Frontline's Competition

Yo, peeps, it looks like there's a competition over at Frontline for some phat loot in the form of Sarrisa terrain. I would say you should check it out, but then you'd probably enter the competition, and thus reduce the chances of me winning. And I'm only doing this for the extra shot at the prize!

But seriously, check out Frontline's blog if you haven't already. He's one of the more insightful bloggers in the wargaming online community, and you should be reading his stuff rather than my irregular tripe.

What, you're still here? Go away! Get off my lawn!

Damn kids...

D&D Next--An Initial Review

So, I’ve signed up for the D&D 5e playtest, and had a perusal through its materials. My overall response was positive, but just barely.

This is the mascot of D&D Next. I wish his stats were in the Bestiary. That would teach my players a lesson...

The new combat rules they’ve put out seem relatively solid. Anyone who has played a D20 system before will recognize them instantly. They’ve done one or two new things, which I hesitantly approve of (namely how they treat combat advantage and disadvantage), but I can’t discuss the details without getting a C&D from the company (as if they would notice me anyways!). It looks to me like combat will be much deadlier in 5^th edition, unlike the extended pillow fights we have today. Most enemies seem to be able to be killed in a round of combat—by the same token, many PCs suffer the same short life expectancy.

The sample adventure they’ve included surprised me, in that it wasn’t really a sample adventure. There was no plot, it was more of a “here are some caverns full of monsters to loot and kill respectively.” The module does go out of its way to discuss that you can talk your way to success, but it was a far cry from things like FFG’s heavily plot-driven modules in its 40k settings. This is both a good and a bad thing—less potential for rail-roading, as there are literally no tracks, but less guidance for people new to this system. It provides a few possible plot hooks to deal get the PCs to the caves, but on the whole, it really cuts you loose.

There are some things I’m unprepared to review completely. I started D&D in 4^th Edition, and ran a campaign with that system for quite a while. I’ve only ever played 3^rd edition once or twice, so the biggest shock to me reading the playtest was seeing how the spellbook magic system worked. As I think it over, it would work for any standard dungeon crawl, but the mage will be at a severe disadvantage in any protracted battle. As combat appears to be bloodier and quicker, this will not be an issue in most standard encounters. Depending on how magic and enemies scale, however, this could lead to difficulties.

Characters are, as has been stated publicly, pregenerated. However, the pregenerated characters have Backgrounds and Themes in addition to Races and Classes. This gives me some hope that, with a massive amount of Backgrounds and themes, there may be more to character generation than the horrendous cookie cutter of 4e.

            I’m debating whether or not I will actually try to run this playtest with my group. More on that in my next post.

Something Wrong with the New Models...?

Namely the Hive Tyrant.
First of all, I'm SUPER-psyched for the new 'Nids releases. I want, like, 3 of those Tervigon/Tyrannofex kits--1 more tervigon and 2 tyrannofexen.

But I would like everyone to take a look at this model. Tell me if you see anything wrong.

Take your time.

See it?

It's not a legal model.
The wings go in the upper arm slots. This means you can only use one pair of weapons with the wings, while all Hive Tyrants have two weapon sets.

This means the model cannot be WYSIWYG.

Granted, this is a preliminary picture, and I sincerely hope I'm wrong about this. Because that would really just be a slap in the face to make a kit that can't even be used under your own rules for Tyranids players. Granted, this isn't one of the kits that we've been slavering for, but still.

Srsly?

Maybe once I see the sprue this will be cleared up. I really do hope so, because it looks like it could be a great kit.

EDIT: It looks like the feet MIGHT count as scything talons. Perhaps the leg joint will be able to house weapons? Here's to hoping...

Different Sorts of Projects

So, I'm plotting out two new projects right now--they're working titles are Empire Unyielding and Burn The Skies. A webcomic and a "video blog," neither of which I know how to do. Also, I'm terrible at drawing, so the comic might take a while to get off the ground.

Both are in the planning stage, but BTS is much closer to fruition at this point. We'll see how that goes, eh?

Killing Draigo

For Christmas, I received, thanks to the generosity of friends and family, a full Draigo-wing army at 2000 points. Consisting of 20 paladins, Draigo, a vindicare, and an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, I do not think of it as a “good” list. My friends don’t generally enjoy playing competitively, and I’m perfectly content not min-maxing things.

Draigo and his homies. Source

Now, I’ve played just a couple games with this list, and I have been shocked not to lose any! Granted, I haven’t played a LOT of games, but I was surprised to table my friend’s Space Wolves, whom he has been playing for a long time, in my first game! Honestly, I never expected to win much with this list, so I’ve been baffled by my own success.

I think I’ve figured out the problem, though.

When playing against Draigo, you have to hit hard. Any unit of 5-10 Paladins will outpoint any of your squads, except for a few notable deathstar-exceptions. My Space Puppy friend attempted to feel me out, soften me up with some long-range firepower while keeping most of his men hidden. That’s the mistake.

Space Wolves actually explode if you hit them hard enough. True story. 

Paladin squads have to be hit hard by whole chunks of your army at a time. The second game I played was against BA jumpers. He wiped out my flanking psycannon-based combat squads (poorly deployed on my part) with about half his army each. However, because he split his forces to defeat my flanks in detail, my core 10-man Pally unit was able to charge first once flank, then the other, and defeat him in detail.

Rather, if he had instead brought his entire army to bear on one flank, he could have annihilated one of my shooty-squads, pulled back, melta’d my 10-man squad into vapor (probably followed by a multi-assault from his whole army to mop up any stragglers), and then defeated the other combat squad at his leisure. My deployment mistakes would have negated nearly a quarter of my army’s shooting if he positioned himself on the far side of the board from them. My army has very little support—this is one reason why it’s bad, objectively speaking. The number of army types I can’t handle at 2000 points is astronomical.

So the moral of my stories is…?

If you are playing a “pure” Draigo-wing, be merciless in your exploitation of any units left unprotected. Remember, those units will be able to take any of yours one-on-one, so bring down a hammer-blow of firepower on your enemy, one squad at a time. One of the main weaknesses of Draigo-wing is its lack of mobility. If it can be out-maneuvered by the majority of your army, you can win.

And if you’re playing a Draigo-wing, and you’re not bringing some of the nifty support options available *coughpsyfledreadscough* then make sure that none of your units are left hanging in the wind.

Back on the Blogosphere

Hey y'all. I haven't been blogging much. Winter break was really hectic for me, bouncing from crisis to personal crisis, and then school started. Now I think I want to get back into the swing of things.

So I have an article on Draigo-wing going up tomorrow, then I hope to get some thoughts out on Role-Playing this weekend, between internship applications and essay-writing.

I also have some ideas for a long-term project, but I need to do some more thinking before I decide to commit to something of the magnitude I'm considering.

Archetypes in 40k--Choosing an Army

I've discovered that I'm a bit of a "theme" player. I build my armies around an idea, and enjoy playing out that idea on the table-top.

When I started my Tyranid force, I was just learning how to play. I spent some time on The Hive Mind forum, read Loate's unit tactica (which I post to every thread I ever read for new Tyranid players) and bought a force. As I've expanded that force, it's grown around an organically occurring theme--that of a Hive Fleet falling upon an enemy position in wave after wave of bodies. I have a fast flying wave (Gargoyles and a Flyrant), a fast ground wave (Hormagaunts, a trygon, and my favorite: Raveners) and a slow advance (Hive Guard, a walking Tyrant, tervigon and accompanying termagant screen--Tyrannofexen when the model is released). In a perfect battle for me, this army crashes upon an enemy like an advancing tide.

When Dark Eldar came out last year, I gleefully jumped the bandwagon. This time, I chose a theme deliberately--that of a lightning fast mech force, focusing almost entirely on shooting, with the exception of my Archon and her Incubi retinue. I consciously tailored my force to play completely differently than my tyranids. I wanted a change of pace, after all, so beasts and monstrous creatures really weren't worth it to me--I have more fun ones in my tyranid collection, after all! In time, I plan to expand the Coven of my force beyond the generous gift of a Talos and some Scourges one of my friends was kind enough to give to me, but not for a while, I think. My resources must be husbanded carefully, after all!

This leads me to why I'm writing this in the first place. The other day, I posted about whether I wanted to start Grey Knights or Necrons. This got me thinking about what kind of army I wanted to play next. And I can't seem to figure out what sort of army the Necrons are. That's why I'm having difficulty getting as excited about the Necrons as I had originally. Because the models are GREAT, and I want them, but I don't know how they synthesize into an idealistic whole. A Grey Knight Paladin force with a slight inquisitorial element (two models, despoiling my purity...) has a theme I can sink my teeth into. It's a rock, pure and simple, and you just let the guy across the table deal with it while you go to town.

Would it be hard to beat? Hell no. My Dark Eldar would be laughing their butts off all the way to Commoragh with Draigo's head on a pike after a game with my putative list*. But it would be fun to play, cool to model, and it would look pretty good, I hope. And it would be significantly different from what I already play (Super-fast shooting and swarms with big bugs).

I can't figure out a pull for the Necrons. They have a range of great models which I want to possess, but I'm just not sure how to synthesize them at this stage. Maybe once the Codex comes out, the clouds will open and all will be made clear. But right now, I'm just a wee bit confused.

*For those interested, it consists of Draigo, two units of 10 paladins, an Inquisitor, and a Vindicare. Just over $250 at GW's retail price for a 2000 point list.