Having fun with some fun lists

I've been playing a good amount of 40K over Vassal lately and I've having a good time.  The reason why is because the players aren't uber competitive and I'm getting a lot of play with fluffier and more casual armies.  I have no idea what this means.  Does this mean I'm losing my competitive edge?  Or does this mean I'm seeing 40K as more of a fun game than competitive one?  I don't think its neither because I still follow the same min-maxing mentality with every army I build.  Even though most (if not all) of my lists are min-maxed to all hell, they follow a theme.

Check out the lists I've been rolling with lately:

2000

12 kp

HQ:

Swarmlord = 280

+2x Tyrant Guard (Lashwhips) = 130

TROOP:

10x Genestealers (Toxin) = 160

15x Genestealers = 210

11x Termagaunts = 55

+Trevigon (Toxin, Catalyst) = 185

11x Termagaunts = 55

+Trevigon (Toxin, Catalyst) = 185

ELITE:

3x Hive Guard = 150

3x Hive Guard = 150

HEAVY:

Trygon Prime = 240

Trygon = 200

Keep in mind that I've also played with a list that dropped the Tyrant Guard + Trygons for 3x Dakka Fexes in 1 unit.  Boy, those things sure rock face.  You take 2x Devourers with Brainleech on each one and they're putting out 36 Twin-linked S6 shots at BS3.  On average, you're looking at something like ~24 wounds on MEQ per round from a 24" threat range.  As if that isn't enough, you throw in FNP on them and you're looking at 12W at T6 3+ that you need to roll through.  Each one of them is S9 and have 4 attacks each, so once you get in combat with one, you're getting in combat with all of them.  No one wants 12 S9 hits back at them no matter who you are.  Sure, the stupid unit costs 540 points because of their stupid nerf, but they're still putting out ridiculous damage.

Another list that I've been having fun with is..

2000

14 kp

HQ:

Dante = 225

Librarian (JP, MB) = 125

TROOP:

10x ASM (PF, 2x Meltaguns) = 235

10x ASM (PF, 2x Meltaguns) = 235

10x Tacticals (DP, PF, PGun, PCannon) = 245

ELITE:

2x Sanguinary Priest (JP) = 150

Furioso Dreadnought (DP, EA) = 175

Furioso Dreadnought (DP, EA) = 175

FA:

Baal Predator (TLAC/HB) = 145

Baal Predator (TLAC/HB) = 145

Baal Predator (TLAC/HB) = 145

Check that out fellas, rocking the Dante over the Mephiston.  Dante isn't the best choice in the world, but he's one of the more fun and fluffy characters that adds a different dimension of gameplay.  The 3 Drop Pods is there so 2 of them can come down on turn 1.  Guess who comes down?  The Furiosos of course!  The idea deployment sees 2 Dreads drop down, 3 Baals push forward and 2 squads of full power large squad ASM rolling at them with Shield of Sanguinius ready to go.  With so much threat pushed against you so quickly, the opponent sweats, makes mistakes and allows his army to get rolled by your superior cunning.  Dante can take his squad in with Tactical Precision if the need calls for it, or if you can't find any good targets of opportunity on turn 1, or you can choose to withhold your army and let the Furiosos pressure the opponent while you drop in and outflank with Baals.  I don't recommend this unless your opponent is really bunkered in and is loaded with heavy artillery that you absolutely need to drop on to.

As if that isn't enough, I'm also playing my Death Guard:

2000

10 kp

HQ:

Typhus = 225

TROOP:

10x Plague Marines (Rhino, PF/Icon, 2x Melta) = 330

10x Plague Marines (Rhino, PF/Icon, 2x Melta) = 330

10x Plague Marines (Rhino, PF/Icon, 2x Melta) = 330

ELITE:

8x Terminators (Champ/CF, MoN, HF, 5x CbM) = 335

HEAVY:

3x Obliterators = 225

3x Obliterators = 225

This is definitely not the best list, but it's fluffy as all hell and very fun.  Typhus isn't terrible really:  He has T4(5) and his 2+/5++ FNP 4W really gives him a lot of staying power.  His psychic abilities are also really useful:  Winds of Chaos is a template weapon that wounds/glances on 4+ and ignores armor saves.  The best part is that there's no stopping it, it just happens.  All of Typhus' psychic powers are cast automatically.  Nurgle's Rot is his other ability and it's surprisingly awesome at killing horde units trying to swarm him.  Typhus goes with the big squad of Terminators and they can either DS in near a Icon or be deployed on the field.  The Oblits gives some much needed anti-tank coverage and Typhus' Terminators are really fluffy and awesome.  I can't wait for another CSM codex, I want a better set of evil marines.

In short, if you're looking for some fun games, go download Vassal 40K and play some games online with me.  You can find everything you need here.

SW back then, SW today

You know, for such a characterful army, there's a lot of SW players out there that bring shame to Russ and the All-father.  That's right, I said it.  I've seen too many RB spam lists as of late and and the number of Thunderwolf + Wolf Lord lists sicken me.  Recently, a friend of mine participated in a tournament and six Space Wolf players placed in the top 10.  Out of the six that placed, half was wound-allocated TWC and the other was RB spam.

Now I don't know about you guys, but I like it when there's a theme going on with a army.  What theme is there in a list that's built for the sole purpose of winning?  It might be the Canis Helix in me running wild, but I don't think it's very thematic when a SW player puts down a min-maxed lists of maxed Long Fangs, Rifleman Dreads, 3 Rune Priests and as many RBs as he can field.  Gunlines are lame in general, but playing a gunline in a army that made out of a bunch of brawlers is even lamer.

When I picked up my Space Wolves, I picked them up for the sole reason that they're Space Marines that can fight in close combat.  They welcome any challenge, fight any foe and will take the fight to their enemies in a second's notice.  This is written in their fluff, enforced in their codex and everyone knows not to mess with the wolves.  Space Wolves are essentially Vikings in space.  Here's what Vikings did back in the day:  Eat, drink, fight.  Here is what they do now:  Take psychic tests with their Rune Priests and shoot things in Razorbacks while conveniently asking their opponents if they're having fun.

For the real Space Wolf players out there, I salute you.  For the RB spammers: Take a long hard look at the picture above and let it sink in.  Never forget where you come from.

Revisiting Tyranids

So Tyranids have been out for a year now and people have got in a lot of games with them.  I've heard many things from many different people, but one thing's for sure:  A lot of players don't like the current book.  To make a long story short, they find the book stale, some thing's don't make sense, it's overcrowded and limited in competitive options.

This is not going to be another one of those posts complaining about Tyranids, but it'll be a post to talk about why I think Tyranids are actually fun.  Call me a loyalist bastard all you want (considering I have like 4 MEQ armies), but Tyranids is still pretty fun to play.  Let me rephrase; Tyranids is a blast to play in a semi-competitive to non-competitive environment.  At the top tier competitive levels, Tyranids just isn't there.  Now I know this depends from region to region, but there's a lot of competitive options from other books that causes a lot of issue for the options that Tyranids like to field competitively.  Big scary bugs are indeed pretty scary, but you can only get so many of them on the field before things get melta'd or plasma'd to death.  Compared to the Nidzilla of last edition, the combat effectiveness vs. cost just isn't there anymore.

I've been playing with my 2K Swarmlord list on Vassal lately and I have yet to lose a game.  Sure, I'm not playing against the most competitive lists vs. the most competitive people, but that's exactly what I'm talking about.  Tyranids might not be the best army competitively, but they're definitely not out of the game.  Check out my list:


1996
12 kp

HQ:
Swarmlord = 280

TROOP:
12x Genestealers = 168
12x Genestealers = 168
14x Termagaunts = 70
+Trevigon (Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Onslaught) = 200
14x Termagaunts = 70
+Trevigon (Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Onslaught) = 200

ELITE:
Deathleaper = 140
3x Hive Guard = 150
3x Hive Guard = 150

HEAVY:
Trygon = 200
Trygon = 200

The Termagaunts wall the Hive Guard, the Hive Guard wall the Trevigons and Swarmlord and the Trygons can't really hide.  A lot of people like to DS Trygons in every game, but I see them as great fire magnets if the opponent is lacking long range-anti tank.  You throw them on the board and all of a sudden, your opponent's gameplan changes completely.

For some reason, a lot of people don't like Genestealers either.  I still think they're one of the best counter-charging units in the game.  Any unit that's trapped in combat with fearless Nids is a dead unit once they receive a charge from Genestealers.  You can keep them behind your main wall of units (behind the Swarmlord) and anything that hits that wall of flesh in front of you is dead.  The best thing about Genestealers is that they work perfectly with the Swarmlord in this list.  Having that +1 to reserves and re-rolls for outflanking means that the stealers are insanely deadly and unpredictable.  It completely mind-melts your opponent's deployment, his actions and the way the game is played.  No one wants outflanking GS running down their lines.. especially when you have close combat with a tarpit on a denied flank.  If you have the points, Toxin Glands makes them the premiere MEQ-killer in the game for the points.  With the Swarmlord's Preferred Enemy, things just get ridiculous.

Another thing about Genestealers is that they are infiltration units.  That means after both sides deployed, you have the luxury to start 18" away from him in a very uncomfortable position.  This can draw a lot of fire away from your primary army and cause a lot of problems for heavy weapon teams.  The right way to play Tyranids is to provide your opponent with so many threats that he can't possibly deal with them all.  Genestealers are one of those units that gives me those options.  Sure, they lose their frag grenades in this edition, but they are still deadly enough to pressure and threaten any unit in the game.

You guys probably look at this list and wonder why I didn't take another unit of Hive Guard.  Honestly, I don't really care for them.  Zoanthropes are amazing pressure vs. MEQ and depending on your metagame, they can destroy things left and right with their psychic attacks.  If you're playing a Space Wolf/Eldar heavy environment, they're not going to do much, but they're not necessarily out of the game.  As you can see, the only thing I have that can reliably punch through AV14 is my Trygons and my Swarmlord.  S6 and 2d6 to armor pen is enough to punch through the thick armor of a Land Raider on slightly above average rolls.  Hive Guard is good for taking out light transports and skimmers because Impaler Cannons makes any light transport worry.  LoS simply doesn't apply to them and often times then not, they're not getting cover from the shots they take.

What I did take in the place of that 3rd Hive Guard unit is the Deathleaper.  Now I don't know about you guys, but this guy's hysterical.  You can't see/shoot at him if he's chilling in cover.  Not only do you halve the results of your night shooting roll vs. him (max roll is 12" range), but he makes all infantry units within 12" of him roll one less dice when moving through difficult terrain.  Your opponent is never going to get near him unless you play it wrong.  Once you have combat going with enemies locked in close combat, the Deathleaper keeps anyone trying to help them out of combat.  Not saying that DL is weak in combat, WS9, S6, I7 and 5+ rending makes a lot of units cry.  The D3 leadership nerf on enemy characters is also great at nerfing down psychic hoods and watching beefy characters run off the map never gets tiring.  Probably one of the best things about the Deathleaper is also his ability to contest points at the last minute.  Unless, of course, your opponent plays it right and spreads his unit on top of a point so the leaper has to deploy 1" away.  Oh, and before I forget, once this dude gets on the board, the Swarmlord is calling in reserves at +2 next turn.  Pheromone Trail also allows units DS'ing in like Trygons come in without scatter 6" away from him so they act as mini-homing beacons.

Lastly, I want to talk about the Swarmlord.  He is the centerpiece to my army and I take him because of the following reasons:

• I love the idea of him and the model that's represented.  I mean, look at him.  He has 4 freaking Bone Sabres and looks absolutely bad ass.  Besides, he's the only one that's ever slapped Marneus like a small child.
• His Bone Sabres absolutely destroy enemy ICs.  They inflict instant death regardless of toughness and any successful invulnerable saves have to be re-rolled.  All ICs should just cower in fear.
• WS9 and Blade Parry laughs at most units trying to hit him.  Marines hit him on 5s and 4+ invulnerable keeps the fists that do get through at bay.
• 18" Synapse range is very important for tarpitting units and having your Genestealers come in to finish the job.
• Swarm Leader gives me 18" of Preferred Enemy, Furious Charge or Acute Senses.  This is free, can't be stopped and just happens every turn.  The 2x psychic abilities a turn comes in handy as well.
• Last, but certainly not least, is Alien Cunning.  +1 to reserve rolls is boss and the ability to re-roll outflank is great with Genestealers.  I love this ability and you should love it too.

Back to having fun with Tyranids!  I love my Swarmlord.

Uncharted Seas

Big surprise here huh.
Yeah.. so I ordered my Firestorm Armada stuff and it got all messed up by the distributer.  Not only is half the stuff I ordered out of stock, but the other half didn't ship.  The only thing that they shipped was a Battleship, and I can't really play a game of Firestorm with just a BB right?

No worries, I did a lot of research on Uncharted Seas after I placed my FA order and I'm quite pleased with what I saw.  With my FA order being canceled, I decided to pick up a Thaniras Elves fleet instead.  According to most of the players I've spoken to on the forums during my quest for knowledge, it appears that US has more going for it tactically.  Now don't get me wrong, both are really awesome games and I'm definitely going to get both, but I'll start with US first.  Here's what I find interesting about Uncharted Seas:

• Line of sight matters.  This means that blocking line of sight also matters and adds a layer of strategic depth.
• Faction specific cards plays to each races' specialties and playstyles.
• There's actually collision in this game; ramming, boarding and trapping your opponents' ships in are all valid strategies.
• There's subs under the water and dragons in the air; all with their own mechanics.  And I thought FA was 3-Dimensional.
• Lastly, some ships have special rules that adds a little uniqueness on top of each ship's well designed stat lines.  Sharpshooters, for example, can pick off enemy crew.

FA Fleet Analysis

This post will highlight and analyze the pros and cons of each faction of Firestorm Armada.  There's currently 6 factions for FA and all of them play very differently.  I'll use some bullet points for each of these factions and talk about their strengths and weaknesses.  For anyone thinking about getting into FA, this article is for you!

Aquan Prime

• Their fighting style is like a pack of piranha.  Everything moves fast and like group up together to take advantage of their high PD.
• Aquans have weapons on all arcs and torpedoes that shoot in all directions.  This means they can charge into the heart of the enemy fleet and explode in all directions.
• Most of Aquan Prime's heavier ships are equipped with powerful mines.  This adds another layer of tactics for them as mines can do solid damage and provide area denial.
• AP ships generally have above average DR.  This allows him to take more small arms fire and allow them to drop mines comfortably.
• The damage output for each ship is really low compared to the other fleets.  AP really need to utilize their mines and stay together to get any real damage done.
• Aquans are also really vulnerable to anything that reduces crew.  Boarding assaults, decompression or ship fires are deadly for them.

Sorylian Collective

• SC ships are really fast.. except for the Battleship which is fine.  Their BBs like to stay behind with their Gunship so it can add AD and pour out ridiculous damage from extreme range.
• The Sorylians have the best cruiser in the game.  The Skyhammer have excellent stats all around and can pack tons of damage for a good price.  Not only is it fast (10" move), but it has great CP and AP stats.  It is the deadliest ship at RB2 and they can take 4 of them in a squadron.
• Since Sorylians have huge squadrons, they can launch really powerful boarding attacks because most of their ships have excellent AP stats.  The larger squadrons also makes Sorylian frigates surprisingly scary.
• The Sorylian Fleet prefers to fight on their broadsides.  Most of their ships pour out their strongest damage from the starboard and port sides of the ship.
• Sorylians typically have below average PD on all their ships.
• Most of the Sorylian ships are pretty fragile compared to those of other fleets.  This gives them a very aggressive playstyle with a slightly weaker defense.

Terran Alliance

• The Terrans focus heavily on their defensive shields:  Even their lightest ships are protected by shields and with good rolls, you can save a lot of damage.
• Terrans are a very balanced race.  They can do a lot of damage when they want from their linking turrets, or roll a ton of great shield saves to reduce crits to normal hull damage.
• The Terran BB is one of the most solid ships in the game.  With 3 Shields, 7 PD and a turret that can be linked for 16 PD in the front or sides of the ship, the BB is a beast.
• The Aegis R&D Cruiser can extend a invisible wall of shields in front of your fleet so enemy shots have to go through that before they can hit your ships.
• Another great thing about the Terran is their torpedo fire at every arc.  Not only can they constantly pour out torps, but the further they are the more damage they do.

Dindrenzi Federation

• No one in the game puts out as much frontal damage as the Dindrenzi ships.  Their railgun technology is unmatched from the front and can hit from extreme ranges.
• The Dindrenzi also has some of the sturdiest ships in the game; high CR on most of their ships means they'll be ticking for 1 damage most of the time.  Combine this with their above average HP and you've got yourself a winner.
• Dindrenzi hit hard but needs a smart admiral that can take advantage of his ships frontal weapons without getting outflanked.  With most of the fleet having pitiful or no aft weapons, the admiral must position his fleet in a way to optimize his frontal dominance and weaker rear side.
• Even though most of the DF ships have fixed frontal weapons, the Gladius Gunship has the strongest broadside in the game for a medium ship (10 AD at RB2).  It also has excellent frontal primaries and torpedoes making it one of the deadliest ships in Firestorm.

The Directorate

• Solid firepower all around from their ships.  The Judgement BB is very beastly with 17 AD fixed fore and powerful broadsides.
• The Directorate takes advantage of cloaking on some of their ships.  This gives their ships flexibility in whether they want to focus on being offense or defensive.
• The Tormentor R&D Cruiser can pull off some tricky on enemy vessels and force a roll on the critical damage chart.  No hull point damage, but a lot of bad things can happen if they get in range.
• Directorate cruisers are very flexible for their point cost.  Solid damage on fore and side arcs as well as torpedoes makes this ship quite capable in its own right.
• The cheaper price on escorts and frigates allows you to take more squadrons of other ships.
• A hard army to play, but has some of the best looking ship designs.
• This fleet is always reinforcements in forms of gunships and destroyers; supposedly being more powerful than its current ships.

The Relthoza

• The Relthoza has access to cloaking shields on almost all their ships.  This allows for some very powerful tactics as you decide whether to focus on offense or defense.
• The Brood Class BB has some of the strongest broadsides in the game.  Not only can it carry its own wings and have mines equipped, but its frontal torpedoes are no joke.
• The Hive Class Carrier is arguably the strongest carrier in the game.  Solid speed, movement and defense on top of its FW8 and 10PD RB2 broadsides, this carrier can put out amazing results for its points.
• If you think cloaking shields are tricky, the Bane R&D Cruiser can shunt (warp speed) on the map and continue fighting.  Normally shunting takes you off the board immediately, but this cruiser uses it to maneuver into advantageous positions to bring down the pain.
• Most of the ships are slightly slower than those of other fleets and there's a obvious lack of aft weaponry, but the Relthoza makes up for it with their defensive shields.

My next 2K DE list

I know it's been a while guys and I apologize for my tardiness.  There's a lot of game systems that I play now and all of them need my attention!  Check out this army list that I came up with today.

1992
22 kp

HQ:
Asdrubael Vect = 240

TROOP:
9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agnoizer/BP) = 205
5x Warrior (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
5x Warrior (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
5x Warrior (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
5x Warrior (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
5x Warrior (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130

ELITE:
4x Trueborn (Venom NS/SC, 4x Blaster) = 183
4x Trueborn (Venom NS/SC, 4x Blaster) = 183
3x Trueborn (Venom NS/SC, 3x Blaster) = 156

HEAVY:
Ravager (NS/FF) = 125
Ravager (NS/FF) = 125
Ravager (NS/FF) = 125

15 Opening volley lances with 48" threat
16 Blasters with 24" threat range, 1 Blast Pistol
32 Total Lance weapons
36 Splinter Cannon shots

I'm proud to say that I've tried many of the things that I said I would.. all except the Voidraven Bomber.  I am also proud to confirm that the king of the special slot is the 3-4x Trueborn w/ Blasters in Venom w/ NS + extra Splinter Cannon.  That unit is so solid it's not even funny.  It has excellent anti-tank, threat range, low-profile, has NS/FF, and can put out an excellent amount of poisoned shots from 48" threat.

Wracks are good, but they lack the firepower that I desire in my Dark Eldar.  My Kabal is all about wrecking face and doing good damage and I don't find Wracks filling that role.  The T4 and FNP is amazing and I will miss that, but something about them just isn't me.  Besides, I built a bunch of Warriors and I think the extra Blaster shot is nice.

What do you guys think about the list?  It's very MSU and boasts a lot of vehicles.  The small warrior size gives me a very small presence on the board and most armies don't feel wasting an entire squads worth of shooting on 5 dudes.  That means they can run around and score or shoot off their blaster.  The entire army is extremely fast and puts out a lot of firepower on the opening turn.  Once the vehicles push up 12" and take their opening shots (which is 36 Poisoned shots and 15 Dark Lances), the next round is followed up by 2x as many S8 AP2 Lance weapons.

Another alteration in the list would be dropping the 4x Trueborn to 3x w/ Blasters and dropping a Ravager for a Voidraven Bomber.  This will give me S9 Lance presence and some missiles to shoot at horde armies.  Thoughts?

A grumble about 5th Ed. 40K

After playing Privateer Press' Warmachine and Spartan Games' Firestorm Armada, I can't help but look at GW games and question the game system.  As most of you dudes know, I'm a hobby veteran.  I've been playing 40K and WHFB for about 10 years now.  I've seen the progression of editions like the changing of seasons and that's never going to change.  Unlike newer gamers who's only played the newest edition, I have something to compare to and to relate to.  Maybe I'm getting worn out by GW games and that's why other game designs are peaking my interest, or maybe because they just have a better system.

I'll tell you one thing though:  I'm a little put off by 40K 5th Edition.  I'm put off to a point where I'm starting to think of houserule ideas to bring the feel of realism back to 40K.  As a competitive player, I never do that.  I used to view houseruling as a sub-standard version of the game.  When someone asks you for advice or asks you what kind of strategies you employ, you answer them with what you would do "normally".  Normally refers to what everyone else is playing, not some private version that you made up.

My biggest gripe with 40K 5th Edition is when the rules of the book breaks my "immersion".  A huge part of successful game design is making you feel like you're in the game.  Whenever I'm playing Blizzard games, I feel actively engaged and immersed in the universe I'm playing in.  For computer games, this is the smooth gameplay, the graphics, the sound and the environment.  Visually, the game must make sense.  This is where 5th Ed. breaks apart for me a little bit.  Check out these examples:

• Say you have a unit of Marines standing by a line of sandbags.  The enemy flier shoots at you and you don't get any cover saves against it.  Why?  Because he's elevated and from his LoS, your model is not covered.  On the ground level, you're covered, by according to RAW, you're taking no cover saves against his shots because that's what he sees.  You would think the a bunch of dudes standing in "cover" should get cover from such a thing.
• Say you have a Raider behind a building and your opponent can see half a inch of your ship's hull.  Even though he sees a sliver of your vehicle, he's still seeing it and the best cover save you're going to get is a 4+.  Huh?  I would think a 2+ cover save is appropriate because the pilot has to be a god in order to pull a shot off like that.  Unfortunately, a 4+ cover is the best you're going to get.
• Let's talk about the cover system as a whole.  4+ cover everywhere on everything is too damn rich.  All you need is 50% of your unit in cover and you're taking HALF the damage.  A few games ago, I played against a player that had 11/20 Hormagaunts in and around terrain and his entire unit is claiming a cover save.  Sure, the rules say you can do that, but it absolutely KILLS my immersion.  How does that make any sense my mind tells me?  It doesn't.  It shouldn't.
• Furthermore on the issue of cover, 4+ cover on everything is just plain stupid.  The average cover save should be 5+ or 6+  and it should make sense above all else.  If you have 10 Marines huddling behind a sandbag line, they should receive cover.  If you have 5 Marines in front of the sandbags and 5 Marines behind, then the 5 in front shouldn't get a cover save.  If you have 11/20 gaunts spread in a 2" max coherency, then you bet your ass you shouldn't get a cover save.  With the introduction to TLoS in 40K, the cover system has to be intelligent enough that makes sense to the human eye.
• Assaulting and killing things in CC in this edition is suicidal.  If you assault and kill something, I believe you should be rewarded.  The thrill of a narrow victory, the bloodthirsty joy of slaughter, the hard-fought battle against impossible odds - you know, that kind of thing.  Let me tell you how it goes in 5th Ed:  You get into combat, you pray that you stay in combat because the second you get out in the open, you're screwed.  Who cares if you just mowed through 10 Guardsman?  You're left standing in the middle of 500 more with guns in your face.  In 4th Ed, you could go from combat to combat as long as you win.  This is to symbolize the bloodthirsty thrill of hand to hand combat.  In this edition, if you leave combat and there's no crater, wreck or terrain to massacre into your undeserved cover, you're dead.  Simple as that.  And why the hell isn't there a rally after you kill a vehicle?  You kill a freaking vehicle and you're stuck there like a bunch of idiots ready to get templated to death next turn.
• Why is it that glancing hits on the Vehicle Damage Chart can't kill vehicles anymore?  If the VDC wasn't as lenient and the cover system wasn't such ass, then maybe, JUST MAYBE we won't see vehicle spam in every single list.
• And lastly, when I shoot a Eldar Skimmer out of the sky when it turbo-boosted across the map, I want everything inside to die.  There's no way that a lightly armored skimmer crashing in the ground while moving supersonic is going to magically pause and let its occupants out first.  You should have to pay for such a outrageous luxury.

Yeah, I don't know guys.  Maybe I'm getting old or losing my grip as a powergamer, but when the game doesn't look right to me, I'm not into it.

How to read FA ship stats

There's 6 distinct factions for Firestorm Armada and each one has its own unique playstyle.  Unlike GW-style games, there's no special rules that makes each and every unit play differently.  Stuff like Lance weapons, Melta weapons or Holofields doesn't exist in FA.  What's unique about the game system is that each ship's stats (including weapons) is what separates it from other another of its class.

This is probably best done through example:

Check out these two Cruisers.  One is from the Sorylian Collective and the other is from Aquan Prime.  Before we talk about each individual stat, let's look at what each stat stands for.

• DR - Damage Rating - How much damage a ship can take before it suffers hull damage.
• CR - Critical Rating - How much damage a ship can take before it suffers critical damage.
• MV - Movement - How fast a ship moves in inches.
• HP - Hull Points - How many "health points" a ship has before it's destroyed.
• CP - Crew Points - How many crew you have to pilot the ship.  If this reaches zero, your ship is derelict.
• AP - Assault Points - How many marines you have to defend your ship or attack other ships.
• PD - Point Defense - How many anti-aircraft/anti-torpedo guns you have.  These are your counter-measures.
• SH - Shields - If your ship has any shields, these are how many saves you get to make.
• MN - Mines - How strong the mines are on your ship.
• FW - Flight Wings - How many planes your ship can hold.
• Fleet Tactics Bonus - How much you get to add to your 2d6 roll at the start of each turn to signify who goes first.
• Command Distance - This is your unit coherency.  If one of the ships in the squad moves outside this range, it will lose the ability to link fire, assist in PD or benefit from squad-based cards..etc.
• **Both are Medium-sized Capital-class ships** - Medium ships means that you can be hit on 4+ whereas a smaller ship can only be hit on 5+.  Capital-class ship means that certain cards or abilities work on you, but it's not really utilized right now.
• Cost - How much each ships cost.
• Restrictions - Each faction is different; this shows how many you can have per squad and what its special conditions are when building a list.

Now let's look at the weapons before we start putting things together:

• Range Band 1-4 - RB1 is the weapon's power from 0-8" in range, RB2 is 8-16", RB3 is 16-24" and RB4 is 24-32".  This is the effective range of your weapons.
• Starboard - The weapons on the right side of your ship.  The Sorylian Cruiser has a 8 at RB2, which means at 8-16", you roll 8 dice to hit against enemy ships.  All arcs have 90 degree coverage.
• Port - The left side of your ship
• Fore - The front of your ship.
• Aft - The back of your ship.
• Fixed - You can only shoot with this weapon if the base of your ship covers your target's stand directly in front of you (if it's the Fore).  This applies to all other directions as well.  It's basically a 1.5" width straight line so your ship has to be lined up to its target basically.
• Torpedoes - How strong the torpedoes are on your ship.  Torpedoes at 4 means you get 4 dice to attack with at whatever RB range it's listed under.  If it says Forward, that means Torpedoes can only be fired from your Forward arc.  If it says Any Arc.. then well, it's from any arc.

From this, you can compare how each and every ship compares to each other:

• Both the AP and SC Cruiser move at the same speed, so they're both pretty speedy at MV10".
• The Aquan Cruiser is more durable than the Sorylian Cruiser from average damage dice, but the Soyrlian Cruiser is harder to crit.
• In terms of crew and assault capabilities; the AP Cruiser has less crew and less marines compared to the Sorylians.  If the ship catches on fire or gets decompressed, the Aquan Cruiser has a higher chance in going derelict because of the smaller crew.  In addition, the ship is also significantly weaker when launching assaults or receiving assaults.  Ship to ship assault is where Sorylians excel at.
• When it comes to PD, both ships are the same.  The big difference in the last 4 stats is that the Aquan Cruiser comes with a MN rating of 4 and the Sorylian Cruiser doesn't come with any.  This means that the Aquan Cruisers can literally fly by a group of ships and drop down mines that can explode and do damage.  This is another layer of tactics that the Sorylian Cruisers don't have access to.
• Where do the Sorylian Cruiser shine?  Look at its damage output compared to the Aquans.  The Sorylian Cruiser is hitting with 8 dice at RB2 compared to the Aquan's 4 from its Starboard and Port broadsides.  The big difference here is that the Aquan Cruiser can shoot in all directions with all its weapons with zero limitations to arcs or fixed directions.  This is to symbolize the faction's ability to wage war in 3-D space with guns and torpedoes blazing from all sides.
• Not only can Aquan Torpedoes shoot from all directions as opposed to the Sorylian's forward, but they're equally powerful at RB1 vs. RB2.  This means the ship is designed to run towards the enemy, fly into the midst of the enemy fleet while dropping mines and shooting in all directions.  That is how it's best used rather than the flying beatstick that is the Sorylian Cruiser.

Now that you guys can read ship stats, go ahead (scroll down to the faction FIGs) and look into the other factions and check out their ships.  You don't need to buy an army book, everything is available online because Spartan Games is cool like that.  That's what I did when it came to choosing a faction.  Not only is their stuff online for easy to read/easy to print availability, but active support means that they can be changed at any time depending on the metagame.  No more "sucks to be you" things like the CSM Chaos Spawn hanging around until the next codex.

Oh, and this place rocks for army stats and organized resources.  It's called Fathoms Reach.  That's where I go for all my ship stats and research.

Dark Eldar FAQ and more!

Let's look at some Dark Eldar ones first!  Then we'll move onto some Space Marine stuff.  Here are the ones that caught my eye:
Feel free to tag along with the FAQs.

Page 55 – Asdrubael Vect, Obsidian Orbs
Change “Each wound caused[...]” to “Each unsaved
wound caused[...]”

Slight nerf, but nothing too huge since it's AP3 and BS8.

Page 62 – Webway Portal
In the third sentence, change “in base contact with the
bearer when he activates the portal.” to “in base contact
with the bearer, and not within 2" of an enemy model or
another webway portal, when he activates the portal.”

Which means you can't stack WWPs and form barriers or LoS blockers anymore.  Not like that was a brilliant strategy to begin with, but now it's definitely not possible.

Page 48 – Baron Sathonyx, Bones of the Seer
Change “chooses deployment zone” to “goes first”.

I always assumed this was it.. but this made it more clear, thank you.

Q: What does Drazharʼs Ancient Incubus warsuit do? (p52)
A: It gives Drazhar his armour save.

Probably the dumbest question someone can possibly ask.  What the hell do you think the warsuit gives?  Flowers?  Wow.


Q: Can the Dais of Destruction take any of the vehicle
upgrades available to Raiders? (p82)
A: No.

This is a slight disappointment because it makes the Dais even more out of my price range.  Sure, AV13 is great because it makes you immune to S6 and gives you a ton more resilience to Riflemen Dreads or Hydras, but this is still a let down.  If I had NS and SS on it, I might have taken it in more games.

Q: Can a void mine be used regardless of the speed the
Voidraven Bomber is moving at in its Movement phase?
(p47)
A: Yes.

You can now boost 36" and drop the mine.  It says so right here.

Q: A void mine is used in the Movement phase. How does
this effect what weapons can be fired by the Voidraven
Bomber in the Shooting phase? (p47)
A: The void mine does not count towards the number of
weapons a Voidraven Bomber can fire that turn.

You can now move 12", drop the mine and then shoot your other weapons.  Yep.

Q. When a unit with the And They Shall Know no Fear
special rule regroups do they get to immediately move up
to 3" as well as moving as normal that turn? (p51)
A. Yes.

This is probably one of the biggest changes and it applies to all Space Marine books.  It is now dead clear that marines with ATSKNF can regroup 3" immediately as well as moving their standard 6".  This gives them 9" of undisturbed movement as long as all other conditions have been filled.

Q: At what point does a model need to be in range of a
Blood Chalice or The Red Grail in order to gain the
bonuses of Furious Charge? (p48, 49, 52)
A: When you put the bonuses to use, i.e. when the model
makes its close combat attacks.

This is probably one of the biggest wtf changes I've seen in a long time.  Do you honestly expect me to measure 6" to each and every model that launched an assault so I can see if I get FC?  How much measure-lawyering do you think this change is going to cause?  Does this effect FNP as well since they're both USRs and have the same mechanics, or is this only FC?  Should I charge my Priest in first so everything else can get their bonuses thus exposing him to possible death?  My mind boggles at this one.  I honestly thought it was fine before and didn't need any "clarification".  Makes me also question things like Storm Caller and Shield of Sanguinius.  Maybe it's just me being confused, but this faq is just poorly worded.

Q. Is a model that has suffered an unsaved wound, but
hasnʼt been killed, from Arjac throwing his Foehammer
reduced to initiative 1 until the end of the next player turn?
(p51)
A. Yes.

Eat it Trygon.  BS5 S10 AP1 hammer now makes your I1 until next player turn.

+++From the Dark Angels FAQ+++
Page 28 – Storm shield
Change to “A storm shield is a solid shield that has an
energy field generator built into it. The energy field is
capable of deflecting almost any attack, even blows from
lascannons and power weapons.
A model with a storm shield has a 3+ invulnerable save. A
model equipped with a storm shield can never claim the
+1 Attack bonus for being armed with two close combat
weapons in an assault.

This applies to all Black Templar and Dark Angels codex. There's several more like this too! Simply put, everything that's in the SM codex is now in the BT and DA codex. They are now real Space Marines.

Aquan Prime, I choose you!

For the last week or so, I've been doing some crazy research into Firestorm Armada.  I really enjoyed my first game with the starter sets and I can't wait to play more!  The most exciting thing about this fleet-based game is that it's different.  By different, I mean a different game system and balance design philosophy than GW.  Spartan Games actually shows off its timeline of what's to come and lets the community playtest their rules before finalizing them.  Even then the rules can change should the model become too imba because all the unit stats are online in .pdf files.  I have never played any fleet games before and this looks like the best game system I can get into right now.  Time, money and support is what I care about these days.

So what army did I eventually decide on?  I chose Aquan Prime out of the 6 factions currently available.  They have some of the fastest ships in the game (fastest Battleship), good defensive measures (high PD and DR) and they're one of the hardest factions to play.  Now maybe it's the elitist side in me thinking that I can handle the most tactically challenging factions, but I absolutely love a good challenge.  What makes Aquan Prime hard to play is their subpar ship damage.  Their main batteries are weak across the board except for the BB.  With 8" speed and 11/14 broadside lasers at RB1/2, the BB can put out a respectable amount of damage.  To nullify the weakness of the onboard weapons, the Aquans have retro-fitted all their ships with guns that can shoot in all directions.  Unlike the ships from other factions where they have torpedoes or guns on a fixed or specific arc, Aquan ships can deliver their payload (including torps) from all directions.  This, in combination with their ability to drop mines on the enemy, opens up another layer of stratagems.

In terms of tactics, the Aquan Fleet likes to engage fast and and deliver simultaneous damage from all directions. They do best when they stay together and fly straight up the middle of the enemy fleet.  If you have a BB and Cruisers swimming together into an enemy fleet, they can deliver powerful broadside and fore damage from all angles.  With torpedoes coming out of every direction as well, Aquan ships do the most damage up close and surrounded.  That's when they acquire the most targets to shoot at.  I think in terms of 40K, their playstyle is closest to Seer Council Eldar.  They like to get up close and personal with their opponents, but they have to use their tricks and maneuverability to survive prolonged engagement.

Addition to weapons on all arcs, most of the heavier Aquan ships come equipped with mines.  These are normally MN4 or 5 rating with the heavy cruisers and the battleships having MN5.  This means that when I fly over a batch of enemy Frigates or even Cruisers, each ship that flies over can drop a mine from their aft port up to 4" away.  If any enemy is within 4" of that mine on their next activation, they're taking 5 dice worth of damage.  Imagine the possibilities when 3 MN5 ships fly over and drop mines.  Awesome.

Finally, the last reason I went with Aquan Prime is because of their models.  I'm not a Star Trek fan, but I really like the look of the Enterprise and the AP BB reminds me a lot like it.  My friend tells me it looks more like the Mon Calamari cruisers from Star Wars, but who cares.. it's all good!  The rest of the ships are decent looking, but the capital ships (the BB, Manta and Triton) look fantastic.

The "I hate Apoc" rant

Every time I've played Apoc, I've hated it.  There's nothing more mindless and chaotic than putting every single model you own on the table with a bunch of other guys.

To spare you guys of a full-on nerd rage, let me sum it up with bullet points:

• I don't have unlimited resources aka money to buy a billion tanks.
• The same can apply to time and energy to assemble a billion tanks.
• Both of these applies to buying, building, painting and putting a Titan on the field.
• There's nothing I hate more than moving a billion models.  That's why I have things in transports and use a good amount of tanks.  Now I don't know about you guys, but I don't have a tank for every 10-Marines I own.  I would need something like 50 tanks.
• There's nothing more depressing than watching a 10-year old kid paint up his minis, put them on the table, and telling him to take them off because some a-hole on your team dropped a apoc-barrage on his mans.
• I hate those strategems that they use.  What did it for me is the lack of actual control you have over the game when entire armies start outflanking from your side of the table.
• Speaking of structure, there's no such thing.  I've seen 6 Grand Masters walk through 6 Hierodules because that's how we roll.
• Did I mention Apoc barrage and explosions?  I was walking along side a friendly Baneblade before with my Marines and I went to the bathroom because the turn was taking forever.  I came back to a giant ass crater and all my models relocated to the empty table next to me.  Apparently, the Baneblade went critical and bad things happened.
• The time it takes to play a TURN.  You might make it to 3 turns after a whole day.

What about you guys?  The biggest apoc game in history is coming up and that should be a lolstorm to hear about.

BR: 500pt Terrans vs. Sorylians

I played a test game of Firestorm Armada today and I'm very satisfied with the game.  I'm going to keep this in note format so people can follow along a lot easier.  I played Sorylians and Dimitri played the Terrans.  We played with no wings and no game cards since this is our first learning game.

First, the army lists.  The starter boxes can produce the following lists:

Terran
"Razorthorn" Battleship
3x "Sentinel" Cruisers
3x "Pilgrim" Frigates
3x "Pilgrim" Frigates

Sorylian
"Swordbreaker" Battleship
3x "Skyhammer" Cruisers
3x "Scythe" Frigates
3x "Scythe" Frigates

As you can see, the two armies are very similar to eachother with 1 mainstay ship, 2 squads of smaller ships and 1 squad of medium ships.  Here comes the quick BR:

• The Terrans go first and push their stuff up.  Nothing really happens the first turn.  I keep the Sorylian Battlegroup relatively close so their PD can fend off enemy torpedo fire.
• His second turn sees some torpedoes being shot my way but my PD fend them off easily.  He moved a group of Frigates a little close to me and my Cruisers punished them hard with their broadsides firing.  My leftover Frigates finished the last Frigate in his squad.
• His Cruisers opened fire on my Cruisers but he was at RB3 and didn't manage to do anything.  He moves his BB closer to my forces and my BB does the same.  BB stands for Battleship btw.
• Now this turn gets really interesting.  I open fire on his Cruisers with my Cruisers and with linked fire, I score a critical and damage the movement on one of his Cruisers.  His return fire doesn't do as much as he'd like and I take 2 hull point damage on my first Cruiser.  I move my BB up to RB2 Broadsides and I beat on another Cruiser hard enough to disable his starport Broadsides.
• His BB moves up and his Frigates shoots a bunch of stuff at my Cruisers but nothing really happens.  I feel confident that I was in the lead so far.
• He takes the initiative next turn (and for the rest of the game) and his Cruisers open fire on mine.  The first one takes a heavy beating and is knocked out completely.  My return fire on the undamaged Cruiser sees 3 6s being rolled and 2 hits, along with 6 more consecutive 6s.  We couldn't believe our eyes.. but after 20 or some hits from the exploding dice, the unharmed Sentinel explodes in spectacular fashion.  He fails to repair anything on the other 2 Cruisers.
• After that, his BB came up and came within exactly 16" of my BB and unloaded a devastating Broadside.  He scores a massive amount of hits and scores a critical.  I don't really save anything with my shields and now my  BB loses 2 hull points and 1 of each crew and AD.
• The Frigates on both sides move around and fails to harm anything because of overlapping fields of PD.
• On my turn, my BB returns fire of his BB and does no damage at all to it.  Not good.. even with 12 dice thrown from my broadside, I fail to breach his hull.
• Here's where things go downhill for me.  He takes the initiative again and his BB pounds mine again for another 2 hull points after a crit.  My bays are jammed but without wings or whatever, I don't really care.  His torpedoes are also shot and catches some of my frigates.  My return fire from my BB again does nothing.  I am really sad.
• His Cruisers go and crits one of my Cruisers and a raging fire breaks out on board.  My return fire puts down another Cruiser and that's it for that.
• Our remaining Frigates dance around a bit and a few losses happen here and there.
• On his next turn, his BB rips my BB a new one.  He rolls something like 6 6s and a bunch of hits and then rolls a double 1 on the table for Reactor Overload (see screenshot).  My BB disappears in a vortex of swirling energy and I do 16 dice worth of damage on his BB.  Too bad he rolls his shields like a madman and after a 4 and 2 6s, followed by another 6, I only manage to do a hull points worth of damage.
• I finish his Cruiser sometime here and my Frigates fail to board his BB because of they all got shot down by AD7.  We call it after another turn of his BB raping more of my army.

So here's what I noticed:

• The PD thing might seem complicated at first, but it went by really quick once we played 2-3 turns worth.
• Getting the first jump with a good roll on someone's BB seems game changing; especially if I can't return fire correctly (cause of shields and rolling).  Given there was some amazing rolls from Dimitri, his BB completely decimated mine.
• This gives me another idea:  Maybe my Cruisers should of focused on his BB and ignored his Cruisers?  If I linked all my fire into his BB, I might have caused enough damage for some criticals or something.
• The Terran turret is strength 12 at RB2, has 360 degree coverage and can be linked into any of his guns.  This gives him a ton of flexibility to where he wants to shoot.  I thought closing in to his BB will save my BB some damage.. yeah right.  His turrets just turned around and shot the living crap out of me for Reactor Overload.
• My Cruisers are amazing.  They move 10", has strength 8 broadsides at RB2 and has 4 CP and 4 AP.  They're considered the best Cruisers in the game and I agree.
• Terran shields are amazing.  Saving any type of hit on a 4+ and can save 2 with 6s and has a exploding dice mechanic seems very.. erm, good.  I think this makes Terrans a very forgiving race to play since enough SH saves can nerf a ton of damage (turning Criticals into a mere hull point damage).  The most disgusting thing about this is that shields can never be degraded and works on 4+.  That might be a little too good.
• After my BB fell, I knew I had no chance to kill his battleship.  I concentrated on focus firing his smaller units and getting "victory points", but after the game went 8 turns, I was told there's no limit to how long the game goes.  This means that after 10 turns or whatever, his BB would have killed everything I have.  What's the point of VPs then?  The turn a game ends is actually "optional".  I wish I knew that before.
• I enjoyed the game a lot, but next time, I think game cards and fighter wings will be encouraged.  The cards adds a whole 'nother dimension to how the game is played and fighter wings can make up for a lot of a fleet's weaknesses.
• Good game, had a blast - literally.

Grey Knights by Robin Cruddace?

Well, the cat's out of the bag guys.  Grey Knights is definitely coming in April but we have no idea who the author of the book is.  Now.. let's look at a very narrow timeline of who wrote what recently for GW:

5th Ed. books:
Space Marines - Mat Ward
IG - Robin Cruddace
Space Wolves - Phil Kelly
Tyranids - Robin Cruddace
Blood Angels - Mat Ward
Dark Eldar - Phil Kelly

Somewhere in there, Jervis Johnson wrote Battle Missions.  I think that was between IG and Space Wolves, but honestly I can't remember.

Anyways, let's look at these authors' track records.  Let's start with Phil Kelly.  This guy is amazing and has written some of the best books ever produced in terms of fluff, design, cost effectiveness and overall power.  Mat Ward, on the other hand, has forever tainted himself with 7th Ed. Chaos Daemons.. which is the book that broke 7th Ed. Fantasy all together. On the other hand, aside from butchering fluff left and right, he also wrote some of the most balanced books for 40K.  Both Space Marines and Blood Angels are balanced books.. despite some minor oddities.  This leaves us with Robin Cruddace.  He wrote the best book in 5th Ed. 40K right now, his personal and favorite army, the Imperial Guard.  He also wrote arguably the worst book to hit the shelves since Chaos Space Marines by Gav Thorpe:  Codex Tyranids.  Needless to say, he can either go hardcore powerful favoritism or rush-job terrible spider monkeys.

Going by the trend of books above, let's make some educated guesses to who is writing the Grey Knights codex.  Ward looks like he's got a thing for Space Marines so let's not count him out just yet.  One could say that writing a book so soon will produce something of a rush job.. but if you look at Cruddace's Tyranids that came right after Kelly's Space Wolves then you won't argue.  The most likely candidate looks to be Cruddace.  He hasn't done anything since Tyranids and this might be his chance to redeem himself.  God knows that book was a major disappointment to the Tyranids community and GW would have to be blind to not see that.  On the other hand, we might just see a rush job by Mat Ward.. but that's unlikely because Daemonhunters needed a rewrite for a long time, and with an entire line of minis coming out to go with the book, I doubt GW would make it a rush job.

So what do you guys think?  Are we going to see the high-low bi-polar writing style by Cruddace or are we going to see something from Ward?  I'm still pretty bitter about 7th Ed. Daemons, but I do enjoy Ward's balanced work in 5th Ed. 40K.  I can't say I like how he butchers fluff, but game balance is more important to me because I'm a gamer first.  If anything, I just hope I don't get something overpowered like IG or god-awful like the Nids.

Firestorm Armada

I'm really thinking about getting the game.  First of all, it reminds me of Battlestar Galactica.  Second, it's about epic-scale space battles where ships blow apart other ships.  Third, a starter set that plays at 500 pts is 50 bucks.  That's pretty freaking awesome.

For those that want to check out what the factions of the game are like, check out this short pdf file here.  It's a link to Spartan Games' website where they have a bunch of files up for the game.  The game itself is relatively new since it came out in November '09 and there seems to be a good amount of support for it.  I never played BFG before, but from what I hear: the game is massively imbalanced.  I'm going to be honest here:  I absolutely hate game imbalance.  Aside from terrible game design, nothing puts me off faster than a imbalanced game.  I don't care if your game is beautifully designed, if it's imbalanced to a point where I can't field a army because it face rapes everything it touches, there's no point playing it.  My friends tell me that Necrons in BFG is laughably overpowered.

Let's talk about Firestorm Armada really quick.  The game has 6 factions and each faction has like 6-7 ships.  Each ship does something different with the big Battleships being the mainstay of each force.  There's also Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Frigates and Escort ships for each faction.  What makes each faction different is that their ships are designed differently; from the looks to the stats of the ship themselves.  There's nothing crazy like in BFG with Holofields or Lance-type weaponry.  Instead, there's more subtle changes to the ships stats like their armor, weapon systems, crew rating or defense stats.


A quick look at the Aquan Prime Poseidon Battleship and the Dindrenzi Conqueror Battleship:

• The Aquan Prime Poseidon takes less damage from weaker attacks but has a smaller threshold for bigger attacks.  The Dindrenzi takes more damage from weaker attacks but has a larger threshold for bigger attacks.  What this threshold represents is how vulnerable a ship is to critical damage.
• The Poseidon moves faster than the Conqueror, but has less Hull Points (basically health).
• The Poseidon has more Point Defense (think AA guns) than the Conqueror but the Conqueror has more crew and offensive boarding power.  Yes, you can board other ships!
• The Poseidon has shields whereas the Conqueror does not and both ships are equipped with mines.

Now let's look at weapons really quick:

• The Conqueror uses huge railguns in its fore; which generates 16 dice worth of damage at the 8-16" mark (or RB2).  It has virtually no guns at its rear (aft).
• It also shoots 7 damage Torpedoes but only at the front and its broadside guns are at 6/9/4 at RB1/2/3.
• The Poseidon, on the other hand, has pitiful fore guns; doing a non-impressive 5/7/3 at RB1/2/3, but it's broadside guns do an impressive 11/14/7.
• Another thing to note is that the Poseidon's guns are capable of firing at all sides and its torpedoes can be launched at any arc, not just the front.

When comparing the two flagships, one can clearly see that they're designed radically different and thus, will play out differently in terms of strategy, tactics and player gameplan.  Even though there's only like 7 ships out for each faction, there's 6 factions and Spartan Games is going to put out 40 new ships for 2011.  That type of support is always good news.

As if this wasn't cool enough, you can play special cards during your game turns to do some crazy stuff.  There's a 52-card game deck that you draw cards from depending on how many squadrons you have (I think) and each card has special abilities that can be activated.  These cards can do things like make your ship's fire more accurate, do more damage, move faster and repair.  There's more exotic options out there as well such as summoning special operatives that can assist in your ability to board a enemy ship.  Sure, the cards are drawn randomly (or you and your friends can pick), but they add a layer of strategy that's often found in board games but in a table-top miniatures game.  That in itself is very cool.

There's some other stuff out there such as interceptors that comes from your Carriers, mines and rolls on the catastrophic explosion chart, but I'm going to hold off on that.  I'm still doing my research and so far, I'm liking what I see.  The game rules sound pretty sophisticated when you want to do combined shooting and linked shots, but all this is part of more advanced tactics.  Such things are hard to find in miniatures games these days since everyone's shooting for the easy-to-learn approach.  I like it when a game has a noticeable learning curve and a high ceiling to improve.

If you guys have any experience, feedback or comments about this game, let me know!

WM: Retribution Tricks

Rahn
Playstyle: Movement manipulation via magic spells.
Feat: Magic spells gain +2 RNG and boosted attack and damage rolls.
Gimmick: Move your opponent's army around into favorable positions for you.
Units: Phoenix, Discordia, Battle Mages, Magisters

Rahn is all about the Feat turn.  When he pops Arcane Alignment, every magic user in his army gets +2 RNG to their attacks and they're automatically boosted.  That means more accuracy, more damage and a lot of rearrangement and death for the enemy army.  This is why most of Rahn's lists are based off of arc nodes, tons of Battle Mages and Magisters.  Obviously, the Phoenix offers the heaviest arc platform at a fairly affordable price and is Rahn's best friend.  The newer Discordia works very well with Houseguard Halberdiers because a reforming Shield Wall under Discordia's Imprint is just insane.  On feat turn, the Battle Mages spring into action to open up charge lanes and other opportunities via push and pull.  The army is very capable of pulling an enemy caster out into the open and to his death.  Rahn's spellpool is also fantastic:  Telekensis moves things around and turns targets around for backswings, Polarity Shield keeps your Halberds safe from charges and Force Hammer is a POW12 slam that can knock things down.  If any of your arc nodes get in trouble, Force Blast pushes enemy models back and the rest of your army can charge them afterwards for a quick kill.

Kaelyssa

Playstyle:  A very solid, balanced warcaster that has plenty of tricks to throw around.
Feat:  Everything in her control range gains stealth and cannot be charged.

Gimmick:  Allowing units to shoot through walls or killing the warcaster with Backlash.

Units:  Hydra, Mage Hunter Strike Force, Sentinels, anything really

Since Kaelyssa is one of the most balanced casters for Retribution, she can run with pretty much anything.  I've seen her do well with Dawnguard units, Houseguard units or Mage Hunter units.  Kaelyssa likes running with two full units of MHSF w/ Commanders just because she can.  The best thing about her  is her ability to give Phantom Hunter to one of her models.  The Hydra is a fantastic choice to give this to because he can shoot a POW15 shot from 15" through a wall and into your warcaster's face.  Her feat denies many opponents from getting the first charge and stealth keeps the army safe from shooting.  To sum it up, her feat is mainly a defensive one but can also be used to get your units into position.  Safety from both melee and ranged threat allows units like Sentinels to move into charge range next turn and force the opposing army into retreat.  Mage Hunter Strike Force(s) also add a great deal of threat not because of their stealth, pathfinder, AD, Phantom Seeker and 'Jack Hunter abilities (lol), but because any jacks with low DEF also fear Kaelyssa's Backlash.  If you think your warcaster is safe from damage because of their obscenely high DEF and ARM, Kaelyssa will just backlash a low DEF jack and go to town with her ranged units.  There's really nothing that Kaelyssa can't do and that's what makes her awesome.

Ravyn

Playstyle: Gunfighter, Virtuoso, Swift Hunter and Quick Work.  Oh, and her Feat.
Feat: Boosted ranged attack rolls for anything in her control range.

Gimmick: Aside from plowing through enemy shield walls, she can also feat for her army.

Units: Discordia, Invictors, MHSF, Stormfall Archers

Ravyn can tear through entire shield walls by herself.  Once she casts Vortex of Destruction and charges into the fray, she can absolutely wreck havoc on tightly packed infantry.  Gunfighter allows her to shoot into combat and Virtuoso allows her to also use her melee attacks.  On top of this, she has Reach and Thresher.  Quick Work gives her a free shot after she kills a model and Swift Hunter brings her 2" into melee range of another target.  With the free boosted damage rolls from Vortex and her excellent stats, not many infantry formations can hold against her.  When she pops feat, Invictors, Stormfall Archers and Houseguard Riflemen gets scary ridiculous.  The same applies to the 10" POW14 spray from Discordia.  Free boosted ranged attack rolls scares the crap out of most high DEF, low ARM warcasters and even Caine with Blur in cover has to worry about a CRA from a full batch of Invictors with mini-feat up.  Speaking of which, Ravyn also has access to Snipe which can give Invictors (stacks with their +4 RNG mini-feat) and MHSF outrageous range.  For Stormfall Archers, you can throw out Brutal Shots from "snipe" ranges.  Veil of Mists can give your units protection as well as allowing them to charge through friendly models.  For that reason, Sentinels also make notable additions to her army as well as Fane Knight Issyen.

Garryth

Playstyle: Melee assassination using a fragile warcaster.

Feat: Everything in his control area can't cast spells, use place effects or spend focus.

Gimmick: Get in and murder the enemy warcaster.

Units: Chimera, Phoenix, MHSF, MHA.

Garryth is a really hard warcaster to use.  He's fragile, precise and needs to execute correctly and perfectly to win battles.  I would say he's probably the most difficult warcaster I've used so far (in 4 armies).  For that reason, I don't have enough feedback for him yet.  I've been experimenting with his T4 list and so far I've been pretty successful.  The entire army save for the Chimera is stealthed and AD.  With +1 to the roll to go first, I basically run everything into position to do as much damage as possible.  Here's the list:

Points: 35
Garryth, Blade of Retribution (*5pts)
* Chimera (6pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Nayl (0pts)

Alright, I'm back

Prepare for some article spam coming up.  Here's a highlight to what's to expect:
- Next Tuesday I'm playing a 2k game DE vs. BA, so expect a BR.
- I might also play some Warmachine games with Khador by that time.
- I'm putting out the Retribution and Khador faction tricks articles, in that order.

Sorry for the lack of updates.. but Australia and New Zealand was awesome!