Early Sororitas Impressions, Part 2

I'm going to try and be a bit more structured with this second part of my look at the Adepta Sororitas beta Codex, and focus on the new Warlord Traits and Relics for the most part.

Leading By Example
As is usually the case, the Warlord Traits run the gamut from 'almost completely useless' to 'practically an auto-include', though there are a couple of outliers.

1: INSPIRING ORATOR: A 6" Morale re-roll bubble, combined with being able to use the Leadership of the Warlord within the same radius. Sororitas are pretty cheap and have very good Leadership anyway, so unless you're up against some serious morale manipulation this one doesn't seem very useful. Especially worthless if you're going with the Order of the Sacred Rose, since  then you can only lose one model to Morale anyway. On top of that, the Light of the Emperor Act of Faith is a morale auto-pass.

2: RIGHTEOUS RAGE: Re-roll charge distances, and re-roll to Wound for the first round of combat. For many Warlords this won't be all that appealing (and Celestine can't take it), but a Bloody Rose Canoness with the Blade of Admonition (see later) might well get some use out of it. Would be a decent choice for the jump-packing Canoness we don't get.

3: EXECUTIONER OF HERETICS: A 6" -1 LD bubble for the enemy. Sororitas do like to get close, and if you're working on cutting down big mobs of Cultists this might possibly be useful. But let's face it, probably not. Falls victim to the usual problem with morale-manipulation that there're so many ways to shut it down.

4: BEACON OF FAITH: Gain a Faith point on a 4+ at the start of your turn. Now this one is quite interesting. Celestine is saddled with it, which at first glance is disappointing since there are several that seem better for her. However, it's worth looking at how Faith works. You start with 3 points just for having any models in the army that can use it, and then gain a point for every 10 models. Whilst this means that mono-Sororitas armies tend to have quite a lot of Faith, a small allied detachment won't have very many. Since Celestine, in particular, hands out a save buff to Militarum and Ministorum models as well as Sororitas, she might well see some use in 'Soup' armies. In that situation, gaining some extra Faith to fuel Acts might well prove handy. Still, overall not one of the stronger Traits.

5: INDOMITABLE BELIEF: This is the money-shot, at least most of the time. It improves the Shield of Faith save to 5++ within a 6" bubble around the Warlord. What's important to note is that since this increases the bonus to 5++, and then both the Seraphim's Angelic Visage and Celestine's Saintly Blessings are +1 modifiers, you can get an area of up to 3++  for some models. (Somewhat oddly, instead of getting the +1 like Seraphim, the Geminae get +2 from Celestine, for much the same result so long as they stay close, and they really should.)

There might be some situations where this may not be an auto-take. Some army builds rely far more on volume of fire or Mortal Wounds than on AP, and especially if the board has a lot of cover you might find that Invulnerable seeing less use than you expected. Keeping the maximum bubble by overlapping Celestine and another Warlord can also be a bit limiting, given that Celestine works best aggressively, so if you're using this Trait to protect your Retributors and Exorcists she may end up twiddling her thumbs a bit. Still, overall a very strong Trait.

6: PURE OF WILL: Gives the Warlord a second Deny the Witch and a 12" bubble of -1 to enemy psychic tests. This one is situational and basically requires a Relic to use effectively, but can be very handy in the right circumstances. Obviously it's little use against armies with few Psykers and the 1D6 Deny is still almost completely useless, but that's what the Brazier of Eternal Flame is for. (See later.) Might well be handy against armies like Eldar, Thousand Sons and Grey Knights.

In summary, the best we can say about the Traits is that they're not much worse than those in many other Codexes. Hopefully in the full Codex we'll see one for each Order as well (for example an extra Wound and improved wound ignore save for the Valorous Heart) but for the moment there's at least Indomitable Belief if you're stuck.

(not) The Holy Hand Grenade
On to the Relics, then, and these are a somewhat better bunch than the Traits, I think, though there's the odd duffer in there.
BLADE OF ADMONITION: The obligatory beat-stick, in this case a +2 S, -3 AP, Damage 3 Power Sword replacement. As is usually the case with these sort of weapons in Codexes full of normal humans, the only problem with it is that the person wielding it isn't all that scary. Still, a Canoness brandishing this thing is up for most targets, though only getting up to S5 means you're not that likely to be cutting the legs off Knights. Obviously very nice for the Order of the Bloody Rose, since that additional +1S and +1A comes in very handy with it.

BOOK OF ST. LUCIUS: Increase the range of the bearer's Aura abilities by 3". Quite nifty, increasing the distance a Canoness can dish out her re-rolls and working with several Warlord traits, including Indomitable Belief and Pure of Will. Also combos well with the...

BRAZIER OF ETERNAL FLAME:  A 6" bubble that makes the Deny The Witch roll from Shield of Faith into a proper 2D6 rather than that near-pointless 1D6. Obviously combos well with Pure of Will, in fact I'd say it's pretty much essential if taking that Trait. However, for maximum anti-psychic defence you could take the Book of Lucius with the Warlord, and keep another Character with the Brazier next to her, giving the Warlord her two 2D6 Denies and a 15" radius to the psychic penalty.

LITANIES OF FAITH: A 5+ roll to regain a Faith point when an Act is passed within 6" of the bearer. Its usefulness will depend on how much Faith you find yourself needing, a topic on which my own personal jury is still very much out. Works regardless of Order, which mostly just means it also works for Celestine and the Geminae in practice.

MANTLE OF OPHELIA: A cloak that's basically a Storm Shield, conferring a 3++. Not brilliant, given that all the HQ options have a 4++ anyway. Probably needs to do something else (e.g. halve wounds suffered or grant a wound ignore save) to be really worth it.

WRATH OF THE EMPEROR: Last and probably least. An 18" range, 3-shot Pistol with S5, AP -1 and Damage 2 which might be worth bothering with if you could get it for a few points, but certainly not as a Relic. Might be worth it if it did Mortal Wounds to Psykers and/or could ignore targeting restrictions.

Overall, despite finishing with a bit of a whimper (neither of those last two choices should make it to the full Codex unchanged, IMHO) a fairly decent list of toys. The Blade is fun if your Canoness wants to get stuck in (prepare for Ork players grumping about their lack of an Invulnerable save) and the utility items all have definite uses. It's nice to see Sisters back at the level of being one of the better anti-psychic armies, even if they have to resort to a Relic to do it.

So, all that remains here is to wish my readers a happy New Year, assuming I don't make a post specifically to do so. I'll return to the beta Codex in 2019 to look at the Stratagems a bit. Finally, one last plug for my first novel, The Wake Of Manadar, which is a free Kindle download until the end of the year. Motivate me to finish the third one, people!

Merry Christmas and a blatant plug

So, my turn rolls around to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! As for the somewhat incongruous image, I'm taking this opportunity to do a little festive giveaway of my own. From Boxing Day until the 30th of January, the first book in the Thelenic Curriculum, The Wake of Manadar, will be free to download on Kindle, so if you've got a shiny new device just waiting for books to be loaded onto it, fill your proverbial boots. Get it HERE, though unless you're feeling generous wait till Boxing Day :)

Other than that I'll see you all in the New Year, unless I get a bit bored before them and do Part 2 of my Sororitas overview. There's a lot to talk about!

Early Sororitas Impressions (Part 1)

I've had the chance to get a game in with my Sisters of Battle, so I thought I'd have a look at how the Chapter Approved beta-codex feels when compared to their Index incarnation, and previous versions of the army. Obviously there's stuff I haven't personally tried out yet, so this will be a mix of personal experience and theory.

Keep The Faith
So, the obvious first topic is the new Faith system. To give a brief summary, you get a Faith point for every 10 models with the Acts of Faith rule (rounding down) plus 3 more. These points are then spent to attempt the various Acts by rolling over a target number, and each Act can only be attempted once per battle round. So firstly, this system does  work quite well. By giving you points based on the number of Sisters you have, it rewards you for taking a mono army and comes with built-in scalability. In terms of raw power, it's debatable whether this system is actually more effective than the old one which gave bonus actions but it's certainly more colourful and closer to earlier editions of the Sisters.

Appropriately enough, some Acts also feel like a bit of a Hail Mary. Most notably, The Passion, which lets a unit fight twice, has to be activated on a 5+ and is done at the start of  your Fight phase, so it's tricky to know when to use it. What's interesting here is that you can get a +1 to the roll for having a Simulacrum in the unit, and a re-roll if a Dialogus is nearby, which could also be combined with another +1 from the Order of the Ebon Chalice's Trait. So that could be on 3+, re-rolling. However, you may well want to use it on a character (such as Celestine or a Canoness with the Blade of Admonition) in which case the best you can do is get it to 4+. For Celestine herself, ironically, you're stuck with 5+ because she has no Order.

Shiny Happy People
So why would you want to use an Act on a Character, given that most of them are more effective when used on a unit? The answer is the Vessel of the Emperor's Will stratagem. What this does is extend the effects of the Act to all Sororitas within 6" of the Character, regardless of Order.
(Side note: The Stratagem simply says the Act 'effects all ADEPTA SORORITAS units within 6" of the CHARACTER' which seems by RAW to mean the Act would effect vehicles which can't usually do them. I assume this is not intended.)
Obviously this has a lot of uses- whilst it's probably not all that likely you would want to give the whole bubble +3" movement, giving multiple units +1 to hit or making them all fight twice could be very powerful, depending on the units involved. There's also the deeply troll-tastic Spirit of The Martyr, which if popped on Celestine and then used in this way can heal her, bring back or heal one of the Geminae, and add a model to all the other effected units as well.

Order! Order!
So lets look at the Order traits (aka Convictions). As an old-school Sororitas player I was a bit narked to find that my Order, the Valorous Heart, gets the groan-worthy 6+ wound ignore save. In action it's not utterly terrible, and it at least supports most army builds, but it's certainly not exciting. The Order of Our Martyred Lady possibly gets a worse deal, though, getting a Faith point whenever one of its own units is destroyed. In my game, I ended up with Faith left over, leading me to doubt how necessary gaining Faith is, though I could possibly have used more. The Order of the Ebon Chalice feels like an early stand-out, gaining +1 to Act of Faith rolls. That gets some Acts to 2+, but depending on which Acts you plan to use and how many Simulacrae and Dialogus you have may not be necessary. The Order of the Argent Shroud take a more practical approach to martyrdom in that they prefer to let their enemies do it, gaining Faith on a 4+ when an enemy unit is wiped out. The same qualifiers about gaining Faith apply there. The Order of the Bloody Rose gain +1 A and +1 S when charging, charged or Intervening, making them the Order with the most obvious key units- you're going to want Seraphim, Celestians or Repentia with them. The Sisters melee units tend to be competent but a bit pillow-fisted, so this Conviction could be handy. Finally, the Order of The Sacred Rose have the classic 'lose only one model to morale' rule, but back that up with Overwatching on a 5+, so it's pretty much Grim Resolve IIRC. With all those Flamers, Sororitas are already quite good at Overwatch so this is a solid Conviction. I think Ebon Chalice will probably be the go-to for a reliable army, though all of them can work.

All Stars
The good old Battle Sisters squad remains the sole Troops choice for Sororitas, but they're not at all bad. There are plenty of options, and since even the  basic 5-strong squad can take two Special Weapons and the Superior can have a Combi-Weapon they can function as small, highly-equipped kill teams in Immolators  or go all the way up to 15-strong blobs. Wtih their Acts, they're every bit as good at shooting things with bolters as Marines are and for less points.

Celestians are interesting. For a couple more points than Sisters they gain a lot- more Leadership, better WS, an additional Attack and a Bodyguard rule. The question is, though, if any of those things are actually needed. They seem to function well as a bodyguard for a beat-stick Canoness, helping keep her alive if her prey proves overly resilient or counter-attacks, and if backed up by a Priest of some sort for +1 A from War Hyms can put out a lot of hits. Obviously if you go with the Bloody Rose they become a lot more dangerous. Like Seraphim, they differ from most of the more specialised Assault units by still having Acts of Faith, putting The Passion on the table. I do think, though, that as an elite unit they should be more like Sternguard, with more Special Weapon or Combi-Weapon options, which are at the moment the same as those for the Sister Squad.

Seraphim are that rarity in 40k- an unusual squad that seems to have a clue what it's trying to  do. Seraphim want to shoot people with pistols, and they're pretty good at it. They can jump up to a unit, shoot it, assault it, tank return attacks with their armour and at worst a 5++ from their improved Shield of Faith before either falling back and using FLY to still shoot, or just staying in combat and shooting anyway. They cost the same as Celestians and most players will probably find them more useful. Seraphim are potentially very command-point hungry, with their own Stratagem, Burning Descent, allowing them to fire as they arrive, including boosting the range on their Hand Flamers. Since they effectively have four Special Weapons and already also bring Bolt weapons, they're a great target for Holy Trinity giving them +1 to wound too.

The Exorcist has largely returned to the position of being a bit of a beast. With the Exorcist Launcher now doing D6 damage and remaining Heavy D6 with a -4 save mod, it's capable of putting out a lot of long-range anti-armour damage and remains about the only thing in the Codex that can.

A Rhino-conversion Repressor I came up with. A tutorial can be found HERE

The Repressor (Forge World) got more expensive for no obvious reason though the reduction in points for Heavy Flamers mitigates that a little. It's still a very nice transport for Sisters since six models can shoot out of it. As always, not being 'on the table' reduces the buffs and Stratagems that can be used by the passengers, but it's a great way to get about and still do something.

Dominions are a little frustrating. They cost a point more than normal Sisters simply for the option to take four, rather than two, Special Weapons and can make a bonus move before the first turn, but that's it. I'd really have liked to see them regain their Outflank move, much like Deffkoptas' 'Scoutin Ahead'. I mean come on, if Orks can do it..

Retributors are still a solid fire-support unit, though taking anything other than Heavy Bolters on them feels like a bit of a gamble due to the short range of the other options. Not being able to make a bonus move like they could in the Index makes getting Multi-Meltas and Heavy Flamers into range tricky, though Divine Guidance can be used to offset the Heavy penalty. They do feel the lack of a +1 to Wound Stratagem that's practical for them, limiting their ability to challenge armour. Still, if you need some Sisters to sit on an Objective, you can do a lot worse.

Celestine and her Geminae have changed a bit, in a classic case of GW fixing one problem and creating a new one. To briefly recap, the old Celestine and her bodyguard formed one unit, and you could resurrect one of the Geminae per turn if one or both were dead. Since they were a unit, once a wound had been allocated to Celestine she had to keep taking them, making resurrected Geminae unable to protect her. Now, Celestine and the Geminae are two seperate units, and the Geminae can take wounds for her on a 2+ if they're 3" or less away. Unfortunately, this means that if both Geminae are killed, Celestine can't bring them back since Healing Tears adds a model to their unit. On top of that, Celestine lost a Wound and got a bit more expensive. (It's almost as if they're not trying to sell the model any-[REDACTED ON GROUNDS OF HERETICAL CYNICISM]

Still, overall the usual comments on Celestine still apply- she's quite potent, buffs Shield of Faith, and demands that you keep a Command Point back in case she fluffs Miraculous Intervention.

This has got pretty long, so I think I'll come back to look at Warlord Traits and Relics later. Keep the faith!

Walking the Walk, Talking Da Orks

I've now had the opportunity to get a fair few games in with the new Ork book, and I thought it was time to talk a bit more about it. Straight away, the biggest point with this new Codex is that it tries quite hard to push Orks off in a new direction- whilst the traditional Green Tide is still viable, Kult of Speed and shooting lists are heavily pushed.

For a Fistful of Teef
One of the more interesting things I've found is that despite most of my models being painted and decorated as Bad Moons, I'm increasingly finding that I'm playing them as Freebooterz. Fortunately a lot of Freebooterz tend to be ex Bad-Moons anyway due to a shared love of teef and flash, so it doesn't hurt my fluff-bunny feels as much as it might. As an aside, since my models are also painted Evil Sunz style in places (after absorbing a friend's warband years ago) I don't mix Klan Kultures in my armies. I don't like doing it at any time, and that goes double when some of my Bikers look like Evil Sunz and some look like Bad Moons.

What's particularly interesting about Freebooterz is that despite having the worst special Klan Strategy by a country mile (Kill Kroozer Broadside is just dire, I'm sorry) their Trait supports both shooting and assault armies, and arguably does it better than those of other Klans that might be considered to specialise in one or the other. Competitive Streak is one of those abilities that when explained, makes people look at you like you've grown an extra head.

Typical reaction to learning the radius of the Competitive Streak effect

It's the sheer size of the effect bubble that does it. A 24" radius +1 to hit for doing something that you're going to be trying to do anyway (i.e. krumping gitz) is extremely good.

The Key Players (Or, hold my Grot and Watch Dis!)

This guy. This guy right here.

There are several models that I've found are extremely useful for Freebooterz and really help to push them into the realm of exceptionally dangerous. One of the first is the Dakkajet. Already, even before the new Codex, the Dakkajet was one of the more reliable performers in the Ork army, since if it targets the same unit with all its guns (which will be six Supa Shootas unless you've cheaped out like some sort of grot) it gets +1 to hit, meaning it's usually hitting on an unprecedented-for-Orks 4+. A Freebooter Dakkajet, however, is even more exciting. If it's benefiting from Competitive Streak it's hitting on 3+, which can even get to a flat-out-bonkers 2+ against a unit with Fly through the use of the Long, Uncontrolled Bursts Stratagem. More usefully, however, it's an excellent MSU hunter. If an opponent has taken several small units of squashy infantry (eg, three squads of ten Guardsmen, to pick a.. random example) the Dakkajet is excellently equipped to hunt them down and is quite capable of wiping them out in a single salvo. Usually, other than conceding First Blood, people aren't too bothered when an inconsequential unit like this gets annihilated, but when that kill suddenly means that all the other Ork shooting is hitting on 4+ they tend to sit up and take notice.

Traktor Kannons are for grots. So's this, but it's better.

My next choice might be a bit surprising, but it's the Mek Gun, more specifically the Kustom Mega Kannon variant. As a grot-crewed weapon, the Mek Guns receive no bonus from Competitive Streak, but they do trigger it if they manage to kill a unit, because no self-respecting Ork wants to be outdone by a Grot. A well-sited battery of KMC Mek Gunz gives any Ork army a very respectable anti-armour punch and is also useful for winkling heavy infantry out of cover, especially the first floor of GW Ruins where they might have made themselves immune to Assault. Since you're not going to get the benefit of Competitive Streak, it usually means you can fire the KMCs first in a shooting phase and see if you can wipe a unit to trigger it for everyone else. As I'll talk about later, your order of attacks is very important with Freebooterz, so this is quite liberating.

The next Freebooter All-Star is more of an Ork All-Star if we're honest, and it's the humble Grot. They may not really be able to kill anything on their own, they may fight like sick in a paper bag and they may flee if a nearby Squig breaks wind*, but they give Orks their own version of the 'Loyal 32' and those extra Command Points can be crucial. I also personally like the idea that the Grots are providing logistical support to the Orks who simply can't be bothered with it. They can serve useful duty as objective holders (so long as no threat is allowed anywhere near them) anti-deep-strike bubble-wrap, and of course as Grot Shields.

The Loyal 32 does raise the tricky question of who else to bring to fill the two HQ slots of the Battalion. Whilst Orks do have plenty of useful HQs, most of them are rather more expensive than the Guard officers who traditionally fill out the Imperial version. Weirdboyz are a solid choice, providing useful abilities (and of course the Battalion provides the CP to make them into Warpheadz if required). It's annoying in this case that other very handy utility characters like Painboyz, Runtherds and the Waaagh Bannner are Elites since they would otherwise be an ideal way to fill out the Detachment. For Freebooterz, however, there's another option that meshes well with what we have already:

Must.. Orkbliterate!

We're going a long way back in my own personal collection here, but these three charmers are known as Da Obliteratorks**, and were originally built as Chaos Ork Obliterators back when allies were a big thing. These days, however, I use them as Shokk Attack Gun Meks, and the weapon's very random shooting profile meshes well with their look. There are a couple of reasons why these guys fit very well into a Freebooter list. Firstly, if interspersed among the Mek Gunz they can fix them, dealing with the inevitable overheat damage and forcing opponents to work that little bit harder to get rid of the things. Secondly, that +1 to hit can easily turn the SAG from 'entertainingly erratic' to 'downright terrifying'. Their AP of -5 means even the very best armoured foes have little chance to save, even in cover, and their potential to inflict Mortal Wounds allows them to even threaten things like Knights and Custodes. In the extreme case- and this is the never-going-to-happen case but it's fun to tease opponents with, a single SAG can inflict 36 Wounds plus 18 Mortal Wounds with one shot.***

Da Uvver Stuff
Of course the nice  thing with Freebooterz is that anything shooty or fighty works with them just fine. (Sorry Killa Kans). The Morkanaut is handy for the big KFF bubble and if it gets the +1 to hit can be a very dangerous shooting unit, but a CP should always, always be saved to prevent its 9" radius explosion when it gets focused down, which it will. Lootas get a lot of benefit from the bonus as well, though they can't double-tap like they could if they were Bad Moons. A sore point is Flash Gitz- whilst their firepower is amazing, especially if supported by Badrukk, their expense, shortish range and relative fragility make them tricky to use, even with Freebooterz. On the rare occasion that you get them to shoot with both the benefit of being stationary and with Competitive Streak up, they hit on 3+ (2+ for the Kaptin with his Gitfinda Squig) and do tend to delete things. Meganobz love being Freebooterz so long as someone else krumps something first to get them good and riled up, since it cancels out the deeply irritating -1 to hit on their Klaws without the need for a Waaagh Banner, though to be honest the Banner is so useful I try to always take one anyway. Potentially Meganobz under both effects and led by a Freebooter Warlord with Killer Reputation can be hitting on 2+ and re-rolling 1s, which tends to get their victim's attention.****

Fiddly bitz, gubbinz and know-wotz
There are a few considerations, and at least one irksome rules issue, when playing Freebooterz. First and foremost, the most killy models tend to be those which will benefit most from Competitive Streak, but are at the same time those most likely to trigger it, making deciding what to attack first with sometimes quite tricky, which is one of the big benefits of Mek Gunz. This is even more important in the Assault phase, where you have to balance the need to mitigate the inevitable Counter Attack stratagem against the desire to get a quick kill to trigger Competitive Streak. The rules issue comes with Open-Topped Transports. We know from the FAQ that to no-one's great surprise, models shooting out of Battlewagons etc can't have Stratagems played on them, which makes Lootas firing out of them distinctly less appealing, for example. What isn't all that clear is how Competitive Streak works with them. Personally, I play it that a unit killed by models  shooting (or even fighting, with Boarding Action) out of a vehicle counts as having been destroyed by the vehicle itself for the purposes of triggering Competitive Streak, whilst the models inside it never benefit from the +1 To Hit bonus since they aren't on the table. This is of course logically ridiculous, but does seem broadly consistent with how GW treats embarked models.

Final Thoughts
So, this turned into a Freebooterz post! It wasn't exactly meant to be, but  the Ork book is so chewy and has so many different options that there's a hell of a lot to talk about with it. Speaking of chewy, I've found it's a good idea to mark a Freebooter unit that gets a kill with a token, and I usually use some sort of individually-wrapped (ideally green) sweet. This means that you get to give your ladz a sweetie when they excel, and at the end of the phase the sweets can be shared out amongst players, with first refusal going to the player whose unit got wiped out to earn said sweetie in the first place. Just be sure to bring as many sweets as the opposing army has units, to avoid disappointment..





* in the Grots' defence, depending on the type of Squig this may actually be lethally dangerous.
** Annihilatork, Devastatork and Eradicatork.
*** This requires you to roll at least 15 sixes. Of course if the hits are also 6s, you could do more hits so the theoretical ceiling is in fact 72 wounds plus 36 Mortal!
**** Briefly.

Chaos Theory and the Wouldacouldashouldda

I promised (threatened?) earlier in the week that I was going to talk about Chaos Theory again on here, and I'm going to follow through on it because that's just the kind of guy I am.

Regular readers (don't you have anything better to do? On second thoughts don't answer that.) might recall me talking about Chaos Theory before with regards to time-travel plots and how it makes most of them not really work, but today, in a shocking departure from established convention I'm going to link it directly to 40k! And no, I don't mean by math-hammering how many Obliterators it takes to kill a Knight Castellan in one turn.*

Here's a scenario most 40k players, or indeed players of most games with dice in them might recognise. A player fails a clutch roll during a game, and realises after the fact that they could have done something about it. For example, they could have used a command re-roll, or used a one-time rule that gives +1 to a roll, etc. Maybe then they look at the dice and say "Damn***, a 2. If I'd used my +1 to hit ability I'd have succeeded!". Another classic is failing an unlikely roll, say a 6+ hit or save, and saying "It's not worth using my re-roll on that, but let's see what would have happened if I had." Of course, by the law of dramatic inevitability this 'virtual' re-roll then succeeds, leading to much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Well here's the thing, my fellow disciples of the Great Cuboid Deciders- it doesn't matter. Don't worry, be happy, because none of these scenarios actually means what our grumpy, pattern-obsessed little minds think they do. For the reason why, we need to look to our old friend Chaos Theory, in a development that you might just possibly have seen coming.

To understand why, there's a simple experiment you can conduct. Pick up a dice, a D6 is best and a D4, for reasons I'll explain later, is best avoided. Hold it in your best rolling grip, taking note of exactly where  it is relevant to your dice-rolling surface, and let fly. Note the result. Now pick up that dice again, and try to roll it in the exact same way, with the exact same amount of force. You'll find that almost exactly 5/6**** of the time, you'll get a different score, assuming the roll is 'fair'. (i.e. that the dice actually rolls, which is why I discouraged the D4, since those things skid like a rookie F1 driver on the wrong tires in a monsoon.)

Counter-intuitively to what our brains like to think about things like science and physics, even a precision built device that always imparts the exact same amount of force to the dice and throws it from the exact same position will tend to end up with a seemingly random result. This is because there are so many tiny little variables that are impossible to take fully into account- small electromagnetic, seismic or gravitational fluctuations, tiny air currents, accumulating damage to the corners of the dice and the surface it lands on, etc.

So what does this all mean? Simply put, if you were able to go back in time and use that +1 ability you decided not to use the first time, the tiny difference in exactly when and how you rolled that dice would mean the result would be different. You might well still succeed, but you still might not. Likewise, re-rolling a dice to see what would have happened (or looking at the result of the next dice you roll and imagining what would have happened if it were the re-roll) actually tells you nothing, because if you actually had used the re-roll the result would most likely have been different.

Before the geek brigade (of which I am a proud member, let's be clear) turns up to point it out in the comments (ahahaha) we should note that there's an important exception to this rule, which is when your dice rolling takes place on a computer. Since random numbers on computers aren't in fact random, but are instead based on a 'seed' value that's then chewed up by a complicated formula, some implementations will always give the same sequence of results, as can be seen in some of the XCOM games where re-loading a save to retry a missed shot will always result in another miss unless you do something different first to alter the sequence. (I suspect this is why the official GW 'dice app' uses the accelerometer to roll the dice, though there are other ways around the problem). Random number generation is a fun topic if you feel like losing yourself in the labyrinths of Wikipedia for an evening, but probably not something we need to talk about right now.

To get back to the point, what I'm trying to explain here is basically that dice are evil little contrary beasts and one should never, ever assume they they're going to behave the way you'd expect. So the next time you decide not to use a re-roll and regret it, or use one and get another damn 1 again, just remember that whatever you think you would have, should have or could have done instead, it still might not have worked out. It all evens out in the end.*****


*The answer is seven.**


**That's a blatant lie, but I'm hoping no-one reads double footnotes.

***Or most likely, something with a little more spice to it.

**** Or 9/10, if you tried with a D10 like some sort of wise-acre.

***** Though with one of my regular opponents and his hyper-jammy 4++ saves, not yet.

The paint-before-assembly conundrum

Meet Mogthrash Kilzogg. Mogthrash is a Bad Moon Speedboss, and his interests include speed, krumping, dakka and teef. Not necessarily in that order.

Now as you can probably tell, this Defkilla Wartrike is a bit of a conversion, and if you're interested there's more info about him (and an even more ludicrously sized image) over on my Deviantart. What I'm going to talk about here, though, is something that's become more of an issue the more I've worked on the new Ork models.

All of the wonderful new Ork vehicles have a lot of detail and most of them have quite a few very characterful krew models. Even the most obstinate hater of painting models before fully assembling them- and I place myself firmly within that proud company- has to admit that they're going to have to leave the Krew unattached until they're painted. However, with several of the new kits things are a little more complicated than that. Here's a WIP shot of the Deffkilla:

As well as showing off the parts that I nicked from the Speed Freeks box (hint: they're yellow) this also shows the bitz that I ended up leaving off until the model was painted. The driver was also left loose, he's just in his seat here to make the photo easier. What's perhaps not immediately obvious here is that his right arm comes attached to the handlebar of the trike, and that handlebar then slots in to the support for the dashboard. On top of that, because of the way the Boomstikks are designed (I think the idea is that that driver fires them by pressing the top of his toes into the triggers) they also get in the way of the driver's body to the extent that I was fairly sure that if they were attached, I'd never get the git back on. So in the end, the driver, dashboard, both Boomstikks, fuel grot and Speedboss all had to be left off the model. It would be very easy for an inexperienced modeller to either fall into the trap of building the whole thing and finding it almost impossible to paint, or worse, paint it with just the krew left off and be unable to finish building the damn thing! *

Do I have a point here? Well firstly, if you've not picked up any of the new Ork kits yet consider this a bit of a PSA- it's really, really important when building these things to dry-assemble them and make sure you're not going to get in your own way later. They look awesome when built, and it'd be a real shame for someone to accidentally spoil such great models. Secondly, I do think GW need to think a bit more about this side of things when they make models and instructions. I've been doing this for almost 30 years now (dear God, I'm old) and I still get caught out occasionally. ** I was really surprised that the instructions for the vehicles didn't have any 'paint this bit first' notes which those for other kits have had in the past, and with Speed Freeks and its coloured plastic the danger of someone falling into the trap is particularly acute. The whole set practically screams at the new player to get everything built as fast as possible so they can play the game, after all.

So anyway, there's that. I'll probably pop up again later in the week to bang on about chaos theory or something.



* It might also be possible to forget to attach the little 'axle' parts of the front wheels of the Shokkjump Dragster until the hull was fully assembled, meaning you had to drill a hole in the wheel mounts to get the things in. Hypothetically, of course....

** Not by the Dragster, though. Like I said, that example was hypothetical. Honest.

Legio Metalica Maniple(s)

It's been a bit slow around here recently, I know, for which I can only say 'IRL' and leave it at that.

Anyway, around everything else that's been going on I did manage to finally finish my Legio Metalica titans, as seen here. For the curious, their names from left to right are:
Dyer's Eve (Reaver)
Master of Puppets (Warlord)
Overkill (Warhound)
Orion (Warhound)
Call of Ktulu (Warlord)
Harvester of Sorrow (Reaver)

I've already talked about the Legio and its colour scheme when I uploaded Call of Ktulu to DA,, but there are a few other little things to mention. By careful use of magnets, I've made the arm weapons of the Reavers compatible with the carapace weapon mounts on the Warlords, so Master of Puppets is armed with a Gatling Array, for example. I did something similar with the Warhound arm guns, making an adaptor piece out of an old fantasy Goblin shield and part of the 'hole' from a 40mm base to allow me to fit those to the carapace of a Reaver, as show here with the Turbo-Laser on Harvester of Sorrow. The Reaver carapace weapons pose an interesting problem, because whilst both the Vulcan Mega-Bolter (as seen here on the arm of Orion) and Turbo-Laser are options for it, as far as I know Forge World never made them for the 40k-scale Reaver. The laser looks OK, but the Bolter, with its two big underslung box magazines, looks a bit odd turned upside-down. On the other hand, if it were the right way up the boxes would bump into the carapace. Assuming the part is ever made for the smaller version I'll be interested to see it!

There's a small modelling cheat on Harvester of Sorrow, in that rather than paint the iron skull on the carapace freehand, I used an old Empire shield boss. On the other hand the Aquila on the head of Orion is something I'm quite proud of, since in order to make it stand out against a half white, half black background I took a black and a white transfer and cut them both down the middle. To say I was surprised to manage to get it to line up is an understatement, to put it mildly! 

In game terms, these Titans will probably be fielded as two Maniples, a Myrmidion Maniple (the two Warlords and a Reaver) and a Venator Maniple (two Warhounds and the other Reaver). That might mean a weapon-swap for Dyer's Eve since both those maniples emphasise shooting, but I like the punchy look for this picture. Certainly Harvester of Sorrow's all-laser fit would work well in the Myrmidion. On reflection, since the Venator Maniple only grants the Reaver an attack with one weapon if one of the Warhounds knocks down a target's shields, Dyer's Eve could probably get away with just taking a carapace Turbo-Laser to do the deed.

Still, all this is moot until I get the chance to play again!

The Vexing Question of what is Important

Long-time readers or occasional browsers of this blog might remember that in the past I've explored the subject of time-travel and how a huge number of plots based around it make very little sense. I've also talked before about the level of 'suspension of disbelief' and how it varies from one person to another. Well, something quite recently caused me to revisit those opinions and have another little think about them.

Let's not beat about the proverbial bush here- I'm talking about 'Rosa', the recent Dr Who episode featuring Rosa Parks, which has already been hailed in many circles as a modern classic. Now, I'm not going to say there wasn't a lot to like in there- it was certainly good drama and the timing (yes, I'm looking at you, Ryanair) was so perfect that you could almost believe the Doctor herself had done a bit of cheeky engineering of the TV schedules. Also we had the 'is the Doctor Banksy' gag which I hope they revisit because the concept is a lot of fun.

The 'problem'- and I went back and put quotes around that because I'm not even sure it is a problem- is that as a science-fiction story in general, and a Dr Who story in particular, it was nonsense. There's a very good reason that the show doesn't generally do 'making sure history happens properly' stories, which is that quite beside the fact that deciding what history should and shouldn't be could be construed as somewhat megalomaniacal, it's very hard to make them make sense. (For why, the two 'about time' posts linked up there go into a lot more detail). The plot of 'Rosa' was full of more holes than a slice of Leerdammer, but to address the simplest, we're asked to believe that the US Civil Rights movement would have been irrevocably derailed if Rosa Parks had not made her protest on that exact day. Were I the sort to use such language, I would almost call the suggestion that she wouldn't have plucked up the courage to do what she did the next time the bus was full 'problematic'. But I won't make that claim, because it's patently obvious that the writers intended to force the Doctor and her Companions into the situation of engineering a horrible, uncomfortable situation for the greater good.

That's not exactly a new idea in sci-fi- the classic example being the original Star Trek's 'The City on the Edge of Forever' - but it's a good one. However, getting the characters so closely involved in the historical story opens up a huge can of temporal worms (not to mention that whole business with the Reapers which exist largely to explain why the Doctor doesn't do... exactly what happens in 'Rosa'.)

So, as I was watching the episode, it's safe to say I was eye-rolling a bit. As the sort of person who gets out his pencils to calculate average walking speeds before deciding how long it takes a character in a story to walk from one place to another, the various plot holes were deeply annoying me. We'd seen before that when popular shows that are generally of a high quality do this the fans are up in arms, a good example being the teleporting characters and supersonic ravens in the penultimate series of Game of Thrones. So once the episode finished, I took a look online to see the reaction. It was, of course, seemingly nothing but page upon page of fulsome praise. For what appears to have been the vast majority of viewers, the drama the story set up and the message it delivered massively outweighed any plot issues to the extent that nobody even mentioned them.

In part, it's indicative of the online climate these days that I decided not to bring it up at the time. There were already a few of those depressingly predictable comments flying about that anyone who didn't think the story was an all-time classic must by definition be a drooling, eye-rolling bigot, and the last thing an obscure author needs it to be dumped into that particular pit. But leaving that aside, it really got me thinking about why 'Rosa' got away with it. Is it simply the case that if your story's message is strong enough (or to spin it the other way, politically correct enough) you can get away with it being deeply implausible even within its own rules? We might draw a parallel with 'Zootopia', which pushes a very hard anti-prejudice message and was critically well-received, despite the fact that its 'races' were predator and prey animals, the latter of which have extremely good reasons to be wary of the former.

Perhaps the answer is that the most important thing is to stay true to your own goals. The late, great Roger Ebert was a master of this philosophy, judging films not just on how 'good' they were, but how successful they were in doing what they set out to do. Thus the latest Russ Meyer 'trash' might still be well-received if it was successfully trashy. A slasher horror movie shouldn't be judged on criteria used for serious drama.

For me, personally, the cardinal rule is to stay true to the established rules of your own paradigm, and it was on those grounds in particular that 'Rosa' irritated me. Clearly for many others, that's not the case- or the story was engaging them so strongly in other ways that they simply didn't notice it. Some people (like me) can't re-watch Fight Club without pointing out all the ways it doesn't make sense. Others don't care. Ultimately, I'm going to keep trying to avoid plot holes and contradictions in my own work, but then I've never been a 'message' guy.

To thine own self be true, I suppose.

Assault and Faffery

Taking a bit of time out from Titanicus posts, several recent games have got me thinking about Assault and how it works in 8th Edition, or more accurately, how it often doesn't. The issues with both assault-based armies and the Assault Phase itself are many and complex, so I thought it might help to set them out here.

Character Building
One of the most glaring problems with playing assault is the way Characters presently work in it. I've taken to referring to 8th as the 'counter-assault edition' and nowhere is this more true than with  Characters. In order to build any significant weight of attacks, most Assault armies need to use large units, which is reinforced by the fact that many of those units, like Daemons and Ork Boyz, receive a bonus Attack for having more than 20 models. Now, it is a truth universally acknowledged that in order to not suck an army needs its supporting characters in the correct position (according to Jane Austen, who I hear was quite the Ork player when not running with the 4th St Saints). For a shooting army, this is very simple. Take this example:

So if we assume that the white circles are a shooting unit, say Devastators, and the yellow one is a supporting character like a Lieutenant or Captain, then not only is the Character here able to contribute their ability in safety, but by being near the end of the line he can use a Heroic Intervention to help out if the unit gets charged. Let's add some Orks to this example:

So here, the Orks have got fed up with these Devastators and decided to give them a damn fine krumping. The Boyz (black circles) are supported by a Waaagh banner Nob (red circle) and a Warboss on a Warbike (big red oval). The Boyz and Banner have Advanced and the Warboss has moved up to allow the Boyz to still charge. Immediately this gives the Ork player a headache because the Warboss wasn't quite able to get close enough to the Banner Nob to let him charge as well.

Now, this means that if the Boyz charge, they'll end up more than 6" away from the Banner Nob, meaning they lose his bonus. Additionally, if they charge before the Warboss does, there won't be enough room to fit him in, so the Warboss won't be able to charge at all. But if the Warboss charges first, he gets the full benefit of the Devastators Overwatch which could well mean a Lascannon in the face. The Ork player can mitigate this by charging with the Boyz first, but leaving some of them back within 6" of the Banner, and not lapping around the Devastators to leave room for the Warboss- but doing that reduces the amount of Attacks they'll get to make, negating the advantage of getting the +1 to hit from the Banner in the first place.

(By the way, yes, that many Orks should be able to deal with a bunch of puny Beakies unsupported, I know. This is just a simple example.)

So, what happens if the Orks didn't Advance? Then the Boyz can charge first and just leave a gap for the Banner Nob to charge into. Of course this risks losing the bonus for the entire unit if the Nob then fails his charge.

None of these problems are insurmountable by any means- and it's well worth going back to the Assault rules to see just what you can and can't do about them- but the simple point is that if a Character's role is to enhance shooting units, all he has to do is find somewhere safe to stand nearby. If he improves Assault, he has to move very carefully in order to avoid being prevented from doing his job by the very models he's supposed to be supporting, especially if he needs to Assault himself to keep up with them.

Don't taze me, bro!
Things don't get much easier for support characters even when they do manage to get into position. As we've seen, often in order to keep up with the troops and still use their abilities, which tend to be a 6" aura, the support character has to charge in. For many of them, this is horrifically dangerous. Few have more than 5 wounds between them and death, and once in Assault being a Character confers little protection. If the enemy unit is truly feeble, like Fire Warriors or Guardsmen, fine, but then you probably didn't need the support character anyway. If your Dark Apostle, Exalted Champion or Waagh Banner is trying to help an assault unit take down something dangerous, however, like a unit of Terminators or Custodes, then they're at a very real risk of getting killed in short order.

Now, to be clear, the risk of getting killed is very much part of a support character's life, but when you compare those who support shooting to those who support Assault, a great example being the Marine Lieutenant vs the Exalted Champion, the latter's task is far, far harder to achieve despite both models costing roughly the same- and of course, the Lieutenant can spend his turns plinking away with a bolter whilst the Champion is running about getting into position. (Whilst we're on the subject, one of these two models can have a Jump Pack to move about easier. And it's the Lieutenant!)

What it all boils down to is that at the moment, unless you are the sort of triple-distilled badass Character that's perfectly happy to charge in first and do some of the heavy lifting, properly supporting Assault units is very tricky. But our problems are only just beginning!

Taking the Pistol
Ahh, pistols, how I hate thee. The way Pistols work in 8th Edition almost literally shoots assault units in the foot. Many assault units have them, but they rarely get much use out of them because it's unusual that an enemy unit will hang about to be shot with them in the shooting phase of the turn after the unit armed with them charges. But when carried by the unit that gets assaulted, Pistols can cause all sorts of bother. The unit that suffers most from this is almost certainly Wyches. With their 4++ in assault, Wyches are usually pretty good at surviving in combat, especially against things that have a few hard-hitting attacks, and their Shardnets and No Escape let them lock down infantry better than most units in the game. Or they would, if not for pistols. Most Marines get them, even Tau can have them, and because they count as shooting attacks they kill Wyches in droves. Put them on the same table as Deathwatch with their special-issue ammo for their Bolt Pistols and Wyches die just as fast in combat as they do out of it. Once again, because they get used in the Shooting phase, pistols invariably favour counter-assault. It's particularly galling that Wyches themselves have Pistols, but they don't seem to have considered that the enemy might bring some.

The Counter-Argument
The Counter Assault stratagem is one of the front-runners for the most irritating thing in 8th for the assault player, and that's in a challenging field. Quite a lot of assault units, like Daemons, Wyches, Boyz etc are hard-hitting, but fragile, and rely on attacking first to do their damage. Such units really, really don't like being hit with a Counter Assault, even by a basic unit of Marines or Guardsmen. Worse still- and this is the thing that really gets my goat- because of the way the Stratagem works, if you have a unit in an important fight that's being going on for a turn and you charge somewhere else on the board, once that charging unit attacks the opponent can 'counter assault' with the engaged unit- meaning that by attacking with an unrelated unit, you surrender the initiative in that fight.

For example, say one of your characters is fighting an enemy Dreadnought and has nearly killed it, and somewhere else on the board you have a chance to charge some Devastators. Charge them, and as soon as you attack the Dreadnought can use Counter Assault to pulp your Character, even though the Dreadnought wasn't charged. There is no way to prevent this happening other than either not making any charges (a great plan for an assault army!) or using Agents of Vect. As with most of these issues, there's also no equivalent problem for shooting armies- you don't have to worry that once you've picked a unit to shoot, you're suddenly going to get shot back. (Barring things like Ancients and Noise Marines, of course, and those can be avoided with smart targeting)

Overwatch, and the art of temporal distortion
When Overwatch was first added to the game, or more accurately re-added, I was OK with it. There were, and to an extent still are, ways to mitigate its impact and it made some sense. 8th Edition, however, has gone way, way over the top with it. Since units can now Overwatch multiple times if the enemy doesn't get into contact with them, it's no longer possible to 'fake out' Overwatch with a small unit that tries to make the enemy waste their fire on them, or a model like a Dreadnought that can take it but is 11" away. Whereas before the enemy had to choose whether such a charge was worth Overwatching, now they can just do it with no consequences. This makes some units, like Frag Cannon kill-teams or Battlesuits with multiple Flamers., damn near impossible to charge without taking heavy casualties.

Worse, the few ways you can actually charge such units involve rules exploits which whilst legal, make little sense and feel like cheating. Charging a unit that can't see you makes little sense when a unit can Overwatch even against a 2" charge, and as for charging from out of the range of the units weapons... well, you're running towards them, so....? (Try to make the following make any sense: "I couldn't shoot that Ork who was running at me before he reached me with my Flamer because he was too far away.")

Overwatch, as it stands, is dumb. It allows a unit to make multiple shooting attacks- at full effectiveness if it has what used to be Template weapons- in one phase and is prevented only by things that logically shouldn't. (Other than being locked by a successful charger which is about the only thing about it which does make sense.)  Whilst I'm not planning to suggest many rule changes here, Overwatch really, really should be once per phase.

We're still not done!

Success =/= skill
Remember earlier when I was grousing about Counter Assault? One of the reasons why it's so dangerous is also one of the most controversial changes in 8th, that came over from Age of Sigmar- the flat WS stat. Now, the flat BS stat was a great change that speeds things up marvellously, but flat WS was a terrible, horrible, not-very-good Lemony Snicket of an idea. It means that units that previously could defend themselves in combat by being more skilled than their opponents now can't. Daemonettes, for example, used to be WS 5, meaning that models like Ork Boyz or Marines only hit them on 4+ and even a lot of Characters didn't get better than 3+. Now, even a Guardsman can hit someone like Lelith Hesperax, Lucius or Kharn on a 4+. Worse, Character-on-Character fights are now decided almost exclusively on who swings first and who has the best Invulnerable save, because almost every single one is WS 2+. Remember the epic arena duel in Gathering Storm between Lelith and Yvraine? In actual 40k it lasts one turn, more often than not. Of course, there's another reason combat lasts only one turn...

Run away! Run away!
For many people who used to play assault armies, the Fall Back move was the final straw. For successive editions, assault players had got used to the idea of not hitting a target unit too hard, staying locked into the opposing shooting phase and finishing the job in their Assault phase, preventing the attacking unit from just getting shot in the moment of victory. Fall Back has changed all that. Now there's no benefit from not wiping an enemy unit in a single charge, and almost no defence against retaliatory shooting, unless by some miracle another unit is close enough to Consolidate into combat with. Even doing that allows that unit to fight you, and then Fall Back in its own turn for their mates to shoot you. Then of course we have the various Stratagems and special rules that allow units to Fall Back and still shoot or charge.

Thank you and good Knight
Finally, lets talk about Knights. Knights are interesting on this topic because they simultaneously sum up a lot of the problems of playing Assault, and get around them themselves.

For the assault player, seeing Knights opposite you is usually bad, bad news. Even a fully shooting-focused Knight army has enough close-combat ability in its legs alone to make most horde units deeply regret attacking them- units like Wyches feel almost worthless against them (although finishing off a Knight with them is worth bragging points). Only a few models, like 'Smash' characters or Storm Shield Terminators, pose a realistic threat to a Knight that the Knight can't deal with by shooting it from a long way off- something like a double-fisted Dreadnought or a Deff Dread might theoretically be able to do good damage but is unlikely to last a turn if the Knight player has a lick of sense. Add to that durability and close combat power the ability to simply walk out of combat and still shoot, and it's a grim picture.

Conversely, a Knight assault army is one of the few that can work reliably at the moment. Assault Knights are a bit cheaper than their shooting-oriented brethren, get WS 2+ and 5 Attacks (15 if using the feet) and are quite capable of destroying most other Super-Heavies in a single turn of combat, those Attacks potentially resulting in 30 wounds with the basic Reaper. They're fast, durable, and since you're playing with only a few large models any aura abilities will be much easier to use.

They also don't care much about pistols, for the most part.

The Grim Conclusion
Summing up, I think Assault may be weaker in 8th than it has ever been, and this is coming from someone who started with Rogue Trader. Most damningly, its an edition where often assault units can be sitting in front of enemy shooting units knowing that charging them is utterly futile- meaning, by extension, that for that unit to even be on the table is worthless.

That isn't to say Assault can't be used- it certainly can and should remain a part of a player's toolbox- but I fear that the classic Assault army, with large units of troops led by supporting characters, is almost stone dead in this edition- and that seems to be by design.

Almost-hidden titan weapon options!

This happened completely by accident, but I thought it interesting enough to let people know about. In order to make the weapons on my Reavers completely swappable I magnetised them both at the top of the arm, and at the weapon joins. Once I did that I was looking at the unpainted second Warlord sitting there and suddenly noticed that the weapon mounts on the carapace were of a very similar size. Were the polarities right? By the Emperor, yes!

So, in the image above we have a Warlord with the gatling array on the carapace, (as well as a Mr Punchy Reaver) whilst below there's the laser blaster option:

Looks a lot like the old (but not oldest) Epic Warlord like that, doesn't it?

The Titanic Post

It's not going to be that big, but the title seems appropriate nonetheless.

I finally got a game of Titanicus in, and since I also had a few models painted and it's been far too quiet around here due to the pressures of work etc. I thought I'd give my take on the game so far. I'm not going to give a run-down of how to play it, box contents etc because that's been done elsewhere by people with more time, more knowledge and less sloth, but here're my impressions.

The Models
For the most part, I'm really impressed by the Titanicus models. What we have here, unlike the very compromised models from old-school Epic, are basically fully-featured 40k models, just smaller. The change of scale is obviously annoying for us old-timers (I have two Imperator Titans standing on my fridge) but it's allowed for some truly impressive miniatures. The only qualifier there is the lack of options. The Warlord, out of the box, is as you see here with no customisation options at all other than the carapace armour and head. (The box build is the classic 1440 point Nemesis, for us beardies*.) Presumably upgrade kits are coming, but especially when the kit is designed for magnets it seems odd to not have them from the start.

House Raven banner. Click to see on DA

It's particularly noticeable with the Knights, who really have no options and don't come with the Stormspear missile launcher despite it being pictured in the book. The datasheet for the Knights allows them to have two guns or even two melee weapons, but since many players are using half a box they're going to be reluctant to mess with the configuration, especially since a Knight with two Reapers isn't usually a thing.

I can't really talk too much about the buildings since I've, er, not built mine yet, but from seeing other people's they're pleasingly modular, if maybe a bit small. I need to have a rummage in my loft and see if I have the old polystyrene city blocks from the original Titanicus game, which a Warlord might have some chance of hiding behind. The other plastic accessories are great, though the markers that go on the consoles could do with fitting a little more snugly. I also painted and magnetised my Opus Titanica so I can wear it on a pin badge, but that's a bit Etsy for this blog.

The Game
If the models basically simply lived up to my expectations, the game itself, I must admit, exceeds them. I was expecting the 'box' game- i.e. a Warlord and three Knights on each side- to be a fairly simple dice-fight, but that turns out not to be the case at all. This is mostly due to the Reactor mechanics, which are great fun, and the extremely ponderous nature of the Warlords compared to the Knights. In the test game I played, I managed to eliminate one of the opposing Knights in the first turn with a Volcano Cannon shot, and my own Knights pressed the advantage, staying out of the arc of the Warlord and ultimately getting the kill with a Reaper hit, though their opposite numbers had whittled them down to one model by then.

The Command mechanic is really interesting, and adds another level of risk vs reward. It was amazing how often in our game we failed 3+ Command rolls on a D10, and since orders stop as soon as one fails (usually) we often found ourselves issuing risky, but important, orders to our Knights first when the Warlord was in a decent firing position. Every order has a valid use, but a Titan without one is far from helpless.

Burning Ambition
It's the Reactor, though, that really makes Titanicus interesting. Most players pick up quite fast that firing at a shielded Warlord with the Volcano Cannon is a poor deal, and yet the Apocalypse Launchers on the carapace are more than capable of stripping all the shields from a Warlord in a single volley, so firing everything first turn can pay off. Once the Reactor starts to get out of control, though- which can happen very fast if the Reactor dice is unkind- the fact that it hits the Titan's Body means that a worsening chain reaction is a very real possibility, meaning that often an unshielded Titan is still more concerned with venting plasma than getting the voids back up. This made a big difference in my game, with my Knights hitting the body of the enemy Warlord when its reactor was already in the orange and causing more damage, which led to more reactor strain.

Legio Metalica Warlord Call of Ktulu. Click to see on DA.

Oddities
We did find a few strange things in the rules, mostly to do with Knights. It feels odd that Ion Shields are affected by the strength of attacks, whereas in 40k they aren't, but even more strangely, they can be used against all attacks, even those made from within 2" (i.e melee range.) This even applies to melee weapons, meaning the save can be taken against Reapers or Titan slams. Possibly even stranger, though, is that melee weapons can always make called shots on Titans, targeting a specific location rather than rolling randomly, meaning a Knight can attack a Warlord's head or even its carapace weapons. I'd expect, at some point, a rule limiting this based on the Scale of the attacking and defending models.

I had to come back and add this part, but the other thing that's a bit strange, though understandable from a game-design standpoint, is the very limited fire arcs of the Warlord. The arm guns can only fire in a 45 degree arc and the Carapace weapons are even more limited, only firing straight ahead. This makes the game more tactical, but given the fact that the Warlord's waist rotates, seems strange, especially since there's a scenario in which the Legio Mortis have rotated their torsos 180 degrees to fire backwards. Presumably the waist actuators are just glacially slow. Certainly when the Reaver enters the field, with a 360 degree arc on its Carapace weapon, life is going to get a bit more interesting for Knights.

The Future
It goes without saying that Titanicus has a lot of potential. Obviously first we have the new Titans, Reavers and Warhounds, followed presumably by the weapon upgrade packs. After that we should probably expect to see at least Gargants and Stompas for Orks, as well as Phantoms, Revenants and Wraithknights for Eldar. After that, who knows? Proper Chaos Titans (eg the Banelord) probably don't make an appearance until after the Heresy, so whether we'll see them is anyone's guess.

The Final Question
Will the Titan Owner's Club be gaining lots of new members?





*I don't actually have a beard, but hey.

Drukhari Reboot: Fangs, Wings, and Thoughts

The Great Rebooting continues! Above you can see the Archon of my Kabalite contingent, Ophidia Zeras, Archon of the Hidden Fang. As you can see she's got some friends with her, three Sslyth made primarily from Daughters of Khaine Melusai. More detail on how these models were made can be found on my DA here.

The Hidden Fang are a former Commorite street gang who managed to steal a large number of combat skimmers, which is reflected in my current army by three Ravagers (which are undergoing replacement at the moment). Since these form a Spearhead, there are only five Warriors at the moment!

I've also finished the Scourges for the army:

'Standing on a Book' photography style borrowed from someone else's blog..

As you can see they're based on Khinerai and all carry Blasters except the leader, who has a Blast Pistol and a Power Lance. (DA link here for more details.)

I got a bit of a surprise last weekend when I realised that our FLGS was running a 2k tournament. Despite these models being finished the night before, I already had them written into a list that was suitable, so I gave them a try.

It did Not Go Well.

Some clarification- though I recorded two losses and a draw, I didn't think the games went too badly. We were on a fairly tight time limit and in all three games I was starting to turn the situation around before time caught up with us. I was particularly pleased with my first game, in which I took on a pure Knights list and was able to destroy several despite my 30 Wyches really not having the tools to hurt them much. (One did finish off a Knight with her Hydra Gauntlets though, which was amusing.)
The new models also did quite well, with the Scourges making pests of themselves and the Archon and her Sslyth making an impact, even if she single-handedly lost me the last game when her Raider blew up and took no less than five Warriors and a Sslyth with it before dumping the survivors in front of an Eldar gun-line. Shadow Fields can only take so much!

The biggest problem I'm finding with this edition's version of Dark Eldar is that you get very little protection from bad dice. Since Archons can't hand out their re-roll of 1s to hit whilst standing in a Raider or Venom, it's very hard to deal with those days when you can't seem to roll well- in my last game, for example, I fired no less than six Dark Lance shots before I scored a hit- and this was needing flat 3+. That's the sort of thing you have re-roll bubbles for, only Drukhari really don't. Something like a Command Vehicle rule or even Stratagem to allow an Archon to lead from his Raider/ Venom would help a lot.

I've said it before, but Drukhari also really, really miss the Lance rule. The lack of it (the short version is that Dark Lances and other Darklight weapons used to damage Vehicles on 4+ at worst) means that outside of the S9 Void Lances on the Voidraven it's very hard to reliably damage tough targets. Thermal Lances, at S6, are almost worthless for anti-vehicle work and Haywire Blasters are really, really weak. This issue is compounded by the fact that unless you go with Haemonculus Covens, Drukhari have barely any melee weapons that can damage vehicles. There's no close combat weapon available to either Wyches or Kabalites above S6 (7 with combat drugs). There's also no Stratagem to give +1 to Wound in either the fight or shoot phases, which for an army with such low Strength on most of its attacks is a real pain.

Probably the best symptom of how 8th Edition and Drukhari aren't quite meshing right now is the fact that many players are taking Disintegrators over Dark Lances, especially on Ravagers. In the first blush, this seems daft- Disintegrators are anti-infantry weapons, something that Drukhari armies with all their access to Poison and massed splinter fire shouldn't need too much more of. But because of the odd way Toughness works in 8th, once a vehicle passes T8 Disintegrators are better against it than Dark Lances are, and even on lower Toughness targets the volume of dice makes them almost as good against Vehicles (and of course a lot better against Infantry).

I'm an old traditionalist who still remembers the days when the fact that Raiders had Dark Lances meant each of my transports could potentially one-shot a Land Raider, so I'm persevering with the 'bigger' gun for now, but believe me, I'm eyeing the performance of my Disintegrator Ravager very carefully....

WIP shot! Help.

Drukhari Reboot: Showcase

Since I've finally completed Phase 1 of replacing practically my entire Dark El- sorry, Drukhari army, I thought it was about time for a showcase post. Of course since you read this blog religiously- and I apologise if the notification that this post had gone up disrupted any other plans you might have had for the day- you've already seen the Command Raider from a while back.

But now there's more.

Oh, so much more.

Such needful things!

First up are my twin sister Succubi, Hypatia the Henna-Haired Harridan and Ritala, the Lashtongue. Hypatia, with the Blood Glaive, is currently the Warlord but Ritala would love to claim the title and also the other half of the Gleaming Visage, their mother's mask. These two are based on the Gemini Twins from Rumbleslam, and have a hidden feature- due to a magnet concealed in the skull each is standing on, they can do this:

I'm quite pleased with how that worked out, though on the army's first outing yesterday I, er, forgot to bring them with me. So their Raider-surfing debut is yet to come! (I put them in the carry case as soon as these photos were taken, so they shouldn't miss the bus next time.)

Next up are the Reavers:

As usual, I've used magnets to allow the weapons on the two special weapon bikes to be swapped out. At the moment, going on the theory that two Blasters aren't all that likely to do much on their own, I'm using Heat Lances with a view to killing Characters that rely on an armour save to survive. I still think that someone hasn't noticed that the Lance rule isn't a thing any more, since using the things against vehicles is so unreliable.

My Wyches are all converted from Witch Elves now, which leaves me with a sizeable pile of old metal and plastic Wyches just sort of sitting there. Anyway, the reboot has allowed me to do this:

And match them to this:

Now the idea here is that each Wych squad has its own distinct hair colour, which matches that of the crew of the Raider they ride in. So above, for example, we have the Daughters of Xereus and the Conveyance of Xereus, which they ride in. A minor, well, sort of minor, error I made was that since the Daughters were made a long time ago as a squad of Bloodbrides, they have three Shardnets which is of course two more than they really need. So in practice, the hair thing only applies to the standard Wyches, the specialists have different colours which do at least help them stand out in a squad.

So, the next squad are the Nightshade Coven:

You'll probably spot right away that there's four special weapons in there. I grouped them by hair colour for the shot since this whole thing also served as a census of sorts. Old hands might notice that one of the Wyches, rather than Hydra Gauntlets, is a traditionalist who's gone with Hydraknives. (Made, shockingly, by sticking two knives together). This unit has mostly Wych arms, making them look a bit more muscular than those using Witch Elf limbs, so it usually has the +1 Strength combat drug. That's also why the Hekatrix has a Power Sword.

Now, that brings up a little side-point which I was looking to mention- tracking combat drugs. My FLGS recently acquired a laser engraver and has therefore been engraving anything into everything that can't get away fast enough, so I commissioned a set of these:

If you like to live dangerously and roll up all your Drugs, these dice let you do it without having to look up the result, and regardless of how you generate your bonuses you can then use the dice as a marker. The red dice is a turn counter that also tracks what level Power From Pain is at. Handy, and available here. Back to the models!

One more Wych squad, the Sisterhood of Screams after their Screamer Pink hair. In practice, I go with one each of the three Wych special weapons since all three are pretty decent now. I'm sure one of those fellows with a spreadsheet will tell us all which one is 'best' eventually, but I like how all of them came out so I'm keeping them.

I nearly forgot to mention that I was really cross to discover that there was indeed a Shock Prow part and the bloody thing only comes in the Ravager kit. Darn you Games Workshop, darn you to heck!

Next up will be the Kabalite side of the force, once it's done, along with Sslyth, and Scourges. That's going to include three Ravagers though, and so far I have one which is still in the box, so don't hold your breath.

Oh, and get back to that important thing I interrupted. Sorry!