Game Play Tip: Knowing The Enemy

Intelligence in the key to victory. Fortunately, in Warhams, it's really easy to gather some great intelligence! All you need to do is read a few internet sites, read a few codices, and presto, you are in very well informed about the capabilities of the enemy.

Really, though, the internet is generally an even better resource than a codex. Often, you can find BLOGs or forum posts where the "enemy" will tell you not only what he likes to take in his lists but also how they are intended to be used.

Now, for those of us who want to grow the 40K Community, we don't worry about offering up free information. (Honestly, it's ridiculous to even think that top players don't "get it" already. So, don't think you are going to benefit from HIDING your knowledge.)

What you can do with this information, though, is the age old thought experiment.

The thought experiment is the idea of trying to play out a game in your head with what you know about what the enemy wants to do and what you would do in response.

This is also known as what you do when you are sitting in a boring meeting at work!

It is a fact that many seemingly good players rely on your lack of knowledge to win their games. Lack of knowledge about what their units are and what their tactics will be are the common points of abuse.

I know that most people out there will never take the effort to learn unit stats, special rules, etc. That's okay! This article is for those people out there who might want to know "how is it that some people are better at this game than others?"

No, we don't sit around and drill this info like we are studying for a spelling test.

Most players learn those stat lines and rules through endless thought experimenting. (We get bored at work, a LOT!) And rather than spending that time thinking about the latest episode of The Walking Dead, they spend it thinking about how games of 40K will play out. That continued repetition is what drills those things into their heads.

Long story short is, I cannot tell you how many times I have played against people who think they got the "answer" to my army because they honestly believe they can "out fox" me with their "special combo". It's usually about Turn 2 where they realize that not only am I not falling for it, I'm actively countering it! What's worse, they haven't thought about what would happen if someone actually knew about their "secret" and started an effective counter! OOPS!

Here's an example. A guy who would give his opponent first turn and then rely on reserve and especially some Dread Drops to strike the enemy. "Gee... ", I said...

"Option A: Deploy me army and take it to the face exactly like my opponent wants me to..."

"Option B: Reserve my army even though I'm the one with first turn to force him to potentially drop and then counter when I come on the board..."

Not hard, really. But, if I hadn't over already known the rules of that army and the thought process behind how it was used, big mistake!

Another example. A guy who brings a Tau army to an objective mission, with 9 Broadsides all with Target Locks, just waiting on you to set up all your stuff on the board so he can blow it away. "Gee... ", I said...

"Option A: Set up my shooting army and get tabled by Tau."

"Option B: Come in from reserve behind LoS blocking terrain, sit there for 4 turns, and then grab objectives/contest on Turn 5 while creating an assault threat bubble to keep him out of board mid."

There's always an answer, but in a tournament, it's already to late to figure out what to do in most cases.

The RAW argument, tunnel vision, and willful acceptance of absurdity

I've been involved in a few rules discussions in the past week or so. Normally, I try to avoid these at all costs, but I don't know what struck me this week to get into it. Most likely, it was the post on BoLS about trying to claim that you do not move a vehicle by pivot, measure, move.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2012/02/bols-academy-9-vehicle-shenanigans.html

I then got involved in discussions on Dakka, oh boy, then I remembered why I don't engage in rules arguments where the first tenet of the argument is:

*** The only correct answer is the one that can be shown via RaW. ***

The rest of this article has nothing to do with the argument on BoLS. I think that Caldera is exactly in the spirit of trying to play the game correctly by noting that something doesn't "look right", seems to violate some books rules, and expressing a valid opinion.

Likewise, detractors express theirs as well.

This is more directed at the people in the argument who keep saying, "but RaW, the rulebook doesn't say... support... prove... etc."

The purpose of this article is to describe why taking the RaW approach to arguing rules for Warhammer is inherently flawed.... by RaW of course!

Proposition #1: Arguing that something isn't "RaW" as a dismissal is an argument using a vacuous truth, one which can never be proven contrary. Why? Because you have set the bar for required evidence of proof above and beyond the tool which you will use to measure it.

Watch this hilarious episode of the Boondocks.... http://www.tv.com/shows/the-boondocks/the-trial-of-r-kelly-500038/

You can fast forward near the end where Riley takes the stand. The prosecution plays the Video of R. Kelly doing a crime, and then Riley starts to state "that ain't R Kelly" even though R. Kelly gives up his social security number, has his grandmother on the video, and on and on as part of the gag.

What's going on here? The person whom the prosecution is trying to convince is setting the bar for required evidence above and beyond what is actually provable. Thus, he is create a vacuous truth, a truth who can never be disproven.

Asking this rule book to prove something beyond a SHADOW OF A DOUBT is flawed at its core. You are asking that the book explicitly state the exact words you need in order to believe something true. The absurdity here is of course this is known to be impossible.

However, we can just then try to rest and say, "well if it isn't written down explicitly, it can't be accepted as truth."

Proposition #2: RaW places an absurd value on the writing within the rulebook. What, why? After all, in the rules discussion, the rulebook defines our Universe, so nothing else should be acceptable in terms of understanding the rules?

Do you want the rulebook to look like that?

You do if you want to use the rulebook's RaW as the only way to determine the correct answer to a rules question.

Truth is, we all know the rulebook itself isn't very technically written. Placing the value of a rules argument solely on if something does or does not exist in the RaW is fundamentally flawed because the book itself is not written to withstand such scrutiny.

This is why we have a Supreme Court in the US, to interpret what is fundamentally flawed, the Law. Written as best as it can be, relying on it as "RaW" sometimes makes you right and sometimes makes you wrong.

The bottom line is, it's not the only path and relying on the written word alone is absurd.

Proposition #3: Demanding an RaW explanation is often an unwillingness to except proof by implication and proof by contradiction, usually because the rules lawyer in question doesn't understand them.

I'm not going to get all philosophical on you, but here's the quick definitions.

Proof By Implication: This is when something doesn't need to be explicitly stated but is rather implied by the existence of other evidence. (If you are into astronomy, this is basically the theory behind Dark Matter. You can't see it (RaW), but you know it's there based on the evidence provided by things around it. (Proof by Implication).

Point: I don't need the Rulebook to explicitly tell me that units move in a path, the existence of difficult terrain rules implies it. (this is in regards to arguments on BoLS)

Proof By Contradiction: I can show that you are not correct by coming up with a scenario which invalidates the assertion. With a Proof By Contradiction, I don't need to give you the right answer, I just need to show you that the answer you have given is wrong. The rulebook does not need to prove an assertion if I can disprove it using other rules.

*** The Bottom Line ***

The temple of "RaW" really needs to topple. It gets old.

You realize that by "RaW", the game of 40K is mostly unplayable. Why? Exactly because of Proposition #1 and Proposition #2. By "RaW", we are placing an unreasonable burden on a flawed document.

And no, I'm not arguing that everything should be ruled RaI.

What I'm stating is that using common sense, reasoning, and simple proof tools, are all acceptable ways to resolve a rules discussion. RaW is not the only way, and in fact, is probably the worst way to approach the discussion.

Thoughts about Grey Knights and Tournaments

I used to play a game about a decade ago called Natural Selection. That game was totally awesome! They are supposed to be working on a sequel but have been doing so forever.

Anyways, Natural Selection was popular enough at one point where groups began to spontaneously involve themselves in league play. The developers encourage this level of play.

Long story short, there become a clear division on the development forums between what was called "Pub play" and "Clan play". The differences are really simple.

- Pub players were just the average public playing the game. They logged into random servers for a game and played to their heart's content. (I was a pub player by the way).

- Clan players were guys who organized themselves into clans and participated in league play, matches, etc. These were the guys who would have schedule practice times, matches, and so on.

Now, most of you would probably relate to this story better if I mentioned Counter Strike which also had the concepts of "Pub play" and "Clan play". I would have just said Counter Strike, but Natural Selection was SOOOOOOOO much better!

Anyways, I digress.

The point is, there were two distinct groups of players.... those who played in unorganized, unpracticed games, and those who trained to compete.

Now, at face value, there isn't an issue here. However, an interesting phenomenon showed up after a while.

You see, when the devs were making adjustments to the game, the Pub Players and the Clan Players wanted different things, sometimes entirely opposite of each other.

One example I explicitly remember were that Clan Players felt Fades were terribly over-powered in clan matches and wanted their skills trees reworked and blink effects altered.

Meanwhile, Pub Players felt that Fades become almost completely useless when they lost their rocket attacks.

What gives? Well, practiced Clan Players could wreck your face with a blinking, assaulting Fade which were over-powered but required a ton of skill to really leverage. Pub Players (including myself) didn't have that kind of skill and wanted our easy to use rocket attack back.

I really believe Natural Selection's downfall eventually came from this type of discussion because the Devs almost continuously catered to the clan players.

Anyone out there play League of Legends? Of course you do! Next time you want to see a good analogy to what I'm talking about, read the dev boards. You'll notice that top "clan" players have entirely different opinions on what in the game is OP, UP, needs fixing, addressed etc.

Hai Grey Knights!

There is just a ton of vitriol surrounding the Grey Knights dex. Moreso than there was against the Space Wolves and Imperial Guard last year? Hard to say, but I think so!

I think so many think that the Grey Knight codex is so horribly broken that it's been terrible for the game of 40K.

Yet, others, including myself, think there are plenty of ways to overcome it. Powerful, YES. Broken, NO.

However, who do you think is in the majority opinion here?

If I were to examine the Codex from the eyes of person who is not an avid competitive player, would my opinion change?

I think it would. I think, if I looked at it from the perspective of someone who doesn't play overly competitively, who doesn't study the game, who doesn't spend hours and hours reading about, blogging about, podcasting about, 40K, I might think Grey Knights are a little broken when compared to books like Tyranids, Dark Eldar, Space Marines, Eldar, and so on.

What does everyone else think here?

And of course, the next logical question then is, if we think we would think it over powered if we were a "pub player" rather than a "clan player", would we do something about it?

Game Play Tip: Absorbing Assaults

The Rope-A-Dope is a boxing strategy most famously known for being employed by Muhammad Ali in many of his well known match-ups like the one depicted above versus George Foreman. The Rope-A-Dope relies on using an opponent's aggression to tire him out so that later on, you can finish him off when he is to tired or weak to resist.

In boxing, to make the Rope-A-Dope work, you have to set yourself up in a position where your opponent will effectively "punch himself out" on you while you "turtle" up against the ropes, hands up, to deflect or absorb the punishment he is dishing out in such a manner that will leave you largely undamaged but cause the opponent to expend a ton of energy trying to penetrate your defenses. They call it the Rope-A-Dope because, as Ali shows us above, you lean into the ropes to rest while protecting your ribs, sides, and face with your gloves and arms. Foreman wails on you with punch after punch which just largely get glanced off your arms and gloves. When he is tired from punching, you come out of your "shell" and land those famous Ali well-placed jaw hits.

The analogy is great for 40K because this idea of "letting your opponent get his go" and then "you retaliate" is a great model for how the assault and counter works in 40K.

Assault Armies in 40K can seem to be utterly crushing. Indeed, many heavy assault lists like Blood Angels DoA lists, Demons, Tyranids, Thunder Cav lists, Terminator Hammer lists, Ork Battlewagon Lists, and more rely on charging directly at you, as fast as possible, and wiping you off the board in a turn or two of heavy assaulting.

It is also worth noting that these fast moving assault threats are not the only ones of their kind. There are also deep striking or drop podding lists which will seek to achieve a similar goal. DoA lists are the most famous of these where the Blood Angel players reserves and tries to come in on Turn 2 as close to you as possible to melta away your transports and set up the crushing assault on Turn 3.

So, let's get to the meat and potatoes here. The truth is, Assault Armies in 40K are generally the weaker builds. The problem is that this reality can largely be obfuscated because:

- Assault Armies are very easy to play and thus less prone to critical mistakes.

- Assault Armies work extremely well against players with weak rules knowledge and/or tactical skill.

- Assault Armies make it very easy to capitalize on opponent mistakes.

- Properly absorbing assaults and counter attacking requires forethought, even pre-game, which most players don't do.

These factors combine make the power of assault based lists largely misconstrued. All to often, better players with better rules knowledge can leverage easy to play assault armies to dominate a local scene. This makes the assault based armies appear very powerful to many people. (In fact, I think even the GW game designers think that Assault is the power house of 40K because they are always more expensive than shooting based lists.)

However, when paired against a player of equal tactical expertise and equal rules knowledge, you will find that things fall apart quickly. The major reason for that is that players with excellent rules knowledge and forethought have found ways to utterly absorb and/or blunt an assault to shove it aside.

Now, if you play Tau, you are probably already very familiar with bubble wrap as a way to absorb assaults. The concept is to place units between your major shooting elements and the enemy to stall their assaults. For example, use Drones, Kroot, Devilfish, and any number of other means to create "layers" of units which the opponent has to fight through.

Eventually, as he kills one unit, then absorbs a round of shooting, kills another, absorbs another round of shooting, etc., he finally tires out and you finish him off. The Rope-A-Dope!

This is one means of absorbing assault and is probably the most commonly understood. Tau are not the only army, by the way, that do this well. Imperial Guard also excel at this by using their own Chimeras or Infantry Platoons to create bubble wrap layers.

Tips for bubble wrap:

- You really want to ensure that whatever you are bubble wrapping with will die during your opponent's assault. Otherwise he gets stuck in and you can't shoot him!

- Vehicles are ideal for bubble wrap because you can never be engaged with them, and FURTHER, the enemy has to clump around them to attack them leaving them very vulnerable to template attacks.

- Vehicles also block other vehicles, like a Land Raider for example. You have to drive around my vehicle and can't use your front ramp if I parked a Chimera right in front of it.

Bubble Wrap is a useful concept, but it's even better applied when your army has a very strong counter-attack element, which Tau and IG do not really have.

Let's use an example of a squad of Lightning Claw Terminators. Now, on paper, LC Terminators kind of suck (and I'm not really defending them here). However, let's examine them in a counter-attack role versus some common hammer units like Thunder Cav for example.

You are a Marine player, you got a bunch of Wolves barreling straight for you. You set-up the Rope-A-Dope by parking your cheap transports (the way you will absorb the blow without taking much damage) in the path of his assault. Your opponent now must either assault the bait or just stand there and get shot.

Once he takes the bait, he will assault and probably even kill the transport. Now, we finish the Rope-A-Dope. The LC Terminators standing behind the Rhino charge around it into the Cav. Since most Thunder Cav either carry PFists as their Power Weapon of Choice or are all going to be I4, your LC Terminators can chop them to pieces on the counter attack, even if they die, causing more damage than you took. The Rope-A-Dope is complete.

The more you think about how to blunt assault lists, you'll start to see that the options are nearly limitless. Then, start thinking about how you will counter-attack decisively. If your army has access to some assault units that could fill this role, use them. If your army doesn't, like Tau or IG, think about how you prep all your shooting to deal with the threats. (Like dog pilling melta, plasma, and flamers on the assault threat during your turn!)

Here's some thoughts to help you think about how to set up the Rope-A-Dope:

- Really, to pull this off, you need to think about the variety of scenarios that you will run into and how to counter them BEFORE you show up to play. This way, you can execute. It's to easy to make a mistake or not set up properly if you don't already have a plan.

- Lots of assault based armies don't have grenades like Demons and Tyranids. Use that plus bubble wrap to ensure that your opponent has to assault over cover, maybe created by destroyed vehicles, into what would otherwise be a weaker assault unit to crush them.

- When facing an all deep striking army, especially one with melta guns, bubble wrap such that weak targets like Rhinos are on the outside while the rest of your army is surrounded by them. This will largely put more valuable vehicles out of the 6 in range and give them a cover save should your opponent want to target them. (For example, if that saved vehicle is a Leman Russ, you can annihilate a DS'ed unit that is close to your lines that tries to shoot because they are clumped).

- Constantly move your bubble wrapping vehicles which makes it very hard for the opponent to hit them in assault.

- Learn the assault rules like the back of your hand. This includes how units must pile into assaults, how charges occur, and most importantly, allow you to see that assaults occur on a "Vector", meaning a line that the opponent will have to assault in from. Use that knowledge to set up the easy blocks.

- Always think about what you will do to counter, and MAKE SURE YOUR COUNTER HURTS! It needs to hurt BAD! Crushing the heavy assault units in an assault army usually wins you the game, right then and there.

- You can't absorb and assault and counter unless you bring a credible threat to your opponent at range. Otherwise, he'll just not come to you.

- Think about a useful counter-assault unit in your list and how you would set it up.

Epica New Album in March WOOT

the opening track of Requiem for the Indifferent, which will be released by Nuclear Blast on March 9th (March 13th in the US

Game Play Tip: Exposing Yourself Properly

I decided not to start this article off with a Google searched, related image!

Let me put your fears aside about what this article is about and define where I am going with it. One very advanced tactic that can be useful in a game of 40K is knowing how to maximize the potential of units by knowing when to expose them to the enemy. This is a very basic concept to explain, but as with many advanced tactics, it's easy to learn and hard to master.

The idea of exposing a unit to the enemy is simply put as holding back until the right time to strike. The concept of "holding back" is where this moves from a simple tactic to an advanced tactic.

Let's start with a simple example. Suppose I have a Dreadnought in a Drop Pod with a Multi-Melta (DDM). The simple tactic for a DDM is to deep strike him next to your opponent's valuable vehicles, and destroy one. You want to deliver a crippling blow right away, one in which your opponent may not be able to easily counter.

So, the part that's critical to this game play tip is, you are exposing your Dreadnought to the enemy for the chance to destroy an important target.

What are the downsides of the DDM?

Easy. You drop in, you roll a 1 to hit, and now the enemy greases your Dreadnought and his drop pod, picking up 2 easy kill points and brushing away 140 points of your army.

But wait! There's more!

There are other downsides as well. What if your opponent doesn't have a good target for your DDM? What if you can only get into melta-range of a group of worthless rhinos? What if he bubble wraps? What if he reserves? And on and on.

Where Simple Becomes Advanced

So, very often, when someone has a simple tactical plan for attack, such as our DDM scenario, a good player will simply counter the tactic. As mentioned above, maybe he bubble wraps. Maybe he reserves. Maybe he does any number of things.

The DDM player, his tactic now being thwarted, all to often shrugs his shoulders and just drops the Dreadnought anyways. Maybe he'll get a sweet rhino kill! Maybe he'll not die on the opponent's turn and get to assault something! Who knows? The plan failed so just press on.

Sometimes, like with he DDM scenario, the trick, suicide, alpha strike is the best plan. Often, the opponent will counter thus nullifying the advantage. What if, then, instead of just throwing our Dread away, we place him and his drop pod elsewhere on the board where the opponent won't just LOLroll him on his turn?

Drop him away from the enemy? Drop him behind terrain where he can't be seen? He might not be useful right now, but later on in the game, he could become useful.

How?

Now, rather than just tossing him away because your initial plan didn't work, you have a resource in your list you might be able to leverage. Maybe, later on in the game, you start to whittle away at your opponent's melta fire or his long range fire. Maybe, the Dread can stand behind terrain in board mid creating a threat bubble to prevent your opponent from advancing.... afterall he can't shoot you if he can't see you.

This is a simple idea, but it gets more complex. What to take away from this DDM scenario is not a better way to use a DDM but to understand the concept of WHEN and HOW to expose your units to the enemy. Above all, don't just throw them away.

LOLZOMGT3rrib4d!!!!11

There are a lot of very good 40K players out there, and many have very eccentric army and unit choices. A common mantra of many great players when questioned about some of their choices is, "they are good. People just don't know how to use them."

I've heard people defend everything from Wraithlords to Scout Bikers and beyond.

Now, once you get over yourself and realize that these guys really are very good players and not just lucky, the next logical question is, how in the heck are they making this crap work?

Does this line of thinking sound familiar?

- Dude, I'll just blow _____ of the table. It sux.

- ______ doesn't kill XXXX or YYYY and is a waste.

- My army will LOLZpew _____ away.

So, if something looks so bad on paper or to the internet arm chair general, why does someone else, often a very good, proven player, think it works?

Unit Exposure

It's easy to dismiss a threat as not credible. However, if the opposing player is actively seeing to note expose a unit to you until the time is right, things change dramatically.

Wraithlords are LOLZERZ to melta guns, right? What if the Eldar player just waits to bring the Wraithlord out until the melta guns are dead? Now, what are you going to do to stop that T8 monstrous creature?

Marbo sux because he just jumps out, maybe kills something and dies? What if your opponent places him behind terrain where he can't be seen.... but funny, close enough to maybe contest an objective next turn? Now what are you going to that you have to commit forces to see him or take him out?

See where I'm going with this?

The reason why this is an advanced tactic, although simple concept, is because the amount of tactics and thinking that has to go into not exposing the unit until the right time. Is there enough terrain? Can you leverage LoS or the movement phase well enough to make it useful later? Can you see how to eliminate key threats to the model before it comes out on Turn 3?

Hope that gets you thinking for today. The bottom line is, never throw a unit away unnecessarily and NEVER assume you will just herpADerpPEW some kind of threat away from you... especially when a player who is as smart or smarter than you is actively seeking to make sure that doesn't happen.

Why Wraith-Barge Necrons Work

One thing that has really been running through my mind of late when it comes to working towards my own flavor of Necrons is...

Why are Wraith-Barge lists working so successfully? Honestly, on paper, they don't look that good! (Need evidence that they work? The UK Masters was just won by a Wraith-Barge list.)

What is a Wraith-Barge list? I've already posted one twice here even as I was trying to decide what I wanted to play, and I feel like, seeing as how many other people are using it, it's the "common" Necron list at this point. (Especially now that the whole Scarab fever seems to be done.)

A "Wraith-Barge":

HQ:

Anrakyr/Overlord + Warscythe in Command Barge

Overlord + Warscythe + Command Barge

Royal Court #1:

Pulsetek

(Optional other Teks, especially a Veiltek)

(Optional other Destructeks depending on list)

Royal Court#2:

Pulsetek

(Optional other Teks, especially a Veiltek)

(Optional other Destructeks depending on list)

Elites:

None

Troops:

3-4 x 5 man Warrior or Immortal Squads

(Possible Night Scythe transports)

Fast:

5-6 x Wraiths with some wound allocation

5-6 x Wraiths with some wound allocation

(Possible 5-6 x Wraiths OR 5-10 x Scarabs)

Heavy:

3 x Annihilation Barges

OR

(Possible Spyders for a mini-scarab farm)

The core of the list combines Command Barge, Annihilation Barges, and Wraiths. These are married to some cheap troop choices which will either contribute supporting fire via attached Destructeks or Night Scythes.

Sometimes, you can build a mini-Scarab farm into the list to by dropping a Anni Barge or 2 for some Spyder Units to beef up a Scarab swarm. This is points dependent.

Why Does This Look Bad on Paper?

Yes, your eyes deceive you.

There are several reasons this list looks bad on paper. The first is a big weakness to melta weaponry.

It doubles out wraiths. It kills Barges. Barges all have 24 inch range which makes it very easy to get into melta range in 2 turns. So much so it would appear like a solid Mech Guard build should really just run this list over.

Yet, even in my play testing, the exact opposite happens. I've found that Mech Guard is actually the one getting run over. What's going on here?

It's Messing with You

This list functions exactly like this:

Step #1) Place Wraiths in a position to create a sizeable 18 inch threat bubble. Wraiths are sturdy and won't die very easily.

Step #2) Flank or position Anni Barges to get good side shots or fire support.

Step #3) Turbo Barges up to create a massive threat bubble.

Step #4) Use Solar Pulse to help ensure the enemy can't put to much fire on your Turn 1.

Step #5) Hang giant HIT ME sign on your Command Barges and Wraiths while placing your Troops in the most unassuming way possible.

Step #6) Hope your opponent reacts exactly like he would against a normal Marine army.

The overall goal is to distract your as much as possible with a credible Wraith and Command Barge threat while peppering away at you with sub-par fire support. From there, use Solar Pulse to try and mitigate return fire.

Also, reserve or give up first turn.

Lastly, specifically target the portions of the opponent's army which will be the biggest late game threat to your Troops, generally by destroying the enemy mobility or long range support.

In a nutshell...

Act exact like a Hammer list with solid Fire Support just without the expensive hammer.

The thing is, it's not a hammer list. Wraiths, although good for their points, aren't a very credible hammer. They will die in droves to concentrated fire or real hammer units.

But against Guard or more shooty oriented lists, they sure look like one. They rend. They are S6. They have a 3++. They are decently difficult to kill with shooting.

And Command Barges! How annoying these can be! Living metal combined with a rule to "heal" immobilized results. Further, it's 13 armor!

The Solution

The solution to this list is to do EXACTLY what the "on paper" tells you to do. This include not getting intimidated by the pseudo-hammer and red herrings running around.

Your melta really can take out those Wraiths. Command Barges really do die a horrible, horrible death after their sweep attack because they will now be in counter-range with Melta guns. You really can tie up and destroy Wraiths with dedicated assault units.

Close support is the key as well as a forward push.

My play testing thus far against Guard players has shown that the Guard player resorts to base instinct when faced with this list. He wants to go to corners, split his force up, or focus way to much on killing Wraiths.

Instead, the better approaches are to treat this exactly like you would fighting Space Wolves. Sacrifice a few Chimeras where you have to, counter with the heavy hand of a plethora of melta when they get close, and otherwise, remove their long range support as quickly as possible.

Building my Necron List Part 3

Thank-you for a FAQ! Best part is, the Necron FAQ is, in my opinion, one of the best first pass FAQs GW has ever released. It answers many of the burning, hot-button questions, and it does so pretty succinctly. There are still several problems, but at this point, I can now at least stamp the dex as PLAYABLE!

Because of the FAQ, many a thing has changed about my list building theories. Before I get to that, though, let's discuss some things that I think are working and why.

Also, keep in mind that the UK Masters (if you don't know what that is, that's where the top ranked 16 players in the UK battle it out each year to determine the best of the best!) was won by a Necron player this year.

At 1750, the list he used is very similar to the Night Scythe build I was talking about in the last post, but there aren't any Night Scythes in it. INSTEAD, he was using dual Destructeks in small warrior squads as his fire support..... something I couldn't do because no FAQ was present yet to allow me to do it. Now that the FAQ allows us to put 2 Crypteks in a single squad (this is a great ruling!), it's better, in my opinion.

So, here's why the list is working in my opinion and why!

Here's the short of the list @ 1750:

Anrakyr + Barge

Lord + Barge (warscythe etc.)

2 x Royal Courts with 4 destruteks each, 2 being pulseteks)

4 x 5 man warrior squads.

A couple Wraith squads, and a small Scarab Squad.

3 x Anni Barges.

The new BRB FAQ now blocks Anrakyr from using his "Mind in the Machine" ability while aboard his barge. At time this wasn't true. However, now due to this, Anrakyr has lost most of what makes him worth his points!

In play testing, prior though, Anrakyr was a beast, especially against heavier Mech Armies. What the FAQ DID DO, though, was to now confirm that you can sweep attack, jump out, mind in the machine a target, then assault a different target.

Anyways, the FAQ now allows 2 Crypteks to be in single squad. This means that 5 Man Warrior squads can now become fairly reliable fire bases with 2 S8 AP 2 shots each that, more importantly, can move and fire This is pretty decent anti-tank with 2 shots, instead of 1.

In play testing a similar list, here's how this list works.

- It creates enormous threat bubbles that distract the enemy from shooting your troop units.

The Wraiths absorb a lot of shooting as do the Command Barges. Since they can absorb so much melta and anti-tank fire, this leaves the Anni Barges largely unmolested most of the game and the anti-tank troops free to hang out in the back.

Remember that Night Fight is going for the first, critical 2 game turns. This means the Wraiths get right up on you to be a huge threat. It also means the enemy can't see troop choices to fire on them.

Thus, the list can disable your long range threats early and then play the objective games once your long range and mobility is hampered when the night fight lets up.

- It confuses target priority for most experienced players.

Most experienced players think "if I kill the hammers, the game ends." So, they want to target the Wraiths and the CCB's early.

Meanwhile, the Necron player is going to use his fire power and CCBs to surgically disable the opponent's ability to handle his troop choices and Anni barges in turns 3+, when the Night Fight ends.

I recognized this right away in play testing. As the Necron player, it just seems like the natural course of the game. However, for my opponents, I would find that they would expend an inordinate amount of energy to deal with what basically amounts to Red Herrings which would net me a close win in the end.

Experienced players are going to have to learn to do the opposite of what they "normally do" when fighting Necrons. This is a window that can be exploited by a canny Necron player.

On to the FAQ

The FAQ has opened up a new list type for Necrons that I think will work beautifully. It's going to be next shot at a list type.

The KP Denial List

Working with these FAQ answers:

- Crypteks now allow Imotekh to re-roll Night Fight. Since this is allowing a re-roll during the "start of the game turn" which is no phase in my book, they basically set the precedence now that the Chronotek will allow a re-roll pretty much whenever. :P

- Veilteks can now come on the board with deep strike instead of walking on.

- 2 Crypteks can now join squads.

Here's the core concept. Let's build a list around very sturdy blocks of troops packed with Crypteks. The core concept will be to abuse Veils to stay away from the enemy, leverage the ability to now greatly prolong Imotekh's Lightning with a Chronotek re-roll, Veils to claim/contest late game, and basically, the snag easy KPs while denying your opponent the ability to counter.

You can't kill what you can't see!

So, here's the basic strategy:

- Stay off the board.

- Teleport squads around behind LoS terrain and/or leverage Night Fight to prevent the enemy from ever getting close to spot light, assault, shoot, etc.

- Wrack up easy KPs with Imotekhs lightning.

- Otherwise use Wraiths as a Red Herring and to prevent the enemy from getting close.

- Tie Objectives/Win KPs

HQ:

Imotekh (Mr. Lighting)

Zahndrekh (Because I want Obyron and still have 2 courts :P)

Obyron (Because has a pimptastic, get me out of combat veil)

Royal Court #1:

Veiltek (needed for veil)

Chronotek (of course!)

Pulsetek (want one to keep night fight going all the time)

Royal Court #2:

Veiltek (right!)

Chronotek (you'll see in a second)

Optional Pulsetek (if you have points)

That's a ton of points in to HQs! But remember, the idea will be to run away not to stand and fight.

Troops:

10 x Immortals

10 x Immortals

10 x Immortals

(3, 3+ save troops to teleport around with which are hard to kill)

Fast: (options)

5 man, wound allocated Wraith Squads (great for blunting assault units or keeping the enemy at arm's length)

5 man Tomb Blades (great for dumping a ton of S6 fire and/or turbo-contesting in the late game)

The idea would be to use Wraith Squads to block, Veilteks to teleport units to safety and basically leverage Lightning + Light Shooting to wrack up easy KPs on things like vehicles.

Chronoteks get used for all kinds of trickery .... like....

- Rerolling scatter on veilteks

- Rerolling Imotekh's lightning.

- Rerolling failed saved.

- Rerolling failed RP rolls

And more.

Internet Strike

Don't really know how to make this site shut down for the strike. So, figured least I could is provide a link to the strike.

http://sopastrike.com/strike

Nightwish: Holy Concept Album Batman

Anyone out there a Nightwish fan and listened to Imaginaerum yet?

Now, I realize that they changed their sound a good bit in Dark Passion Play (after Tarja left), but holy crap, it's like an entirely different band on this one. Clearly, this is a concept album as the whole thing, musically, is actually very good and comes off to me like the sound track of a movie or a play.

Seriously, though, been waiting on a new album for a few years here, and uhm, wanted more Nightwish goodness or what? On top of that, I think they had lost a lot of the core fan base with the sound change in the last one. Have a feeling like anyone who was hanging on there is going to be gone after this one!

It's not bad, it's just completely different! If you are into a very well orchestrated CD which borders on neo-classical, you'll love it. If you are into some sweet Finnish symphonic metal.... gonna recommend you ignore this one.

There are just a few songs on there that are reminiscient of what one expected, but I guess like the DVD said, that era has ended?

Also, should add, if you used to like Nightwish before Tarja left.... this band is for you.

http://www.epica.nl/

Dear Internet...

I am very thankful for the new Necron FAQ. I think this is one of the best first round FAQs GW has ever produced.

It really only left me with one very burning, unanswered group of questions:

1) Do Royal Court members who are attached to a squad count as separate Kill Points?

2) Do Royal Court members who are attached to a scoring unit themselves count as scoring, even if the entire squad save the Royal Court members is wiped out?

Building my Necron List Part 2

More thoughts and moving forward with a 'Cron list. Several new things came up over the past few days as I delved deeper into a new list which I think are worth sharing. I'll also hit ever so briefly on the troop choices.

- Imotekh and reserve.

- The Dark Eldar Problem

- The MSU Melta Problem

- The Anni Barge Problem

- Scarab Farm

- Night Scythe

Let's start with the Troop Choices:

Keeping in line with most of the GW codices, the troop choices for the Necron codex really just make you want to cry in some ways.

Seriously, why do some codices get troop choices that actually lift their own weight and others don't?

Some codices get troop choices that are actually useful outside of the transport option they have. (Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Imperial Guard, Tyranids, Orks, etc.) Unfortunately, Necrons are one of those codices where the troop choices are good for little else except their scoring and providing access to their transport.

Now, I realize there is an argument out there for putting a huge block of warriors or immortals on the field and attempting to glance someone to death. I can even one up that and say that doing this with a Veiltek is even better.

At the end of the day though, we need to understand the common baseline here that glancing something, isn't "to death". Indeed, most Grey Knight players are just rubbing their hands together in that evil, maniacal way going... "yes, believe that glancing hits will stop us!"

you are aware we have fortitude right? And that for most armies, we really don't care if you blow the gun off because we can just bum rush and kill you in assault anyways?

My fellow Necron enthusiasts. Please never forget that more Marine players don't need to shoot you to kill you. So, knocking the gun off a Razorback, unlike for most armies, doesn't eliminate it as a threat. It can still bum rush you and set up assaults which will easily kill you.

Anyways, here's what has been working for me as far as troops:

- Take small troop squads so you don't waste points on them.

- Take a Night Scythe, probably the most useful thing out of the troop choices.

- Or, take larger bricks for a unit which is very hard to kill, will be extremely stand off-ish, and score multiple objectives. Seriously consider a Veiltek here so you can teleport out of trouble.

- The Ghost Ark doesn't do anything, at least on paper. I haven't tested it yet, but it looks pretty awful. It has crap for guns. It can regenerate troops that I likely won't shoot at. It's 13 armor but no threat at all.

One last thing on troops.... DUDE CAN I GET AN FAQ? I need to know if we can put members of both royal courts in the same squad. If we can, troop choices get a LOT better. I'm having to assume we can't at this time, and it sucks.

Now, on to very brief discussions about problems I have noticed building lists....

Imotekh and Reserve

As I mentioned in the previous article, I think Imotekh has potential to do a lot of damage. (He's rocking the house if you can use him in conjunction with a Chronometron.... but alas, WE NEED AN FAQ! Did I mention that already?) Imotekh also brings Phaeron to the table which is very handy with a Veil squad which play testing has shown me are very good.

Alas, he has a fatal flaw which I think most players will learn to exploit. The best way to handle Imotekh is to give the Necron player first turn and then go into reserve. Odds are in your favor that the Night Fighting will end before you come on the board, and if not, you'll only suffer one turn of it. This completely neuters Imotekh, and for that reason, I have decided that he is probably better off not in most lists.

The Dark Eldar Problem

This army annoys me like Demons! They are stupid good versus certain kinds of lists but stupid bad against others and thus not altogether a good tournament army. Unfortunately, against Crons, they are stupid good.

The Dark Eldar problem is very simple. They have almost everything they need to completely cripple almost any Necron force. The only thing they don't have an immediate answer for is killing big blocks of Scarabs, but do they really care since they can just avoid them?

The mass of poison can easily wipe out squads to prevent Reanimation Protocols as well as kills Spyders and Wraiths. The Lance weapons giggle at Quantum Shielding. Their fast movement means they can easily stay out of your 24 inch kill zone with guns. Their ability to turbo right into your grill with Wyches means they can very easily setup assaults on you. The have night vision. Everything about Dark Eldar screws Necrons.

I'm having the hardest time trying to build a list that can even remotely compete here on paper.

The MSU Melta Problem

One big problem with Cron lists I'm trying to overcome is how do you stop a Space Wolf Razor Spam player from going, "You know what, screw this night fighting crap. I'm just going to bum rush you with my Razors, hop out when I get there, melta whip all your tanks, and assault what gets out?"

The Anni Barge Problem

Has anyone had any luck play testing these things yet? So far in my play testing, they have been very lack luster. :(

Scarab Farm

To combat a lot of problems, I've been looking at 2 lists to play test next. The Scarab Farm is one of those lists.

The Scarab Farm would seem to work best, on paper, in a more defense "hold mid" kind of fashion than a rush out and kill fashion. Back this up with Wraiths, some Veils, some Phaeron shooting blocks, and I think you got something that will work against most armies (not Deldar).

The reason is that the best defense against Scarabs is to bubble wrap and out-assault them. This won't work if you can leverage decent anti-infantry fire with Phaeron bricks against the bubble wrap and back the Scarabs up with Wraiths in assault.

You also take Imotekh here to provide you with 2 solid turns of Night Fighting plus the ability to seize. This allows you to wind up the Scarab Farm for a couple of turns as you advance.

HQ:

Necron Overlord + Phaeron + Warscythe - 120

Imotekh - 225

1 x Pulsetek - 55

2 x Veiltek - 120

Troops:

10 x Immortals w/ Gauss Blasters - 170

10 x Immortals w/ Gauss Blasters - 170

5 x Warriors - 65

Fast:

5 x Wraiths + 2 x Coils + 1 x Caster - 200

5 x Wraiths + 2 x Coils + 1 x Caster - 200

10 x Scarabs - 150

Heavy:

3 x Spyders + Gloom + Claw - 175

3 x Spyders + Gloom + Claw - 175

3 x Spyders + Gloom + Claw - 175

Night Scythe

Unfortunately, this may end up being the better Necron list as it may have fewer bad match-ups. (Deldar still annihilate this but at least it matches better versus Tyranids!)

I say it's unfortunate because all you are basically going to be doing is MSU 'Crons which is what most Marine armies already do very well!

This army does have CRAZY speed though, like Deldar. As such, it makes you have some serious advantages versus Demons and Nids which otherwise really wreck most Necron builds.

I'll expand on this more as I get a chance to play test and see how it works.

HQ:

Anrakyr - 165

Barge - 80

Necron Overlord + Scythe- 100

Barge - 80

2 x Pulseteks - 110

1 x Veiltek - 60

1 x Stormtek - 25

Troops:

5 x Warriors + Night Scythe - 165

5 x Warriors + Night Scythe - 165

5 x Warriors + Night Scythe - 165

5 x Warriors + Night Scythe - 165

Fast:

10 x Scarabs - 150

5 x Tomb Blades + Beamers - 150

5 x Tomb Blades + Beamers - 150

Heavy:

Anni Barge - 90

Anni Barge - 90

Anni Barge - 90

Defensive 40K and Sisters

I'm still trying to take time off from the 40K smashing army that is the Grey Knights. Part of that is looking for a new way to play 40K. One thing I have truly realized about playing the top tier armies is that they are all very, very good at just smashing the opponent. More often than not, the easiest solution to most of their problems is to simply crush it. A great grasp of rules and tactics makes these armies go from good to great. In the few times where you can't just smash your way out of a problem, you generally have just enough tools to think your way out instead. One thing I noticed right away as I have started play testing new army ideas both on the table and off, is that I often look at a problem and go, "you know, if I had my Grey Knights right now, I would just kill those threats and there wouldn't be a problem." Alas, when you step down into the murky waters of non-top tier armies, eliminating threats isn't always an option.

This very idea has led me down a road, more like spiritual journey, towards a new play style model... new to me not to 40k of course... that I refer to as the defensive model of play. Speaking to the basics, the entire concept is to turn the power of the top tier armies against themselves by blunting their ability to just GREY KNIGHTS SMASH! their way out of a problem. If one can somehow prevent themselves from getting swatted away, you can drag them down into the murky depths of tactical play and hopefully onto a more level playing field.

If they can't break down the wall, they'll have to think of some canny way to get past it, and let's face it, Guard and GK players rarely have a reason to sharpen their skills at thinking around a problem!

I'm not really sure if walking this path will bear fruit at the end of the day, but I'm giving it the college try. A lot of this thought process came from writing that long series of articles for the RALPH project on the podcast.

One of the things that I know Guard and Grey Knights, more than Wolves really, will struggle with is a defensive style horde. When you simply don't care about the Vendettas, Manticores, Psybolt Dreads, and Melta Vet squads, that will turn the majority of power lists on their head. So, how do you go about not caring about these things?

Superior Numbers!

But not just superior numbers, you need superior durability too. (See the RALPH articles).

The explanation is actually quite simple! If I have 100 models on the board, and you fire at me with a Vendetta, you will likely cause 2-3 wounds. I will get the same cover save as any other model. You will kill 1 model per Vendetta. If you have 3, firing at me for 7 turns, you'll get 21. That's a very slow return! You are hoping that I don't kill your Vendettas before then!

The reality of most top tier lists is they gear themselves to fight other top tier lists. This generally includes a healthy dose of anti-tank. Taking something from the Horde Ork play book, you know that army that everyone always says you should worry about but nobody secretly does because no one actually takes that army to a tournament, you can defeat anti-tank measures simply by not having any useful targets for them to shoot at.

We live in a good time in the meta for this. The reason is that the most effective anti-infantry armies generally fall on their faces trying to fight heavy mech armies. Thus, the meta has driven them into near obscurity on the tournament scene. Further, because Grey Knights are so adept at annihilating hammer units with Paladins, Purifiers, Death Cultists, and Psyko-broke grenades, those lists are trailing away as well. The fact is, Blood Angel terminators in a Storm Chicken actually kind of suck pretty bad now when a Psybolt Dread or 5 can take out the chicken and a pack of 10 Death Cultists backed up by a grenade battery will cut through your Terminators like a ginsu.

So, I'm going to give this concept a shot and put my money where my mouth is. (Also because the Necron codex is just frustrating me to no end because of lack of an FAQ and lack of models!!!!!)

I'm going to be play testing some Sisters of Battle list ideas along with my 'Crons. Why Sisters? Two reasons. First, because it's the army nobody plays. Second, because they can horde up pretty well with infantry which is a cross between Imperial Guard foot lists and Space Marine armor saves.

My first stab at this is going to be as follows:

HQ:

Kyrinov

7 x Death Cult Assassins

Saint Celestine

Troops:

10 x Battle Sisters w/ Multi-Melta and Melta Gun and Power Weapon

10 x Battle Sisters w/ Multi-Melta and Melta Gun and Power Weapon

10 x Battle Sisters w/ Multi-Melta and Melta Gun and Power Weapon

10 x Battle Sisters w/ Multi-Melta and Melta Gun and Power Weapon

10 x Battle Sisters w/ Multi-Melta and Melta Gun and Power Weapon

Fast:

10 x Dominion Squad w/ 4 x Melta Guns

Rhino

10 x Dominion Squad w/ 4 x Melta Guns

Rhino

Heavy:

10 x Retributors w/ 4 x Heavy Bolters + Simulacrum

10 x Retributors w/ 4 x Heavy Bolters + Simulacrum

10 x Retributors w/ 4 x Heavy Bolters + Simulacrum

I know, it looks crazy, and crazy bad to boot. Here's the notes, and I'll report back once I get some play testing done.

- Kyrinov is a requirement to keep my girls from running away, especially due to shooting casualties or the likes of psychic abilities like PBS or FotD. Yes, I really want little Jake for the faith reroll, but unfortunately, I only have 2 slots and right now, Saint Celestine is really just to awesome to pass up.

- Saint Celestine is the ultimate harass and contest unit in the game. Hard to pass her up.

- Dominions can scout or outflank and provide also an emergency suicide melta unit to take out things like Land Raiders.

- The small DCA is there for counter-punch only. The goal with them will be to hide behind terrain and only come out of their hole when a now fearless battle squad ties something up.

- Retributors can roll their faith before they choose a target. So, if they succeed, shoot a tank, else shoot infantry.

Remember, the idea is to overwhelm objective with bodies and in KP missions, to simply deny KP while plinking away to get my own.

I'll report back to let you know how it goes!