Still here

I'm still here. Life has just been a bit pants the last month or so, not to mention a zero interest in doing anything painting related. Motivation seems to be a problem right now.

On a up note though I have been given a shedload of a friend's spare marines including a huge amount of Horus Heresy sprues which will help fill in the numbers for my Sons of Tantalus chapter. I also have the Angron primarch model which is £50 GBP roughly so I may see if I can get something for it on Ebay.

I've also decided (again) to do a smaller second army. I had wanted to do a CSM army and since no one plays Emperor's Childen they are going to be the legion I go with. I might not have done it but for my good chum Fish who has badgered me into it.

Once life settles back down again I hope to catch the painting bug again and I can show you were I am up to with my chapter.

6th edition - one year on

It has been a year since the release of 6th edition Warhammer 40K give or take a few days. Still feels like only last weekend that I was waiting outside my nearest Games Workshop store at 7:30am. At the time I devoured the rules, got some of them wrong, and tried to adapt my game to the new rules. I did a series of Youtube videos about the changes and it included a few kneejerk reactions. GW were screwing with my game and it took a while to adjust to that. However, a year on what do I think of the game?

Pros:

• I know some folks don't like the random elements but I do. To me they represent a balancing element that each player has to adapt to. Thumbs up for me.
• Terminators are finally viable. Everyone is hung up on how few AP2 close combat weapons there are but I think it is a good thing. They still die to mass firepower so whats the problem?
• Flyers. Flyers have been a nice addition to the game and are not as tough to deal with many people think.
• Random psychic powers and war lord traits.

Cons:

• Challenges. I hate this rule as I feel it doesn't work very well. Had it been limited to named special characters then I wouldn't grumble, but it hurts the standard squad sergeant who finds himself facing Abaddon or something figure ten times his points cost!
• Land Raiders last longer but other vechicles die too easily. Hull points was not the answer in my opinion. Vehicles need to be more survivale.
• There is too much anti-air coming into the game. It is almost making the option of flyer is becoming less and less viable because of it.
• Secondary objectives are an addition that I have become to despise. On one hand it has made it so that armies must sally forth but it has hurt players like myself who do better and prefer defensive play.
• Vanguard Strike deployment. AARRGGHH!!!! Why not just stick to the old and far less irritating table quarter deployment? FFS!

What are your thoughts?

Trait Card Backs

With a big thanks to Miscreant over at 40k Forums, we now have some card backs for the warlord and warzone traits that I've done.

 

 

 

Codex: Eldar and Iyanden supplement review

 

 

So, I have finally finished the new Eldar codex and played a game against it (which I lost by the way). This is my review of that book.

 

The first thing to comment on is the awesome detailed history of the Eldar. If only the Tau codex had this much detail I might have been more pleased with it but never mind. A huge chunk of the book is made up of this history which goes into some real depth on the race. One thing that struck me as I finished it, is that Games Workshop seem to have completely retconned the whole Blackstone Fortress stuff as it has no mention what so ever, not even in Eldrad's description. Rather dissapointing but if it is being ignored than it may stop be grumbling that Eldrad should be dead and not in the codex.

 

As for the new special rules, Eldar now have Ancient Doom which gives them hatred towards anything with a mark of Slaanesh but also gives them -1 leadership against anything with said mark. They also have Battle Focus which allows them to run then shoot or shoot then run in the shooting phase. This was a pain to me in my test game and I knee jerked against it but time will tell as the new codex gets played.

 

The Eldar have been balanced in the psychic area. They are now longer the overpowered psychic force. Farseers and Spiritseers now get two new disciplines to choose from in addition to those from the rulebook; Runes of Battle and Runes of Fate. What makes these nice is that each power has two powers you can use. Again, these are much more balanced.

 

On to the units...

 

HQ.

There Eldar still have a huge chunk of special characters to choose from. The new one is Illic Nightspear, a Necron hating ranger type who upgrades rangers into pathfinders. All in all these seemed appropriately points costed despite being monsters on the battlefield. I still think Eldrad will be the only one (other than the Avatar of Khaine) to be played.

 

Troops.

Dire Avengers are still my top choice in the troops department even though Guardians seem to have a slight boost. I just don't see Guardians being worth the time, just as I thought under the last codex. Guardian Defenders with weapon platforms, Storm Guardians, Windriders and Rangers make up the rest of this slot.

Wave Serpents remain the troop transport and I have to agree with many Eldar players that it was dissapointing there wasn't an option to make this an assault vehicle.

 

Elites.

Fire Dragons and Harlequins are the best options in my mind from the typical Elite options. I don't expect Striking Scorpions to make much of an appearence, and since Eldar players are hung up on an inability to spud Terminators I don't think you'll see Howling Banshees unless they know who they are going up against.

Wraithguard however will always see use I think. They are still just as good as ever. Wraithblades, however, are just going to be avoided by most I think to be worthwhile. Wraithguard can at least shoot. Both can be taken as Troops though if you have a Spiritseer.

 

Fast Attack.

Still not impressed by Swooping Hawks. If Skyleap worked differently then I might think otherwise but they just don't seem to do much on the battlefield. Warp Spiders, on the other hand, are a real nuisence. They caused me much trouble in my test game against this codex. Not that they did much damage but I had to keep an eye on them and they kept me occupied when I should have been focussing forwards. Shining Spears and Vypers are ok but haven't seen them played as yet.

Eldar get two new flyers in this codex; Crimson Hunter and the Hemlock Wraithfighter. My regular Eldar opponent dislikes them for base armour and no permanent invulnerable saves. The Crimson Hunter certainly seems to be the better option in my mind. The Hemlock is too short range to be too effective. I don't like the models though. The Forge World planes looked a lot better.

 

Heavy Support.

Dark Reapers are still a fantastic choice from this slot, as are Fire Prisms and Falcons. The weapon support platforms, now called Vaul's Wrath Support Batteries are about the same. The Night Spinner has been made better since it appeared in White Dwarf a few years ago. The monofilament Doomspinner has been improved and locally is being called pseudo-rending.

I found War Walkers better. The weapon options are the same points costs so no longer will have to deal with just swarms of these armed with scatterlasers, which pleased me as a space marine player. This also helps make War Walkers more versatile on the battlefield.

This just leaves us with Wraithlords and the new Wraithknight. Wraithlords (and Wraithguards) no longer need a Spiritseer guide either, which is a nice improvement. The Wraithknight is a nice model, though it looks too fat to be Elder IMO, but at £70 each I don't expect to see many.

 

Over all I think this is a nice codex, and a more balanced approach than the last one. I think they will still always win any game if they know what codex they are going up against.

 

Which brings me to the Iyanden codex supplement. Oh boy, where do I start with this?

 

If you are a collector like me, then this is a nice addition if an expensive one. If you are looking at this for a addition to the Eldar codex, then save your money. The Iyanden supplement is simply a history guide with pages devoted to showcasing painted models. The actual rule additions are almost pointless. Iyanden gets a single new psychic power, their own warlord traits and artifacts. There are now changes to the FOC just an increase to the number of Spiritseers you can have and a Wraithknight or Wraithlord can be your Warlord.

 

A waste of money completely.

Iyanden Warlord traits

My copy of the Iyanden codex arrived this morning, so for those who play them here are the warlord traits.

Eldar Warlord Traits

As a continuation of my Warlord trait cards, here are the new Eldar ones. Feel free to help yourself and I hope they add to your games.

Initial thoughts on the new eldar codex

A couple nights ago I had my first game against the new Eldar codex. it was only 1000pts because I want to learn it too without getting too crushed. It is interesting but still infuriating.

* Eldar are no longer overpowered psykers thank the Emperor! They felt much more balanced without the old psychic powers.

* Battle Focus (Shoot then run or run then shoot) is not nice. Eldar did not need this even though it feels thematic to them.

* It does seem that the new codex has forced a change to the usual army build which is nice. My opponent played vehicles that haven't seen for ages (fire prism) or made changes which I found more fair (bright lances on war walkers rather than scatter lasers).

He played wraithblades but they didn't see much action as I smashed them with TH/SS terminators but against MEQs they will be nasty.
My opponent didn't field flyers because even if he had the points he felt that they were a waste of space. he felt that AV 10 and no Inv save made them unplayable.

Initial thoughts before I sit down to read the codex is that in areas they have been balanced out but in others they are just as strong if not better.

Over the weekend I plan on reading the new codex and coming back with a proper review.