Dataslates, Formations, and the day 40K died..to the competitive set....

Howdy guys.  40K as we know it is going through some tremendous changes at the moment.  No more are we privy to waiting long periods of time waiting for updates, army updates, etc, the advent of 6th edition brought with it updates and changes that we have never experienced before.  To some of us, 6th edition has heralded a golden age to 40K with armies getting updated with much more frequency, updates to the game in the form of codex supplements, etc.  To others, 6th edition has brought the death knell to 40K.  These vocal minority, usually from the competitive side of things are sounding the alarm that 40K is now d-e-a-d, dead, that balance has been thrown out the window in favor of profits.  Well I wont deny that GW is in the business of making money, a lot of money and from the stand point of being a publicly traded company, they do have an obligation to their shareholders to maximize profits.  Some of the Dataslates, GW's newest digital updates/changes definitely are guilty of this by providing special rules and updates to their holiday bundles.  Of course some of these updates/changes have been one-sided, one just needs to look at the Tau Hunter Cadre dataslate and see that by running this Tau "formation", you get tank hunters and preferred enemy space marines for free.  40K as it stands, as it always stood since my beginning of my 40K "career" has never been balanced; in one edition or another, one faction would be favored over another while another one is nerfed to unplayability.  The examples are there, CSM 3.5, Tyranids 4th edition, Grey Knights 5th edition, Eldar 4th and 6th edition, the list goes on and on. So whats my point?  The fact is GW is giving us players something great, and that is options, options to play the game we love how we want.  Last week GW dropped one of the biggest changes to their core game rules with Stronghold Assault and Escalation.  Now usually, these wouldnt be an issue, since they are after all a supplement like a Battle Missions or Planet Strike.  The difference though is that GW in black and white states that this can be used in normal games of 40K .  That alone is cause for alarm in the competitive scene.  I mean how can we crown a champion when all a person needs to do is pay their 500 bucks for their revenant to add to an already over powered book?  What if people add in their Tau formation to this.  Oh the humanity!!! How do we handle the power gaming maddness??!!  We need to ban units or comp tournaments oh no.  Now hold on there, lets take a step back, really how different is this then before?  I mean didn't we ban forgeworld from most of our tournaments?  Isn't terrain already setup for players when the BRB asks that we take turns in placing the terrain.  Do we not run different mission types then those from the book as the ones in the book are perceived as being unbalanced?  The list is of items that need consideration is a little longer now but the answer remains the same, just allow what you want.  Allow what the players want.  Offer different types of tourneys, ones that stick to just using the BRB and supplements, to anything goes gladiator type games.  In the end, play the game how you want to play it.  And this is the beauty of our hobby my friends, choice. 

Meta in Peril.... Grey Knights again???!!!

Hey guys, today I finished listening to the latest episode of the 11th company and made the mistake of heading out to everyones`s favorite color commentary and 40k expert Stelek and oh my gosh I got the feeling that they think that the Meta is in peril due to 2 books that were released this year - Tau and Eldar.  Stelek of course chose the little kid route and  took his toys and went home and judging by his last posts over the last 3 months decided that 40k as it stands is unplayable.  I applaud TO's who have taken the steps of leveling out the playing field by adding more terrain or more line of sight blocking terrain pieces so that armies with the ability to ignore cover wont auto win if they get the first turn.  In fact, per the rules of the game, the game is designed to have some line of sight blocking terrain so games are not just shooting galleries.  I will give Stelek credit with his USG game rules for competitive 40K rules, rules to streamline the game for tournament play, I have read some of it and wish him luck with it but to be honest, dont see it going anywhere.  The 11th company in their latest podcast cast what I say a dark shadow on what they call a meta where only if you take eldar or tau will you have a shot at winning any tournament.  I might agree with this to a point but come on.. How do you explain Ben Molie getting to the final tables with a necron/Ork list?  Or the guy from the FTN podcast who took a blood angel list and did very well with it?  Is it harder for players not using Tau or Eldar?  Sure but I still believe that its the player not the list that makes the winner.  Am I blind in my assumptions?   Are we in the era of the Grey Knight, eh Tau/Eldar.  Is that all we we see in every tournament top table or final 5? Where are daemons in the middle of this?  To many of the 40k experts, this codex is part of the problem as well with its unkillable screamer star build.  No matter what, top tournament players are going to take what they perceive as a good or powerful army as they want to win and find that using lists like this will help them achieve that.  If the internet says that Tau are over powered, or Eldar wave serpent spam is the only way to win tournaments, guess what, that is all you are going to see. 

I heard a very interesting rumor/gossip on another podcast in regards to the speed that GW is doing releases.  The host stated that during his conversation with this insider person, one of the reasons that releases were coming out so quick was that GW wanted people to stick to their armies, buy some allies and units to update their armies and to create all comers armies with their armies.  The speed of the releases would make it that the meta would be constantly changing and so people wouldn't be able to keep up with the changes.  This sounds all fine and dandy but in the end, GW knows that the faster it can release product, the more money it can generate.  These top tournament players will and have been buying and playing what is perceived to be the top armies.  What my hope is that with new  releases, new codexs become the top dog.  So what could be done in the meantime?   Bring back comp?  Nah, but when even Goatboy from bols is sad and angry about the current state of the game and proposing that comp gets implemented into major Tournaments is the current state of the game that horrible?  Will maybe its the fact that 40k isnt a tourney friendly game? GW has always maintained that 40k is more a beer and pretzels game which in the end could be the issue after all...

With the new Horus Hersey book out now, I have been in full Nightlord mode and have been working on adding more models to my biker squads, rhinos, and some basic CSMs.  Pics are of my converted dark vengeance DA bikers to Nightlord bikers.  Let me know what you think.

Thousand Sons in 6th edition

Here I go again with 40K ADD, in my last post I spoke about putting together a Khrone list that centered on presenting as many fast killy units to an opponent at one time and basically win games on overwhelming pressure.  Now I'm going to talk about a list that is centered on winning the psychic phase, basically putting out both maledictions and buffs to overwhelm the opponent by buffing or weakening key units.  I`m a huge Thousand Sons fan and own a big Thousand Sons army that I wanted  to dust off and start using again.  The problem of course is to make the army viable in todays meta at least to make it a little competitive and not just a fluff bunny list that loses to everything under the sun.  How do we solve this?  Well, lets look at the unit itself -

The Thousand Sons squad. 
The squad brings with it fearless, a 4 up invul save, power armor, and ap3 bolters.  Not bad so far and on its own something to consider however lets look at its not so good features.  The squad is slow and purposeful which in 5th edition might have been a boon by allowing you to move and shoot but with the changes to rapid fire weapons in 6th, its a big hindrance.  The squad cant run which means you have to invest in rhinos to get them across the battlefield which adds to their points cost and the biggest issue about it, you cant overwatch when assaulted.  This is huge and due to their ap3 bolters, might have actually deterred enemies from assaulting (+3 or higher armor saves).  The next issue is the squad having to take an expensive character with limited options.  The aspiring sorcerer clocks in at almost  65 points which is as much or more than an actual sorcerer.  If I am going to pay the same price, please give me the same options, +1 wound, WS 5 and the option to buy another psychic level.  At least make it that the guy could pick from any psychic tree.  Dont think this what be over powering and the cost itself would be a very good limiter.  The last of course is the cost of the unit.  9 guys with a Rhino clocks in around 277 points.  For that price the unit should at least come with grenades or a way to increase the strength of their bolters so at least they could go after light vehicles.  How about changing their guns to assault 2 so at least they can be the shooty unit that they are meant to be. 

OK,ok so enough with the complaining, now how do we play them in 6th?  I take a squad that maximizes their shooting ability but still keep their sacred number, so 9 in a squad.  To improve the units mobility,  I take a Rhino.   To give the unit some anti tank ability,  I give the champ melta  bombs.  This clocks in at 282 points, pretty expensive but OK for my purposes.  I usually take 2 squads like this unless it's a big game where I take 3 squads.  The strength of the army is not in these squads but the resilience that the squad provides the attached sorcerer lord.  It grants him fearless, and a squad with a built in sigil invulnerable save.  In this army I take 2 sorcerer lords to maximize my attempts at getting the best powers out of telepathy.  And that my friends is the crux of the army, basically taking dual sorcerers to try to get hallucination and invisibility and casting it on as many units as possible so that the thousand sons can pick them apart through bolter fire or in close combat.  If the aspiring champ or the tzeentch sorcerer picks up doombolt than that adds to the squads battle effectiveness.  We could take the squad in small 5 man squads but i feel that other CSM units do this better namely chosen or plague marines.  With my troop choices done, I also take the required heldrake and a squad of oblits.  I have been finding that a lascannon predator also solves my problem of long range firepower as well and for a cheap price.  Now the question remains what to take for a counter attack unit to aid the thousand sons?  I know here i will get laughed at as I usually take possessed.  Here me out though, the squad is fearless, has high strength and the random abilities are actually quite good now.  Now couple that that with lets say a grimore wielding herald of tzeentch getting them to a 2+ invul.  Yeah I know too gimmicky but scary.  Adding daemon allies just opens up more options and more importantly options that would make the list even more effective.  The same trick could be done with terminators and without a doubt the unit would be more effective but I just love how possessed look and the fact that termies are not fearless really bugs me.  Below is a list that I plan on trying.  I already played the list once against a daemon army but would like to try it against several builds before i deem it a success or failure.  This would be my "base" list, one that I would add on too. 

+++ Thousand Sons New Base List (1748pts) +++
+++ 1750pt Codex: Chaos Daemons 2013, Chaos Space Marines 6th Ed (2012) by SN Roster (Allied Detachment, Primary Detachment)) +++

+ HQ + (125pts)

    * Daemonic Heralds (125pts)
        * Herald of Tzeentch (125pts)
            (Change Discipline, Daemonic Instability, Deep Strike, Independent Character)
            D6 Exalted Daemonic Reward (30pts) (Exalted Rewards, Hellforged Artefacts), Psyker Level 3 (50pts)
            * Daemon of Tzeentch
                (Hatred (Daemon of Nurgle), Re-roll all Saving throws results of 1, Tzeentch Psyker Powers)
                Daemon (5+ Invulnerable Save, Fear)

+ Troops + (95pts)

    * Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (95pts)
        (Blue Horrors, Brotherhood of Sorcerers, Change Discipline, Daemonic Instability, Deep Strike, Magic Made Manifest)
        Iridescent Horror (5pts), 10x Pink Horrors (90pts)
        * Daemon of Tzeentch
            (Hatred (Daemon of Nurgle), Re-roll all Saving throws results of 1, Tzeentch Psyker Powers)
            Daemon (5+ Invulnerable Save, Fear)

Chaos Space Marines 6th Ed (2012) by SN (Primary Detachment) Selections:

+ HQ + (315pts)

    * Sorcerer (165pts)
        (Champion of Chaos, Independent Character, Psyker)
        2x Additional Mastery Level (50pts), Mark of Tzeentch (15pts), Sigil of corruption (25pts), Spell familiar (15pts)
        * Power Armour
            Bolt Pistol, Force Weapon

    * Sorcerer (150pts)
        (Champion of Chaos, Independent Character, Psyker)
        2x Additional Mastery Level (50pts), Sigil of corruption (25pts), Spell familiar (15pts)
        * Power Armour
            Bolt Pistol, Force Weapon

+ Elites + (334pts)

    * Possessed (334pts)
        (Daemon, Fearless, Fleet, Vessels of Chaos)
        * Chaos Rhino (35pts)
            (Repair)
            Combi-bolter, Searchlight, Smoke launchers
        * 9x Possessed (279pts)
            9x Mark of Tzeentch (45pts)
        * Possessed Champion (20pts)
            (Champion of Chaos)
            2x Gift of mutation (20pts)

+ Troops + (564pts)

    * Thousand Sons (Troops) (282pts)
        (Fearless, Mark of Tzeentch, Slow and Purposeful, Veterans of the Long War)
        8x Thousand Son (184pts)
        * Aspiring Sorcerer (63pts)
            Melta Bombs (5pts)
        * Chaos Rhino (35pts)
            (Repair)
            Combi-bolter, Searchlight, Smoke launchers

    * Thousand Sons (Troops) (282pts)
        (Fearless, Mark of Tzeentch, Slow and Purposeful, Veterans of the Long War)
        8x Thousand Son (184pts)
        * Aspiring Sorcerer (63pts)
            Melta Bombs (5pts)
        * Chaos Rhino (35pts)
            (Repair)
            Combi-bolter, Searchlight, Smoke launchers

+ Fast Attack + (170pts)

    * Heldrake (170pts)
        (Daemon, Daemonforge, It Will Not Die, Meteroric Descent)
        Baleflamer

+ Heavy Support + (145pts)

    * Chaos Predator (145pts)
        Lascannons (40pts), Twin-Linked Lascannon (25pts), Warpflame gargoyles (5pts)

I plan this use this list or something similar in my next games.  Let me know what you think, great list or fluff bunny list that is incredibly worthless.. Pics are from another Thousand Sons player and Ahriman from the GW site

Concept list #1 - Khorne's Wrath

Hey guys.. so I am thinking for a concept of a list that presents so many important targets that it would overwhelm opponents with what to kill first.  I tried to think of a list using the Chaos Space marine codex but found that I needed more.  I especially needed fast units, units that can threaten an opponent by turn 2.  The Maulerfiend came to mind but since its a vehicle, and armor 12, it could be 1-shotted fairly easily.  With the daemon codex, we finally get a lot of fast choices that are either super cheap or pretty resilient and the fact that they are battle brothers with CSM, compliment each other quite nicely.  The idea that I have was to run 2 chaos lords of khrone on juggernauts, 1 or 2 Maulerfiends, 2 full squads of spawn, a heldrake, and 2 or 3 full squads of cultists. As for the daemons side, herald of khorne on juggernaut or bloodthirster, squad of bloodletters, a squad of bloodcrushers, and a full squad of khorne flesh hounds.  As for heavy support, i would take a khorne damon prince.  The idea is simple, build an allied chaos list that would present my opponent's with so much hard hitting units, that they would be overwhelmed with what to target first.  In todays shoot-centric world of 40k, an army that can close the gaps could be a winning formula. 

I see the writing on the wall, armies that are getting updated are becoming more and more shooty. The heldrakes reign as well as any flyer  is about to come to an end.  With the Tau update, the amount of skyfire the army can bring is astonishing.  The amount of firepower they bring against anything  is just as ridiculous and so my belief of a fast army that can setup multiple assaults at the same time might be the answer.  If an army can hit lets say a tau lines at the same time that would decrease the amount of damage as they would need to concentrate their fire on the first unit hitting their lines.  Once you get stuck in, we know what happens to Tau. 

Below is a sample list of what I`m thinking about, it presents a lot of fast moving units that if not dealt with with prove to be quite nasty for an opponent.

+++ New Khrone Wraths fast army (2000pts) +++

Selections:

Codex: Chaos Daemons 2013 (Allied Detachment) Selections:

+ (No Category) +

    * Warp Storm Table
        (Warp Storm table)

+ HQ + (130pts)

    * Daemonic Heralds (130pts)
        * Herald of Khorne (130pts)
            (Daemonic Instability, Deep Strike, Independent Character)
            D6 Daemonic Reward (10pts) (Lesser Rewards, Magic Weapons), Greater Locus of Fury (20pts) (Greater Locus of Fury), Juggernaut (45pts)
            * Daemon of Khorne
                (Furious Charge, Hatred (Daemon of Slaanesh))
                Daemon (5+ Invulnerable Save, Fear)

+ Elites + (250pts)

    * Bloodcrushers of Khorne (250pts)
        (Daemonic Instability, Deep Strike)
        5x Bloodcrushers (225pts)
        * Bloodhunter (25pts)
            D6 Daemonic Reward (20pts) (Greater Magic Weapons, Greater Rewards)
        * Daemon of Khorne
            (Furious Charge, Hatred (Daemon of Slaanesh))
            Daemon (5+ Invulnerable Save, Fear)

+ Troops + (100pts)

    * Bloodletters of Khorne (100pts)
        (Daemonic Instability, Deep Strike)
        10x Bloodletters (100pts)
        * Daemon of Khorne
            (Furious Charge, Hatred (Daemon of Slaanesh))
            Daemon (5+ Invulnerable Save, Fear)

+ Fast Attack + (320pts)

    * Flesh Hounds of Khorne (320pts)
        (Daemonic Instability, Deep Strike, Scout)
        20x Flesh Hounds (320pts)
        * Daemon of Khorne
            (Furious Charge, Hatred (Daemon of Slaanesh))
            Daemon (5+ Invulnerable Save, Fear)

Chaos Space Marines 6th Ed (2012) by SN (Primary Detachment) Selections:

+ HQ + (345pts)

    * Chaos Lord (170pts)
        (Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Independent Character)
        Juggernaut of Khorne (35pts), Mark of Khorne (10pts), Sigil of corruption (25pts)
        * Power Armour (35pts)
            Axe of Blind Fury (35pts), Bolt Pistol

    * Chaos Lord (175pts)
        (Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Independent Character)
        Juggernaut of Khorne (35pts), Mark of Khorne (10pts), Sigil of corruption (25pts)
        * Power Armour (40pts)
            Lightning Claws (15pts), Power Fist (25pts)

+ Troops + (180pts)

    * Chaos Cultists (90pts)
        (Champion of Chaos)
        Champion's upgrade (10pts), 20x Squad models (champion included) (80pts)

    * Chaos Cultists (90pts)
        (Champion of Chaos)
        Champion's upgrade (10pts), 20x Squad models (champion included) (80pts)

+ Fast Attack + (300pts)

    * Chaos Spawn (150pts)
        (Fear, Fearless, Mutated Beyond Reason, Rage, Random Attacks, Very Bulky)
        5x Spawn (150pts)

    * Chaos Spawn (150pts)
        (Fear, Fearless, Mutated Beyond Reason, Rage, Random Attacks, Very Bulky)
        5x Spawn (150pts)

+ Heavy Support + (375pts)

    * Maulerfiend (125pts)
        (Daemon, Daemonforge, Fleet, It Will Not Die, Move Through Cover, Siege Crawler)
        Magma cutters

    * Maulerfiend (125pts)
        (Daemon, Daemonforge, Fleet, It Will Not Die, Move Through Cover, Siege Crawler)
        Magma cutters

    * Maulerfiend (125pts)
        (Daemon, Daemonforge, Fleet, It Will Not Die, Move Through Cover, Siege Crawler)
        Magma cutters

First 6th ed Tournament

 Hey guys, sorry that I havent posted in a while, life and work as really been taking its toll on me. I'm still painting figs and in fact got into warmachine a little more over the course of the last 2 months and actually painted up my first battlegroup. Pics I will save for another post as this is all about my experiences at my first 6th edition 40K tournament. I was eager to try my hand at a tourney, starting out at a lower point costed one to test my knowledge of the game but to my surprise, my first experience was at 2000 pts. In addition to the 2000pts, the tournament also required that your army take an ally. So in deciding to do this tournament, I opted to do a last hoorah for the chaos codex. I wanted to go with an army that was completely painted even though it wasnt necessary. My Thousand Sons army is fully painted however I wanted to go with an army that was entirely out of the box and one I never used before. Once I heard that they were giving out an award for best painted, I decided to go with a fluffy Khrone based army based around large squads of marines with a couple of havoc squads for support. For my allies in keeping with the Khrone theme, I decided to take a hard hitting Herald of Khorne on a juggernaut with a bloodcrusher retinue and some bloodletters to make the allies legal. Not just any Herald but the almighty Skulltaker which I had finished converting for an escalation league I had a couple of months ago. The army came in at 1990 so i took melta bombs for the 2 lords to get me to 2000 pts. Below is the list in detail. As you can see, the army contains no vehicles. I usually take at least 2 rhinos in all of my lists, in 6th however i have found that rhinos give up easy first blood points and so i decided to go with none.

HQ: Chaos Lord  = (base cost 90 + Juggernaut of Khorne 30 + Melta Bombs 5 + Mark of Khorne 10 + Daemon Weapon 40)

HQ: Chaos Lord = (base cost 90 + Juggernaut of Khorne 30 + Melta Bombs 5 + Mark of Khorne 10 + Daemon Weapon 40)

Troops: Khorne Berzerkers 9 Khorne Berzerkers = 9 * 21 (base cost 21) + Plasma Pistol x2 30 1 Skull Champion , 51 pts = (base cost 36 + Power Axe 15)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines  = 11 * 15 (base cost 15) + Icon of Khorne 30 + Meltagun x1 10 + Plasma gun x1 15 1 Aspiring Champion , 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Sword 15)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines  = 11 * 15 (base cost 15) + Icon of Khorne 30 + Meltagun x1 10 + Plasma gun x1 15 1 Aspiring Champion , 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Axe 15)

Heavy Support: Chaos Havocs  = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Missile Launcher x3 60

Heavy Support: Chaos Havocs  = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Lascannon x3 105

HQ: Skulltaker  140 + DS: Juggernaut of Khorne 35

Elite: Bloodcrushers of Khorne  = 5 * 40

Troops: Bloodletters of Khorne = 10 * 16

The army would definitely suffer in open ground which is what I expected which is why i took large squads of troops to mitigate this a little.  I knew that I would facing my share of Guard and indeed there were a lot of Guard players.  Necrons were also heavily represented including several with multiple fliers.  To say that the my list did well is an understatement, I actually went undefeated in my 3 games, tying the first game and winning my last 2 games. Unfortunately with it being a battle points tournament, I ended up in the middle of the pack as I didn't blow out my opponents. The overall winner tabled 2 of his opponents with a Necron Flyer list so there was no way I could place. I did accomplish my goal however by winning best painted, surprised as there were several different armies that we painted very well but hell, I will take it... lol. Pics are of the army itself, I went with a dark grey with dark blue details similar to the pre-heresy world eaters colors. I hate painting white so that was definitely out of the question so I went with a light grey shaded with a black wash. Let me know what you guys think.

6th edition and Tau.

Whats up everybody? I played several more games in the last couple of weeks to get more of a feel of this edition. I have to say, so far i am loving it, the changes for the most part are all good. In my latest game I used my Tau in a 1500 point game against a Grey Knight Draigo wing. We decided to play an objective game as it would have been an auto win for him if we did kill points. We rolled 3 objectives and decided against the mysterious objectives or terrain just to keep the game going. I rolled inspiring leadership for my warlord trait and my opponent got the scoring warlord trait which meant that Dragio himself was now scoring. Firewarriors not to mention crisis suits have greatly benefited from 6th edition as I could now keep on the move and out range my opponents army. Dragio wing in 6th edition is still devastating especially with the divination school but I must admit what really makes it extremely annoying is the fact that all paladins are considered characters. Unless your packing strength 8 or higher and in abundance, big paladin squads with an Apothocary are just gross when it comes to absorbing small arms fire. For 3 straight turns I shot my entire 1500 pts of Tau into my opponents 10 man squad and I was lucky to get a wound through. Look out sirs, combined with a 2 up save, combined with Feel no pain means a lot of rolls before a wound gets put on a model. My friend rolled unbelievable amounts of 5 up feel no pain which pretty much negatived all of my AP2 plasma shots. With only 3 rail guns (3 separate squads), he would put the one wound I caused on Draigo who due to him being eternal warrior, still gets his feel no pain. The Tau are definitely more mobile now, finally playing more like their fluff and against slower opponents can run circles around them. They aren't Eldar but a heck of lot faster then they were in both 4th and 5th. Wound allocations on squads made up of characters is one of the only downsides I see with 6th so far. The fact that you cant maneuver your squads to avoid the tank as your opponent could call a look out sir from any character means you will be spending most of your game just trying to kill the unit off.

I will continue to use the Tau and will be adding more broadsides and ditching the hammerhead just to get more railguns on the field. Im tempted to try out stealthsuits as well as they have become the eldar pathfinders of the Tau army. With a little terrain and the new changes to Stealth field generators, these guys will be hard to dislodge, I just wish the range of the burst cannons was longer...

More 6th edition thoughts..

Well its been a couple of weeks now with the new edition of 40K, I am still in the process of digesting the rules, making changes to my army lists, and best of all just having fun playing it. Part of the fun of a new edition is creating new lists with your existing armies as the rules might have made something better or something worse. In the case of my Chaos Space Marines, I have to say I just love how some of these rules actually improved the army. This last weekend, I was finally able to play a larger point game, 2000 pts in a large team game. As this was my first large game of 6th, I decided to go with my Thousand Sons with some allied Chaos Daemons (Fateweaver and a squad of Pink Horrors with the changling). As I really love some of the new psychic powers, and lets face it, the Chaos powers are really not any good anymore I decided to go with Ahriman so that I could generate 3 powers with him. Upon multiple readings of both the rule book and the chaos marine faq and the codex, I discovered that my aspiring sorcerers are all mastery level 2 (mark of tzenntch allows you to cast 2 powers) however since I could only "buy" one power for them in the codex, I could only generate 1 power for them (which sucks). Not to bad as I could cast level 2 spells and if I roll a level 1 spell, could still use my force weapon in close combat. Not to mention that on average, I would be getting a 5+ deny the witch roll unless the enemy psycher is level 1 which would make it a 4+; about time my expensive aspiring sorcerers count for something. I had Ahriman roll on the Telepathy chart as I really loved the invisibility ability I got during my last game and rolled a 6 for Hallaucation.

This power is unbelievable, it effectively shuts down an enemy unit with in 24 inches (basically they cant move, run, shoot, assault or hit in CC)if you roll between a 2-4 and since its a malediction, it auto-hits. Even though you need to roll for this, I have to say, this does seem a little OP for me. I casted this several times to the annoyance of one of my opponents as it allowed Ahriman and his squad of thousand sons to punch through a huge squad of scrabs and munch on a big squad of immortals and the Stormlord. I love the power but I feel that GW might need to nerf it a little bit like maybe allowing you to shut down a single phase or maybe having to roll to hit it or limiting it to just the player turn and not the entire game turn. It is a level 2 power so you would need a level 2 character to cast it so it does limit it in a way but most armies can get level 2 psykers. If I was lucky and generated this power along all of my squads, I could see this starting fights in a competitve atmosphere like a tournament or with WAAC opponents. Then again, maybe its a blessing against WAAC players... lol. I also ran a Daemon prince in order to have 2 flying monstrous creatures and the new vector strikes ability. As a whole, I love the idea of running flying monstrous creatures that are hard to shoot at and can hit units with their strikes and still shoot any weapons. What I dont like is how the rule reads in regards to being hit and taking grounded tests.

The rule specifically says that Flying MC's take the test if they are "hit", so I can have say a las pistol ground my MC just by hitting it. This in fact happened to me and so my Daemon prince was then lit up by 2 squads of plasma and melta toting Vet squads in Chimeras and he promptly died before doing anything. We had a discussion on this and we might house rule to say that the shot needs to wound the MC before a grounded test needs to be taken. I really hope that GW Faqs this as huge blob squads or units with a high rate of fire can knock MC's out of the sky with a single 6 rolled. I know the entry also mentions a Jink move so maybe if you are hit you are to roll your jink save and then if you fail your roll your grounded test but the rule doesnt say that. Fateweaver is fine, if I fail the grounded test he just takes his 3 up invul save but what about MC's with no invul save or a 5+ one? That just kills Nids as they dont even have an invul save to start with. Also, whats the deal of making it a strength 9 with no armor saves allowed?

The next army I would like to try is my Tau as I feel 6th really gave them a boost compared to the other older armies out there. With the differences in rapid fire, assault moves for jetpack toting troopers, the Tau are finally a highly movable force capable of laying down tons of fire while redeploying if an enemy gets too close. I will just need to finish painting the army.

6th edition - initial thoughts

Well the world has certainly changed for 40k. With the release of 6th edition this last Saturday, the world of 40k has been effectively turned on its head. I was fortunate enough to get invited to a 40k shindig held by a good friend of mine at his place to tryout the new rules with a large group of our friends. We decided to go with small 1000 pts games to make it easier for us to get a handle on the new rules. I played 2 games using my Thousand Sons as I wanted to try out the new psychic powers and I got to say, for this army, it definitely breathed some fresh air into it. With the ability to have a sorcerer in each troop squad, i got to use several of the new powers. Some of these were pretty bland while others are really cool. I ran Ahriman as he being a level 3 psycher would allow me to select up to 3 different powers if i wanted too and allow me to cast more then once per turn. Let me give you some benefits that i see with 6th - Flyer rules in. Flyers just became a valid unit to take. I am just hoping that all armies get access to them and it seems that in the future that they will. - New psychic powers! These are just great, I just wish you could choose which one you want to use instead of having to roll for it. Even with the random roll, the fact that we got more options for powers is always good. Some powers like invisibility are just awesome!! Terrify is also great with its ability to strip fearless away and give even the chance to fail a morale check. - Snapfire!! The fact that your troops can fire heavy weapons on the move and most importantly fire at charging enemies is just a great mechanic. Overwatch really helps out those shooty armies to at least take out some of their attackers before they get smashed to the ground and the fact that vehicles could fire a snapshot even when stunned or if they move 12 inches is just pure win. - Changes to rapid fire. I cant even begin to express how good this is for shooty armies. Tau firewarriors just got scary with the ability to move and fire at full range or firing twice at half range. Tactical space marines can also provide cover fire on the move just to name a couple of examples. - Warlord and the special abilities they get!! These are just cool, not over powering but a nice ability all HQ that are selected as your army's warlord get. Again, I wish you could just pick the ability instead of having to roll for it but most of them are really good. Having Ahriman and his Thousand Son retinue outflanking by rolling the outflank ability is pure win and I got it twice!! I am hoping that as new codexes come out that more abilities are added.

There are several more benefits but again this is my initial thoughts only after playing a couple of games. With these initial likes we come to some initial dislikes. - Allies. Ok, this is both a benefit and a dislike. I didnt include it in benefits section as I wanted to discuss this first in a negative light. As a whole, allies are a welcome addition to 40K. Allies will open up a lot of options for players especially where fluff is concerned. But with the good, you are going to get the bad with WAAC players finding the cheesiest combinations ever. GW at least built some counter measures to this by coming up with their Allies matrix but mark my words, there will still be those players that will find ridiculous combos that are both broken and just not fun for their opponent. I'm keeping my mind open to this one and hopefully it will be more of a benefit then a dislike - Relentless. - Giving rapid fire weapons the ability to shoot their full range once while moving is great and all but what benefit do people with relentless get? All I could find is the ability to charge after firing which is what relentless was in 5th. I had wished that relentless would have given models the ability to fire twice at full range and still be able to charge in combat after firing thus making it different from what Rapid fire is. - Power Axes, Power Weapons. This is just dumb, power axes being initiative 1 and just plus 1 strength but AP2, Power weapons being AP3 just made 2 plus armor saves boss. I had Sanguinor tied up for 4 turns with my obliterator as he is now AP3 with his power weapon which was funny to me but my opponent was just pissed. What will this do to Xenos armies with no access to power fists, thunder hammers, etc? I know that each army got faqs to address this but what good is high initiative if basic terminators will beat your face in? I know that this was done to address Grey Knights and their initiative 6 shenanigans but it really screws a lot of armies. The good thing is it seems that nobody barring rending attacks have AP2 weapons that attack at initiative so everybody is on the slow train if they want to by pass 2plus armor. Its funny but Necrons have the fastest AP2 CC weapon in the game with their Warsytches.

- Close Combat wound allocations. As we know, casualties in the shooting phase are taken out based on who is closer to the actual unit shooting. It is a nice simple way to deal with wounds when shooting is concerned but what about Close combat. This rule is just dumb and with mixed armor might tend to just slow the game the down. Why not keep wound allocation in CC the same as Fourth thus dealing with the wound allocating shenanigans of 5th? This one will definitely need some getting used to. - No assaulting out of reserves. This is just so stupid as it really nerfs outflanking units by not allowing them to assault out of reserve. I read this rule over and over again trying to make sense of it but as it stands, no unit coming from reserve (on either board edge) can not assault as if they deep struck. Web way portal Dark Eldar, outflanking Genestealers, or my own Chaos chosen can not assault on the turn that they come in. I have an idea of why they did this, (Thunderlords outflanking with Shrike)but come on. This is just dumb. Will guys thats it for now until I get more games in. All in all I have high hopes for this edition. I mean hell, even some big 40K talking heads are saying that this could be the best edition of 40K. I guess only time will tell...