss weapons and by the end of the game I’ve got the relic, James has a single bike and terminator left and an immobilized land raider with two hull points left. The immobilization hurt big time, and of course I was rolling my reanimations like a champ and even some good robot punches in the assault.

Tactically where do we go from here?

Well clearly it is a race to the relic and then playing keep away.

How best to do this?

What can get you there turn one to pick it up so you can be moving away turn two?

Infiltrating scouts?

Jetbikes?

At 4:50 in you get a taste of my awesomeness with reanimation and then at 7:00ish you can feel the agony of Brother Captain James. I should also say that James and I are good friends so I tend to talk a little more smack than usual, he deserves it for all the times he’s crushed my Eldar on the table…

WarTV.TV Thanks Guys!

This past weekend, Jawaballs, Stout Smurf, and myself launched our WarTV.tv broadcast by playing out two games of 40K using the new 6th edition rules along with taking lots of questions regarding what we thought of the rules and how our armies are going to change in the coming months.

A big huge thanks to the hundreds of you that tuned in for our first broadcast and for the prize support from Spikey Bits and the Gamers Gambit which we got to give out in a random drawing of viewers.

So what’s the vision of WarTV.tv besides another excuse to hang out with the guys and roll some dice?

Well, for some time now myself, Jawa, and Smurf have been running our blogs and YouTube channels, and we will of course continue to do so, but there is so much more we want to do but are limited by bandwidth, video constraints by YouTube, etc. With the release of 6th edition we all felt it was time to kick it up a notch and start pushing out some really interactive content- and WarTV is going to be the medium for this.

Once a moth we are going to be broadcasting all day brining you some 40K games, tutorials, and tactical discussions in addition to uploading weekly in-depth videos revolving around 40K and miniature wargaming. Of course so much of this is still very much a work in progress, but we have big plans for the future! In the mean time if you want to say informed about future broadcasts and events sign up for our mailing list here.

First Game Of 6th Edition: Necrons Vs. Ultramarines

Lots of 40k over the weekend trying out the new rules, examining the missions, and generally working through the changed parts of the game with my Necrons. Necrons you ask, and why not my Eldar?

I wanted to take it easy with my first jump into the game with an army “written” for 6th over a codex from 4th edition (!) and play an army without psychic abilities for now so I won’t be totally overloaded. Fellow farseers and autarch need not worry, the Saim-Hann will be returning to the table in full force for even more end turn tactics and dual farseer psychic shenanigans…

First game was against Stout Smurf’s Ultramarines as I flooded the table with warriors, scarabs, destroyers, and deathmarks + a monolith as I’m still finishing up my new tomb spyders and needed to top the list off at 2K. Mission was objectives with the short table edge and heavy support being scoring units.

The immortal robots advanced to meet the ultramarine charge and by mid game the marines were in full retreat with minimal losses to my warriors and scarabs…

The first thing I noticed was how much vehicles took a hit, a huge hit in my mind- even land raiders are not safe! Now of course gauss got a huge boost to the point where I have to say it is over powered and unfair, but even in the other games I played and watched (and I’ll be posting those) vehicles were dropping like they were all AV 10 opened top.

Why is this?

Why are vehicles even easier to destroy then in 4th edition?

Well, from 4th edition to 5th edition, and now 6th edition the point cost for units has gotten at least 25% cheaper which means more stuff on the table- more melta, plasma, shuriken cannons, etc. and since guys like to play at 2000+ plus points every squad has multiple ways to glance or pen a tank.

Add in the new 5+ cover save in general and tanks are much easier to make it to the glance/pen roll.

Now I’m NOT going to say tanks are dead after only playing six games and watching a few more as that wouldn’t be a fair assessment to the community, but something is definitely up!

I will say that gauss is back at being king- it feels like I’m playing Necrons from 4th edition if you guys know what I mean. I had three warrior squads take out two razorbacks and a land raider in a single turn of shooting- one squad on each. That is a bit OP!

Shooting also got a HUGE boost just looking at my rank and file Necron warriors being able to move and shoot the full 24”. HUGE! Snap shots into the assault when I was charged had me killing a scout squad, two terminators, a and a bike in one game. Sure I still got wiped out on the charge- but I’m Necrons, it’s ok, I’ve got 50+ more warriors…

BUT, imagine when you charge a tactical squad with a combi plasma, plasma gun, eight rapid fire bolters, and a las cannon? You can only (most of the time) charge from 12” away so it is always rapid fire. This is huge against assault based armies. Plasma now has dual use- stripping hull points and outright penning light/medium vehicles, while also acting as a huge deterrent against a charge.

I can’t believe how powerful shooting as become!

And then there is night fight- what was GW thinking making it in every mission? More bookkeeping and measuring ranges = fun? It seems like GW wants to push your entire army mid field so you go head to head so there are no cover save augmentations or not being able to see the opponent, but this just reinforces the power of mass shooting- any gun that can rapid fire, or put out 2+ shots got another boost.

That said, hardly doom and gloom, just a new game with new dynamics…

Is the day of MSU spam and razor/rhino spam over?

In a few months are we going to see all infantry armies just walking mid field backed by half a dozen fliers- the new WAAC spam for 6th edition?

Your thoughts and comments on the first few plays of 6th edition?

List tweaks, and army adjustments aside, this is the game I’ve been waiting to play for so long- with all the terrain rules, fortifications, and mission objectives it feel like I’m playing both a miniature game and an RPG blended together.

Fun times ahead!