Hey everyone. Lately I've really been thinking of ways to get some mobility for the troops in my Chaos Space Marine army. Mobility for us can be a real problem as we have no way of making our bikes, or jump infantry troops, unlike our loyalist brethren. This makes claiming backfield objectives much harder, as you get to try and trek up the board, getting lit up by enemy fire the whole way. By the time you get there (if you even do), you're unlikely to have much left push a unit off the objective, or hold it against even a stiff breeze that decides it wants you gone. So, what do we have for options?
Well we have the old reliable Rhino. A super cheap troop carrier designed to get your guys where they need to go in a hurry, and offer them a measure of safety in the meantime. This is the theory anyways, and it worked great in 5th edition. However, since the change to 6th has come along, our Rhinos have become, more often than not, nothing more than an easy kill for first blood for our opponents. One option is to keep all your troops that are in Rhinos in reserve, and come in turn two (hopefully) after first blood is already off the table. The only problem here is reliability. If you can't get your reserves to work for you, your Rhinos may not come in until turn 3 or 4, and by then it's going to be hard to get to where you need to go in time anyways, so now all those points for the squads are wasted.
Another option, and to me a better one, is to make sure that you try and play with some LoS blocking terrain, and as much cover as you can. Your opponent can't kill what they can't see, and even if you have to deploy in view, a ruin can do wonders for your first turn survivability. Add in a 50% chance for night fighting, and you've got a decent chance of at least surviving the first turn intact, allowing you to boost up and get moving.
The third option that I've been toying with is more one of target saturation. Try and put as many scary units on the table as possible. Things you're opponent will both have to deal with immediately and that also won't die like a chump. Daemon Princes are great for this, and thinks like Las Predators can usually soak a lot of fire while being a major threat to MCs, elite infantry, and of course vehicles. Defilers are hit and miss in this role. The battlecannon can be a threat to certain armies, but armour 12 isn't anything to write home about.
Our next option for mobility is quite expensive, but more often than not will get the job done. Landraiders. These guys are usually too pricy for my tastes, but with the way my meta has been lately, the idea of loading them up with some troops and just cruising forwards has become more and more appealing to me lately. My main issues with them come from their lack of firing points, and our strange absence of any varient patterns whatsoever. What gives? Has the Dark Mechanicum never made some weird Daemon Landraider? Have we never stolen ourselves a Crusader? Oh well, I suppose that's just how it is.
So what should we take in our Raiders or Rhinos?
Khorne Berzerkers in raiders have served me well, particularly if you put 'em with Kharn, or a beatstick Lord. You can sort of point them at whatever you want to get hurt and let them loose, and usually they'll get the job done quick. They're real problem is that once you cleared an objective, they're not so great at holding it. The enemy can just sit there and shoot them down while they sit there and rage impotently, firing their measly pistols in frustration.
Plague Marines seem like the best choice, as they'll beat up basically any other troop unit in the game, given time, and maybe a bit of luck. Their main problem is their price, which when you put in some special weapons, and a full squad, and add that to a Landraider, is going to be very expensive. Still, I think they're your best option.
Noise Marines, I don't think would perform well in this role. They would have to get quite close in order to fire their guns effectively, and they're nothing special in assault. Their main advantage is once they get on an objective they can sit there and fire away with Blastmasters and any other sonic weapons you may have brought to the party, and if you give them the Icon of Excess, they can be pretty tough too. Still, I think keeping them back to defend your own objectives is a better role.
Thousand Sons are similar to Noise Marines in that they're a more shooty unit more suited to sit in the back or midfield and blast away. I can see potential cruising around into a good position and then bailing out to pump some AP 3 into some marines who thought they would be safe behind cover, but it seems pretty circumstantial to me.
And finally we get to the lowly Chaos Space Marines. I've been having a hard time making these guys work effectively in smaller 5 - 10 man units. They're just too easy to kill. Even with the Mark of Nurgle or an Icon of Excess I find that they don't have the damage output to really do enough damage to whatever they were shooting to put it down, or at least cripple it enough that it can't hurt you. Maybe taking a whole bunch of squads of them and swarming opponents could work, but it seems like a whole lot of investment, and it heavily hinges on your opponent positioning his units in a way to make this possible. Mark of Khorne and with the Icon of Rage in a Landraider seems to work ok, but at that point you may as well just take Berzerkers for the extra WS. I don't know. Just not sold on them yet.
Overall, I think I like the idea of Landraiders a bit better, especially because people aren't seeming to bring as much melta these days. What do you guys think?
Thursday 31 October 2013
Malifaux Bat Rep - Guild v.s. Neverborn
When Pandora attempts to smuggle an agent of woe into the heart of
Malifaux's slums, only one woman stands to thwart her plans...
This was my first ever game of Malifaux, which I played against my friend Brennan's Neverborn. It was a lot of fun, and while there were some mistakes made, and it took us a little bit to get a grasp on how the game plays, I think it went fairly well.
The Crews
I was playing my Guild, led by Lady Justice and the Judge against Brennan's Pandora led crew. We decided to play a 45 point game, as we both wanted to use lots of our models that we'd been painting for the last month or so. The Strategy was an Escort Mission with Brennan's Crew being the attacker and me defending. I took the Distract (unrevealed) and Murder Protege (Revealed to be against Teddy) schemes, while he took the Assassinate and Murder Protege (Revealed to be against the Judge) schemes.
The Guild
- Lady Justice with the Thalarian Stone upgrade - 1 SS
- The Judge with the Vengeance Bullet upgrade - 10 SS
- 3 Death Marshals - 18 SS
- Guild Austringer - 6 SS
- 2 Guild Riflemen (Using the old cards. We didn't yet realize that there were playtest rules) - 8 SS
Total: 43 SS
I built a pretty shooty crew hoping to be able to put some damage on his Teddy before he could really get in and do much damage. I also had the benefit of being able to target him quite a while before he would get close enough to be hitting me with all his damaging pulse effects. I also had a couple points left over, which coupled with Justice's cache of 4 gave me 6 stones to keep her out of trouble with.
The Neverborn
- Pandora with the Cry for Me upgrade - 2 SS
- Candy with the Fear Given Form upgrade - 10 SS
- Teddy - 11SS
- Baby Kade - 7 SS
- 3 Sorrows - 15 SS
Total: 45 SS
I didn't know much about Pandora or her minions, but from what I gathered from Brennan I was going to be making a lot of Wp Duals. Good thing most of my guys have at least 6 Wp. The main thing I was worried about was the Teddy. Given the chance, I could see it ripping through my crew.
The Game
We deployed using the table corner deployment style. Unfourtunately I didn't really get a clear picture of the table, but from later pictures you can pretty much devine the set up. There was a large steampunk neighbourhood terrain piece a bit to the top (from my perspective) and center-left of the board, a forest to the right of it, some rocks farther up from the forest and a tower-type building in the bottom right. I deployed in the bottom right while he went to the top left.
Turn 1
We flipped for initiative and I lost, so he began by double moving Teddy directly towards my Crew. I responded by double moving my Austringer up into the tower of the building in order to get a good vantage point. He activated Pandora next and double moved her up behind Teddy, and I followed by double moving a Death Marshal up along the right hand side of the forest. He next activated Baby Kade and used him to Move the Escort into the town before moving Kade up behind him, and I countered by moving my next Marshal behind the first one, hoping to split his force between my marshals and the Escort.
He next double moved Candy behind the teddy, and as you may have guessed I moved my last Marshal up behind the other two. His first Sorrow moved toward his group sitting in the middle of the board, and I started to move my riflemen in front of the Austringer's building. His next Sorrow and my second Riflemen did likewise, and his last Sorrow went towards the Escort. I double moved Lady Justice up to the forest, but not into it, waiting to support the Marshals, as it appeared that Teddy would be coming for them first. Judge moved to the Far left past where the Riflemen were standing, hoping to intercept the Escort. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture at the end of the first turn, as I'm still not totally used to doing them.
Turn 2
We reshuffled, discarded and drew for initiative and once again he went first. This time he decided to activate Pandora first, and she again moved up. She cast Incite on Lady Justice, but I managed to resist it, and Self harm on one of my Death Marshals, which went through, causing him to shoot himself for 3 wounds. Checking my range, and figuring that Teddy would not be able to reach me this turn through the forest (which we had decided was severe and soft cover), and so I decided to shoot at him twice. My wounded Death Marshal took careful aim and fired his Peacebringer through the foliage, connecting solidly the first time, and getting a minor hit the second, causing a total of 5 wounds!
Candy moved up behind Teddy and used her Goody basket to heal the beast for 2, before attempting to cast Wail on one of my Death Marshals, but his Iron willpower prevented it. I activated my next Marshal and he fired on Teddy as well. This time cover saved the monster somewhat, and he only took another minor wound, to put it back to where it was before its little snack. His first sorrow attempted to use Misery loves company, and on his second attempt managed to teleport himself into contact with Candy. His Teddy still standing, and with apparently no way to get into combat this turn, my Austringer attempted to send his Raptor after the creature. Unfortunately, after seeing the terrifying beast, the bird refused to go, leaving the Austringer to look on in frustration.
His first sorrow attempted to use Misery loves company, and on his second attempt managed to teleport himself into contact with Candy. My Last Marshal took his two shots at the Teddy, but once again I only managed to do 2 wounds to it.
It was here that my opponent realized, much to my dismay that Baby Kade had some very helpful abilities. The young child, longing for his old pal warped himself to the teddy's side and pushed the bear towards my Death Marshals. In desperation, the last Marshal fired two shots at the towering creature barreling through the woods, but only managed to do a couple more wounds to it. Going with his momentum, Teddy Dove towards the Wounded Death Marshal and though the zombie hunter managed to dodge the creature's first claw, the second caught his jacket and with a motion the Teddy scooped up the helpless Marshal and tossed him into hist mouth, healing 3 more damage. His Rage not sated, the Teddy swung it's massive paw at one of the other Death Marshals, and though he didn't get a solid hit, the Marshal still took 3 wounds.
Well that went pretty badly. Luckily, in his eagerness to reach the Death Marshals, Brennan had moved his Teddy a little to close to Lady Justice. Enraged by the sight of one of her elite soldiers being devoured like a piece of jerked meat, the lady strode purposefully into the forest towards the nightmarish Teddy Bear. Swinging her Greatsword in a glittering arc, she slashed into the creature's gut, fluff and gore from the thoroughly chewed Death Marshal spilling into the air, her attack dealing a punishing 6 wounds! Her next swing easily decapitated the beast, spraying gory stuffing into the air before it toppled to the ground.
Realizing that with Kade away from the Escort, he had no one to move it forward, Brennan attempted to teleport one of his sorrows into contact with the Escort and failed twice! Truly the fates had turned against the Neverborn. My first Rifleman moved up fired a shot at the Sorrow next to Candy, and did 1 wound to the spectre and even managed to ricochet the shot into Candy for a wound. Activating his last Sorrow, he again attempted to cast Misery Loves Company and this time succeeded on his second attempt.
With his crew spent for the turn, I attempted to fire my remaining rifleman into Pandora, but he was unable to hit the enemy master. Fearing retribution for the death of Teddy, I decided to move Judge back, to avoid the wrath of Brennan's crew.
Turn 3
Once again we flip for initiative and Brennan wins. He begins by activating Pandora, who moves into the forest to attempt to cast some spells on Lady Justice. Incite goes off, but her other spells all fail. I activate Lady Justice and mover her towards Pandora. Lady Justice's Greatsword makes short work of the Neverborn master, and Pandora drops.
Desperate to kill Lady Justice and end her rampage, Candy moves forwards and tries to cast some spells at Justice, but again, fails to do any damage. I decide to activate my Austringer, and he sends his Raptor to pester Candy, but unfortunately he fails to do any damage. Brennan next activates one of his sorrows who moves over to attack Lady Justice. The fates were not with him though, and he misses, with Lady Justice getting her Riposte trigger, dropping him down to 3 wounds. I decide that now is a good time to activate the nearest Death Marshal who charges the Sorrow and manages to finish it off.
Brennan next activates his Sorrow over by the buildings and this time succeeds on moving it over to the Escort, and uses its other action to push it forward over the center line. My last Death Marshal shoots at the other Sorrow, but shooting through the forest yields no results. Baby Kade moves himself forwards in an effort to get close enough to fight Lady Justice but doesn't quite make it. The Judge moves forwards towards the Escort, and tries to wound it, but misses. Brennan's last Sorrow activates and moves towards my wounded Death Marshal and attacks, dealing a wound. With him out of Range, both my Riflemen attempt to shoot at the Escort and one manages to wound it a bit.
Turn 4
We flip for initiative and this time I win! I start by activating my wounded Death Marshal who takes a wound from the sorrow. Luckily, he manages to kill the phantasm with his attacks. Brennan responds by charging Baby Kade at LJ, and he manages to do some damage. I decide to burn a few Soulstones, and so I only take 5 wounds total. I activate Lady Justice, who apparently has no problem with striking down an infant with her greatsword. She attacks and kills Baby Kade. Candy activates and attempts to cast some spells at Lady Justice, and she takes a couple more wounds.
I decide to fire my Rifleman into the escort and manage to do a few more wounds to it. Brennan activates his last sorrow who moves forwards and pushes the escort forwards. As the Sorrow was his last remaining model, I activate my remaining Rifleman who does a bit more damage to the Escort followed by the Judge, who kills it.
At this point we decided to call the game, as the Escort was dead, and he had no real way of dealing with Lady Justice and Judge with his two remaining models. With the Escort dead, and Brennan failing to assassinate Lady Justice and murder Judge, the only points scored were from me killing Teddy.
Total Tally
Guild - 3
Neverborn - 0
Post-Game Thoughts
Well that was a really fun game, and a great first experience. A note, we realized in around turn three that we had been doing Self-Harm and Self Loathing wrong. This could have changed the game, as my crew may have taken significantly more damage.
I feel that my deployment worked out fairly well, though in retrospect I think I maybe should have moved the judge more aggressively towards the Escort, and maybe given up some shooting with the Riflemen, and instead moved them with Judge. This would have allowed me to possibly gain control of the main scheme, and maybe force him to divide his force, which benefits greatly by staying together.
I also think that Brennan should have clustered up around the Escort, so that I would have to deal with all of his guys at once, and I wouldn't have been able to stall him behind the forest so much.
Another note. Brennan's fate flips really were not in his favour. Almost every Sorrow that attempted to use Misery Loves Company had to either cheat, try again, or both, and most of his spells didn't go off, or I managed to resist them. This was partly a bad match-up, as most of my crew has decent Wp, but his fate really wasn't helping him out.
Overall I'm really enjoying the system so far, particularly activating a model at a time, and having a control hand to help you control when you get bad flips somewhat. I can see mastering when to cheat or use soulstones as being a very important element to your success in this game.
That about wraps it up. Hopefully for the next report I will remember to take more pictures, and I'll learn to right better notes so that it doesn't take me so long to write the report! Any comments are much appreciated, and bringing to my attention any rules mistakes beyond what I mentioned would be extremely helpful! Thanks for reading!
This was my first ever game of Malifaux, which I played against my friend Brennan's Neverborn. It was a lot of fun, and while there were some mistakes made, and it took us a little bit to get a grasp on how the game plays, I think it went fairly well.
The Crews
I was playing my Guild, led by Lady Justice and the Judge against Brennan's Pandora led crew. We decided to play a 45 point game, as we both wanted to use lots of our models that we'd been painting for the last month or so. The Strategy was an Escort Mission with Brennan's Crew being the attacker and me defending. I took the Distract (unrevealed) and Murder Protege (Revealed to be against Teddy) schemes, while he took the Assassinate and Murder Protege (Revealed to be against the Judge) schemes.
The Guild
- Lady Justice with the Thalarian Stone upgrade - 1 SS
- The Judge with the Vengeance Bullet upgrade - 10 SS
- 3 Death Marshals - 18 SS
- Guild Austringer - 6 SS
- 2 Guild Riflemen (Using the old cards. We didn't yet realize that there were playtest rules) - 8 SS
Total: 43 SS
I built a pretty shooty crew hoping to be able to put some damage on his Teddy before he could really get in and do much damage. I also had the benefit of being able to target him quite a while before he would get close enough to be hitting me with all his damaging pulse effects. I also had a couple points left over, which coupled with Justice's cache of 4 gave me 6 stones to keep her out of trouble with.
The Neverborn
- Pandora with the Cry for Me upgrade - 2 SS
- Candy with the Fear Given Form upgrade - 10 SS
- Teddy - 11SS
- Baby Kade - 7 SS
- 3 Sorrows - 15 SS
Total: 45 SS
I didn't know much about Pandora or her minions, but from what I gathered from Brennan I was going to be making a lot of Wp Duals. Good thing most of my guys have at least 6 Wp. The main thing I was worried about was the Teddy. Given the chance, I could see it ripping through my crew.
The Game
We deployed using the table corner deployment style. Unfourtunately I didn't really get a clear picture of the table, but from later pictures you can pretty much devine the set up. There was a large steampunk neighbourhood terrain piece a bit to the top (from my perspective) and center-left of the board, a forest to the right of it, some rocks farther up from the forest and a tower-type building in the bottom right. I deployed in the bottom right while he went to the top left.
 |
| My deployment, with the Austringer hidden behind the building |
 |
| Brennan's deployment minus Baby Kade, who is with the Escort behind the town |
We flipped for initiative and I lost, so he began by double moving Teddy directly towards my Crew. I responded by double moving my Austringer up into the tower of the building in order to get a good vantage point. He activated Pandora next and double moved her up behind Teddy, and I followed by double moving a Death Marshal up along the right hand side of the forest. He next activated Baby Kade and used him to Move the Escort into the town before moving Kade up behind him, and I countered by moving my next Marshal behind the first one, hoping to split his force between my marshals and the Escort.
He next double moved Candy behind the teddy, and as you may have guessed I moved my last Marshal up behind the other two. His first Sorrow moved toward his group sitting in the middle of the board, and I started to move my riflemen in front of the Austringer's building. His next Sorrow and my second Riflemen did likewise, and his last Sorrow went towards the Escort. I double moved Lady Justice up to the forest, but not into it, waiting to support the Marshals, as it appeared that Teddy would be coming for them first. Judge moved to the Far left past where the Riflemen were standing, hoping to intercept the Escort. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture at the end of the first turn, as I'm still not totally used to doing them.
Turn 2
We reshuffled, discarded and drew for initiative and once again he went first. This time he decided to activate Pandora first, and she again moved up. She cast Incite on Lady Justice, but I managed to resist it, and Self harm on one of my Death Marshals, which went through, causing him to shoot himself for 3 wounds. Checking my range, and figuring that Teddy would not be able to reach me this turn through the forest (which we had decided was severe and soft cover), and so I decided to shoot at him twice. My wounded Death Marshal took careful aim and fired his Peacebringer through the foliage, connecting solidly the first time, and getting a minor hit the second, causing a total of 5 wounds!
Candy moved up behind Teddy and used her Goody basket to heal the beast for 2, before attempting to cast Wail on one of my Death Marshals, but his Iron willpower prevented it. I activated my next Marshal and he fired on Teddy as well. This time cover saved the monster somewhat, and he only took another minor wound, to put it back to where it was before its little snack. His first sorrow attempted to use Misery loves company, and on his second attempt managed to teleport himself into contact with Candy. His Teddy still standing, and with apparently no way to get into combat this turn, my Austringer attempted to send his Raptor after the creature. Unfortunately, after seeing the terrifying beast, the bird refused to go, leaving the Austringer to look on in frustration.
His first sorrow attempted to use Misery loves company, and on his second attempt managed to teleport himself into contact with Candy. My Last Marshal took his two shots at the Teddy, but once again I only managed to do 2 wounds to it.
It was here that my opponent realized, much to my dismay that Baby Kade had some very helpful abilities. The young child, longing for his old pal warped himself to the teddy's side and pushed the bear towards my Death Marshals. In desperation, the last Marshal fired two shots at the towering creature barreling through the woods, but only managed to do a couple more wounds to it. Going with his momentum, Teddy Dove towards the Wounded Death Marshal and though the zombie hunter managed to dodge the creature's first claw, the second caught his jacket and with a motion the Teddy scooped up the helpless Marshal and tossed him into hist mouth, healing 3 more damage. His Rage not sated, the Teddy swung it's massive paw at one of the other Death Marshals, and though he didn't get a solid hit, the Marshal still took 3 wounds.
Well that went pretty badly. Luckily, in his eagerness to reach the Death Marshals, Brennan had moved his Teddy a little to close to Lady Justice. Enraged by the sight of one of her elite soldiers being devoured like a piece of jerked meat, the lady strode purposefully into the forest towards the nightmarish Teddy Bear. Swinging her Greatsword in a glittering arc, she slashed into the creature's gut, fluff and gore from the thoroughly chewed Death Marshal spilling into the air, her attack dealing a punishing 6 wounds! Her next swing easily decapitated the beast, spraying gory stuffing into the air before it toppled to the ground.
 |
| The Fall of Teddy |
Realizing that with Kade away from the Escort, he had no one to move it forward, Brennan attempted to teleport one of his sorrows into contact with the Escort and failed twice! Truly the fates had turned against the Neverborn. My first Rifleman moved up fired a shot at the Sorrow next to Candy, and did 1 wound to the spectre and even managed to ricochet the shot into Candy for a wound. Activating his last Sorrow, he again attempted to cast Misery Loves Company and this time succeeded on his second attempt.
With his crew spent for the turn, I attempted to fire my remaining rifleman into Pandora, but he was unable to hit the enemy master. Fearing retribution for the death of Teddy, I decided to move Judge back, to avoid the wrath of Brennan's crew.
 |
| End of Turn Two |
Once again we flip for initiative and Brennan wins. He begins by activating Pandora, who moves into the forest to attempt to cast some spells on Lady Justice. Incite goes off, but her other spells all fail. I activate Lady Justice and mover her towards Pandora. Lady Justice's Greatsword makes short work of the Neverborn master, and Pandora drops.
Desperate to kill Lady Justice and end her rampage, Candy moves forwards and tries to cast some spells at Justice, but again, fails to do any damage. I decide to activate my Austringer, and he sends his Raptor to pester Candy, but unfortunately he fails to do any damage. Brennan next activates one of his sorrows who moves over to attack Lady Justice. The fates were not with him though, and he misses, with Lady Justice getting her Riposte trigger, dropping him down to 3 wounds. I decide that now is a good time to activate the nearest Death Marshal who charges the Sorrow and manages to finish it off.
Brennan next activates his Sorrow over by the buildings and this time succeeds on moving it over to the Escort, and uses its other action to push it forward over the center line. My last Death Marshal shoots at the other Sorrow, but shooting through the forest yields no results. Baby Kade moves himself forwards in an effort to get close enough to fight Lady Justice but doesn't quite make it. The Judge moves forwards towards the Escort, and tries to wound it, but misses. Brennan's last Sorrow activates and moves towards my wounded Death Marshal and attacks, dealing a wound. With him out of Range, both my Riflemen attempt to shoot at the Escort and one manages to wound it a bit.
 |
| End of Turn 3 - LJ Brings the Pain |
Turn 4
We flip for initiative and this time I win! I start by activating my wounded Death Marshal who takes a wound from the sorrow. Luckily, he manages to kill the phantasm with his attacks. Brennan responds by charging Baby Kade at LJ, and he manages to do some damage. I decide to burn a few Soulstones, and so I only take 5 wounds total. I activate Lady Justice, who apparently has no problem with striking down an infant with her greatsword. She attacks and kills Baby Kade. Candy activates and attempts to cast some spells at Lady Justice, and she takes a couple more wounds.
I decide to fire my Rifleman into the escort and manage to do a few more wounds to it. Brennan activates his last sorrow who moves forwards and pushes the escort forwards. As the Sorrow was his last remaining model, I activate my remaining Rifleman who does a bit more damage to the Escort followed by the Judge, who kills it.
 |
| Killing the Escort |
At this point we decided to call the game, as the Escort was dead, and he had no real way of dealing with Lady Justice and Judge with his two remaining models. With the Escort dead, and Brennan failing to assassinate Lady Justice and murder Judge, the only points scored were from me killing Teddy.
Total Tally
Guild - 3
Neverborn - 0
Post-Game Thoughts
Well that was a really fun game, and a great first experience. A note, we realized in around turn three that we had been doing Self-Harm and Self Loathing wrong. This could have changed the game, as my crew may have taken significantly more damage.
I feel that my deployment worked out fairly well, though in retrospect I think I maybe should have moved the judge more aggressively towards the Escort, and maybe given up some shooting with the Riflemen, and instead moved them with Judge. This would have allowed me to possibly gain control of the main scheme, and maybe force him to divide his force, which benefits greatly by staying together.
I also think that Brennan should have clustered up around the Escort, so that I would have to deal with all of his guys at once, and I wouldn't have been able to stall him behind the forest so much.
Another note. Brennan's fate flips really were not in his favour. Almost every Sorrow that attempted to use Misery Loves Company had to either cheat, try again, or both, and most of his spells didn't go off, or I managed to resist them. This was partly a bad match-up, as most of my crew has decent Wp, but his fate really wasn't helping him out.
Overall I'm really enjoying the system so far, particularly activating a model at a time, and having a control hand to help you control when you get bad flips somewhat. I can see mastering when to cheat or use soulstones as being a very important element to your success in this game.
That about wraps it up. Hopefully for the next report I will remember to take more pictures, and I'll learn to right better notes so that it doesn't take me so long to write the report! Any comments are much appreciated, and bringing to my attention any rules mistakes beyond what I mentioned would be extremely helpful! Thanks for reading!
Tuesday 22 October 2013
Eldar Rangers in 6th Edition
So one of the units that originally made me want to play Eldar were the Rangers. I always thought they had cool models, and their fluff was even better. I mean, who doesn't like badass snipers that can pick a spider from its web from 50 meters? Because of this, when I started my Eldar, I decided to go with Craftworld Alaitoc, and at the time we had the Craftworld Eldar supplement which boosted the army further (for those who don't know/remember, each ranger or pathfinder unit allowed you to roll on a chart which could allow you to send enemy units into reserve or get a free shooting attack before the game even started). However, since the latest codex hit, I've found myself having a hard time using them effectively, so what changed?
Well first of all, they got cheaper. Way cheaper. And while this is a good thing, its not without its drawbacks. They also lost most of their awesome special rules. Firstly, they lost the ability to be upgraded to Pathfinders unless you also take Illic Nightspear, a rather lackluster HQ. The Pathfinders you can take have shrouded and a rule that makes all of their shots precision shots, which while not bad, hardly justifies the huge cost to upgrade them in my opinion. They also lost their ability to make their weapons ap 2 with a to hit roll of 6 (or 5+ for pathfinders). This is a big deal when your primary targets were small elite squads and MCs. They did gain Battle Focus, but unless you're shooting with your pistols, this rule is basically useless to them.
So how should us Ranger lovers be using them? Well their role really hasn't changed. They still can be used to put some fear into MCs and smaller units like Terminators or combat-squaded units of marines, though I generally don't expect them to be doing all that much damage on their own. Where they really excel is in being a cheap scoring unit that can be fairly tough to shift off an objective in cover. Their low threat makes them an undesirable target for most enemy shooting and the fact that they're getting a 4+ cover save in forests and a 3+ in ruins or behind a defense line means that the enemy is going to have to either hit them with flame templates or other cover-ignoring weaponry, or devote a decent amount of firepower to kill them. Placing them in cover (something not overly difficult to do thanks to their infiltrate special rule) also gives them the added benefit of being harder to assault, so that's a plus as well.
Currently I have found myself bringing a unit of 10 rangers with a farseer behind a defence line with an Icarus Lascannon. I can place an objective with them and they'll be pretty safe with their 3+ cover save, as well as providing a good shroud for my Farseer who operates the gun, popping any flyers or reserves that come in, and giving guide and prescience to anything that needs it (usually Fire Prisms or Nightspinners). Units of 5 can work as well, but they don't tend to do very well if they're going after midfield or backfield objectives, as they're just too easy to kill. Better to use Jetbikes for that in my opinion.
So those are my thoughts on Rangers these days. How does the rest of the community feel about these guys?
Well first of all, they got cheaper. Way cheaper. And while this is a good thing, its not without its drawbacks. They also lost most of their awesome special rules. Firstly, they lost the ability to be upgraded to Pathfinders unless you also take Illic Nightspear, a rather lackluster HQ. The Pathfinders you can take have shrouded and a rule that makes all of their shots precision shots, which while not bad, hardly justifies the huge cost to upgrade them in my opinion. They also lost their ability to make their weapons ap 2 with a to hit roll of 6 (or 5+ for pathfinders). This is a big deal when your primary targets were small elite squads and MCs. They did gain Battle Focus, but unless you're shooting with your pistols, this rule is basically useless to them.
So how should us Ranger lovers be using them? Well their role really hasn't changed. They still can be used to put some fear into MCs and smaller units like Terminators or combat-squaded units of marines, though I generally don't expect them to be doing all that much damage on their own. Where they really excel is in being a cheap scoring unit that can be fairly tough to shift off an objective in cover. Their low threat makes them an undesirable target for most enemy shooting and the fact that they're getting a 4+ cover save in forests and a 3+ in ruins or behind a defense line means that the enemy is going to have to either hit them with flame templates or other cover-ignoring weaponry, or devote a decent amount of firepower to kill them. Placing them in cover (something not overly difficult to do thanks to their infiltrate special rule) also gives them the added benefit of being harder to assault, so that's a plus as well.
Currently I have found myself bringing a unit of 10 rangers with a farseer behind a defence line with an Icarus Lascannon. I can place an objective with them and they'll be pretty safe with their 3+ cover save, as well as providing a good shroud for my Farseer who operates the gun, popping any flyers or reserves that come in, and giving guide and prescience to anything that needs it (usually Fire Prisms or Nightspinners). Units of 5 can work as well, but they don't tend to do very well if they're going after midfield or backfield objectives, as they're just too easy to kill. Better to use Jetbikes for that in my opinion.
So those are my thoughts on Rangers these days. How does the rest of the community feel about these guys?
Tuesday 15 October 2013
Welcome!
Hello everyone and welcome to Way of the Dice. In this blog I'll be talking about Warhammer 40k, Malifaux, and possibly a little bit of D&D 3.5/Pathfinder. I hope to post lots of battle reports, list ideas and tactics for the armies I play (Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, and Orks for 40k, and Guild for Malifaux). Unfortunately I'm not the best of painters, so there is unlikely to be much in the way of painting tutorials, and due to me also being a fairly slow (and lets face it, unmotivated) painter there may be a unit or two in my battle reports that will be unpainted, and may go unpainted for awhile. If this turns you off then this may not be the blog for you.
First things first, I should probably give a bit of background about myself. I started playing Warhammer 40k about ten years ago at the tender age of twelve. My first army was Chaos Space Marines, back in the glory days of the 3.5 codex. I started with a group of about four other friends, only two of which still play today. After a few years with my CSM, I began to get bored of power armour and went looking for something different. I liked the idea of Eldar due to their relative "squishiness" compared to my traitor marines and thought that their way of war was pretty neat, so I ended up getting a codex and a few models for them.
Around this time my gaming friends and I started to get into playing D&D 3.5, and as a result 40k fell to the wayside. We would still occasionally do a bit of painting together or set up the occasional battle, but we never really knew the rules all that well to begin with, and so these went slow and often unfinished. This went on for about three or four years where I hardly looked at my warhammer at all.
One day I was cleaning up my room and I came across my codices, and remembered how cool the models and the fluff of the game were. That night I read through all the old stories (for the newer players, there used to be a lot of cool stories and stuff in the old books) and fluff and decided to get back into the game where I left off. I recruited as many of my friends as I could and we decided to get a game going in a few months time at our local game shop, in order to give everyone time to get acquainted with the new rules that had come out (4th had come and gone and I believe we were about halfway through 5th), and get any painting and stuff that we needed to do done.We ended up having a two on two battle. My Eldar and one of my friends Tau, against my two buddies' Dark Angels and Necrons. It was a good time, and we did a few more battles in the months to come, but by this time we were just graduating highschool and so two of my buddies went off to college, and as a result went on another haitus.
The Tau player and I continued to play fairly regularly and I began to play some games at the local shop against some people there, and one of the owners. Since then I've tried to get as many of my friends into the hobby as possible, to little avail for the most part, and as we moved into 6th edition have gotten more and more into the game. One of my old friends returned from college and I've managed to convince him to get back into the game, and one of my new friends has also caught the bug.
Recently my friends (the Tau Player and the New Friend) and I have started to get into Malifaux as well. I ended up getting the Blind Justice box (the one before the recent update to the models) and some Guild Guard, an Austringer and some Riflemen, while my group have gotten the Marcus box and The Dreamer box. We have yet to play a game but hopefully there will be one next weekend, and maybe a bat rep or two will follow those.
If you have any suggestions for things you would like to see, please feel free to leave a comment.
First things first, I should probably give a bit of background about myself. I started playing Warhammer 40k about ten years ago at the tender age of twelve. My first army was Chaos Space Marines, back in the glory days of the 3.5 codex. I started with a group of about four other friends, only two of which still play today. After a few years with my CSM, I began to get bored of power armour and went looking for something different. I liked the idea of Eldar due to their relative "squishiness" compared to my traitor marines and thought that their way of war was pretty neat, so I ended up getting a codex and a few models for them.
Around this time my gaming friends and I started to get into playing D&D 3.5, and as a result 40k fell to the wayside. We would still occasionally do a bit of painting together or set up the occasional battle, but we never really knew the rules all that well to begin with, and so these went slow and often unfinished. This went on for about three or four years where I hardly looked at my warhammer at all.
One day I was cleaning up my room and I came across my codices, and remembered how cool the models and the fluff of the game were. That night I read through all the old stories (for the newer players, there used to be a lot of cool stories and stuff in the old books) and fluff and decided to get back into the game where I left off. I recruited as many of my friends as I could and we decided to get a game going in a few months time at our local game shop, in order to give everyone time to get acquainted with the new rules that had come out (4th had come and gone and I believe we were about halfway through 5th), and get any painting and stuff that we needed to do done.We ended up having a two on two battle. My Eldar and one of my friends Tau, against my two buddies' Dark Angels and Necrons. It was a good time, and we did a few more battles in the months to come, but by this time we were just graduating highschool and so two of my buddies went off to college, and as a result went on another haitus.
The Tau player and I continued to play fairly regularly and I began to play some games at the local shop against some people there, and one of the owners. Since then I've tried to get as many of my friends into the hobby as possible, to little avail for the most part, and as we moved into 6th edition have gotten more and more into the game. One of my old friends returned from college and I've managed to convince him to get back into the game, and one of my new friends has also caught the bug.
Recently my friends (the Tau Player and the New Friend) and I have started to get into Malifaux as well. I ended up getting the Blind Justice box (the one before the recent update to the models) and some Guild Guard, an Austringer and some Riflemen, while my group have gotten the Marcus box and The Dreamer box. We have yet to play a game but hopefully there will be one next weekend, and maybe a bat rep or two will follow those.
If you have any suggestions for things you would like to see, please feel free to leave a comment.
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