The New 40K Radio Launches, July 15th

Official word is out! The debut of the new 40K Radio will launch on July 15th according to their website. I will be listening to that new podcast and give you a full review once it is released.

So here crossing fingers and hoping for the best! Come on George, I know you can do this!

40K Battle Report: 1000 Points - Tyranid Swarm vs. Jetbike Seer Coulcil

So I just got back from my Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) where they run regular 'small' tournaments or campaigns over the course of a few weeks, with a small but respectable prize at the end for the winner (I have won this twice since he started doing it). This week started their 1000 point Side Bar Tournament. Basically you come with your favorite 1000 point list with a 250 point side bar. If you want to use a unit in your side bar, you need to swap it out for equal or lesser point value from your base list, making sure not to go over 1000 points. Your side bar can change from week to week over the 4 Weeks of the tournament, but you base list must remain the same. If a unit is wiped out during the course of the game you roll a d6. On a 6 that unit is fine for next game. 4-5 means the unit will start in reserve, 2-3 and the unit is in reserve until at least turn 3. On a 1 the unit can not be played in the following game. A really neat idea and something different for a change.

I decided that with such low points, my Tyranid Swarm list of almost 100 model at the start of the game would be just too many wound for most lists to handle and would score me a big win in the 4th week (Usually $50 of in-store credit for a $4 entry fee, not bad). The list is pretty simple, a Tervigon for an HQ, 2 huge units of Termagants, a 30 man Hormagaunt Squad with Toxic Sacs and Glands (my hammer unit), with some Hive guard an Zoanthropes to deal with light mech. My side bar is two big units of Gargoyles and another hive guard.

My first opponent this week was a good friend of my Anthony who, in his infinite wisdom, thought that a 10 man Jetbike Seer Council list would mop up the competition. His whole army consisted of 20 models, the 10 man seer council and 2 5 man Jetbike Guardian squads. Total!

I personally do not believe in 'death star' units like the Seer Council for the simple math of their Average Points Per Model, or APPM Rating. I believe I can credit Neil and the crew over at the 11th Company for this little tactical gem. Take this game for example. Antony's APPM was 50 Pints per model, 50! So for every model I killed in this game, on average, 50 points was coming off of the table. Where as mine with the termagants the Tervigon produce was in the neighborhood of 8. 8 v 50... it was no contest.

We rolled up capture and control with Dawn of War deployment. He rolled first turn and placed his Seer council right on the 24" line. His two JetBike Guardian Squads took up positions behind the Death Star.

I set up about 19" away from the council with my hormagaunt, and placed the Tervigon and the massive gaunt squad on the objective in my deployment zone (in cover of course), to insure that I would not get charged turn one. Here my guess range was a bit better then that and it turned out to be 20". So, turn one he charges forth with the Council 12", fires into my hormagaunt squad and kills 11 of them. His guardians both fail night fight rolls and can not hit the Gaunt squad they move 12" to shoot. In the assault phase he jumps back 6" with the council and guardians, placing both at minimum of 15" away. Perfect charge range for Hormagaunts! MY TURN!

My Turn one just plain brutal. I moved forward with the hormagaunt squad, move my Hive Guard and Zoanthropes in position for them to take pot shots at the council to soften them up a bit, and the Tervigon pooped out 12 more gaunts that got placed on the objective. The second gaunt squad move forward to threaten the guardians, but were just out of range to shoot, and the one from reserves made a run at the second objective. The Hormagaunts rolled 5 on the bounding leap and were clearly in assault range, and the Hive Guard/ Zoanthropes managed to Kill 2 Warlocks with shooting. ASSAULT! I charged the Council with 19 Hormagaunts at I6 and STR4 thanks to Adrenal Glands, so I went first in combat with 57 attacks, hitting on 4s and re-rolling ones thanks to Scything talons, wounding on 4s and re-rolling wounds thanks to Toxic Sacs. All-in-all, 26 wounds were done to the Seer Council. I killed 3 more Warlocks! In their attacks back poor, Anthony rolled 6 or 7 ones to hit and only managed to do 2 wounds, which, I saved! Hell yeah! So, the council lost combat by 3, rolls their Leadership and fails, re-rolls thanks to embolden and... wait for it... FAILS! In the ensuing sweeping advance I roll a 6, he rolls a 1, bye-bye 780 point Seer Council! Turn ONE Baby! The Hormagaunts are eating raw hamburger meat as we speak for a reward.

The rest of the game was mope up. In a rage Anthony deiced to charge the hormagaunts with one guardian squad and the gaunts with another. The first squad lost three models, did three wound and remained locked. Same for the second. By his half of turn three, the guardians fighting the hornagaunts lost another and did nothing back, the gaunts killed one more, broken them and they went 17" toward the table edge with no hope of coming back. My turn three killed off the remaining guardians, and that was game.

Overall, hell, I couldn't be more pleased with my performance. I never lost a unit, tabled my opponent, and had some laughs during the game.

So, moral of the story kids, death star units may look good on paper, but never really earn their points back. And when they die, the bulk of your army goes with them. So look in to that APPM ratting of your army and see where you stack up!

1-0 with 1000 Victory points for good 'ol Edvil209 and sitting pretty in 1st place. More to come on this mini-tournament.

Spaming Spam with a side of SPAM.

So have you seen this article on BOLS yet?

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/07/goatboy-40k-spamming-with-side-of-spam.html

Did anybody else read this article from Goatboy and go "WTF?" The article basically was a cry to the power gaming community to stop spamming (using the same unit over and over and over again to gain a powerful advantage over your opponent) as it is no fun for you opponent. Wait, this did come from the BOLS guys right? The same guys who as soon as they break a codex throw up army list after army list on how to use this broken list on their blog? The same guys that year after year find a way to break and take advantage of the Gladiator and Tournaments at Adepticon and win thousands of dollars in prizes, right? The same guys who not only published the Leafblower list, but included an instruction book on how to use this list? These same guys who SCREAM spam and cheese are now telling us how "not fun" it is for the opponent to face one of their UBER Killy you do not have a chance to be me lists? Seriously! No kidding! Really, I didn't know that Leafblowers and Razorback SPAM was no fun to play against.

Now, I have no problem with this. Really, personally I feel that spamming and uber power gaming lists really takes away from the fun of the game, for both players. I really feel that if, IF I believed in comp, I would comp armies like this out of the game. Now, I do not believe this. And I feel that I just need to play better to beat these lists, and that it is only a matter of time before a counter to these power lists are found, more then likely by the BOLS guys, and leafblowers will go the way of the Nob Biker. The problem I have is the source of a fast majority of the power gaming lists, tactics, and strategies is now telling everyone, don't do as we do, it's no fun.

So what are they trying to say. "Yeah, we play this way and will play this way at every tournament we play in, and we will crush you, your friends, your dog and your dreams of ever winning and win this without much challenge, post and brag about how we did it on our blog, but don't you do it. It's no fun." So are they getting sick of losing to their own cheesy tactics? Or army lists? Or do they want to soften up the competition so that they can continue to crush everybody? What?

I love the guys over at BOLS, I really do. And here is a friendly piece of advice for you guys: If you want the cheese and spam to stop, STOP FRIGGIN' PRINTING AND USING IT and BRAGGING ABOUT HOW TO USE IT! Yes, Power lists will pop up on Dakka, or Warseer, but no one there is publishing an article on arguably the biggest 40K website in the world that includes details instructions on how to use the list. Say like this Leafblower article:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/09/40k-ard-boys-armylist-leafblower.html

Take some responsibility for what you put out there. If you want cheese and spam to stop, try printing articles on how to beat the cheese. Find the flaws in the Leafblower and razorback Spam lists and publish that. Use you power for good, not to spread more evil!

I would love for Darkwynn to write the "How to Dismantle the Leafblower" article right on BOLS

Or Fritz to write the "How to Kill the Jetbike Seer Council lsit" Article

Or GoatBoy to Write "How to Kill Spacegoats"

But they never do. They tell you all about these killy lists and are now complaining that they have become so popular?

Ok, rant over.

New Segment: This Week in 40K Podcasting

So over the last few months I have been watching my Google Analytics for this blog and it would appear that the posts I do that receive the most hits and largest reader interest are those that refer to podcasts. 40K Radio mostly, but podcasts none the less. Funny huh?

So, then it occurred to me that there really isn't a comprehensive site out there that reports on the news, reviews or goings on in the podcast world. A site where you can go to hear some reviews of the shows, analysis, comments, or just plain reporting on what is out there.

So my readers have spoken and I am answering. Starting this week, Fridays (more or less) will be my "This Week in 40K Podcasting: segment here I list what podcasts I have listened to, my thoughts on those podcast, reviews, news in the 40K Podcast world, and contest reports.

So I have to get my butt in gear and listen to some podcasts! I am looking to you, the readers to tell me about podcasts I have not heard of yet and give them a try. Right now my criteria is 40K only. I know that there are a few casts out there the do war gaming, with 40K being in the mix. For now I am going to not review them at this time. But podcast like Dice Like Thunder, 11th Company, The Independent Characters, The WarBanner, Imperial Vox Cast, 40K Warcasting are my main focus. Got another gem of a podcast out there you want reviewed... drop me a line and I'll start listening and reporting!

So, here's to the Podcasts and off with the reviews!

Thanks Guys!

Riding the Cheese Wagon...

Alright, so admit it. At some point in every Codex Space Marine player's life they look at the other chapters and say, "I wish I could do that." They look at their Space Wolves or Blood Angles brothers and say, "Why can you have 5-Man squads with Melta guns in Razorback and I can't?" The look at 'Dev' Squads that can split fire with multiple Missile Launchers any say, "Hey, that's not fair"

And if you are lucky and decided to go with your own Space Marine Chapter and not a 'Codex' chapter, who is to say which Space Marine Chapter your army is a founding from... this week.

So I am at that point with my Codex Marines. So on Thursday night after debuting my Eldar on the gaming table and crushing my buddy Sean in a kill point mission to only get my skinny Eldar but handed to me in a Capture and Control mission, we did what we always do. We sat around after the games were done and shoot the bull about 40K. We talked rules, tactics, and what we could have done differently.

At some point though, he asked me if I was ever going to get back to my Marines. I started my Marines for a starter army to teach my boys how to play the game. Occasionally I get board with Tyranids and I would break out the Marines just for fun. So they have been sitting on the shelf looking at me wantingly to be painted and played. Now, I have no plans to give up my Eldar, I really want to have 1850 points built, painted, and play-tested for Adepticon this year. But I always have my next project in mind as I am working on the current one. This is why my 'Nids are only 10% painted.

But I was think about getting back to Marines after the Eldar are done, and I wanted to make a Blood Angels list. So my friend Sean was the first to offer up, "You know if you run you're own chapter you could be Blood Angels today and Space Wolves tomorrow and Codex Marines on Monday."

This brought a smile to my face. He's right! For the most part, A Rhino is a Rhino, Vindicator is a Vindicator, a Marine a Marine. Now each codex, BA and Wolves, have some units unique to them, but with some filing and a new paint job I really could make a Marine Army that could Go between Codex, BA, and Wolves. So I am going to do it!

I am going to Start my own Chapter, the Lightning Legion, who Started off as Codex marines when they lost a big part of their forces in a great battle with the Necrons. Along came two other successor chapters to the Blood Angels and Space Wolves to help out and they too also took brutal loses in the battle. Commanders killed, chapter masters mortally wounded. It was a mess. In order to win the battle and the war versus the Necrons, these three weakened chapters decided to combine their forces on the battle field and fight side by side, like a single chapter. This brave plan worked, the they were able to defeat the Necrons, together as one chapter. When the war was over, they had grown so accustomed to each other the the new command structure, they decided to stay a combined chapter. Hence, The Lightning Legion was born.

Game play-wise, you'd pick a codex for that game or tournament, but I plan to paint up this army and start interchanging which codex I am using.

I will report my progress here and show some of the custom models that will have to come from this so that I can have Thunderwolf cavalry next to models on the shelf with wings.

So, is this Cheese? Let me know gang!

Scott and Phil.... Together Again!

So I have been breaking my butt at work and have been getting behind on my podcasts, I admit it. I usually hit the big ones on my list first, Dice Like Thunder, 11th Company, and the Independent Characters and Imperial Vox Cast are first on my list. But, I love my man Philip Johnson and I always check from time to time to see if the WarBanner had released a new postcast. now, I know Phil. I have spoken to him and I knew that his family had been ill over the last few months. But things on the home front are better now for him and he released a new podcast this week. With special guest, Scott Steva!

After a fast email email to my man, your man, the man Phil, it turns out that Scott might be a regular feature tot he WarBanner Podcast.

Good, Great, AWESOME! As you all know I am a Philip Fanboy, and a close second is the Sheriff of 40K, Scott. To have these two guys back together is just Epic. I can even say just having Scott there has increased the quality of the content of the Warbanner.

This is great news!

LeBron James and 40K Radio moving to Flordia!

So the rumor mills have been running pretty strong about the deceased 40k Radio podcast lately and it looks like some sort of confirmation has finally come from their friends of this blog and members of their own forums.

According to sources close to 40K Radio, Romeo from Battlefoam has indeed purchased principle rights to the 40K Radio podcast show. Spencer will still have some ownership of the show (and profit sharing as well I am sure). In the lull between the show dying and being resurrected, 40K Radio has offered all of its paying members an additional 90 days to their Freebootaz forum.

Structure of the show is still in debate and I find it hard to believe that 40K radio will not turn into a full time commercial for Battlefoam. A lot of the hard core fans of the show had complained on how much of the show's content had been commercials and it looks like that will not change. "All Battlefoam, All the time"

But who will host this new 40K Radio you ask? As I reported weeks ago when this happened, 40K radio is moving to Florida, with some basketball guy named LeBron James as it turns out, and will be hosted by George Miller and his crew. No previous hosts will appear on the show. Although rumors are abound that Spencer is moving to Florida and still might be an on air presence on the show.

No indication has been given if 40K Radio will still be the name of the show, but sources believe that a name change is also forthcoming.

In the end I guess this is a good thing. George Miller is a good guy, and his crew has some pretty decent knowledge of the game. I am curious as to how the show will perform now under ownership of a company, and not a bunch of guys just shooting the breeze about 40K.

I personally will miss Scott. He had become the reason I enjoined 40K Radio and this whole mess leading up to his leaving the show and causing all of this makes me sick.

But, we will be watching, or listening, and see what will become from that little podcast from Erie.

Eldar Building Project

So I have been 40K-less for almost a month now. I got to play the week before the family vacation to San Fransisco. But the week leading up to the vacation was all prep work for this massive trip. I am really upset that I did not find this great new podcast called "The Independent Characters" (http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/) which is based out of San Fransisco that I could have visited and played while I was there.

But, vacation was awesome, we had a great time, and came home. The week after was really recovery, as jet lack sucks as an adult, but the kids took it really hard. So I did not get any hobby or gaming done that week as I was just too beat. Then, my wife went to San Diego for a conference for work and I was at home with three boys all week. No hobby - No Gaming

We come home to find out that we have a small gas leak in one of our vehicles and we needed to get that taken care of as soon as possible, which sucked up my regular gaming night of Tuesday nights. NO GAMING!!!! However, the three day 4th of July weekend did give me the chance to get some hobby done.

So with a great three day weekend, I decided to go ahead and break the rule I had established with myself and started building my Eldar army. I only own at this time about 1,000 Points of Eldar and I thought it would be fun just to get them together. The next thing I knew, I had an old school Falcon built, a unit of Fire Dragons stripped, a unit of Rangers stripped, a Wave Serpent built, a ten man Dire Avenger Squad built, a Farseer built, and the new Fire Prism built all in two nights! Yea Hobby!

But now that I am staring at these freshly built models, I want to play them. So shoot me. I plan to take out the Eldar tonight and play a game or two with the unpainted Eldar. Now, I want to paint these, but with the blistering heat wave and high humidity we have been having in western PA this week, I did not want to chance spray paint to model. Trust me, they will be painted before I built any more models. I will buy more, just not build them. I want this army to be fully painted at 1850.

However, next week looks better weather-wise and I'll be priming and painting.

I plan to film at least one of the battles tonight and throwing it up on the YouTube page. I'll let you know what I learn tonight. I expect to get my butt kicked pretty well, as my gaming group has no idea how to take it easy on a vet player starting a new player. Got I love them!

Tyranid FAQ Released!

Finally, FINALLY, the Tyranid FAQ has been released for Codex Tyranids and I have to say it is by far one of the best, most straight forward FAQs I have ever read from GW. ***Applause all around for doing something right*** No ambitious rulings, no shaky or contradicting findings, simple "If this happens does this happen Questions" with a solid Yes or No answers. Now while I might disagree with a few things in here, it at least answers almost all of those crazy questions that came up when this codex launch

Some of the High Points of this FAQ as I saw it:

1) Tyranids with multiple CC Weapons do get the benefit of both of them at the same time, so Yes, lash Whip and Bone Sword are used simultaneously and work together. Duh.

2) Multiple Hive Commander Abilities DO NOT Stack! So no 2+ to Reservers from running two stock tyrants. Also, no two more outflanking troop choices either. Thus, no real reason to run two basic Tyrants.

3) Yes, even though the Main Rulebook says so, and I have no idea why this was ever in question, having Wings do permit the unit to deepstrike. DUH for those how said it didn't!

4) And a big Surprise here, Hive Guard who fall into Instinctive Behavior can not fire at things they do not have LOS of, despite the fact their gun can. Ok, I can live with that.

5) Yes the Mawloc can choose to Deep Strike onto a point occupied by an enemy model and blow them all to hell. This makes the model just a bit cooler.

6) I do not get this one at all, of all of the rulings here, this one makes the least amount of sense to me. If a Tyranid unit takes a Mycetic Spore, can it choose
to deploy normally whilst the empty Mycetic Spore deep strikes on its own? The shocking answer... No? NO! Why not? But Drop Pods and Rhinos and every other dedicated transport can? Ok... whatever. Bad call... but I'll live with it.

and of course, how could I go without commenting on this one:

7) DOOM is nerfed!!! Or clarified if you will. Yes you do get a cover save from the woundd his life leech ability inflicts and No, it does not effect units in transports! Ok, two comments. Cover saves from a special ability that does not draw LOS or targets a specific unit??? I disagree but this is how I have been playing it so no big deal. Second, I never really bought into the idea that it effected units in transports. So really wishful thinking by some power gammers if you ask me. For starters, the main rulebook states that psychic powers do not effect units in transports so to me this is a no-brainer. Too many problems would come up if it did. Like does the unit have to take a moral check if they take 25% and if they flee, where to the flee to?

Does this lessen the unit... I don't think so. Most civilized players have been playing it this way anyway.

Overall... great FAQ! Good job GW!

Codex Overview: Tyranids - The Hive Tyrant

Tyranid Hive Tyrant

Overall: ******* 7/10
Assault: ***** 5/10
Shooting: ****** 6/10
Anti-Tank: ******* 7/10
Psychic: ******* 7/10

My how the mighty have fallen. Once the terror of the 4th Edition codex, you'd never see a Tyranid army without one. Normally, for me at least, a Dakka-Flyrant that would re-roll to hit and to-wound and dump an unreasonable amount of wounds into a unit. A terror on the battle field, now reduced to a secondary assault/support role if even fielded at all. If not for the Hive Commander ability, it is hard to argue one way or the other to have or not to bother with this unit.

PROS: Still a toughness 6 Monstrous Creature who, if you are willing to spend the points, can fly, bust up tanks, and rip through any troop unit without a power or force weapon in it, and make other Tyranid units around him stronger. It is a Synapse Creature and it's Psychic powers are a great asset to the army, Paroxysm being one of my personal favorites and Life Leech is much better then Regenerate. It has the ability to carry some of the strongest guns in the army, the Heavy Venom Cannon on a Flying Creature add some much needed range to this otherwise short ranged army. And, again, if your willing to spend the points, you can still have your Dakka-Flyrant spitting out 12 STR 6 shots that re-roll to hit, and that is nothing to sneeze at. It can help bring in reserve units faster, give other Tyranids Preferred Enemy, and allow you to outflank with a MC (the Troops choice Tervigon)if you choose.

CONS: This unit is extremely over pointed for what you get. Probably by about 40 Points or so. And for the point cost that you do pay, the damned thing should come with a 4+ Invulnerable save at least. Any of the good upgrades that you would want to put on it are equally over pointed and this unit can quickly become a giant point sink. Not to mention that you can not have a 2+ save and wings at the same time. The lack of an invulnerable save is by far one of the strongest weaknesses of this unit, forcing you to "be careful" when using it as opposed to jamming it down the enemy's throat. This unit is less "scary" then it was in the previous edition. Any unit that can fight its way out of a paper bag has a good chance of knocking off wounds or flat out killing this rather fragile unit. It forces you to either buy Tyrant Guard at an over pointed cost, or dedicate units to screening it, say Gargoyles or Hive Guard.

Suggested Upgrades:

Wings - Yeah, way too expensive but does gives the Tyrant much needed mobility. A walking Tyrant is a dead Tyrant IMHO

Hive Commander - If you intend to Deep Strike or Outflank Anything, take this!

Old Adversary - Short ranged but a good upgrade for hoard style armies

Suggested Weapons:

Two Sets of Scything Talons - Might as well make sure you can put as many hits on the unit you charge.

Two Sets of Twin-Linked Devourers - Good shooting for a modest cost. Short Ranged though, so be prepared to by the wings!

Heavy Venom Cannon - This army lacks good anti-tank, so adding this will help vs. heavy mech armies.

Suggested Build 1: Tyrant with 2 Sets of Talons, Paroxysm and Life Leech, and Wings - 260 Points Screen this guy with a 15 man kitted out Gargoyle Brood and he can drop the enemies WS and BS, have the Gargoyles Changes and mop them up. This is normally how I run him.