Deathwing Tactics Part 3: Elites and Transports

Deathwing Tactics Part 3: Elites and Transports

The final part of my Deathwing tactics, where we look at Deathwing Terminators themselves. Thanks again for /u/Merendino for requesting this.

Before I analyze individual units, let me briefly talk about why terminators are so weak right now. The game as a whole has become much more deadly, and there is an abundance of low AP weapons, meaning that often the only defensive difference between a terminator and a scout is the terminator’s weak invulnerable save. Melee has also become unreliable, making the terminator’s weak ranged weapons and powerful melee weapons less of a benefit. Deep Striking is not very reliable, and terminators are slow, so they need to be placed well. Finally, in the age of formations most terminator formations aren’t very good, while their elite slot in a CAD is crowded. The Deathwing detachment alleviates a number of these problems and gives slightly better shooting, making Deathwing the only choice I’d go for if I wanted to use terminators in a tournament.

Deathwing Terminators
Thanks to the flexibility that the Deathwing Strike Force provides, regular Deathwing Terminators are probably the worst choice among the terminator-armored Dark Angels. The ability to mix and-matched loadouts is nice, but the Command Squad does the same and has the same weapon options, while the Deathwing Knights are better in melee against anything without a 2+ armor save. Unless you’re really loading up on terminators, leave these guys at home.

Deathwing Command Squad
The most flexible option, a Deathwing Command Squad should be part of any Deathwing army unless you’re just grabbing a squad or two of knights. The Command Squad has all of the same strengths and weaknesses of regular terminators, with the added bonuses of being able to take a very cheap apothecary and champion. It can be tempting to load them out to take on any threat, but mixed-weapons squads aren’t usually particularly useful, especially when they’re this expensive. I personally like to give them the champion and apothecary upgrades, grab an assault or plasma cannon, then grab 2-3 thunder hammer/storm shields and maybe a chain fist, for a squad that’s able to go toe-to-toe with most monstrous creatures.The banner is usually skippable, but it’s not a bad option, especially if you throw a character in there.

Deathwing Knights
I have definitely saved the best for last. These guys are the closest thing to good terminator units in the current competitive meta. They’re tough, crank up the toughness of characters who join them, and with just the addition of a chaplain have a good chance of bringing down a wraithknight in one turn of combat. Their bonus to toughness helps alleviate one of all terminator’s biggest issues, although they are still lacking in speed. Of all the Deathwing, they may benefit the most from footslogging, especially if you add Sammael for both Hit and Run and Rapid Manoeuvre. I’ve toyed with the idea of building a deathstar around these guys and while it remains untested, an Interrogator Chaplain, Sammael, and a Librarius Conclave could definitely bring the pain and be pretty tough as well.

Transports
Deep Striking works just fine for a Command Squad most of the time, especially in the Strike Force, while Knights can Deep Strike or walk, depending on the opponent’s army. Regardless of their loadout, treat Deathwing Terminators like melee units, because that’s where they excel, so keep them out of flying transports. Land Raiders are expensive but not an awful option, especially if you can protect them for a turn or two, while most superheavy transports aren’t assault vehicles. The Spartan Assault tank is worth a look for people who don’t mind spending a few extra points for a much tougher delivery vehicle.

Hope you guys enjoyed this tactica, and as always toss me any questions you have. A big thanks to /u/Merendino for requesting this as his reward for the painting competition.

Deathwing Tactics Part 2: HQ

Deathwing Tactics Part 2: HQ

Part 2 of my Deathwing tactics, as requested by the painting contest winner /u/Merendino.

The Deathwing have a number of pretty good options for their HQ choices. The most important decision is usually how to equip them and whether to put them with Deathwing Knights or a Command Squad.

Belial
If you played Deathwing in 6th edition or earlier you already own this guy, and while he is no longer mandatory to get those sweet troop choice terminators, he received a number of buff in this codex to make up for it. Like a lot of Dark Angels named characters, he got one of our worst warlord traits, but otherwise he has a lot of utility as both a beatstick and support character. Flawless deep striking makes him ideal for any Deathwing squad, as well as cramming into other imperial armies, and re-rolling hits in a challenge makes him relatively scary in combat. He’s a good choice, but his biggest flaw is that he’s always going to be stuck with that useless warlord trait and need to have another character come along to be warlord and hope to get Rapid Manoeuvre to make up for how slow terminators are. If you put him with Deathwing Knights, definitely give him a shield/hammer. It makes him much tougher to kill and combos well with the Knight Master striking at I4 but AP3. In a command squad his sword is fine to take advantage of his high initiative and the champion’s AP2 weapon.

Interrogator Chaplain
Probably the outright best choice for Deathwing, the Interrogator Chaplain has almost the statline of a Company Master, buffs his entire unit in melee, can take all of the good toys, and isn’t stuck with a bad warlord trait. Take the Mace of Redemption and a storm shield and he becomes an expensive but excellent force multiplier for Deathwing Knights. He can work ok with a Command Squad, but his potential is probably wasted there compared to with a unit of knights. There isn’t much else to say about him, just take him unless you have a very specific use for another character.

Librarian
A lot of the utility a Librarian gains while on a bike is unfortunately lost in terminator armor. The extra speed and point of toughness make a huge difference for the squishiest of the Deathwing, and the Interrogator Chaplain’s melee buffs are far more useful with terminators than with Black Knights. That being said, the Librarian is probably better suited to go with a Command Squad than Belial or an Interrogator Chaplain. Grab the Eye of the Unseen to buff both their melee and whatever ranged weapon you have in the unit, and the Librarian will benefit a lot from the Feel No Pain the apothecary provides. Like Belial, still a good choice for the Deathwing, but lacks the balls-out awesomeness of the Chaplain. Also can roll for his warlord trait which is big.

Ezekiel
Not in terminator armor, but Ezekiel is a decent choice to go with Deathwing who are footslogging or in a transport. Like the other named characters, Ezekiel is stuck with a crappy warlord trait, but his buff to attacks, good statline, and level 3 mastery make him worth more the more points you put into a unit. If you’re going to have another character to buff the unit (probably an Interrogator Chaplain) and hopefully get a more useful warlord trait, than Ezekiel is good for buffing the unit with things like rerollable saves or +1 toughness. I just wouldn’t take him unless you’ve already invested a fair amount in the unit.

Azrael and Asmodai
These are two other characters with the Deathwing rule that could potentially be used for a footslogging unit. Unfortunately, both of them end up being a lot of wasted points. Azrael’s 4+ invuln is wasted on Deathwing Knights and only a minor buff to a command squad, and while picking his warlord trait is good, Sammael is both cheaper and gives his unit Hit and Run as well if you need Rapid Manoeuvre. Asmodai is just generally overcosted and loses a lot of the options regular Interrogator Chaplains have, making neither of these guys very good options for Deathwing.

So the Interrogator Chaplain comes out as a clear winner thanks to melee buffs being far more important for the Deathwing, but Librarians, Belial, and Ezekiel all have their uses within a Deathwing army as well.

Next week I’ll wrap this up by going over the actual unit options for the Deathwing.

Deathwing Tactics Part 1: Rules and Detachments

Deathwing Tactics Part 1: Rules and Detachments

The prizes for the painting contest were that each of the winners got to request an article for the blog. Appropriately, /u/Merendino used his first-place Deathwing to request a Deathwing Tactics article. These next couple articles come courtesy of him.

I’m going to write these articles in the reverse order of how I wrote the Ravenwing tactics, starting with special rules and detachments and then moving to individual units. It’s worth noting that terminators as a whole are in a bad place, being slow, expensive melee units reliant on low toughness and a good armor save. However, a number of the bonuses Deathwing have help push them above other terminators, if not to tournament-playability then at least to useful units.

Deathwing
The titular rule actually provides very little to Deathwing terminators and Dark Angel special characters. Fearless is fairly redundant with their Ld 9/10 and Stubborn, and Hatred(CSM) doesn’t make up for the fact you’re going to want Hatred on their melee units anyways.

Split Fire
Both Deathwing Terminator and Command Squads get this rule, and it is excellent. Terminators have some pretty good ranged weapon choices, and being able to shoot them and then charge a different unit is great. It also combos well with the next rule.

Vengeful Strike
Another extra rule we got to justify the higher price tag on Deathwing terminators, twin linked ranged weapons on the turn you Deep Strike is good. It’s nothing amazing but it helps make that expensive heavy weapon worth it.

Deathwing Redemption Force
Our unique formation, and the only way to get Deathwing into a Lion’s Blade Detachment, this formation is not very good. When compared to the Deathwing Strike Force below, you are taking a mandatory two units of Deathwing terminators and giving up two HQ slots. In return, you get Preferred Enemy(CSM), can run and shoot or shoot and run on the turn you Deep Strike, and pick a turn before the game starts that all models in the Redemption Force will arrive. The second rule is shared by the Strike Force, the first rule is pretty useless (all you’re getting is rerolls to-wound of one and reroll hits of one after the turn you deep strike) and the third rule is patently worse than the Strike Force version. Unless you’re going for a fluffy army there is no reason to take this formation over a Strike Force.

Deathwing Strike Force
This, along with the Ravenwing Strike Force, was GW’s way of letting us play our old pure-terminator and pure-bike armies from the 6th edition codex. While you technically can’t do that with the Deathwing Strike Force thanks to all units starting in reserve, it’s a decent detachment and piles more rules onto the Deathwing to help make them useful. 1-3 HQ and 2-12 Elite choices, all must be terminators or venerable dreadnoughts. Seems appropriate, and puts it head and shoulders above the Redemption Force already by letting us take more of our best terminator units (HQ’s) and doesn’t make us pay a tax of basic terminators. For the rules, we get the run/shoot or shoot/run from the Redemption Force to make sure we don’t eat templates the following turn, re-roll warlord traits, and if our army also includes a Ravenwing Attack Squadron or Ravenwing Strike Force, each terminator unit can choose to pass or fail it’s reserve roll. While that last part may seem like a bit of a restriction, remember it’s impossible to run this detachment alone without tabling yourself, and Ravenwing bikes are all equipped with teleport homers. The synergy is both fluffy and crunchy, and makes this detachment head-and-shoulders above the Redemption Force.

Combined Arms/Allied Detachment
While this is still an option, I would almost always take the Deathwing Strike Force. The only time I would want to take Deathwing terminators in a CAD would be to start them on the board in a land raider or other transport. However, land raiders, like terminators themselves, aren’t in the best place right now and aren’t a great investment for carting around an expensive unit. Barring that situation, keep them in their specialty detachment.

With a pile of special rules, and a detachment that lets you take a bunch of the best units tax-free, Deathwing terminators definitely stand out above other faction’s terminators. While they share most of the weaknesses of other terminators, the extra buffs make them more capable offensively and a bit less vulnerable when Deep Striking. The Deathwing Strike Force is a clear winner in terms of how to get them into your list.

Next week, we’ll go over individual Deathwing units.

November Painting Contest Results

November Painting Contest Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in this awesome contest! We unfortunately didn't make our goal for entries, but I still have prizes for the winner and runner-up. But you guys are probably more interested in seeing those:

Runner-Up, /u/Redbaron67's Dark Talon:

This was the first entry to the competition, and set a high standard for everyone else. The extra work on the masonry is what put this above the competition and into second place. You can see the full gallery here.

First Place, /u/Merendino's Terminators and Land Raider:

I got a few beautiful terminator entries, but it was the icon on the land raider that sold this one for me. The extra conversion work on the gunner was also something I really liked. You can see the full gallery here.

I hope everyone who participated had fun working on their entries, and congratulations to our two winners. While we didn't reach our entry goal to get a free copy of Deathwing as the grand prize, I do have some smaller prizes to give out to our winners. I enjoyed doing this and may revisit this idea in a few months, probably with a lower goal for entries for a grand prize. Thanks for reading!

All Lists Do Not Have to be "All-Comers"

All Lists Do Not Have to be "All-Comers"

There’s a lot of common misconceptions about tournament lists that I’d like to take some time to talk about.

I have a lot of people who ask me for tournament advice get upset when I tell them about their list’s bad matchups. People seem to be holding onto this notion that just about any list can and should be capable of taking on any potential list you will play at a tournament. I’d like to talk about why this is impossible, impractical, and not a bad thing. Before I continue, I’d like to include a disclaimer: There is no unwinnable game. Even the worst matchups can be won if you’re just a flat out better player than the other guy, but a lot of what I say is going to be based around the assumption the players are close to the same skill level, unless otherwise specified.

First, there are “all-comers” lists in the current competitive meta. Lists that still have a decent chance to win in their worst matchups. These are the S-tier lists, Eldar Scatterbikes, Battle Company, and Incursion. There’s some variations on these but the ones you see sweeping a lot of tournaments are all lists that have pretty much entirely good to bad matchups, with no terrible ones.

If that’s true, why ever play another army? Shouldn’t we all just play those lists until something comes in to smash up the meta (hello, 5th edition). No, we shouldn’t. One thing about those S-tier lists is that they are pretty hard to pilot. Plenty of people have seen their local powergamer running one of those “netlists” and crushing some hapless newbie, but a lot of those guys don’t put up good (or consistent) results in tournaments. The reason you see those kinds of lists dominating tournaments is because those are the top players playing the top lists. S-Tier lists have an incredibly high skill ceiling, and when combined with no truly bad matchups, in the hands of a great player they will win.

This isn’t to say less-skilled players can’t do good things with those lists, but they will need practice and will find themselves struggling to max out their wins. So if you don’t want to run an S-Tier list, or are new to the tournament scene and don’t want to try to get your feet wet with an army that’s hard to pilot, you want what I usually call a Spoiler List. While these lists are ideal for newer or less skilled players, there have been great examples of spoiler lists performing well and even winning large events, such as Sean Nayden’s infamous Tyranids list.

Spoiler lists operate on the principle of “win big, or not at all”. Instead of trying to make these lists capable of taking on any enemy army, you make them very good against certain armies, while understanding that your bad matchups are pretty much always going to be a loss (barring amazing dice or a bad opponent). These lists often operate on the concept of taking a lot of a very good unit, or bringing only one type of unit to deny a lot of your opponent’s threats. Two good examples are my NOVA list and the list I played against last tournament with 5 riptides and 2 knights. My ravenwing list was incredibly resilient to shooting attacks that didn’t ignore cover meaning a lot of my opponent’s shooting would be wasted on them. However, the low model count meant I had a weakness to being drowned in bodies, so armies like Incursion or Battle Company gave me a hard time. Meanwhile, that riptide/knight list obviously shrugged off most shooting, and was capable of quickly removing units that threatened the knights and riptides, but was susceptible to being bogged down and swept by many smaller melee units, like my Orks.

Spoiler lists are great if you have a good idea of what kind of armies you will be facing going into a tournament, and also let you get into tournaments with a list that has a solid “comfort zone” of armies they will beat reliably. If you want to try a spoiler list, either pick a certain type of army you’d like to beat (probably one of those S-Tier lists) or pick a type of unit you’d like to take a lot of. Vehicles may not be the best, but an all-tank Imperial Guard army would certainly give some armies a hard time, or building a dark eldar list specifically designed to mess up daemons (usually with some eldar/corsairs allied in). I’ve seen both of these armies used well and put up good tournament results thanks to maxing out their wins.

I hope this gives you guys a little insight on list building and why it’s ok to bring lists that aren’t S-Tier. Painting Competition closes December 6th by the way. Send me those entries on reddit or by email!

The Myth of Bad Armies

The Myth of Bad Armies

I think a lot of people were expecting this after my last post.

Reactions to my last post were mixed.

I was surprised to see so many people actually upset that I was claiming Orks aren’t as bad as everyone has said. But before I go on with the meat of this post I want to step down from my soapbox for a second. I know I speak from a pedestal when I write this blog, partly because that’s how these kind of blogs work, but also because I like to think my tournament results have given me a bit of a position of authority. But I’m someone who enjoys the game, just like everyone else, and some of the more spiteful comments I received in the last week or were pretty hurtful not just to me but also to the people I play with. I don’t understand why some people took my post as some kind of personal attack, but I certainly received a lot of personal attacks back, questioning my integrity as a player, saying I cheated, or claiming I only beat bad players. Rather than respond to all of those individually, I want to remind everyone that insisting your own army is bad competitively, and insulting someone who put up good results with it serves absolutely no purpose. It doesn’t make you a better player, it doesn’t make anyone else care that you think your army is bad, it won’t make GW update them, and it ends up just making me and maybe some other people reading it feel bad. If my post was that big a blow to your pride that you felt the need to personally attack me and others, you might need to re-examine what you take pride in.

Alright. Back up to the soapbox. In a more constructive manner, let’s discuss WHY so many people think Orks and other armies are bad, and how we as players can look at them. This will be strictly in a competitive sense, but I’m going to address casual play at the end.

Out With the Old
I’d bet the most common problem for people who claim that armies like Orks or Dark Eldar are bad is that they’re upset the old staple units have fallen out of favor. Trukks, Boyz, Nob Bikers, Raiders and Venoms are all formerly powerful units that just don’t work well competitively anymore. The thing is, this happens to every army. While it’s more obvious when these units are advertised as the core units of the army, like in the above examples, it’s not restricted to them. Almost every week on reddit I see people asking “Why are terminators bad?” “What happened to terminators?” “How do we fix terminators?” Terminators are a unit in several competitive codices that have fallen by the wayside thanks to meta shifts, just like those units in “bad” codices. Orks have plenty of good units right out of their codex like Lootas, Warbosses, Deffkoptas, Warbikes, and even Grotz for troops, these just aren’t the units that have traditionally been their strong point.

Best Buds
Another problem of people clinging to old styles of play is those who refuse to use allies. There is no reason to shoot yourself in the foot like this when making a competitive army. CSM and Dark Eldar are armies who both have very good battle brothers who they can bring plenty to the table for. If you want to continue playing your old favorite army in today’s competitive environment, sometimes the best way to do that is to just bring some friends. I’ll also quickly address people who say using FW or supplements is somehow wrong in tournament play: This is an old mindset that has no place in the current state of competitive play.

The Bandwagon
One last problem I notice is the often perpetuating cycle of “bad armies.” People say the army is bad, so no one brings them to tournaments. Then people point to the fact they aren’t popular in tournaments as a reason that they’re bad/not popular. 40k already has a massive copy-cat problem where people try to pick up the S-tier armies because they believe it’s the only way to win, and discouraging innovation by believing only the popular armies are good ones perpetuates this problem.

You can take any army to a tournament and do well, as long as you’re willing to make concessions to change up your old style of play, maybe by adding allies or getting rid of your favorite units that aren’t as good as they used to, but don’t let the myth that your army is bad discourage you.

So what about casual play? This is going to be the hardest for a lot of people to grasp I think, but casual play is casual. If you’re having trouble winning with your army in casual games, no matter what army it is, one of two things is happening. Either your opponent is not bringing an appropriate list to play with you, or you are a poor player or have a poor attitude. Casual games are about both players having fun, and if one of you isn’t, both of you have failed. Standing there complaining about your codex will not change that situation, because if your codex gets buffed the next day and you start sweeping all of your casual games, then your opponent won’t be having fun. Most people already ask their opponent if it’s ok to bring someone like a Superheavy to a casual game, or to play a unique mission. There should be no problem saying “hey, I want to bring a big horde of Ork boyz, please bring an army or pick a mission that will be fun for both of us.” It’s on the two of you to create a situation where both of you have fun no matter what armies you want to play, and if your opponents are otherwise good players, maybe it’s time to look at yourself and ask if it’s your own attitude that’s stopping you from having fun, not your codex.

Alright, that got pretty heavy. Back to business as usual next week. Don’t forget to send me those entries for the Dark Angels painting competition! It ends December 6th!

November 19th, Elliscon Tournament. First Place!

Format: ITC
Number of Players: 18
Rounds 3
Placing: 1st

This was the first solo tournament I've ever won, and I couldn't be happier with my results. The list performed well, and I beat a lot of good opponents (everyone I beat went 2-1). According to one of my teammates there were people walking around asking how the Orks were winning any games, and one person thought I was kidding when I said I won the whole thing. Matchups are below, along with some ideas for you guys if you're going to a tournament.

List:
Orks Combined Arms Detachment
Zhadsnark (Warlord)
Painboy, Bike
Mek
Mek
5 Warbikers, Nob, Power Klaw
4 Warbikers, Nob, Power Klaw
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
5 Lootas
5 Lootas
Buzzgob's Big Mek Stompa, Klaw, Kannon

Orks Combined Arms Detachment
Warboss, Bike, Klaw, Lucky Stikk
Warboss, Bike, Headwoppa's Killchoppa
Mek
Mek
11 Grotz
10 Grotz
10 Grotz
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
5 Tankbustas
Void Shield Generator, 2 Extra Shields

Game 1: Eldar

He was running all of the wraith formations and had a bunch of wraithguard, wraithblades, a wraithknight, two wraithlords, and a wraithseer and spiritseer. I let him go first and waste a turn coming towards me thanks to his short ranges, then counter-charged him. The wraithknight died to the stompa in CC, but by the bottom of 3 all he had left was the knight and a unit of wraithguard anyways.

11-0 Win

Game 2: White Scars Battle Company

This was a tough game against a very good player. I benefited a lot from the mission being The Relic, and the Stompa was able to control the center-field. He couldn't touch it so he was forced to try to get around me. We ended up trading deployment zones and I was able to snag the relic at the end and leapfrog him in maelstroms by killing all of his guys in the back.

10-1 Win

Game 3: 5 Riptides, 2 Knights

The mission was kill points, which meant I pretty much auto-won the Maelstrom, but had to table him to win the Eternal War. And that I did. I locked the riptides down with bikes, shot the knights to death, then swept in with the stompa to finish off the riptides.

10-2 Win

I couldn't be happier to win my first tournament with my Orks. I played against very good players and threw a lot of people for a loop. Also, I went with two members of my club and a member of another Boston club who played for us at this tournament. We set ourselves some team goals (8 wins, 90 battle points) which ended up being a great idea and added an extra layer to the competition. We met all of our goals and our honorary member finished 2nd with his Daemons and one of my other teammates finished 3rd with his Tau. Anyone going to a tournament with some friends, I recommend you try setting these kind of team goals for yourselves to add some extra fun and stat-keeping to the tournament. I don't talk about my club much but it gave me a reason to be proud of the group I play with, so congrats to Korey, Dylan and Dave as well.

Later this week I think I'm going to discuss the common misconceptions of "bad armies" and talk about how we can all be more productive in that regard. As always, feel free to ask me questions about the list or anything else.

Casual vs. Competitive Play and Player Attitudes and Expectations

Casual vs. Competitive Play and Player Attitudes and Expectations

In addition to being an avid tournament player, I also help run my local club and often have to help new players learn the game. I wanted to use that experience to talk about competitive vs. casual play.

To start with, let’s define competitive and casual play. For this article, “competitive” play is going to be tournaments, competitive events, and games specifically agreed on to be practice for those. Everything else will be “casual” play. Those are pretty broad but that’s often how I see them loosely defined elsewhere. Both of these types of games and the difference between a good and bad experience in either of them depend on managing the expectations and attitudes of both (or more) players involved.

For competitive play, expectations are very easy to define. Both players are trying to win, and you shouldn’t go to a tournament without the understanding you might get a bad matchup or play against a very good player who kicks your ass six ways to sunday. I don’t like the kind of shaming I sometimes see towards competitive players for taking a list that’s “too cheesy” or “uses unfluffy units” for a tournament. The goal is to win, and it’s fair for anyone going to an event to bring the best they can.

Player attitudes are the tougher part to manage in competitive, because you may get an opponent who’s rude, tries to cheat, plays horribly slowly, or throws a temper tantrum. Luckily, this is what TO’s are for and the best way to mitigate how bad an experience a crappy opponent can give you is to call a TO over and let them know what’s going on. For the most part, your experience at a tournament is going to be governed by your own attitude and the luck of the draw on which opponents you get.

Defining expectations for casual games is where I think a lot of players fail and end up with a bad experience. Some people like to just play with whatever models are on their shelf, or even only what’s painted. They throw together a list and use it. Other players, like myself, can’t help but make sure their list is a “good” list. I often use bad units (I LOVE Vanguard Veterans) but will equip them and support them within the list to make sure they have a job to do and can hopefully do it. This is a difficult expectation to manage because both players are building what is, in their opinion, a “casual” list. The only real way to manage this is to ask the second group of players to tone down their lists, or maybe help their opponent write a list if their opponent wants to bring a better army. Also, try a scenario that puts that person at a disadvantage (with their consent of course) to make both the game and matchup more interesting.

Attitudes are easy to manage in casual games. If a player is consistently difficult to play with for any reason, just don’t play with them. The benefit of casual games (and tabletop games in general, usually) is that you always have a choice about who to play with and when. If you feel like you need to play with someone with a bad attitude, talk to them. I’ve had plenty of bad games with otherwise good guys because they were having a bad day.

So what happens when these two cross over? Usually nothing special actually. A lot of competitive players will fall into that second category of casual play, and may need to be given a disadvantage to ensure a fun game. Trying out a new army or radically different list is a great handicap. Also, as a casual player playing with your more competitively-minded friends, don’t immediately point to their attitude and list as a reason for a tough game. I see a lot of people with the belief that tournament players all have a “Win at All Costs” mentality that means they’ll always stomp you in an unfun way. I think this often comes from those competitive players just being better players, and the casual player looking for an excuse. If you felt the game wasn't fun, talk to them. Maybe they can tone down their list, or point out a few places where you could've just played better to make the game closer.

Finally, let me quickly address “That Guy”. I think when most people talk about having a bad experience with a competitive player, they played against those people who bring an overly competitive list and/or attitude to a casual game. Even when you were clear the game was casual, they brought a top-placing tournament list they pulled off the internet, and act like a jerk or talk down to you all game. For the most part, there is nothing you can do about this kind of person except not play with them. In my experience, these are often middle/lower-tier tournament players who need an ego boost by smacking around people’s fluffy armies. The very good tournament players who I’ve encountered have all been friendly and enjoyable people to play with, and are usually just as capable of fun casual play as competitive play. If you have “That Guy” in your group, refuse to play with them until they tone it down. There doesn’t have to be a line between competitive and casual players.

Sorry that ended up being a bit long. Hope you guys liked this departure from tactics/list analysis. Let me know if there’s a topic you’d like to see me cover next.

The Most Important Part of List Building: Win Conditions

The Most Important Part of List Building: Win Conditions

Win conditions are something I see very few players consider when list-building. I thought I’d write some guidelines to developing these.

Win conditions are a fairly abstract but incredibly important part of list building. They are the reason a list can’t be properly critiqued without knowing what kind of missions it will be used in, and far too many players completely ignore them. Defining them can be tricky, but for the purpose of this article I’m going to define them simply as “the things you need to do to win”. For the most part this means “how you are going to score points and stop your opponent from doing so”.

Your win conditions should be flexible, but when building a list you usually won’t know your opponents and it's fine to have general win conditions. The best thing you can do is think about what your units force your opponent’s units to do. I see far too many people play out games in their head where they just say “my units kill his units”. The game rarely works that way, and good opponents will never leave their valuable units where they can get killed easily. Instead, think about how your opponent will react to your units. If you have a wraithknight, your opponent will either have to avoid the area of the board it’s in, or dedicate a lot of firepower to killing it. That means your wraithknight establishes board control for you. If you have a drop pod alpha strike, your opponent will probably hold some units in reserve or change his deployment to protect valuable units, giving your other units space and time to move.

For some concrete examples:
My Ravenwing NOVA list revolved around establishing board control with my large squad of black knights, while having durable, utilitarian units that could threaten any unit and be anywhere on the board I needed them to. In pretty much every game, my win conditions revolved around cleaving through my opponent’s scoring units while avoiding or quickly killing deathstars/superheavies. This worked because NOVA’s allowed me to choose to score at the end, and my units were fast enough that they didn’t need to worrying about scoring until the last couple turns.

My Ork ITC list combines a bunch of threatening individual units with a “centerpiece” unit and a few throwaway units. The stompa gives me a huge swathe of board control, while the bikes can threaten most tougher units. The deffkoptas, grotz, and lootas can be placed just about anywhere, to score objectives, screen for other units, or tie up enemies. This list works because it has three distinct types of units my opponent has to try to deal with, and each of them support each other. The stompa is difficult to kill, and my bikes are capable of killing most things that actually threaten it. Meanwhile, my opponent has a lot of smaller units they have to deal with if they choose to ignore/avoid the stompa.

Understanding your win conditions is important because they’re how you win bad matchups, or ensure you can win 50-50 ones. Most games it won’t matter how much stuff you kill if your opponent scores more points than you at the end of the game. It also allows you to take on armies you haven't encountered before. You may not know what everything in their army does, but if you keep in mind your general win conditions, you’ll be able to play the mission your way and work around the enemy units you’re not familiar with. When making your list, don’t worry about which of your units kill what type of enemy units, but what they do to help you win the game (which very well could be killing enemies that threaten your important units).

The hardest part of considering your win conditions is often being honest with yourself. Two squads of space marine scouts are never going to hold objectives if your opponent wants to kill them, and a squad of deathwatch marines aren't going to kill all of your opponent's vital units. Always treat your opponent like he's going to play smart, and think about what you need to do to win the mission, or stop him from doing so.

Sorry if that was a bit abstract, if you have questions or even want to show me your army list for feedback, please feel free to do so. Have a great week guys.

List Building Example: Analyzing a List (Part 2)

List Building Example: Analyzing a List (Part 2)

It’s been a hectic week and I didn’t get the chance to sit down and write the article I was planning. Instead, I’m going to do a list analysis on my friend Kyle’s Eldar/Corsairs list.

Corsairs Raiding Fleet:
Sky Burners:
Hornet, Pulse Lasers, Shroud
Lynx, Shroud
Void Dreamer, ML3, Jetpack
Jetbikes, Shuriken Catapults

Command Crew:
Prince, Bike, Shadow Field, Mask of Secrets, Master Crafted Void Saber

Eldar Combined Arms Detachment:
Jetseer
Jetseer
5 wraithguard, D-Scythes
3 Scatterbikes+Warlock
3 Scatterbikes+Warlock
Skathach Wraithknight, 2x Hellstorm, 1 Scatter Laser

Dark Eldar Allied Detachment:
Archon, Webway Portal
Kabalite Warriors

This list uses a mix of generalist, gimmicky, and niche units to make an all-comers list that can take on a lot of different threats. The biggest issue this list faces is that it can be difficult to pilot, knowing when to hold things in reserve and when to start them on the board. It also has a low model count, meaning every unit lost is a big blow, especially when not every unit can take on any threat.

Let’s start with the obvious generalist units. Scatterbikes are one of the best units in the game. They fill a troops tax, are incredibly fast, relatively tough, and can threaten a wide variety of targets. There’s not much more that I can say about them or Jetseers other than that they are powerful and versatile units.

This list was made for ITC format games, so the Skathach Wraithknight leapfrogs the regular one in power in my opinion. The choice for the hellstorm templates over the melta was made because the lynx and hornet bring plenty of quality shooting that the melta cannons normally would, and the army otherwise lacks ignores cover except from psychic powers.

The Archon and Wraithguard are an interesting gimmick unit. If you don’t know how this unit works, the Archon allows his unit to deep strike without scatter. That means he’s going to reliably get 3 or more templates from his wraithguard on any unit that requires removal, which will kill just about anything. The gimmick, of course, requires relying on a reserve roll which is unreliable, but even including the cost of the Kabalite warriors, this unit isn’t too expensive and can help play mind-games with his opponent.

The hornet is a nice niche unit that adds a few more high-strength shots to the army while being able to deep strike pretty reliably and getting a rerollable invulnerable save on the turn it does. It’s cheap, so not much more to say about it.

The Lynx is a powerful generalist unit capable of laying down A LOT of D, either 3 twin-linked shots or one large blast. The option to use the blast is huge in ITC where invisibility only reduces it’s BS. Additionally, it’s pretty vulnerable, being a vehicle and not a superheavy, but being in the sky burners detachment lets it deep strike (with rerollable reserve and reduced scatter) which gives it a way to protect it without losing too much firepower.

The Void Dreamer, Prince, and Shuriken Bikes are all gimmick units that don’t really need separate explanations. The Shuriken bikes are cheap and can be a major annoyance thanks to their ability to move after shooting and then again in the assault phase. The prince can tank a unit’s leadership, threaten weak backline units with his power weapon, and tie up units with his 2+ invulnerable save (potentially rerollable with fortune). Ultimately, the prince won’t stand up to real melee units or focused firepower thanks to his low toughness, but he’s a decent bully unit. The Void Dreamer is adaptable, but slow and squishy, making him sometimes useless when he can’t get to where he needs to be to use his power.

Next week we’ll be back on schedule with a post about win conditions. If you have questions about the list analysis I’ll be happy to answer those as well.

Dark Angels Painting Contest Update

Dark Angels Painting Contest Update

Deathwing's release date has been pushed back, so I'm going to give you guys some extra time on this.

Hey guys! Now that Space Hulk: Deathwing has a solid release date on December 9th, I've decided to push the end-date for the Dark Angels painting competition/giveaway back as well. The final date for entries is now Tuesday, December 6th. That means all entries must be in by midnight, EST on that day. If we get a dozen entries, the winner will receive a copy of Space Hulk: Deathwing!

To reiterate the rules:

• 3-6 models painted in Dark Angels or Successor Chapter colors. Alternatively, a single large model such as a Land Raider is acceptable
• Any 40k models are fine (Forgeworld is ok, but not models specific to 30k), Characters, Vehicles, etc. but must be at least minimum-sized units (3 bikers, 5 tactical marines)
• Must include before, process, and after pictures (3-4 pictures total is plenty)
• All submissions must include a few lines (2 sentences to 2 paragraphs or so) explaining who these guys are and what makes them cool
• Display boards/scenes are not necessary but may be worth bonus/tiebreaker points
• All submissions must be in by Midnight EST Tuesday, December 6th. I will announce the winner December 7th and post the winner along with runner-ups on the blog
• The winner will receive a copy of Space Hulk: Deathwing for PC if we meet the criteria!
• Feel free to contact me if you have questions

Good luck everyone!

The Value of Community Discussion

The Value of Community Discussion

Thousands of years ago, when the Emperor still walked, Horus was loyal, and Ferrus Manus was a head taller, I started this blog with the intention of de-mystifying the competitive Warhammer 40k scene and letting more people have access to army lists and discussion of matches. Today I want to directly discuss that original goal.

Over the past few months I’ve gotten the chance to watch my readership and support for this blog grow, and it’s been awesome. As much as I love watching the numbers go up, and knowing you guys are reading, the best part to me is when people take the time to speak to me, tell me how much they like the blog and how it’s helped them. But I’m only one person, and as much as I love talking about the game I have my own biases and faults and no one can get the whole perspective from only me. I certainly wouldn’t be where I am if not for the help of at least a half dozen other people sticking their hands in my lists or helping me practice. The point of this long-winded intro is that today I want to talk about how everyone can join in discussions and add their points constructively.

There is No “Best List”
Yesterday a member of one of my groups was talking about building an Iron Hands death star. I spent a good ten minutes explaining its weaknesses, what lists beat the tar out of it, and what missions are practically auto-lose for death stars. I concluded with saying “but it’s a good list. A guy running it beat me and placed top 24 at NOVA.” There are a lot of good army lists out there right now but understanding your weaknesses is just as important as understanding your strengths.

You Don’t Have to be a Good Player to Share
I know places like reddit have a lot of “lurkers” who are happy to just read and never contribute. That’s perfectly fine, but remember you may have never played in a tournament and your life and still have good ideas. Don’t be afraid to share ideas for lists, units, or combos that you think are innovative, even if they don’t work for you. Some lists have a higher skill cap than others, and what an inexperienced player loses with, an experienced player may be able to do great things with.

The Meta is Not Static
More so than ever, the Warhammer 40k competitive meta is very fluid. New strategies and armies rise to popularity because they can beat other popular lists and new supplements allow new ways to play old armies. A player who understands what’s currently strong and the weaknesses of those strong armies is capable of coming up with something that can shift the meta a bit. Like the above point, good analysis can come from anyone, not just a top player bringing an offbeat list.

Criticism Requires Explanation
There is nothing more harmful to discussion than blindly repeating things you’ve seen elsewhere. I see it less in the warhammer community than elsewhere, but there’s still an unfortunately large number of people happy to swing into discussions and say “X is bad” or “never play Eldar without scatterbikes”. These kinds of comments are incredibly damaging because they do nothing to help the person posting understand WHY it’s bad, while also propagating themselves. That person is now encouraged to repeat the same, because they’ve been told something is bad without understanding why either. If you don’t understand WHY something isn’t good or popular, take the time to think about it before telling other people.

These points were a little abstract, and I’m not sure I got all of my information across, but I hope to see more people partaking in better discussions. Also, if you ever need help with a list or just to discuss the game, feel free to contact me.

List Building Strategy: Analyzing a List

List Building Strategy: Analyzing a List

As a follow-up to Play Your Game and Analyzing Your Units, I decided to take a list and explain how and why it works.

An easy and obvious example, I figured we could breakdown the army I took to NOVA this year.

Ravenwing Strike Force:
Librarian, Bike, Eye of the Unseen, Auspex
6 Black Knights
6 Black Knights
6-Man Command Squad, Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher
Darkshroud

White Scars Librarius Conclave:
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe

White Scars Combined Arms Detachment:
Chaplain, Bike, Auspex
3 Bikers
3 Bikers, 2 Grav guns, combi-grav
Attack Bike, Multi-Melta
Attack Bike, Multi-Melta

What’s interesting about this list, compared to the original version which used an inquisistar, is that there are no gimmick units here. This list has very few chances to “go big” and get everything I need (psychic powers, perfect match-up, etc) but also a lot more room to outplay opponents and few situations where most of the army is useless, which is a very real problem for any gimmick unit.

The black knights are the core of this list, and going by my own definitions they are a generalist unit. They’re survivable against most shooting, have excellent shooting, scout, hit and run, can bully weak melee units, and can be taken with no tax units thanks to the Ravenwing Strike Force. Like scatterbikes in an Eldar list, these guys form a core for the army that other units can be added around, or can support other units. In this case, other units will be added around them.

The librarians are also a generalist unit, and the most important thing about them is their adaptability. Depending on the matchup I can look for invisibility or veil of time if I need defense, or things like psychic shriek or technomancy for offense. Identifying what psychic powers are needed and when to use them is the most important part about learning to use this army, but librarians can plug the holes that black knights are missing like melee defense or quantity shooting.

The first niche unit of this list is the darkshroud, and it is a powerful unit. It folds like wet paper in melee and has a mostly useless gun, but it is nearly invulnerable to shooting that doesn’t ignore cover, is incredibly fast, and provides a bubble of defense for my army. When my list is completely relying on the black knights, the support for them that the darkshroud provides is worth the points (and it doesn’t take up a contested force org slot or require a tax).

The regular bikes fill a strange niche. The White Scars Combined Arms Detachment does not actually need to be in this list. I could easily take more black knights. However, in NOVA you give up 2 secondary points every game if you have no troops units. These regular bikes help prevent this and also give me a source of objective secured that are fairly durable. Generally I keep them far away or hold them in reserve so they can show up once the black knights are stuck in.

The attack bikes fill a similar role to the regular bikes. They exist to give me units that can be thrown away to screen for charges, suicidally grab objectives, or be held in reserve to stop my opponent from dropping cheap units into my deployment zone. The multi-meltas occasionally help out against vehicles as well.

Finally, the chaplain boosts my black knights in melee. While this sounds like a utilitarian option, black knights are at their weakest in melee, and taking a unit who improves their melee isn’t necessarily a boost I will always want or need. However, I already have 5 librarians in the list and the chaplain’s built-in invulnerable save is helpful against things like baleflamers or some melee weapons.

I hope this list breakdown makes sense. I may do another later in the week with my friend’s Eldar army because it has more examples of different kinds of units. As always, let me know if you have any questions, and don’t forget about the painting competition.

November Painting Contest/Giveaway

November Painting Contest/Giveaway

This blog has grown so much and so fast that I can't help but want to thank you guys.

I really enjoy writing this blog, and from what I can tell, you guys really enjoy reading it! With the holidays coming up and to celebrate the recent strides the blog has taken, I'd like to hold a reader painting contest. Over the first 3 weeks of November, send to me (either on the blog or by reddit message), your best painted 3-6 Dark Angels (or successor chapter) models. If you've got a display board, or action scene to go with them feel free to use those, but I plan to judge the models strictly on the paint and coolness factor (conversions, basing, etc) with display being tiebreaker/bonus points.

Now here's the sticker: the winner will get a copy of Space Hulk: Deathwing for PC within a few days of it coming out IF we get entries from at least a dozen different people.

So to summarize:

• 3-6 models painted in Dark Angels or Successor Chapter colors. Alternatively, a single large model such as a Land Raider is acceptable
• Any 40k models are fine (Forgeworld is ok, but not models specific to 30k), Characters, Vehicles, etc. but must be at least minimum-sized units (3 bikers, 5 tactical marines)
• Must include before, process, and after pictures (3-4 pictures total is plenty)
• All submissions must include a few lines (2 sentences to 2 paragraphs or so) explaining who these guys are and what makes them cool
• Display boards/scenes are not necessary but may be worth bonus/tiebreaker points
• All submissions must be in by Midnight EST Thursday, November 17th. I will announce the winner November 18th and post the winner along with runner-ups on the blog
• The winner will receive a copy of Space Hulk: Deathwing for PC if we meet the criteria!
• Feel free to contact me if you have questions

This is my thanks to you guys for making the blog so popular. I hope you'll continue reading and I can't wait to see your entries!

Talons Alight Fall ITC Tier List

Fall ITC Tier List

This is a follow up to my post about a new kind of tier list. My own take at a tier list for ITC tournaments.

A few disclaimers about how this list works. I mostly wrote this list myself, with some collaboration with members of my club. This list is based off of units, formations, and detachments rather than codices, ordered by faction. I will give a rough explanation of each tier but not every unit in it. I judge each unit/formation/detachment based on its points cost (including how difficult it is to include in an army list), strengths, and (when applicable) other similar options. Also note I have not included Genestealer Cults as they are relatively new.

S Tier:
Battle Company

Scatterbikes, Skathach Wraithknight

Daemonic Incursion

Probably no surprises here. These are all the cores of army lists that currently dominate the meta and have been strong in both ITC and NOVA. The Skathach leapfrogs the regular Wraithknight in ITC thanks to the hellstorm template not being ignored by invisibility.

A Tier:
Librarius Conclave, Drop Pods, War Convocation, Culexus Assassin

Warp Spiders, Jetseer, Wraithknight, Warp Hunter, Riptide Wing, Decurion

Fateweaver, Screamers, Fleshhounds, Lord of Change, Renegade Wyverns

Void Shield Generator

Probably not many surprises here either. These are all incredibly powerful units, formations, and detachments, including two that are more than the sum of their parts. Otherwise these are units that fill in all the gaps for those meta-defining armies but are no-brainers to take on their own as well. Lots of Eldar here, to no one’s surprise.

B Tier:
Skyhammer Annihilation Force, Tigirius, Grav Centurions, Black Knights, Darkshroud Thunderwolf Cavalry, Company of the Great Wolf, Nemesis Dreadknight, Imperial Wyverns, Psykana Division, Pask (Punisher Tank), Tech Priest Dominus, Kastalan Robots, Inquisitor Coteaz, Imperial Knights (Castigator, Warden, Paladin, Crusader), Callidus Assassin

Swooping Hawks, Vaul’s Wrath Battery, Wraithguard, Lynx, Corsair Raiding Party, Void Dreamer, Stormsurge, Marker Drones, Drone-Net, Canoptek Harvest, Necron Destroyer Cult, Necron Wraiths, Flyrant, Zhadsnark, Buzzgob’s Kustom Stompa

D-Thirster, Burning Skyhost, Herald of Tzeentch, Murderhost, Renegade Medusa Battery, Cyclopia Cabal

This is probably going to always be my most populated part of the list. These are all the units you see sneaking into top-tier lists because they are strong or work very well with other top units. A couple of these units suffer from the state of the rest of their codex and could very well be A-tier if they were easier to take (Wyverns, Flyrants), while others are often crowded out by better options (Swooping Hawks, Corsairs). This is where we start to see the strength of all of the options Imperial armies have as well, as there are tons of units that work well and can be great when taken in the proper list. The two units I was on the fence about placing here were Thunderwolf Cavalry and the Cyclopia Cabal, but the weakness of stars in ITC compared to NOVA knocked them down from A-Tier.

C Tier:
Space Marine Scouts, Space Marine Bikes, Azrael, Wulfen, Ironwolves, Brother-Captain Sternn, Deathwatch Veterans, Vulture Gunship, Tempestus Scions, Kataphron Destroyers, Xenos Inquisitor, St. Celestine

Corpsethief Claw, Firebase Support Cadre, Optimized Stealth Cadre, Necron Immortals, Ghost Ark, Warboss

Daemonic Tetrad, Pink Horrors, Nurglings, Warpflame Host, Furies, Black Crusade Detachment

The bottom competitive tier, this is mostly units you see filling a tax and do so because they’re cheap. Also I’ve included a few options that I think are decent units that don’t see a lot of use due to their price tag (Tetrad), the unpopularity of their army (Warbosses, Vultures, Corpsethief), or are relatively new (Black Crusade, Deathwatch).

What do you guys think? I would especially appreciate feedback about the format and how it could be improved. Also note that this is a “living document” that I may update based on suggestions for the new couple weeks.

First Tournament with the Orks. October 22, Game Castle, NH

Format: NOVA Missions, ITC FAQ
Number of Players: 14
Rounds 3
Placing: 4th

I consider this a pretty big success for my first run with the Orks. Of the top-tier lists I have my hardest matchup against Eldar and my best matchup against Space Marines, with a 50-50 or so against Daemons depends on their army comp. Thus I played against 2 daemons players and none of the 3 marines players there.

List:
Orks Combined Arms Detachment
Zhadsnark (Warlord)
Painboy, Bike
Mek
Mek
4 Warbikers, Nob, Power Klaw
4 Warbikers, Nob, Power Klaw
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
5 Lootas
5 Lootas
Buzzgob's Big Mek Stompa, Klaw, Kannon, 1 Supa Rokkit

Orks Combined Arms Detachment
Warboss, Bike, Klaw, Lucky Stikk
Warboss, Bike, Headwoppa's Killchoppa
Mek
Mek
10 Grotz
10 Grotz

10 Grotz
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
5 Tankbustas
Void Shield Generator, 2 Extra Shields

Game 1: Khorne Daemonkin

KDK are one of my tougher matchups from daemons because they're fearless, and this guy had Skarbrand and 2 D-thirsters. Luckily he split up the bloodthirsters and I was able to shoot one with the lootas, tankbustas, and stompa, while zhadsnark and a squad of bikes brought the other one down before it could swing. In a hilariously lucky roll I killed his heldrake with the lifta-droppa.

25-6 Win

Game 2: Imperial Knights

Oh boy. 5 knights. Going into melee with them with the stompa would probably be a mutual kill so I put everything under the void shield and made him come to me. I killed 3 knights on turn 2 at the cost of a few deffkoptas and a bike squad, and zhadsnark and his unit got a mutual kill with the 4th on turn 3, leave a single one to run to my backfield and grab an objective. The score didn't reflect it but I won this game pretty handily. 

17-13 Win

Game 3: Tzeentch Daemons

I'm really sick of every tzeentch player getting that stupid +1 invuln warlord trait. I wanted to go second to make him come to me, but he won the roll-off and had me go first. I definitely clumped my units up a bit too much early and made it easy for him to hit extra units with the beam and novas. This was a close game and it ended with his dthirster getting a mutual kill with my stompa so I couldn't contest the relic. Had I contested the relic the last turn we would have tied and rolled over to victory points, which I would have won.

22-12 Loss

I'm really happy with how the army performed. I dodged both my worst and best matchups at this tournament but I got 3 good games that made me think a lot instead of having easy wins. I expect to run this list or a similar one for the next few tournaments I go to.

List Building Strategy: Analyzing Your Units and Avoiding Pitfalls

List Building Strategy: Analyzing Your Units and Avoiding Pitfalls

This is essentially a follow-up to Play Your Game, and I’m going to discuss how to analyze different units when list-building.

I’ve had a few requests to expand on the list-building advice in Play Your Game, so I thought I could do a breakdown on different roles units fill. If you haven’t, you should definitely go and read that first. Think of these as guidelines for analyzing the units in your codex and figuring out if you want them in your list. A lot of this advice requires good self-analysis, and as always the best way to make a list is to build it and then ask for feedback, but this should help you get an idea of what units do when constructing the list in the first place.

Generalist units are any unit capable of threatening multiple enemy unit types, and are a surprisingly difficult unit to include in a list. Usually, the more targets a unit is capable of threatening, the higher a premium you pay for the unit. When including a unit that should be able to threaten several different targets, make sure that unit is serving an actual purpose in your army, and you’re ok with the usually steep price associated. Scatterbikes are a powerful generalist unit because they have weapons that can threaten anything, are fast, durable, and fill a troops slot. Sternguard veterans are an example of a bad generalist because their guns aren’t particularly good at killing anything (even though they can threaten a lot of targets), they’re slow (drop pod is pretty much required), and take up either an elites slot or require one of several very chunky formations. The middle ground would be Deathwatch veteran teams. They’re still slow and just a squishy marine statline like sternguard, but are troops choices and can take frag cannons which don’t just threaten a lot of targets, they can also reliably kill most enemy units.

When deciding whether or not to include a generalist unit, you need to ask yourself if you actually need it. Unless they’re incredibly powerful and utilitarian (like scatterbikes), you’ll usually be better served by a more niche unit. In the example of deathwatch, they’ll work well if you’re running a death star and want a unit you can drop into your opponent’s deployment zone to remove backline units that your star can’t touch. Those backline units may be anything from riptides to thunderfire cannons to pink horrors, so a generalist unit is a good pick.

Niche units are ones that fill a specific role, and/or threaten only a single enemy unit type, usually without any form of support. Marker drones are an example of a good niche unit. Marker drones are only as useful as the army they support, but the markerlights they throw down are a core part of almost every tau army. Assault centurions are an example of a terrible niche unit. They’re expensive, slow, don’t have many attacks, lack an invulnerable save, and have ranged weapons that won’t hurt the things they want to charge. For an ok niche unit example, we’ll use grotz. Grotz don’t do anything and die to a stiff breeze (or their own runtherd when they fail morale), but they’re cheap as chips and fill a troops tax, making them perfectly acceptable backfield objective holders.

When deciding to include a niche unit in your army, you need to ask yourself two questions. First, how good is this unit at doing its job? Grotz are great at hiding on backfield objectives, so if you need a troops tax that can do that, you’ve got your answer. Second, is this job even needed? Do you really need a space marine command squad in a drop pod with meltaguns when your local meta includes no heavy vehicles? Marker drones are in every tau list because every tau list needs markerlights, but not every army needs to be able to threaten every potential enemy unit.

Lastly, I’m going to touch on a slightly obscure topic, gimmick units. Gimmick units can act like a generalist or niche unit and require support from the rest of your army. The most important trait of a gimmick unit is the chance of it crashing and burning. A good gimmick unit is most popular deathstars. They usually rely on psychic powers and/or the unholy conglomeration of a dozen special characters, but they find their way into many top-tier lists. A bad gimmick unit is assault units in a flying transport (we’ve all at least thought about it). They rely on reserve rolls, at the absolute best won’t be in combat until turn 3, and will take a lot of damage if the flyer gets destroyed. Finally, a decent gimmick unit that can serve a purpose is a skyhammer annihilation force. With proper support, dropping eight grav cannons on your opponent turn one is amazing and threatens most enemy units. When used poorly or not properly supported, the assault marines will manage to be even more useless than they already were and the devastators won’t kill enough to make back their points.

There aren’t a lot of hard and fast rules to gimmick units when list-making. Usually you should start getting wary as soon as a single unit is sucking up a large amount of points or you’re bringing a lot of other units just to support it. Make sure it can give you a high enough return on investment for the points and resources it sucks up. If you can’t decide, more than anything else you should try the list out. If the gimmick consistently fails, go back to the drawing board.

I hope this was a good follow-up to the original post. If there’s any topics you guys would like discussed, you have a list you’d like me to review, or you have questions or comments, feel free to let me know. Also if you haven’t already, please switch off ad-block on this site to help support the blog!

Roadblocks: Playing Against Fast Armies

Roadblocks: Playing Against Fast Armies

I get a lot of comments asking me how to play against fast armies. Rather than answer them one by one I decided to write a tactics discussion about it.

First, let’s define “fast” units. For the purpose of this discussion, “fast” units are anything that can consistently move at least 12” without sacrificing firepower, and at least 24” if it does. That would mean bikes, jetbikes, and fast vehicles all fall under this category. This specifically precludes units with inconsistent movement or one-use abilities like jetpack infantry or the dreadknight, as well as deepstriking units. Cavalry will be our one grey area, because while they technically don’t meet those parameters, with fleet they can shoot up the board quickly and are usually melee units, so I may occasionally mention cavalry units, but for the most part they will be left out.

I’m going to split this discussion into three parts, general advice, advice for fast armies vs. fast armies, and advice for static armies vs. fast armies.

As far as general advice goes, there’s two rules for playing against fast armies. First, always watch their ranges. Fast units have threat ranges with their guns or potential charge ranges that you can measure out (or use the average of, for random things like charge range). This seems like basic advice but very often I see people deploy where my black knights can hit them turn 1, then complain about my army being “too fast”. You may need to throw some other units in the way to prevent things like charges, but you should constantly be paying attention to their range. The second rule is to try to limit their movement options. If you’re able to surround a fast unit, you can either block off its movement completely or force it to give up shooting/charging to get away from you. You can also bait them out, especially when they need to score objectives every turn like in maelstrom. This sounds easier said than done but I’ll explain it more in the sections below.

Playing against a fast army as a fast army is usually incredibly challenging, and some of the most fun games of 40k I’ve ever had. The hardest part of this is constantly thinking one to two turns ahead. Depending on where you move, you need to guess where he will, and what units need to be there so you can get into threat range before he’s even moved there. Fast armies are typically capable of completely avoiding each other if they want, so the army that is able to force their opponent’s hand usually gains the advantage. This is also a time where going second can be a boon. Getting a minimum of one turn of your opponent having to expose himself to score objectives is incredibly powerful in this kind of matchup.

Mostly, pay attention to each army’s strengths. All fast armies are not alike, and when you're both fast, you need to take advantage of your other strong points. As an example, in a matchup of black knights vs. scatterbikes, the eldar have vastly higher range and are a bit faster, while the black knights are more survivable and will pulp the eldar at close range/melee. So the game becomes the black knights trying to corner the scatterbikes or bait them out, while the eldar try to pick off the black knights from afar. Additionally, there are few armies that are ALL fast units. Try to pick off the stragglers like backline objective holders or ranged units like the warp hunter that’s in almost every eldar list. At worst you’ll force those units to run away, and at best you might draw out some of his faster units to try to protect it.

As a player with a slow army, you need to consolidate your strength. Understand that unprotected or isolated units are going to get picked off quickly, and that there is no way you are going to spread out and catch your opponent. Instead, focus on one side of the board or a couple of objectives. Use screening units to protect your important things, especially long ranged units that can hit most of the board. Deploy redundant units if your opponent has a shorter-ranged fast army, so if he moves up to kill a unit there is a second or third unit nearby to threaten him. The biggest mistake I see in these kind of matchups is opponents being too scared to lose units so they split up their force and get picked apart. Hold your ground and pick your battles, you aren’t going to kill all of your opponent’s units and you probably won't hold every objective, but you can force him into compromised positions once in awhile and take enough ground to beat him at the end.

As always, feel free to ask questions and clarifications here or in the reddit comments. Also, as I mentioned early, there will now be ads on the site! The money from the blog goes right back into the hobby, so please switch off any ad-block software you have while on the blog, and let me know if the ads are intrusive or distracting.

Need for Speed: The Importance of Speed in 40K

Need for Speed: The Importance of Speed in 40K

I’m going to try and tackle both the importance of speed in 40k and how it came around. As always, these are meant more for competitive play, but all of this is applicable to casual games as well.

After switching from NOVA to ITC format for tournament games recently, I saw how difficult a time both formats have trying to create a balanced game for slow armies. ITC uses maelstrom missions which are usually only ½ to ⅓ about scoring objectives and the rest about killing enemies or holding your own deployment zone, while NOVA allows players to choose to score their objectives each turn rather than have to score all of their points at the end. The normal 40k rulebook is far less forgiving. Many maelstrom cards involve taking a specific objective or a number of them, and the eternal war missions are all score at the end. Neither of these mission types are particularly good for slow armies.

Before I continue, the point of this post is not to complain about the prevalence of fast armies, or even say the game hasn’t moved in a good direction. Fast units give players options, and a battle between two fast armies is usually much more interesting and challenging than two gunlines shooting each other across the board all game. Static armies like leafblower guard or skyhammer marines tend to be all about tabling you before they can do anything, and those kind of games tend to be over quickly with one player being crushed. I like speed, and I’m glad it’s one of the focal points of the game at the moment.

Back in the days of 4th edition, speed was usually a tradeoff with survivability. Melee was more prominent, so it was far more dangerous to get up in your opponent’s face, and armor saves in general went a lot further than they do now. 5th edition made vehicles much tougher, so we saw the age of mechanized infantry, where the game was all about shuttling your troops around and trying to crack each other’s transports. The addition of jink and the nerfing of vehicle survivability and melee in 6th and 7th edition is how we got where we are today. Bikes can now bring their own cover save with them, while vehicles have a hard time finding one while parked in a forest. Meanwhile, getting up in your opponent’s face early is much less threatening when they’re usually lacking in strong melee units.

The result of these changes has been, predictably, a meta shift. Every army with strong, fast units like Eldar, Space Marines, and Daemons have hopped to the top. Other armies have fallen behind or adapted, finding new or old units that can work in the meta of speed daemons. Tyranids and Necrons spamming flyrants and wraiths, respectively, are both partially a product of this emphasis on speed. Meanwhile, armies like Imperial Guard and Chaos Space Marines (cue whining) have fallen behind, lacking reliable fast units. 

Emphasis on speed, along with changes to psychic powers, has also led to the rise of deathstars. Wolfstars aren’t just good because they’re hard to kill and killy themselves, they’re also fast. They can shoot up the board, fight you, then break off all of their characters to score objectives. This is why slower death stars like lychstar, inquisistar or ghazghkullstar never really caught on. You also see fewer deathstars in ITC (besides invisibility nerfs), because emphasis isn't just placed on speed, but on having many fast units so you can score you maelstrom every turn  which makes armies like Eldar, Daemons, and Space Marines even stronger.

There isn’t really a bottom line to this post, in terms of a message. Speed is one of the key tenets of the game at the moment and it’s interesting to take a look at how we got here. Changes to the rules or tournament formats could very well make a shift back to slower armies, but only time will tell with that.

I’ve also begun putting advertisements on the site. If you’re a regular reader, please turn off your ad-block. Right now you’ll just see a few blank boxes while I set up, but once they’re ready they’ll be an important part of helping to keep the blog running.

Other Ravens, Other Bikes

Other Ravens, Other Bikes

As I said earlier, I'm retiring my Ravenwing for a bit. The changes to invisibility and 2+ rerollable saves in ITC removes a lot of their hardiness and I'm ready for something new. To that end I've hauled my Orks up to Boston. In case they don't pan out, I've got a Dark Angels battle company in the works, as well as a Raven Guard alpha strike list I'm using at a NOVA format trios tournament tomorrow. After a little playtesting against Eldar and Tau, here's how the Ork list looks:

Orks Combined Arms Detachment
Zhadsnark (Warlord)
Big Mek, Bike, Kustom Force Field
Mek
Mek
4 Warbikers, Nob, Power Klaw
4 Warbikers, Nob, Power Klaw
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
5 Lootas
5 Lootas
Buzzgob's Big Mek Stompa, Klaw, Kannon, 1 Supa Rokkit

Orks Combined Arms Detachment
Warboss, Bike, Klaw, Lucky Stikk
Warboss, Bike, Headwoppa's Killchoppa
Mek
Mek
10 Grotz
10 Grotz
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
Deffkopta, Rokkits
5 Tankbustas
Void Shield Generator, 2 Extra Shields

My Stompa and scratch-built void shield generator, as well as my kitbashed tankbustas.

The grotz on his shoulders are magnetized so they can be removed when Buzzgob uses his oilers.

Usually when people want to use a stompa they try to load it up with meks to make as many repair rolls as possible. In practice I've found the stompa usually dies in a single turn or gets so low that unless you have about 20 meks in there it won't make a difference. Instead I have 5 (including buzzgob), and some tankbustas to ride along. Other than that, I pretty much cherry picked the best things the Ork codex has to offer. Lootas are a really solid ranged unit, especially because snap shooting doesn't effect their BS much. Grotz are cheap as hell and people hate to shoot them. Deffkoptas are fantastic, cheap blocking and throwaway units, and warbosses on bikes are the best CC unit that Ork codex has to offer. This list is all about the stompa, and it opens up a lot of opportunities to lock down the center of the board and flank or do a hammer and anvil style deployment, depending on how fast my opponent is. ITC is all about speed and this list has plenty of it. The low number of models in each unit also means that leadership tests don't mean much, as I've already lost a chunk of the unit by the time I'm taking them.

This post has already gone on a bit long, so I'll post the Raven Guard alpha strike list after I've gotten to play it a bit. Let me know if you've got questions about the Ork list!

Self-Analysis, Criticism, and Improving as a Player

I had a pretty difficult time deciding how to tackle a few topics on types of players and personal improvement. I think I managed to divide the discussion pretty evenly and keep it brief.

I like kicking off these conversations with what lead me to think of them. In this case it was a comment in the reddit thread for my last post. /u/SocksofDeath said “If there was an event where everyone used the same list, I'm willing to bet that the people who did well would be the same ones who do well in all their tournaments.” I think that’s a very interesting point, and it got me thinking about how players can improve and what pitfalls most people run into when becoming a better player. More than previous posts, I think this can benefit casual players as well as competitive ones, because there is nothing stopping you from improving as a player from a casual game.

Don’t let yourself get hung up on little things. It is the hallmark of a poor player to lose a game very badly and then insist they lost because of a single thing going wrong or a single dice roll. If you were tabled in two turns, do you really believe it’s because you couldn’t strip the last hull point off his knight turn one? Yea that probably sucked but if you put yourself in an all-or-nothing position like that your deployment or target priorities were bad. In my opinion, there is only one time the game is decided by a single dice roll. That’s when the game is incredibly close, and comes down to the wire when a single dice roll decides whether one person controls the last objective or the game keeps going. In any other situation, you either played wrong and are fixating on something bad to shift the blame, or your entire list may have been gimmicky/flawed from the get-go. Try and catch yourself making this excuse and look a little deeper for why you were even in a situation where one bad roll leads to you getting demolished in three turns.

Don’t blame your list or codex. This one is more targeted at casual players. Tournament players usually put together strong lists and understand that they will have bad matchups and they can’t change that. I’ve played plenty of casual games where my opponent made dozens of mistakes but was more interested in whining about the state of his army or a unit he really likes than recognizing those mistakes. I understand that some people just want to play fluffy armies and don’t care about improving, but if you’re willing to complain about a game you just played, why not spend the time to think about how you could have improved? Sometimes you will lose because of a bad matchup, or because your opponent brought his tournament list and you brought your fluffy Goffs army, but plenty of other times you made mistakes, ones you as a player can fix. I don’t want to go too far into list-building when it comes to fluffy/casual games, but remember that a fluffy list doesn’t have to be a bad one. If you really like a sub-par unit there are plenty of ways you can build a list to support it and get it where it needs to go. It might not do its job as efficiently as another unit, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a job it can do, especially in a casual game.

Don't change your list too much or too radically. This is definitely more geared towards tournament players. It is much harder to improve when you bring a different army to every tournament. Changing out a few weapon loadouts, swapping one character for another or one squad for another are small tweaks you can make based on your own analysis. Switching from a Gladius to a Scarblade or even from Daemons to Eldar between two tournaments because you had bad results in your first tournament is almost never the right decision. Good play takes experience and practice and it's a very rare player who can pick up an army and play it to full effectiveness their first time.

Communicate with your opponent. This is the point that is the most nuanced, because it depends on the environment and your opponent. Obviously not every opponent can offer you good advice, and you probably won’t want it every time. If you’re feeling emotional after a game, especially a tough loss, take a break, get some water, talk to a friend. Then see if you can track down your opponent and ask what they would have done in your situation. One common pitfall I see when asking for advice is to try to guide the conversation to what you thought went wrong. Ask your opponent for their opinion first before saying “well do you think I should have charged this unit”? Maybe they didn’t think you needed to be in that position at all. Remember your opponent is just another player, and they probably have their own opinions that may disagree with your’s. Even if you later decide their advice wasn’t what needs to be changed, having another perspective never hurts.

If you guys like this discussion I will take a crack at casual vs. competitive players and how the groups relate and can enjoy the game together.

There is No General Strategy

There is No General Strategy

Warhammer 40k is not a place where you can have a one-size-fits-all strategy.

Another conversation with a friend has brought up a discussion I think could benefit both casual and competitive players. My friend kept asking me for “general strategy tips” for his list. How should he deploy “in general”, what should he shoot at “in general”. After thinking about it for awhile I think it’s safe to say there isn’t a lot of “general” strategy for any army in 40k.

First let me qualify that by saying there are general tactics. Knowing how many dice to throw at a psychic power to make sure it goes off or ringing your guys around an objective so your opponent can’t get within 3” are certainly general tactics any player can use. There is also good general advice like "ignore a gargantuan or superheavy if you can’t kill it". What I mean is that when you are constructing your list, having a set battle plan for psychic powers you roll on, where you deploy your guys, and what you need to kill isn’t just unrealistic, it’s shooting yourself in the foot.

The most obvious reason for this is that 40k is an inherently random game. Even a 2+ rerollable dice fails once in awhile, and you have no control over when that failure will happen. One of the biggest parts of being a good player is the ability to adapt to these rolls, whether they’re good rolls by your opponent or bad ones by you. If you have a set plan in your head for how a game will go before you start playing it, it is almost guaranteed that every single game something is going to go differently than it “statistically” should, and if you are stuck in your laid-out battle plan, you’re going to have a very hard time adapting.

The second, and more egregious reason that “general” strategies don’t work, is that they rarely account for your opponent’s actions. Assuming you know what your opponent will do is an insane assumption to make, because those guys can be crafty or stupid (it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes). I hate when people play out those theoretical games for me, where they tell me what I’ll try to do and why their list perfectly stops it. This is also why a lot of alpha strike and gimmick lists don’t hold up at the top level, smart opponents aren’t going to just deploy all of their important units on the line and let your Skyhammer drop in and kill them.

Lastly, the game is a very diverse place right now. As much as people complain that certain armies or play styles are weak, the competitive meta has grown wildly in the last few years, and you can see all kinds of crazy lists. Having a generic strategy for your army means you will inevitably meet an army that has a perfect answer to the way you play every game, and you’re going to find yourself beaten before the game even starts because you were unwilling to adapt.

If all of that is true, what is the point of planning at all? Why not just throw a bunch of random units together and hope the gods of random chance are on your side? Obviously there is a place for planning, but it’s in what your army does, not how to play it. Like I said in Play Your Game you can and should look at the missions you will be playing and think about how your list can win with those. Looking at the game in a vacuum is usually bad, but it's reasonable to look at a scatterbike list and say “I have a lot of very fast obsec units, scoring objectives should be pretty easy”. Also, while you can’t plan your opponent’s moves in advance, you can make sure you can deal with most kinds of threats. If you are missing a way to kill a gargantuan creature so you put a warp hunter or grav cents in a drop pod in your list, that’s good planning. If you assume your opponent will start their wraithknight where those units can kill it turn 1, or even that you will kill it turn 1 if you can hit it, that’s making assumptions you shouldn't make. Unit synergies are also something you can look at when planning your list. Some psykers to help buff your star or a guy who gives you reroll reserves when you have a flyer formation are good choices for making sure your stuff does what it needs to do. You just need to make sure you aren’t doing something like deciding which psychic table to roll on before you even know what you’re playing against or if you always want your flyers in on a certain turn.

I hope this all makes sense and if you have any questions feel free to ask. If you have a tournament list that includes Space Marines or Dark Angels, my list review submissions are still open as well. I should be back to posting these regularly on Wednesdays or Thursdays as of next week.

Final Flight

Final Flight

Excuse the dramatic title. My Ravenwing aren’t going anywhere, just being shelved for a little while after a suitably dramatic tournament.

I wasn’t happy with how the ITC format affects my Ravenwing, which is what I was expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was to get the square off against Sean Nayden in the last round of the tournament. I brought a knight to help me deal with daemons and battle company, so of course there were only two battle company players and one daemon player, and I didn’t play any of them.

Instead I had to play tau round one, and barely pulled out a victory thanks to the 2+ rerollable and invisibility nerfs really hurting my survivability against them. Round two I played a marine player running a bizarre list with three thunderfire cannons and a bunch of land speeder storms and tabled him pretty quickly. Round three I played on table one against Sean Nayden. As in the guy who won LVO two years ago and placed 2nd last year.

Predictably, I got my teeth punched in, but I was surprised that I was able to follow what he was doing and the mistakes I made. When playing someone significantly better than you it can be hard to understand what went wrong and why you lost so badly. I was able to recognize my mistakes and spoke to him briefly for some feedback, and he agree with me about most of those mistakes. Being good enough to be able to learn from losing to someone that good was an achievement in itself for me.

I think that’s a good point to take a break with the army that has brought me a lot of success the last year or so, and I plan to bring them back once people start playing NOVA format again next year. In the meantime my Orks are ready and I’ve got a funky Talon Strike Force alpha strike list I’m going to try. The list I ran on Saturday is this:

Ravenwing Strike Force:
Librarian, Bike, Shroud of Heroes, Auspex
5 Black Knights
5 Black Knights
6-Man Command Squad, Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher
Darkshroud

White Scars Librarius Conclave:
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe

Oathsworn Detachment:
Knight Warden, Meltagun

In the meantime I’m keeping list reviews open if you want to submit one. Any list with Space Marines or Dark Angels is welcome!