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.

Armies Looking Forward

So, with the new Necrons coming out, I've been considering hopping on the bandwagon for Christmas. This whole thing has got me thinking about where I'm going with 40k, and what armies I want to collect.

There's still stuff I want for the ol' Kabal and the Hive Fleet, but I can't help but look at some of the other armies.

The Necrons look very cool, but they're missing a few things. Primarily, I'm looking forward to the release of the Stalker. I'll probably decide whether I want to start a Necron army after I see their wave two of models. Moreover, I want a look at the codex, to see whether the rules and fluff are cool enough to justify a collection. I think the models will be, after seeing these guys:

One-eyed Snipers. Don't question the Necrons.

I've been thinking of a lot of list concepts, based on the models. Annihilation barges, destroyer lords, command barges, immortals (with those one-eyed heads). I want to know more details on fast attack--destroyers and Tomb Blades, mainly. I think 3x1 Heavy Destroyers will be a good choice for those of us who aren't feeling the whole Scarab thing, but I'd like to see the next wave of models.

Overall, I need a look at the codex.

Another thing that's looked cool to me since before their codex came out was a paladin-wing Grey Knights army. Draigo, twenty paladins, a vindicare, and an inquisitor grenade carrier.

Come at me, bro!

The last is largely because this is one of my favorite models in the range, and I want an excuse to own him.

I've been interested in Draigo-wing ever since I saw the grey knight paladin models, and it turns out they're rules are actually pretty good as well! I'd buy a few assault cannons to round out my psy-cannon count, and go to town. My list isn't really min-maxed, mainly because the guys I play aren't into that sort of thing, and enjoying a game of 40k means everyone should be aiming for the same level of competition. And 3 units at 2000 points isn't exactly competitive, but it would be a good 2k for my future imperial force.

And that's the other thing I'm thinking about. As much as I'm interested in other xenos, Tau and Eldar aren't what I want right now, mainly due to their age. I think the 6th edition books will be great improvements, and the models should get a nice reboot. And I don't find the Orks all that exciting.

I've got a paint and basing scheme worked out for my Space Marine chapter, and I've yet to buy a single model. It's going to be a massive and most likely costly endeavor, but it's sort of my "Somewhere over the rainbow" project. It'll happen.

Someday.

Till we see that day, however, I'm faced with some choices. Begin Necrons, Grey Knights, or Space Marines? Or just build up the armies I already have?

Decisions, decisions.

Scrapping Posts

So, I've had a few posts planned. Even a few partially written.

I couldn't bring myself to do a book review of Ludlum's The Holcroft Covenant. It was pretty bland, and it took me way too long just to slog through the mother. And I think it was less than 500 pages. Not at all what I was expecting from him.

My posts on my D&D campaign are stillborn when I try to write them. I just need to figure out HOW I want to present them, and then have time to do that. Because I would like to post that at some point.

I wrote up an article last night about the competitive/non-competitive debate. Essentially, the gist was that the non-competitive crowd is losing because they are too disrespectful of their fellow hobbyists. Only, I took a look at that today, and I come across as a whiny brat.

Sigh.

Everything is in a state of flux right now. So I'm sort of just powering through and seeing where I am once things calm down. Is this what being an adult feels like? Blugh.

On the bright side, the new Necrons look awesome! I'm tempted to put a 'cron army on my Christmas list.

Modeling Crew on My Raiders?

I've been considering how best to model the crew of The Kabal of the Vashta Nerada's* transports. Just throwing some thoughts into the aether, seeing if anything catches.

From GW's Website, without permission

The raider (and ravager) sprues come with a number of Kabalites, meant to be stationed on the vehicle itself. But is that how I want to use them? After all, they could make valuable contributions to their Archon's cause if inducted into the infantry forces.

See, I probably want a steersman (the dude at the aft) for all my raiders. But what about the gunner? Or the passengers?

As above

I'm NOT including the gunner in my first two venoms. I'm going to use some cabling from Dragon Forge in order to hook up the splinter cannon to the craft itself, so that the pilots are controlling it. Why? Well, I don't really use Wyches. The only Cult-themed units in my army are Reaver-derived (i.e., Reavers, Fighter, Bomber), and adding Wyches there would really screw up my aesthetic.

So, I've established a gunner-less precedent. But what about my raiders? I don't like the cabling idea so much for the dark lances, but I'm not crazy about adding a gunner that restricts how I can move the turret and could be used to flesh out my kabalite troops!

So what does the internet think rolling (skimming?) without a gunner is a good idea? What do people think of the minimal-crew aesthetic?

As I'm writing this, I'm having other ideas as well. Could a Sslyth work as a pilot? Does anyone with the model know if it would even fit? How would I model an AI** flying a raider? There are a lot of options for Raider and Ravager pilots that I think would be great ways to customize.


*Bonus points to whoever recognizes who I shamelessly stole that from.
**Surely the Dark Kin have no proscription against Abominable Intelligence!

Dreadfleet: Why should I care?

So, GW is releasing Dreadfleet.

Well, that's... cool?

I don't play fantasy, because the world doesn't excite me as much as the Grimdark does, and I just don't have the assets to invest in both. (Hell, I don't even have the assets to invest in one, right now.) I can't use the pieces as is, nor do they look like promising conversion parts. So, I ask again, why should I care? The game is over $100, so should I shell out that kind of cash for something I'm indifferent too, that has NO crossover potential to anything I care about?

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the fantasy die-hards out there are squeeing with joy. But this isn't BFG, which was supposed to be a line in its own right. It's a limited release board game. There's NO future support coming for it. My best guess is that it's some sort of grab for attention for Fantasy, just like Storm of Magic.

But Games Workshop hasn't given me a reason to care.

I don't really get it.

The Truth is Out There: The TRUE Allegiances of the Space Marines

Every good Imperial citizen knows that the Space Marines are the Emperor’s Angels of Death. But what most don’t suspect, even inside the Inquisition, is that the true master of the Space Marines is not the beloved God-Emperor. Terrifyingly, many of humanity’s protectors have fallen prey to the wickedness of xenos and the fell taint of Chaos.

For example, the Grey Knights, the super-secret awesome-incarnate chapter of Space Marines, who do battle against the foul warpspawn, are CLEARLY in the service of the Eldar. Why, that’s preposterous, you say! Sadly, ‘tis true, dear reader. One need only look at the incident aboard the craftworld Malan’tai. After the Grey Knights purged the foul daemons from the vessel, did they procure the psycho-active soulstones for the good of humanity? Or did they return the cursed artifacts to the Eldar? Truly, the conspiracy runs deep indeed.

            Even the beloved Ultramarines are not to be trusted. After they were completely wiped out by Hive Fleet Behemoth at Ultramar, the Hive Mind captured the barely surviving body of Marneus Calgar and turned him into a genestealer. Hive Fleet Behemoth then flew into a sun, so that the “Ultramarines” would live on to spread the infestation from within humanity. How else do we “explain away” that Calgar, the spiritual liege of all Astartes and keeper of the Codex, would allow a NON-codex organization to form within his own chapter? The only rational explanation is that the Hive Mind wanted to defray suspicion, and so decided to “start” an “anti-Tyranid” “group” within the “Ultramarines.”

Behold The Lord of Ultramar on his throne of LIES!

            Known to many scholars in our honored Imperium is the incident on Gehenna. The Blood Angels, led by Lord Dante himself, were doing battle with the Necrons. That is, until Marneus Calgar led a Hive Fleet to wipe him out! Then, Lord Dante showed his true colors, took command of his loyal Necron servants, and proceeded to send Calgar crying back to Macragge. Surely it has not escaped your notice, dear reader, that Dante and Deceiver both start with the letter D!? Such a thing can surely be no coincidence—they are one and the same!

            I could go on—how the Dark Angels fell to Chaos, and Cipher and his "Forsaken," as they call themselves, are desperately trying to warn Terra of the Lion’s betrayal. Of how the Black Templars may or may not be the most successful Ork WAAAGH in the history of the galaxy, masquerading as an endless human crusade. But I think that all that is pretty much self evident, now that I’ve shed light on the fact that the defenders of man…

[PAUSE]

…may not be who they seem….

In Defense of the Sisters

Let me come right out and say that I’m not a huge fan of the new Sisters of Battle White Dwarf codex. It has its share of problems, and doesn’t succeed at anything that has made 5^th edition awesome in terms of army-building. It is not the awesomeness incarnate that is Phil Kelly’s Dark Eldar, which in my opinion should be the golden standard and critical benchmark by which all other books are judged. However, there are some choices in design that I think are reasonably correct, which have received no small amount of flak from the internet.

I’ve heard some whining about the new points costs of the basic Sisters themselves. I’m afraid I must disagree with the Pink Master. 12 points a model is perfectly appropriate, people! IG Veterans are 10 points with a 4+ armor save, and the sisters have a 3+, acts of faith, and increased leadership. They lack the toughness and strength of marines, and so they are 4 points less.  They should not be 9 or 10 points. This wouldn’t balance with Dark Eldar or Imperial Guard. It would drive the points of less costly units (ork boys, guardsmen, DE warriors) down to absurdly low levels over the long run, and throw off game balance in the short.

Another thing which has attracted the internet’s ire is the nerf to the Immolator. No fire point? No longer fast? GOOD! From a fluff perspective, they shouldn’t have either of them. The Immolator is a modified razorback, a variant of the rhino chassis with troop capacity and a main gun. It doesn’t have a baal engine. It doesn’t have a sunroof. The Mechanicum would be all over it if it did, and then BAM! Every rhino in the game is fast, and every razorback has firing points. You know, just so Grey Hunters can fire their meltaguns from inside their armored boxes. I will concede there are points issues with the current iteration of the immolator, but that’s a different story.

Oh, and eviscerators? A S6 chainfist is good, or at least not terrible. At least the tyranid player in me says so, so I guess that’s a result of busting tanks with my trygon. I’m not sure if it’s worth the points (because I forget how much it costs right now…) but I’m not willing to dismiss it out of hand. The jury is still out.

The Sisters ‘dex has problems, yes, and maybe even more than plague a normal codex. But there are the real problems, and there are the things people kvetch about. Now stop kvetching, and get to work making the codex good. At least till we get a full book.

A bit of painting and storyboarding (and Ben Drowned)

Spent an hour today doing a bit of painting--nothing fancy, just painting flesh-tones on hormagaunts (I use Dheneb Stone). I'll do the carapace next (Dark Angels Green) later, along with some detail work, washes. etc. I think I'm doing orange or orange/black CCW symbiotes, but I'm not sure. I still need to figure that out. But hey, I'm not doing any tournaments any time soon, and I have no compunction about playing with unpainted models. Not that I'm planning on playing anytime soon, either, lol.

I had an idea for a new book today, with a tentative title of "The 5th Contact Saga." I know how the story will be told, I know why it's being told, but I'm not sure what the story is yet. I was hoping to get some writing done after work, but I sat down with my computer, and I realized I didn't know where I was going! Slightly problematic.

I also found the Ben Drowned ARG via TVTropes today. That is some creepy shit, right there. Apparently the ARG (Alternate Reality Game) is on hiatus right now, so I'll need to check back there every now and again.

There will be an A Dance With Dragons review coming up soon. It was an excellent book--to any who have not read A Song of Ice and Fire, I highly recommend it!

A recent game of Apocalypse--Thoughts and Conclusions

The other night, I had a big game with a bunch of my buddies. We usually try to get in a big one with everyone while I'm in town, but this one was a little bigger than usual. There was a little bit in excess of 17000 points per side, I believe. On the other side of the table were IG, Tau, and Blood Angels. On my side were Chaos Space Marines, Daemons, and Tyranids & DE (me).

We set up in pitched battle, 24 inches away, with a table on either side of the main one. Chaos, 'nids, and DE deploy on the front line, while BA deployed across from the 'nids, and Tau and IG deployed in depth throughout their own table.

We were soundly thrashed.

There were a few problems that I faced with Dark Eldar and Nids. Some of it was due to my list--my friends usually don't use flyers, and the Tau player (not someone I usually play with) brought 3. The BA player used a formation that turned 3 Stormravens into flyers. Tyranids have no good defense against flyers using the current Apoc rules, which screwed us over to some degree. But I could've proxied Tyrannofexes, so I can't really complain.

Something more important, of note for all Apocalypse games, is however, board size. Large boards (more than 2x normal size, near as I can tell) take away large advantages for both. First, the Tyranid.

I simply ran everything I had, about 2000 points of normal tyranids plus a Scythed Hierodule. My force was concentrated into one side of the board, across from a blood angels column and some miscellaneous guardsmen. They were deployed back, towards the edge of the main table. And I found that I really struggled to reach them. Tyranid lack the mobility to advance on a board of Apocalypse scale.

Next, the Dark Eldar. Our main advantage is our mobility. When we can cross the board in a turn, we do well. When that merely brings us into the teeth of the enemy guns, we do less favorably.

And that brings us to the crux of the matter. USE TERRAIN! Lots of TERRAIN!!! We skimped on it because it would clog up deployment, and daemons would have trouble deep striking. Tyranids and Dark Eldar need terrain when facing an Apocalyptic gunline from Tau or IG. There is no way to make it across a table and a half with paper planes or footslogging monsters without cover and such to utilize.

My two cents, not well edited or thought through. A bit of tl;dr word vomit.

Super 8, Game of Thrones, and some 40k

Super 8 is a great movie. I have a hard time finding things that I did not like about the film. The child actors were excellent, the writing was superb, and I enjoyed the direction. J.J. Abrams must have a soft spot in his heart for monster flicks, but after Super 8 and Cloverfield, I have to say he's just about the best person to make them.

I consider A Song of Ice and Fire to be just about the best fantasy series written--certainly the best modern fantasy. After having a passionate love for years for David Eddings' work, this is hard to admit, but I believe it's so. Over the past couple of days, I've finally been able to catch up on the Game of Thrones HBO adaptation. I must say, I'm impressed. They stick very close to the original story, the acting is excellent, and they do a phenomenal job of visualizing Martin's universe. I cannot wait to see them bring even more to life in Season 2.

On a related note, Dance with Dragons should be out soon, and that will definitely getting a book review!

I got in a game of 40k with some of my buddies. It was a 1v1v1 with me as Tyranids, one friend as CSM and the other as Daemons. Tyranids and CSM deployed pitched battle, and daemons just dropped in as they are wont to do. We were just screwing around, no objectives or keeping track of KP, just playing for last man standing (which was me :) ). There were a few fun moments--I had a heroic termagant, who survived the destruction of his brood and all around him, charging him into battle with Abaddon and his Terminator bodyguard (along with two hive tyrants, two tyrant guard, a trygon, a tervigon--chaos never even had a chance to swing), and who was charged by a demon prince specifically to spite me. Needless to say, I had to table the offending player for his insolence. All in all, it was a nice beer and pretzels game, and a good time was had by all, as far as I know.

The lightning storm is threatening to cut my power again, so I'm going to post this without any more description of the game or the movie as I had planned.

From a hotel in Sydney...

Not much to update on for now, but I thought I'd throw something down.

Well, it appears that the new SoB 'dex is truely in a White Dwarf. I hope it doesn't suck, because for some odd reason, I've always like the Sisters. I've never even seen them on the tabletop, but the idea of SO MUCH FIRE, in addition to Nuns with Guns... I dunno, it amuses me. I hope they still have lots of fire. Not to mention I enjoy when Games Workshop puts out quality product.

At some point, I may do recaps in a story form of the D&D campaign I'm running. (Good lord, I'm such a dork!) I want to finish Chapter 2, and that will happen when we get together at school again. I also need my player's permission. If I get bored, I may decide to start writing out Chapter 1 before then.

That's all for now. I expect the banality of my posts to lessen somewhat once I'm home, and have access to all of my hobby stuff.

My first book review is on its way. As soon as I finish the book.

The Visions of a Madman

I have a few long-term projects I'm working on. Some are inhibited by time, some by space, and some by money. Some are going forward, and some may never come to fruition. So, here's my little to-do list. For Hobby:

• Finish my Tyranid Army. 
• I'm right about at 2k points, where I want to be, but I have a handful of minis left to buy, and only about 10-12 termagants completely painted, with no basing finished. (BTW, if anyone knows how to base a mini so it looks like it's in a wheat field, throw something in the comments!)
• Build up my Dark Eldar force.
• I still have a long way to go on this one. I have to finish of my 1.5k force, and then buy my way up to Apocalypse strength. Which means more triples of everything, since my Kabal runs on principles of 3. When IA12 or 13 has Dark Eldar, I'll be very happy, though my wallet won't be. 
• Space Marines.
• Oh, Lordy. My Space Marine Chapter has fluff, a paint scheme, but no models. One day I'll start buying them. But it'll be an Apocalypse-sized force, with playable armies for all the Space Marine Codices (not CSM or GK, though. They are too aesthetically different.) That may branch into an entire Imperial force, if I like the Sisters.
• For these guys, I also want to build a scale model of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne:



Now imagine it with battle damage!


• Yep, I'm an idiot! That's gonna be a while coming, though.

Generically, I also have a few other to-dos.

• My Secret Project. 
• It's writing. But other than that, I'm not allowing myself to say, only a few select people have been informed of this.
• My Book Series.
• I'm excited about this again. Maybe I'll try and start actually writing it once the SP is done (for better or worse). Right now I'm just mentally story-boarding.
• Mass Effect!
• Alright, with Mass Effect 3 coming out, a good portion of my time will be devoted to getting my Shepard's backstory perfect. I play BioWare for the story, and I love the Mass Effect series. It should be awesome.

Oh, and I have to catch up with friends and family for the short time I'm in Chicago, move into my apartment in Texas, start work, spend time with Girlfriend, and eat, sleep, and bathe. 

We'll see how all this goes, won't we?