So, is it 40K version 6.5 now?

So, here we are…  Looking for all the world like the mid-point for 6^th Edition.  Mind, I have no idea how far we really are into the current edition’s life span, but it really is feeling very much like we are at or about “version 6.5”.  The major rule updates coming out in Escalation and Stronghold Assault really ARE game changers.  On one hand, it has the potential to make the game silly/stupid with a Titan backed up with minimal “other” to make a legal army.  Is it bad?  On some levels, yes…  The local game store does not in general sell those things being Armorcast/Forgeworld or DIY/Home Made stuff…  CAN be amazing, beautiful models and has the potential to pull more people into the game…  Or it can look like crap, drive people away and deny sales to the FLGS… 

 I have to admit I am still on the fence about it.  On one hand it does seem like it will have a leveling effect IFF it serves as either an answer or a deterrent to some of the completely legal but horribly abusive lists.  I do not think you will find many people arguing that the “Screamer Star” or the “Jetseer Council” are NOT abusive lists.  They take things to an extreme, and while technically legal have the effect of simply killing all enjoyment of the game.  The same effect that the Grey Knights had on the previous edition I think.  The 4+ giant Monstrous Creature lists including, but by no means limited to the Tau silliness, Eldar mixed or the Flying Circuses of the Tyranids/Chaos.  Simply NOT fun to play against with a “normal” army anymore.  So, where does that leave us?  Everyone HAS to bring the same very small subset of “broken” lists or be relegated to just losing?  In the bigger events, the prize support, etc. makes this a game with money on the table in my opinion.  When there is money on the table, “friendly play” simply does not exist…  Eventually.  Sure, you will occasionally run across the equivalent of the gun toting Amish vigilante, but the reality is that the ones playing the most broken and obnoxious (to those of us who are just there to play a few games) lists are the odds on favorites to win it all.

I know that a group of the larger TOs out there are working to create something in a “Tournament 40K” rule set for lack of a better term.  Mike Brandt over at the “Whiskey & 40K” blog details that here (http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2013/12/better-mission-design-more-proactive.html) …  Will it work?  I don’t know.  I DO wish them luck and hope that it does.  As of right now I have less than zero interest in going to a major event with any army I would like to play.  There are only 2 times I very nearly lost my temper playing a game, once was when I played uber-competitive 40K back in 3^rd Edition.  Would have been very late 2001 or early 2002.  I was just out of the Army a few years, just married, etc., and playing in a RTT up in Joliet.  Wound up playing my Fleshtearers against his IG.  His Tallern IG painted up as Al Qaeda with “Bin Laden” themed and pictured banners…  Kid said he did it just to piss off his opponents…  Worked for me, don’t think I ever played a more brutally effective and vicious game in my life.  See, when I get pissed off, I get far more dangerous.  I was methodical, and to be honest, the BA were horribly broken in that edition, so the kid never really had a chance as I could easily Assault  his army on turn one, and with the Sweeping Assault rules, just keep going.  It was over by the bottom of turn 2, with him being completely wiped from the table.  Got chipmunked on my “Sportsmanship” score, but whatever.  Good thing an old friend of mine was there (Dennis Smith) and was friends with the TOs or it would have really screwed up my score.  So, “Best General” it was, not overall winner…  And that was the last big event I went to. 

I guess I saw where it would go in time.  And let’s be honest, from about the mid-point of 5^th Edition to now it seems that as a competitive game it just does not work.  The ideas about 2 different “Victory Conditions” and giving each player a choice is neat, but….  Well, I’ll wait and see I think.  The old Mob quote to the effect of “Every law they pass just creates more businesses for us” comes to mind.  Seems that we are all acknowledging that there are truly broken things, and to fix them we will introduce more rules and more potential for breaking things further.  NOT the intention of course, and like I said I really do hope that it works out and becomes a fun game again on that level.  This is probably the most frustrating thing about it all…  Forgeworld as part of GW actually I think HAS balanced the “Lords of War” stuff in the Heresy rules…  A single line of “no more than 25% of your points may be spent on this slot”.  And that’s it.  The things with the most potential to break 40K are all too expensive to be 25% of any list size we use in the games we play.  Yeah, doesn't help with what I consider the broken stuff but it combined with say “One Force Org Chart, allies and Detachments must adhere” and the silliness with the Taudar or 3+ Broadsides, etc. all goes away.  Does it hurt game balance?  I don’t know.  But why bother with the FOC or frankly ANY rule if it will not be equally applied for all parties?  Night Fighting is one that irks me now that it is in every mission I think.  Some armies simply ignore it (DE/Tau for the most part), some (Necrons) can cause it to only affect their enemies and for a longer time in the game…  Others still have lost their traditional keen senses that would allow them to deal with the night fight (Wolves)…  With the Wolves, I just feel there is simply no point bringing them to a 40K game unless I do something completely silly like a Bran Redmaw army or the like…  Depend on Behind Enemy Lines and Outflank to get my Wolves in close…  I have tried it before and it was mostly effective, but even still, NO defense against a flier, not much long ranged firepower, dependent on a “Hero Hammer” style of play to be effective.  I always liked how effective my basic Grey Hunters were, now in this edition…  Eh, they are just expensive casualties like the Guard.  But lacking all of the IG advantages. 

J  Guess that is why I started looking at the Legion stuff to be honest…  “This Battle is lost….  But there is time for another”…  The repaint project on my ancient ACTUALLY pre Heresy Wolves continues…  And I am building “Siege Breachers” out of some other Marines I have around to test that…  Needing the full 20 for the real sized Squads would be too expensive otherwise…  Mind, the FW resin are BRILLIANT minis and I’d love to have them…  But things like the broken furnace and other real life issues keep me from spending that kind of money on the game…

So, it is looking like there will be Tournament Ban Lists, etc...

?Looking over what the Feast of Blades folks are going to be the first to enact some of the bans and limits to the new Warhammer 40K environment.  The following is a quote from the 3++ site:

"
1.) The Grimoire of True Names from Codex: Daemons is banned
As of right now, this is the only true banning. We feel there is too much potential for abuse, and disagree with the effect it has on the army and the game.

2.) A few units will receive 0-1 status
For those of you who weren't around when 0-1 was a thing in codecies, means that a maximum of 1 of that unit may be taken per army. These are all units whose mass inclusion limits the potential lists in the game, and will thus be restricted. (As none of them are a problem on their own.) Rest assured that this will be a very short list, we are not interested in creating very restricted armies.

3.) Supplemental Codecies will no longer be able to ally to their base codex
There will be no more self-allying, no more cherry picking the best parts of a supplement while paying none of the costs, and no more force-org bloat from doing so.

4.) Dataslates will take an ally slot
Taking units from many, many different books and ignoring the force organization chart is too much. This change will make dataslates an interesting addition to the game, without allowing for truly bizzare armies.

5.) The number of psychic mastery levels in an army will be limited
This change will eliminate a great many power combos from the game, and will stop a player from making a lot of lucky rolls on the psychic power tables to effectively win the game before it begins.

6.) Strength D is out, Lords of Battle are in
We feel the the Lords of Battle are not overpowered on their own, the fact that they give the opponent some advantages (bonus to seize, and especially victory points) balances out their fearsome firepower and powerful endurance. Strength D, however, is too powerful. This is well-known by every apoc player (and I am one of them), and has been the case for the past two editions. (Yes, it was even overpowered back in 5th, and it was much worse then.) There is some debate still going on, but it looks like S:D will becomeS:10, ordinance, ignores cover. That still makes it very powerful, but more in line with the price paid for the superheavy as well as it's other weapon options. In addition, superheavies will have to start on the table.

7.) Super-forts are gone, or at least downsized
No AV15, it will be AV14 instead. Every individual fortification from Stronghold Assault is allowed, but the “network” choices are simply too big and unwieldy to allow for tournament play. (As a consolation, they're pretty terrible, so I think it's OK.)

8.) Dedicated transport flyers will be limited
Flyers are not the be-all end-all of this edition, but all-flyer and mostly-flyer armies change the meta in uncomfortable ways and are notoriously unfun to play against."

So a fair amount in there...  The big things being the Str D weapons being modified for play...  Probably a good thing overall, especially in concert with the other limits.  D Str was an answer to some of the silliness that abounds in the current unrestricted environment.  Bring the 4 Riptides if you'd like, but know that the first time you face a Revenant class Titan you just lose.   Of course the other limits remove the 4 Riptide list in any case...

Outright ban on one thing.  Not bad really overall...  We have only a single Demons player locally, and she hasn't used this so I have no real familiarity with it.  But given its use in one of the problematic combinations it is likely broken enough to need banning.

So...  That brings me to what I am seeing as a complete lack of play testing by GW.  I always wondered if they were playing the same game that we were over here.  There seems to be a split between complete crap units or even whole books like the Dark Angles or the recent fliers.  Mind, I think that overall the fliers that have been balanced against each other, or at least the ones actually created IN sixth edition.  The ones magically elevated to fliers, specifically the Necron fliers are probably the most difficult ones to justify.  But the ones in sixth like the Eldar ones or Marine Storm Talon have 2 hull points and are generally weaker than a lot of other things.  The recent Codices like Tau that have wholesale rule "exceptions" and the ability to customize your units to the point of list tailoring is pretty over the top. And of course the Eldar and all they can do legally...

I dunno, thinking whatever list comes from the FoB event will get VERY serious consideration locally...  Still digesting the new books...  Some interesting stuff there...  And my Legion stuff is coming along very nicely...  Pipeline from Stronghold book with a Tactical Support Squad w/ Flamers?  So, 9Torrenting Flamer Templates?  Yes please...

Works in progress... Siege Breachers

So, I have only a few actual FW Siege Breachers...  So, Green Stuff it is to modify some of my ancient Marines to become Siege Breachers...

Getting the basic paint scheme up there...  Grey armor, Brass/Copper trim and Red for the Shoulder Pad...  Stripped and repainted lead minis are coming along well.  Using Minwax to seal/give it some depth...  Seems like it is coming along well...

Wolves Rotating to the Front for Sixth? Well, for me at least...

Thinking about running my Wolves again...  But with the Codex so outdated, having to rely heavily on tricks and the like to compete...  Seems like it will be a LONG game for my lads.  Playing them as Legion VI, they have been doing quite well for me

Bran Redmaw as a choice allows me to take a Grey Hunter squad and use the Wolf Scouts deploy behind enemy lines rule...  Having them appear in the back field with flamers, Melta, etc....  Might be something unexpected...  Once.  Wolf Priest flanking with another squad does something similar as do the Scouts themselves.  So...  Something needs to deploy normally to satisfy the no more than 50% Reserve rule... 

Long Fangs with a Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher accompanying them as they set up in or around terrain...  Potentially Aegis Line with AAA or the Bastion...  Lacking the AA missiles, they can do the massed fire, splitting as needed while providing some overhead cover.

Guessing I will have to bring Allies, probably my Crimson Fists.  Scouts in their Speeder and Scouting about, Centurions with Tank Hunter, perhaps lurking on the Bastion?  Tank Hunter and the Quad Gun is not bad at all...  Need a HQ I guess, so cheap as possible... Or go the other way and make my Wolves Allies I guess..  Kind of depressing thinking it through.  Kind of wanting a big Wolf Guard rolling forward in a Spartan, so guess that will happen ;-)  Maybe the Fists Librarian hangs out with Centurions or in the Spartan... 

League starting next week...

Mkay, so just setting down some ideas for the upcoming League…  Guessing I’ll be keeping It as simple as possible. 

1500 points

Standard Book Missions, the same ones for everyone each week.

Will have to come up with an alternate tiebreaker, though USUALLY with Primary and Secondary VCs there is a clear winner in most cases.  Guess it will be a straight number of points killed to be as fair as possible to everyone.

I’m kind of up in the air about allowing people to get in more “free play” games…  My initial thought is no, as it is inherently unfair to the people who can make it there only for the one night/game.  Of course, you COULD get in a few games on Monday, but the weather is likely to get bad again and of course the whole Holiday thing coming up will likely throw in some variance for folks schedules…

Otherwise, I guess the “Standard Local Rules” of FW/whatever being OK as long as it has the 40K stamp…  I will NOT be allowing anything with the “experimental rules” stamp though.  Have to admit I would be VERY much in favor of limiting people to a single FOC, regardless of Allies, etc…  Just getting sick of seeing the 4 Heavy slot armies, or the flying circus silliness… 

Interestingly enough the IA book one reprint is out there and a LOT of the 30K/Heresy stuff in there.  Will be ordering the Escalation book from Dave at the Gopher I think as I have enough of the armies listed in there to make it worth my having.  ‘Course, I’ll be scanning it to have on my wee tablet being one of those silly motorcycle riders.  And seeing things like the Spartan listed with the 40K “official” stamp is a good thing for me…  Ordered one so I’ll have a resin monster tank to be flanked by my ancient original Spartan class Land Raiders.  With the Ceremite Armor upgrade, it is a PITA to stop quickly for most armies…  And it will be painted up in the Grey/Bronze (or copper) with red markings for my VI Legion force/Wolves in 40K… 

In 40K, ironically, a few armies that have fallen out of favor are coming back at least as allies.  The Wolves Rune Priest being the ONLY actual psychic defense that can stop players from casting spells in a large area makes them at least desirable to have around.  Shame there is so little else from the book worth taking.  Grey Knights likewise have the tools necessary to be a good match up against the Eldar and Screamer Stars…  So, it could be that the cycle is coming full circle…

Change of plan, I am running next League... So a short one...

So, the next League will probably be pushed back to February...  So, I'll throw something together to keep the local excitement going I hope.  Looking like a few new books coming out and so a few changes perhaps...

In any case, I am looking at running it as a 1500 point event, I'll match up the participants as best I can and have a transparent long running "tournament" of sorts.  Keeping things pretty simple, I'll have a set mission, terrain setup and deployment so everyone is at least on terms as equal as I can manage.

Still digesting some of the expansion things, so at this point I am thinking that the Eldar/Tau builds are going to remain somewhat overpowered.  Looking over the FW reprint for their Imperial Armor Apoc book...  Looking like there are a LOT of the Heresy Era things that are coming to 40K...  So, Spartan will be fielded at least locally...  And I suspect it will become the norm if I attend Tournaments elsewhere...  No Flare Shield I did notice though :-)  So, the stupidly overpowered things look like they are going away...

Found a good reference picture for my Legion paint scheme...

 So, it appears as if I either saw something like this or simply stumbled upon my current VI/Wolf scheme...

 My own lads are looking frighteningly similar to that...  Just have to figure out the markings will be...  Thinking the red markings will be it.  I never liked the almost Mardi Gras Marine look of he 2nd Edition with the baby blue armor and bright yellow and red markings.  So, I had stripped a LOT of ancient Marines and repainting them like this...  Of course, manufacturing shields for me Siege Breachers to fill in the holes...  It is amazing comparing the modern minis to the ones I have from the 80's...  Damn, some of those ancient minis are craptastic...

Leagues, Expansions and just random "waiting for responses" time killing rants...

So, with the League looking like it will be a start...  Eventually :-)...  Whatever, it is creating some good chatter and looking like it might bring out a fair number of the players.  Guessing again, but I am kind of looking forward to playing my Legion lists against the modern things.  There are some things I am fairly certain that will be difficult to handle but overall I have a fairly strong list.  Strong but I think certainly not overpowered.  Still no fliers of my own, and AV 14 really isn't THAT hard to take down for most forces especially when you realize it is really just 3 Land Raiders, more or less...  But I DO field a LOT of standard Marines or Siege Breachers in the Legion lists I play, and FnP and good Cover/crap Invulnerable saves all around make for a difficult Squad to pull off the table quickly.  Nothing at all subtle, playing the VI Legion the way I used to play my wolves in the ancient times...  Roll straight at them, kill as many as you can and hold what you have taken.  So, pretty much just like I play every army I normally play, FT, Wolves, Eldar, etc...  Except maybe my Praetorian IG...  They are more of a "Hold the Line, Shoot them off the table" sort of Army, not a lot of mobility.

Barring my Legion list?  Well, I have a strong Marine army and my Eldar would be brutally overpowered.  I HAVE the flier now, albeit a paper model a buddy of mine built for me.  I can field a force that can easily take down the annoying Tau lists with either of those I am sure...  Eldar with the WS mounted force are just too good I think but if that's the way the local group wants to go I can...  And with a lot of the forces I am seeing out there it will be at least a fight.  Still, I'd RATHER go with the Legion force and play just for fun. 

My Marine list is a Crimson Fist one so using the Imperial Fist chapter tactics.  Centurion Devastators backed by Hunter AA tank and/or a Thunderfire Cannon for the "base" unit.  Scouts for scoring Troops, maybe Sternguard and Pedro...  Been liking the Storm Raven for a dogfighter/air superiority fighter.  200 points though...  Still, it works really well keeping me at least even with enemy fliers and can also do quite a number on tanks or heavy Infantry it catches in the open.  If I really want to cheese it up I can call it a "3rd Company" list and use the expansion to take the Centurions as Elite instead of Heavy.  Get a slightly different "Bolter Drill" as well....  Frankly I prefer the one in the expansion's drill, but either works well enough for me. 

So, that brings me to the expansions...  As of now, there are six?  It is looking more like the expansions are becoming the norm for the uber competitive forces...  The simple ability to"ally" with your base list and break the FOC is a problem for me.  The extra HQ slot is no big deal, it really seems that the Heavy slot is the problem.  So a legal list with four Riptides is the new rage...  Honestly haven't looked much at the Inquisition or Iron Hands ones...  Not armies I have any interest in playing.  But it appears that the Inquisition book is just a cut and paste rush job.  One of the bigger issues I have with the move to digital is that the local game store sees nothing from these books.  Yes, a few months later they might print limited numbers of physical books that they can jump through the appropriate hoops to buy to maybe sell...  But with the pace of the releases?  Why bother buying the physical book six months late when the next big thing in the power cycle is out?  So, other than the potential extra miniature sales as the latest uber net list hits the tables, nothing for anyone but GW...  And not much of that I'd think frankly...  Not sure what the margins are for a cut and paste PDF, but would think it would be good given the ownership of the original material and the fact that an intern could throw this together in an afternoon...  That and they are REALLY a PITA for tournament play as not everyone would have access to the full rules, so they have to take their opponent at their word as to the interpretation of the few new rules and FOC modifications in each book...  Or the TO has to know them all and keep a watchful eye out for "mistakes" being made.  Might well be honest ones, but when there is money on the table...  Well, have to say I am less enthused about the potential Adepticon trip, and likely will not bother trying to play in that mess.  Looking like at least one more REAL Codex will be out by then, likely 2 and some unknown number of digital supplements to all have the potential of further throwing the game's balance out of whack...  Think I'll just sit back and see what happens.  

So, the unofficial announcement has hit about the fortifications and escalation expansions...  Another wait and see I guess.  Really hoping that the Skyshield is fixed and the rules are cleared up...  But of course, if they are not freely available to everyone, this is a huge problem for me at least...  Having to pay a LOT for broken rules and then having to pay even more to get the fixes?  How very Apple of them.  I know that they will be available via "alternate" methods, and so will VERY likely be dissimulated locally at least (at least the relevant "you need to know the actual rules sections")...  I dunno, thinking of picking up some X-Wing and maybe Malifoux (sp?)...  Just concerned about getting into another "Confrontation" situation where I have huge armies of amazing miniatures for a game system that is dead and gone.  Been burned a few times too many in the past...  Perhaps Warmachine?  Hell, I already HAVE a Cygnar and Circle army from the 1st edition, so a trivial investment...  Maybe :-)...