Codex: Stormtroopers? WTF? Oh, and Star Trek Attack Wing

So, the next Codex coming out is the new name for Storm Troopers from the IG Codex...  And it looks like that one Sno Cats/tractors are the new Chimera replacement...  So, they took a single line from admittedly the most overcrowded Codex and expanded it out for yet another $50 Codex.  Would ask "Why?", but $ talks...  Just REALLY frustrating that the Marines once again get pushed further down the "power curve" by another entire fucking army that simply ignores the best armor in the game, supposedly....  3+ armor just seems to be completely useless these days, and I know that was one of the justifications for the high point cost of the Marine based forces.  Certainly hope it was not the basic Infantry weapon.  The Bolter is by and large useless these days.  Not powerful enough to actually wound the MCs roaming the table, nor a threat to anything but the lightest of Vehicles, and even then only on a 6... Heck, it doesn't ignore most armor these days and it precludes Assault if you actually fire it.  "Eh" is the best thing I can say about it.  BS 4 that used to be "Elite Armies Only" has become the new normal.  All Eldar and now all the new Storm Trooper book?  So, BS 4, weapons that ignore armor and cheaper than a Marine?  Gee, I wonder what they were going for here...

Not really seeing the point of the Taurex  really...  The Prime I think might be useful with the various weapon options...  But the base model?  Unless they jack up the point cost of the Chimera a LOT and take away things like the 5 bloody fire points and AV 12 front?  Dunno, I cannot imagine them making major changes with the Inquisition also getting them.  Might make sense if they make the electronic Codices update automagically and reflect the new point costs.  That and of course the fact that a LOT of Guard players already have fully mechanized forces with Chimera...  Not sure how  many I would be buying if I ever intended to go back to playing IG.  My Praetorians might hit the field eventually, but let's be honest, they are overpowered now and really boring for me to play.  I doubt they will change much.  Just thinking that the way I am and having done this "professionally", I know I can use things like Artillery really well, and I have a pretty good understanding of how it is best delivered, supported, etc...  Frankly I'd rather have regular games than just win the few I get in :-)...  Just really boring game for both players if one is just shooting the other off the table without much if any risk...  So, I have a nice Praetorian force, but I only ever really play it these days when I am proving a point or just want to destroy someone.

In any case, off to play Star Trek Attack Wing this evening...  Have a few of the wee ships so looking like my Klingons will go forth and die bravely as I learn the game on the fly...  OK, was still writing this later it looks like...  Got in 3 games, played Klingons.  Worf commanding a K'Vort class ship (his) with the Advanced Weapons allowing him to fire cloaked, Gowron commanding the Negh'Var with boarding Marines and a Generic CPT on a Vor'Cha...  First game played against another Klingon, only lost the Vor'Cha, but failed to kill either of his ships...  Second game was against a 5 ship fleet...  Killed off one, failed to kill the fighters...  Those fighters are annoyingly resilient, lost out on points again as the Vor'Cha again died...  Game three was against a good Romulan fleet.  Oh, this one and the 5 ship fleet had Cloaked Mines...  REALLY annoyingly powerful.  No real defense I've seen yet, took a lot of damage from them in game one.  The Romulans offed Gowron and his ship on the last turn to take the point lead...  I did not realize how expensive the one War Eagle I destroyed early was or I might have been more cautious...  OK, no I wouldn't have been...  Still, really fun game, good group of folks to play against...  Looks like I have something else to play...

Run silent and cloaking devices...

So…  Looks like GW is back to “Run Silent” mode…  Disappointing, I had rather liked the Black Library and Forgeworld stuff on Facebook, etc…  Frankly I could do without the GW advertisement mail hitting the same time as all of the new releases go to “pre-order” status.  Probably just me, but I usually already know about the few things I am interested in, and I am not ordering through them in any case…  Silly me, I go through my local game store because that’s where I actually PLAY the game.  And with them not telling the bloody retailers what is coming out before they put it up on their own store…  Just seems wrong, but hey, I’m just a silly consumer…

Playing the 200 point Kill Team, is OK I guess…  My Fleshtearers are not horrible, but have a hard time dealing with larger numbers of things like say 10 Nurgle Marines J…  So, next week I guess I play my Crimson Fists.  I think I can get 5 Tactical Marines with a Plasma Cannon or Missile Launcher and 5 Scouts with a Heavy Bolter and 4 Snipers…  Oh, and a Speeder Storm with Flamer or Heavy Bolter.  Probably Flamer, that was awesome on the FT one I ran last week…

Star Trek stuff looks pretty darn nice…  Looking like that will be what I start up playing.  The Klingons are looking really good, and probably very much my play style.  There is OP at the store, and we’ll see if I can make it out to play…

200 point Kill Team League and Star Trek Attack Wing

So, new League starting tonight...  200 point Kill Team, with a 500 point "Super Kill Team" tournament in the middle...  Looking like I will be playing my Fleshtearers at least for the first week, probably the full League.  200 points is not a lot, so I have just a few options...

Sternguard:  5 lads with a variety of Combi Weapons and a Rhino.  Not a lot of subtlety, but with the Bolter rounds I have some options.  SMALL number of troops, so losing 3 puts me to 50%.  SGT becomes a leader, I usually take "Sniper", "Feel No Pain" and ...  Shred probably...  Re-rolling to wound with a small number of shots seems likely I'll need to make every one count that I can...  Small army, quick and decisive.

Assault Squad:  5 man Assault Squad and a Sanguinary Priest (Medic) with Jump Packs.  Melta Gun Trooper and a Plasma Pistol for the SGT, the Medic provides the bubble of FnP, and we move quickly to engage and hopefully not get bogged down in a firefight...    Again, quick and dirty.  Probably the "ignore Cover" for the Melta, Preferred Enemy for the SGT and either Rending or Fleshbane for one of the other lads...  Might swap the Medic for a Speeder to deal with enemy Armor, but in any case sticking with the "Go, Go, Go" style...

Looking at and will be picking up some of the Star Trek Attack Wing stuff...  Guess I am missing my old SFB, and since this is NOT a stupid "blind buy" game, I can actually get the Klingon ships I am looking for.  Thought about Federation, but they seem fairly bland.  Glad that there are at least 4 Factions/Armies to start with and it looks like the Borg are coming as well...  Probably the only thing keeping me from the Star Wars one was that there really are just the 2 Armies, so it doesn't matter that much.  In any case, Klingons are what I'll be playing and hopefully I am not too far behind the power curve by getting in later like I did with MechWarrior, etc...  Eventually evened out, was just a fairly steep learning curve and the blind buys were NOT helpful.  This should be better overall as I will need only 100 points of things more or less, so likely 5-6 ships to give me some choices in the longer run.  Seeing some Fleet builds with 3 ships, so guessing the Devil being in the details for all the options, etc. is where the subtlety is for this.  Starting off I am more likely to bring what I consider a "standard" Fleet build with more ships rather than trying to figure out tricks and combos...  At least until I have a solid understanding of the game play, etc...

Knights, more games and motorcycles...

So, got a few more test games in with the Knight...  Well, my Warhammer figure as I am still slowly assembling the model...  New puppy has pretty much killed my hobby time, but Angus is fun to zip about with...  With my Fleshtearers, the Melta one is quite good...  Plays very aggressive and not the least bit subtle...  Point at the target and go.  Deep striking provides the close in support that the Knight needs in order to take and hold objectives...  Eldar are still a PITA to face with their speed and massed Str 6+ fire mean that the six hull points are not something to count on.  Tau on the other hand are are less of a threat.  Just that my Wolves and Fleshtearers are so far out of the top tier that it is still frustrating at best to play out the game.  My Crimson Fists are REALLY good with the Knight so the more modern books seem to be very good with it.  Guessing Mike's White Scars would be brutally effective, not so sure with a DA bike force though...  Still, between my Praetorians and Crimson Fists, I have 2 REALLY good supporting forces for the Knight, and it even makes my Fleshtearers at least somewhat competitive against a less optimized Tau force...

Lots of new stuff hitting...  New Chaos Marine book...  Another two pages of rules, no major changes.  This is something I am not really a fan of.  On one hand, it is good getting new material, but for the price of the book?  For so very little new stuff?  Not really for me, but then nothing for any of the specific armies I play so...  Well, not a lot of new purchases for me.  The Knight itself, I think it was well worth it as it is a really nice kit, and the rules themselves are in the $4 White Dwarf magazine...  I would pick up the book if I intended to buy the 3+ to field them as an army, but one is my limit I think.  Looking like a Kill Team league for the next few months so my Knight will likely be assembled and painted in House Chappell colors...  But back to the essentially DLC we keep seeing...  The main reason I am not a fan is that while it does make the game interesting, it completely cuts out the local store.  I know GW would much prefer to sell direct, but I think that is not the model that will work in much of the US at least with our local group gathering and playing at the one local store that is nice, clean, has playing space, etc...  Yes, I could set up a table in my basement, and have at various times over the years when suitable game stores did not exist locally, or for whatever other reason...  Just that cuts the size of the group you can play against down by a LOT.  And frankly I really like the local store, so it annoys me when a company goes out of their way to cut them out.  Saying that, the greater range of options IS nice...  Seeing the Tau/Eldar combos over and over gets old and Tau/Tau or Eldar/Tau/whatever just gets really boring to play and play against.  Delicate balance there between keeping it interesting and killing it off with a flood.  Balanced would REALLY be nice as it does not look like GW has any interest in actively supporting their game or bothering to try to balance things out...  But, it is still for the moment the only really big system that I can almost guarantee finding a game of every week...

$280 would buy me a Star Trek fleet and probably a bunch of X-wing ships...  Since I inherited a pair of B-wings looks like I have that started already...  Would prefer Klingons, so if someone were to want a trade, more than happy to :-), but still, heavy fighters are fun...  Still have massive Cygnar and Circle armies, so Warmachine/Hordes is still an option...  Just do not have all that much time to actually game these days...  Still, I know there will be a few new ships adorning my desk soon...

Other stuff...  Selling my two motorcycles and looking to buy one Honda Goldwing from 84-87...  Right combination of engine power and such for me.  The Silverwing is a great bike.  But it is really good for in town and not suitable for Interstate highway travel.  Perfect for beginning riders or those of us returning to riding after a LONG break...  The Magna?  Powerful...  Too powerful for my needs.  Only a 750cc engine, but 4 cylinder engine tooled for a racing bike..  More efficient at highway speed 65-80 MPH...  Really fast, and I guess I am just too old for that to be something that I want...  Would be happy to trade of course, but...

Imperial Knights, DLC and getting too old...

Knight being assembled...  The kit looks nice, hopefully it plays well on the table.  A few test games in, it is powerful but definitely not overpowering I think.  D class weapons from Apoc just kill whatever, so the Void Shields are needed if you face a Warhound or Revenant Titan.  The 12 inch move is huge on the table, so it can close quickly or move away from slow threats...  IG is the natural Ally I think with a horde of bodies to protect the Knight for a bit, and to open up Void Shields for it with AC fire...  My Crimson Fists and Grey Knights work well, but protection proves difficult unless I use Strike Squads and go first...  I could I suppose go with Coteaz or whatever the name is...  I just really do not like playing Inquisition or what I consider overpowering characters, so have never played that one...  Lacking a lot of Intercept, a lot of those games went to the player gaining First Blood, so player one if he/she has a good first strike force like Drop Pods or the like...  Eldar have their d weapons, but other than the Wraith Knight, shorter range...  Most of the Knights I see locally are fielded with the ++ save, so not a lot of the Str 10, d weapons...  Iyanden is popular, so the Wraithguard and Wraithlord as Warlord is common...  My Knight Paladin seems the better one at the moment, but the 36" Melta is REALLY nice for an aggressive force...  Fleshtearers or GK perhaps?  30 or so Assault Marines starting around the Knight to start the rush...  On "go", we'll be in their DZ on turn 2 at the latest...  So, fast one way or the other, nothing subtle, no tricks...  Maybe.....  For the next two months we are playing"Kill Teams" for the local League, so gives me time to assemble and test I think...

Otherwise, "Codex: Legion of the Damned" hit...  One entry from the Marine Codex, and it can be your whole Army.  W T F?  So, dlc based on just cut and paste from another book with a few pages of new stuff...  Which looks suspiciously like it is not well tested...  The Warlord traits range from good to WTF are they thinking?  Seems rushed, and being digital, no real risk for the company...  Chaos gets one next, looks similarly unimpressive, especially when you consider the old Legions are being ignored...  Just seems like they are flooding the market with craptastic"content" with no particular concern about the long term effect this will have on their game and company..  Especially with so much not being available through the local game stores... Not a good situation I think, but surprisingly I was not consulted :-)... 

Was weird reading the interview on House of Pancakes with Stelek...  I know he can be a bit unpleasant, but really the stupidity of the comments there was just bad...  Shame really, I rather liked the interview.  He comes from a (what I consider at least) mass battles background..  The big bookshelf games with chits and tokens representing large units...  Neat, but I come from about the complete opposite direction...  I have commanded in combat operations units up to and including Platoon sized elements, and in war games Company to short Battalion sized elements...  Well, we were just doing a desperation defense, so the survivors of a BN, and mostly because I was the senior surviving Engineer directing the defenses my unit built...  But in any case, I do well commanding a Squad or Platoon, but going beyond that I am far less comfortable.  Why I think I like skirmish games, and I can understand why someone dealing better with the larger abstracts would prefer larger battle systems...

Random personal stuff, CPAP machine for me this week...  Apparently I failed my sleep test :-) and will be disturbing my beautiful wife's sleep for...  Well, I am given to understand this is a new permanent thing... 

Oh, and trying to sell my two motorcycles...  81 Honda Silverwing which is an awesome starter or in town bike...  Just not good on the Interstate with the 500cc engine...  The other is a 96 Honda Magna...  Other end of the spectrum with it being a 4 cylinder muscle bike...  Only 750cc engine, but REALLY fast and too powerful for my needs.  Looking for a 1200cc Honda Goldwing (so 84-87) or something in the 1100-1300cc range for a heavier cruiser...  Also have a few firearms I could get rid of if needed to get a nice bike..

Knights and D weapons locally...

After a few games against the D weapons, I think my objections are at least for me confirmed.  It turns 40K into a "short hand" game.  No point bringing anything but the cheapest, best troops you can alon g with some big Alpha Strike to try and deal with the source of the D shooting.  Warhound Class Titans are popular here as are the Baneblade variants...  I have yet to face an Eldar Revenant, so guessing only there, but with the speed that thing can move?  Hard for a lot of armies to pin down.  Drop or fliers really are going to be it...  Well, except for IG gunlines perhaps...  AC are cheap and between than and Chimeras, seems like a LOT of firepower going into the 900 point monster.  Just a boring game, and not one a lot of people can bring especially to a tournament.  So, the D class weapons do kill the Death Stars of various flavors, but in so doing how much more of the fun parts of the game do they kill or make irrelevant?  ALL of the fortifications are now completely pointless EXCEPT the Void Shields...  Those become a necessary tax in an environment with D class weapons...  Much like the Aegis line was at the beginning of Sixth facing fliers...  So, the 5th ed Fliers are not looking so bad now in comparison I think, though they may well have a new lease on life as the answer to "D Class Weapons".  The cynic in me says that this looks suspiciously like the game developers making all but the new stuff completely irrelevant and thus pushing new sales over allowing existing armies to compete...

New things coming up?  The Imperial Knights look really nice...  I plan on one certainly, maybe a second one if the new Dreamforge one is of the same rough scale...  But as good as they look and will probably be on the table, do they stand a chance against a D class weapon?  Not really.  6 Hull Points, so it might take 2 hits to destroy it, but the same NO defense possible thing really bites the Knights...  4+ inv save that cannot be used just annoys me.  Next being IG or whatever new trademarked name they come up with for the next Imperial Army iteration...  Rumors of a new edition as well..  Dunno, we are at version 6.5 now...  How much more before they kill their cash cow?  There DO need to be some fixes I think, but a new $80 rulebook?  Don't know how many of us will buy it honestly...   And having seen more than my share of good, fun games die to their developers mishandling things and pushing out new editions?  Well, I hope they do not kill 40K...  Seems a long way to go before that happens, so I am most certainly NOT saying 40K is dead, just that I am concerned about it, especially on the local level.  It just feels a LOT like Confrontation did at the 3.5 level when Rackham seemed like they were working REALLY hard to kill the game in order to have the player base clamoring for the new edition to fix it all...  Well, they killed it, and the new edition flopped...  Oops...  Le Roy est Mort, Vive Le Roy?

Locally, Eldar continue to dominate the tables even if unintentionally...  No good answers to the Wave Serpent that will work in a time frame allowing most players a chance to deal with it before they lose the game...  Not unbeatable, but just really good...  Facing 4+ is going to be difficult at best for almost any army.  Add in Wraith Knights and Jetbikes and possibly Beasts from the DE codex?  Well, even my otherwise well designed Crimson Fist list just dies...  Hard and stubbornly, but barring odd luck I do not see my last wining often in that fight. 

Hate to say it, but between the Eldar and Tau appearing massively overpowered...  Well, it is killing the new interest in the game locally.  The Tau with the Riptides and so many rule exceptions combined in a really good Codex make for a less than fun game that a majority of the locals would rather just not bother playing against.  Yes, part is due to the let's call them "hyper competitive" players using and abusing those rules/lists...  But they are technically legal lists...  Not just the Eldar locally, in fact the Eldar are by and large NOT the problem locally, despite the general feeling that they are over powered...  Lacking a real FAQ, very open to interpretation...  So, other games are becoming popular locally...  X-wing and the Star Trek version, Netruner, etc...

Rocs, Titans and Seventh...

So, looking like we are getting Knight Titans...  GMort has a really good overview here: http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.com/2014/02/knight-titans-no-longer-rumour.html
Looking good overall...  12" move, can fire at different things, move through cover, etc...  2 big problems I see are that it is armed with a D HtH weapon and that it cannot easily survive in an environment with other D class weaponry.  I'm looking more at the Paladin class with the rapid fire Battle Cannon (72" range, Str 8 AP 3, 5" blast and Ordinance).  Perhaps I am missing something with the USRs it has, but Strikedown and Smash seem to be completely wasted on something that is hitting with Str D in HtH...  3-4 Attacks I suppose could all miss, but with the silliness that Str D is, what survives?  The Warhound with 9 Hull Points seems like it is in trouble if it gets charged...  So, as with almost everything "D", hitting first wins.  So, essentially, stay out of HtH with the Knights, and 375 points for a 6 HP walker seems OK...  Well, until you run up against something D Str yourself.  Looking good and I know that there will be several seen locally...  And I AM looking forward to that...  Painting up a Knight in House Chappell colors to go with all of my Imperial forces...

Brings me to the discussion of "D" weapons...  For an Apoc game, it made sense and given the sheer size of the game, something like this that is essentially "shorthand" 40K is fine, but for actual 40K, it just does not seem like it fits.  Anything that just automatically destroys any building that it touches without having to actually defeat the armor or remove HPs, etc?  ALWAYS penetrates seems a bit much...  The same thing for most Vehicles and "normal" targets...  Seems out of place given the rest of the rules for the game.  Not sure how I feel about it really...  Locally, it looks like the death knell for the Tau Riptide overload and anything like a Deathstar.  On the other hand, it strips a LOT of the character from the game for most of the armies.  Why bother taking anything but massed grunts because it REALLY just doesn't matter when it gets hit by those weapons...  So, yes, it kills off the Eldar and Tau dominated uber armies but it also kills a LOT of the other things that make playing the game interesting...  I guess my concern is that the cure kills the patient here :-)  "The Man from La Mancha"...

Other than that, I was looking over the IA 2, second edition for stuff to bring into my armies...  The Roc pattern Storm Eagle is one that REALLY stood out.  With 7 shots/turn from the 4 weapons it can fire, all of them Str 8-9 and AP 3 or less...  The Transport capacity is almost irrelevant with the ability to almost guarantee a vehicle kill or a good chance to decimate a Marine Squad or the like...  Yeah, probably too good...  The Mortis DN is good, but not overly so I think...  Intercept is overpowered in this edition and something I think will change in the next one...  Overall, the book looked good, but really only a few pages of useful stuff, so...

On to Seventh Edition?  That seems to be a recurring rumor...  Do I think it likely in the short term?  Eh...  With the release schedule in hyper drive?  Maybe...  Honestly, the game is VERY different than when it was released, so I'd call it version 6.5 now...  Would I like a revised ruleset that actually answered things and cleared up some of the things that should have been cleared up or clarified a LONG time ago...  Right now, things are pretty much Tau/Eldar if you want to win...  A lot of other armies are "fun", but locally at least, not a lot of challenge for a well build top tier force...