ARMY OF THE WEEK

Friday, August 5, 2011

The Future of Fantasy and 40k. Where we are going. Part 2

40k making way for the Future…..

With the rumors flying around about 6^th for next year has given some hints to new directions GW is taking this next edition. For the most part they are following a developmental pat that is taking them in the right direction.

Clearly they are looking at taking some elements from other games to work into the missions as an effort to balance them. By this I mean the rumors of statagems and bidding for first turn. Based on what I read, only a handful of the statagems are really good and worthwhile, so this means that while this will be a fresh idea it will get redundant quickly.

Also, decisions on combat will be more dynamic, to shoot or assult, no longer is there a middle ground with rumors the sequence being changed about. I feel also mechanized units will be taking the foreground even more so than ever.

Looking at the past trends of Codex books and the future Necron rumors. We see that the Necrons are getting vehicles, flyers, transports and new units. Almost a total facelift to where they started before. Making them a viable and no doubt with new toys a deadly army. The Grey Knights facelift saw a reduction in Inquisition feel and more to a core army of Grey Knights with allies on a smaller scale. Again, their impact in the game has been felt many times over.

Points are also shrinking for all current books, making games larger and creating a demand for more models for an army. I am sure this is by no means an accident but a method to push sales by adding more units to your army.

Characters in 40k also will be getting several boosts in 6^th when it hits. Namely being able to claim 2 saves, being able to single out models in units among other nasty aspects. This is falling in line more like Fantasy.

Some armies will take a kick that was once king and unique like Death Guard and Blood Angels taking advantage of the only double save, Feel No Pain and their 3+ saves with some rare cases of Inv saves on characters and wargear. Now being able to take cover and armor saves will be a boon making armies tougher than before. Just at a recent tournament my Long Fangs was shot apart and that second save would have made the shift in my favor.

The Future of Fantasy and 40k. Where we are going. Part 1

Think about the Future! Jacknickelson as the Joker

So, where are we going with trends and development for Fantasy and 40k?

Starting with Fantasy, I have just stepped back into the game about 2 weeks ago, so I have a refreshed perspective as I avoided 7^th and was an avoid fan from 6^th edition on back for many moons. I have noted some unique trends and changes that GW is doing to steer Fantasy forward into a new direction.

The basic rules is where I will start. For the most part they are just about right, much like how it was back in 5^th and 6^th. In 8^th they did manage to speed the game up slightly and added some new dimensions to the game with hordes, ranks able to fight, stomp/thunderstomp, etc….

Magic has become more powerful in many ways, but a tad more balanced. One thing that pushed me out of 7^th was the stupidity of the mounds of power/dispel dice you could horde in a list and use. Many of the new spells are game changers and perhaps need to be balanced a bit more with some updates.

Psychology is still the big disappointment. It isn’t what it was, when you fought Vampire Counts you was AFRAID to lose a fight, because you would run. While VCs had crappy troops, a clever player could crush other units with the right combo of characters, flanking and magic. Starting in 6^th LD values started to rise, more units was getting strubbron or flearless. Thus taking away from the power of psychology, which to me is a big thing in both modern and ancient warfare. Now, the basis for fear is yea, it will be harder to hit, but how often does your opponents fail those LD tests? To me this is the area that needs the most love in Fantasy by game designers.

Missions/Games have become interesting with the advent of 8^th. Unique deployment zones, mission objectives and of course scenery that has random elements making a game more flavorful and interesting. A good push from the daily grind of the same basic mission format of line up and beat one another to a pulp.

Monsters is building up to be a key focus. Every army is getting some mega looking monster with each book and with the Vampire Counts getting the Terrorgheist in the White Dwarf as an official unit, I think we are going to see more and more going into other army books. The kits are fantastic but are starting to become a bit more common as in the past they was rare and unusual things to see on a battlefield.

Storm of Magic, this is what I call the Apocalypse of Fantasy. Excuses to mix armies into one another, toss out some big monsters and play games using crazy elements of magic. The concept is solid like Apocalypse but I think this expansion will short of GW’s goals for profit. Playing more elaborate and complex games of Fantasy will be the shortfall of the game and will not be a main standard. What is nice is all the scenery and cool miniatures introduced to work into the standard games thus making their miniature investments worthwhile.

Waking the Dead: Revival of the Vampire Counts and Playing Warhammer Fantasy

That’s right! I purchased my first copy of White Dwarf (#379) this weekend in what may be almost 2 years. I have broken my person boycott of the magazine as the content clearly sucked. It was little more than a large, elaborate catalog that was expensive at $9 a pop designed to sell goodies to the kiddies. It was little more than Tofu of hobby magazines, filling but no real taste.

It warmed my undead heart to see the Vampire Counts get some love in this issue with a new unit, new models and updates to their Army Books.

GW may finally have seen the value again in their magazine as a means to update rules, add new things to old books and to maintain the hobby. This was how the White Dwarf was long ago: alternate rules, updates, changes and great hobby articles that was worth reading. You was afraid not to subscribe or buy an issue at your local store as you may have missed some great articles.

They managed to finally pack an issue with painted bitz from the Terrorgheist and Zombie Dragon sprue. Rules for the Garden of Moor, a new unit the Terrogheist, added new heroes (going back to the old codex before) and included a good battle report to help cement it all together with some hobby articles also.

Then they printed the first part of two of the Sister’s of Battle Codex. For the most part, it has some concepts that are interesting but the army is unplayable as Faith is really nerfed at least until they get their official Codex. We all remember the Blood Angels one done in White Dwarf. It turned out nothing like they published really. I am sure the Sister’s will get lots of goodies just like the Blood Angels.

I encourage everyone to write to Games Workshop and compliment their work in this issue and encourage they continue down this path to make their hobby magazine better!

White Dwarf Going Old School!

That’s right! I purchased my first copy of White Dwarf (#379) this weekend in what may be almost 2 years. I have broken my personal boycott of the magazine as the content clearly sucked. It was little more than a large, elaborate catalog that was expensive at $9 a pop designed to sell goodies to the kiddies. It was little more than Tofu of hobby magazines, filling but no real taste.

It warmed my undead heart to see the Vampire Counts get some love in this issue with a new unit, new models and updates to their Army Books.

I encourage everyone to write to Games Workshop and compliment their work in this issue and encourage they continue down this path to make their hobby magazine better!

Book Review (Legacy) (Second book in the Enforcer Series)

Just finished the second of 3 books of the Enforcer series titled “Legacy” a few days ago and wanted to let this book sit for a moment before posting my thoughts about it. The book itself was good, yet lacked some of the feel of the first book. This story has a similar format as the other but with a different story arc of a rogue trader that dies and there is a race for his only heir to claim the charter as the masters of the flotilla make their own power claim to the charter with their own puppet heir as well as the shadows of religion looming to threaten to steal the charter claiming it as a holy relic. What you will get from this book is insight into again more of the judicial system and how the Enforcers work as well a splash of the world of a Free Trader with all the intrigue that lies within their own micro society. A worthwhile read and I am looking forward to picking up the last book after I finish “Cardinal Crimson” the last of the Kal Jerico and Necromunda books. A true shame Black Library gave up the ghost on these! I think still this was some of their best stuff!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Pack by Circumstance (A short story) (Part 1)

Part 1: The Gathering

Explosions rocked the ship as Tormod Ripfang dashed his way through the ship in near darkness guided only by the red glare of the emergency lights and small fires around him. The claxons were going off with a loud shrill with the comm system announcing “All hands abandon ship, repeat abandon ship. Critical damage to the reactors overload imminent. Rally points have been transmitted via encryption for all survivors, Russ protect all of us.”

Tormod grumbled, “This was supposed to be a simple warp translation into a safe system, just a patrol….what in the seven Hels is going on?” He was just earlier with his pack taking their positions within the ship for warp translation. It was standard procedure to have all packs ready and at their assigned ship duty stations in the event of an emergency. It was usually just another boring drill, then once the ship captain gave the signal they could return to their training cages to spar, indulge themselves with some food and drink or enjoy respite in a rest cycle until duty called.

This was not the case, as they was deploying and the ship came out of translation the first explosions hammered the ship hull and sent a fireball down the corridor his squad was moving through. Only Tormod survived by some trick of fate as a blast door slammed down just in front of him as the blast of plasma was starting to melt the edges of his armor and ruined his helmet. Forced to remove it as the optics was damaged beyond repair, he snarled as the announcements started to echo through the ship as the alert klaxons started to go off. Something was attacking them….

The door before him was half open, sparks flying from the panel, it appears that someone carved into it with a power fist and ripped half the door back after a power failure caused it to no longer work. He smirked, “at least someone saved me the trouble” as he raced past the door into the savior pod section. One hatch remained open as he jumped inside to find it already occupied by some of his brethren. Quickly he slams a restraint harness over him and growls “Get us out of here…” in an impatient tone. “There is nobody else behind me and the entire deck is about to go!”

An older Space Wolf with a power fist glances up at Ripfang, “Ease up lad, we’ll make it…” Then he slaps the activation rune on the panel near him. The hatch started to close with a hiss as an explosion engulfed the bay in a wave of fire that licked around the hatch as the final hiss of pressure filled the pod leaving behind an orange glow from the view port showing the entire deck was an inferno. A loud thump and click is all they heard as the pod was in motion spinning away from the ship towards the planet below.

Tormod was able to get a glimpse of the ship as the fires raged around it as it started to go to its final death. To him it was like the old stories of Hel itself had come and claimed the ship. Suddenly the ship exploded in a bright flash, the shockwave hit the pod moments later. Alarms started to go off and runes was flashing all over the console. Ferensian profanity and prayers to Russ flew through the pod as it began to spin in a wild decent.

The Wolf Guard calls out in an urgent voice, “Pod is off course, we have damage throughout, we must have been hit by debris…” Aaron didn’t find this reassuring and fell into his usual way of dealing with stress with banter, “Really? I thought this was all normal, but again this is my first exploding ship that I have been forced to evacuate…”

Smoke was already starting to rise from the panel as the ship was already starting to hit the atmosphere of the planet and shaking the pod like how a child of the gods would play with a toy. Everyone was already saying prayers or growling with displeasure as the pod began to vibrate their internal organs and the gravity was starting to claim the occupants making the restraints uncomfortable. The pod began to buffer against the atmosphere and the air around the pod howled like wolves on a dark Ferensian night stalking for their souls. Then without warning the pod struck the surface of the planet.

1850 Battle Report Orks Vs Grey Knights (Blue vs Grey)

Played at the LGS in Tampa last night against a Grey Knights player by the same name of Patrick (same name as me) in what I consider a close and interesting game. I considered several armies to bring and settled on Orks as I have not used them much except during the Apocalypse game a few weeks ago. Even so, not much of the Ork codex came into play as most things such as units and vehicles die so easy in that game that I could not call it an official game using all the rules as such.

He had the special HQ that had the Ghost Knights in tow (about 5 I think), Crowe, 2 Units of Purifiers with psycannons (full) in Rhinos, 1 Unit of Interceptor (teleporter squad with psycannons), 1 Dreadnought with a pair of TL Autocannons, Vindicare Assassin.

I had Warboss on Bike with Klaw and Cybork, Mek with Cybork, Klaw and KFF, 30 Boyz with 3 Rockets and shootas, 2 Trukk Squads with Nob with Klaw/Bosspole, Trukks has Red and Ram, Battlewagon with single big shoota, red and Ram. 15 Burnas with 3 Rocket Launchers on Meks, 12 Lootas, Snikrot with full unit of Kommandos with 2 burnas and 20 Ard boyz with Nob with Klaw and Bosspole.

We rolled for the Mission and got Kill Points and Spearhead deployment. He won the dice off and picked his side. Deploying the Interceptors central, the Dread just behind, Crowe off to one side behind a Rhino full of Purifiers, the other Purifiers off to the other. The Terminators in reserve and the Assassin would infiltrate.

My deployment was basic, Lootas into a high building, one squad of boyz near a rock formation for cover, the rest in reserve. Burnas jumped in the Battlewagon with the Big Mek. The Warboss on bike ambushed with Snikrot (see latest Ork FAQ, yea dumb but figured what the hell).

Turn 1:

Failed to seize and he moved a little. I lost several orks from the Boyz squad to storm bolter fire and the Vindicare sniped the Nob with a 2 wound round. Lost a few Lootas. He also landed his Terminators near the Lootas. They had one turn to live.

My first turn was quick, I moved the Boyz into cover, fired a few shots killing a few Interceptor Grey Knights, the Lootas followed suit and wounded a few more despite only getting 1 shot each.

Turn 2:

His next turn took the terminators into the Lootas wiping the squad out. The rest of the army shot at Ork Boyz in cover. The Vindicare tried to snipe one of the Rocket Launchers but the cover save was passed and the boyz managed to hold out despite terrible losses. Cover saved them from this round of brutal shooting.

Next round I got the Battlewagon, Kommandos, Ard Boyz, and 1 Trukk. One was stuck in reserve! At first I was going to send the Wagon into the Terminators and try to use the burnas to either flamer them down or try to break their armor and wound them as power weapons. Based on the halberds in that squad it would have ended badly for me. I ended up deploying the wagon to the far left side outside of the quarter I deployed in earlier as I could use the long edge. The Trukk rolled in beside it with the Ard Boyz behind for cover. The Trukk boyz deployed out towards the Rhino. Snikrot and Warboss moved in from the back side behind the Interceptors. I called the Waaaggghh and charged forward. I was in range to do a few assaults. The bonus move for the Trukk boyz got me close to the Rhino. Then I opened up some shooting. Some rockets and shootas caused a shaken result and a storm bolter to be removed. Assault phase kicked in. The Kommandos hit the Interceptors. The boyz failed their terrain test and failed to surround the rhino, which was my hope, pop it and trap them inside. The Boyz beat up the rhino and forced the Purifiers out (didn’t get to use the Klaw). The Kommandos took a few losses, then ate the Interceptor Squad, we slipped back into cover and waited.

Turn 3:

His turn took an interesting swing. Crowe moved to assault the Kommandos and Warboss. The Sniper and Dreadnought fired into the Trukk and Wagon. The Trukk failed the KFF roll and exploded on the spot after rolling on the mishap chart. Lost 2 Ard Boyz I think. Lost a few more boyz to fire from the Terminators, again cover helped. The Purifiers shot up the boyz that wrecked their ride and assaulted them. He also got an assault with the hammer on the Trukk. Crowe killed the Warboss with his psychic “if I die, you die” power. Ugh! The other Purifier squad got out of the Rhino and tried to kill a few Kommandos and get an assault if possible. They failed their roll.

I pushed the Kommandos into cover, fired both burnas, wounded the Vindicare and killed a few Grey Knights. Once the assault was over, the Vindicare was dead but so was the rest of the Kommandos after an ugly bout with the Grey Knights. After we discussed moving the wagon, I opted not to move it and moved the Ard boyz around it to setup to clean house. I opened up on the Purifiers on my side, multiple burnas and rockets wiped them from the table in short order.

Turn 4:

He moved his terminators closer the boyz squad once 30 strong was a handful of survivors took a few more losses. The Purifiers started to run to the other side of the board, he moved his rhino to safety to avoid my lucky rocket launchers blowing it to hell and back. The Dread opened fire on the Battle Wagon again, again saved by the KFF.

My turn was again a quick one. A few shots into the Purifiers closing, he lost a few to a lucky rocket shots. The Wagon raced forward, out came the Mek and Burnas, 3 rockets streaked towards the Dreadnought and blew it to hell and back. I had expected the Klaw to be the one to finish it off. A nice surprise if you ask me. The other Trukk arrived, I started to move through a building rolling a nice “1” on the dice. Well, I had ram at least, then promptly rolled another “1”. The Trukk fired off a bunch of accurate shots and killed a few Purifiers that turn.

Turn 5:

He advanced up again, the boyz was down to less than a half dozen now. To my surprise they held out well without a Nob leaving two rockets left when it was all said and done..

The Burnas and Mek loaded up the Battlewagon and drove around the wrecked Rhino ready to pounce. Next turn he would be in assault range. Again, a few big shoots, pistol shots (Ard Boyz) and rockets thinned down his Purifiers to only 2 in the squad. Roll to continue happens.

Turn 6:

Terminators and the two Purifiers make a multi charge on the Ard Boyz and the two surviving rocket launchers in the Boyz squad. The Purifiers BBQ a few Ard Boyz and one rocket go down. The power weapons sliced of the rest like butter on a hot knife.

I roll up the Battle Wagon, 12 flamers and 3 rockets fly towards the Terminators. The Trukk Boyz gets out and prepares to assault the Purifiers. Oddly, again they both died due to the big shoota and some pistols! So, they are standing around with the mushroom in their hand waiting to be assaulted. Just a rhino, HQ choice left! The flamer wounds his HQ and a ghost knight appears to replace the one I burned down. *sigh*

We roll, we continue to 7!

Turn 7:

This was a fast turn, he wiped out the last Trukk Boyz squad and the disabled Trukk. The Wagon rolls up again, flamers away! I killed another terminator and wounded the HQ again, again he restores one! ARG! After something like 50+ flamer hits I killed 2 Terminators and wounded his HQ twice!

Kill Points Tally:

Orks Dead: Warboss (on bike), Boyz Squad, Ard Boyz, 2 Trukk Boyz squads (and transports), Snikrot/Kommandos and Lootas. Giving him 9 totals. I only had a Battle Wagon, Mek and Burnas surviving. (Don’t recall 100% if the last truck was gone or not, but I am counting it anyway).

Grey Knights Dead: Dreadnought, Vindicare, 2 Purifier Squads, 1 Rhino, Crowe and Interceptor Squad. Giving me a total of 7. He had was survived with his HQ with Ghost Knights and a Rhino.

A bloody game indeed! If the game ended on 5 I would have won. Maybe even on 6 I could have pulled a win or a draw. After 7, I would have had to wipe both the HQ and Rhino to draw. If I was more thoughtful I should have fallen back more and kept away from him instead of trying to fight it out like an Ork. Alas, that was not part of my Kunnin’Plan.

Unit Reviews:

Snikrot and Kommandos: Did well, they finished off the Interceptors, Vindicare and killed a few Purifiers as well as wounded Crowe before they died. A good showing.

Burnas: Earned their paycheck taking down one Purifier squad, 2 terminators and threw a few wounds on the HQ to boot.

Trukk Boyz: Didn’t earn their keep. The one squad downed one Rhino, the other finished off two Grey Knights then died. A few big shoota shots claimed a few more GK but not sure if enough to call it a success.

Boyz Squad (30): They got the Mork Award of bravery and shooting deftness. Serious, they held out against the odds and died to man, took down a few Grey Knights, maybe not their point value but drew enough fire to allow others to do stuff.

Warboss (on bike): Meh, he killed Crowe and died to a craptastic power. Didn’t get to do much this game.

Mek (KFF): That KFF saved all but 1 shot against the Trukk. This was a major ace for the game for me. If that Wagon went down, it could have went REALLY bad for me.

Battle Wagon: Did well enough, got the unit from point A to B and survived well enough.

Lootas: VERY disappointing performance. Their one shot of glory was a 1! Then died to the Terminators of DOOM!

Ard Boyz: They were pretty much wearing toilet paper against an army with power weapons. Even the 4+ I needed a few times against explosions and storm bolters didn’t cut it.

In retrospect I should have went with more large blocks of Boyz Squads. Ditched the Trukks and Ard Boyz for them.