Good news everyone

Don't call this a comeback. It's more of a rebrand...

I've invented a device that will cause you to
 read this sentence with my voice.

Yes, this place has been awful quiet over the last year. For over a year actually. I managed to get some more important stuff out of the way (the Bar) and so the hobby side of things took a back seat. It turns out the timing was was impeccable: GW released 6th edition 40k and it was appalling. Thankfully I managed to miss out on it almost completely. I did a few tournaments up to November 2012 and didn't bother with it afterwards because it just wasn't up to scratch and wandered off to Warmachine like so many others.

I know that it is a subjective matter (one of my gaming group reckons it was the best edition of 40k they've had) but I reckon there's enough data to back up my theory that it was a terrible edition. Arguably the worst produced. So bad it had to be rewritten less than halfway through its life cycle and the company's stock has bombed as a result of people abandoning ship and spending money elsewhere. Like on Kickstarters that may never arrive...please Kingdom Death, just announce a shipping date. Please. 

But good news is on the horizon: 7th has been released and isn't a complete turkey (from my limited experience), the Space Wolves are on the way and arguably the biggest news for GW in a long time: Tom Kirby will be stepping down. Apparently.

Blood Angels: Synchronise!

Some of Burkhardt's Blood Angels.
They're much nicer than yours. And mine.

As Duncan will tell you, this article is late. Like, really late. No, it isn't a crude reference to Blood Angels bleeding profusely and suffering from insanity for 5 days a month: nor is about the phenomenon of menstrual synchrony; its about a few blogs that have got together to throw up a few ideas about how 6th edition has affected how they build Blood Angel armies now and how they've changed compared to how they were in 5th. I've just had to deal with the fact that I've been too ill to post recently despite this article being almost entirely complete for two weeks already. I'll add a few ideas to how to build army ideas that the lads have suggested beforehand and things I think will work based on games I've played, such as Allies which the lads have given scant regard to.

Little Dave over at the Red Thirst and Caolán of the Skibb Wargamers and are my co-conspirators in this endeavour, although I hope that a few more heads will contribute their thoughts on how they've rebuilt their BA (or their own armies as is the case with Dan from Tzarkahn40k and his Guard), especially with a return to the scene of an ETC veteran (2007) in the shape of Big Rog (pronounced Roj) recently running a Blood Rodeo list and Burkhardt (such pretty, pretty models) overcoming his distaste for anything random and inefficient. How un-Germanic - it must be the case that he has been here for too long already.

Stormy's A.S.S.: Rules Questions

One of  Dan Abnett's best.

It's been a while since I'd done one of these but a few things have arisen in 6th edition that have piqued my interest with odd rules interpretations, despite GW's best attempts to cock-block silly combos through the use of Allies.

One of these is how Victory Points for Lone Wolves after the latest Space Wolf FAQ. On page 2 it says:

Page 29 – Lone Wolves, A Glorious Death.
Replace the last two sentences with: “Furthermore, in missions that award Victory Points for each enemy unit that has been completely destroyed, a Lone Wolf does not concede a Victory Point if he dies in battle. Instead, to represent his failure to meet a spectacular end, a Lone Wolf awards a Victory Point in such a mission if he survives until the end of the game!”

So the thing I'm wondering is if the Lone Wolf is the first unit killed in a game does he deny the enemy a Victory Point for First Blood?

New FAQs: What's happened to the Wolves?

Logan's fine. What about the rest of us now?

Well it finally happened that GW realised that their their rulebook is quite sloppily written as they've released a slew of responses via FAQs to questions that were raised by gamers post-Dark Vengeance release. Here's the main rulebook and the Wolf FAQs respectively. So how have the Vylka Fenryka been affected by GW correcting their mistakes?

First up is that Njal's Lord of Tempest table doesn't affect Flyers and that he's also armed with a Stave (+2 S, AP 4 and Concussive).

Q: How do maelstroms, novas and beams – or indeed any weapon that doesn’t need to roll To Hit or hits automatically – interact with Zooming and Flyers and Gliding Monsters? (p13)A: Only Snap Shots can hit Zooming Flyers and Gliding Flying Monstrous Creatures. Therefore, any attacks that use blast markers, templates, create a line of/area of effect or otherwise don’t roll to hit cannot target them. This includes weapons such as the Necron Doom Scythe’s death ray or the Deathstrike missile of the Imperial Guard, and psychic powers that follow the rule for maelstroms, beams, and novas.

Clearly the head-honchos in Nottingham reckon they haven't sold enough Flyers yet so people are now pretty much forced to buy anti-Flyer units/Forts in order to get their Anti-Air on: the Wolves especially as they have so little of it in their army.

6th ed Space Wolf FAQ is out

Tell me: What has happened to my Axe in 6th ed?

Well, they're actually all out now but the one that I'm most interested in is the Vylka Fenryka (Space Wolves to non-Horus Heresy fans) and what the new rules mean for them. Much of it is bringing things into line with the new rules (ATSKNF for example) and Bikers are now base T5 which is nice for Attack Bikes as they aren't doubled-out by Krak Missiles anymore.

ICs on Bikes are the same making them a more attractive prospect for them now. Doubly so, as you'll get twin-linked bolters, the speed to get into favourable positions to snipe out fancy guys through torrents of firepower and Hammer of Wrath I10 attacks when you assault (with potential re-rolls to hit thanks to Preferred Enemy). Suddenly a Wolf Priest on a Bike is a really attractive prospect. Give him a 2+ save and he can soak up fire all day especially with his 2+ Look Out Sir save to have grunts take damage instead of him.

So let us see what else has changed.

Sisters @ Moofool Game 1

Chaosy. Needs more tentacles though.

This was against Alan's Wolves riddled with Grey Hunters and Fangs with TWC and Scouts to cause havoc amongst my proxied lines. The mission was 5 set Objectives primary with KP secondary. I reckoned if I pushed some units into midfield and drew out the GH that I'd be able to counter-charge them or blow them away with Bolters one by one and have Celestine float about getting shot, getting back up and being an annoyance. A bit like Space Wolf Scouts really. Except she can cause havoc from the get-go.

Because the photos might cause confusion I'll add a guide as to what was masquerading as what in my army later.

Itzacon

Or Beercon as it's known down here for the Pizza & Pitcher deal for €10 that is run on Friday nights in NUIG's student bar. For some reason it's €11 a pitcher normally but that's the Wesht of Ireland for you. It's a near 40-man tourney (with one girl IIRC), 1850 points and is one of the last ETC qualifying tournaments on the calendar.

I'm running with the Wolves again but things are slightly different to my usual lists this time and I won't have a camera so I'm hoping to get the organisers to take few and email them onto me so I can put them up for you to get your nerd porn fix.

Wish me luck.

Warpcon Game 5 - Chivite's Daemons of Chaos

Fateweaver: He's a decrepit monkey-skeleton.

After scraping through game 5 by completely gypsying my opponent and stealing 4 BP at the end thanks to a Rhino's tank shock I was in a big pack of people on about 51 points after 4 games and there were a few I was hoping to avoid. Luckily, I got to play an army I didn't want: Daemons. Despite their fall from grace post-Warp Quake they're actually a good foil to mech-based armies as many of their units don't go down to single shots so require enemies to focus fire to remove each target (no shaken/stunned shenanigans) and their units can tear through most units with either the sheer number of attacks (Fiends) or the amount of power weapons attacks they possess (Princes, MC's and Bloodanythings).

Then Chivite told me his list and I knew that this would be one of those games where I would either win big or lose big as Fateweaver surviving for a long period of time would decide how this game went. I have had a decent run against him, as Angry Merl will testify, as he has a nasty habit of being killed off early whenever he's showed up beforehand. I was hoping that my luck against him would hold this time and I'd be able make a game of it.

Warpcon 2012 Game 4 - Draigowing Grey Knights

Long Fangs v Paladins: They're a bit close though.

So after my loss the day before in Game 3 (link) I was pitted against the obligatory Grey Knights (they're always floating about near the top tables nowadays) ably commanded by Sylvan. It was a Draigowing list that I had seen him playtest against Angry Merl's Daemons so I had an idea of what was in it and thus, how to handle it.

I was hoping for first turn so that I could pound his army from a distance from the get-go but it was not to be as he put me in the corner with the least terrain, which wasn't that much of a hindrance as my army was mostly infantry and cover wouldn't be of much benefit until later in the game when Psycannons closed the distance and started rending. Sylvan set up pretty much as I'd expected: put Draigo and co as far forward as possible with the scoring Dreads (2 of them) set up near objectives further back to support their advance. So I responded as best I could: fire support far away and my Troops choices largely in reserve to get the jump on objectives later in the game.

Warpcon 2012 Game 3 - Black Templars

You've asked so you shall receive, TKE. This is going to be short and sweet. I was paired off with Alec's Black Templars in a Kill Point/Draw Mission Dawn of War scenario. I won the roll-off to go first and, unlike the previous game, picked the wrong side. There was a lovely LOS-blocking piece of terrain in one corner and I gave it to Alec figuring that I wouldn't be able to fit enough stuff behind it to make it work for me.

It didn't turn out like that as Alec could comfortably pack 7 Land Speeders, 2 Rhinos and 2 Terminator squads behind the wall for most of the game and pick off targets as they came at him piecemeal. Or when I presented them on a plate. That was a game to forget for me but they're usually the ones when you learn more than you would from any other games.

Warpcon 2012 Game 2 - Mike's Nids

All that the Nids deployed...

So after my win in game one I was paired off with Mike (this year's ETC Team Captain) and I knew this wasn't going to be easy as I had gone into the game with a W/D/L record of 0/1/1 against him with the last coming at the hands of his Eldar at game 5 of Gaelcon.

Mike's list was what you would call unconventional for a Tyranid list: No Hive Guard, Gaunts with Devourers, 3 Tervigons and the Swarmlord with a Tyrant Guard bodyguard. And Stealers. Lots of them including two units of Ymgarls. So I guess the idea was to rush me, weather the storm of the first (painful) round of combat and buy time by pinning my army down in combat, with the Ymgarls crawling out from under Tayto wrappers to help join in the gangbang before the bigger bugs arrived.

Well, I had a plan for that...

Warpcon 2012 Game 1 - Pat's Nids.

Warpcon has been and gone and it was a laugh (as always) and I ran with my Wolves (as always) and I managed to take a few pics along the way while facing a variety of opponents: Nids twice (oh Jaws, how I love thee), Templars (not Hugh), Grey Knights and finally Daemons.

Game 1 - Pat's Nids
This was my first time meeting Pat and I figured it would be tougher than it looked because it didn't have as much Jaws-bait as I would have liked: only 1 Tervigon and 2 units of Hive Guard were available and they were likely to hang out of range while everything else bombed forward. That everything else was a Hive Commander Flyrant, a Trygon Prime, 2 big Broodlord Stealer units (with Poison), the Doom of Malantai in a Pod, a big unit of Hormagaunts with Poison, Gargoyles, some Gaunts and a unit of Hive Guard hiding at the back.

New 40k FAQ's sticking it to Njal.

Njal: it kinds sucks to be him now.

These have been floating about for a couple of hours now and I'm going to assume that you've have a quick look over some of them. They're available here.

They've stopped Scarab spawn conga lines and it would appear that Jaws no longer needs to roll to hit. FFS GW: I'm going to have to go back and edit that Jaws article. Again.

There is one thing that sticks out for me in the 40k rulebook FAQ and I'm pretty sure it dicks over Njal amongst other units specifically and takes away from his abilities being able to mess with the enemy's movement and shooting prowess. 

ETC Battle Report Round 6: Austria

So after our caning at the hands of the hosts we were paired off with Austria in the final round. But not without a bit of controversy arising. The Nordies were left without opponents after the Norweigans flaked off to catch flights without informing them first (they only informed the Judges which was a bit disrespectful to their opponents) and Northern Ireland won the round 20-0. The Austrians had 2 lads in the same boat (should that be plane) and so they were down 2 men but we all tried to figure something out. We were given the option of winning the round by default which we turned down, and instead offered to have 2 of the Nordie lads take their places but the Austrians refused. Fair enough.

In the end, two of our players sat it out and we played 6 on 6 but we were up 40 points as a result of 2 byes. At least that would cover us for the 20 point penalty that was imposed because our lists were late because Darragh can't count. :P

ETC Battle Report Round 5: Switzerland

3+ saves? We can't make them.

So after our draw with Denmark we were paired off with the hosts Switzerland and this would realistically determine which of us would get a top 10 finish. I was paired off with Michel 'Giles Le Breton' Weibel and his semi-mech Eldar. The transports and Avatar didn't worry me but the War Walkers did - with their hail of shots they could realistically take out a Razor or unit of Long Fangs a turn while I would have to batter them into submission, forcing me to dedicate my firepower.

It wasn't an army I wanted to face as I couldn't rely on Stormcaller due to Runes of Warding and the Walkers would be a balls to get rid of, as would the Falcon with its Holofields. Have I mentioned before that I despise Holofields?

ETC Battle Report Round 4: Denmark

A 'Draw Pub' Result.

So the start of day 2 saw us pitted against more Scandinavians but this time of the Danish variety. Most of the team had headed out for a few beers on the Saturday night with 2 of us heading home about 2.30am and the other four staying out til 6.30am. If one of the other lads want to to come clean about how much they spent on a 1 litre bottle of Smirnoff and 5 cans of Red Bull in a Swiss nightclub I'll hold off on it. For now. :P

We all came in tired, some more tired than others and our Captain wandered in at 9.10am drinking whiskey. After thanking him for living up to national stereotypes I was asked if I could take a Grey Knight list with lots of infantry. I reckoned I could outrange him and play for a draw that would sneak points our way so I went for it rather than have it demolish one of our other lists or cause one of our swords to lose points.

ETC Battle Report Round 3: Sweden

A-ah-ahh-ah, ah-ah-ahh-ah, They came from the land of the ice and snow

With 3 points out of a possible 4 we were now playing with the big boys. As Quigley, our VC, said: 'These are the teams that you want to be playing. They [Sweden] are dark horses for the title and they're really, really good. They know what they're doing and we're about to be given a lesson.' Spoken just like a teacher.

I don't know if he's a history teacher but one thing I've noticed about history lessons is that everything operates on a cyclical basis i.e. events tend to be repeated. For those that are unaware the Vikings first showed up in Ireland about 795 AD and raped and pillaged their way across the country against the unprepared defenders (they were largely monks, and not the martial arts-loving Shaolin-types either) until they were finally all put to the sword in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf by Brian Boru (who was the martial art-loving type that was stabbed to death while praying after the battle). So, where am I going with this?

ETC Battle Report Round 2: Belgium

Just look at those legs.

ETC Game 2 - Belgium

Flushed with victory from Round 1 we were drawn with Belgium. We were confident that we could get 2 points from them too which would have meant we might play one of the pre-tourney favourites like ze Germans or the Poles.

I wandered off to have a look at other armies including a stunning Harlequin-themed Dark Eldar army and give the Captain room to think about match-ups. I came back to see Guard and Grey Knights in front of me. I wasn't excited about Guard in Dawn of War but nor did I fancy the 2+ save horde of GK. My decision was made when the GK were given to our Nid player Cornflakes who assured us he had taken this kind of list in practice and knew what to do to crack it.

And this is where the importance of the match-up system came into being.

ETC Battle Report Round 1: Finland

Posers.

So I'm thrown up early as an answer to the Finnish Guard played by Aleksi Meuronen who has the coolest 'tache I've ever seen. I've had a fair bit of practice against this list (with match-ups for Round 1 released early) so I reckon I can take it but I'm worried about how much I'll bleed: 8 Razorbacks at the start tends to become 3 or 4 by the end while my Grey Hunter squads are beefy enough to mangle 10 Guardsmen but not enough to stand up to sustained fire from a gunline. Plus my Scouts are quite squishy and will take on a solitary Guard squad but not 2 or 3 at once.

It was definitely going to be an interesting game but I was feeling quietly confident going into it. Then we had our team talk where I was told that I was expected to get a win and loads of points. Basically: Nuke Finland.

No pressure so then.

One Year On

Even I'm unimpressed with my once-a-month posting in the recent past. Thankfully I've been busy gaming instead of talking/theorising about games. In another day or two I should be comfortable with the Finnish lists that I'd expect to face at the ETC (now 2 and 1/2 weeks away) before I move onto the other team's lists.

To let my brain relax from the demanding 40k, I've really got stuck into Malifaux, running with Zoraida as my Master. She's hard to get the hang of but I've tried out Ol' Saddlebags with a variety of crews before I got my hands on Collodi and co. (on the right) and added them into the mix. I didn't rate him when I first ran him but having seen how much damage his Marionettes can do when using Puppet Show and Breathe Life and having Paired Talons with a Slow Trigger on Crows, I've since revised my opinion. Throw enough mud at a wall and some of it is bound to stick. It worked on David Norris.