We are Live Streaming The Nova all Weekend: Round 1 Invi. LIVE NOW!

Hey everyone! Thanks to Neil and Pat, as is tradition, they will be streaming live all weekend on the top table of the NOVA Invitational and NOVA Open using the 11th Company Ustream.tv channel! Come check it out here....

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-11th-company

I hope to talk to lots of fans in the chatroom as we see the first large GT with Tau and Eldar at the front of the Meta. It should prove to be interesting. Thanks for viewing and thanks to Pat, Neil, and gang for setting up the rig and doing the streaming itself!

-Kevin

So how do we kill Wave Serpents?

Hey all, Kevin here to talk about the new menace of the tabletop. Something so cheese-tastic even Heldrake cares. I am talking, of course, about the Wave Serpent. The standard Wave Serpent load out is coming out to be upgraded with Scatter lasers, holofields, a shuriken cannon and the 5 man Dire Avenger upgrade. Thats an Average of about 11.5 S6-7 shots that are more than likely all twin linked and, either ignore cover/cause pinning, or could be auto wounding with AP2 from an AV 12 fast skimmer with 3 hull points, a Serpent shield, and a 4+ cover save most of the time. So basically its a fast vehicle that will either be shooting you from the edge of its range, or scurrying away out of range of any threats just to scurry over to an objective late game.

Now a smart Eldar player will check ranges to anything on the table and if he/she feels that enough threats are in range that can kill it he will just back away skirting the table edge or will stay put and not shoot off the shield relying on it, and the holo fields, to keep the serpent alive. This does, frankly, work pretty well as long as the Eldar player keeps hull points intact through out the game by staying out of range. So his army will realistically only stay intact as long as he keeps scooting away waiting to use the shield defensively until you need to grab an objective late. With the shield still intact, using my crude version of math-hammer...sorry Simhammer DJ haha, from an MEQ it would take 18 missile launcher shots to reliably down a Serpent with it's shields up (Saying you had 18 shots, 12 hits, 6 pen, and three HP's reduced from 3 holofield blocks) So realistically even with three full missile squads it is not good odds. So to have shooting be viable we need to basically ignore cover and/or re-rolling hits or penetrating rolls. With Re-rolling hits the number of missiles needed drops down to just about 13.3 shots. A significant improvement yet still lacking as it is still an unrealistic amount of missile launcher shots to do enough damage to take out 6+ Wave Serpent. Although ignoring cover would be better as only 9 shots would be needed to take down a wave serpent this still would be too many. 

So basically the common shooting ability of a normal MEQ army is just plain insufficient to deal with a Wave Serpent spam army. Remember those totals are of course relying on average rolling and the fact that you are even in range as most wave serpents will just run away at the first sign of threatening Anti-tank fire. Although it is also on relying on the serpent shield downgrading all damage results to shaken results, which is only likely not a given. Although we have to remember a Serpent shield only works defensively in the front and side armor and can only shoot in the forward arc. Also a Wave serpent needs to actually move to get its cover save.

Still this points to an obvious fact that normal shooting armies cannot reliably deal with Wave Serpent spamming in an efficient manner. So this has pointed to a lot of blog writers out assault as the one viable way of dealing with Wave Serpents is assault and when you think about it they do. In assault your only dealing with AV 10 rear armor and are ignoring the serpent shield since it doesn't work on the rear armor and you cannot get cover saves in assault. So this means if they are threatened with being assaulted Wave serpents usually will need to run away and more than likely turbo boost in order to avoid being destroyed. This means it will not be shooting.

So there are a few builds, although some ridiculously uncommon, that can deal with Wave serpents. This does include  Ravenwing bikers as they would have the speed to threaten Wave serpents in assault with power fists and grenades as well as pack a few melta weapons/divination access which will help lower the amount of results reliably needed to take down a Serpent. Although getting into threat range needs to happen quickly as Serpent shields do make a mockery of Dark shrouds and the high strength shot spam can easily thin a bike horde.  

Now any list that could keep Wave serpents moving away and not firing off their shields or with the potential of actually getting into assault would work decently against Wave Serpents. Especially if it could be coupled with saturation of anti-AV 12 shooting. Yet we do have Vanilla Marines and potential Meta shifts coming our way soon to help bring out weaknesses in Wave Serpent builds. So is the answer easy right now, or even common? Not really....only game play will tell.

So what do you find works well against Wave Serpents? With all the different game factors at play there are at least a few tactics that could benefit the whole. Put them down in the comments and lets try and get a conversation going. In the mean time I am gonna keep building and painting more Wave Serpents ;)

Sports Eye for the 40k Guy: Rain Outs

It has been one year since sixth edition has dropped. With any change, it takes time for players to adapt to new rules and sequence of play. That learning slows the game down. Once players become familiar with the rules, play picks up speed and no one looks back.

The current edition has not seen this ramp up in speed. Blame falls on the number of pre-game rolls required, such psychic powers and warlord traits. A common concern among tournament organizers & players alike is how to squeeze 5-7 turns of play into a time limit to keep the event on track. There are two schools of thought on this situation. Many tournaments have lowered their points limit, following the logic that smaller armies play quicker. Others have added more time to each round, though no one can agree what is an appropriate time limit for a round.

Does full game of 40k still need 6 turns to count?

Rain Outs

Right now, the thought of a tournament game going only 3 turns leaves both players feeling ripped off. A chorus “if the game had gone 5 turns…” ensues where both players have a yarn to tell of how victory would have been theirs.

Baseball is one of the few professional sports that postpone or cancel games due to inclement weather.  (American) Football has storied legends of games played in blizzard like conditions, but baseball is prone to the rain out. The umpire has the power to call for a delay, hoping the storm will pass. In the event the storm does not let up, the umpire has two options: they can resume the game later, or if the game has gone 6 of the 9 innings, it is called a completed game.

I am using baseball since the sport has a similar turn sequence as 40k. Each Game Turn (inning) is split in half, where one team bats (moving & shooting into scoring positions) and another is the field (defending, making saves).  Should the game end abruptly, mid Game Turn, players may not get equal number of turns. I still catch crap from my buddy who I play Fantasy Baseball with, where my pitcher got a complete game shutout for a game that went only 6 innings. [To translate, it would be like getting First Blood & Warlord, then the TO called dice down before you could roll It Will Not Die or Resurrection Protocols in his turn]

The Way We Were

Looking at previous editions in 40k compared to the current 6^th edition, phases of the turn not as exclusive as they were. Back in Third Edition, units moved in the movement phase, shot in the shooting phase, and beat face in the assault phase with a little movement for the charge. There were no run moves, Jump Shoot Jump in the assault phase, or Overwatch.

The average player knew that over the course of a 6 turn game, that an infantry unit would move at most 6 times, or 36” over the course of the battle. They would shoot six times, making easy to compute number of hits, then wounds, then kills over 6 turns.  The number of assaults would vary from player to player, army to army, but I do not seem to recall any Turn 2 Assaults back in those days, and charges were still only 6”.  Heavy weapon units, like Devastators and Havocs, would trade movement for shooting. Back then there was no Snap Fire, so if you moved, you did not shoot.  Assault units did nothing in the shooting phase, hoping to be in range next time for a charge.

Back to the Future

Just like champion chess players who can predict “Checkmate in 6 moves”, the older game was a much more controlled environment. Today’s game has more options in each phase. Going back to basic unit, they have the option to move in the movement phase. They can shoot in the shooting phase, or run.

How quickly we forget, it was not that long ago the bolters only had a range of 12” if the model moved. The effective threat range varied from 18 to 24”. Today the same bolter-wielding marine has a 30” threat range, so 25% more shooting. His buddy with the Lascannon can still snap shot even if he moved. Ok, not that accurate, but another shot you did not have before.

Moving forward to the assault phase, charge ranges are now 2d6. The 12” charge is rare,  but 9” are still common, again about 28% more than before. Moreover, with Overwatch back, a charged unit gets to shoot again, in the opponent’s assault phase. We have not even touched upon psykers who can cast multiple witchfire powers, and nova powers that target every unit in range. Several codex specific powers, like Battle Focus, Jet Packs, and Get Back into the Fight further expand a unit’s actions within a phase.

Bottom Line

The current game of 40k allows you so many addition options in phase, the average unit moves further, shooting more often, and assaulting from longer distances. The overall “number of moves” in a game of 40k has increased by at least 25% when compared to 3^rd edition.

Using our baseball comparison, each team has at least 27 at bats (3 outs times 9 innings) to score a run. If a baseball player can do 25% more in an at bat then before, it is like having 34 at bats per game, or 11+ innings. Looking at another way, a baseball player who can do 25% more can accomplish the same amount in 20 at bats than their predecessors did in 27 at bats.

If the average 40k units can do 25% more in the current edition than before, they are actually accomplishing the same number of moves, shots and attacks in 4.5 turns that 3^rd edition armies did in 6 turns.

Which leaves us with this question for discussion: Does a complete 40k game need to be 6 turns? Alternatively, is 4-5 turns of the 6^th edition game equivalent to a 6 turn 3^rd edition game?

Look forward to your thoughts.

Building an Eldar Craftworld

Apparently, it has become a tradition that I build a complete game table for the 11th Company GT (happening Nov 9 & 10 in Myrtle Beach, SC, tickets remaining). Last year, I took my bucket list of terrain ideas and asked the listeners of the podcast to vote. There were two clear favorites. Last year's winner, a spaceship interior board, beat out the Eldar Craftworld by one vote in the final 10 minutes of voting. With that close of a vote, and the new Eldar codex to arrive this year, the choice for this year's board was obvious.

How I am to build it was not as obvious. I still had to follow the guidelines that this would a balanced, tournament ready board following the NoVA guidelines. Whereas previous terrain projects allowed me some creative license, this would not. Building something as iconic as Eldar Webway Gates was like the difference between a cover band and a tribute band. The cover band just needs to know the song. The tribute band needs to match the tone of the guitar, the sound of the drum, the exact look of the original artist to transport the listener to a bygone era.

Since last year's vote was so close, I had already started to sketch out some ideas for terrain features. To meet the NoVA requirements, I need

· Two hills - borrowing a page from last year's board, my "hills" will be more like multilevel platforms

· Two Ruins - since Eldar are the masters of open floor plans, I borrowed heavily from the Dawn of War video game for inspiration. Most of the buildings include flat areas with skinny towers, which obscure without blocking Line of Sight, similar to a ruin

· Two areas of difficult terrain that do not block Line of Sight - originally I was going to do reflecting pools, but with the 6th edition rules on mysterious water, I need to look for something else.

· A centerpiece that blocks Line of Sight - Eldar are known for their towers, so I wanted this to be big. It is the centerpiece, after all, and needs to reflect the overall theme of the board. In addition, it provides a key tactical role in the overall NoVA style of play.

With a firm idea on the terrain elements, it was no time to tackle the actual game board itself. One big mistake I made last year was making the pieces too big, causing all kinds of shipping headaches. This time I will make six 2' by 2' tiles that will be easy (or least easy for Larry) to assemble. Most of the ideas online focus massive arrays of flyovers and ramps, much like the Spanish Gamesday GW ran. They look wicked cool, but no way could I say that these were fair & balanced for tournament play.

Then I came across this:

I think it is from the old Eldar codex. At this point, I was too excited to care. So here I what I am thinking:

· The jewel outcroppings are easy - most craft stores sell these egg shaped foam pieces that I can cut in half. Paint fancy jewel tones with the airbrush and glue them down

· The beveled edges can be cut out of MDF using either a jigsaw or my new attachment to by Dremmel. The key is to make the steps up or down minimal so players cannot claim a cover save. So using 3mm MDF will not only meet this criterion but will be easier to cut.

· The rune areas I still want to think. Ideally, these would be great to glow with some lighting effect. I am thinking cut them out,

More updates to come! And as always your feedback is welcome.

Gone to Killadelphia

We are heading out to Killadelphia. We will live stream the event, if all goes well. This is where it will be: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-11th-company

Sports Eye for the 40K Guy; The Kickoff

Recently GW announced the death of Specialist Games, and with it, any hope of seeing any new support for Epic 40,000. This is the final push I needed. Finally, I can get this series of articles out my head and out to the community. Ironically, this series was my original idea for a segment before I went with the Tactical Terrain idea on the 11^th Company Podcast. No worry, that segment is here to stay. I wanted to use this as a way of broaden my wings a bit.

My first GW product was Blood Bowl. The old 1^st edition with the card board players and football was a game of endless enjoyment. One of my frequent opponents (and later the guru I followed in all things terrain building) suggested I join the rest of the gaming group and play Epic. “Given your play style in Blood Bowl, I know the perfect army for you.”

Prior to this moment, I have not played a military style game in a decade. Back then is was a DBA like historical battles or Squad Leader where the scenario gave you your list. No army building required. This sounded awesome! You get to build your army, your own color scheme, your identity and go head to head with other players. Nevertheless, I need a clue about military strategy since doing a term paper on Oliver Cromwell in the 5^th grade.

Blood Bowl was nice a crutch since is a sports game, and I have had lots of sport strategy experience. Not only did I play regularly, I also played several of those sports board games that slumber in dust covered corners of your local game store. These dinosaurs are facing extinction with the rise of the machines (Xbox & Nintendo, not SkyNet). Prior to the days of fantasy sports, this was how sports nerds got their game one. You would build teams, and then actually operated as the coach in head-to-head battles with your friends. You even use dice and cards. Moreover, to imagine this: every codex, I mean team, got an update annually.

Fast forward more years than I would like to admit. My best friend & preferred 40k enemy comes to me with a question. His son is getting into more organized sports. He needs to understand more of the big picture than “run with the ball”. So I explained the major sports in 40k terms to him. It was then I realized how similar the two really are even if their fan bases are so different.

That is what brings me here today. Over the next few months, we will look at some the fundamentals of what makes winning teams and sports, and apply these pieces of sage advice to the 40k.

Tournament Terrain

As a TO you have many responsibilities. Thankfully, you have confirmed the space for your event. You have booked enough vendor tables to cover the expenses, so all ticket sales from players go to future costs. Advance tickets are selling fast. The missions are complete. Only you wake up in a cold sweat to realize you do not have enough terrain.

How much do you need?

A 16 person RTT will have 8 tables, or 48-60 pieces of terrain. That is enough to fill half of bedroom floor. This requires a plan.

Have an overall plan for the tournament

Before you touch any piece of foam, you need a plan. Ask yourself these questions:

-          What is your ideal table look like?

-          What is the mix of terrain you want?

-          What sized footprints? 12” by 12” or 8” by 8”?

12 by 12		8 by 8
Fewer Elements to make	Larger pieces harder to store	More variation	Need more elements
Most likely have these already	Based on earlier editions	More consistent with 6th editions rules	Players will board feel cluttered at first

-          Look to other tournaments for inspiration to understand how much terrain should be on the table. Also look at the distribution of types of terrain.

o   NoVA set up – 2 hills, 2 Ruins, a center LoS blocker, and 2 smaller difficult terrain pieces that do not block LoS

o   BAO set up – 2 hills, 2 ruins, 2 woods, 2 craters, 1 center LoS blocker with 4 fences around it

o   Adepticon – place your own (add 15 mins per round)

To tackle this a TO needs to focus on the three C’s

-          Consistency

-          Clarity

-          Compact

Consistency

As a TO, you want to make one ruling and have apply to all tables. All your terrain elements should be consistent enough to do this. For example, you do not want all hills are difficult terrain to climb except Table 4, which is dangerous. If you have an army of volunteers helping make terrain, this gives them a template to use.  For all you hobbyists, there will be room for creativity later

Clarity

Make the features of your terrain elements so obvious any player can determine what type of terrain it is without asking a judge. Through experience, I have found if a player can find a way to rules lawyer an advantage, cut the piece of the terrain element off. So don’t be afraid to playtest terrain prior to the tournament.

Example – a stone spiral staircase with rubble on the stairs – is it a ruin or a hill?

Compact

The biggest myth about terrain is that it is expensive. Reality is terrain will cost 20% of what you pay for an army. For example, in the last White Dwarf with the Tau fighting the Tyranids, if you were to buy all the GW terrain on their table, it would run you about $150. Thanks to a one click special, you can buy either army for about $750.

Terrain takes up as much time to prepare as an army. When I did eight center LoS blockers and 16 difficult terrain pieces for the 11^th company GT last year, it took me about 24 hours of work. However, it actually took three days because I had to wait for paint & glue to dry overnight.

Terrain takes up space, and storage between tournaments is a much bigger issue. Poor storage results in damaged terrain, forcing you to replace it. Know how much you store effectively before the tournament starts. You can use the terrain you do not have room for as prize support or donate to a local store. My first game store would replace terrain on their display tables quarterly just as a marketing idea get customers to come into the store.

Four Terrain Elements of the Apocalypse

Hills are one of the building blocks of strategic play in all war games. No one ever played King of Ruins. When comes to making hills for a tournament, stick the step pyramid look. I know, it is not the most natural looking thing, but the reasons why outweigh the visual appeal. The need to eliminate measuring at strange angles for vertical movement will relieve the judge of countless arguments over charge distances and objective grabs. By using straight up, straight across features, it eliminates confusion. Try to allow at least 1” of space on each step. I use a terminator base as a guide to ensure no wobbly model syndrome.

 For 12” by 12” sized hill, plan on it being about 4” high. For an 8” by 8” hill, it should be 2.5” tall. Not sure how high to make your hill, then use the ancient pyramid formula

Perimeter = height *4*pie

-          Too low – no tactical advantage

-          Too high – models can’t fit on steps

Be careful not to bunch up our layers, like in the picture to the right. While once side of the hill will have a nice slope, the other will be a rock wall of impassable terrain creating a rules nightmare.
 

Woods are making a comeback in 6^th edition. They are easy to make en masse and offer a lot tactical decisions without a lot of confusion as to specific rules for the individual element. Hobby wise, all you need is a flat base with 3-4 clumps of trees on a separate base, again about the size of a terminator base.

The separate base for trees allows players to move the trees out of the way for assaults & movement. As an added bonus for you, it makes them easier to store. If you are playing with Mysterious Terrain, you can make bases for each of the effects from the Mysterious Terrain table.

Easiest way to make forests is to use ¼” MDF for the base of the element, can get by with 1/8” for the tree bases. If you need trees in mass quantities, check out Scenic Express website. They sell 55 trees for $55. That will give you enough for 18 clumps, or 6 woods elements. Do not waste your time with making your trees. Time is a more valuable asset than money at this stage of the game.

Not all forests need to be trees, as pictures. Crystal forests have been around since 3rd edition. Other alternatives include jungle plant bunches, bamboo trees, or columns of junk.

Ruins are a key part of the 40k landscape. Not just for the 4+ cover save, it is part of the overall look the war torn 41^st Millennium. Ruins are easy to make, basically a flat base with broken wall sections.

You can use the same basing material as woods. You will also need 1/8” MDF for walls, or the black foam core, depending on your skills and tools available. The MDF walls will be more durable, but you will need a Dremel with a cutting bit to cut out your windows. If money is no object, a laser CNC machine runs for about $8,000. Black foal is a good alternative, as all you need is a sharp knife to cut it. Please save yourself the time and splurge on the black foam, which is both black on the outside with black foam on the inside. You will thank me later in the painting stages. Whatever method you use, there are plenty of ruins templates on line to cut out (great for volunteers to help with). To take consistency to the extreme, I use only four templates per project. I pick two templates, one for the North & South walls. The other two templates are for the East & West walls. This way every ruin in the tournament is a combination of the same number of windows, doors, etc and no one player is penalized for not having the ruins with more LoS than they other.

Try avoid multi floor ruins. It is one of the most misunderstood rules in the game. Even though we are not using floors, corner pieces are essential to keeping the ruins strong and durable. Make an “L” shape section to show where the floor was provides stability without providing a perch for a Longfang marine.

Difficult Ground is one the most overlooked terrain elements. It has come back to center stage now that difficult terrain greatly affects the random charge distance. Thankfully, volunteers can complete this easy project with little fear of epic screw up.

How easy? Start with a flat base. Glue rubble on it. Use the same basing materials as woods, and you can use small river rocks, sprue bits, whatever to give rough texture. Just be careful to keep the effect below the knee of a Space Marine. You would not to violate the rule of clarity, causing players to ask if the element does provide cover.

That's it for now. Next time will getting shopping and budgets.

Want to hear more about this and other 40k topics? Listen to the 11th Compnay podcast weekly on iTunes. 
 
 
 
 

The 11th Company GT 2013

We're back this year for the third time!

We're expanding to 96 players!

More info can be found here:  http://the11thcompany.freeforums.org/the-11th-company-gt-2013-t5382.html

You can buy tickets here:  http://www.tangtwo.com/11thcompany/tournament.cfm

Breaking Down Dark Angels and their Power in Review:

Hey all, Kevin here from the show. It's nice to get back into blogging since, if you even ever read my blog, its kind of a ghost town as of recent. I will do something about it sometime....maybe...eventually....

Anyway I thought I would come over here to my 2nd blog guest spot, free bag of potato chips to whomever can guess my first one, to talk a little bit on the power level of the, relatively new, Dark Angels Codex by breaking it down by it's units. So lets start at the top.

Note I may skip a few of the mediocre units imho....

HQ's

So there are only three real HQ choices in this book, barring the add on free slots which I will get to later, and those are Azreal, Ezekiel, and a normal Librarian.

Yes, I said Ezekiel, and no I am not on crack. Ezekiel has always been one of my favorite HQ characters and is my personal favorite Special character in the game. I even used him back before this codex dropped when I used Dark Angel allies. He use to be and still kind of is a combat beast (against MEQ's and weaker units only of course). He has a decent amount of attacks and WS5, which outside of Mephiston is good for a librarian equivalent. He also has 3 wounds and a 2+ save which is high for a librarian even a special character. He also has a 6" WS bubble, better than his old fearless bubble. He is a relatively cheap Mastery level 3 psycher at only 145 points (25 less than last edition fyi). Even though one of this is a sort of personal spell it doesn't suck and has some termie killing power. He also has divination access. Not a bad choice overall yet my problem with him is he lacks a useful list in any list I right for anything competitive. He tends not to be used when I do play hims o for right now I have him sitting in foam.

Next of course is Azreal, one of the most useful HQ choices I have seen in awhile. Also not a bad combat character with a S6 power sword with a 2+ save and 6+ FNP. Yet its his abilities that make him useful. Azreal allows every Dark Angel unit in your army to use his leadership for whatever you need. He also makes all deathwing and ravenwing in your army troops choices. Now he is disjointed in a pure list for either wing since he cannot deathwing assault nor is he fast enough to hang around in a biker army. This ability is more a bonus for a more balanced build approach. Making the odd supporting wing unit scoring is just a good perk. Yet the ability he is known for is his ability to confer a 4++ save to any unit he joins. This makes cover pointless and really helps a lot of units, such as guard blobs now with a better save, as well as shooty terminator units as they now would have a better invulnerable save, their largest downfall. He is a great choice overall even with his price tag equivalent of a terminator squad.

Lastly we have the noble and cheap librarian. An excellent cheap choice just to fill need as well as a divination caddy. He also has access to unlock other units which is nice but its his ability to attach a power field generator for a cheap price is why I get him. He basically rides shotgun in my Magic Flag Land Raider lists to give the raiders  a 4++.

Now of course we cannot skip the odd add on unit Techmarines. They also ca take a PFG which is very useful. Also for some reason Dark angel Techmarines can bolster any piece of terrain, go ahead read the book it is there, which is pretty neat.

Also we have the obligatory command squad with their set of magic flags. The banner selection is what makes these guys worth grabbing again. Most popular is the Magic Flag itself, The Devastation banner, and it's salvo aura. This, in synergy with a PFG caddy and/or even a deathwing vehicle upgrade, makes Land Raider Crusaders just plain filthy and are the cornerstone of my lists. Now I would want to try and make the FNP banner work but it really jut isnt worth it outside of a all deathwing fun army....

Now I will say Sammael and Ravenwing CS's are very popular and quite cool, they just aren't that good with Helljerks flying around right now ruining everyone in power armor's day.

Troops 

Now troops are quite simple. Tactical squads got cheaper, much cheaper, which would make them more useful you think? Well yes and no, Helldrake still don't care. The presence of helldrakes in the meta makes power armor, even in rhino's, not worth it unless very well hidden. I want to run power armor based rhino lists but I cannot in fear of Puff the Magic Helljerk.

Notably through FOC swaps deathwing and ravenwing can become troops. Honestly they both can be fairly useful and durable. I tend to run a straight mix since Azreal is common in my lists and utility is key in balanced list building.


Fast Attack

Now whomever wrote the rules for the two flyers I would really like to slap in the back of the head. I really, really, really wanted these things to work since they look a ton cooler than storm talons. Yet the suck so don't expect to see them anytime soon.

Ravenwing still will be a popular FA choice with bike squads being very useful. These guys combined with darkshrouds can be fairly cool and quite common around my FLGS's. Ravenwing support squads are another neat little option as well as land speeders can be useful. Combining Ravenwing and the Magic flag is also gold.

Elites 

Same with the Fast Attack wing deathwing are the only winners here and even then they aren't as useful as they use to be. A slightly more expensive terminator yet they come with split fire which is awesome. They also can alpha strike in  a deep strike nicely as well with DWA rules as well as twin linked weapons upon deep striking. Yet with torrent of fire being 6th Edition thing to do I cant bring out my deathwing like I wanted to as much other than support.

Heavy Support

Now there are two big winners in this department, the first one is devastators. Not only do they have flak missile access they can tote a very cheap squad of 4 multi-meltas in a rhino. A nice filler unit I would always recommend to the balanced list builder.

Now the one big and cheesy winner of the codex is the Land Raider Crusader. With synergistic combinations of the magic flag and a PFG caddy inside this thing becomes pure win. Heck even through the DW vehicle upgrade and this is a 4++ save venerable Land Raider with 24 twin linked boltgun shots always not counting the twin linked assault cannon and obligatory multi-melta. Against MEQ's between all the vehicles weapons you tend to get around 15 wounds caused from it including a armor ignoring shot or two. It is a staple to every Dark Angel list I run and I tend to run multiple of these since the investment spreads out the more LRC's I take.

In General... 

The book does tend to seem kind of bland. Basically deathwing and Ravenwing are the only falvor and I still only want to run green angels. The one  power build this codex seems to have is the Magic Flag Super Crusader list although Ravenwing is getting more popular. Yet unless Heldrakes get banned everywhere I go I don't think I will see many Ravenwing Player's winning. It is a shame but hey, Heldrake don't care.

All in all I still like the book. you can run some interesting lists coming from a few different angles in this book. IT is a fun army book to run and you can compete with it, although only with a fairly extreme Land Raider based list. I hope to see this book used a lot in tournaments and use it myself as well......more on this later....

Now I wouldn't call my word canon but what do you think of the Dark Angels book being the first Loyalist Marine book released in 6th edition? I know I am not a Ravenwing player so there is a lot to be discussed about that build's excellent potential.

BAO Display Board

So it has become almost an annual tradition, where the Tactical Terrain segment spends some time on how to make effective display boards.  This year is no exception.  Tactical Terrain Eric here, and I am sharing with you the behind the scenes of my latest project. Many of you saw it at BAO, but today I show you the steps involved in the creation of this new display board.

Coming into a new tournament season, I wanted to make some improvements. What I learned last year was:
Using the Dry Erase board was great until I tried to pick it up. I needed a way to get my fingers underneath the board to pick it up safely

I wanted to use magnetic bases to minimize sliding around as we shuffle back & forth from table to table

Cookie Sheet, slightly used

It still has to fit in my carry-on bag for air travel.

Like many stories, this project has humble beginnings. I used an ordinary, slightly used, 11”x 17” cookie sheet. This gives me the handles I need to pick up the board easily from a flat table, and the steel material allows the magnets to stick to the board wherever I put the models.

Next step was an experiment that paid off in spades. I wanted to add a texture to the board, but I wanted to avoid flock or scale ballast. I used this on my last board and found little bits in my socks after every tournament I traveled to. I also needed a material that was thin enough so the magnets would still connect to the cookie sheet. The solution was textured wallpaper. It provided a textured look but still had a flat upper surface so I didn’t have to worry about wobbly model syndrome.

Textured & Primed

A quick shot of Crystal Blue Primer (to match the army) and a dry brush of a Behr Sorcerer (yeah, I use Home Depot paints for terrain). Things were well on their way to getting completed.



Dry Brushing in progress

That was until I changed my list. I cannot recommend enough try placing your army on your display board early and often as it can affect the design. As you can see, I was running out of room quick.



Not much space left for the army

My solution was (again) to build an upper deck. This year I wanted to build something that I could take apart and collapse to fit in my bag.  Here was the original idea, just using the foam to get enough space to make this work. I realized quickly there were too many walls blocking the models from view, and this really did not convey a 40k feel. For some reason “Nativity in Black” came to mind, so I got out my Gothic arch templates and drew a pattern onto the foam.

Using my table saw hot wire cutter, the arches were cut out in no time. A quick check of sight lines and assembly, we are on to the next phase: adding detail. First, I used a hand held wire cutter to add weathered look to all the corners. In retrospect, I made the archways a little too thin and I was worried they may not withstand travel turbulence, but so far I was proven wrong. If I were to do it again, I would have kept some foam along the bottom of the arch to add stability.

Templates are essential part of terrain building



Always cut foam in a well ventilated area

Yeah! It fits!

After a few hours of cutting out tiny rectangles, I attached each of these stones around the archways. I wanted something with a little thickness so dry brushing would be easy in the later steps.

















I gave the whole thing a coat of the previously mentioned Sorcerer grey color, followed by several dry brushed layers of a light grey.

Now it was time for a backdrop. My original plan was to use a sci fi background with forced perspective to give the illusion of a vast planet scape when you pear out the window. In practice it was too dark and top heavy. Maybe next time I will be able to pull it off. As a substitute, I went with old favorite, stained glass.

The effect is simple to pull off and turns heads.

Find a piece of art you like

Adjust the size of the image to fit within your arch

Print onto ordinary paper and inspect. You may need to adjust the brightness & contrast. Photoshop does have a “Stained Glass” filter that comes in handy for this

Once you have a printout you like, photocopy the image onto a clear transparency

I cut out random sections in the shape of jagged triangles to give it the broken glass look

That is it. Hope you enjoyed and that this inspires you to try something of your own.