Email in: 'Ard Boyz Tyranids

Black Sheep

This list isa reserve/ null zone type.


== HQ ==
Hive Tyrant - Lash Whip And Bonesword, Heavy Venom Cannon, Armored Shell, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Hive Commander = 260 pts.

== Elites ==
8 x Ymgarl Genestealer Brood = 184 pts.

The Doom Of Malan'tai Brood (130 pts.)
The Doom Of Malan'tai
Mycetic Spore

Email in: Ard Boyz Hybrid BA

Cadia 122

"Hey Kirby,

The usual preface, first-time writer, long-time lurker and semi-infrequent commenter. Big fan of the blog and your list reviews, grouphugs all round. Down to business then, I believe this is the list I'll be taking to Ard Boyz, barring some great suggested changes. I've playtested it at lower point values with pretty good success, though I'll concede my local gaming area isn't the most cutthroat one around. I"ll also concede that you're not a fan of Hybrid Blood Angels, but I respect your critiques and opinions on lists--just not enough to stop running Hybrid BA it seems! :-P Sorry.

Email in: Ard Grey Hunter List

Tabletop Geeks

"I am looking at running the following list for Ard Boyz, and wanting to get a little critical review

I don't think I need to explain my tactical mindset, as this list is designed to be flexible and hurtful... and oddly, win via high quality quantity.

I think 93 space wolves, all at 4/4/4/4 stat line or better, giving me endless deployment/reserve variations, makes for some frustrated opponents... but if I'm too spammy or needing more tricks for my pony, I'm all hears.

Email in: 2500 White Scars/Raven Guard, an army in review

"Hey Kirby,

Been reading your blog for a couple of months now, and I really enjoy it. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a real competitive list builder. Usually fluff themes are the basis, then building and painting challenges and finally making the list competitive. I know it's a bad habit, but since I never really run in the tournament circuits I don't worry about it. That being said I decided to enter 'Ard boys this year for the first time ever! Never played in one of these before because I end up being the judge for it for my local hobby store. And on top of all of that I barely have time to play due to work nowadays so the army I'll be running will probably only get a couple of trial games. Which is a handicap because I love armies thats full of tricks.

Email in: Ard Boyz 2500pt list (the Kirby edition)

Dakka

"Hey Kirby,

So you helped me out a while back when I first started Grey Knights, and you were a huge help. I went from barely being able to draw a game to being a contender (though not generally steamrolling anyone). Ard Boyz is coming up on 8/13, and I'd love for you to critique my list and let me know how I might improve again.

As you can see it's a pretty basic list, the dreads hold the backfield, the strike squads do their 24" thing, and the Grandmaster either gives some of the dreadnoughts/dreadknights scoring, or makes stuff scout to get them to the action faster. I'm not entirely sold on the dreadknights, though I think for 140pts a piece they're a steal and will soak up a lot of firepower, plus they're the only thing I have that can insta-kill T5 stuff. I played it against a Death Guard list and it did really well, especially the Vindicare and Dreadnoughts.

Imperial Guard Codex Review: Part 11: Heavy Support Part 1

Heavy Support for Imperial Guard is a mixed kettle of fish. There are some excellent units and squads here and you'd wonder why anyone would leave home without them. At the same time, many an Imperial Guard list CAN simply ignore the Heavy Support slot due to the firepower it can generate elsewhere. This is nothing against the Heavy Support slot nor an indication of an imbalanced codex but rather army design. If you want to push 15+ Chimeras into midfield, you don't want a couple tanks hanging out in your backfield as they become very vulnerable and can often be giving free kill points away to your opponent. At the same time, if you're not running an aggressive Guard list, well the fire support options that Heavy Support gives you are very, very nice.

Hydra Flak Tank Battery

We'll start with the most commonly seen Heavy Support choice, the Hydra. For 75 points you are basically getting the firepower of a Rifledread (that's 50 points cheaper) at BS3. It has longer range, a special ability which drops fast moving skimmers nicely and  comes with a hull heavy bolter standard. Very nice and whilst mildly weaker than a Rifledread (AV 12/10/10), it is very effective and can be taken in squadrons up to three.

Grey Knight Techmarines

Ah Techmarines. Usually these guys aren't so flash in army books because, well you rarely need someone running around repairing your tanks at such a high price. You can often buy one-two more tanks for the price of a single Techmarine and whilst he can find some use in parking lots (base to base with lots of vehicles), Elite slots are often used for more important units. There are really two armies that run Techmarine variants well. Space Wolves' Iron Priests can bring another Thunderwulf mount to the table and of course Grey Knights. We'll be looking at why for Grey Knights in this post.

We'll start with the obvious first. The Grey Knight techmarine is an independent character (unlike the Blood Angels version) and has access to the wonderful grenades of the Grey Knights. These importantly include Rad Grenades and Psychotroke Grenades (as well as Blind, Brain Mines, etc.). As we discussed earlier, these are pretty awesome and can make even mediocre units stellar in combat on the charge (looking at you Strike Squads). This is one of the primary reasons to take Techmarines. They aren't in Terminator armor either so can easily be ferried around in Rhinos/Razorbacks unlike Grand Masters/Brother Captains. The only other unit capable of doing this is a Xenos Inquisitor who is quite often cheaper and more durable with three wounds but takes up valuable HQ slots. If you want double grenade carriers and an HQ outside of a Xenos Inquisitior (you know, like all the really good choices there), Techmarines are your grenade carrier of choice.

'Ard Boyz - 2500 USA Tournament

Everyone knows what this is right? The 'ultimate cheese' fest were 'the best players and cheesiest lists' come out to play. We all know that's a load of fudgemuffins but it is a unique opportunity to win some decent loot in the semi-finals (round 2) and play at 2500 points if you live in America. The time of the year is coming round where 'Ard Boyz happens so this weekend I'm going to review all the lists at once. There's not that many but it'll be nice to get them all out of the way so send them in now if you are looking.

First...well there are no missions this time. Apparently they are being handed out on the day. What. The. Fudgemuffins. Hopefully they won't be the meh crap they were last year and maybe they'll just stick to BRB missions so there aren't such terrible issues. They handed them out now and we've already seen Puppy take a look at them. Summary: terrible. It's also a tournament using battle points so you really need to be able to blast your opponent and win convincingly to get into each subsequent round.

So, 2500 is a very unique game level. A lot of armies simply do not scale to this points as many 2000 point lists have already maxed out their Force Organisation Chart. Hard to add 500 points of upgrades. At 2500 points you also have a ton more firepower and I mean a ton. This can really hurt weaker armies like Dark Eldar (who can easily field 14 vehicles at 2000) and goes against rock armies even more. Bring your 20 paladins, they will die.

Let's see what the lists bring then and you may discuss the concept of 'Ard Boyz as you see fit below ^^.

Shooting Armies: Dealing with Aggressive Lists

Something of a topic around here lately: counter-assault units or more specifically: dealing with aggressive lists/units that break through your defensive lines. Something not really discussed but quite important. A lot of good 5th edition armies have a ton of shooting. There are obviously aggressive lists which do well (foot Space Wolves, Jumper variant Blood Angels, Tyranids [to an extent], Vanilla Bikers, etc.) but primarily mid- and backfield shooting lists seem to be the most common good armies. They have several options with which to deal with aggressive armies with assault units or armies with rocks or even just a couple aggressive/combat units. The first is of course to shoot them dead and they do this very well. Not everything is going to die this way of course, otherwise aggressive lists just wouldn't exist and do well (pro-tip: they do). Shooting lists then have a myriad of options which revolve around sending units/tanks forward as sacrifices to block, delay and tarpit the aggressive units whilst the rest of your army keeps shooting. This is no more apparent than with Tau who regularly use Kroot, Drones, Piranhas and Devilfish as mobile blockers and bubble-wrap to keep their Crisis Suits, Broadsides and Hammerheads firing.

'Ard Boyz Prelim Scenarios

Welp, it's that time of year again: time to try and win some free prizes off of poorly-designed scenarios. Let's see what kind of nightmare we have in store for us this time around.

They can be found here, for those who want to check them out.

Armies in 5th: Grey Knights Part 5: Ranged Support

Okidus

Your standard Grey Knight army is all about midfield. The majority of units within the codex come with weapons you can move and fire to great effect up to 24". Add in their MEQ statline and Force Weapons and they aren't slouches in combat either. They use this combination to be more capable of counter-assaulting and mopping up small squads than their Tactical Marine counterparts but other than specific units, are pretty poor over protracted combats (1A base does that). With this in mind they aren't really a combat force though do have the capacity to poke you with big sticks in combat. Sounds great right? You dakka someone and polish them off in combat, the ultimate one-two punch. It's not all sunshine and roses however. The problem with this midfield orientation becomes two-fold.

Firstly, against aggressive armies you are doing part of the job for them - getting closer to your opponent. When many aggressive armies move a minimum of 12" in a single turn this doesn't give you much wiggle room with your reliance on 24" firepower. You can of course not move forward as much but it comes down to the fact that your opponent can cross that 24" gap quickly.

3++ Vassal Ladder Season 1 - Launch

Hi everyone, this is Katie Drake bringing you Ladder-related news!

I have a pretty big announcement to make. 3++ has teamed up with Athran from Devgaming.net to present to 40K players everywhere Season 1 of the V40K Ladder!

The official forums are up. To get involved, begin here. You’ll need an account to make posts and join the ladder.

There have been some changes to the rules because of the way that Devgaming.net’s ladder software works, so be sure to read the updated rules post found in the forums. It’s nothing major, just the way points are earned and lost after games as well as a couple clarifications.

The Ladder will open for registration at 12:00AM on July 31^st, Eastern Standard Time. People are encouraged to use the time between now and then to write army lists, read over the rules, ask questions and maybe get some practice in.

I hope to see people signing up to the forum and posting questions, comments and more soon. Looking forward to laddering with you guys!

Katie D

Email in: 40k List Advice

Web.Me

"Well I am just getting back into 40k after about a year long break and am trying to figure out what army to do. I had grey knights back in the day and was considering going with them again but my 40k list building skills are lacking so I thought I'd email you guys and see if you can give me some advice on this list I wrote up. It's a little light on the bodies to my taste but I still think it's ok.

1,750 Grey Knights

Coteaz

Imperial Guard Codex Review: Part 10: Fast Attack Part 2

Dakka

The next instalment of Imperial Guard Fast Attack. Once again, not it's not just Vendettas and yes there are other viable choices. Last post we saw the applied usage of Scout Sentinels as disruption with Armored Sentinels having some merit as a tarpit, albeit an expensive one. The Vendetta is still of course near the pinnacle of raw efficiency but they due to this don't last long and thus there are other options with which we can utilise our Fast Attack slot. We've only got two real units left, Rough Riders and the three variants of the Hellhound Flame tank. Let's take a gander.

Rough Riders

Seriously, horses still see use in the 41st millennium? Meh well tickle me pink I'd demand a jetbike to be honest. Rough Riders have one real use, a cheap counter-assault unit. They aren't super cheap at 10 points a model (55 for base + Sergeant), particularly for a Guardsmen statline, but they are cavalry and thus have an excellent threat range and come with hunting lances + frag grenades. This means, the first time they charge they will make mince meat of most things thanks to S5/I5 power weapons. This only happens the first time they charge though so can be grossly over utilised against a piddly few guys left and will otherwise be pretty useless from that point onwards.

Blaming it on the Dice: Or not

We play a game of dice - it's that simple. We can do everything perfectly. Have the best list. Do everything right in the game. Give ourselves as many chances as possible to win. Encourage the dice as much as possible to ensure this happen. Sometimes though, it simply doesn't. It doesn't matter if you do everything right if the dice just say no. Whether you can't roll to hit or wound to save yourself or your opponent just looks at your guys and they explode, hell sometimes it's both. Sometimes, you just don't have control over how the game goes.

Unfortunately people too often use this as an excuse. Sure if the game comes down to a single roll (i.e. you need to run 2" to get onto an objective and you roll a 1), it can be pretty obvious the dice 'lost you the game.' However, did you do everything in your power to ensure that die roll didn't even need to happen? Or that the game didn't hinge on that single die? Did the dice influence up to and including that roll? This is where I feel people fall back on the excuse of the dice. If for example you had moved that unit a turn earlier, would you have been relying on that single D6 at the end of the game to get you within 3" of an objective? More than likely not. There are other consequences of doing this of course but it's pointless to blame the dice unless you played an absolutely 100% perfect game.

Vassal Battle Report: Grey Knights vs Blood Angel Jumpers (Bloodhammer)

So GWvsJohn decided to play a game in practice for the Vassal league. I decided to play him because it's my day off and I need more practice with my GK (do I ever)! We rolled up regular BRB missions since that is what is being used in my next couple of tournaments + the Ladder and got C&C + Dawn of War. We laughed as I predicted this and so went with Seize Ground + Dawn of War with 4 objectives. The objectives all ended up placed on one side and that is where the game was fought.

I won the roll-of and gave GWvsJohn the first turn. This allows him to be more aggressive but lets me have more options for objective taking near end game and I was confident in my ability to slow his ASM advanve with my tanks. The lists were as follows:

Grey Knight Grenades

For my Grey Knights I've lately been toying with a counter-assault unit in Death Cult Assassins. The list has a lot of dakka against both infantry and tanks but suffers when there is a good string of dice for the opponent on tough units (i.e. FNP/2+/3+ save units). Add in I cannot rely on the Strike Squads in combat and a counter-assault unit which can completely ignore good saves/FNP in combat, and a counter-assault unit might be a good idea. Unfortunately I only have a set amount of points to work with them so most likely will end up with a unit of five in a Razorback + an Inquisitor whilst still having some points to spare. The question becomes, do I want to change the Razorback to a Rhino and lose a heavy weapon or a Chimera and lose side hatches (which are really important for setting up charges) and up the squad count or use force multipliers - i.e. grenades.

There are obvious pros and cons to this situation. More bodies means the unit is more survivable and makes up for the lack of force multipliers through sheer weight of attacks. The grenades allow the unit to stay smaller but effective and therefore fit in a Razorback, limit the impact upon my pocket book but they feel every loss more keenly. Let's look at the Grey Knight grenades then and see how effective they really are and what options we have to gain access to them. Before we begin, each DCA I add with no modifiers adds 1.33 MEQ kills.

Imperial Guard Codex Review: Part 9: Fast Attack Part 1

NW Games Supply

The lovely home of the Vendetta. Yes, there are other units in this slot and yes, they are quite useful. Vendettas are amazingly cheap for what you get but not exactly durable. They can see everything but everything can see them and with only AV12, well they don't withstand firepower amazingly well. Now taking a couple of these isn't a bad thing, it gives you ranged and reliable S9 firepower which is quite mobile - it's just a huge target for your opponent. The other choices in Fast Attack are quite good as well but perhaps not seen as often as they should be with players generally going the easy route and taking three Vendettas. We'll start with the pretty gunships and then look at the other options Imperial Guard has.

Vendetta

For 130 points you get three twin-linked lascannons on a chassis way up high in the sky. Very nice firepower but not exactly durable and they will be high priority targets for your opponent. They will look to kill/shake these guys ASAP and move on. AV12 gives them some protection but not a lot against the higher strength guns and getting cover for them is very difficult. That being said they always come with extra armor so can at least always move and are quite capable of getting into advantageous firing positions with scout (or try and hide/gain cover but unlikely).

Roland's Tourney Experiences: Gigabytes 2500 Tourney

Before I get into the awesomeness that was the Gigabytes 2500pt Tourney, I want to give you all a public service announcement. You see that fine looking chap to the left? Yes that one who's flipping us off. That's Kirby, the Evil One. Not the Pink Happy Go-Lucky Kirby, but the Pink One's evil twin. He's evil. And he cheats. Don't play him. EVAR. Ban him from your tourney's. Remember folks: Chris Kirby Cheats!

Ok announcement over. So the Gigabytes 2500pt Tourney. I'm going to go over the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, like I normally do, and then I'll follow it with a quick Lesson's Learned from my perspective for I learned A LOT from this tourney. I'll gloss over my 3 games briefly before the Lesson's Learned portion for the turn by turn play wasn't as important as what I took away from it. Without further ado, let's delve into the realm of THE GOOD.

Using Paladins within a 'normal' army

This isn't a Draigowing post or looking at solodins - VT2 is doing that and better get it done soon. Rather, this is looking at Paladins within a standard Grey Knight army. Are they a viable choice and if so how should they be used? Do they help an army's competitiveness or should they just be left at home? These are the types of questions this post is going to look at and hopefully give you some more information on Paladins if you feel like you want to use them as a squad rather than a basis for the army list.

First things first - Paladins are Terminators which cost 15 points more for an extra Wound and WS5. Both of these are awesome upgrades as Paladins hit harder in combat and are a lot more durable. They also come with more options such as two specials per five guys and the ability to master-craft anything for five points. However, they are amazingly weak to S8+ firepower considering their points cost. Now they are still going to get a 4+ cover save in general against these weapons, so it's not like mass S8+ firepower vaporises them, but it is certainly a deterrent in terms of basing a whole list around these guys. As a singular squad though? Less of an issue though if you can mitigate this vulnerability in some way (T5/immune to instant death character), it's not a bad option. They can also get an Apothecary to give them FNP but with two wounds each + wound allocation, this isn't always necessary as it's quite expensive at 75 points and doesn't help against the firepower which Paladins are weak against. If you want to take an Apothecary, only do so on full squads.

Warmachine - Is it Right For You? Part II

Continuing on!  In my previous article, I discussed several ways in which Warmachine and Hordes are different from Warhammer 40k and Fantasy. Again, they were:

1. Warmachine is centered around heroic individuals, that lead and support your force.

2. Changing casters can completely change the style of play of an army.

3. When these individuals die, you lose the game, regardless of the condition of the rest of your army.

4. Each model/unit does all phases of activation at a time, rather than army-wide move-shoot-combat.

5. You-go/I-go system, with no dice control outside of your turn.

6. Knowledge of both your army and your opponent's army is vital.

7. Warmachine is a skirmish level game = few miniatures. Not truly epic!
8. Sculpts are, on average, of superior quality (though this is, of course, in the eye of the beholder).

9. Privateer Press is a company that appears to value interaction with their customers.

Last time we got through points 1-3.  One thing I forgot to mention, but is actually a quite important difference, came up in the comments section in the last article, so I want to specifically address it.

Email in: 2000 point Coteaz Paladin Bubble

Painting Raven

"Hi Kirby,

I've been reading your blog for a while although I don't think I've played an actual game of 40k or worked on a mini for quite a while now and have yet to actually complete the one army I own (a hybrid mech IG blob that I started back in 3rd edition because tanks were cool and space marines were the easy army). However, I've been somewhat keeping up with the codex releases and the online netlist scene. The title of the army should be pretty self explanatory, and I guess it should operate something similar to an SM thunderbubble list except the bubble part actually shoots things and the troops are weaker overall. Paladins form a nice nasty wall, other GK's and MM bunkers sit behind it in midfield to support, and the rest of the army chills in the back. Coteaz would stick himself in the paladin squad (or one of them, if combat squadding) to take advantage of his ex-mystic powers (was debating putting in a unit of 3 plasma cannon servitors for him to sit with for epic rage).

The Facts of Tournament Results

We have a guest article, finally, from Messanger of Death of Imperial Life lack-of-game. I've been asking him to do this article for a while now in relation to taking tournament results as canon in terms of 'this army is good cause it won a tournament herp a derp.' Hopefully there will be a follow-up with some more lay understandings but is otherwise a highly recommended read for all players. 

Hello all my Imaginary Friends. Today we will take a look at how to determine whether the results of a tournament apply to you. And hopefully by the end of this article you will understand why using tournaments as a means to compare armies is not only flawed, but just plain stoopid. So sit back and be prepared to have your brains melted from extreme levels of boredom.

3++ Vassal Ladder - The Roolz

Hi everybody! I’m back, this time with the rules for the 3++ Vassal 40K Ladder. I read all of the comments and have come to a couple of conclusions on the questions I asked. I’d like to thank everyone for their contributions and input as well as Kirby for help with formatting and technical stuff (I’ve never used blogger before, see?) as well as providing me with a platform to reach all of the readers from. I’d also like to thank VT2, ZJoekov and Mcdmk2 for giving me the encouragement I needed to take the leap to start truly putting my thoughts out there.

I’m not into long introductions, so let’s get right into it!

Immolator Nerf! - Sisters of Battle White Dwarf release

Maws 40k

Most of you have seen the new Sisters of Battle rumors and the most apparent thing outside of the overhauled Faith System (D6 points per turn, only usable during player's turn) is the Immolator kick in the nuts. We knew it was coming but the glorious move 12", fire a twin-linked heavy flamer, Razorback with a firepoint has been reduced to...a Razorback with twin-linked heavy flamer. Yawn. 


We shall see what the points are for everything inside a month I imagine which will drastically impact the usefulness of such things as the Exorcists (much cheaper please), Penitent Engines (much cheaper please), Repentias (cheaper please and should therefore work well with Priests + their Faith), etc. I imagine the regular Sisters of Battle will be below their previous 11 points with a premimum placed on their upgrade characters thanks to Faith. One also expects Uriah Jacobus will be quite popular (re-roll Faith amount per turn) depending upon points cost. Having an excellent counter-assault unit in Death Cult Assassins is also nice and we know how awesome they are! A 6++ on most units is nice as well but with cover predominate at 5th we have to ask why wasn't this a 5++?

Email in: Starting Space Marines

"Hey Kirby,

I sent you an email a while back about starting Codex Space Marines and you gave me a fair amount of advice, in particular, starting at 1,000 points rather than 750. After doing a bit of list building I came up with a few ideas. The central idea is to start at that 1k mark and add to the army in 500 point increments. Let me know what you think.

2 x 10 Tactical Marines, Flamer, Multi-melta, rhino - 410
Librarian - 100
Sternguard Veteran Squad, 2 multimelta, razorback, lascannon, tl-plasmagun - 210
2 x 2 Multi-melta/heavy flamer Landspeeders - 280

Zjoekov went to a UK Tournament

As some of you might know, I went to a tournament in the UK last weekend (I'm from the Netherlands myself). I got invited to come over by Alex Harrison/Killswitch. Basicly I had a great weekend, thanks again for that Alex! Now, I had hoped I would be providing you with battlereports now to show how I play Mech Eldar... but when I was about to make my first picture my camera turned out to be dead. Broken. Kaput! So I'll just tell you some things now about the tournament, for those who are interested.

First the tournament itself. The tournament was called 'Brighton Warlords' and I've been told that it's one of the better tournaments in southern England. 42 people participated. 1750 points, 6 games and basic rulebook missions. Now personally I don't really mind playing rulebook missions, you get used to it. Kill-points I actually find the most boring mission. It's kinda easy to just consolidate after you're a few killpoints ahead, but c'est la vie. Now the terrain...was surprisingly good! Nice mix of area terrain, some smaller pieces of rubble/fences and some LoS blocking things.

Project: Gaming Table - Terrain

One thing I really lack is a proper gaming table and good terrain. We most often go to stores and use their tables or at home use Vince's board (which is at my house and he always complains about though he never comes to pick it up :P). Vince's board is certainly nice, two pieces, sturdy and not barren in terms of a single color and no features but our usual terrain is...well cityfight buildings and whatever we can scrounge up. Not ideal for a proper board, great for themes but not a balanced fight.

Where's this all going? Well Dethtron's awesome Gaming on a Budget - Table version has given me some great inspirations. I admit I was an avid follower of this series at the beginning but I forgot to keep up with it. Now that he's finished it I've gone back and looked at the individual articles and it doesn't look that hard! Couple pieces of plywood, lots of that styrofoam stuff, a hot wire cutter, some paint and an idea and we imagine I could at least get the table down.

The theme I have in mind is a huge ice flow - much like the basis of my Space Marines bases. I've always loved snow themes for my models and the back stories of all my armies are tied up in a particular region of snow/ice planets. Having a snow board would therefore be awesome. I'd be looking at doing something akin to this:

Hybrid Blood Angels, the fester way

So, I managed to get a sweet deal on 25 Chapterhouse Jump Packs and have decided that I want to try to do a Hybrid BA list for the next year's tournaments, and let the Orks simmer a bit. I will see how this goes, but it's worth a shot. Orks are my first love, after all :)

I have been bouncing ideas of Kirby, SneakyDan, and others as to where I should go with this, and I think I have an interesting template that works for me. Does it work overall? Who knows.

So, the quick definition of "hybrid" first:
Both Mech and Foot, in the same list, with some form of synergy.

fester has another Tournament... failure.

Hi lads and ladettes,

Your intrepid Ork Player/Reporter fester here once again reporting on how he failed at 40k. Again.
Long time no see. And well, will be longer again until the next time given that I have just welcomed fester Jnr into this world (that's #2 for those who are counting) and I have all but been stopped playing 40k until 2012. Joy! Saying this, I will quickly throw together another post for tonight chroncling my Hybrid BA for people to laugh at and ridicule.

Anyway, onto the tournament.

Imperial Armour Army List Review: Armo(u)red Battlegroup

Continuing with my series reviewing the army lists Forge World has put out, this time I'll be talking about the Armored Battlegroup. Back in the bad old days of 4E and early 5E, when the IG codex was basically a joke and vehicles were still regarded as bad, this was supposedly a list to fear. it could take LOTS of TANKS, for crying out loud! How could that not be broken!? Um, yes. Having actually seen the army in play myself... it isn't very good. Wasn't and isn't. Thematic, sure- nothing says "The Imperial Guard" like ten Leman Russes rolling down the field, but being that Forge World's expertise at balancing things is... less than stellar, it's not a huge surprise that it falls short in some odd ways.

Countdown to NOVA– 35 days

Hi everyone, Gramps is here to impart his years of wisdom (all 27 of them). Kirby has graciously allowed me to be a guest author for a while as a lead up to the 2011 NOVA Open GT (40k). I played in last year’s NOVA Open and had a blast, despite my average record with my Tau. This year is going to be much larger with 256 40k players, so I will be taking a slightly more competitive army, Doublewing.

My vision for this series of posts is to chronicle my journey to NOVA culminating with real time battle reports and a final NOVA summary. I use the term real-time loosely because I do not know if there will be any WiFi in the tournament area. If there is not, I will have to run up to my hotel room during the longer breaks to post. Either way, my goal is to give those that cannot make it to NOVA an opportunity to follow along with the fun.

GWvsJohn revisits Vulkan

The biggest change during my absence seems to be the explosion of mixed-mech forces. Let's call it the "Hybrid Revolution." I can see a few reasons for this. First, the newest books (GK, DE and BA) all do hybrid very well. Second a lot of armies can get relatively cheap access to large volume s7 and s8 shooting. If you rely too heavily on light/medium mech for your firepower and mobility, these armies can smoke you. Finally, mixed-mech is fun. Everyone enjoys putting guys on the table and only doing so after your Rhino gets exploded isn't quite as fun. Added to the fact that a lot of the more competitive "older" books could already do hybrid well (Tau, IG, SW), it now seems like everyone is bringing a mixed army to the table.

The book that this revolution most affected is everyone's favorite, the rock upon which all other codexes are built, the driving force of GW's corporate machine, the good old Space Marines. In this new age, the "standard" fighting block for the boys in blue is now 10 man Tactical plus rhino paired with small Devastator plus rhino. I can see the benefit. You gain toughness and mobility for your scoring by splitting them into 2 rhinos and the Devs bring 4 heavies that can't be shut down with 1 shot as easily as a tank. The most common loadout seems to be combat squad with melta/combi-melta in 1 rhino, combat squad with ML or MM in the other rhino and 5 Devs with 4 ML. Despire my deep seeded hatred of codex Devs, I kinda like it. I'm not sure it's better than the old standby of 10 Tacs with MM, flamer or melta and combi-melta in a rhino supported by a dakka pred, but hybrid is the new black so we evolve.

Quick Interruption- Need More People for Tournament!

Sorry Kirby, don't mean to push you down the page, just have a quick announcement.

I am running a qualifier for the Feast of Blades this Saturday! (July 23rd) At Karliquins Game Knight in Boulder, Colorado. We're only half full and I really would love more people, so if you live near this town you should really check it out. Even if you're planning on going to another qualifier (I know a lot of stores are having theirs on the 30th) you can still come to mine, there's no limit.

If you place 1st or 2nd at this event you qualify for the invitational tournament at the November convention, and get to compete for fabulous prizes! Also, you get to hang out with me! Yay!

If you're interested the tournament is 2000 points, give the store a call and just give them your name at (303) 545-1745.

Personally, I would just love it if you in particular would come.

How To: Breaking Bubble-wrap

A common defense against assaults and close-ranged weapons such as meltaguns is the bubble-wrap. This is where infantry protect more important targets, whether they are tanks, weak in combat, counter-assault units, whatever, by placing themselves in front of said units. Correct placement forces opponent's a set distance away from these protected units (i.e. out of melta range) and stops assaults on these units by either being in the direct path of the assaulting units and  too far away for a multi-assault/no gaps between bases. Any unit can do this but there are some armies such as Tau, Tyranids and Imperial Guard which have units acting as dedicated bubble-wrap. This helps their army function at its peak capacity for as long as possible and dictate gameplay as much as possible (shoot more for longer in the case of Tau and Imperial Guard and counter-assault for Tyranids).

We've discussed this a lot on this blog and the benefits of using it. The question now is, how do we break it? There are several options: shooting, assault, multiple singular tank shocks or a combined tank shock wedge. We'll look at each scenario.

Trial Menoth Lists

Made some lists to get some ideas in relation to what I want/need to buy and how I want to play with the faction. SirBiscuit was of some help, what a nice young lad! Have at ye. (all are 35 points).

eFeora (+6)

-          Reckoner (8)

-          Redeemer (6)

-          Vanquisher (8)

Min Errants + UA (7)

Min Choir (2)

Full Basitons (8)

Covenant of Menoth (2)

Flooding the Field: Lots of units

We've discussed before the advantages of concepts such as army within an army/1+1 but with a greater focus on looking at the impact of mech generating 'layers' of an army and how transports can bring extra firepower to the table. What we didn't look at, which is part and parcel of the 1+1 concept and maximising your Force Organisation chart, is saturating the battlefield. If we have a full FoC we can have a maximum of 17 units yet we commonly see armies with many more Kill Points than this. Now obviously Independent Characters/Retinues can cause this to be higher but we regularly see 22+ Kill Point armies. Why? Transports can be bought for many units within the FoC. What does this do? Obviously we get the advantages of mech, the whole army within an army concept, extra movement, protection, tank shocking, etc. but something that seems to be overlooked is you can an extra unit on the table.

What does this mean? It depends a lot on the type of transports your army is built around. We'll focus on two examples to illustrate the point. A Dark Eldar list with lots of Raiders and Venoms and a Space Marine list with lots of Rhinos. Both armies have the advantages of mech to varying degrees (Dark Eldar are faster, Space Marines more durable) but the Dark Eldar army has a further advantage which they can utilise - they can bring to bear more offensive threats. Let's look at this statement.

Imperial Guard Codex Review: Part 8: Troops Part 2

Dakka

In the last post we looked at the other Troop choices open to Imperial Guard, lamented the lack of FoC changes Guard have available to them and commented on the whopping number of individual units an Imperial Guard force can generate from just one Infantry Platoon (20 if you recall). That's insane and whilst not all of those units are worth taking, it's worth taking note of and gives us a lot of options in how to use the unit. And let us just for a second, imagine a game with unlimited points...120 units from Troops alone for Imperial Guard. Freaky!

Infantry Platoon

The Platoon option is broken down into five separate entries which have a unique role within the army/unit, can operate independently, have a set number of squads allowed (i.e. one Platoon Command Squad but up to five Infantry Platoons) and a unique set of options and point costs. We'll look at each one and then as a whole.

Backlinks Updated

So I spent most of this morning updating all the backlinks in the blog. That means all the Armies in 5th, Codex Reviews, How To's and importantly, Useful Articles Archive is up to date. Finally. I had slacked off from early March...

I've changed up a few things as well. First, the article series page is gone and melded with the Useful Articles Archive. In its place we have the Comparison page which archives all the unit and army comparisons we have done/will be doing. The page is pretty bare atm with just the links as I cannot at this point, be bothered editing anymore HTML. The Useful Articles Archive has also been changed in its layout. It's still a work in process but should now be easier to find information regarding specific armies. I need to work on the layout obviously to make it easier on the eyes and probably split the first two subheadings (All Armies and Game System) up as 50% of the links appear there. Any feedback or ideas in regards to making the page prettier and easily navigated would be appreciated.

And with that I am going to rest my eyes! Again, great post to leave any feedback/wants/needs, etc. in relation to what 3++ does for you.

Forumitis special edition: "The bandwagon!"

A special episode of forumitis, largely brought into existence by this: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/07/editorial-bandwagon-armies.html

When everybody got Iphone4's, did you rage about bandwagoning, holding aloft your original Iphone from 2007 to the heavens, or did you whine, loudly accusing everybody of being idiots, while proudly picking your old Nokia with black-and-white monitor from your pocket, ranting like a crazy person to 'the new kids' that as long as you know how to use it properly, you don't need all this new, cutting-edge tech, internet access, or even color displays?

Imperial Guard Codex Review: Part 7: Troops Part 1

Dakka

I've split Troops into two separate sections for Imperial Guard - Infantry Platoons and everything else. The reasoning should be obvious, Infantry Platoons have a massive amount of options and taking just a single selection of these guys can net you 14 individual squads + six Chimeras. Uh wow? This obviously isn't common but there are still a ton of options to discuss. We aren't doing that this post though! First we're going to look at the always loved Veterans and forgotten Troops of Penal Legions. Before this though, Imperial Guard are one of the few 5th edition armies without major Force Organisation swapping available. This is highly unusual and whilst they do have some good options, there are some pretty easy things which could have been FoC swapped. Veterans themselves could have made a lot of sense as a Troop under a specific character (or characters) though they make sense as regular Troops as well. Other choices such as Stormtroopers or perhaps Rough Riders would have opened up some more builds for Imperial Guard.

They don't but we can wish! Let's start with the Veterans then.

Dice Bags have arrived

Yay in all their black glory. 50 cuddly and velvet bags have arrived and now just need shiny 3++ dice to go into them before I ship them out!

Here's a close-up:

It seems to attract a lot of dust/fibres sort of thing like many black clothes so...keep them clean! Here's a mass picture...

Email in: GK Shock list up for discussion

"Hiya Kirby!

Congratulations, your blog is my No. 1 source for list building, amusing articles and general information regarding the WH40k universe!
I recently started my 4th army because I got bored of my space wolves play style. I bought a couple of the new GK minis and I'm currently building and painting up the first squads.

I wanted to try something completely new compared to my wolves so I made an all shock army list with no vehicles at all. I don't play that competitive, we run a small league and do mostly some casual gaming.

Here's what I came up with:

Menoth & Khador - Thinking Aloud

Okay I'm only about halfway through the rules for Warmachine and have read a fair amount from what has been posted here in response to my posts and around the web. Vince and I look like we are going to get the two-player start battle box when it comes out which is said to include Kreoss, Crusader, Vanquisher and Repenter jacks + a five model Cinerator unit for Menoth. Although I love the Cinerators I probably won't use them on strong recommendations from people I know aren't dunderheads ^^ but will happily paint them up as they look amazing. So here's what I have so far in terms of understanding of Menoth itself.

It's a slow(er), with less shooting and a strong focus on synergy and denial and for that reason, you don't leave home without a Choir (2/3 points) for jack buffing. The Vassal of Menoth (2 points) is also a good buff unit with the Knight Exemplar Errants (5/8 + UA 2) and Temple Flameguard (4/6 + UA 2) both being excellent units on which to base your force. The Vanquisher and Reckoner are the 'go to' jacks of choice for Menoth at 8 points each with Basitons (5/8) being the better unit over Cinerators thanks to Sanguine Bond and reach whilst not being uber fantastic themselves.

Dark Eldar - Royalty List

Eldar addict

We've looked at lists centring around both the Duke and Baron for Dark Eldar before but generally from an e-mailers perspective. Here's my take and something I'm encouraging Vince to put together as he's now collecting Dark Eldar...reasons unknown. Both the Duke and Baron are two of the better characters for Dark Eldar. Neither are too expensive and both are pretty durable for T3 guys (thanks Shadow Field!) and bring some excellent abilities to the army. The key to using any one of them is to maximise their special abilities without hamstringing the list. This effect will be magnified with both of them so we must aim to not over focus on their bonuses and miss out on actual army effectiveness.

So, what do the two of these guys give us? Baron helps us decide who gets first turn and this is pretty big. Remember, going first isn't always the best but deciding who goes first more often than not, is a very nice bonus to have. He also moves Hellions to Troops and gives quite a few buffs to a single squad including a Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Stealth, Skilled Rider and an improved Hit and Run. Duke on the other hand allows for a better reserves game by allowing all vehicles to deep-strike (and units can disembark), improves units with combat drugs by giving them some reliability and gives one Kabalite unit 3+ poisoned weapons. Between the two you get an awesome spread of buffs but you're unlikely to make maximum use of all - to do so would weaken the army as a whole. Taking both of them costs 255 points which is very cheap for the buffs we are getting and two decent combat characters.

Warmachine – Is it Right For You? Part 1

Dreadnoughts or Warjacks? Which do you prefer?

In his now semi-infamous rant, VT2 recently railed against all of the faults, perceived or real, of Warmachine/Hordes and its players, in trying to explain why he doesn't like the system. Some of his points were valid, if difficult to discern beneath the sarcasm, and some of them were simply wrong (or at best, misinformed). In this article I'll try to address some of these issues and explain them a bit more clearly. I'll also point out some of the differences between Warmachine/Hordes and 40k/Fantasy, so that new players can be more informed about whether or not Warmahordes is right for them.

Here are what I see as some of the key points of Warmahordes, that really distinguish between it and 40k/Fantasy, aside from the obvious factions and fluff.

Joining the bandwagon: How to Fix Tyranids

It's pretty well-known that the Tyranid codex is the red-headed stepchild of 5E. Hell, we weren't that hot with the 4E book, either, shitty Nidzilla lists aside. I may disagree on the degree to which the codex has problems (as bad as Necrons? really, Stelek?), but I think we can agree that the problems exist and are major enough to place them well below the other updated books. As of late, it's become popular to post lists of "fixes" for how one would handle redesigning the book to be more functional. This is my shot at that.

Tyranids: Closing Thoughts

So here we are at the end of Tyranid week. I will go through and look at the other army comparisons for Tyranids later but the ones we've looked at so far are heralded as the 'worst' match-ups for Tyranids. Notice they are all 5th edition books which are held in rather high regard themselves and the strengths and issues the Tyranids face against all armies are often the same - they can shoot Tyranids off the board and overwhelm them with mech and infantry targets.

What does this then mean for Tyranid competitiveness? They certainly aren't right up there and will find it very difficult to win tournaments, they simply have armies which are loaded against them (Space Wolves, Imperial Guard and Grey Knights) in terms of match ups. They aren't exactly uncommon armies either. This doesn't mean to say they cannot win those games or even tournaments (look at Lorriness' success with his Tyranids) but rather it is very difficult for them to do so.

Email in: Figuring out some Ultramarines

"Hio Kirbs!

I have been a loyal Demonhunters player since 3rd edition but now with the new codex there have been a lot of Grey Knight players popping up. So i thought i would change things up and go back to my first 40k army ever, the Ultramarines, more specifically a pure 2nd company. So my army is similar to the mech army list in the list compilation section but with a few changes. Here it is:

Librarian: null zone, avenger

Email in: Blood Angels 1750 list

Dakka

" Hi Kirby,

I've been following your blog for a while now, and thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the content. Lucky days for me, too, that you've decided to write all these fancy blood angels articles/respond to blood angels emails just as I'm considering starting a BA army. If you have some time, could you take a look at this list I've made?

Mephiston - 250
Honor Guard w/ 2 meltagun [rhino] - 185

Kirby and Warmahordes? NOOOOO

I know, you're all crying like a bunch of babies but I'm still not sure about it. I have to look at the local scene, convince Vince and his mates to join and probably get a lot of games on Vassal (which is supported by Privateer Press btw) before I actually commit to this. I'm reading the rules currently. That being said, I've been pulled in by the models and you know who's to blame? VT2. He posted that damn picture of the Menoth Exemplar Cinerators and even though the grape vine tells me they aren't so flash, the Menoth model range appeals to me quite a bit. I mean look at these guys.

Email in: Map Reviews

"Hey, Kirby. Long time reader, and all that noise. I've been re-reading your Terrain Setup article, and I was wondering if you'd be willing to look over a few maps of mine and critique them. I've attached the .vsavs, but here's pictures of each of them:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f348/jkmvalgaav2/4x4Tau.png
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f348/jkmvalgaav2/4x4Crash.png
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f348/jkmvalgaav2/6x4DesertPass.png
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f348/jkmvalgaav2/6x4OpenField.png

All in all, I think my biggest problem is OVERdoing cover. What do you think?

- Anne"

Army Comparison: Grey Knights and Tyranids

The nail in the coffin? This match up receives the most whining I've ever seen. Anywhere. Some of it is justified. Some of it isn't. Let's take an objective take on it then! When the Grey Knights codex first hit, this was a match up that was poured over obsessively and the usual advantages were thrown around. In general these are quite right but I feel people have gone too far and basically ticked Grey Knights as auto-win. They are far from it but certainly have the tools for the job in removing both the big Tyranids and small gribblies from the table. Their strengths often play straight into Tyranid weaknesses whilst Tyranid strengths often play into the hands of Grey Knight strengths. This is where we get a severe match up disparity and all the whining the Internet can throw at us.