More Dark Angel rumours

From Warseer forums:

Please take these rumours with a grain of salt, never met the guy who told me this stuff before in my life but he seemed to be pretty confident about what he saw (or heard). I work in a gaming store so I tend to hear rumours all over the place, bought a 50/50 chance that any of them are ever true.

• Dark Angels will NOT be released prior to 6th Edition. Expect them after Chaos Legions, sometime this Fall (apparently Chaos Legions is being released shortly after or in tandem with 6th Edition). I believe the credibility of this (at least as far as the Dark Angels go) is pretty good, especially if we speculate on when the White Dwarf spine image of the Dark Angel is going to finish.
• Company Masters in Terminator armour will apparently be able to take a single Deathwing Terminator squad as Troops and a Company Master riding a bike will be able to take a single Ravenwing Attack squadron as Troops. Belial will let you take any number of Deathwing Terminator squads as Troops and Sammael will allow you to take any number of Ravenwing Attack squadrons as Troops. I'd rather see both units as Troops choices right off the bat, but if the recent Chaos Legions rumours are true than this seems all too likely to happen as well.
• Dark Angels will have Mortis Dreadnoughts as Heavy Support choices. Sounds like wishlisting to me, but would be nice if it was true.
• Person seemed to confirm some of the other rumours that have been floating around about Chaplains, nothing new or interesting to report from that though.
• Cypher will NOT be in the Dark Angels book, but will instead appear in the Chaos Legions book.
• Some sort of new Predator that has a plasma weapon as its main armament. Sounds like wishlisting again, but could still be cool if true.
• He also seemed to confirm that the Dark Angels would have an affinity for plasma weapons and that they would be slightly better than in other Marine books, but wouldn't say how. Sounds like rumour rehashing, but if not it could confirm some of the other rumours that have been floating around.

New Necron Toys

So, looks like some new Necron toys and I have to say they look awesome.

League Scores round 15

27: Joel Tate.
25: Simon Butler and Aven Taylor.
23: Jon Quinn.
18: Luke Townsend and Mike Parker.
17: Mark Allen.
15: Benjo Gray.
13: Brian White.
11: Matt Gibson and Dan Durham.
9: Mark Thomas.
7: Ian Turner.
6: Colin Goodman

Scores have changed slighty as two players (Richard and Adam) have had to drop out due to work commitments.  Joel has snagged the lead at present though my money is still on Simon to win.

League Scores round 14

25: Simon Butler and Aven Taylor.
24: Joel Tate.
20: Jon Quinn.
18: Luke Townsend and Mike Parker.
15: Benjo Gray.
14: Mark Allen.
13: Brian White.
11: Matt Gibson.
9: Mark Thomas.
8: Dan Durham.
7: Ian Turner.
6: Colin Goodman

Sadly Richard and Adam have had to drop out of the league due to work issues so their games have become wins for their opponents (I think I am the only person to have lost to them anyway). But that has rearranged the board a bit.

League Scores round 13

25: Simon Butler.
21: Joel Tate.
19. Aven Taylor.
18: Luke Townsend.
17: Jon Quinn.
12: Mike Parker.
9: Benjo Gray and Mark Thomas.
8: Mark Allen.
7: Ian Turner and Brian White.
5: Dan Durham and and Matt Gibson.
4: Adam Townsend.
3: Richard Curr.
1: Colin Goodman.

Couple surprises this week. Jon failed to beat Joel though he should have, and Benjo should have probably beaten Mark Allen (to lose to Tau in close combat is shameful). Simon needs to check Joel's advancement I think if he hopes to win the league.

40K league 2013 - umm...

We are only about half way through the 2012 40K league at Primarchs but already I am pondering the next one for 2013. I spent months writing up all the missions from various sources to include for the current one but the gremlins got in there and a few were copy/pasted badly, or proved to be unbalanced under the current rules for some reason, plus a few gripes here and there from poor losers (sorry guys, but it's true). So I have decided that next time I will go with something more balanced.

My decision will be to keep games at 1500 points unless 6th edition ups the potential points like 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy did, and to use the Battle Missions book. I love Battle Missions. It's one of the few gems that Games Workshop have put out as a 40K supplement. Basically, for those who don't know, it allows the default missions in the rulebook (regardless which) half the time, and the missions of it's own pages the other half. The missions within are fair but tough, and provide a challenge.

There have been a few minor grumbles because one or two players feel that only the core rulebook missions are balanced enough for play. I disagree. If you want a perfectly balanced game you go and learn chess. Wargaming is about being the general, adapting to the mission and the flow of play. After all in the real world we have the axim that no plan survives contact with the enemy. It's the same in wargaming.

Anyway, I will be using Battle Missions next time. The real issue that I have to ponder is whether to allow Forge World units. I have always been of the opinion that FW is perfectly legal but I do know that not everyone wants to face it, so for the last couple years leagues at Primarchs have been codex only and fixed list. Now I have two players who want to be able to use the latest FW release for their Eldar armies and I don't know anymore. Part of me really wants to just say no, and keep the FW for friendly games between leagues. It seems the fair thing to do, but not everyone wants to see them used. If I do say no, there will be dissapointed looks but I think everyone will just get on with it, but I need to consider it rather than just say no.

Lastly I want to try and go back to a varient of how we used to play at Primarchs: mutable lists. When the club first started players were allowed to change lists each week based upon knowing the mission in advance and their opponent. It made for interesting games (even if Eldar seemed to win everything) and helped support the FLGS as players would order in the units they wanted to try out. I want to try something like mutable again, list and codex. Most players have at least two armies and more than enough models to change list. Part of this comes from myself and about a half dozen other players who get very bored playing the same list every week/round. Alternate lists would keep interest up I think. Players would know their opponent but not the mission as that would be rolled on the night, so they couldn't plan for a specific opponent.

Update: Sitting here typing this I have had a thought. Rather than a pure mutable list, how about each player writes three lists which can be different codexes if they wish, and they bring the one they want to play that night? Prevents too much tweaking but means that lists won't be the same each week. Oh well. Something else to ponder.

So I have a lot to consider carefully but thankfully I have plenty of time.

Battle Report

Had two league games this week against Fish and his brother, Adam. Didn't feel very well but needed to get them out and the way and it made for a very fun afternoon of 40K.

Played Adam and his Tau first in a kill points game. Deployment was spearhead so I knew I was going to have trouble against all those long range guns but didn't count on how much trouble. Overconfident I guess. I don't think I even got past the half way point of the board before he had oblitereated my army. I think I had a couple marines left and that was it. Fun game but dissapointing that I didn't do better.

Next up was Fish and his filthy filthy Necron hordes. I knew before the game even started that I couldn't win this one. Meat Grinder is an arse of a mission against Necron. Basically I have to destroy every last model that he has to win the game. Necrons, of course, get a roll to stand up again and he did just that. No way could I do this mission without divine intervention (and that didn't happen). Another good game but frustrating.

This leaves me with just four games to play in the league: Brian (Grey Knights), Mark Allen (Tau), Matt (Imperial Guard) and Marko (Necrons). Looks like last place in the league will be mine along with the wooden spoon.

League Scores round 12

25: Simon Butler.
19. Aven Taylor.
18: Joel Tate.
17: Jon Quinn.
15: Luke Townsend.
9: Benjo Gray, Mike Parker, and Mark Thomas.
7: Ian Turner and Brian White.
5: Dan Durham, Matt Gibson and Mark Allen.
3: Richard Curr.
1: Adam Townsend and Colin Goodman.

League Scores round 11

22: Simon Butler.
19. Aven Taylor.
18: Joel Tate.
14: Jon Quinn.
12: Luke Townsend.
9: Benjo Gray, Mike Parker, and Mark Thomas.
7: Ian Turner and Brian White.
5: Dan Durham, Matt Gibson and Mark Allen.
3: Richard Curr.
1: Adam Townsend and Colin Goodman.

Victory!

For many years now I have played 40K against my friend Joel. He's a bit of a power gamer and official GW tournament player so he always plays top notch lists. I can understand it since he is a tournament player but it can make the game a bit irritating as I am a casual player. But last week I managed to finally defeat him! Yay!

Now I can't claim it all as I had made a small error in points. Joel had said that we play 1500pts but I thought we were playing slightly more. I basically had 150pts more than him. I was happy to remove some stuff but Joel said no, it would be a nice challenge so we played. He had brought an Eldar force and I was playing my Salamanders. We rolled an objective based mission (3 objectives) with a pitched battle deployment. Two objectives were on my side and one on his.

It was an awesome game. The dice were in my favour the whole game pretty much and that helped me devestate his harlequins on turn one. That made a huge difference for me. After that I was able to maintain a hold on the two objectives I had and the objective on his side was contested by an immobilised land raider.

The extra points made little difference as it was the cost of my dreadnought which was tied up in combat the whole game by the elder farseer and neither of us could kill the other (though I lost my close combat arm).

The game ended turn 5. If it hadn't I think Joel would have swung things.