What I’m Playing

Playtest time this week is going to be devoted to the new Dark Angels ‘dex, both on its own and in combination with guard allies. My first impression of this book is overwhelmingly positive. Where the new Codex: CSM struggled with troops, Codex: Dark Angels has three very solid troops options and the ability to ally in guard blobs as battle brothers on top of that. As tournament results have proven that troops are key to success in 6th (unless you’re daemons), this is a huge strength.

On the videogame front, my Call of Duty obsession seems to be winding down. I’ve picked up Guardians of Middle Earth, a LoTR-themed console MOBA for XBox Live Arcade, and I’m absolutely loving it so far. I’m by no means a MOBA pro, but I’ve played my fair share of League of Legends, and I was concerned about how well the MOBA format would survive the switch from PC to Console controls. They do take some getting used to, but it’s well worth the effort, and I’ve found the game incredibly addictive. I hit level 20 and prestiged for the first time this weekend. The highest prestige I’ve seen so far was 10 (max level), and he or she absolutely rolled me. So I’ve still got a lot to learn about this one and a long way to go, but I love the 20-minute time limit on standard battlegrounds matches (there’s also an “elite” version with no time limit for purists) because my favorite part of MOBAs has always been the laning phase, and 20 minutes means it’s pretty much all laning phase/transition phase/small group fights. I also love how they’ve handled the itemization – with no in-match gold to earn and spend on items, the concept of last-hitting minions is gone, so you can focus more on battling the other players.

The only downside to Guardians that I’ve discovered, once I got past the learning curve presented by playing a moba on control paddles, is the game’s net code. It’s a peer-hosted game system with some very finicky netcode. Most of my games will be 100% lag free, but some are absolutely terrible and drop players right and left. I don’t expect the same quality of connection that I would from a game like league, or Call of Duty (which has been amazing, connection-wise, this year – I’ve had fewer dropped CoD games than ever) but I’d like to not have to cross my fingers and say a silent prayer not to get D/C’ed from the game every time I’m pushing into the enemy base. To make matters worse, there’s no way (that I’ve found) to re-connect to a game once you’ve D/C’ed. So that’s frustrating at times, and it’s the only thing keeping me from being 100% obsessed with this game. That said, I’m definitely still enjoying it, and I may do a follow-up article on it ’cause I’ve found that when somebody asks what I’m playing on XBox and I tell ‘em about Guardians of Middle Earth, the typical response has been “that sounds awesome, I love lord of the rings, but how the hell is a MOBA going to work on a console?”

I also picked up the third (and most likely final) Deck Pack for Duels 2013, which is a blue/black deck and a 5-color deck. It’s a 5-color control deck with some fun bombs to drop. And there’s absolutely no way to make it an aggro/tempo deck, which is what I’ve tried to do with virtually every deck in the game so far. When I first saw the deck spoiled I was thinking – “Can this work? Nah, there’s no way I’m going to get one of each color out in time to not get absolutely steamrolled.” But it works. I’d say I get to 5 colors by turn 5-6 in most games. It has a ton of ramp and fetchlands and that’s essential. It’s still slow, but it seems like it has enough removal, including lots of board wipers, to make it to the late game on a regular basis. Stars of the show are the days of judgment, pernicious deed, and two savage twisters (x damage to all creatures). Stall, build a manabase, drop fatties, win game. It’s a definite change of pace from my usual gameplan of play small efficient beaters, remove/evade blockers, beat face, win game. 5-color has the mass removal power to force the aggro decks into a longer game that they’re ill-suited for. Love it.

At the moment I’m toying around with cutting out blue, and making it a 4-color deck. Or I may just splash blue for a few cards, ’cause there are some amazing 5-color bombs in there. I haven’t played much of the blue/black deck yet ’cause I’ve been so enamored with the 5-color beast. 5-color is never going to be as consistent as a well-tuned black/white, peacekeepers, goblins, etc. but it sure has the cards to get the job done. I had one game against black/white where I kept the enemy absolutely manastarved- I destroyed four lands, by playing two vindicates in back-to-back turns, then using a card that lets you bring back one card of each color from your graveyard to bring ‘em both back (one as black one as white) and playing ‘em both again. Absolutely brutal, he conceded/ragequit soon thereafter.

Lists I’m Working On
With the release of the new Dark Angels ‘dex, I’m working on an updated version of my IG/Dark Angels Blob list. Look for that soon. With the improvements to the DA tac squads, it looks like the DA side of this list is going to get a lot stronger and really start pulling its weight. I’m also working on a new SW/IG concept I’ve dubbed “psychic choir guard”. That one may have to be a for fun only list ’cause in playtesting it has proven to have practically zero chance of finishing a game in a 2.5 hour time slot.

On the Workbench

Haven’t done a lot of hobbying lately, but I’m working on some conversions for my Angry Marines project.

Rules we’re arguing about

We’ve already received quite a few questions regarding the new DA ‘Dex, and the majority of ‘em were addressed in the FAQs released shortly thereafter.  Look for our analysis of the FAQs soon, the star of the show being the CSM Heldrake.

What I’m watching.

Lately I’ve been laughing my ass off watching seasons 2 and 3 of Modern Family. I love that show. It has all the usual family sitcom stuff, but then every so often it just nails ya with one of those out-of-the-blue one-liners. It’s one of those shows that makes me laugh so hard I can barely breathe.

This weekend my fiancee and I went to see The Book of Mormon in Chicago. I knew almost nothing about it going in, and I’ve never been a huge fan of musicals, so my expectations were fairly low. But the show was absolutely hilarious and I really enjoyed it. Easily the hardest I’ve ever laughed in a theater (the play kind, not the movie kind). I highly recommend it.

Closing Arguments

Well, that about wraps up what’s going on this week.  Let us know your thoughts on the new DA ‘dex and the latest round of FAQs.  Kudos to GW for keeping up the quick pace on the FAQs!

On the Table:

The DA codex is out. While many sites race to be the first to get their previews out, me and GK have been discussing the good, the bad, and the wtf? I don’t want to spoil anything, but the flyers leave something to be desired!

However, given my penchant for robed marines, and my desire to get something into the assembly stage, I am leaning heavily toward putting together a small DA force. What DA does have is some strong troop options. Terminators and Ravenwing bikers offer different types of resiliency, and the new tac squads are hopefully the mold for all future SM.

In addition, while supporting the Kingdom Death Kickstarter, I had to see the minis myself and ordered one. Got it the other day, and online pictures do not do it justice. The details on these figs are incredible. If I get brazen enough to try and paint it, i’ll put it up here.

On the Console:

In case you’re wondering where GK is, I can summon it up in 4 words, “Guardians of Middle-Earth”. If its hyphenated, is it one word or two? Seems like I should know this stuff. Anyway, this little xbox arcade title snagged both of us with its Lord of the Rings motif, and it is a surprisingly well put together MOBA. It is simpler, and a little more forgiving, but it is a lot of fun. I’ll let GK go more in-depth. I do have to say, the ne-tcode right now is terrible. When trying to play with friends, the game crashes a lot. A lot. Hopefully this will be fixed soon, because its really holding back what could be an excellent game.

Outside of that, i’m slashing and stabbing my way through Assassins Creed 2. While I had kind of given a pass to the series, I am a sucker for a colonial era game like AC3, and way too OCD to not play the first games. I am surprised at how much i’m enjoying the second game.

February promises to be a good month with Dead Space 3 heading our way, especially since its coop. Beyond that, and I can confess to being an Aliens fanb-oy, so Colonial Marines is pre-ordered and I’ve started a movie marathon to prepare myself.

Rules:

I don’t say this a lot, but GW has been on the ball. Getting some Necron-Embarked-Troops rules out there will save tons of time at tournaments, agree or not. And the speed of the first faq for the DA codex was impressive…even if all of that should have been caught in editing. But what do I know, i’m the guy that knows nothing about hyphenated words. Still, there are enough queries in there to keep us busy, so please let us know if there is something just driving you crazy!

Thats it for now, have a good one!

Starting at the Beginning

The game is based on the premise that you and your fellows are amnesiac survivors… humans that just came into being, and form a small settlement. To survive, you need to gather materials to better your settlement, fend off monsters, and grow in population. All of this culminates in battling The Watcher, an entity that destroys humans and erases their knowledge.

When you begin the game, you make a starting settlement and determine your starting population with a D10. Most of the game is based on a D10 or D100 system. Your population is also your settlement’s hit points. You run out of survivors, you are done. After determining your population, you go immediately into the game, beginning with an encounter with a monster. Then you get into the game proper.

A turn starts off with a hunt. A hunt starts with gearing your four survivors if you’re playing solo, or your own survivor if you’re playing with multiple people. You have 9 equipment slots for stuff like gloves, weapons, and accessories. Some of these items gain benefits when they are paired with other specific items.  For example, putting a Strength token next to another strength token (on your 3×3 gear grid) might double your strength bonus.  This appears to be a very in-depth system that makes you plan your hunt, the benefits you want, etc. Once you are geared, you also make sure your character sheet is up to date.

The character sheets show your hp on various limbs (you take hits to limbs as the game goes on, which can effect your abilities), your armor, your insanity points, your skill (you can become proficient with weapons and gain bonuses), and your survival points (you get a limited number of these, but they give you rerolls, extra attacks, etc). Through this sheet, and your gear, your character levels up (and goes more insane) the longer he or she faces the KD world.

On the hunt, there is a ‘hunt track’, where the monster starts so many spaces away. Each monster has its own Hunt cards that it places for this phase. On your turn, you move toward the monster, which can lead to encounters. The example encounter is a trail of broken lanterns. You can ignore it, or explore. If you explore, you make a roll; 45% chance of being injured, 45% chance of finding rare mats for your settlement, or a 10% chance of finding a settlement upgrade. This creates a risk/reward judgment call by the players. Later examples show how a settlement innovation may add options and strategies, such as letting you communicate with monsters, or bargain, increasing your chances for a beneficial effect.

Then the monster uses a card…the example shows the lion catching the scent of the survivors, and moving toward them. Later parts of the video show how the survivors can use items to try and draw the monster away from them. Its a game of positioning, because whichever party moves onto the other gets a bonus in the showdown phase.

The showdown phase is the battle, and is detailed in the first video. The survivors decide their actions based on a move/act turn, using items, gear, attacking, etc. Watch the video for how the attack rolls work. The enemy fights with an AI deck, which determines what its going to do. The harder the monster, the more cards are in the deck, and the more powerful some of those cards are. The deck is the monsters HP, making it possible to wear a monster down during a hunt, if it lets you. I loved one of the gear examples, the headband, which allowed the survivor to peek at the next AI card, so they know whats coming, BUT they can only communicate that to other survivors if their settlement has the language innovation.

Once you kill the monster, each survivor left alive loots it for mats, then its back to the settlement. Back at the settlement, you draw an event card. Some of these are good, adding population or healing your party, others are bad, causing your population to drop or triggering additional monster attacks. After that, your party decides how to upgrade. All those mats you just collected can either make weapons, upgrade your current settlement structures, or allow you to invest in innovations which then get shuffled into the Settlement event deck. These innovations have other effects as well..in the one example, the hunt encounter may be different if your settlement has the “picture communication” innovation. The Lion Knight expansion talks about how the Lion Knight loves art, and will reward settlements that have artistic innovations, but attack those that don’t.

There appear to be some important decisions to make about your settlement between the hunts. After the settlement phase, the “session” is over, and you get ready to start it all again. Time passes in the game, and after a certain amount of years, world events happen that continue to shape your settlement. According to the second video, each session can take between 20-90 minutes, and the normal campaign is expected to take 15-20 sessions. Its worth noting that the boxed game comes with 7 monsters providing 15-20 sessions….the current Kickstarter has 9 additional expansions with new monsters, and it looks like that more than doubles the content. I can only imagine how that will extend the campaign. In addition, the expansions allow for different starting situations and settlements; perhaps your settlement is subject to the Dragon King, or maybe they are the People of the Sun, worshiping another monster instead of fighting it.

After the second gameplay video, I am far more excited than I was before. There seems to be a lot more to the game than just the showdowns; the hunt system, the gear, the settlement upgrades, all sound like they’ll combine to make a fun experience. Well, fun as in dying a lot. The creator has stated multiple times that the game is designed to be hard, and brutal.

I can’t wait.

Closing Arguments

That’s it for this run-down, and I have to say I’m really looking forward to the game after seeing these vids.  I encourage you all to go check out the gameplay videos.

The Original List

Email in from Anonymous:

“Recently came across your site and am enjoying the various insight that you publish.  I have an up coming tournament that has ruled that only brothers in arms will be allowed for allies.  I am a big CSM fan but this has turned me off of using the new codex as I feel they are at a disadvantage. Instead I am going to be going with Space Wolves allied with Imperial Guard.  The tournament is 1750pts no compositions scores.  I am looking at doing decent as last year I placed in the Top 10.  I am hoping you can provide me some critical feed back on my list and how it can be improved.

SPACE WOLVES – Main Detachment

*215 – Wolf Guard Battle Leader:* Thunder Wolf, Runic Armour, Storm Shield,
Thunderhammer & Fenrisian Wolves x 2

*210 – Wolf Guard Battle Leader: Thunder Wolf, Runic Armour, Storm Shield,
Frost Blade & Fenrisian Wolves x 2*

*085 – Lone Wolf:*  Terminator Armour, Storm Shield & Chainfist

*175 – Grey Hunters x 10:* Plasma x 2 & Power Axe

*175 – Grey Hunters x 10:* Plasma x 2 & Power Axe

*180 – Grey Hunters x 10:* Melta x 2 & Powerfist

*180 – Grey Hunters x 10:* Melta x 2 & Powerfist

*120 – Fenrisian Wolves x 15*

*
*IMPERIAL GUARD – Allied Detachment

*060 – Company Command Squad: *Autocannon x 1* *

*040 – Platoon Command Squad:* Autocannon x 1

*060 – Infantry Squad:* Autocannon x 1

*060 – Infantry Squad:* Autocannon x 1

*060 – Infantry Squad:* Autocannon x 1

*130 – Vendetta:* Lascannons x 3* *

*1750 = Total Points*

Aggressive Assault Element – Wolf Guard Battle Leaders both with the
Fenrisian Wolves

Distraction – Lone Wolf

All Around Support – Grey Hunters

Fire Support – IG Allies

Objective Stealer – Vendetta with Platoon Command Squad if needed.

Thoughts?”

The Why and How

My first thought is, it’s a great start.  SW and IG work well as a combined force and they both bring a ton of utility to the table.  They also happen to give you some of the best troops options in the game in Grey Hunters and Guard Blobs.  You’ve got 40 Grey Hunters and a bunch of guardsmen, which is an excellent core to build a list around.  Let’s take a look at how we can play up those strengths.

I like the speedy assault element in the WGBLs and Fenrisian wolves, but I think you’re investing too much in this unit.  This is a unit you’ll want to use to flank around and get into the enemy backfield to cause some trouble, but it’s most likely not going to stand up to a massive point-sink CC death star like paladins, tri-character harlequins, seer council, etc.  That’s not its job.  You’ll want to shoot those units to death or avoid/tarpit/speedbump them as best you can.  What thunderwolves and fenrisian wolves can do is munch on firebase units, dug-in scoring units, and tanks.  You don’t need two WGBLs to do that and you don’t need that many wolves for ablative wounds, either.  I’d drop the second WGBL, all the wargear wolves, and trim the fenrisian wolves down to 10.  That’ll free up around 270 points to work with (and we’re going to need ‘em), and the unit will still murder firebases and troops.

The first thing to add with our freed-up points is a rune priest.  These guys are too good not to include.  Psychic defense is huge in 6th, and the reason for that is all the utility psykers can bring to the table.  The rune priest gives you excellent psychic defense and lots of the aforementioned utility.  The rune priest will also give you morale control with ATSKNF if you decide you want to blob up your Infantry Squads.  It’s good to have that option – most of the time one durable scoring unit is preferable to 3 less durable ones.  He can stick with book powers, I’d list him as jaws/stormcaller or jaws/living lightning but unless you have some prime targets for Jaws, I’d usually switch him to divination to act as a force multiplier.  Prescience will make those BS3 guardsmen with flashlights and autocannons significantly more reliable.

That leaves 170 points.  We’re going to blow 140 of it on 4 rhinos for your Grey Hunters.  As we’ve been droning on about since this edition rolled around, mobility and durability are both keys to winning in 6th edition 40k.  Rhinos add both.  You want to use them for one turn of bonus movement and then get out at midfield and use them for cover/harassment/evac. if necessary.  They have the added benefit of giving you a bit of Flamer of Tzeentch protection in the first turns.  Flamers love seeing big groups of MEQs all bunched up and waiting.  If they fry your rhinos, fine – if they want to burn their alpha strike on a 35-point vehicle, be my guest.  You can also bubble-wrap your grey hunters with guardsmen to try and keep Flamers away first turn.

The last 30 will be invested in 3 power axes for the Infantry Squads.  This is another change geared toward letting you blob up your guardsmen if the situation calls for it – the power axes will let you grind down opponents in drawn-out combats thanks to ATSKNF from the rune priest.

The only other change I’d make is minor – I’d swap the autocannon on the PCS out for flamers.  These guys are riding around in the vendetta for an objective grab so they want special weapons that will let them do the most damage when you do put them down.  I’d swap out the thunderhammer on the WGBL for a powerfist (the bonus from the thunderhammer rarely comes into play) so you can afford a 3rd flamer for them.

The New List

My updated list would look like this:

Headquarters

HQ1: Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Thunderwolf, Runic Armor, Powerfist, Stormshield
HQ2: Rune Priest, Jaws, Stormcaller
HQ(Guard): Company Command Squad, Autocannon

Troops

Troops1: Grey Hunters x10, Plasma x2, PowerAxe, Rhino
Troops2: Grey Hunters x10 Plasma x2, PowerAxe, Rhino
Troops3: Grey Hunters x10, Melta x2, PowerFist, Rhino
Troops4: Grey Hunters x10, Melta x2, PowerFist, Rhino
Troops(Guard): Infantry Platoon:
PCS, 3x Flamer (rides in Vendetta)
Infantry Squad, PowerAxe, Autocannon
Infantry Squad, PowerAxe, Autocannon
Infantry Squad, PowerAxe, Autocannon

Elites

Elites1: Lone Wolf, Terminator Armor, Storm Shield, Chainfist

Fast Attack

F.Attack1: Fenrisian Wolves x10
F.Attack(Guard): Vendetta

Closing Arguments

That’s it for our suggestions.  If anyone else has further suggestions (or objections to our suggestions), please let us (and anonymous) know!  To anonymous, good luck at the tournament!  Hope you’ll stop by and let us know how it went.

The Question: What 40k army should I buy with my Christmas money to stay competitive in 6th Edition?

The Answer: Grey Knights, Necrons, Imperial Guard, or some combination thereof.

So here’s the question. Email in from anonymous.

“Hi Rules Laywers[sic], I’m not the guy who wrote that email you answered about which list to netlist but I have pretty much the same question. I don’t want to just copy and paste a list but Im planning on building a new army for 6th edition and I just got some money for christmas that Id like to use to get it started. If you could make a suggestion on which army to start Id really appreciate it. Im a pretty good player and right now Im leaning toward demons because everybody at my store where I play is going nuts about them and it seems like its easy to build a pretty good demon list. I almost feel like im going to have to get demons if I want to stay competitive because I know a couple other guys at my store are starting demons armies and it looks like theyre going to be a total cheesefest. Any help would be appreciated.” -anon

So our nonanswer wasn’t enough of an answer, you say? Very well!  Once again, a disclaimer – I still maintain that the best idea is to use the models you’ve got, or your friends’ models, or beer cans, or VASSAL, and proxy a bunch of different armies to find out what fits your playstyle the best. But if you want to start an army sight-unseen, here’s where I’d start:

Cold War Syndrome

You should never buy an army just because you want to “keep up” with the players in your store in terms of competitiveness. That’s the great thing about 6th edition Warhammer 40k – most armies can put together a competitive list. You should play an army because it’s something you want to play, period. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take your local meta into account when choosing an army. It sounds like you’re a competitive player but you don’t sound too excited about daemons. If you’re not gun-ho about daemons, don’t play daemons. That’s important enough to warrant a section of its own…

You Don’t Have to Play Daemons to be Competitive in 6th Edition

It sounds like the only reason you’re leaning toward Daemons is because they’re a very competitive army right now, and you want to stay on an even footing with other players in your store that are switching to daemons. I think that’s a mistake for a couple of reasons.

First, as I mentioned above, you shouldn’t play an army you’re not excited about. Building and painting an army is a labor of love and if you’re not excited about the army you’re building, then it just becomes, well… labor.

Second, your friends are probably making a mistake by switching to Daemons, and it’s likely a knee-jerk reaction to all of the blogosphere buzz about them. When a big, popular 40k site like BOLS starts touting an army as “unbeatable” you can expect bandwagoners to jump on it like sugar-addled children on a moonbounce. But as recent tournament results have shown, Daemons are in fact quite beatable if your army is prepared for them and you deploy and prioritize correctly.

Spend Money on an Army That Can Go the Distance

The future of daemons is anything but certain. This is basically the same argument Szafraniec made to me when I was contemplating starting a big and involved dark mechanicus daemon army conversion project. He argued that the current 27 Screamer/27 flamer army is a strong archetype currently, but a terrible long-term investment. GW likes to buff and nerf in cycles so they can sell models that people weren’t using before. Its not like saying Horde Orks will always be decent or GH are the best bang-for-buck unit. Sure, those units are bound to change a little, hordes of ork bodies will always be the backbones of the ork army as will Marines in MEQ armies. Screamers and Flamers? Not in that category. They’re fantastic in the meta right now. But they’re unlikely to stay that way for a long period of time. Accordingly, those models are not a great long term investment. Not only that, but they could potentially be a terrible short term investment, too. Daemons have an old codex. Rumors have it that Daemons are due for a new codex in early 2013, or at least another WD update. And it’s unlikely that screamers and flamers will still enjoy their autoinclude status once that happens. Not to mention you still face the very real possibility of comp scores at tournaments. If a tourney’s comp system screws daemons because the blogosphere believes them to be “broken”, and all your eggs are in the daemon basket, you’re out of luck.

Grey Knights: A good place to start.

So ultimately, as Szafraniec argued to me, I think you’re better off going with something that can deal with Daemons AND is a good long term investment. Grey Knights are a good place to start because they fit both bills. First of all, they’re MEQs. I’d go so far as to argue there will never be a time in 40k when you can’t make some sort of competitive army that involves power-armored troops. They may not always be grey knights, but don’t underestimate the versatility of weapon-swaps, paint-stripping, and “counts as”. Grey Knights also have one of the best codexes at the moment – they were the army to beat in 5th and they’ve enjoyed some strong finishes in 6th edition tourneys so far. As a bonus, the GK codex is fairly recent – we haven’t heard so much as a rumor of Grey Knights getting tweaked. The Grey Knight strike squad with psybolt ammo and 2 psycannons is one of the strongest (and, appropriately, most expensive) troops in 40k right now. They put out a ton of anti-infantry firepower and can deal with just about any threat thanks to those psycannons. 10 MEQs aren’t exactly flimsy, either. And they’ve got all kinds of added utility with the ability to combat squad, deep strike, warp quake to deal with pods and daemons, preferred enemy: daemons, and AP3 force weapons standard. Want fliers? Stormravens have ridiculous utility with their transport capacity, assault vehicle status, and psyker-snuffing missiles. Screening units? Dreadknights with heavy incinerators are a staple, with tons of anti-infantry output and brutal CC. Anti-tank? Psyflemen. Cheap troops? Henchmen. AV11 spam? Henchmen with razorbacks. Small model count? Draigowing. High model count? Striker spam and an allied guard blob. Need more mobility? Ally in some necrons in scythes. And then you’ve got the man who sets the bar for undercosted special characters, the ubiquitous Coteaz.

If you’re looking to start Grey Knights, picking up (or converting!) a coteaz, plenty of strike squads, and a dreadknight or two would be the place to start.

Necrons: Xenos Ascendant

Xenos armies are always risky investments because they tend to shift in power more drastically than mos of the MEQ armies. If you’re feeling Xenos, Necrons are the place to look right now. A balanced version of the Necron airforce list has proven very successful in a number of tournaments. In fact, Necrons have proven themselves to be the most consistently successful Xenos army in 6th thus far. The mobility afforded by their flying dedicated transports is exceptional. While they’re not a 6th edition book, it seems their entire arsenal was designed with 6th edition in mind as it’s full of torrent anti-infantry fire and high-str high-volume shots for dealing with vehicles. And their basic bolter equivalents can bring down landraiders, if you’re into that sort of thing. Their special characters have all sorts of tricks up their tin sleeves to add some spice to your army. My favorite of course is Zahndrekh, who’s one of those special characters that anyone can use well, but a really good general can use to devastating effect. But their ability to deliver scoring units when and where they’re needed from the relative safety of fliers is what really makes Necrons shine. This is another relatively new codex that isn’t likely to get the shaft any time soon.

If you’re looking to start Necrons, I’d recommend a couple barges (which will get you a couple lords), plenty of warriors, and a couple scythes.

Guard: Sluts of the 40k Universe

And then there’s guard. The Imperial Guard is, in my opinion, the most versatile army in the game right now and the best allied contingent to bring. That’s primarily thanks to their ability to overload the force organization chart. Want 2 Griffons but only have one heavy slot left? No problem. Same with vendettas. Or russes. Where that really makes Guard shine, though, is as an allied detachment. While most xenos armies can bring you 2 troops and most MEQs a max of 4 troops choices as allies (2 tac squads, combat squadded), guard can bring you basically as many troops units as you have points to spend. And as the heading suggests, they’re the official sluts of the 40k universe – they’ll partner with just about anyone. Allies have brought guard back into the limelight as they pack one of the most durable scoring units available – the infantry blob with morale control from a commissar, lord commissar, or fearless/atsknf battle brother. That ability to reliably hold the middle of the board has proved to be the lynchpin in a number of tournament-winning armies that have included guard as allies. While guard have an older codex at the moment, they’re not on the chopping block just yet.  No matter what army you currently play, it’s likely it could benefit from an allied guard force.  And all of the ally shenanigans aside, guardsmen are a good investment – it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a guard codex where guardsmen aren’t the backbone of the army.

If you’re starting guard, you’ll need guardsmen. Lots of guardsmen. A couple chimeras (which you can also convert into griffons), heavy weapon teams, and vendettas wouldn’t hurt either.

Closing Arguments

So there you have it, the Rules Lawyers’ picks for how to spend your hard-earned Christmas gift money (hey, being good ain’t easy!) this holiday season if you’re looking to start a new army like anonymous here. And before the flames start barbecuing our inboxes, no we’re not bashing daemons, and we’re by no means suggesting that everyone who plays daemons is a bandwagoner. Far from it, there are tons of dedicated daemons players who stuck with the army through the tough times and they deserve the amazing army they’ve got now (and they’re probably really good with it since they’re used to playing around all of the daemons’ weaknesses). We’re simply suggesting that if you’re looking for a good army to invest your money in, the current screamer/flamer spam daemon build probably isn’t the way to go as a long-term investment.

Disclaimer: The image accompanying this post is not our photograph nor our miniature and is used without permission under a claim of fair use.  No challenge to the creator’s IP rights is intended.

What I’m Playing:

Holy single player games, Batman, i’ve been busy. The holiday saw most of my gaming cohorts out spending time with family, getting engaged, etc, which left me with an excess of time to play with myself. Wait. Motion to have that last comment stricken from the record. GK EDIT: Motion denied.

I finally fired up Bastion to see what the fuss was about, and holy crap that was a good game. I beat it in about 12 hours, though I want to do a New Game +. Its a simple rpg that reminds me a little of Beyond Oasis from my Genesis days. It was gorgeous, and while I don’t normally remark on the music in games, this one deserves it. It has an excellent combat/level up/gear mechanic that works really well without being burdensome. Given that its like 15 bucks, it is definitely worth skipping a dinner at Chilis.

Over the holiday I also got all the Assassin’s Creed games. I had played the first, and enjoyed it, then fell behind as 2, Brotherhood, and Revelations came out. Being a completionist, I kind of wrote them off. Then AC3 came out, with its oh-so-sexy American Revolution theme, and I knew I was doomed. I’m a sucker for muskets. So now i’m playing catchup on the old games.

Also sitting at the end of of my entertainment center is Resident Evil 6 and Borderlands 2. Sigh. So much to do, so little Szafraniec.

What I’m Watching

Like most of you, when its family togetherness time, my family enjoys sitting in the dark and not talking.

First I saw the Hobbit, which I really enjoyed. I was a bit put off by the ‘silly’, but thats literally less than 10 minutes of an almost 3 hour movie. It was excellent, and precipitated an extended cut LOTR marathon.

Then I saw Lincoln, which I also loved. Its a very political movie, so don’t go in expecting war scenes. But if you’re a fan of good political drama, or just the awesomeness that is Abe Lincoln, its worth seeing, imo. He does NOT fight any vampires, though. Guess that should have been a spoiler alert.

On The Table

I’m still enamored with the concept of Tyranids, but I am holding off to see what Dark Angels bring to the game. However, I am still knocking around the idea of a small Necron force. I’d like to say its because they are competitive, but its not. Its because I have a conversion idea that I really want to make happen.

I am a HUGE fan of the Portal games. Slightly obsessed, some may say. Necrons, both in miniature and fluff, lend themselves so well to a GlaDOS takeover of their system. White Necrons, all with Deathmark heads (red eyes to simulate the turrets), then a mix of orange and blue rods (I have found blue, but not orange), and some Night Scythe portals to spruce things up a bit. Centerpiece would have to be a Triarch Stalker modified to have the GlaDOS style head hanging down, though I doubt i’d have a Stalker in my list. The circular Night Scythes would have Aperture Science along the top. My three custom objective markers would be a Companion Cube, Cake, and either a corrupted core or a turret. Too exciting!

What I’m Reading

Geez, my gaming buddies leave and I get downright productive, don’t I?

I’ve been a big fan of the Walking Dead tv series, but as a recovering comic book addict I’ve been secretly ashamed that I have not read the graphic novels first. Well, I am remedying that, and got the first two compendiums. Its awesome to see where all the ideas from the show came from, but I am also impressed at how different the comic is. You can enjoy both without massive spoilers. There have been some major differences that have me equally hooked into both. Hooked so much that I got the Walking Dead boardgame to foist upon my fellows.

When i’m feeling less sleepy and more literary, I have finally jumped into the H.P. Lovecraft works. I just started The Call of Cthulu a few days ago, and so far its pretty interesting. Definitely more of an investment than a comic book.

Then as a backdrop to all of that, I don’t go to an airport without Game of Thrones. Still near the end of the second book, but with some January trips coming up, i’m excited to get a good chance wrap that up.

Closing Arguments

And with that, I bid you all a Happy New Year!  Be safe out there, and we’ll see you in 2013!  We’d love to hear about what you’re reading this new years, and any 40k-related new years resolutions you’ve come up with.

Email in from anonymous:

“Dear rules lawyers. Ive been reading your blog for a while now and I seem to remember one of you guys doing pretty well in a 1000 point league a while ago. I have a 1000 point RTT style tourney coming up in January at my store. There are no restrictions on force organisation or units or allies or anything, but I want to bring Imperial Guard without allies. What would you guys take at 1000 points? Id like to have some kind of blob in there and some air support. I have a vendetta and a valkyrie built. I could remake the valkyrie into a vendetta pretty easy and probably will because I don’t think valkyries are good anymore. Please help, I haven’t won a tourney there yet and would like to surprise these guys with a good list.” -anon

Happy to help! And I agree you should make that valkyrie a vendetta. I’m assuming you can get that done by tourney time. Here goes.

Primary Detachment: Imperial Guard. 1000 Points.

Headquarters:

HQ1: Lord Commissar, Power Weapon(Axe) – 80

Troops:

Troops1: Infantry Platoon
PCS, Mortar – 35
Infantry Squad, Krak Grenades, Power Axe – 70
Infantry Squad, Krak Grenades, Power Axe – 70
Infantry Squad, Krak Grenades, Power Axe – 70
Infantry Squad, Krak Grenades, Power Axe – 70
Infantry Squad, Krak Grenades – 60
Spec Squad, 3x Flamer – 85
Troops2: Vets, 3x Flamer – 85

Fast Attack

Fast Attack 1: Vendetta – 130
Fast Attack 2: Vendetta – 130

Heavy Support

HeavySupport1: Griffon – 75
HeavySupport2: Griffon – 75

The Why and How

Most of this stuff should be pretty self-explanatory. The Infantry Squads blob up, led by the Lord Commissar, and head for midfield which they should be able to hold for most if not all of the game. Their motto is tie ‘em up and grind ‘em down. The spec squad and vets each ride in a vendetta and hop out late game to flame away any small backfield scoring units and score/deny enemy backfield objectives. The PCS hides behind LOS-blocking terrain on a backfield objective and fires mortars. If there’s no LOS-blocking terrain, hide them behind the Griffons. The griffons are there to snipe out enemy special weapons and characters with the ridiculous barrage weapon wound allocation rules. Being able to reroll the scatter die makes these some of the best snipers in the business, and they’re an absolute steal at 75 points apiece. They can even help strip hull points on lightly-armored targets in a pinch. The vendettas can pop tanks and transports and enemy flyers from range, but their primary focus is on staying alive to deliver the scoring units late game, so evade if you take hits. With twin-linked lascannons, you may still be able to hit something even when snap-firing.

Closing Arguments

Good luck in your tournament! Please let us know how it goes and what sort of competition you face. As always, comments and criticism and suggestions on the list are welcome. If not for us, do it for anonymous here!

Read on to find out what GK’s getting up to this week, abbreviated as it may be by Christmas Cheer!

The Big News

So this weekend I got engaged! My new fiancee is a lovely and wonderful girl who’s very supportive of my 40k and videogame addictions. She’s also quite tolerant of the multitude of models sprawled all over our apartment in various states of construction and paint! Definitely a keeper!

What I’m Playing

Haven’t had much time to play this week due to traveling and family time. I did manage to get in a few 1v1 online games of Duels of the Planeswalkers on XBox Live – mostly with the Black/White “Grim Procession” deck. It’s still my favorite of the deck pack decks, and despite my earlier theory that these decks were designed to be more multiplayer-oriented, Grim Procession has proved very successful for me in 1v1 thanks to some efficient beaters with special abilities that are actually useful, and lots of opportunities to generate card advantage. I got zero 40k played this week (against actual humans, anyway), which is something I’ll have to remedy very soon!

Lists I’m working on

I’ve been tuning and testing a 1000 point pure IG list in response to a build request. Look for that one soon! Other than that I’ve been fiddling around with Daemons with CSM allies, but most of the time I think I’d rather just go pure daemons. Working at the 1000 point level with IG has me thinking about pure crons at that level, too. I’d probably do something like:

HQ: Zahndrekh – 185
Court: 2x volt-teks – 50

Troops1: Warriors x5, Scythe – 165
Troops2: Warriors x5, Scythe – 165
Troops3: Immortals x7, Tesla – 119
Troops4: Warriors x10 – 130

H.Support1: Anni Barge – 90
H.Support2: Anni Barge – 90

This is just basic shoot-you-to-death crons. I think it might have a hard time dealing with 2+ armor saves – it’d just have to torrent them down like anything else. Ultimately it relies on people not bringing a lot of anti-flier at 1000 points and hopes to clear off a couple objectives with shooting to drop scoring units onto late-game.

The WorkBench

Speaking of crons, I’ve been playing around with a new color scheme for my go-bots, but I can’t seem to find anything I like more than just good ol’ black and gold. It’s never going to win me any creativity awards, but they do look good en masse. I did finish up building a custom-made kitbash Catacomb Command Barge recently, I may try to get some pics of that up soon.

Rules We’re Arguing About

The dreaded farting heldrake debate rages on. While the heldrake can place its Baleflamer template behind it, can it actually wound the things it templates if it can’t see them? What sort of weapon mount is the baleflamer mounted on, for that matter? Are we supposed to call that bendy-looking dinobot neck a hull mount? Pintle? Sponson? The Baleflamer is being hotly (get it?) debated all over the 40k-related internet and we may have to jump in soon. This one may or may not get FAQ’ed as it’s probably something that never even crossed the designers’ minds.

What We’re Watching

I saw The Hobbit and absolutely loved it. It’s been catching some Flakk from various critics and commentators, and I think they’re just way off the mark. Why so serious? I think the biggest problem is so many of them went into it expecting more Lord of the Rings when the Hobbit is an entirely different animal. Yeah it’s the same world, but this story is certainly more geared toward children. Expect more songs and stereotypes and physical comedy. The hobbit isn’t intended to be such serious business. I don’t want to risk any spoilers here but I do love the way they’ve drawn from Middle Earth mythology to add to the story. The whole thing was incredibly well done in my opinion and I’m excited that they’re making a trilogy out of it. I’m eagerly awaiting the extended edition in… whenever they get around to releasing it. If you’ve been hesitating to see this one because of critics and naysayers, don’t! Go see it! I’ll probably be heading to Les Miserables this weekend – if it was worth Anne Hathaway having her teeth pulled IRL to look more authentically miserable, it’s probably worth seeing.

Closing Arguments

That’s it for this week! Go see the hobbit if you haven’t! Feedback is of course welcome on my necron list here and I’d love to hear what you all think about the baleflamer line of sight issues. We’d also love to hear about your holiday hauls of 40k-related loot. Happy holidays from The Rules Lawyers!

Why talk about games that aren’t 40k on this 40k blog?  Well, simply put, there are a lot of good games out there. Dust. Malifaux. Infinity. Warmachine. The list goes on.  I’m not here to debate which is the better system.  Like 40k, they all have their strengths and weaknesses.  Any particular strength or weakness aside, I think most of us don’t relish the prospect of venturing into a new system because this is an expensive hobby!  Whether you’re a 40k player or a warmachins player or a flames of war player, or whatever the case may be, you’ve probably made a significant investment of time and money in the game(s) you play.  The cost of entry into another system is one big reason people don’t venture out into other games, and that’s an entirely justifiable response.  And we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the vast array of tabletop games that aren’t listbuilding wargames.  But the sometimes high cost of entry (even stand-alone tabletop games often ain’t cheap) doesn’t mean other games aren’t worth looking into.  It doesn’t mean they can’t be appreciated for what they are.  All of them are created by people like us.  Gamers.  People that love this hobby.  People that love tabletop gaming.

The first one I wanted to mention was Kingdom Death: Monster, which as a kickstarter campaign going (find it here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/poots/kingdom-death-monster?ref=live), and has amassed pledges of over $700k, which is incredibly impressive considering its original goal was $35k.  The game has gathered a huge following thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of its creator, a dauntless gamer-turned-gamemaker who’s devoted tremendous amounts of his life and personal resources to getting this project off the ground.

What Is It?

For those of you like GK who haven’t caught on to the kickstarter phenomenon yet, or for those of you who already love kickstarter and just missed this one, Kingdom Death: Monster is a cooperative board game for 1-6 players. You play as a survivor in a world where humans are the bottom of the food chain, trying desperately not to be wiped out. You go on hunts, level up your settlement, craft gear, and try to make it to the games final monster. The players get to make the major decisions for their settlement, and gear their characters as the game goes on. Each fight is random; the monsters have a random AI deck, and the survivors move themselves and make D10 rolls to determine success/failure. After each successful fight, you gather materials from your slain foe to make into weapons or innovations for your settlement.

Why Do I Like It?

Cooperative tabletop gaming with a meta-game aspect? Hell yes. I love board games, but competitive games carry their own curse. While it can be fun to stomp your buddies into the ground in a competitive game, sometimes you want to work WITH your friends. A good strategy game goes a long way, and early impressions make this look like a HARD game that will take several gaming sessions. Then there is a high level of re playability. Too often games are too easy, or too short; not worth the price of entry.  Many games designed for “everyone” are easily devoured by competitive gamers, their mechanics broken down and min/maxed, and the game dominated in a single sitting. I have high hopes that this game won’t be so easy to chew up and spit out.

And the game is set in a wonderfully crafted, dark and horrific fictional universe. The creator describes it as, “Nightmare Boutique”, and the game is definitely mature. People will die horribly. It will be difficult to survive. Fantastic. The creator obviously cares a lot about his game, and he is a one man show. He’s not EA, he is not GW, he is just trying to get his vision out and hopefully we’ll reap the benefits of his labor of love with an awesome game.

How Does It Look?

Fantastic. Go to the Kingdom Death page and check out some of those minis (avoid the Wet Nurse at first…trust me). They are incredibly detailed. In fact, most of the minis on the site have nothing to do with the game (though some have been added as stretch goals), but these minis helped fund the creator to the point where he could start this Kickstarter. Some are horrible monsters, some are over-sexualized pinups. That is a great combo, if you ask me.

Either way, these are some of the coolest minis I have seen, and a definite step up from some of the quality I have seen.

My biggest fear is that I am nowhere near good enough a painter to do the models justice!

How Does It Play?

This will have to wait until GK and I can get our grubby mitts on the game.  The KS page has a gameplay video, and there is supposed to be another one soon, but with a year till release, right now we can just hope.

Here is my problem: I CAN’T PICK AN ARMY!

Ever since 6th edition hit, I have been proxying, substituting, listbuilding, mathhammering, and lore-mastering more armies than I care to admit. I will go into this soon, and explain what I see as the “paralysis factor” that the possibility of allies can cause for list-builders. But that’s not this!  So read on to see what I’m up to this week.

What I’m Playing:

Black Ops 2. You try telling GK no. Doesn’t work well. Truth be told, I am not the biggest CoD fan, and I thought MW3 was a pile of crap. I am MUCH more impressed with Black Ops 2. And, like most things, games are more fun when you have friends to play with. So I bought it, and jumped in. Scorestreaks are so much better than killstreaks. The guns are more balanced. The perks are not broken. And most importantly, the spawn-rotation system no longer seems completely random and stupid. It is overall a much better product.

It is also worth noting that the single player in Black Ops 2 is a LOT more fun. I always griped about MW3…too many characters to care about any of ‘em, and overall just too depressing. At some point in MW3 I realized that your characters failed almost every mission. Every bad guy got away at the end of the level. You never made it in time, till the last board. The only way I made it through was when I started looking at the game’s storyline as a comedy of errors featuring the keystone cops of the special forces that just couldn’t get anything right. Wacky fun.

I am also one of the 7 people in the world still playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. I am a Bioware fanboy that beat KotoR and KotoRII many, many times. I don’t do ops, I dally in Hard Modes, and have been known to warzone, but for the most part I just chug along through the storylines. The biggest criticism of this game has alaways been its a single player game masking as an MMO. I am okay with that. It does give me an ‘end’….I just need to max 8 characters! Halfway there. On and off.

Whats that? New Duel of the Planeswalkers content? Dammit!

Lists I Am Working On:

As I mentioned above, I am all over the place. I’m in love with SM, but can’t make a non-Space Wolf list that I like. I’ve spent a LOT of time with the Tyranid dex recently, and I think they can be competitive. Being a bit of an Aliens fanatic, i’ve always been interested in Nids. And with my new dislike of allies (look for that article soon), Nids present a tempting option. Biggest problem? Cost. Nids are expensive. You need lots of critters. So more proxying is necessary before I make that kind of investment.

Then looking over me is the DA release. I have always loved robed marines, and i’m sitting on 30 robed guys and some Dark Vengeance guys, waiting with baited breath.

Rules We’ve Been Arguing About:

Not so much a rule, but definitely an issue of play, the Scatter Die. With the resurgence of barrage weapons thanks to barrage sniping, net-list daemon armies deep-striking all over the place, and crashing flyers, that scatter die is getting rolled more and more often, but few of us bring protractors with us.  As a result, we’re seeing more and more players who end up doing the robot at their table, trying to line up their arm with the angle, move it to the correct location without changing said angle, and figure out who lands where.

Short answer? Roll the die as close to the effected unit as possible, or bring dueling pistols.