On holiday break!

I'm in Sydney, Australia right now and my wife and I are getting ready for the New Year!  New Years is Sydney is going to be crazy, but it'll be a blast for sure.  I spent the last week in Auckland with my family and it was great seeing everyone.  Hope all is well for you guys.  Later!

WM: Cygnar Tricks

This will be the first of many mini-articles that I'm putting out for Warmachine.  The purpose of these articles is to teach players all the "tricks" that each faction can put out.  Keep in mind that I'll only speak from the factions and warcasters that I have experience with.  By experience, I mean combat experience either on the table or in Vassal.  You won't find any theory hammer here.

Oh and yes, I'm also going to need your input on how I can format this better.  For now, I'll start with the warcasters and what kind of units you'll see with them.

Siege
Playstyle: Massive ranged damage.
Feat: The first time a model takes damage in his control area, it's at half armor.
Gimmick: The complete and utter destruction of the opposing army on feat turn.
Units: Defenders, Stormclad, Rangers

On feat turn, Siege and his army can wipe out an entire opposing army.  Every single model taking damage will be at half armor means that ATGM will be doing straight dice to Khador 'jacks.  A Stormclad will be hitting at dice +9 and each POW10 Electro-leap will be killing any infantry around him.  Ground Pounder will also do massive amounts of damage to infantry coming in range of Siege and on feat turn, it's going to absolutely destroy shield walls.  Due to Siege's fantastic assortment of spells, he can make Defenders do magical AOE3 shots and give his ranged army constant cover and immunity to blast damage.  Mage Sight reveals stealth and Foxhole can drop enemy 'jacks into a hole and open LoS to the enemy caster for ranged assassination.

eHaley
Playstyle: Using spells to move units into advantageous positions.
Feat: She controls the order of activations of enemy models in her control range.  Those models effected have to forfeit their movement or combat action.
Gimmick: Jack Bullet or Bullet Jack.
Units: Defender, Stormclad, Stormblades, Lancer

eHaley has the ability to inflict massive damage to your opponents and then deny them any chance of retaliation.  Her Feat allows her to control the order of activations for your opponent's models and they have to either forfeit their movement or combat action.  That's absolutely huge; especially if nothing is in combat reach.  You can also use her feat to completely deny your opponent's chances of an assassination or successful jack kill.  With Telekensis and Temporal Acceleration, she can launch her Stormclad at her opponents with a threat range of 16" with Reach.  This is her ideal jack bullet and her other is the Defender.  By casting TA on the Defender and moving stuff around with TK, the Defender can claim a aiming bonus with two boosted shots at the enemy warcaster for an assassination.  Haley also likes to run with Stormblades because she has access to Deadeye and can increase their chances to hit dramatically.


eCaine
Playstyle: Ranged assassination and massive single-target damage.
Feat: For each shot that hits, Caine gets +1 accumulative damage to his POW12 guns.  Models that are boxed explodes for AOE3 POW10 blast damage.
Gimmick: 19" threat range from clear line of sight or 18.5" without for his ranged assassination.
Units: Rangers, Reinholdt, Squire, eEyriss

There's a lot of eCaine lists out there that play differently from each other.  Some take advantage of knockdowns to open up a shooting lane and others compensate Caine's shootiness with melee.  Whatever it is, the list almost always feature Rangers, Reinholdt, Squire and eEyriss.  The reason why is because Ranger's mark boosts Caine's RAT to an appalling 11 and eEyriss makes sure focus camping warcasters are no problem.  On Feat turn with 10 shots thanks to ROF Infinity guns, Caine can move 7" and shoot 12" for massive amounts of damage on a single-target.  It's pretty much capable of killing anything in the game with average dice, no exaggeration.  If line of sight or shooting lanes isn't an option for Caine, he'll just charge up 10.5" and then Gate Crash teleport 8" into your hiding warcaster's face.  Sure, it takes some focus to do so, but 7 shots with Feat is still enough to kill most warcasters in one go.  With this in mind, nothing in the game is truly safe from Caine as long as he's alive.

eStyrker
Playstyle: Infantry heavy, combat assassination
Feat: After everything activates, models in control range can advance 3" and make an additional melee attack.
Gimmick: 17" charge range, Positive Charge, Rebuke
Units: Ol'Rowdy, Stormclad, Lancer, infantry by choice

eStryker plays very differently compared to every other Cygnar warcaster.  He prefers heavy infantry lists, close combat warjacks such as the Stormclad or Ol'Rowdy, and frequently likes to assassinate in close combat.  With Velocity and a clear charge lane, Stryker has a 17" threat range with Overcharge.  Overcharge allows him to roll 1-3 D6 and exchange HP for raw damage.  With 2 dice, he's hitting for POW22 and using his focus to boost attack rolls on the enemy caster for an an easy kill.  Positive Charge makes the Stormclad MAT9 with POW21 and infantry models within the Stormclad's reach gain the same +2/2 bonus.  For this reason, you'll see eStryker lists running Sword Knights, Stormguard/blades and Precursor Knights.  It's quite easy for these infantry to charge in and do massive amounts of accurate damage when in range of a jack.  In terms of jacks, a Lancer is a must for Rebuke since denying enemy orders to a unit for a turn can be game-changing.  Ol'Rowdy is also a fantastic buy for a melee jack because of Stryker's affinity.

Kara Sloan
Playstyle: Accurate ranged superiority.
Feat: Everything in her control range gets boosted ranged attack rolls and models in her battlegroup gets to make additional ranged attacks.
Gimmick: She's RAT8 with a RNG14, POW12 Weapon Master weapon that can be extended to 16".
Units: Defender, Cyclone, Hunter, Stormblades

The first time Kara hits home with a shot, you're going to feel it.  Her POW12 Weapon Master gun can be boosted for 12+4d6 worth of damage.  With Reinholdt, she gets 2 shots of these from up to 16" range thanks to Fire Group.  The Defenders and the Hunters in her battlegroup can claim a lot more opportunities to shoot thanks to the extended range and on feat turn, they're definitely going to find their mark.  Kara's feat also allows everything in her battlegroup to make additional ranged attacks that can pummel enemy jacks into oblivion.  The rest of her army comp is pretty standard; ATGM with a Cyclone UA'd, B13 and/or melee units like Stormblades to take advantage of Deadeye.  With RAT8, Deadeye and Feat, Kara can preform a high-powered ranged assassination from even greater distances than Caine.

eNemo

Playstyle: Buffing his jacks to unbelievable levels.

Feat: Each warjack in Nemo's battlegroup in his control area gets up to 3 focus.

Gimmick: On feat turn, all of his jacks go buck wild with Energizer and plow through things.

Units: Hammersmith, Stormclad, Ironclad, Thunderhead

eNemo is THE warjack caster in the Cygnar army.  His Energizer can make all the warjacks in his battlegroup advance an extra 3"; his Fail Safe can make warjacks with disabled systems ignore their handicaps; Polarity Shield can keep enemies from charging and Lightning Sword turns any jack into a Stormclad with +2 STR and Electro-leap.  On feat turn, Nemo gives all his jacks 3 focus so he can have up to 9 by himself to do other stuff; like re-arranging all his upkeep spells and use Energizer.  To make things even more interesting, Nemo can allocate focus during his activation and retrieve any focus he put on his warjacks.  The applications to this is near endless as it gives Nemo plenty of spell versatility and strategy on how he wants to execute his turn.  To keep things even more interesting, Nemo's basic ranged attack now functions the same way as Voltaic Snare (as pNemo).  This in itself can cause massive problems for opposing jack armies.

Alright mans, this is all the experience I have with Cygnar warcasters.  Most of my experiences come with eCaine, Siege and eHaley  but I've recently been playing with eStryker and Kara Sloan.  I like them all a lot, but I find the first 3 to be my favorite (especially Caine).  In terms of power, everyone except for Kara is considered to be Cygnar's "Big 4"; meaning they're Tier1 casters.  Kara is viewed as a weaker version of Siege but I don't see it that way.  I think she brings a lot to the table and her playstyle is truly unique.

Time for some feedback

Alright guys, it's been a while since I got this whole thing started.

Let's reflect all the things I've done this year:

• Got my Space Marine section going; doing strategy, army lists and guides on C:SM, Blood Angels and Space Wolves.
• Got my Warmachine section going; the same thing to my Cygnar and Retribution armies.
• Got my High Elves and Dwarfs going; but don't have as much going for it as I would like.
• Got my Dark Eldar section going; from start to finish and covering a lot of army lists and strategic analysis.
• Joined a shit ton of blogging networks to get my blog out there and share my ideas with other bloggers world wide.
• Lastly, I've obtained over 130k visits and frequent viewers from around the world.  I started this blog in March and worked like a crazy man all year.. so this I'm especially proud at.

So let's see what I do well:

• Brainstorming competitive army lists
• Building strategy guides
• Going over strategic options
• Analyzing other people's work and giving them feedback

Things I don't do well:

• I can't seem to finish what I started either because of work, family or lack of interest.  This isn't going to change I don't think.  High Elves and the army specific guides is a perfect example of this.  Overtime hit at the same time as this and by the time it was over, I ran out of steam.  Such is life.
• The YDIW was a bad idea and I would like to apologize for my more sensitive readers.  Even though I'm a competitive player, I have to accept the fact that the majority of the players in miniatures gaming is not.  So... I took down the section and I'm looking for other ideas.

So where does that leave us.. oh yes, feedback:

• What would you like to see more of in terms of content?  More BRs, more guides, more what?  Keep in mind that I'm a competitive player so a fluff bunny section is not going to happen.
• Google Analytics is telling me that my Dark Eldar section is very popular.  I guess keep up the good work on that?
• What about the site layout/color?  Is the new color scheme alright?  I need something that players can browse as easily as home as on their mobile phones.

The floor's open guys.  Here's your turn to tell me exactly what you like/dislike about my blog.  Oh and yes, sorry for the lack of updates.  I've been sick lately and playing the game I've been working on for the last few months, WoW: Cataclysm.  Pretty exciting game!

BR: 35pt eCaine vs. eFeora

Played a 35pt standard caster kill game vs. Patrick's Menoth tonight and it's the first time we've played in months.  He was fielding eFeora and I knew instantly this was going to be a tough game.  In this game, Caine doesn't have much to assassinate because of eFeora's Escort and placement, but you'll see that I do just fine.  This will be another game where target priority is more important than the caster kill.


My list looks like this (same as last week):
Points: 35
Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
* Defender (9pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Stormsmith Stormcaller (1pts)

His list looked something like this:
Points: 35
Feora, Protector of the Flame (*6pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

I won the deployment roll and I went first.  Since I had nothing to do really, I put Blur on myself and moved everything up and over to the right side of the board.  The enemy 'jacks now had to funnel themselves between the top terrain piece and that wall obstacle in order to approach my army.

His next turn sees Escort cast and upheld on Ferora.  The large unit of Errants got in the forest and stayed out of line of sight of my army while the rest of his jacks approached the funnel in a tightly formed location.  The choir sang no shooting and the Seneschal moved up slightly with Gorman slightly behind him.  Good, I thought to myself.

Caine upholds Blur and moves into terrain.  He Magic Bullets the Defender and A&H makes the Defender's shot magical.  I move the Defender slightly into concealment and boost to hit the Seneschal since I saw the opportunity to kill him over damaging a warjack.  After the boosted hit and damage roll from Arlan's Power Booster and 'Jack Marshal, the Seneschal goes down.  The Defender's shot ricochets into Gorman 4" behind him and KOs him in one shot thanks to the JFK theory.  eEyriss also moves into the far right chimney and takes a sniper shot at a errant that's peaking out of terrain.  The shot lands between his eyes.

Next turn sees his army of jacks move up without any movement from his Errants.  Strange, I thought to myself.  His Redeemer fires into some of my units and magically scatters on top of Eyriss' head.  A good roll later and she's toast (literally!).  Another lands on Arlan and he catches fire while the other one lands on the Stormsmith, incinerating him.  Not good.. Arlan's on fire and he's the JM to my Defender.  A few more shots go by with the Reckoner and Vanquisher taking shots at the Defender and some damage boxes were marked.  Nothing has been taken out at this point.

On my turn, I roll for Arlan's fire roll and I put it out with a 1.  Phew.  The Defender didn't take any fire damage either.  A sole Ranger runs into position and marks all his 'jacks by the upper gravel.  Caine drops Blur because nothing's really going to hit DEF19 in concealment (or so he thought) and eats the Squire for 7 focus.  He moves up a bit and shoots the Redeemer a couple of times with boosted damage shots before Gate Crashing back to Reinholdt.  The Defender aims and fires with boosted damage rolls and the B13 joins in to kill the Redeemer.  Good job guys.

Seeing the Redeemer go up in flames, my opponent runs most of his Errant infantry up towards my lines.  I guess they were deathly afraid of approaching Caine and Ferora got pissed about it.  My opponent then takes his Reckoner and Vanquisher and goes to town on the Defender with shots of righteous fury.  The Choir sings praises to the battle and dice gods and the Defender takes a crap ton of damage.  Thankfully, poor allocation rolls kept everything in full function, but I only had half my boxes left after the shooting was done.  At this point, Ferora is still well protected from the cover left by the Redeemer wreck and her camped focus.  With Eyriss dead, assassination is clearly not going to happen I thought.

With the enemy on my doorsteps, I move my army into position with the help of my Rangers.  Two Rangers ran up and marked mostly all of the infantry along with some jacks.  Alright, let's see what I can do.  I moved up Aiyana and Holt and Aiyana makes them stealthed.  Holt shoots down 2 by himself, the B13 shoots up 4 and Caine mops up the rest.  Before returning to Reinholdt's side, Caine Magic Bullets the Defender and GGs back to safety.  Now that all of the Errants have been dealt with, the Defender returns fire on the Vanquisher and the ricochet shot bounces into the Vassal.  I roll like balls and he only takes 2 damage thanks to Iron Sentinel.  Ol'Rowdy, sensing the Defender's dire need of assistance, runs behind him; ready to counter-charge anything coming my way.

That's pretty much what happened next:  Choir sings for battle, Vassal puts Enliven on his Reckoner and then it came charging in.  Rowdy got up in his face but Enliven just moved the Reckoner out of Rowdy's reach after some damage and he started swinging.  The Defender took quite a beating and was down to 6 boxes left with the right arm and movement taken out.  The last attack from the Reckoner went into Ol'Rowdy and he took 5 points of damage.  Next came the Vanquisher that moved up behind the Reckoner.  Ferora then went up behind her two jacks and lined up a shot with her flamer at Ol'Rowdy and popped Feat.  She hit all the 'jacks and they all caught fire, but no serious damage was done to any of them.  Then she took the jacks that were on fire, put them out and put them on Ryan, Arlan and a Ranger.  With a good amount of focus camped, she Fire Steps into some cover and that was it for her turn.

Ryan and the Ranger burned to death but Arlan managed to survive his burns with 1 HP.  Sensing the end in sight, Arlan repairs 4 damaged boxes on the Defender and the Defender goes into action.  He goes up to the Reckoner and starts doing swinging.  After two hits, the Cortex is out and the Reckoner is at half health.  Next to activate is Rowdy:  Which moves on the side of the two 'jacks (as per picture) and slams his hammer into the ground; creating a tremor.  The two jacks fall on their face and now it's time for Aiyana and Holt to go to work.  Aiyana casts Kiss on the Vanquisher since it was largely undamaged and Holt puts 3 damage on it with his POW14 guns (+2 dmg).  Caine pulls from Squire one last time and moves up into shooting distance of both jacks.  He shoots into the Reckoner with Feat up until it's a smoldering ruin before lighting up the Vanquisher in a blaze of glory.  Effectively POW14 because of the kiss, all 10 shots hit their marks and the two Protectorate jacks go up in flames.  We call it here since it's pretty much clean up afterwards.

Dark Eldar at 2000 pts

1998

20 kp

HQ:

Asdrubael Vect = 240

2x Haemonculi (VB, Liquidfier) = 130

TROOP:

9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer) = 190

9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer) = 190

9x Wracks (Raider NS, Acothyst/Agonizer) = 200

10x Wracks (Raider NS, Acothyst/VB, 2x Liquidfiers) = 205

ELITE:

3x Trueborn (Venom NS/2x SC, 3x Blaster) = 156

3x Trueborn (Venom NS/2x SC, 3x Blaster) = 156

3x Trueborn (Venom NS/2x SC, 3x Blaster) = 156

HEAVY:

Ravager (NS/FF) = 125

Ravager (NS/FF) = 125

Ravager (NS/FF) = 125

Make sure you guys check out my article about my recent Dark Eldar experiences here.  It pretty much sums up everything that have experienced with Dark Eldar so far.  In addition, my friend Nick also showcased a lot of his units and what kind of success he's been having with them.

The above list showcases the two playstyles and units that we both found to be effective.  Haemonculi (with Venom Blades and Liquidfiers) has been added to the Wych units to give them that much needed FNP.  Vect will go with a Wrack squad since they already have FNP.  The 10-man squad of Wracks will be quite happy with their 2x Liquidfiers.  Things brings me to a total of 4x FNP, full squads with 2 of them being T4.  Not bad at all.

My elite choices are filled with 3x 3x Trueborn w/ Blasters in Venoms w/ 2x Splinter Cannons w/ Night Shields.  These low-profile stealthy units are fantastic at killing units such as Long Fangs, Hive Guard or any other exposed, meaty unit that's supposed to be anti-tank.  By moving 12" with 3 units, I can put out 36 poisoned shots from 36" and hopefully weaken an entire unit of Long Fang's ability to do damage (averaging 3.92 MEQ dead per turn).  If I want to, I can also TB these Trueborn into a terrifying anti-armor position for my opponents and then let lose with 3x Blasters each.  Truly the flexibility of these units are awesome.

The rest of my list is pretty standard:  Vect is there to supply the hurt in melee as well as open up my strategic options.  The Ravagers with 3x Dark Lances each gives me a good amount of anti-tank and an opening salvo of 13 Dark Lances.  Sure, not the best alpha strike, but still powerful enough to do decent amounts of damage (all 13 will do 7.15 wounds on MEQ and it'll average 3.575 Long Fangs dead in cover).  With all my Dark Lances and Splinter Cannons firing, I should be able to signfifcantly weaken a SM's player to wage war with Devastators while maintaining a good amount of cover with everything else.

When ahead, stay ahead

This is a RTS philosophy that I've used, learned and experienced the hard way in many years of practice.  Typically in StarCraft, once you get ahead of your opponents in terms of economy and expansions, it's very easy to stay ahead as long as you control the money game.  If you kill one of his expansions with a push, you can take another expansion and you'll be infinitely be more ahead than he is.  Chances are that no matter what he does, you'll remain ahead for the rest of the game.  This is a mentality that I took with me to miniatures gaming.


Say that you're playing a game of 40K and you've killed a bunch of his transports and left almost his entire army footslogging.  Do you go balls out and assault with your dudes and ignore the ranged advantage that you have?  Fuck no.  I don't know about you guys, but I get the most fun when I use every strategic choice available to me in the most efficient way possible.  I understand completely that if I keep my range and use my speed as an advantage, I'll take less losses and inflict heavy casualties on my disabled enemy.  Will that make the game more fun for him?  No.  It is a form of punishment to watch all his minis die one by one, but such is the price of tactical failure.

Now what about Warmachine?  Last night I watched a game where one of my friends got eVlad down to 2 HP. Instead of taking his time and thinking about all the options and tools he had in front of him (eVlad was the only guy left), he got greedy and tried to kill eVlad by shooting him in combat.  Greed is not the right method in WM, especially when you're ahead.  Turns out that eVlad didn't die after all and he walked over to Kaelyssa and chopped her head off in the next round.  This isn't the first time I've seen greed overcome a player's tactical mind either.  Maybe it's the smell of victory so near or the thought of a glorious win that makes players forget their logic and tactics.

This has happened to me as well, for more games than I can remember.  I remember the times where I would be overly aggressive and push into someone's base with tanks, MM and Drop Ships; going for the killing blow.  Of course he would defend well and I literally smash my head and my resources into a 1-base all-in strat, but despite everything I do, I just can't make it up that ramp for the home stretch.  Before I know it, my army is in full retreat and my opponent has a hidden expo.  He stayed calm, controlled his fear of defeat and used superior tactics to defeat my push.  What I should of been doing was scouting for possible expos, taking another base and anticipating any tricks he can muster to get back into the game.  I smashed into his tactics like water on rock and I full-heartedly agree that I should be defeated.  Stubbornness, greed and arrogance are some of the the biggest flaws in gamers in every genre of gaming.

So how do you overcome such flaws?  Simple.  By simple, I mean that the following advice I give will be simple to understand, but will take time to come to fruition.  I promise you this though:  Once you master these tips, your game will improve drastically.  Guaranteed.

• Stay calm in dire times.  When things go poorly, keep your tactical mind sound and analyze every possible situation to reverse the game in your favor.
• Don't get greedy, ever.  When a win is near and you can taste it on the tip of your tongue, take a second and analyze various ways your opponent can reverse the game in his favor.  Deny them these situations and the game is yours every time.
• When all is lost, gg out and find another game or play again.  Take a few minutes to discuss the things you did wrong, how you could of done better, and what you can do next time.  Most importantly, LEARN from every mistake and commit your failures to memory.  Try not to repeat these again.
• Take time to do research and study your adversaries.  There is nothing more unforgiving than ignorance in the face of battle.  It has been the downfall of thousands of generals and their soldiers paid for it with their lives.  Knowledge is power, use it well.
• Lastly, practice makes perfect.  You might be the best player in the world, but if you don't get game time in, your skills will start rusting away.  Don't be afraid to lose and take each loss with a smile.  Defeat only makes you stronger as long as you learn from your mistakes.

That's all I got.  Take as much from this as you can.

PS - I changed the color of the site slightly.  Let me know if you like it or not.

BR: 35pt eCaine vs. pGaspy

OK, a quick BR on a 35pt game of WM I played last night.  It was standard caster kill format with my eCaine list vs. Chad's pGaspy.  This game showcases the options offered in a Cygnar list and all the different tools a player can use to his disposal when fielding eCaine.  Even though the assassination run didn't go as planned, careful target priority on feat turn can still make for a devastating turn.

My army list:
Points: 35
Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
* Defender (9pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Stormsmith Stormcaller (1pts)

His army list:
pGaspy + Scarthrall
Full unit of Bane Thralls + UA
Spray Chicken
Cankerworm
Seether
Tartersauce
Small unit of Mechanothralls and Necrosurgeon

My first game back from many many long months of OT and boy, does it feel good to play again.

The gist of the game goes like this:

• Caine casts True Shot on himself and enables him to see through stealth, camo and concealment.  He upkeeps this the entire game practically vs. Chad's stealthed dudes.
• Turn 2 my turn is where the game actually began with the two forces ready to do battle.
• Rangers run order into range and Lynch Fire beacons some Cryx dudes.  Ryan Magestorms and kills a bunch of dudes (Chad not rolling enough Tough), and Watts kills one himself.
• Aiyana and Holt casts and shoots, but isn't very successful.
• Eyriss disrupts the chicken on his side and the Defender puts heavy damage on it.
• I forgot that Chad's dudes can just auto get up on his turn because of some special rule and Aiyana and Holt gets charged by angry Thralls and dies horribly.
• Some combat also kills a Storm Smith.
• His Seether moves up behind some of his remaining Thralls and his Warcaster sits behind the Seether.  His Cankerworm runs up to my right flank by the B13.
• Eiyriss moves up and attempts to sap Iron Lich of all his focus and fails to hit (needing a 6).
• The B13 mows down most of the remaining Bane Thralls and opens up a charge lane for Rowdy.
• Rowdy charges the Seether, boosts to hit for crit KD and isn't able to.  He inflicts a good amount of damage on the Seether.
• Rangers run into position for marked targets, doing else all game but redirect charge lanes and this.
• At this time, I know the assassination isn't going to happen so I change my plans to something more acceptable.
• Arlan PB's the Defender and the Defender aims and shoots at the Seether in combat.  He's essentially RAT10 with aiming bonus and Ranger's marking so his boost hits the 7s needed.  Arlan's JM bonus boosts the damage and the Seether takes another batch of damage.
• Caine draws focus from the Squire, Reloads from Reinholdt, moves up slightly and shoots 9 shots with Feat up.  After only missing 1, I kill the Cankerworm, the Seether in combat, Bane Lord Tartersauce and the rest of his Bane Thralls.  Caine was RAT11 with the Ranger's marks.
• Next turn, Chad's damaged chicken tries to arc stuff into Caine, just to run into Magestorm, takes POW12+10 and dies.
• Chad kills the B13 with his Iron Lich, pops feat to get all his focus back.  His normal Thralls attack Eyriss and fail to kill her because of her DEF16.
• The game is pretty much clean up from here with most of the Mechanothralls dying to Arlan's spray + Ranger's mark, Eyriss dying from a Mechanothrall after trying to move out of combat, and despite Iron Lich camping full focus, combined boosted damage shooting from the Defender, Caine and Ol'Rowdy wailing on him, he goes down.

Post-game thoughts:

• Aiming and Rangers' mark allow most of the Cygnar army to shoot into combat without penalty.
• Rangers are absolutely vital against high DEF armies because it allows all of you guys to shoot more reliably.  RAT11 Caine guarantees results.
• If you don't have an assassination lined up, or the risk is too high, always go for the max amount of damage on his army instead.  Most people think Caine is just assassination and that's it.  As long as you do irrecoverable damage to the rest of his forces in any given turn, it's just as good.
• After I knocked down the models in front of A&H, I thought I was safe from retaliation.  Too bad those Bane Thralls just got up right after and charged them.  That was bad play from me and they did not make their points back.  This just means that I have to know my opponent's units better and understand what they can or cannot do.

Contemplating Grey Knights

Grey Knights were my first army and all this rumor stuff is getting me excited.  I want to be able to field a small and elite force with the best that the Imperium has to offer.  Because of the model count and my familiarity with the paint scheme of Grey Knights, I might be able to finally force myself to paint an entire army in a few sittings.

+++INCOMING TRANSMISSION+++

Let's do a quick recap of the recent rumors from Blood of Kittens:

Here is some clarification of the big rumors that have been floated around the Internet concerning the GK codex.

1. GK codex WILL NOT have inducted units. Allies are effectively gone!

2. If it has boobies it will not be in the GK codex if has man parts it will be in this dex. Penitent Engines, Argo flagellants, Priests are in.

3. GK and GKT have plastic kits and will be troop choices.

4. Release Date is March-May window.

5. The Stormraven is in (duh) and along with Penitent Engines are currently the only two Fast Attacks slots in the dex.

6. Look for HQs changing the FoC around

7. GW will not take away your toys meaning if you bought 50 Imperial Storm Troopers they will have  a place in the GK codex

8. Assassins are in as an Elite slot and any type of GK army can take them.

Let us start with the mundane stuff

GKs are Space Marines they do not have Fearless or Stubborn they have Combat Tactics and They Shall Know No Fear

GKs only vehicles options are Land Raiders, Razorbacks, Rhinos, Chimera and Stormraven. All GK vehicles are immune to Shaken and Stunned. Stormraven is not a dedicated Transport.

GKs do not get Bikes, Jump Packs, or Chaplains

All GKs are psyker and their powers act very much in the same way as Psyker Battle Squad.

GKs will not have access to most Vanilla Marine Gear especially Heavy Weapons and Special Weapons (No Melta Spamming)

Let us get down to some specifics

Brother-Captain Stern has Eternal Warrior and his attacks can remove models from play.

The Grand Master gives out special abilities to GK units (Not USRs) We are talking weapon upgrades and minor wargear bonuses.

All GKs cause Deep Striking units to mishap if placed within 6 inches of any Grey Knight unit.

All GKs Nemesis Force Weapons are Force Weapons and no longer Str 6.

Unlike the Archon’s court from the Dark Eldar Codex Henchman + Witchhunter rejects are Elite slots. These Squads can be mixed and have many options. For instance the Warrior can get Storm Shields and power weapon. Henchman act more like Beast Master Squads than the Archon’s Court.

Henchman include everything Daemonhosts, Death-Cult Assassins, Argo flagellants, Priests, Stormtroopers, Warriors

Holocaust is now 12 inch range large blast

Mystic is now only a teleport homer

All GK vehicles are immune to Shaken and Stunned (Sacred Hull). Stormraven is not a dedicated Transport. All GK vehicles are psykers with LD 10

Blessed is now a vehicle psychic power that picks one facing and raises the AV by 2 to a max of 14

GKs have access to GK Command Squads giving them access to Apothecaries (FNP)

Vindicare has unlimited ammo for all special shots.

GKs have access to many weapon upgrades.

GKs can pay for + str or rending for their storm bolters

Grand Masters give D3 special powers to Grey Knight units. Things like Digital Weapons, Master Crafted weapons, Wolf Standard, but with GK names.

Psycannon is Str 7 rending ap 4 either can fire 2 shots moving or 4 shots standing still.

Incenerator Str 5 ap 4 rending

Callidus Assassin = Long Fangs and Lootas no more. Works like Lictors/Marbo drops a str 4 ap 2 large blast when enters play and can still use the Neural Shredder which is now Str 8 ap 2.

The other Assassin are just updated versions of their old selves with the Culexus especially devastating to Psykers.

Their are three special character Inquisitors at least one will make Henchman Troop choices.

One GKs Special character will make Purgation Squads Troops (yes you heard that right) you can spam psycannons all you want.

One GK Special Character can take cheap termies talking Chaos Space Marine Terminator Cheap.

Grey Knights are “around” Plague Marine Cost

GKT are “around” vanilla marine termy cost.

Nemesis Force Weapons can be upgrade as well (increase initiative is one option).

Grey Knights do get a MC a cross between a Talos and Karamazov Elite choice. The plastic kit is done on this one so expect it with GK launch.

Dreadnoughts are Heavy Support.

GKT can mix and match Nemeis Force Weapons and TT/SS and get psy weapons as well.

Any GK unit can once per game gate of infinity with no deviation in the movement face and can shoot, but not assault. This could still be changed to become the new Grey Knight Teleport Attack and moved to Fast Attack slot.

Fluff– All GKs are subservient to the Inquisition beck and call. The drivers of GK vehicles are the Psykers not the vehicles themselves.

Grey Knights will be see the return of the 2 wound terminator. These new elite terminators will have 2 wounds and FNP and access to all the upgrades and options of all GKT in the codex. To make things more interesting one special character can make these terminators troop choices. What remains to be seen is if they will get Eternal Warrior…

+++END TRANSMISSION+++


Now that that's done, what do you guys think?
If I was to make a GK army, it would definitely be a shit ton of Grey Knight Terminators.  I used to have 27 of those bastards and there's nothing better than seeing a lot of them on the table.

Will it be effective?  Probably not.  The thing that made pure Grey Knights unbearable to play was the fact that you're outnumbered 2:1 by most elite armies and they die just as easily as other MEQ.  I really need some more rumors so I can start brainstorming army lists.