Wow its been a long time since I last updated this page. I have been playing 40k but have been so busy with work that I have not felt like writing much in my evenings.
There have been a lot of arguments on the Internet of late about how badly done to Chaos space marines are. As someone who has had an army of them since 2nd edition, I personally have issues with how they play, vs the fluff that I want them to play like.
I don't doubt there are a handful of strong units in the book, probably enough to field an army capable of beating quite a few armies out there, but the majority of units are made redundant by better units in the same slots and/or over priced
The crux of the issue is that Chaos space marines really represent Naughty, Spikey loyalists rather than the Legions that many chaos players, especially those from the older editions, want to play as.
There is of course a very simple solution . Make a Chaos renegade codex representing what a regular warband of new renegades has access to and what they lose by becoming a traitor. I would do something like limit the amount of high tech gear they could have, but give them some of the easier to maintain stuff from the vaults. This could even be a supplement to the loyalist codex, complete with keeping your chapter trait. This would replace the existing codex.
Then make a true legion codex with all the cool stuff from the heresy. Make chaos marine scary. Basic ones should have stats of chosen. Price them as an elite hard hitting force. This would be a stand alone new codex.
I would even go so far as to say traitor guard should have their own codex. It could be very similar to the existing Astra Militatum book, but again swap out some of the tech for some of the older kit. Model wise they could use all the same models as the guard range. Make them battle brothers to the chaos faction.
Showing posts with label Games-Workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games-Workshop. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Thursday, 30 April 2015
7th Edition Eldar - Howling Banshees
I am not going to write a full codex review, or even cover most of the units, it only seems like five minutes ago I was doing that for 6th edition.
Howling Banshees have had a significant boost.
They now move an additional 3 inches while running or charging. Now running is okay I guess, but the boost to charging is tremendous.
They also now also ignore penalties to initiative while charging into cover. The exarch also prevents any overwatch being fired.
They have gone from being the worst unit in the codex, to pretty good now. Still struggle to wound anything really tough though and will bounce off anything with a 2+ save.
Howling Banshees have had a significant boost.
They now move an additional 3 inches while running or charging. Now running is okay I guess, but the boost to charging is tremendous.
They also now also ignore penalties to initiative while charging into cover. The exarch also prevents any overwatch being fired.
They have gone from being the worst unit in the codex, to pretty good now. Still struggle to wound anything really tough though and will bounce off anything with a 2+ save.
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
7th Edition Eldar - First Impressions - The internet panics
7th Edition Eldar - First impressions
Before I start, I will admit I play eldar. I have for twenty years, so I have seen quite few codexes come and go.
I have seen a lot of panic on the internet about how broken things are in this new book. But this essentially boils down to two things. Spamming list entries and tourney play. I do neither, so I personally don't like to be tarred with that brush.
Games Workshop has said MANY times that their game is not designed with competitive play in mind. It is beer and pretzels type gaming. You may disagree with this all you like, but that is the fact.
There are, as far as I can tell only a small number of issues which people have with the eldar book.
Number 1. Scatter bikers. Every single jetbike can now take either a shuricannon or a scatter laser. I have to admit, this seems a no brainer. There is a lot of fear about people spamming these, but it is fairly expensive to do, with the specialised FOC chart in the new book. In casual play, taking a squad or two and limiting heavy weapons is more than fine. You probably want some ablative wounds anyway, as if ap3 ignore cover weapons come your way, then the squads going to lose a lot of models. New good rules for new models, has been a thing for quite a while now.
Number 2. Wraithknight. Hes now a jump gargantuan creature armed with two D guns. He is also pretty cheap in terms of points.
Number 3. Ranged D guns on pretty much all wraith units. I don't personally see the big deal here, most of these were s10 before, and never seemed all that great with them being a single shot, short ranged and no blast. The D-flamers got a buff, but they can't instant death and suffer a penalty on the D chart.
Apart from that, there have been debuffs. Serpents shields been nerfed quite heavily, although I think we all expected that. Exarchs lost a lot of customisation options, as did the Avatar.
I dont think the Autarch is any better. Certainly I wont be taking one.
Guardians are a bit naff still. And unless you spam scatter bikers, you are taking some.
Free flak missiles as well as two wounds on the exarchs are welcome.
Before I start, I will admit I play eldar. I have for twenty years, so I have seen quite few codexes come and go.
I have seen a lot of panic on the internet about how broken things are in this new book. But this essentially boils down to two things. Spamming list entries and tourney play. I do neither, so I personally don't like to be tarred with that brush.
Games Workshop has said MANY times that their game is not designed with competitive play in mind. It is beer and pretzels type gaming. You may disagree with this all you like, but that is the fact.
There are, as far as I can tell only a small number of issues which people have with the eldar book.
Number 1. Scatter bikers. Every single jetbike can now take either a shuricannon or a scatter laser. I have to admit, this seems a no brainer. There is a lot of fear about people spamming these, but it is fairly expensive to do, with the specialised FOC chart in the new book. In casual play, taking a squad or two and limiting heavy weapons is more than fine. You probably want some ablative wounds anyway, as if ap3 ignore cover weapons come your way, then the squads going to lose a lot of models. New good rules for new models, has been a thing for quite a while now.
Number 2. Wraithknight. Hes now a jump gargantuan creature armed with two D guns. He is also pretty cheap in terms of points.
Number 3. Ranged D guns on pretty much all wraith units. I don't personally see the big deal here, most of these were s10 before, and never seemed all that great with them being a single shot, short ranged and no blast. The D-flamers got a buff, but they can't instant death and suffer a penalty on the D chart.
Apart from that, there have been debuffs. Serpents shields been nerfed quite heavily, although I think we all expected that. Exarchs lost a lot of customisation options, as did the Avatar.
I dont think the Autarch is any better. Certainly I wont be taking one.
Guardians are a bit naff still. And unless you spam scatter bikers, you are taking some.
Free flak missiles as well as two wounds on the exarchs are welcome.
Friday, 27 March 2015
Adeptus Mechanicus
The forthcoming release of Adeptus Mechanicus is something I have been waiting on for a long time.
They are the biggest faction in 40k to never really have a model range. All the Forge World releases have been really exciting with the Horus Heresy range so it is good to see that they are finally doing a 40k version of this army.
From the sneak peeks it looks like they occupy a space around the eldar in terms of weapons and indeed in terms of statistics and points. This could make them a very unusual imperial army.
The models themselves look solid. Not forge world amazing but good. I was hoping for some Johnny 5 type robots, or at least some tracked heavy weapons servitors, but nothing of that ilk seems to have been seen yet.
I plan on having a combined Ad mech and Knight army, but it is dependant on the codex options.
They are the biggest faction in 40k to never really have a model range. All the Forge World releases have been really exciting with the Horus Heresy range so it is good to see that they are finally doing a 40k version of this army.
From the sneak peeks it looks like they occupy a space around the eldar in terms of weapons and indeed in terms of statistics and points. This could make them a very unusual imperial army.
The models themselves look solid. Not forge world amazing but good. I was hoping for some Johnny 5 type robots, or at least some tracked heavy weapons servitors, but nothing of that ilk seems to have been seen yet.
I plan on having a combined Ad mech and Knight army, but it is dependant on the codex options.
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
7th Edition. Is it really 6.5?
So after a fairly long hiatus, I have finally got around to looking at the 7th edition rules.
I have to say, I am not really impressed. For a rough estimate, I would suggest around 95% of the core rules and around 99% of special and weapon rules have stayed the same. For the price of the books I expected more.
Which brings me to the books. There is a big rule book, a background book and a sort of painting book.
The painting book has mostly big photos of models with no real explanation on how they were painted. There is a heavy emphasis on Ultramarines and not much on other factions and something that may possibly be classed as tactics, but it really doesn't come across that way in reading it. I could quite happily have never seen this book, never mind paid actual money for it. If it had shown a few more gamers armies, or shown how to do some of the painted models, or painting methods, then I would have been much more impressed.
The background book is a rehash of what has been said in previous publications. I couldn't actually see anything new in this whole book. While I am sure it is of some value to new gamers, to someone who has been playing for near twenty years, its not very much use to me. The specific sections on different factions is covered in much better details in their own codexes.
Now those books have been dealt with, back to the rules. The rules are really just 6th edition with a couple of changes. This isn't a bad thing as 6th was a solid set of rules.
Big changes, as far as I can tell are as follows;
Psychic phase. It looks like initially a small nerf in the volume of powers cast, although certain armies will see a boost I think. Its quite similar to the old fashioned dice pools for casting from fantasy. Its early to say for sure, but focused witchfires actually look usable now, which is a nice change. There doesn't appear to be an upper limit on how many dice you use to cast either. This means you can throw all your dice at a spell you really want. I also like how you get the primaris power for free if you pick all your powers from the same deck. Overall this is an improvement.
Shooting phase. There has been a fairly interesting change. You now roll all the weapons of one type, then resolve the effects before rolling the next set. This will slow games down, but provides a tactical choice to the game in trying to stack melta hits on characters when the fodder is hosed down in front of him with lesser weapons. I like this.
Charge ranges: Has stayed the same, but with small changes. Now difficult terrain reduces the charge by a set distance. Makes it a bit more predictable. I think this is good too.
Vehicle damage: It is now no longer possible to blow up a vehicle in one hit with an Ap3 or worse weapon. This makes vehicles across the board tougher and thus more desirable. Except oddly landraiders, and other 14 all round vehicles, which were virtually impervious to these lower damage weapons in the first place. I am unsure how much of an effect this will have, except armour 10 vehicles become considerably tougher.
Lords of war are now included in the Force Organisation Chart.
New missions are far more dynamic, allowing armies built around speed and reaction to do well, where as static armies may struggle.
Overall my impressions are that 7th is a positive step forwards. I can't think of any changes that have been for the worse, but it does strike me as more 6.5 than a new version of the rules.
I have to say, I am not really impressed. For a rough estimate, I would suggest around 95% of the core rules and around 99% of special and weapon rules have stayed the same. For the price of the books I expected more.
Which brings me to the books. There is a big rule book, a background book and a sort of painting book.
The painting book has mostly big photos of models with no real explanation on how they were painted. There is a heavy emphasis on Ultramarines and not much on other factions and something that may possibly be classed as tactics, but it really doesn't come across that way in reading it. I could quite happily have never seen this book, never mind paid actual money for it. If it had shown a few more gamers armies, or shown how to do some of the painted models, or painting methods, then I would have been much more impressed.
The background book is a rehash of what has been said in previous publications. I couldn't actually see anything new in this whole book. While I am sure it is of some value to new gamers, to someone who has been playing for near twenty years, its not very much use to me. The specific sections on different factions is covered in much better details in their own codexes.
Now those books have been dealt with, back to the rules. The rules are really just 6th edition with a couple of changes. This isn't a bad thing as 6th was a solid set of rules.
Big changes, as far as I can tell are as follows;
Psychic phase. It looks like initially a small nerf in the volume of powers cast, although certain armies will see a boost I think. Its quite similar to the old fashioned dice pools for casting from fantasy. Its early to say for sure, but focused witchfires actually look usable now, which is a nice change. There doesn't appear to be an upper limit on how many dice you use to cast either. This means you can throw all your dice at a spell you really want. I also like how you get the primaris power for free if you pick all your powers from the same deck. Overall this is an improvement.
Shooting phase. There has been a fairly interesting change. You now roll all the weapons of one type, then resolve the effects before rolling the next set. This will slow games down, but provides a tactical choice to the game in trying to stack melta hits on characters when the fodder is hosed down in front of him with lesser weapons. I like this.
Charge ranges: Has stayed the same, but with small changes. Now difficult terrain reduces the charge by a set distance. Makes it a bit more predictable. I think this is good too.
Vehicle damage: It is now no longer possible to blow up a vehicle in one hit with an Ap3 or worse weapon. This makes vehicles across the board tougher and thus more desirable. Except oddly landraiders, and other 14 all round vehicles, which were virtually impervious to these lower damage weapons in the first place. I am unsure how much of an effect this will have, except armour 10 vehicles become considerably tougher.
Lords of war are now included in the Force Organisation Chart.
New missions are far more dynamic, allowing armies built around speed and reaction to do well, where as static armies may struggle.
Overall my impressions are that 7th is a positive step forwards. I can't think of any changes that have been for the worse, but it does strike me as more 6.5 than a new version of the rules.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)