The question is, should you take an Exarch in your aspect warriors?
This is actually more of a difficult question than it seems. Not all Aspect warriors benefit as much from their Exarch as others.
The key is to look at the skills the bring along in the form of warrior powers. Some Exarchs are nailed on essential in even a 5 man squad, while others are only useful in bigger units.
Remember Exarchs are your Sgts and Special weapons guys rolled into 1.
In my opinion Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees and Shining Spears should always, always include an exarch, even in minimum sized squads. The reason for this is that Exarchs have strictly superior weapons and statistics to their squad, and the cost to upgrade them is more than reasonable considering you get better WS and BS as well as access to much more powerful close combat weapons. Always take Scorpions Claw, Executioner and Star Lances.
Swooping Hawks really don't get much mileage out of their Exarch. Their special guns really are not all that great, and neither are their abilities. I suppose you can attempt to blind someone, but I would rather just field 6 for the large blast and leave it there.
Warp Spiders maybe want an Exarch, but only if you want to use him with the Spinneret Rifle and maybe Power Blades. Against certain armies he turns the unit into a reasonable melee threat.
Crimson Hunters should always be Exarchs. Better BS, can snipe characters, weapon options. All very worthwhile.
Fire Dragons it depends. I always take one with a Firepike with fast shot, as his damage output is greater than two normal dragons this way. The Heavy Flamer wastes his exceptional BS to give some decent anti infantry firepower, but I suppose he can man a quad gun or something. That said, the unit doing its primary objective of wasting tanks, don't actually need an Exarch.
Dark Reapers. Again it depends, as a small squad of three is quite lethal vs marines and the Exarch pays all kinds of extortionate taxes on his upgrades. But the Exarch adds flexibility. With my favourite heavy weapon in the entire game in the Tempest Launcher, I always include him. Fast shot is a must.
Dire Avengers. Leaving the worst until last. Their Exarch varies between being completely pointless and quite decent. I would only ever include him if you have already got a full sized squad of Avengers, and then I would always give him the Power Weapon and Shimmer Shield combo to boost the entire unit. He really doesn't have the statistics to go around assassinating multiple wound characters with a Diresword, a twin linked catapult is laughable compared to what it was in 4th edition and sword and pistol really doesn't make the squad a valid combat threat.
Now you might be wondering why I say the power blade option on the Warp Spider Exarch is a good idea, but the power weapon pistol combo on the Dire Avenger isn't. The reason is the Warp spider keeps his considerably decent gun, and doesn't have a pistol. He is also more liable to survive combat due to his better speed, and has hit and run.
Friday, 27 September 2013
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Howling Banshees, can they be competitive in an Eldar list?
Howling Banshees. Can they be a competitive choice in an Eldar list?
They are the unit which has virtually no love in the new book. This article is going to compare them to units they compete against, within their own codex. Specifically Striking Scorpions and Wraithblades. All third units occupy the Elites slot, with Wraithblades having the ability to move into troops with a Spirit Seer. Origonally I had included harlequins in this but they pretty much came last on everything.
For the sake of simplicity, we will take a ten man unit of each aspect and 5 wraithblades since they are quite similar on points.
10 Howling banshees
5 Wraithblades
10 Striking scorpions
These will be tested against MEQs, tau firewarriors and GEQs. We are only including the melee ability of these units, not their shooting ability. The reason being that all the units except Wraithblades have exactly the same BS and pistol weapon making this point redundant.
Fighting vs 10 GEQs
So, one of the more common match ups is against space marines.
Eldar Charge
Guardsmen stand and shoot. They kill on average;
0.835 Banshees
0.184 Wraithblades
0.551 Scorpions
So Banshees are bottom for taking damage. Lets assume that they all make it into combat though.
All of the eldar units strike before the guardsmen. Banshee mask therefore contributes nothing to this combat.
Banshees kill 10.05 guardsmen leaving none to strike back.
Wraithblades kill 8.34 guardsmen leaving two to strike back.
Scorpions kill 3.35 with mandiblasters, and 9.023 with normal attacks, leaving none to strike back.
They all mop up guardsmen with ease, except the wraithblades. Taking points into consideration, Banshees are cheaper than the other two, but kill 10 models all the same. Banshees may win this round.
Fighting vs Firewarriors
This may be seen as quite an unusual choice of unit, but tau are increasingly common in games and fire warriors are perhaps the most points efficient troops choice in the entire game. While pre 6th edition many players had never seen a tau army, they are everywhere like a bad smell these days.
Eldar charge
Tau Firewarriors stand and shoot. They kill on average;
2.78 Banshees!
0.363 Wraithblades
0.92 Scorpions
That is really, really bad for Banshees. Nearly 3 die on average charging just ten fire warriors. Assuming some kind of miracle, and everyong makes it into combat, this is what happens.
Banshees kill 10.5 Firewarriors, leaving none to strike back.
Wraithblades kill 8.34 Firewarriors, leaving two to strike back.
Scorpions kill 2.5 with mandiblasters, and 6.734 leaving one to strike back.
Banshees out perform scorpions here. Power swords make short work of the reasonably good tau armour, where scorpions struggle somewhat. Wraithblades are consistent but don't kill a lot. Still I expect them to wade through the remaining tau in the second turn with no losses.
Finally we will look at Fighting vs Marines
Still the most common unit type on the table, we need to consider how effective each type of eldar is against the humble tactical space marine.
Eldar charge
Marines stand and shoot. They kill on average;
1.19 Banshees
0.184 Wraithblades
0.746 Scorpions
Again, the Banshees do badly here taking more damage. Their lower armour is really hurting them. Assuming they all make it over to combat, again, highly unlikely and we will run the numbers.
Banshees kill 4.95 marines, before the marines swing. Not good for a unit designed to kill marines.
Wraithblades kill 6.225 marines before they swing. They are super consistent vs any unit.
Scorpions kill 2.21 with mandiblasters and 2.475 with attacks.
None of them kill ten marines.
Conclusion.
Which is best? Well in all honesty there is not much to pick between Scorpions and Wraithblades. Banshees die far too easily to be considered. If I had taken their deaths into account on the maths, they would have come consistently bottom, and that is without factoring in any turns of shooting they may suffer on the way in.
They are the unit which has virtually no love in the new book. This article is going to compare them to units they compete against, within their own codex. Specifically Striking Scorpions and Wraithblades. All third units occupy the Elites slot, with Wraithblades having the ability to move into troops with a Spirit Seer. Origonally I had included harlequins in this but they pretty much came last on everything.
For the sake of simplicity, we will take a ten man unit of each aspect and 5 wraithblades since they are quite similar on points.
10 Howling banshees
5 Wraithblades
10 Striking scorpions
These will be tested against MEQs, tau firewarriors and GEQs. We are only including the melee ability of these units, not their shooting ability. The reason being that all the units except Wraithblades have exactly the same BS and pistol weapon making this point redundant.
Fighting vs 10 GEQs
So, one of the more common match ups is against space marines.
Eldar Charge
Guardsmen stand and shoot. They kill on average;
0.835 Banshees
0.184 Wraithblades
0.551 Scorpions
So Banshees are bottom for taking damage. Lets assume that they all make it into combat though.
All of the eldar units strike before the guardsmen. Banshee mask therefore contributes nothing to this combat.
Banshees kill 10.05 guardsmen leaving none to strike back.
Wraithblades kill 8.34 guardsmen leaving two to strike back.
Scorpions kill 3.35 with mandiblasters, and 9.023 with normal attacks, leaving none to strike back.
They all mop up guardsmen with ease, except the wraithblades. Taking points into consideration, Banshees are cheaper than the other two, but kill 10 models all the same. Banshees may win this round.
Fighting vs Firewarriors
This may be seen as quite an unusual choice of unit, but tau are increasingly common in games and fire warriors are perhaps the most points efficient troops choice in the entire game. While pre 6th edition many players had never seen a tau army, they are everywhere like a bad smell these days.
Eldar charge
Tau Firewarriors stand and shoot. They kill on average;
2.78 Banshees!
0.363 Wraithblades
0.92 Scorpions
That is really, really bad for Banshees. Nearly 3 die on average charging just ten fire warriors. Assuming some kind of miracle, and everyong makes it into combat, this is what happens.
Banshees kill 10.5 Firewarriors, leaving none to strike back.
Wraithblades kill 8.34 Firewarriors, leaving two to strike back.
Scorpions kill 2.5 with mandiblasters, and 6.734 leaving one to strike back.
Banshees out perform scorpions here. Power swords make short work of the reasonably good tau armour, where scorpions struggle somewhat. Wraithblades are consistent but don't kill a lot. Still I expect them to wade through the remaining tau in the second turn with no losses.
Finally we will look at Fighting vs Marines
Still the most common unit type on the table, we need to consider how effective each type of eldar is against the humble tactical space marine.
Eldar charge
Marines stand and shoot. They kill on average;
1.19 Banshees
0.184 Wraithblades
0.746 Scorpions
Again, the Banshees do badly here taking more damage. Their lower armour is really hurting them. Assuming they all make it over to combat, again, highly unlikely and we will run the numbers.
Banshees kill 4.95 marines, before the marines swing. Not good for a unit designed to kill marines.
Wraithblades kill 6.225 marines before they swing. They are super consistent vs any unit.
Scorpions kill 2.21 with mandiblasters and 2.475 with attacks.
None of them kill ten marines.
Conclusion.
Which is best? Well in all honesty there is not much to pick between Scorpions and Wraithblades. Banshees die far too easily to be considered. If I had taken their deaths into account on the maths, they would have come consistently bottom, and that is without factoring in any turns of shooting they may suffer on the way in.
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Normal Service will be resumed
Normal service will be resumed, hopefully this month. I have had a crazy few months doing exam revision and this should be over in the next month or two.
This blog isn't dead. Well not yet anyway! I am in the middle of writing an article on Howling Banshees at the moment, which should hopefully be up this week sometime.
This blog isn't dead. Well not yet anyway! I am in the middle of writing an article on Howling Banshees at the moment, which should hopefully be up this week sometime.
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Picking an effective HQ and Warlord for 6th edition 40k
This might seem quite obvious, but the key to having a good chance at victory, is designing a good list. I think I covered this topic a long time ago in 5th edition, but I am writing an update on it now. This particular article concentrates on HQs and why you shouldn't just dish out being the Warlord to just anyone.
First and formost, every single army needs to include two troops choices and a HQ. This is mandatory across all armies. So when picking an army to collect, please pick one where you actually want to include these choices! You really dont want to be in a position where you don't like any of the troops choices, or worse, that you can't get them to work as effectively as you would want.
Picking an effective HQ can often be a case of picking the cheapest and being done. There is nothing wrong with this strategy if the HQ is just there to hit the minimum HQ limit. Just try to keep his points down and hope for the best. In an ideal world, this cheap HQ brings something useful to the army, like the tau ethereals and cadre commanders.
Spending more on HQs, then you generally want him as a force multiplier. While there is nothing wrong with a combat character, I often use a Bloodthirster in my daemon army for example, he needs to do something other than hit things with a large stick. The reason I say this is because tooled up lords who do nothing else [generally space marine captains are the best fit here] are very cost ineffective. Ill explain. You have a tactical squad [pretty common in marine armies]. You buy a multimelta and a flamer, along with a sgt who has a powerfist. All very common and I belive this unit comes in around 195 points. You get 8/16 bolter shots, a multimelta and a flamer, you can score, and if you do get attacked in close combat, you get 9 marines attacking at an average ws/s/t and 2 powerfist attacks to threaten pretty much anything in the game. Krak grenades too, for monsters and dreads.
A tooled up marine captain, with terminator armour and a thunderhammer/stormshield has no shooting, and a meagre 3 thunderhammer attacks, which are near enough identical as powerfist attacks. This guy will set you back best part of 150 points. He has no ranged threat, and is very slow. He has far less going for him than the tactical squad, and has nothing else to offer but his limited close combat potential. He is however reasonably hard to kill, so in that respect, he may keep your warlord death victory point safe. Compare to a Bloodthirster.
He also can only fight in close combat, bar short ranged shooting attack, and costs an astronomical 300 points when upgraded. The Bloodthirster is also suspiciously vulnerable to shooting attacks, relying heavily on his toughness and power armour to see him through. Any s8+ ap3 or less weapons will destroy the Bloodthirster, and he can't join units and has problems hiding. Surely the Bloodthirster is a worse choice, especially as Daemons have an entire army devoted to killing things in close combat, where marines are more balanced and the combat ability of the captain is more appreciated? I say no. The Bloodthirster is a massive threat. People hear the name and it causes fear. Actual fear on the player, not that version included in the rules. They often concentrate fire on it to kill it off, before it gets to close combat. Another common feature is that people seem to want to be able to brag their X killed a Bloodthirster, so you can control the game in intangible ways with it. Its fast, and very hard to kill once it gets into close combat. Apart from Thunder Hammer equipped assault terminators, I don't think there is a unit or indeed character in the game who would fancy their chances, without some special monster hunting loadout. I hasten to add that a Bloodthirster really has no business being your Warlord. It atttracts far too much firepower, so outside of mono-khorne lists I would always have someone else being in charge. This frees the Bloodthirster up to go attack the enemy with impunity.
The most common utility HQs, which make the best Warlords, are psykers in my opinion. Provided you get access to some of the buff lores [divination and telepathy specifically from the big book] they can influence the game from relative safety. A few rerolls from divination can easily do more damage in one shooting phase than a combat lord can do in an entire game, without the risk of putting your lord on the front line. The flip side is you have to randomise your powers, so ensure you pick a lore with some good primaris powers. I would nearly always avoid pyromancy, unless your army has very limited shooting.
Other HQs worthy of mention are those who bring unique or useful powers to the table. Should they be the Warlord? Well it depends. Being Warlord means a lot of the time, they get the bonus of the Warlord power, rather than your army. So you want to look at the charts you can roll on and work out how many of the abilities would be useful to you. I would normally avoid making someone like Master of the Forge, or a Spiritseer my Warlord, because I don't think they are survivable enough. The same goes for Tyranid Primes, Guard Primaris Psykers, Chaplains and most other low wound/toughness/saves based HQs. Include them by all means, just please dont make them your Warlord! As a kind of conclusion, I would suggest picking a Warlord who is either a.cheap and can hide, b. more expensive and heavily protected or c. brings a crucial army buff you need. Don't just make your hardest combat unit a Warlord, as he is going to be in harms way.
Spending more on HQs, then you generally want him as a force multiplier. While there is nothing wrong with a combat character, I often use a Bloodthirster in my daemon army for example, he needs to do something other than hit things with a large stick. The reason I say this is because tooled up lords who do nothing else [generally space marine captains are the best fit here] are very cost ineffective. Ill explain. You have a tactical squad [pretty common in marine armies]. You buy a multimelta and a flamer, along with a sgt who has a powerfist. All very common and I belive this unit comes in around 195 points. You get 8/16 bolter shots, a multimelta and a flamer, you can score, and if you do get attacked in close combat, you get 9 marines attacking at an average ws/s/t and 2 powerfist attacks to threaten pretty much anything in the game. Krak grenades too, for monsters and dreads.
A tooled up marine captain, with terminator armour and a thunderhammer/stormshield has no shooting, and a meagre 3 thunderhammer attacks, which are near enough identical as powerfist attacks. This guy will set you back best part of 150 points. He has no ranged threat, and is very slow. He has far less going for him than the tactical squad, and has nothing else to offer but his limited close combat potential. He is however reasonably hard to kill, so in that respect, he may keep your warlord death victory point safe. Compare to a Bloodthirster.
He also can only fight in close combat, bar short ranged shooting attack, and costs an astronomical 300 points when upgraded. The Bloodthirster is also suspiciously vulnerable to shooting attacks, relying heavily on his toughness and power armour to see him through. Any s8+ ap3 or less weapons will destroy the Bloodthirster, and he can't join units and has problems hiding. Surely the Bloodthirster is a worse choice, especially as Daemons have an entire army devoted to killing things in close combat, where marines are more balanced and the combat ability of the captain is more appreciated? I say no. The Bloodthirster is a massive threat. People hear the name and it causes fear. Actual fear on the player, not that version included in the rules. They often concentrate fire on it to kill it off, before it gets to close combat. Another common feature is that people seem to want to be able to brag their X killed a Bloodthirster, so you can control the game in intangible ways with it. Its fast, and very hard to kill once it gets into close combat. Apart from Thunder Hammer equipped assault terminators, I don't think there is a unit or indeed character in the game who would fancy their chances, without some special monster hunting loadout. I hasten to add that a Bloodthirster really has no business being your Warlord. It atttracts far too much firepower, so outside of mono-khorne lists I would always have someone else being in charge. This frees the Bloodthirster up to go attack the enemy with impunity.
The most common utility HQs, which make the best Warlords, are psykers in my opinion. Provided you get access to some of the buff lores [divination and telepathy specifically from the big book] they can influence the game from relative safety. A few rerolls from divination can easily do more damage in one shooting phase than a combat lord can do in an entire game, without the risk of putting your lord on the front line. The flip side is you have to randomise your powers, so ensure you pick a lore with some good primaris powers. I would nearly always avoid pyromancy, unless your army has very limited shooting.
Other HQs worthy of mention are those who bring unique or useful powers to the table. Should they be the Warlord? Well it depends. Being Warlord means a lot of the time, they get the bonus of the Warlord power, rather than your army. So you want to look at the charts you can roll on and work out how many of the abilities would be useful to you. I would normally avoid making someone like Master of the Forge, or a Spiritseer my Warlord, because I don't think they are survivable enough. The same goes for Tyranid Primes, Guard Primaris Psykers, Chaplains and most other low wound/toughness/saves based HQs. Include them by all means, just please dont make them your Warlord! As a kind of conclusion, I would suggest picking a Warlord who is either a.cheap and can hide, b. more expensive and heavily protected or c. brings a crucial army buff you need. Don't just make your hardest combat unit a Warlord, as he is going to be in harms way.
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Eldar Codex Review: The Avatar
The first none aspect warrior unit I am reviewing is the Eldar Avatar.
Anyone familiar with Avatars knows it traditionally comes with certain rules. You know, Molten Body, Wailing Doom, Daemon etc.
Predictably, it still comes with these. No sign of the "Court of the Young king" unit that I saw posted on various rumours websites. Perhaps these will come out with a Biel Tan expansion.
So what changes does it have over a 4th edition Avatar. I am sure this is why you are all here.
Well it has a good stat line. Four stats hit 10, and I bet you can guess which ones they are! It lost a point of invulnerable save and gained a wound, which is exactly in line with what Chaos Greater Daemons have in terms of protection.
It is very similar to a Bloodthirster, but considerably cheaper. However it can't fly. It does however have Battle Focus and a fearless bubble making it an ideal focal point for assault based armies.
You can interestingly buy it Exarch powers. I think Fast Shot is a good buy here to fire Wailing Doom twice. For the second power you will maybe find a few different combinations working. Monster Hunter and Disarming Strike could be plain nasty! Crushing Blow looks fairly pointless on an Avatar to me.
The only real kicker with the Avatar is it seems to have gone up in points by around 33% for a base model. When you start factoring in upgrades in Exarch Powers it is approaching Land Raider and Bloodthirster costs.
Anyone familiar with Avatars knows it traditionally comes with certain rules. You know, Molten Body, Wailing Doom, Daemon etc.
Predictably, it still comes with these. No sign of the "Court of the Young king" unit that I saw posted on various rumours websites. Perhaps these will come out with a Biel Tan expansion.
So what changes does it have over a 4th edition Avatar. I am sure this is why you are all here.
Well it has a good stat line. Four stats hit 10, and I bet you can guess which ones they are! It lost a point of invulnerable save and gained a wound, which is exactly in line with what Chaos Greater Daemons have in terms of protection.
It is very similar to a Bloodthirster, but considerably cheaper. However it can't fly. It does however have Battle Focus and a fearless bubble making it an ideal focal point for assault based armies.
You can interestingly buy it Exarch powers. I think Fast Shot is a good buy here to fire Wailing Doom twice. For the second power you will maybe find a few different combinations working. Monster Hunter and Disarming Strike could be plain nasty! Crushing Blow looks fairly pointless on an Avatar to me.
The only real kicker with the Avatar is it seems to have gone up in points by around 33% for a base model. When you start factoring in upgrades in Exarch Powers it is approaching Land Raider and Bloodthirster costs.
Monday, 1 July 2013
Eldar Codex Review: Shining Spears
The third of the fast attack aspect warriors I am reviewing are Shining Spears.
As I mentioned in other articles, they have dropped quite a few points. Perhaps not as many as I had initially claimed, but they are around 60% of their previous points cost. They also do not seem to have changed at all in their abilities.
You may around 7 points a model on top of a jetbike and you get an aspect warrior with the same gun, same save, and same BS as a guardian. So far, nothing impressive.
You also get the laser lance and skilled rider. Skilled rider improves your units cover save, which is always a good thing.
Laser lances are as far as I can tell exactly the same as before. They are good on a charge against anything not in terminator armour. They are pretty dire should they not get to charge or get stuck in combat. They can still shoot.
So you want an Exarch. He wants hit and run. He might even want a Star Lance, which turns him into a credible anti tank threat and should make short work of most walkers in close combat with it.
Oddly in the Iyanden expansion, it mentions there is a Phoenix lord of the Shining Spears, but that hes gone missing. I am a bit disappointed that none of the "new" aspects, such as Spears, Spiders and Crimson Hunters get a Phoenix Lord.
As I mentioned in other articles, they have dropped quite a few points. Perhaps not as many as I had initially claimed, but they are around 60% of their previous points cost. They also do not seem to have changed at all in their abilities.
You may around 7 points a model on top of a jetbike and you get an aspect warrior with the same gun, same save, and same BS as a guardian. So far, nothing impressive.
You also get the laser lance and skilled rider. Skilled rider improves your units cover save, which is always a good thing.
Laser lances are as far as I can tell exactly the same as before. They are good on a charge against anything not in terminator armour. They are pretty dire should they not get to charge or get stuck in combat. They can still shoot.
So you want an Exarch. He wants hit and run. He might even want a Star Lance, which turns him into a credible anti tank threat and should make short work of most walkers in close combat with it.
Oddly in the Iyanden expansion, it mentions there is a Phoenix lord of the Shining Spears, but that hes gone missing. I am a bit disappointed that none of the "new" aspects, such as Spears, Spiders and Crimson Hunters get a Phoenix Lord.
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Eldar Codex Review: Warp Spiders
The second Aspect Warrior I am reviewing are Warp Spiders.
Ill start with this. Warp Spiders are insanely fast. Absolutely incredibly fast. I don't think there is a unit of infantry in the game with this speed.
Lets look at the nuts and bolts of this claim.
They can deep strike
Move 6 because they are jump jet infantry in the movement phase
Run/shoot or shoot/run a further d6 inches rerolled.
The either move 2d6 as jump jet infantry or 6+2d6 with a warp jump in the assault phase.
In theory they can move a whopping 30 inches in a turn. The best any other infantry unit can move is 18.
Armour wise, they come with heavy aspect armour, which is the best available for Aspect warriors.
They keep their guns from 4th edition but have a slight tweak. Mono-filament rule makes them kind of rending, and against low initiative, or indeed no initiative opponents their guns gain a point in strength.
So basically they got better.
Now the exarch can get a twin spinner or a spinneret rifle. I think the rifle is the best bet here. Its got a better range than before, indeed its quite decent range for such a low AP gun on a Unit champion. He is probably a better buy than the hawk exarch, because he adds quite a lot of value to the unit. Power blades are nice, but not really needed, but they may possibly get you out of a pickle.
These along with Swooping Hawks and Shining spears are vying for the most improved Aspect Warriors in this edition. All three of these fast attack choices are good.
Ill start with this. Warp Spiders are insanely fast. Absolutely incredibly fast. I don't think there is a unit of infantry in the game with this speed.
Lets look at the nuts and bolts of this claim.
They can deep strike
Move 6 because they are jump jet infantry in the movement phase
Run/shoot or shoot/run a further d6 inches rerolled.
The either move 2d6 as jump jet infantry or 6+2d6 with a warp jump in the assault phase.
In theory they can move a whopping 30 inches in a turn. The best any other infantry unit can move is 18.
Armour wise, they come with heavy aspect armour, which is the best available for Aspect warriors.
They keep their guns from 4th edition but have a slight tweak. Mono-filament rule makes them kind of rending, and against low initiative, or indeed no initiative opponents their guns gain a point in strength.
So basically they got better.
Now the exarch can get a twin spinner or a spinneret rifle. I think the rifle is the best bet here. Its got a better range than before, indeed its quite decent range for such a low AP gun on a Unit champion. He is probably a better buy than the hawk exarch, because he adds quite a lot of value to the unit. Power blades are nice, but not really needed, but they may possibly get you out of a pickle.
These along with Swooping Hawks and Shining spears are vying for the most improved Aspect Warriors in this edition. All three of these fast attack choices are good.
Friday, 21 June 2013
Eldar codex review: Swooping Hawks
Now I have to say, at first read, I was fairly disappointed by Swooping Hawks. They didn't seem all that good.
The reality is blindingly different.
For a cost of three points more than a Dire Avenger you trade in your Avenger catapult for an assault 3 Lasgun. While this is not massively impressive, the numbers back this up as being as effective against anything up to toughness four as a storm bolter, and better if their armour saves are worse than power armour.
The unit arrives by deep strike and does not scatter. It throws a grenade with the same stats as a plasma missile with either a small or large blast depending on squad size.
It can also skyleap as before, allowing it to do this multiple times per battle.
Hawks also have haywire grenades and plasma grenades, meaning they can assault dreadnoughts better than any other unit in the eldar book. While plasma grenades are not great, they are better to have than not.
I am unsure just how useful the Exarch will be to the squad, but he can add some harrassment value if he has one of the two upgraded guns. One makes the three shot gun s5 and the other gives it blind.
As with other eldar units, you gain increased speed with battle focus allowing this unit to dance about at extreme ranges if needs be, and the wings along with skyleap allow full redeployment of the unit to where it is needed.
A very flexible unit in a codex full of units which only do one thing well. I think Swooping Hawks have gone from a terrible unit in 4th edition to a top unit in 6th. Their only real competition comes from Warp Spiders who do a similar thing, and will be reviewed by me another day.
For anyone following my blog, you will notice a trend that the Eldar are appearing to be better and better as I get better understanding on just how they work.
The reality is blindingly different.
For a cost of three points more than a Dire Avenger you trade in your Avenger catapult for an assault 3 Lasgun. While this is not massively impressive, the numbers back this up as being as effective against anything up to toughness four as a storm bolter, and better if their armour saves are worse than power armour.
The unit arrives by deep strike and does not scatter. It throws a grenade with the same stats as a plasma missile with either a small or large blast depending on squad size.
It can also skyleap as before, allowing it to do this multiple times per battle.
Hawks also have haywire grenades and plasma grenades, meaning they can assault dreadnoughts better than any other unit in the eldar book. While plasma grenades are not great, they are better to have than not.
I am unsure just how useful the Exarch will be to the squad, but he can add some harrassment value if he has one of the two upgraded guns. One makes the three shot gun s5 and the other gives it blind.
As with other eldar units, you gain increased speed with battle focus allowing this unit to dance about at extreme ranges if needs be, and the wings along with skyleap allow full redeployment of the unit to where it is needed.
A very flexible unit in a codex full of units which only do one thing well. I think Swooping Hawks have gone from a terrible unit in 4th edition to a top unit in 6th. Their only real competition comes from Warp Spiders who do a similar thing, and will be reviewed by me another day.
For anyone following my blog, you will notice a trend that the Eldar are appearing to be better and better as I get better understanding on just how they work.
Monday, 17 June 2013
Xwing Miniatures game rules confusion
One of the problems with being a long time GW player, over eighteen years and counting, is that certain rules become ingrained into your mind as being true, regardless of what game you are playing.
One of these, which is applicable pretty much across the board is "you can't reroll a reroll". It has so long been in GW games of every type that I have played, when I play another game it can take some effort to get my head around it!
The situation came to light yesterday when we were trying to work out what the gunner card did. It seems that combined with Han Solo you can end up with up to four rerolls if I am reading the cards correctly.
That is Han shoots, then rerolls using his ability if he needs to. If this fails, the gunner shoots, then Han uses his reroll if needs be. Three rerolls on one action!
The other issue is what counts as a hit. Because we were so used to GW games, when a hit or critical hit symbol appeared on the dice we assumed that he couldnt use his reroll because he had hit. But in reality he hadn't hit until damage is actually inflicted on the enemy ship.
So Han gets to use the Gunner card if the target manages to dodge. Not bad, not bad at all
One of these, which is applicable pretty much across the board is "you can't reroll a reroll". It has so long been in GW games of every type that I have played, when I play another game it can take some effort to get my head around it!
The situation came to light yesterday when we were trying to work out what the gunner card did. It seems that combined with Han Solo you can end up with up to four rerolls if I am reading the cards correctly.
That is Han shoots, then rerolls using his ability if he needs to. If this fails, the gunner shoots, then Han uses his reroll if needs be. Three rerolls on one action!
The other issue is what counts as a hit. Because we were so used to GW games, when a hit or critical hit symbol appeared on the dice we assumed that he couldnt use his reroll because he had hit. But in reality he hadn't hit until damage is actually inflicted on the enemy ship.
So Han gets to use the Gunner card if the target manages to dodge. Not bad, not bad at all
Saturday, 15 June 2013
GW vs Chapterhouse studios
As someone who studied law for five years and has a law degree, I find the case between Chapterhouse studios and GW to be quite an interesting one.
As this case is still ongoing at the moment, it would be wrong of me to make any further comments. Other sites may contain more information than this one, but I am keeping my opinions to myself until the case is resolved.
As this case is still ongoing at the moment, it would be wrong of me to make any further comments. Other sites may contain more information than this one, but I am keeping my opinions to myself until the case is resolved.
Friday, 14 June 2013
X-Wing Miniatures game - First Impressions
This week I seem to be on a bit of a roll actually posting articles for a change. I thought I would take this opportunity to speak about a game which has recently been taking up a lot of my time.
X-Wing is a game system based on Episodes 4,5 and 6 of Star Wars. No sign, as of yet, of any of the Prequel films getting any releases.
As a game system it is relatively straight forwards to learn, but by the looks of things, very complicated to master. I have played something between 5 and 10 games, mostly as Imperials and it has been generally very good fun.
The models come pre-painted, but there is nothing to stop you repainting the ones you get. The actual detail on the models is a lot better than is actually painted in a lot of cases. There is also not a great deal of consistency in the paint jobs on the same models.
A typical list is around 100 points. This will be something between 2 and 5 ships for rebels and between 3 and 8 for imperials. I don't think it is possible to field more than that amount of ships in a standard game. So although the prices are quite high for individual models [£12 for the smaller ones and about £22 for Falcon and Slave 1] the overall cost of playing is quite low.
The starter comes with all the bits you need to use the three ships you get. Which are two Ties and an Xwing. You get about half the special character cards for these two units in this box, so you will still need to purchase another xwing and another tie fighter to have them all. Each seperate ship pack comes with all the tokens it needs and the other upgrade cards seem to be distributed between the packs.
I have not as of yet found anywhere that actually lists which cards come in which packs. Which is annoying.
As a general rule, Imperial ships, up to now at least, tend to be faster and cheaper, but weaker, and rebel ships tend to be tougher with better offense and more upgrade options, but pricier. Reflecting the films.
So far they have released the following ships;
Rebels:
X wing
Y wing
A wing
Millenium Falcon
B wing [wave 3 Autumn]
Mouldy Crow [wave 3 Autumn]
Imperials:
Tie Fighter
Tie Advanced
Tie Interceptor
Slave 1
Tie Bomber [wave 3 Autumn]
Lambda Shuttle [wave 3 Autumn]
There are confirmations that more ships are on the horizon. The inclusion of the Mouldy Crow, which is by all accounts from an Expanded Universe computer game lets me hope for the inclusion of Tie Defenders.
I will try and get some photos up, especially as I am going to attempt to repaint the squad markings. One disadvantage of pre-painted models is that everyones will look the same. I want to make mine more personal.
X-Wing is a game system based on Episodes 4,5 and 6 of Star Wars. No sign, as of yet, of any of the Prequel films getting any releases.
As a game system it is relatively straight forwards to learn, but by the looks of things, very complicated to master. I have played something between 5 and 10 games, mostly as Imperials and it has been generally very good fun.
The models come pre-painted, but there is nothing to stop you repainting the ones you get. The actual detail on the models is a lot better than is actually painted in a lot of cases. There is also not a great deal of consistency in the paint jobs on the same models.
A typical list is around 100 points. This will be something between 2 and 5 ships for rebels and between 3 and 8 for imperials. I don't think it is possible to field more than that amount of ships in a standard game. So although the prices are quite high for individual models [£12 for the smaller ones and about £22 for Falcon and Slave 1] the overall cost of playing is quite low.
The starter comes with all the bits you need to use the three ships you get. Which are two Ties and an Xwing. You get about half the special character cards for these two units in this box, so you will still need to purchase another xwing and another tie fighter to have them all. Each seperate ship pack comes with all the tokens it needs and the other upgrade cards seem to be distributed between the packs.
I have not as of yet found anywhere that actually lists which cards come in which packs. Which is annoying.
As a general rule, Imperial ships, up to now at least, tend to be faster and cheaper, but weaker, and rebel ships tend to be tougher with better offense and more upgrade options, but pricier. Reflecting the films.
So far they have released the following ships;
Rebels:
X wing
Y wing
A wing
Millenium Falcon
B wing [wave 3 Autumn]
Mouldy Crow [wave 3 Autumn]
Imperials:
Tie Fighter
Tie Advanced
Tie Interceptor
Slave 1
Tie Bomber [wave 3 Autumn]
Lambda Shuttle [wave 3 Autumn]
There are confirmations that more ships are on the horizon. The inclusion of the Mouldy Crow, which is by all accounts from an Expanded Universe computer game lets me hope for the inclusion of Tie Defenders.
I will try and get some photos up, especially as I am going to attempt to repaint the squad markings. One disadvantage of pre-painted models is that everyones will look the same. I want to make mine more personal.
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Eldar 6th Edition Codex Review: The good units
So far my previous two articles on the Eldar Codex have given it a complete battering. I have read the rules through three or four times now and I think I may be coming round to the idea they are not quite as terrible across the board as I had initially thought.
First of all, there are good units in the codex. That is, out and out, value for money units compared within their own book, and even across the other codexes out there.
Farseers.
These are very good value for their points cost. Come in at the same cost as a Marine captain in the 5th edition book, are level 3 casters with access to Divination, Telepathy and Runes of Fate. You want Runes of Fate, and you might want Divination. I wouldn't personally consider Telepathy a useful use of their time.
They have access to Runes, Ghosthelms etc which are all slightly changed, but not significantly so from what they did previously. Singing Spears seem better. No longer specialist weapons/Two handed so as far as I can tell you have no reason not to find the small amount of points to upgrade. I believe its the same as in the 4th edition book in cost. Still not Force Weapons.
I think one Farseer is nigh on mandatory. The Eldar book needs the buffs they provide to become viable and drag some units to become competitive. In fact there is only one reason I can think, in a standard FOC setting when you wouldn't want to take two.
The reason is the Spiritseer
Spiritseer
A cut price, two wound Farseer. I believe he is a level 2 psyker too with same Lore access as the Farseer. Comes with a witch staff. What you include him for is making Wraithguard and Wraithblades scoring Troops rather than Elites. So good for Iyanden Craftworld armies. If you are including a unit of Wraithguard or Wraithblades, take a long hard look at this character, expecially if you haven't ear marked the second HQ slot. Compared to the other troops choices, Wraith units are very hardy. No longer any requirement for ten either to be scoring.
Jetbikes
These are cheap. I believe they got a price cut of around 5 points and have the same options as before. Tough and fast scoring units with jink to throw in a cover save. Guns are short ranged as ever, but good for winning the movement phase. Expect to see a lot of these. The only real downside is the old model. The same jetbike exists from when I started playing in 1994. I have no idea when it came out, but it was nearly two decades ago.
Shining Spears
Got a huge points reduction. Nearly 20 points a model cheaper, or half price I believe! Same stats as before, but are now reasonably priced. No longer do laser lances seem an over priced piece of tat and the one attack on the stat line doesn't annoy me so much. Come with a whole range of abilities to keep them alive. Skilled Rider is nice on them.
Striking Scorpions
Not the unit as such. I don't like how mandiblasters became far more complicated. As I mentioned in my previous posts, they now function like a permanent Hammer of Wrath attack, rather than giving the model a bonus attack. The effects of this are that the strength of the hit is lower, because it doesn't use the chainsword. but it does automatically hit. I have not run the exact numbers at this time, but I suspect they may actually be more effective now.
No, the main reason for the inclusion of the Striking Scorpions on the good list is this. The Scorpions Claw wargear item for the Exarch. It is simply insanely decent. It gives the same stat bonuses as a regular old powerfist, you know like it used to be in 4th edition, and has a built in Shurican catapult. Now I am not a fan of the new weapon on Guardians and Dire Avengers, but as a backup weapon to the main combat weapons, it is fine.
The truly great part of the claw is that the scorpion exarch can stack with an exarch power, making his fist the same strength as a marine using a powerfirst. However the best bit is it is not a specialist weapon, nor is it unwieldy. This means he hits nearly everything first, and gets a bonus attack from his chainsword, making up for losing a fist attack to the mandiblasters.
Wave Serpent
It has to be said, I didn't see why this was so good. But it turns out the actual "shield" on the tank can be fired, and it seems exceptionally good when combined with laser lock. It may make all of the other eldar tanks redundant given it doesn't take up slots and it also carries the most troops into battle.
First of all, there are good units in the codex. That is, out and out, value for money units compared within their own book, and even across the other codexes out there.
Farseers.
These are very good value for their points cost. Come in at the same cost as a Marine captain in the 5th edition book, are level 3 casters with access to Divination, Telepathy and Runes of Fate. You want Runes of Fate, and you might want Divination. I wouldn't personally consider Telepathy a useful use of their time.
They have access to Runes, Ghosthelms etc which are all slightly changed, but not significantly so from what they did previously. Singing Spears seem better. No longer specialist weapons/Two handed so as far as I can tell you have no reason not to find the small amount of points to upgrade. I believe its the same as in the 4th edition book in cost. Still not Force Weapons.
I think one Farseer is nigh on mandatory. The Eldar book needs the buffs they provide to become viable and drag some units to become competitive. In fact there is only one reason I can think, in a standard FOC setting when you wouldn't want to take two.
The reason is the Spiritseer
Spiritseer
A cut price, two wound Farseer. I believe he is a level 2 psyker too with same Lore access as the Farseer. Comes with a witch staff. What you include him for is making Wraithguard and Wraithblades scoring Troops rather than Elites. So good for Iyanden Craftworld armies. If you are including a unit of Wraithguard or Wraithblades, take a long hard look at this character, expecially if you haven't ear marked the second HQ slot. Compared to the other troops choices, Wraith units are very hardy. No longer any requirement for ten either to be scoring.
Jetbikes
These are cheap. I believe they got a price cut of around 5 points and have the same options as before. Tough and fast scoring units with jink to throw in a cover save. Guns are short ranged as ever, but good for winning the movement phase. Expect to see a lot of these. The only real downside is the old model. The same jetbike exists from when I started playing in 1994. I have no idea when it came out, but it was nearly two decades ago.
Shining Spears
Got a huge points reduction. Nearly 20 points a model cheaper, or half price I believe! Same stats as before, but are now reasonably priced. No longer do laser lances seem an over priced piece of tat and the one attack on the stat line doesn't annoy me so much. Come with a whole range of abilities to keep them alive. Skilled Rider is nice on them.
Striking Scorpions
Not the unit as such. I don't like how mandiblasters became far more complicated. As I mentioned in my previous posts, they now function like a permanent Hammer of Wrath attack, rather than giving the model a bonus attack. The effects of this are that the strength of the hit is lower, because it doesn't use the chainsword. but it does automatically hit. I have not run the exact numbers at this time, but I suspect they may actually be more effective now.
No, the main reason for the inclusion of the Striking Scorpions on the good list is this. The Scorpions Claw wargear item for the Exarch. It is simply insanely decent. It gives the same stat bonuses as a regular old powerfist, you know like it used to be in 4th edition, and has a built in Shurican catapult. Now I am not a fan of the new weapon on Guardians and Dire Avengers, but as a backup weapon to the main combat weapons, it is fine.
The truly great part of the claw is that the scorpion exarch can stack with an exarch power, making his fist the same strength as a marine using a powerfirst. However the best bit is it is not a specialist weapon, nor is it unwieldy. This means he hits nearly everything first, and gets a bonus attack from his chainsword, making up for losing a fist attack to the mandiblasters.
Wave Serpent
It has to be said, I didn't see why this was so good. But it turns out the actual "shield" on the tank can be fired, and it seems exceptionally good when combined with laser lock. It may make all of the other eldar tanks redundant given it doesn't take up slots and it also carries the most troops into battle.
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Eldar 6th edition Codex Review in more detail
I have had a proper read through this now. Here are my thoughts.
Im pretty sure at best the Eldar are the worst 6th ed codex. Perhaps even worse than Chaos marines in terms of useful units.
HQs
Farseer and Spiritseers are the only decent HQs. Pretty much all the special characters are over priced. All the relics are rubbish, beyond some possible uses for the wing thing that allows a super run.
Avatar is over costed and nothing special. Greater daemons without wings are a bad idea. Autarch is kind of okay, nothing spectacular. He will die horribly vs any proper melee Lord. The only real use I can see is give him a jetbike and either a fusion gun or a reaper launcher.
Warlocks I kind of like. Since you get free powers and don't need to pay for them. However you do have to cast them now. On fairly shoddy leadership.
Ancient doom is kind of poor. How many slaanesh armeis are out there? Battle focus is possibly good, possibly average. Its certainly not bad.
The Warlord chart is bad. Absolutely nothing stands out as good. A lot of it is lame.
Troops
Dire Avengers are MORE expensive, despite being worse. No the false rending on the guns is not great. If they had their ability to increase rate of fire as well, then maybe they might be acceptable. I suppose the clue is in the name.
Guardians. Well they got better BS and WS and I think Initiative. They did not get Tau fire warrior better, and they cost the same. However they are less terrible than Dire Avengers and get at least reasonably costed heavy weapons. The combat guardians are still bad.
Jetbikes are good. Cheaper and same as before from what I can tell.
Rangers seem awfully expensive for t3 models with sniper rifles, and cost even more when path finders. Did GW not learn from over pricing Waywatchers? Clearly not.
Wave Serpent is kind of a battle tank and not a transport now. Ive seen suggestions it should be using its shield to attack, but then it will open itself up to dying a lot more. Seems very pricey but I suppose it does now have the improved BS along with all the other guardians.
Elites
Wraithguard. I like. They got cheaper and now have weapon options for something which appear to be d-cannon flamers. Expect to see a lot of these, more so if the Iyanden suppliment is any good.
Wraithknights. "Combat" troops with 1 attack base. For more than chaos terminators. I think not.
Scorpions. I kind of think these got better. Mandiblasters got turned into hammer of wrath that works every round, where as the Scorpions claw is decent expecially with the strength boosting exarch power.
Banshees. Still too low strength to reliably kill power armour. Not as good as scorpions at all. Banshee masks now worse.
Harliquins. A bit odd. Veil of tears is back as it was in the old codex, but you need to cast it. Still expensive. Will die in droves should you fail to cast the spell or the enemy gets to shoot them. Not as good as scorpions.
Fire Dragons. Huge price increase. Improved saves. Still good value in all honesty.
Fast Attack.
Wow, finally got to a slot where there is competition for slots!
Swooping Hawks. Became better, and cheaper. Still have haywire grenades, fly and their guns are slightly better.
Warpspiders. I think they also became better. Against tanks their guns are better. The only real downside is most units can now "jump" away with the shoot/run option so their own gimmick is not so good.
Shining spears. Became considerably cheaper. I think otherwise they are the same. A very decent unit now.
Vyper. I think they are too expensive for how fragile they are. They can however use the laser lock rule, but since their other weapon isn't very good, I don't see many of these being used, especially given the other fast attack options are good.
New aircraft. I know one isn't in fast attack slot, but I am including them here for completion. Both are the lowest armour in the game going and will die. Too expensive by half. The Crimson hunter Exarch has perhaps something going for him, but hes really quite expensive. The Wraithfighter thing, I really just dislike. Terrify power is nothing special.
Heavy Support.
Dark Reapers. I quite like them. They are slow and purposeful and can have krak missiles. In some absurd fashion they are unable to take skyfire missiles, unlike marine and chaos marine devastators. Reaper exarch will need a mortgage to buy his gear and skills as per the last edition.
Warwalkers. I like. Powerfield makes them a bit tougher, and they can get some mileage from the laser lock.
Falcon. Probably the worst battle tank now. Out classed by the Wave serpent that doesn't take up a slot.
Fire Prism. Its pretty good, but pricey for a one gun tank. Due to deaths from glancing, rather than penetrating hits, the prism cannon will likely survive with its gun in tact. A solid choice.
Wraithlord. Still good. Can now take two heavy weapons without having to twin link them. Honestly I think this is better than the Wraithknight.
Wraithknight. Stupidly expensive jumpjet monster. Has high toughness, the same as Wraithlords, but will need to sacrifice one of its two big guns for a shield for a much needed if quite poor invulnerable save. Oddly you can't choose a mix of weapons, you have three combinations and that is all you can pick from. Can take two identical shoulder heavy weapons. Wants to take scatter lasers, so you can use laser lock on the main gun you have left with the shield.
Night spinner. Became worse I think. I don't really like it. Just take a fire prism.
Support platforms. Still good. D-cannon is expensive, but possibly very scary. All D-weapons are very decent.
Im pretty sure at best the Eldar are the worst 6th ed codex. Perhaps even worse than Chaos marines in terms of useful units.
HQs
Farseer and Spiritseers are the only decent HQs. Pretty much all the special characters are over priced. All the relics are rubbish, beyond some possible uses for the wing thing that allows a super run.
Avatar is over costed and nothing special. Greater daemons without wings are a bad idea. Autarch is kind of okay, nothing spectacular. He will die horribly vs any proper melee Lord. The only real use I can see is give him a jetbike and either a fusion gun or a reaper launcher.
Warlocks I kind of like. Since you get free powers and don't need to pay for them. However you do have to cast them now. On fairly shoddy leadership.
Ancient doom is kind of poor. How many slaanesh armeis are out there? Battle focus is possibly good, possibly average. Its certainly not bad.
The Warlord chart is bad. Absolutely nothing stands out as good. A lot of it is lame.
Troops
Dire Avengers are MORE expensive, despite being worse. No the false rending on the guns is not great. If they had their ability to increase rate of fire as well, then maybe they might be acceptable. I suppose the clue is in the name.
Guardians. Well they got better BS and WS and I think Initiative. They did not get Tau fire warrior better, and they cost the same. However they are less terrible than Dire Avengers and get at least reasonably costed heavy weapons. The combat guardians are still bad.
Jetbikes are good. Cheaper and same as before from what I can tell.
Rangers seem awfully expensive for t3 models with sniper rifles, and cost even more when path finders. Did GW not learn from over pricing Waywatchers? Clearly not.
Wave Serpent is kind of a battle tank and not a transport now. Ive seen suggestions it should be using its shield to attack, but then it will open itself up to dying a lot more. Seems very pricey but I suppose it does now have the improved BS along with all the other guardians.
Elites
Wraithguard. I like. They got cheaper and now have weapon options for something which appear to be d-cannon flamers. Expect to see a lot of these, more so if the Iyanden suppliment is any good.
Wraithknights. "Combat" troops with 1 attack base. For more than chaos terminators. I think not.
Scorpions. I kind of think these got better. Mandiblasters got turned into hammer of wrath that works every round, where as the Scorpions claw is decent expecially with the strength boosting exarch power.
Banshees. Still too low strength to reliably kill power armour. Not as good as scorpions at all. Banshee masks now worse.
Harliquins. A bit odd. Veil of tears is back as it was in the old codex, but you need to cast it. Still expensive. Will die in droves should you fail to cast the spell or the enemy gets to shoot them. Not as good as scorpions.
Fire Dragons. Huge price increase. Improved saves. Still good value in all honesty.
Fast Attack.
Wow, finally got to a slot where there is competition for slots!
Swooping Hawks. Became better, and cheaper. Still have haywire grenades, fly and their guns are slightly better.
Warpspiders. I think they also became better. Against tanks their guns are better. The only real downside is most units can now "jump" away with the shoot/run option so their own gimmick is not so good.
Shining spears. Became considerably cheaper. I think otherwise they are the same. A very decent unit now.
Vyper. I think they are too expensive for how fragile they are. They can however use the laser lock rule, but since their other weapon isn't very good, I don't see many of these being used, especially given the other fast attack options are good.
New aircraft. I know one isn't in fast attack slot, but I am including them here for completion. Both are the lowest armour in the game going and will die. Too expensive by half. The Crimson hunter Exarch has perhaps something going for him, but hes really quite expensive. The Wraithfighter thing, I really just dislike. Terrify power is nothing special.
Heavy Support.
Dark Reapers. I quite like them. They are slow and purposeful and can have krak missiles. In some absurd fashion they are unable to take skyfire missiles, unlike marine and chaos marine devastators. Reaper exarch will need a mortgage to buy his gear and skills as per the last edition.
Warwalkers. I like. Powerfield makes them a bit tougher, and they can get some mileage from the laser lock.
Falcon. Probably the worst battle tank now. Out classed by the Wave serpent that doesn't take up a slot.
Fire Prism. Its pretty good, but pricey for a one gun tank. Due to deaths from glancing, rather than penetrating hits, the prism cannon will likely survive with its gun in tact. A solid choice.
Wraithlord. Still good. Can now take two heavy weapons without having to twin link them. Honestly I think this is better than the Wraithknight.
Wraithknight. Stupidly expensive jumpjet monster. Has high toughness, the same as Wraithlords, but will need to sacrifice one of its two big guns for a shield for a much needed if quite poor invulnerable save. Oddly you can't choose a mix of weapons, you have three combinations and that is all you can pick from. Can take two identical shoulder heavy weapons. Wants to take scatter lasers, so you can use laser lock on the main gun you have left with the shield.
Night spinner. Became worse I think. I don't really like it. Just take a fire prism.
Support platforms. Still good. D-cannon is expensive, but possibly very scary. All D-weapons are very decent.
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Eldar 6th Edition Codex Review first impressions
I have the new Eldar codex. If I had to pick one word to describe it, I would say, disappointed.
Now, lets start with the good. Farseers and the new Spirit Seers are both solid choices. The Runes of Fate lore is very similar to the old Eldar spells from the 4th edition book, but with two new powers.
Warlocks are now very similar to Royal Courts. You buy them as one unit, and split them off. Some debate exists on whether you generate spells before or after splitting them up. There is also an absurdity where a jetbike warlock splitting off counts as being an infantry unit. I expect that to be errataed.
Swooping hawks became better. Their guns became marginely better and they became a bit cheaper. In fact, most of the improved units, are improved by virtue of being cheaper. Shining Spears, Guardian Jetbikes and Wraithguard also feature in this section.
All shurikan weapons got a kind of false rending. Guardians got a boost on WS and BS. Still got pistol ranged rifles. Not sold. Their heavy weapons became cheaper though and they can take more than one in a unit.
They have some nifty run/shoot or shoot/run option available to most of the living eldar units. Time will tell if this is a gimmick, game breaking, or more probably something in between. I suppose its kind of like having the jetpack rule, but better. Will need some games to decide if I like this. Dark Reapers can even use this.
Dark reapers can have the option for krak like missiles, but no skyfire, unless I misread something. Huge opportunity lost.
Exarches have similar upgrades and maybe better powers than before. Again, its something that will need to be played.
Scorpions claw is not a powerfist and doesnt strike last. With the exarch being able to up his strength on exarch powers, he will be quite good.
Eldrad can run and is the same toughness. Thats something I guess.
I think that is about it for improvements.
Downsides, where do I begin?
Avatar, is a whole bunch more expensive, gains a wound, reduces his invulnerable save to the daemons standard. Oh and he can buy options.
Phoenix Lords. Terribly over priced. Pretty much across the board. They are all the wrong side of 200 points.
Guardians. Yes they are better. No they are still not very good. Same price as Tau fire warriors despite being considerably worse.
Guardian defenders. An even worse unit than they used to be. Can for some unusual reason take two with power swords, but no champion.
Dire avengers are more expensive, probably due to the false rending ability. They may be possibly acceptable, but they are only one point cheaper than a dark angel tactical marine.
Banshees are utterly lame. Mask has been nerfed into a slaanesh like reduce the enemy initiative ability.
Mandi blasters are now basically the same as hammer of wrath in every round. Not as good as before.
Reaper exarch lost his ultimate killing ability with the tempest launcher and crack shot, unless I am missing something.
Fire dragons went up in points, by a fair amount and gained slightly better saves.
Thats it for now. Please find the other articles written on this subject below;
6th Edition Eldar in more Detail
6th Edition Eldar the good units
6th Edition Eldar Swooping Hawks
6th Edition Eldar Warp Spiders
6th Edition Eldar Shining Spears
6th Edition Eldar Avatar
Can Howling Banshees be competative?
To Exarch or not?
Now, lets start with the good. Farseers and the new Spirit Seers are both solid choices. The Runes of Fate lore is very similar to the old Eldar spells from the 4th edition book, but with two new powers.
Warlocks are now very similar to Royal Courts. You buy them as one unit, and split them off. Some debate exists on whether you generate spells before or after splitting them up. There is also an absurdity where a jetbike warlock splitting off counts as being an infantry unit. I expect that to be errataed.
Swooping hawks became better. Their guns became marginely better and they became a bit cheaper. In fact, most of the improved units, are improved by virtue of being cheaper. Shining Spears, Guardian Jetbikes and Wraithguard also feature in this section.
All shurikan weapons got a kind of false rending. Guardians got a boost on WS and BS. Still got pistol ranged rifles. Not sold. Their heavy weapons became cheaper though and they can take more than one in a unit.
They have some nifty run/shoot or shoot/run option available to most of the living eldar units. Time will tell if this is a gimmick, game breaking, or more probably something in between. I suppose its kind of like having the jetpack rule, but better. Will need some games to decide if I like this. Dark Reapers can even use this.
Dark reapers can have the option for krak like missiles, but no skyfire, unless I misread something. Huge opportunity lost.
Exarches have similar upgrades and maybe better powers than before. Again, its something that will need to be played.
Scorpions claw is not a powerfist and doesnt strike last. With the exarch being able to up his strength on exarch powers, he will be quite good.
Eldrad can run and is the same toughness. Thats something I guess.
I think that is about it for improvements.
Downsides, where do I begin?
Avatar, is a whole bunch more expensive, gains a wound, reduces his invulnerable save to the daemons standard. Oh and he can buy options.
Phoenix Lords. Terribly over priced. Pretty much across the board. They are all the wrong side of 200 points.
Guardians. Yes they are better. No they are still not very good. Same price as Tau fire warriors despite being considerably worse.
Guardian defenders. An even worse unit than they used to be. Can for some unusual reason take two with power swords, but no champion.
Dire avengers are more expensive, probably due to the false rending ability. They may be possibly acceptable, but they are only one point cheaper than a dark angel tactical marine.
Banshees are utterly lame. Mask has been nerfed into a slaanesh like reduce the enemy initiative ability.
Mandi blasters are now basically the same as hammer of wrath in every round. Not as good as before.
Reaper exarch lost his ultimate killing ability with the tempest launcher and crack shot, unless I am missing something.
Fire dragons went up in points, by a fair amount and gained slightly better saves.
Thats it for now. Please find the other articles written on this subject below;
6th Edition Eldar in more Detail
6th Edition Eldar the good units
6th Edition Eldar Swooping Hawks
6th Edition Eldar Warp Spiders
6th Edition Eldar Shining Spears
6th Edition Eldar Avatar
Can Howling Banshees be competative?
To Exarch or not?
Sunday, 14 April 2013
Tau 6th Edition Troops Review, aka Firewarriors, Firewarriors, Firewarriors
This is a really really straight forwards review. Lets start with this. Tau Firewarriors are probably the best troops choice in the entire game. You can probably ignore Kroot entirely, since they are no longer a combat unit.
Let me explain my thoughts. Tau firewarriors went down in points to less than ten points each, the same points as Daemonettes, Plaguebearers and Pink Horrors.
For the low, low cost of 99 points, you can get 11 Fire warriors. If they shoot at 7 Dark Angel tactical marines, which come to 98 points, in a book also written by the same author, then you can see what I mean.
11 Firewarriors at long range kill 2.39 Tacticals. In rapid fire range they kill 4.79. This is the equivelent of 33.46 points killed at long range and 67.06 points killed at short range.
The 7 Dark Angels only kill 1.57 Fire Warriors at long range, and 3.14 at long range. In terms of points killed, at long range Dark Angels kill 14.13 points and at short range 28.26 points.
So yeah. They are 2.37 times more points efficient at killing the cheapest marines, than the marines are at killing them back.
Let me explain my thoughts. Tau firewarriors went down in points to less than ten points each, the same points as Daemonettes, Plaguebearers and Pink Horrors.
For the low, low cost of 99 points, you can get 11 Fire warriors. If they shoot at 7 Dark Angel tactical marines, which come to 98 points, in a book also written by the same author, then you can see what I mean.
11 Firewarriors at long range kill 2.39 Tacticals. In rapid fire range they kill 4.79. This is the equivelent of 33.46 points killed at long range and 67.06 points killed at short range.
The 7 Dark Angels only kill 1.57 Fire Warriors at long range, and 3.14 at long range. In terms of points killed, at long range Dark Angels kill 14.13 points and at short range 28.26 points.
So yeah. They are 2.37 times more points efficient at killing the cheapest marines, than the marines are at killing them back.
Saturday, 13 April 2013
Painting Slaanesh Daemons
I have over the years really struggled with painting Daemons of Slaanesh. I was never happy with them being flesh coloured and I admit I am not a good enough painter to paint them in the grey colour scheme that GW uses on its official models.
So instead I decided to take a different approach and go for a much darker theme. In the past my Slaanesh units have been very bright such as the very bright and poorly painted chariot I did around six years ago which can be found towards the bottom of this article, along with the new and improved scheme.
So while painting up my 40k Daemon army, I decided to go with something a little different. A darker, more serious theme, while still maintaining the key Slaanesh colours to embrace the fact that this is my favourite Chaos god, and I really wanted to do it justice. Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeench schemes are simple, quick and easy to pull off.
This new Slaanesh one is quite time consuming, as it involved several layers of washes to add highlights which you have to wait to dry. I am not a pro painter by any stretch, but I do like my models to at least look passable!
Step 1.
Spray the models White. I used GW white undercoat spray, but really any will do.
Step 2.
Paint the whole model Slaanesh Grey. It is actually a purple colour when it dries. Very strange naming convention really.
Step 3.
Paint all the spines in Dheneb stone, or some other bone colour. I still have the old foundation colour so that is what I used. I painted the horns this colour as well.
Step 4.
Give the flesh areas a Purple wash. I used Leviathan Purple. I then used Nuln oil on the black areas, giving the claws two separate coats. You need to leave an hour to two hours for the washes to dry.
Step 5.
Paint the details. I painted the eyes white and tongues pink on the Fiends. I used the same purple wash on the tongue. On the Keeper of Secrets I painted the eyes red and the Sword bronze before giving it a black wash.
Step 6.
Once the model is dry it is time to base it. I use a fairly time intensive process for this. If you have a better method please do use that instead. I first coat the base in Calthan brown. I then dip this in slate for model railways which I purchased from my local modelling shop. This is then left to dry for two hours. I am sure you can leave it less time, but I like this to be totally dry for the next stage.
Step 7.
After it is totally dry I then apply a watered down layer of PVA glue over the whole base. Allow all the excess glue and water to drain off. This should be left an hour to partially dry before the next stage. The reason I do this is because in the past I have had bad experiences of the basing coming off models.
Step 8.
The final stage, apply small amounts of static grass to the base. I find this is best to apply once the glue is partially dry so that the grass doesn’t move around too much. I then left this overnight, as the PVA takes around eight hours to totally dry.
So instead I decided to take a different approach and go for a much darker theme. In the past my Slaanesh units have been very bright such as the very bright and poorly painted chariot I did around six years ago which can be found towards the bottom of this article, along with the new and improved scheme.
So while painting up my 40k Daemon army, I decided to go with something a little different. A darker, more serious theme, while still maintaining the key Slaanesh colours to embrace the fact that this is my favourite Chaos god, and I really wanted to do it justice. Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeench schemes are simple, quick and easy to pull off.
This new Slaanesh one is quite time consuming, as it involved several layers of washes to add highlights which you have to wait to dry. I am not a pro painter by any stretch, but I do like my models to at least look passable!
Step 1.
Spray the models White. I used GW white undercoat spray, but really any will do.
Step 2.
Paint the whole model Slaanesh Grey. It is actually a purple colour when it dries. Very strange naming convention really.
Step 3.
Paint all the spines in Dheneb stone, or some other bone colour. I still have the old foundation colour so that is what I used. I painted the horns this colour as well.
Step 4.
Give the flesh areas a Purple wash. I used Leviathan Purple. I then used Nuln oil on the black areas, giving the claws two separate coats. You need to leave an hour to two hours for the washes to dry.
Step 5.
Paint the details. I painted the eyes white and tongues pink on the Fiends. I used the same purple wash on the tongue. On the Keeper of Secrets I painted the eyes red and the Sword bronze before giving it a black wash.
Step 6.
Once the model is dry it is time to base it. I use a fairly time intensive process for this. If you have a better method please do use that instead. I first coat the base in Calthan brown. I then dip this in slate for model railways which I purchased from my local modelling shop. This is then left to dry for two hours. I am sure you can leave it less time, but I like this to be totally dry for the next stage.
Step 7.
After it is totally dry I then apply a watered down layer of PVA glue over the whole base. Allow all the excess glue and water to drain off. This should be left an hour to partially dry before the next stage. The reason I do this is because in the past I have had bad experiences of the basing coming off models.
Step 8.
The final stage, apply small amounts of static grass to the base. I find this is best to apply once the glue is partially dry so that the grass doesn’t move around too much. I then left this overnight, as the PVA takes around eight hours to totally dry.
Friday, 12 April 2013
Now for something a little different
On my adventures through the internet, I see a lot of 40k related things. Most of it is bad, some of it good and just occasionally a real gem appears.
This could quite easily be one of those gems;
The Trails of Draigo. Safe for Work version
The Trails of Draigo. Not Safe for Work version
This could quite easily be one of those gems;
The Trails of Draigo. Safe for Work version
The Trails of Draigo. Not Safe for Work version
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Beating Tau in 6th edition
So the Tau are amongst us. Unparralled access to s5 guns, very long range shooting and solid vehicles. They can also combine fire to shoot at your charging troops. So what should you do?
The best bet is to look to allies as many armies, especially assault based ones like Tyranids, Daemons and Orks lack shooting and have poor armour saves.
The best things to use against Tau, come unsurprisingly, from Imperial Guard IMO.
Add any of these to your army;
Griffon Heavy Mortar [accurate s6 ap4 large templates dirt cheap? Yes please]
Collossus Siege Mortar [overkill perhaps, but good in all comers lists]
Leman Russ Eradicator [this is brilliant vs tau]
Manticore
Death Strike
Helhound, basic varient
Sentinels with heavy flamers
All these are either Ordinance, Barrage, Ignore cover, or a combination of those three rules.
The best bet is to look to allies as many armies, especially assault based ones like Tyranids, Daemons and Orks lack shooting and have poor armour saves.
The best things to use against Tau, come unsurprisingly, from Imperial Guard IMO.
Add any of these to your army;
Griffon Heavy Mortar [accurate s6 ap4 large templates dirt cheap? Yes please]
Collossus Siege Mortar [overkill perhaps, but good in all comers lists]
Leman Russ Eradicator [this is brilliant vs tau]
Manticore
Death Strike
Helhound, basic varient
Sentinels with heavy flamers
All these are either Ordinance, Barrage, Ignore cover, or a combination of those three rules.
Friday, 15 March 2013
Chaos Daemon 6th edition troops review
Now I know I said I wouldn't review the whole codex, and I don't for a minute think I will get time to look at everything. However what I will do is have a brief look at certain units and even add some maths to make everything more fun!
Bloodletters
First up, Khornes troop choice. Bloodletters took a battering, losing a point in toughness and attacks. Their leadership, much like every other Daemon unit is the same as basic guardsmen and champions don't add a bonus to it. So far, so bad. Like other daemons they all became much cheaper.
Name one other book where you get a ws5, furious charging, s4 power sword armed troops choice for a very reasonable amount of points?
You can't because they don't exist. This is essentially all you are buying.
Bloodletters have the poorest defensive stats, on par with Daemonettes, with guardsman toughness and the daemon rule providing all the defense of a wet paper towel. They are however dirt cheap. A full unit, with the Banner of blood to help charges, is only 235 for 20 models and all the upgrades. It is probably worth finding a few points for an etherblade for the unit champion, so he can at least hit things at ap2.
10 basic bloodletters vs 10 marines
Charging bloodletters kill 8.978 marines! Not bad for a unit worth just over half the points...
10 basic bloodletters vs 10 terminators
Charging bloodletters kill 1.526 terminators. Not great.
10 basic bloodletters vs 10 guardsmen
Charging bloodletters kill 11.112 guardsmen.
The numbers prove the theory. Bloodletters are very good vs power armour. Elsewhere they are not very cost effective. Just imagine Bloodletters are dirt cheap howling banshees. They are virtually identical in application.
Daemonettes
The only other combat infantry in the troops section are Slaaneshs Daemonettes. These suffered far less of a battering, losing only an attack and an initiative. They are still initaitve 5 and have all the bonuses of being a daemon of slaanesh. Coming in at a point under that of bloodletters, they are faster than them, equally fragile, with less strength.
However they do have rending, so this helps somewhat and they can therefore tackle terminators which Bloodletters will struggle with. As before, you probably want an Etherblade on the champion, ideally paying for a greater one, to improve the models strength. The banner is quite nice, but daemonettes already have better WS and initaitve than anyone they are likely to fight, so I can't see it being used over much. A full command unit of 20 with the banner comes in at a very reasonable 215 points.
Due to rending, this table is somewhat more confusing!
10 basic daemonettes vs 10 marines
Charging daemonettes rend 3.32 marines and kill 1.105 for a total of 3.425 dead marines
10 basic daemonettes vs 10 terminators
Charging daemonettes rend 2.22 terminators and kill 0.553 for a total of 2.773 dead terminators
10 basic daemonettes vs 10 guardsmen
Charging daemonettes rend 3.35 guardsmen and kill 5.561 guardsmen for a total of 8.911 dead guardsmen.
These numbers surprise me quite a lot when compared to Bloodletters, which are miles better at killing marines, as expected, but I thought daemonettes would be better at killing guardsmen. It seems the low strength of daemonettes really hurts them in this respect. They are however nearly twice as good at killing terminators, and with rending they can damage most vehicles.
Pink Horrors
I have to confess, I have read quite a lot of varied reviews on this unit. Some reviewers think this unit is universally terrible, some think it is still quite good. I am in the later camp. For the same price as daemonettes you get more or less a humans profile, with +3 leadership for casting psychic powers. Sure they lost their shooting attacks and their 4+ invulnerable save, but you know what, none of that matters.
Who wouldn't want to get a 10 wound psyker, who scores for less than 100 points? This is what Pink Horrors bring. Forget that they are no longer a shooting unit, that is the past. This is the now. I recommend always taking the Primaris power, and try to get into the 16-20 model range. This will give you an impressive 4d6 s5 shots spell. Attach a Herald with the right locus, and this becomes 4d6 s6 shots, combined with Divination spells and indeed his own Primaris power, the unit can throw out a tremendous amount of shooting. I think the Herald is near mandatory for this unit, which bumps the price up, but it is a very capable unit. You really do want the banner upgrade, as it allows a decent amount of hits on overwatch, something you otherwise can't do.
As before, I will run the numbers for 10 basic horrors, but this time, casting spells. In all cases I will assume they have 7 shots, as this is the statistical average of 2d6. However, as the power improves by 50% for just adding 10% to the cost of the unit, I really can't see many players using just 10 models. The cost of this unit is identical to that of the Daemonettes.
10 basic pink horrors vs 10 marines
Spell casting pink horrors kill 1.87 marines.
10 basic pink horrors vs 10 terminators
Spell casting pink horrors kill 0.940 terminators.
10 basic pink horrors vs 10 guardsmen
Spell casting pink horrors kill 2.905 guardsmen.
Please note a successful deny the witch will negate the horrors ability completely. Certain armies will have better psychic defenses than others, eg Tyranids, Space wolves and Eldar, so be warned. The numbers are not massively impressive here, however they can guard an objective and still shoot. Something the next unit in the list can't do.
Oh and warpflame. This is pretty bad as special rules go. I think it will get an errata at some point to clarify it.
Plaguebearers.
The only non t3 unit in troops, they also have shrouding. No more toughness 5 and feel no pain, although an attached herald can bring feel no pain back if you want. Personally I think this unit functions best running bare bones and guarding objectives while in cover.
You are not going to kill hordes of things with plaguebearers. Please understand this. However they do have the ability to always glance a vehicle on a 6, so they can make reasonable anti dreadnought units if the need arises.
Stick them in a ruin for a 2+ cover save on an objective. This is all this unit should be used for, however here are the combat numbers.
10 basic plaguebearers vs 10 marines
Charging plaguebearers kill 2.25 marines
10 basic plaguebearers vs 10 terminators
Charging plaguebearers kill 1.125 terminators.
10 basic plaguebearers vs 10 guardsmen
Charging plaguebearers kill 5.561 guardsmen.
The numbers really are not that good. But remember, you bought these to survive being shot at, so lets look at some numbers for this.
10 marine boltgun shots vs lesser daemons in the open.
Daemonettes/Bloodletters lose 3.007 wounds
Pink Horrors lose 2.758 wounds
Plaguebearers lose 2.245 wounds
10 marine boltgun shots vs lesser daemons in a ruin/aegis line
Daemonettes/Bloodletters/Pink Horrors lose 2.245 wounds
Plaguebearers lose 0.536 wounds
So the lesson learned here is that you want your Plaguebearers in ruins! That is pretty much all there is to them.
Nurglings
Last, but hopefully not least are Nurglings. With a pile of attacks and wounds, they cost 50% more per base than Bloodletters, but a unit of 3, the minimum size is less than 50 points. Nothing wrong with that. I have scoured the rulebook, and I can't find anything in the rules that prevents swarms from scoring in 6th edition. With a small unit footprint and 4 wounds per base, they could provide an alternative roadblock and cheap scoring unit to plaguebearers. Interestingly they also have the ability to infiltrate, so deploy them in cover for a more than respectable 2 or 3+ cover save!
Running the numbers is a bit more complicated. For the purpose of this, I will assume you bought 6 bases as this makes the unit the same price as 10 daemonettes/horrors/plaguebearers.
6 basic nurglings vs 10 marines
Charging nurglings kill 1.64 marines
10 basic nurglings vs 10 terminators
Charging nurglings kill 0.817 terminators.
10 basic nurglings vs 10 guardsmen
Charging nurglings kill 6.25 guardsmen.
Again, you are buying them for survivability. In the open they take the same number of wounds as daemonettes and bloodletters, so 3.007 wounds lost vs 10 bolters. However in cover they get nearly all the advantages of being a plaguebearer, except the toughness. So in cover they only lose 0.7631 wounds.
Conclusion
Pretty much all these lesser daemons are useful. You just need to pick the right tool for the job. Hopefully these numbers will be of some use to gamers.
Bloodletters
First up, Khornes troop choice. Bloodletters took a battering, losing a point in toughness and attacks. Their leadership, much like every other Daemon unit is the same as basic guardsmen and champions don't add a bonus to it. So far, so bad. Like other daemons they all became much cheaper.
Name one other book where you get a ws5, furious charging, s4 power sword armed troops choice for a very reasonable amount of points?
You can't because they don't exist. This is essentially all you are buying.
Bloodletters have the poorest defensive stats, on par with Daemonettes, with guardsman toughness and the daemon rule providing all the defense of a wet paper towel. They are however dirt cheap. A full unit, with the Banner of blood to help charges, is only 235 for 20 models and all the upgrades. It is probably worth finding a few points for an etherblade for the unit champion, so he can at least hit things at ap2.
10 basic bloodletters vs 10 marines
Charging bloodletters kill 8.978 marines! Not bad for a unit worth just over half the points...
10 basic bloodletters vs 10 terminators
Charging bloodletters kill 1.526 terminators. Not great.
10 basic bloodletters vs 10 guardsmen
Charging bloodletters kill 11.112 guardsmen.
The numbers prove the theory. Bloodletters are very good vs power armour. Elsewhere they are not very cost effective. Just imagine Bloodletters are dirt cheap howling banshees. They are virtually identical in application.
Daemonettes
The only other combat infantry in the troops section are Slaaneshs Daemonettes. These suffered far less of a battering, losing only an attack and an initiative. They are still initaitve 5 and have all the bonuses of being a daemon of slaanesh. Coming in at a point under that of bloodletters, they are faster than them, equally fragile, with less strength.
However they do have rending, so this helps somewhat and they can therefore tackle terminators which Bloodletters will struggle with. As before, you probably want an Etherblade on the champion, ideally paying for a greater one, to improve the models strength. The banner is quite nice, but daemonettes already have better WS and initaitve than anyone they are likely to fight, so I can't see it being used over much. A full command unit of 20 with the banner comes in at a very reasonable 215 points.
Due to rending, this table is somewhat more confusing!
10 basic daemonettes vs 10 marines
Charging daemonettes rend 3.32 marines and kill 1.105 for a total of 3.425 dead marines
10 basic daemonettes vs 10 terminators
Charging daemonettes rend 2.22 terminators and kill 0.553 for a total of 2.773 dead terminators
10 basic daemonettes vs 10 guardsmen
Charging daemonettes rend 3.35 guardsmen and kill 5.561 guardsmen for a total of 8.911 dead guardsmen.
These numbers surprise me quite a lot when compared to Bloodletters, which are miles better at killing marines, as expected, but I thought daemonettes would be better at killing guardsmen. It seems the low strength of daemonettes really hurts them in this respect. They are however nearly twice as good at killing terminators, and with rending they can damage most vehicles.
Pink Horrors
I have to confess, I have read quite a lot of varied reviews on this unit. Some reviewers think this unit is universally terrible, some think it is still quite good. I am in the later camp. For the same price as daemonettes you get more or less a humans profile, with +3 leadership for casting psychic powers. Sure they lost their shooting attacks and their 4+ invulnerable save, but you know what, none of that matters.
Who wouldn't want to get a 10 wound psyker, who scores for less than 100 points? This is what Pink Horrors bring. Forget that they are no longer a shooting unit, that is the past. This is the now. I recommend always taking the Primaris power, and try to get into the 16-20 model range. This will give you an impressive 4d6 s5 shots spell. Attach a Herald with the right locus, and this becomes 4d6 s6 shots, combined with Divination spells and indeed his own Primaris power, the unit can throw out a tremendous amount of shooting. I think the Herald is near mandatory for this unit, which bumps the price up, but it is a very capable unit. You really do want the banner upgrade, as it allows a decent amount of hits on overwatch, something you otherwise can't do.
As before, I will run the numbers for 10 basic horrors, but this time, casting spells. In all cases I will assume they have 7 shots, as this is the statistical average of 2d6. However, as the power improves by 50% for just adding 10% to the cost of the unit, I really can't see many players using just 10 models. The cost of this unit is identical to that of the Daemonettes.
10 basic pink horrors vs 10 marines
Spell casting pink horrors kill 1.87 marines.
10 basic pink horrors vs 10 terminators
Spell casting pink horrors kill 0.940 terminators.
10 basic pink horrors vs 10 guardsmen
Spell casting pink horrors kill 2.905 guardsmen.
Please note a successful deny the witch will negate the horrors ability completely. Certain armies will have better psychic defenses than others, eg Tyranids, Space wolves and Eldar, so be warned. The numbers are not massively impressive here, however they can guard an objective and still shoot. Something the next unit in the list can't do.
Oh and warpflame. This is pretty bad as special rules go. I think it will get an errata at some point to clarify it.
Plaguebearers.
The only non t3 unit in troops, they also have shrouding. No more toughness 5 and feel no pain, although an attached herald can bring feel no pain back if you want. Personally I think this unit functions best running bare bones and guarding objectives while in cover.
You are not going to kill hordes of things with plaguebearers. Please understand this. However they do have the ability to always glance a vehicle on a 6, so they can make reasonable anti dreadnought units if the need arises.
Stick them in a ruin for a 2+ cover save on an objective. This is all this unit should be used for, however here are the combat numbers.
10 basic plaguebearers vs 10 marines
Charging plaguebearers kill 2.25 marines
10 basic plaguebearers vs 10 terminators
Charging plaguebearers kill 1.125 terminators.
10 basic plaguebearers vs 10 guardsmen
Charging plaguebearers kill 5.561 guardsmen.
The numbers really are not that good. But remember, you bought these to survive being shot at, so lets look at some numbers for this.
10 marine boltgun shots vs lesser daemons in the open.
Daemonettes/Bloodletters lose 3.007 wounds
Pink Horrors lose 2.758 wounds
Plaguebearers lose 2.245 wounds
10 marine boltgun shots vs lesser daemons in a ruin/aegis line
Daemonettes/Bloodletters/Pink Horrors lose 2.245 wounds
Plaguebearers lose 0.536 wounds
So the lesson learned here is that you want your Plaguebearers in ruins! That is pretty much all there is to them.
Nurglings
Last, but hopefully not least are Nurglings. With a pile of attacks and wounds, they cost 50% more per base than Bloodletters, but a unit of 3, the minimum size is less than 50 points. Nothing wrong with that. I have scoured the rulebook, and I can't find anything in the rules that prevents swarms from scoring in 6th edition. With a small unit footprint and 4 wounds per base, they could provide an alternative roadblock and cheap scoring unit to plaguebearers. Interestingly they also have the ability to infiltrate, so deploy them in cover for a more than respectable 2 or 3+ cover save!
Running the numbers is a bit more complicated. For the purpose of this, I will assume you bought 6 bases as this makes the unit the same price as 10 daemonettes/horrors/plaguebearers.
6 basic nurglings vs 10 marines
Charging nurglings kill 1.64 marines
10 basic nurglings vs 10 terminators
Charging nurglings kill 0.817 terminators.
10 basic nurglings vs 10 guardsmen
Charging nurglings kill 6.25 guardsmen.
Again, you are buying them for survivability. In the open they take the same number of wounds as daemonettes and bloodletters, so 3.007 wounds lost vs 10 bolters. However in cover they get nearly all the advantages of being a plaguebearer, except the toughness. So in cover they only lose 0.7631 wounds.
Conclusion
Pretty much all these lesser daemons are useful. You just need to pick the right tool for the job. Hopefully these numbers will be of some use to gamers.
Monday, 11 March 2013
How to land a Daemon bomb in 6th
Having read the latest codex daemons book several times, something has struck me. How exactly do you land your daemon models from deep striking.
Now I know this is by no means something you have to do in 6th, as daemons are capable of deploying normally like everyone else. However you are likely to want to get your daemonettes and bloodletters to the enemy unscathed as much as possible, so you want a unit capable of planting an Icon.
Having looked at the various options, it seems there are three main candidates fulfilling the basic criteria of being fast and capable of bringing an Icon. Lets take a look at them.
Blood crushers
How the mighty have fallen. This used to be the premier assault unit in the daemon book, until the errata took its teeth and the new codex kicked it while it was down. From a strictly combat perspective this unit is not great. However, we are looking at it from the perspective of shoving an icon down the enemies throat as quickly as possible.
First notice, the unit is now cavalry, not infantry. This improves its movement considerably, allowing it to move fairly rapidly towards the enemy 12+d6 inches on turn one. It is still toughness 4 with 3 wounds and has the standard daemon invunerable save. No sign of the power armour of yester year. Three models and a banner will set you back around 150 points if you get a champion with an etherblade. You might as well.
Not a great choice, but they will allow other khorne units to deep strike without scattering.
Plague Drones
I have to admit, when I first read the unit, I couldn't see past using them as a Tau Battlesuit style jump forwards, shoot two grenades a pop then retreat type unit. However, the role of deep strike delivery actually suits it very well. Toughness 5, three wounds, shrouded and an invulnerable save all contribute to being the toughest of the three units. They pay a premium on their Icon, but you will want this. Chances are you also want a champion with an ether blade as before, to give the unit some teeth.
On turn one this unit can move a considerable distance. 12+shooting+2d6. The only real downside is that you don't really want to drop Plaguebeare units off close to the enemy, and those you might drop, like Beasts and Nurglings should probably already be deployed to attract fire away from your delivery units. Like above, this unit is around 150 points and is considerably faster, tougher and move maneuverable than Blood crushers, but nowhere near as capable of combat. It is therefore likely your units will scatter still, even with the Icon being held by them.
Seekers
The cheapest of the bunch. For the low cost of 70 points, you get a very rapid moving, very low toughness icon delivery system. To make this fair though, I will compare roughly 150 points of these against the other two. So you can get 11 of these, plus an Icon for just under 150 points. As these have rending, and are not especially tough, there is no point in buying a champion or an etherblade. You get 11 wounds at toughness 3 and the standard save. So by far the easiest to kill, even with more wounds. Each wound also removes a model, reducing its combat effectiveness.
On the plus side, they move like lightning due to being slaanesh daemons. Move 12+6+d6 on turn 1 is outstanding. They also work well with Daemonettes, Fiends and Chariots all of which are not very resilient and want to arrive unscathed. You also have the option of taking two units of five, both with Icons for a mere 140 points. The only reason I can think of not to do this, is that it eats into your fast attack slots, and fast attack for Daemons are vastly improved, and probably better than Elites and indeed Heavy Support now.
Tzeench
For some reason, Tzeench gets no units that can move fast and carry an Icon. Neither Flamers or Screamers have the option. Which is a shame really. On the plus side, Pink horrors want to stay far and away from the enemy.
Conclusion
The three options are fairly competitive, in that none of them is substantially better than the rest. Bloodcrushers are the slowest, fairly dangerous in combat, but lightly armoured. Plague Drones are the toughest, and most flexible, but also are expensive, poor in combat and only have short range shooting. Seekers are the fastest and weakest, but slaanesh has the largest amount of low toughness assault troops.
Now I know this is by no means something you have to do in 6th, as daemons are capable of deploying normally like everyone else. However you are likely to want to get your daemonettes and bloodletters to the enemy unscathed as much as possible, so you want a unit capable of planting an Icon.
Having looked at the various options, it seems there are three main candidates fulfilling the basic criteria of being fast and capable of bringing an Icon. Lets take a look at them.
Blood crushers
How the mighty have fallen. This used to be the premier assault unit in the daemon book, until the errata took its teeth and the new codex kicked it while it was down. From a strictly combat perspective this unit is not great. However, we are looking at it from the perspective of shoving an icon down the enemies throat as quickly as possible.
First notice, the unit is now cavalry, not infantry. This improves its movement considerably, allowing it to move fairly rapidly towards the enemy 12+d6 inches on turn one. It is still toughness 4 with 3 wounds and has the standard daemon invunerable save. No sign of the power armour of yester year. Three models and a banner will set you back around 150 points if you get a champion with an etherblade. You might as well.
Not a great choice, but they will allow other khorne units to deep strike without scattering.
Plague Drones
I have to admit, when I first read the unit, I couldn't see past using them as a Tau Battlesuit style jump forwards, shoot two grenades a pop then retreat type unit. However, the role of deep strike delivery actually suits it very well. Toughness 5, three wounds, shrouded and an invulnerable save all contribute to being the toughest of the three units. They pay a premium on their Icon, but you will want this. Chances are you also want a champion with an ether blade as before, to give the unit some teeth.
On turn one this unit can move a considerable distance. 12+shooting+2d6. The only real downside is that you don't really want to drop Plaguebeare units off close to the enemy, and those you might drop, like Beasts and Nurglings should probably already be deployed to attract fire away from your delivery units. Like above, this unit is around 150 points and is considerably faster, tougher and move maneuverable than Blood crushers, but nowhere near as capable of combat. It is therefore likely your units will scatter still, even with the Icon being held by them.
Seekers
The cheapest of the bunch. For the low cost of 70 points, you get a very rapid moving, very low toughness icon delivery system. To make this fair though, I will compare roughly 150 points of these against the other two. So you can get 11 of these, plus an Icon for just under 150 points. As these have rending, and are not especially tough, there is no point in buying a champion or an etherblade. You get 11 wounds at toughness 3 and the standard save. So by far the easiest to kill, even with more wounds. Each wound also removes a model, reducing its combat effectiveness.
On the plus side, they move like lightning due to being slaanesh daemons. Move 12+6+d6 on turn 1 is outstanding. They also work well with Daemonettes, Fiends and Chariots all of which are not very resilient and want to arrive unscathed. You also have the option of taking two units of five, both with Icons for a mere 140 points. The only reason I can think of not to do this, is that it eats into your fast attack slots, and fast attack for Daemons are vastly improved, and probably better than Elites and indeed Heavy Support now.
Tzeench
For some reason, Tzeench gets no units that can move fast and carry an Icon. Neither Flamers or Screamers have the option. Which is a shame really. On the plus side, Pink horrors want to stay far and away from the enemy.
Conclusion
The three options are fairly competitive, in that none of them is substantially better than the rest. Bloodcrushers are the slowest, fairly dangerous in combat, but lightly armoured. Plague Drones are the toughest, and most flexible, but also are expensive, poor in combat and only have short range shooting. Seekers are the fastest and weakest, but slaanesh has the largest amount of low toughness assault troops.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Codex Daemons first impression
I have not posted in a good while, been distracted with other things.
However I do have a brand spanking new copy of Codex Daemons that I had a
brief look through.
I am not going to say I will write a full codex review, since I am unlikely to finish it. However I will go through important changes and other bits I have picked up.
Firstly, no more daemonic assault. The army deploys conventionally, but every unit appears to have deep strike. Icons work as before, but as your army can deploy on the table, this is far more effective. Substantially cheaper too. Musicians, previously all but worthless allow other units to deep strike in without rolling if the unit with the musician passes the test. Pretty handy if you have a greater daemon in reserve.
Psychic powers are back. Most of the daemonic HQ choices, and Tzeench in general gets spell casters. Different lores to Chaos marines, but obviously similar theme. Horrors have brotherhood of sorcerers special rule and can get to have three warp charge with a big enough squad. This replaces their shooting.
Flamers were nerfed badly. Flamers now ap4 and have no real ability vs tanks. No surprise here. Bloodcrushers lose their 3+ save, replacing it with a 6+ and they are no cheaper. They are now cavalry though. All bloodletters remain ap3 in combat.
Screamers oddly seem to have kept their overpowered abilities from the white dwarf write up.
All lesser daemons are dirt cheap. All the four main types are ten points or under a model. Statistically they are worse than before, but due to price cuts, I don't think that is a big deal.
Heralds are four to a HQ slot. They can buy loci's which upgrade their attached unit.
All unnamed HQs can buy daemonic gifts. Three levels, costing a variety of points. You then get to roll on a chart to determine what you have, but can default to a weapon.
No Keeper of Secrets special character. Masque got nerfed. No real love for Slaanesh with one special character. Nurgle has two, Khorne and Tzeench three. Tallyman got nerfed. Fateweaver got changed substantially. Tzeench characters get access to Diviniation, which is great.
Greater daemons become greater. Biggest change is they all seem to have an additional wound, but worse saves than before. Daemons get their abilities the same as in Codex Chaos. They are mostly cheaper, with better upgrades. Leadership maxes out at 9.
Daemonic Instability is very random. Same as it used to be to an extent, though a double 1 heals dead models and a double 6 kills the unit out right.
There is also a random chart you roll on per shooting phase. It can hit your own units, but if you take one god exclusively you minimize these risks. Otherwise it is fairly balanced by shafting you, and hurting the enemy.
Plague drones are jump jet cavalry. A totally unique unit in the game at the moment.
I am not going to say I will write a full codex review, since I am unlikely to finish it. However I will go through important changes and other bits I have picked up.
Firstly, no more daemonic assault. The army deploys conventionally, but every unit appears to have deep strike. Icons work as before, but as your army can deploy on the table, this is far more effective. Substantially cheaper too. Musicians, previously all but worthless allow other units to deep strike in without rolling if the unit with the musician passes the test. Pretty handy if you have a greater daemon in reserve.
Psychic powers are back. Most of the daemonic HQ choices, and Tzeench in general gets spell casters. Different lores to Chaos marines, but obviously similar theme. Horrors have brotherhood of sorcerers special rule and can get to have three warp charge with a big enough squad. This replaces their shooting.
Flamers were nerfed badly. Flamers now ap4 and have no real ability vs tanks. No surprise here. Bloodcrushers lose their 3+ save, replacing it with a 6+ and they are no cheaper. They are now cavalry though. All bloodletters remain ap3 in combat.
Screamers oddly seem to have kept their overpowered abilities from the white dwarf write up.
All lesser daemons are dirt cheap. All the four main types are ten points or under a model. Statistically they are worse than before, but due to price cuts, I don't think that is a big deal.
Heralds are four to a HQ slot. They can buy loci's which upgrade their attached unit.
All unnamed HQs can buy daemonic gifts. Three levels, costing a variety of points. You then get to roll on a chart to determine what you have, but can default to a weapon.
No Keeper of Secrets special character. Masque got nerfed. No real love for Slaanesh with one special character. Nurgle has two, Khorne and Tzeench three. Tallyman got nerfed. Fateweaver got changed substantially. Tzeench characters get access to Diviniation, which is great.
Greater daemons become greater. Biggest change is they all seem to have an additional wound, but worse saves than before. Daemons get their abilities the same as in Codex Chaos. They are mostly cheaper, with better upgrades. Leadership maxes out at 9.
Daemonic Instability is very random. Same as it used to be to an extent, though a double 1 heals dead models and a double 6 kills the unit out right.
There is also a random chart you roll on per shooting phase. It can hit your own units, but if you take one god exclusively you minimize these risks. Otherwise it is fairly balanced by shafting you, and hurting the enemy.
Plague drones are jump jet cavalry. A totally unique unit in the game at the moment.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Chaos thoughts
I realise I have not posted very much recently, been busy with Christmas and other things. I also have not finished, or really even started the Chaos Codex review. The reason for this is that I was reviewing it before I really had played that many games, and my opinions on certain units are continually changing.
It seemed to me that everyone and his dog was using Khorne marked Lords with the Axe of Blinding fury to start with. As time has progressed, Daemon Princes with the Black Mace have become more popular, and I have even started to see them on normal lords. The reason for this I believe is that unlocking Berserkers into troops really isn't that useful for an army that has a lot of close combat capable troops.
Other cult troops offer a different take on the sit back and shoot method, and most of them are better than the options that are available elsewhere in the book. This isn't the case with Berserkers, who are very poor if they don't charge, and in subsequent rounds of combat.
Thousand Sons are good anti MEQ, Plague marines do a decent job of objective holding on cheap and Noise marines have exceptional anti horde weapons and one of the best heavy weapons in the game. Not quite the best, that position belongs to the Eldar Dark reaper tempest launcher IMO. But it is certainly not far off the best.
All Berserkers do, is throw a bunch of attacks down. You can do this more effectively with terminators, spawn and even possessed.
It seemed to me that everyone and his dog was using Khorne marked Lords with the Axe of Blinding fury to start with. As time has progressed, Daemon Princes with the Black Mace have become more popular, and I have even started to see them on normal lords. The reason for this I believe is that unlocking Berserkers into troops really isn't that useful for an army that has a lot of close combat capable troops.
Other cult troops offer a different take on the sit back and shoot method, and most of them are better than the options that are available elsewhere in the book. This isn't the case with Berserkers, who are very poor if they don't charge, and in subsequent rounds of combat.
Thousand Sons are good anti MEQ, Plague marines do a decent job of objective holding on cheap and Noise marines have exceptional anti horde weapons and one of the best heavy weapons in the game. Not quite the best, that position belongs to the Eldar Dark reaper tempest launcher IMO. But it is certainly not far off the best.
All Berserkers do, is throw a bunch of attacks down. You can do this more effectively with terminators, spawn and even possessed.
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