The assorted writings of Tim 'Majere613' Peers, and also a shameless promotional tool for the Thelenic Curriculum series. Background by Sean Harrington.
So another year draws to a close, its end hurtling towards us with the inevitability of Tactical Marines going mail-order only. It's certainly been an.. interesting one, with 40k flip-flopping around from being at times quite awesome (such as the long-awaited and mostly excellent Sisters of Battle release) and at others being thunderously wrong headed. (Certain supplements. You know which.)
For me personally it's been a year of slowly grinding forwards, with my writing career still not so much sitting on the tarmac as being carefully reassembled from bits somewhere near Kitty Hawk. On the gaming side I've been gradually learning how to play Age of Sigmar, mostly due to having a lot of Daemons lying around, though the resurrection of my ancient WFB Chaos army as Slaves To Darkness might just happen at some point. Frankly I still find the game a bit weird and seem to keep winning as Hedonites mostly by just shoving pink things in people's faces until they don't like it.*
Ain't no party like a WFB Slaanesh party..
Anyway, I've written a new short story to celebrate the festive season. It's called Foundation Day, and ties into the overall story of the Thelenic Curriculum without providing any spoilers for the books, mostly because it's set some twenty years before them. If you read it and like it, please consider checking out the other shorts either on this page or on the new site at thetcbooks.co.uk, or even buying the books on Kindle. We're talking a 400+ page novel for less than the price of a Starbucks latte here, people!
If that's not for you and you'd rather stay within the comfortable realm of 40k** then may I direct you to my 40k short, The Ork-Mass Miracle. It's a cheerful tale of Orks trying to find their way through a foggy warzone and one plucky Grot who... well, you'll see. This one was written for last Christmas but if you've not read it and find yourself with a spare half hour over the festive period, in my humble opinion you could do worse.***
Anyway, shameless self-promotion aside it just remains to wish all my readers and anyone else who's blundered in here a very Merry Christmas! See you on the other side....
*And then doing it even more, of course.
**I'd suggest that's an.. innovative use of the word 'comfortable' but hey, you do you.
***After all, some channel's going to be showing The Sound of Music again.
I've had a chance to try out the new Sisters of Battle rules now (the new models are still on my painting table) and for the most part I love them. However, there's a glaring issue in the army set that really needs to be talked about a bit more because I think it shines a light on one of the recent GW trends that is distinctly negative.
The picture above is the mono-build Canoness model included in the army box. Now the first, and relatively minor, issue here is that she's not the Canoness shown on the back of the box- that model has an icon of the Ecclesiarchy and a Condemnor Boltgun and is, as I understand it, the as yet unreleased multi-option kit. The good old 'box contents may vary from those shown' disclaimer is doing some heavy lifting here, but that's about it. As an aside, I'd be interested to hear in the comments if anyone actually got the other Canoness. Given that the instructions in the box specifically refer to the model pictured above, I think that's a little unlikely.
However, that's only a side-show to the real, and more serious, issue with the model. You see, gentle reader, that Canoness is illegally equipped. She has a Power Sword (or possibly a Blessed Blade), a Rod of Office, and a Plasma Pistol which you could be forgiven for not seeing because it's tucked in behind her right leg (on the left as we look at the picture). All of those weapons are valid options for the model- but not in that combination. I couldn't find a picture of the Canoness' rules and I'd rather not risk the wrath of GW's lawyers by taking one myself, but the default equipment for the Canoness is a bolt pistol and chainsword as well as the inevitable frag and krak grenades. Her options, which I'll reproduce verbatim here, are as follows:
This model can be equipped with 1 boltgun and 1 power sword instead of 1 bolt pistol and 1 chainsword. If this model is equipped with 1 boltgun and 1 power sword it additionally has a rod of office.
This model can be equipped with one of the following instead of 1 bolt pistol: 1 condemnor boltgun; 1 weapon from the Pistols list.
This model can be equipped with one of the following instead of 1 chainsword: 1 power sword, 1 blessed blade.
If this model is equipped with 1 chainsword, it can have a brazier of holy fire or a null rod.
The Plasma Pistol is available from the Pistols list along with the Inferno Pistol and Hand Flamer.
So as we can see, in order to get the Rod of Office (a very useful little item that boosts the Canoness' re-roll to a 9" radius) we need to take the first option of a boltgun and power sword. Unfortunately, so doing locks us out of any of the other options and there's absolutely no wriggle room. Therefore, although we can easily work out the points value of the Canoness as equipped in the box, there is no currently legal way to field her. It's doubly baffling given that it seems it would have been much simpler and more flexible to just allow the bolt pistol and chainsword to be replaced with one weapon option each, then add the choice of the null rod, rod of office, or brazier as the 'special' option.
Firstly, this lead in to an odd issue in the new Sororitas Codex in general, which is a lack of previously available options for no discernible reason. The Eviscerator, for example, is completely gone outside of the Repentia version. Missionaries have barely any options at all outside of replacing their autogun and laspistol with a shotgun and bolt pistol. Sisters Superior can no longer get Storm Bolters and the Canoness, as we've seen, loses access to any sort of longarm other than a bolter or Condemnor Bolter. Several of these changes actively invalidate existing models, including the legendary Plasma Preacher and Redemptor Kyrinov who was re-released as Made To Order to coincide with the set coming out!
Now I get that the idea here is to sell the wonderful new Sororitas models, but here's the thing- it's entirely unnecessary. Existing Sisters of Battle players have been clamouring for plastic models for years, not because they needed loads of new options but because the old solid metal models were heavy, chipped all over the place as soon as you touched them, and were extremely expensive. We were already going to buy the new stuff like it was limited-edition oxygen, we didn't need our existing models made unplayable.
Unfortunately this seems to be part of a wider trend at GW of limiting and reducing the options for character models and squad Champions, from stripping Marine (and particularly Chaos Marine) characters of mobility options like bikes and Jump Packs to restricting almost all newly-released characters to a very limited suite of equipment indeed. I consider this to be an extremely retrograde step for GW to take- ask almost any veteran 40k modeller what their first conversion or kitbash was and it's very likely that it was to add a desired weapon option to a model for which an official kit wasn't available. Removing the incentive for such simple, entry-level conversions weakens the hobby as a whole.
Still, the worst thing about all this from my point of view is that once again, it shows that GW have released a high-profile product that contradicts itself within its own contents- and in this case, in a particularly obvious and egregious way. Given the great strides they've made in recent years, it's unfortunate to see.
As I write this it's a little under a week before The Great Unwashed (that's me, and probably the majority of you lot) get their grubby little mitts on the new Sisters of Battle set- and more importantly for the purposes of this piece, the Codex that comes with it. I'm not going to go into detail about all the various cool stuff in there since I don't have the book yet and will almost certainly get things wrong. If you really want to know all there is to know right now, or more accurately in about an hour's time, Guerrilla Miniature Games did a very detailed breakdown video that I'll link here:
...and welcome back. With all that out of the way, I'd like to talk about the good stuff, the bad stuff and the plain ugly stuff that's in the new book as I see it so far. Fortunately, I think the first bit will be the biggest.
The Good (now with extra mild rules-lawyering in italics)
Firstly, I think the way that GW have changed the core mechanics of the book is absolutely great. I mean really, really great. To paraphrase if you've not learned how the new Sisters work yet and didn't make it through that GMG video, which I appreciate is long, the new Act of Faith system revolves around Miracle Dice. You gain at least one per Battle Round (and usually more than one), roll it when you get it, and then keep it. The dice can then be used for most of the more common rolls in the game instead of (and, importantly, before) rolling the dice for it. So for example, to take one of my favourites right now, say a Knight Valiant takes violent offence at your Exorcist (as well it should, and we'll get to that) and blats it with its 10+d3 damage kebab-skewer of doom. All that stands between your organ (stop that sniggering at the back, Wilson) and annihilation is its 6++ save. However, if you have a 6 in your Miracle dice pool, you can spend it on the save to survive.
There are multiple reasons why this mechanic is really cool. It allows Sisters to do things that should be staggeringly unlikely with complete confidence- exactly what warriors motivated by absolute faith should be doing. Other examples might include landing a hit with a vehicle that is so damaged or affected by other modifiers that it needs a 6, auto-passing a critical Morale check with a 1, nailing a critical Advance to grab an objective, and more besides. What's possibly even more interesting, though, is the threat of a Miracle. For example, players will often throw lone Characters or transports into combat with a shooting unit to stop it firing next turn and/or murder it utterly. However, if that unit is packing a meltagun or multi-melta and there's a 6 sitting in the Sisters' Miracle pool, such an assault suddenly looks a hell of a lot more dangerous to attempt. I'd expect Sisters players to comment at appropriate times about all the things they could possibly do with an Act of Faith for the sheer deterrent value of it. Knowing that a D6 damage roll might get spiked to a 6 is very intimidating.
Things get even meaner when we look at the new, improved Exorcist, which is one of the most improved units in the book and a great showcase for advanced Miracle Dice use. The main change for the Exorcist is that its missiles are now Heavy 3d3 rather than Heavy D6, so the old average of 3 is now the minimum, the old maximum is the new average, and the new maximum is a terrifying 9. Each of these S8, Ap-3 missiles does D6 damage into the bargain. Now, as well as being very scary, this throws up an interesting situation and a possible head-scratcher of a rules question. Let's say I have several Miracle dice in my pool, and for the sake of argument that I have all the numbers 1-6 available. I get several wounding hits on a multi-wound model and it fails some saves- for the sake of this illustration lets say I get three wounding hits through and the target model has 8 wounds left.
Here's the interesting bit- the Damage rolls, which most players would usually roll together, actually take place one at a time. So I can roll the first 2D6 and see how much damage I inflict, then use whatever value is necessary from my Miracle dice pool on the last D6 roll to ensure that the target dies. In our example, if I utterly flub my first two rolls and score 2 damage, I can still get the kill by making the last roll a 6, whereas if I roll an average 7 I get to keep my dice since even a 1 on the last roll will secure the kill.
Now, the reason why I say there's a potential rules issue here is that strictly speaking, each attack should be resolved separately from start to finish, so each should roll to hit, then to wound, then to save, and then for damage before the next is resolved. If we're doing things this way, then I can't be sure which hit is the last one to score damage so I'm more likely to 'waste' a high number by using it as soon as it'll secure the kill. This is a very fringe rules question but I fully expect it to come up in the tournament scene.
There's still a lot more good stuff in the book even after Acts of Faith. The Sacred Rites, of which you can pick one or roll two (unless you roll a double) are very versatile, and of particular note is the one that adds 3 to the Sister's 1d6 Deny The Witch roll, making it suddenly far more capable of defending them. Whatever your army is trying to do, there's a Rite that will help at least a bit. There are also a ton of very useful and versatile Stratagems in there, including several that work with Miracle dice- a couple of standouts being Moment of Grace, which lets you burn Miracle dice to gain +1 per dice to a roll you've failed, and Miraculous Intervention which resurrects a Character at the end of the phase with wounds equal to the number of Miracle dice burned. These both build into the feel of the book, which is that an opponent can never be truly certain what's going to happen- even the most heavily outmatched Character might survive, the most incredibly improbable charge ever might be made, etc etc- and whether or not these things happen is under the control of the Sisters player.
Flags of our Sisters
Finally, for reasons of brevity rather than because I've run out of stuff to talk about, there are the Order Traits. All of them are useful to varying degrees, but I'm personally particularly pleased that the Order of the Valorous Heart, who previously got merely a miserly 6+ wound-ignore save, now ignore AP -1 on shooting attacks, or AP -2 when under the effects of an Imagifier's 6" bubble. Anyone who's recently put infantry on a table against Marines knows why this is extremely welcome!
The Bad
So of course it's not all good news. The most glaring issue I have with the book is the fact that Dominions no longer confer their Vanguard pre-battle move to a transport they're embarked in. One one level this is understandable since it could be abused (eg by loading a Rhino with five Dominions and five Retributors with Heavy Flamers) but on the other it makes the ability far less likely to get used. There's also a very significant nerf to Shield of Faith in that the various auras that boost it now cannot affect vehicles, meaning the days of the 4++ Exorcist are over. Being able to do this was very, very powerful so whilst the loss is saddening, I think its understandable- and there are still ways to use Acts of Faith to mitigate at least some of the incoming damage.
There's also the fact that the <ORDER> keyword, which is neeeded to make a lot of abilities work, isn't universal through the Codex. Most importantly, the Hospitalier and Dialogus don't get it, meaning that Celestians (who need the <ORDER> keyword for their Bodyguard ability) can't protect them effectively from snipers. Given that both models are quite squishy and have some really useful abilities, they're going to spend a lot of time trying to hide behind things to at least force Eliminators to fire the less powerful version of their murder-bullets.
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
The Ugly
Ok, tin hats on, because here comes the proper grousing. The most notable and infuriating omission from the new book is once again the bloody Repressor. With its extra durability and ability to have passengers fire out of it*, the Repressor is/was a really useful tool in the Sisters armoury but has only ever been a Forge World model. The Exorcist started out the same way (though with a tube-shaped twin launcher rather than a massive organ**) but eventually made it to the mainstream, but the Repressor seems to have failed to do the same. It's always possible Forge World will update its rules- and as it stands, I think the model is still playable- but with Legends on the horizon its days seem distinctly numbered.
But that's not the most gear-grinding thing about the new Sisters range for me. Oh, not at all. No, that's reserved for this damn thing:
That, kids, is a Heavy Bolter. It's stuck to the hull of the new Immolator model (and the new Exorcist) like some sort of nasty little pimple. Let's not beat about the bush here***- this gun is on the model for the express and sole reason of making people's existing models obsolete. No, GW apologist at the back, it's not a massive buff to the tank to add a mediocre compulsory gun to it. I hate that this thing is there, and I hate that my much-loved older models are now going to have to have janky pintle-mounts or sponsons added to them to make them Codex-compliant.
There are a couple of other annoyances in this category, like the fact that any HQ sister other than a Canoness is still MIA (they're called Palatines, GW, they used to be in there!) and that the Canoness herself has lost a lot of options and still can't take a damn jump pack- I guess the Geminae were the only two Canonesses in the galaxy to have one****
Damn you, Cruddace!
The Other Bit
Yeah, so sorry for the minor bout of Nerd Rage there. I'd just like to end on a positive note, because believe me I am incredibly excited to try out the new Codex. I'd also like to extend my thanks to the good folks at Wyldstorm Games for securing me my copy of the new set. Hopefully my poor ravaged body will survive carrying all those old metal Sisters around until the rest of the new plastics hit..
*not to mention hilarious and occasionally-effective dozer-blade assaults.
**I warned you once, Wilson.
***Though said bush is almost certainly on fire, so maybe we should.
****Saying that, given their profiles maybe having one also makes you incompetent. That, or being repeatedly resurrected.
I've finally finished my Knight Tyrant, the White Queen! In this post I'll show off a few pictures and talk about some of the conversion and painting ideas I used. Alternatively (or additionally, if you so desire) I have a background piece which can be found either in the side bar or right here. It's a bit horror-tinged, appropriately for the season.
In short though, if you're too busy (or jaded, you sour old veteran you) to read that, the idea is that the White Queen is an initially noble Knight which has fallen to the sin of Pride*. Accordingly, it looks beautiful and pure with only a few subtle hints that All Is Not Well**.
Since the White Queen has no House, its chest-scroll proclaims 'Salvation'
So, on to the modelling stuff. Having decided that I was going for 'pretty' as opposed to 'soul-shreddingly horrifying' for the Tyrant, I hit upon the idea of making it look almost like a fairy-tale castle, with lots of flags, bunting and pennants. To this end, I first drilled holes in the tops of the turrets for the Siegebreaker cannons and inserted a couple of flags from the Drukhari Raider kit. Initially I was going to use the robe parts from Shalaxi Helbane as weapon banners, but it became apparent that they were so long that they'd make transporting the Knight extremely hard and would also fall in an odd way. Instead, I used a couple of pennants from the Witch Elf kit on the arms and attached the Helbane robes to the legs of the Knight at the hips.
This side's banners read 'Honour' and 'Defender of the Weak'
I also added some of Helbane's jewellery on the carapace, the chest-plate and the loincloth, using Green Stuff here and there to add extra little balls to the beaded ropes where they didn't quite fit. In addition to these details, I also decided to add lots of sculpted armour plates to make the hull of the Knight prettier.*** In order to do this, I used some moulding material and took casts of the back of the mirror from a Cauldron of Blood and the floor of a Seeker Chariot, which I then pressed into wet Green Stuff on the pauldrons, carapace front, and armoured hood. To these I added a couple of Doom Sirens I'd taken a cast of some time ago, and a cast of the Slaanesh Icon from the legacy CSM command sprue, which was added to the right leg and left shoulder.
On this side, the banners read 'Virtue' and 'Praise and Worship'
To cap things off, and make the thing look just that little bit weirder, I took a cast of Helbane's face and pressed it onto the Knight's head without the mask on it. After a couple of tries, this came out cleanly enough that I was able to fit the head jewellery from the kit into the slot in the face before gluing the beaded ropes from it to the inside of the hood. I also took a cast of a Daemonette's face and pressed it into the Mechanicus symbols on the twin reactors and the back ends of the weapons. The hull was further accessorised by replacing the railing with spikes and trophies from a Raider.
The Daemonette faces are a bit twisted and distorted, but this seems completely appropriate.
To paint the thing, I left the fully-assembled carapace off, allowing me to remove the arms and work on them separately. I also put a couple of magnets inside the dome of the leg fitting, and two more inside the body so that the Knight could break into two at the waist for transport. A small Green Stuff socket prevents the model from sagging forwards at the waist, which it otherwise liked to do. I sprayed everything apart from the top of the carapace with good old Chaos Black, doing the carapace itself in Wraithbone, before painting the armour panels and banners with more Wraithbone. From there it was a case of laying in the metalwork, using drybrushing on the gold to bring out as much of the moulded detail as possible. The white was based with Apothecary White Contrast paint and the pink with Volupus Pink before conventional paints were used to highlight the pink and smooth out the white. As always the white could be smoother, but that sort of thing is why you're reading this here and not in White Dwarf.
I'm well aware that the pink-tipped Shieldbreaker missiles look like lipstick, but that amuses me so I'm keeping them that way.
For a few special effects, I painted the inside of the sculpted Slaanesh runes pink, then filled the hollow with water-effect gel. Though it's very hard to see in the pictures, I painted a bloody hand-print on the cockpit glass and covered it with a couple of thin layers of Water Effect before adding a final highlight and lowlight to the glass, which was then varnished with 'Ardcoat to give the impression that the print is on the inside. It sort-of-works when you can see it past the shine. 'Ardcoat was also used on the various lights and gems, as well as on the eyes and lips to add some life to them.
I added a couple of small transfers to the banners, but other than a few slogans I didn't add any extra details to the armour panels. I prefer the pure, clean look and my freehand skills largely suck.**** The metal was finished with Grey Knight Steel, both because the blueish metal fits in well and because it probably annoys them a bit.
Overall I'm very happy with how she came out. Stay tuned for some War Dogs some time this week, and don't forget the background piece if you're thirsty for more right now...
*Yes, Pride. You thought all my Slaanesh stuff was only about the Lust, didn't you? Admit it!
**Or less subtle, if you're not an innocent Imperial citizen who doesn't know what the Rune of Slaanesh looks like.
***And also to avoid having to paint too much insignia. Yes, we've got some Sloth going on here too.
With the release of the new Phoenix Rising book I spotted a couple of things that don't seem to be getting a lot of discussion. One is an intriguing bit of lore, one is a classic 'drunk GW' moment, and one is either a screw-up or a hint of things to come. Oh, and there's another probable Fulgrim sighting but of course there is. (We'll say no more of him other than to mention that it's in the sidebar of page 14.)
I'll do my best to avoid spoilers but the first one is a bit tricky, so skip the next bit if you've not read the book yet and want to go in clean.
SPOILER: Yvraine's Guests
At one point near the end of the story, Yvraine receives a visit from two people, one an Aeldari carrying two slim swords and the other a human woman described as wearing black power armour and having white hair. Obviously this sounds like a Sister of Battle, but the woman is also described as having a powerful psychic presence. Given that Yvraine has already met Inquisitor Greyfax, who could just about fit that description otherwise, it seems to me that there's only one person this character could be (assuming they aren't new.)
Ephrael Stern. She was last seen, at the climax of the Daemonifuge strip, opening her own personal webway portal in the company of an Eldar (as they were then) called the Pariah, on her way to the Black Library. This is technically unconfirmed but if it's anyone else I'll eat my socks. This would be a pretty big development given how long ago Daemonifuge was, and points to interesting times to come if it's not a one-and-done- and of course, the Sisters of Battle are coming soon and are involved in Psychic Awakening. END SPOILER. Drunk GW #1: Ynnari characters
This one is a pretty classic example of one hand not seeming to know what the other is doing. In the interests of spoiler avoidance I'll keep my terms of reference vague, but during the Phoenix Rising story Yvraine is joined by several other named 40k Aeldari heroes who fight alongside her against a powerful enemy. At least one of those is portrayed as drawing Strength From Death in the way Yvraine has taught them (in fact, they do it during an earlier incident in the book too.)
Then we come to the Ynnari rules, which once more require a Ynnari detachment to have one of the three Ynnari special characters in it in order to gain the YNNARI keyword. They also specifically prohibit any other named character being in the detachment. And yes, the character in question has rules in the book and no, they don't have an exception in there.
This seems to me like an obvious screw-up, though I have no idea if they'll bother to fix it. Personally, I also think it's a bit sad that we still have to use the Triumvirate members to field Ynnari detachments, since it limits options in a way that I don't think is needed and makes the faction feel very small.
Drunk GW #2.. or is it? Focus Will
This last one seemed at first to be an obvious mistake, an example of sloppy rule-writing and poor proof-reading at its most egregious, and put your hand up if that would surprise you. No? Well, there may be another explanation.
We're looking here at the Focus Will power from the new Runes of Fortune, which are 'minor' powers that a Craftworlds PSYKER can use to replace Smite. Focus Will is worded as follows:
"If manifested, select one friendly <CRAFTWORLD> PSYKER within 6" of this psyker. Until the end of this phase, when a Deny The Witch test is taken for that model add 2 to the total."
The emphasis here is mine. Obviously, as written here the power does nothing- you don't Deny The Witch in your own Psychic Phase, and the effect ends as soon as the phase does. I thought initially that the power was meant to last until the start of your next Psychic Phase (making it a handy boost for a Farseer) or, more tenuously, was meant to raise the difficulty of Deny The Witch against a power cast by the target Psyker by 2 (in which case it's terribly written.)
However, Age of Sigmar players and other smart people will probably have already spotted one other possible explanation- Endless Spells. Now of course, these don't yet exist in 40k, but if they're going to put in an appearance an event called the Psychic Awakening would seem to be the time to do it. So here we may have the first evidence that Psychic Manifestations or whatever they end up calling them are coming to a 40k table near you soon.
Either that, or GW messed up again. It could be either, if we're honest.
The nights are drawing in and I find myself with hobby time again! One of the more recent things I did with it was play some 40k, most recently against the new Iron Hands.
Yeah.
Now, I'm sure that those who think of themselves as wise old heads will be telling anyone who'll listen that it's too soon to declare the Iron Hands as the new top of the pile, but one can only truly judge these things by personal experience. The guy I played was a friend of mine whose Iron Hands I've played against several times before- to be clear, we're not talking about some kind of scene-kid or bandwagon-jumper here. He was also running models he'd had for some time and had used before, with the notable exception of the new Iron Father.* Unfortunately (for me) that includes two Stormtalons and a Stormhawk, as well as three Castellax Battle-Automata who were being Venerable Dreadnoughts because there's not much of a Heresy scene around these parts and he wanted to use his nice models.
For my part, I brought an Emperor's Children army with a small smattering of Daemons, deliberately taking some Noise Marines because hey, you're playing against Iron Hands so it's rude not to. You might now expect me to describe how the game went, and I would if we'd actually had one. But after a first turn in which any foot infantry model in my force that could shoot got deleted by the Stormtalons (whilst in cover) before my winged Daemon Prince got killed on Overwatch by a Stormhawk having previously lost only a single wound, it was pretty much over.** (Not only do Iron Hands Overwatch on 5+, they can improve this to 4+ with a Stratagem)
I also picked a bad day to try out my new Mutilators
To bring up the first point I'd like to address today, the Iron Hands supplement is utterly bonkers. Even ignoring the new stuff (like Repulsor Executioners) older models like the Stormtalons are amped up to extreme levels without the controlling player needing to do anything more than put them in the list and stay in Devastator Doctrine. (If you're not aware of why this is, in Devastator Iron Hands reroll 1s to hit with Heavy Weapons, ignore the penalty for moving and firing them, and still gain the additional -1 AP, so ignoring outside factors the Stormtalons hit on 2+, re-rolling 1s, with all their weapons at all times.) I've seen it said that the Iron Father doesn't do a great deal besides his 5++ save aura and repair ability, but he also packs a Heavy Bolter with an additional point of Damage, allowing him to sit there giving out his buff whilst still killing enemy infantry- and a 3-shot, S5 gun with -2 AP, hitting on 2s and re-rolling 1s and inflicting 2 damage per hit would be a useful model if that was all it did.
I've also seen the oft-repeated mantra used that one should 'play the mission' and avoid LOS to counter the Iron Hands. Unfortunately avoiding the fire of Flyers is extremely difficult even if the table is terrain rich, (not to mention Whirlwinds and Eliminators, who don't care about LOS anyway) I think, though, that this ignores the most important point- we don't play 40k to put our models on the table and then do nothing but hide from the enemy for five turns. Sure, if an army has a nigh-on unkillable castle blob that destroys anything it lays its gunsights on with contemptuous ease you might be able to outmanoeuvre it and 'win' that way, but outside of a heavily prize-supported tournament who really wants to waste two hours on that game?***
I've seen quite a few video BatReps featuring the Iron Hands already, and what strikes me isn't just that the poor sod playing against them is having to work extremely hard to put a brave face on the game (even often whilst technically ahead on VP). No, what strikes me is that the guy playing them is often either not enjoying himself, or is actually embarrassed by how little he's having to think.****
In this batrep, we see an Iron Hands player gradually realise what he has become.
Now, some people will tell you that this isn't a problem outside of tournaments, but I'm inclined to disagree. The problem is, as has been said by many other commentators, that in order to even begin to get a game out of facing the Iron Hands opponents have to bring nothing but the very strongest lists their Codex is capable of, even if their opponent is playing fairly casually. That has a toxic effect on a local scene, because players turning up at their FLGS in search of a casual game end up facing nothing but WAAC lists that were built on the off-chance that the local Iron Hands player might be looking for a game. That even sucks for the Iron Hands players themselves, who find themselves inadvertently transformed into That Guy even if they've been playing the army for a decade and spent most of that time putting up with a limited 6+ FNP and nothing else.
To come to the meat of the problem though, I fear GW have backed themselves into an extremely dangerous corner here. We're approaching Chapter Approved time, and traditionally the response to an army being obviously overpowered is to increase their points values. Unfortunately, however, since the Iron Hands rules were added in a Supplement, there's no simple way to do this without punishing people playing other Chapters.***** Should they go the other way, making everything else cheaper (I'd like my 12 point CSM and 180 point Chaos Land Raiders, Chapter Approved Santa), the effect is still the same. On the other hand, simply removing some of the extra rules the Chapter gets is going to greatly annoy people who bought the book. One possible solution might be to add, say, a 10% point 'tax' on Iron Hands, but this sets another dangerous precedent- that of actively saying than one Chapter is 'better' than another.******
Of course, it looks like the 40k rules and background are heading for another big shake-up with Psychic Awakening and this is a game constantly in a state of flux, so it may be that all these concerns will look quaint in the space of a few months. But I can't help thinking that the new Supplements are going to prove hard to swallow for those who aren't lucky enough to get a good one.
*I've nicknamed him Ferrero Rocher, and I'm determined it's going to stick.
**There was more to the game than that- I killed a squad of Tacticals with Possessed!- but it was mostly a sideshow.
***On the other hand I managed to spell 'outmanoeuvre' right first time, so now I feel like an Ultimate Spelling Wizard.
****The gender choices here are accurate based on the videos I've seen. We really need more ladies doing BatReps!
*****Admittedly, unless the local scene is very strict about paint schemes or they really, really like another Chapter, that'll be about one person.
******Of course this is basically true at the moment, but it'd be a big thing for GW to actually come out and say it.
I've been working on this scary fellow on and off for the past week or so, and I think I'm finally ready to call him done!
Lord Ghôrax Skullborn here is a Hellforged Leviathan built mostly from the Redemptor Dreadnought kit. I think he's possibly a little bigger than a proper Leviathan but when you're calling something a 'Leviathan' being too big shouldn't be a major issue.
Here he is without the Green Stuff and a few of the last few parts. The most significant areas of conversion were the body and the Grav-Bombard. The body is basically made from cut-up parts of the Redemptor's own sarcophagus- the sawn-off cap of an old permanent marker makes the barrel that the head (from the Skulls box) sits in. The Leviathan's larger shoulder blocks were made using the carapace plates from a Warlord (I had these spare since I built mine Loyalist)
The Grav-Bombard was made by removing the barrel from the Redemptor's plasma cannon and adding basically all the wheels from the Cauldron of Blood (I've now bought two of that kit just for bits). After this shot was taken I trialled several possible centre-pieces including the emitter from a Tellyporta Blasta and the end of a Dark Talon's Rift Cannon, but settled on the end of a Leman Russ searchlight. The gribbly teeth were horns cut from Chaos Marine helms.
Over on the other arm, I simply used an assortment of Ork Kan Klaws, as well as the later addition of a Meganobz chainclaw, to make a suitably evil-looking weapon.
Here he is with most of the Green Stuff on. A lot of extra details were added too, including chains mostly taken from the old Marauder Horsemen kit, a couple of Chaos Knight shields, the ends of two Immolator flamers and an icon pole made with a combination of a Bloodletter banner and the old Khorne CSM icon. This slots into a hole in the top of the hull for transport. On the subject, the Redemptor kit has an odd overlarge slot in the bottom of the torso to meet the peg on the legs, which is presumably for posing but means it won't hold together unglued. I filled the slot with Green Stuff, wet the surfaces, and shoved the peg into place in the right pose before removing it, making a much more snug socket so he can come apart for storage.
Probably the most interesting aspect of the Green Stuff work is the various skulls, icons of Khorne, and twisted face-things, including the rather fun Daemon face representing the Hellfire Reactor. These were made by blatant cheating. I have some moulds made up, taken from the AoS Chaos Bastion floor, which allow me to press masses of twisted skulls into Green Stuff. Since the mould is bendy I can do this around curves, but not all the skulls will come out clean, making it ideal for a Chaotic look. (I used waste Green Stuff to add more skulls to the base with the same cast) The little runes of Khorne are similarly made by 'branding' the model with a small icon cut from the CSM Khorne command helm, and the reactor Daemon is cast from the backpack on the same sprue.
Here's another fun little cheat. The World Eaters icon here is just an Ogre belly-plate with a little Earth sculpted into the middle of it.
Meanwhile a look on the other side shows the true ludicrousity of the Grav-Bombard, as well as the little hanging Khorne icons pinched from a Khorgorath after I converted five of them to make them all unique some time ago.
I did a fairly standard paint job after all that. After a black spray undercoat, dry-brushed up with Leadbelcher and Administratum Grey, I had to immediately splodge loads of Blood For The Blood God into the depths of the bombard to coat all the little spoke-things of the six wheels that make up the barrel. I also added some water-effect acrylic gel for bulk. Once that horrible mess had dried, the rest of the process was quite simple. Towards the end, I noted that the eye-sockets were too deep to paint a glow effect in, so after basing them with blue I filled them and the power-plant chimneys with more water effect before painting over the top with thinned-down paints. It doesn't really add any special effect, but does get the colour where it needs to be.
Anyway, think that might be my most detailed WIP post in a long time! Now let's hope he can actually make some 4++ saves and live for more than one turn...
So, today is an exciting day for me! Not so much for you. Unless of course your day has been very exciting, in which case great!*
Anyway, the point is that I've launched a new website, which will be specifically for the books of the Thelenic Curriculum and my writing in general. I'll add a link to there on the Landing Page, which will gradually become redundant.
What does that mean for this site? Almost nothing! I'll still do my usual hobby-based posts on here (look out for a tasty new Khornate Leviathan this weekend) but I'll also still do writing-related stuff on here. Mostly, it just means people going to the www.thetcbooks.co.uk link will now be redirected to the new site rather than here, so won't have to put up with me ranting about the Assault Phase when they're looking for my books. The new site is also much more mobile-friendly, so if you've been meaning to read the short stories but couldn't find them on your phone due to Google Blogs being a bit janky, head on over to the new site.
Going forward I'm even going to be buying some ads! Anyway, if you're curious, head on over and take a look and maybe buy a book or two. Or even review one you've read, if you're a true superhero to authors everywhere.
*Unless it's 'being shot at' or 'being chased by a lunatic with an axe' exciting, in which case I hope you survived.
I finally got my new Keeper of Secrets finished! There are so many gems on this thing that looking on the box you can see where GW's official painter lost the will to live and just did some as metal bumps. I did more than they did, but on the other hand my gems suck.
When the new Keeper came out I was presented with a bit of a problem. Since I already have not one, but two models that I use as Keepers (and which are finally about the right size!) there didn't seem a lot of point making another stock one. On the other hand the variant Keeper, Shalaxi Hellbane, didn't appeal to me visually (though 'it' has nice rules. More on 'it' in a moment.)
The solution, I decided, was to go full-on with magnets, allowing the regular Keeper to have Shalaxi's weapon options. This also allows me to field a Keeper with options like the Ritual Knife and Shimmering Aegis which I don't have on the older models.
More gems than an animated pop-group with an inexplicable movie
The Mammarian Heresy
Now, there was one area in which the new Keeper was, to my eyes, a bit deficient. For reasons known only to them, GW persist in making Slaanesh models with only one breast. Not only that, they've doubled down recently by referring to Keepers and Heralds as 'it', rather than 'she'. I find this a bit irritating, since the other Greater Daemons are all still unambiguously male. Not only that, but only Arnold J. Rimmer is ever going to be pleased with having just one of the things and that's not an example I want my legions of excess following.
As an aside, I entirely take the point that as physical manifestations of warp entities Daemons don't really have a gender at all, but again, all the 'male' daemons apparently do. I personally think that Slaanesh daemons manifest as whatever those watching find most alluring- basically a glamour- so for me that means two dumplings on the plate. I do plan to make some oiled-up Chippendale-style Noise Marines in future, but I'm hoping we'll see a new Emperor's Children book and Noise Marine models soon.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I ended up sculpting in her left (as she would view it) breast, as well as the corset-thing that goes over it. I made it with Green Stuff, and as usual with this sort of project I did it in two stages, the first being the 'structural' stage where I got the basic shape about right, and then, once this had set, the 'detail' stage where I smoothed it out and added the clothing. Trying to do the whole thing in one go tends to lead to pushing the thing out of shape whilst trying to detail it.
Other than that, the only real modelling work that needed doing was adding magnets to the wrists and hands for swapping the weapons, which I did by drilling out a small recess for the magnets and then filling the gaps. As always, there's a thin layer of Green Stuff preventing the magnets making direct contact, which makes the options much easier to remove and lessens the chance of the magnets ripping free. In the end, I left the head and cloak off for painting as well as leaving the Shining Aegis in two parts (hand/ shield) for ease of access.
Someone needs to do one with Daemonette train-bearers
Which cloak to use was a matter of some debate. The cloak for Shalaxi represents 'its' (named character so I've got to) Cloak of Constriction, but I preferred the way the other cloak looked and hung off the wrists. Those hands which are meant to be used with it have a little hole for the cloak but test-fitting showed it didn't cause any serious issues. Likewise the arms are different for Shalaxi but I found the default Keeper arms worked fine and didn't cause a problem with the spear- in fact I prefer it levelled at it is here, rather than point-up as it is on Shalaxi.
Adventures in Contrast
Painting was a bit of an adventure since I waited until the release of the new Contrast paints to do it. The model was undercoated with Wraithbone (the brighter Contrast undercoat) and then painted with Apothecary white for the flesh, Skeleton Horde for the horns, and Volupus Pink, Magos Purple and Shyish Purple for the claws and robes/ clothes. I forgot to get a Black Templar for the black, but a couple of coats of Vallejo Air black did the deed. The metals were painted with conventional metals, over the air black on the claws and weapons, since painting them over Wraithbone really doesn't look good.
It's fair to say I had the odd.. issue with the Contrasts. On the flesh, the Apothecary white was great, giving a bluish-grey tint just as I like for my Slaanesh Daemons. On the larger, sweeping areas like the cloaks, though, I ran in to a lot of pooling issues and had some bother finding the right highlights. Nevertheless, the model responded well to my usual Nuln Oil Gloss wash and we got there in the end!
The other worry with Contrast is durability. I think Wraithbone is designed to allow the paints to 'slide off' a bit, to give the effect of making raised areas lighter in colour. However, it seems that makes the paint itself more vulnerable to chipping. I've transported this model once so far and whilst the model itself was chip-free, the Caliban Green around the base came off in a couple of places. I think the oil wash and the highlights have made the paint on the model resilient enough to cope with handling, but since the base edge got neither of those it might need a coat of Stormshield or similar.
Every now and again you have one of those ideas that gets stuck in your brain and won't go away until you do it. This phenomenon is probably responsible for the deep-fried Mars Bar, the Bognor Regis Birdman competition, and many other things that probably shouldn't exist but do.
Into this crowded field of lunatic endeavours comes my latest crossover short story, "The Not-Quite Kidnap of Betty Hardin", which can be found either at that link or in the Crossover Shorts side-panel. In the story, the 13th Doctor meets the legendary Floating Outfit of 1960's Western author J.T. Edson. It's an everyday tale of mistaken identity, bandit kidnappers, and cybernetic killing machines from the far future.
Given that some people (often many of the sort of people who still read J.T.) decry the recent Dr Who canon as overly politically-correct and J.T. himself was as politically-correct as something that most definitely, certainly isn't, this wasn't exactly a match made in heaven but I consider everyone involved to be basically good at heart so I did it anyway. To allay any fears, this is not one of those really annoying revenge-fiction pieces where a writer takes a character they have it in for and does horrible things to them.
To finish with a little warning- while I've done my best to stay as close to J.T's style as possible, not especially hard since he's been an influence on my own to some extent, I should point out to anyone interested in his books that he was very much a man of his time regarding sexual preferences, gender politics and race (though all three topics could be the subject of some interesting discussion in this context.) If you do decide to check them out, You Have Been Warned.
At the very least have a look at that Wikipedia page if you're at all concerned!
I don't often do refutations. Most of the time, they're a waste of effort and rapidly devolve into people throwing rocks at each other. But this recent BBC piece on speaking roles in Game of Thrones.. well, you might want to read it for yourself before continuing. One thing you can say for it is that since the BBC isn't ad-supported, it's not click-bait.
Anyway, here's the gist- the piece suggests that there's something wrong (I won't use the 'P-word' because they don't) with the fact that roughly 2/3 of the dialogue in the series is spoken by men. Here's one of the quotes:
"Overall, the actions and words women are participating in are still very attached to gender-related stereotypes".
Now this is a repetition of something I've mentioned before and call Raven's Cry Syndrome. If you're not familiar with what I'm referring to, Raven's Cry was a game that came out a few years ago set in the 17th century that was mostly about pirates. It wasn't very good, but simply pointing this out wasn't enough for certain critics, who instead devoted large chunks of their reviews to complaining that the characters were racist, sexist, and swore a lot. Well guess what kids, pirates were Not Very Nice People, and there's a reason no-one holds up Blackbeard as a paragon of virtue. In effect, Raven's Cry Syndrome is when a period-set piece of fiction or art is criticised simply for accurately reflecting its setting. MINOR TO MAJOR GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW
Coming back to Game of Thrones, we're looking at a low(ish) fantasy story set in a basically medieval world. Whilst there are plenty of noblewomen, queens and other women in positions of power, as a world where military tactics still revolve mostly around using muscle power to hit people with sharp bits of metal in various shapes, the majority of the military are male. To define our terms here a little, I say low fantasy because whilst GoT has plenty of magic in it, it's usually of the ritual or mystical variety. Even the most powerful magic-users, like Melisandre, can't cast Fireball and obliterate an entire regiment. By contrast, in a high fantasy setting, magical abilities make female military commanders or warriors far more feasible, as seen in my own books, for example. (Come on, had to get that in there). It's hard to tell Magister Thalia Daran to sit quietly on the sidelines when her personal offensive firepower is up there with the average battle tank.
This means that when you get a big battle scene, like the Battle of the Bastards, the defence of Winterfell, etc, you're going to have a lot of blokes in beards standing about discussing tactics. It's just inevitable in such a setting. GoT, of course, makes a point of having characters like Arya and Brienne who break the mould, but they do it in a setting-appropriate way- Arya by gaining mystical powers and utilising stealth and deception, and Brienne by being simply an unusually tall and strong woman. Even so, both run up against patriarchal attitudes, as you'd expect, but they overcome them.
Even allowing for the setting, though, the analysis in the BBC piece is blisteringly unfair. The quote I use as my title has been variously appropriated to Mark Twain, Benjamin Disraeli and others:
"There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics."
The point of this isn't to suggest that all statistics are worthless, but to remind us that you can massage them all sorts of ways to make a point if you'd like. To use the language of Sherlock Holmes, statistics aren't facts, they're data. A fact is data with the context to interpret it. For example, the statistics tell us that the character who has the most lines in GoT is Tyrion. This should hardly be a surprise, given that talking is Tyrion's primary talent (especially TV Tyrion) and he's in more episodes than anyone else. If we look at the chart, we see that in the top four speaking characters we have two men, and two women (and second place looks to be a male-female tie).
Here's where trying to use statistics to analyse fiction falls to bits completely. The two top-scoring women are both, for most of their time in the show, queens or rulers. The thing with being in charge is that often you do more listening than talking. Consider the example of a board meeting- the Chairman is the most important person, but spends most of their time asking their subordinates for reports and getting comments on them. As the saying goes, there's no point having a dog and barking yourself. Possibly the best example of this, though, comes from the very last episode, where the remaining lords of Westeros are appointing a new King. Tyrion does a lot of talking, but it's abundantly clear that as far as those listening are concerned it's Sansa wearing the proverbial trousers. "Shut up, Uncle." may be one of the simplest and most effective burns in GoT to not be delivered by an actual Dragon.
Ultimately, trying to determine who has the most impact or agency in a story based on how much time they spend 'on camera' or how many words they speak is pointless. It's like trying to analyse cooking with economics- cold, hard numbers have nothing to do with the feel of a story. If everyone watching thinks a story has strong, powerful women who take control of their own destiny in it, they are by definition correct. Using statistics to try to argue against that is like watching an unconscious boxer being carried out of the ring on a stretcher and saying that because he landed 100 punches and his opponent only landed three, he actually won. It's not quantity that counts in communication, but quality. To go back to the chart, we see Lord Varys sitting very near the bottom. I defy anyone to claim his was a weak or ineffectual character, he just doesn't make a big noise about his influence. He's called 'Master of Whispers' for a reason.
I'm not sure what the motive of the BBC piece or the research behind it was. I'm all for strong female characters in fiction (I hope my own writing reflects that) but Game of Thrones is completely the wrong target for this sort of piece and nothing hurts a good cause worse than a terribly flawed argument.
By now most people who care have probably seen the most recent episode of Game of Thrones (Episode 3 of the final series, for any internet archaeologists out there). Those who have not might want to avoid this little rant for now since there may be the odd minor spoiler in here, though I'll resist any blow-by-blows or casualty lists.
Anyway, those of us who have basically any understanding of tactics were probably more than a little perplexed by the way the big battle in this episode played out from a strategic point of view. There have been quite a few very detailed breakdowns elsewhere by people better qualified than I, but it doesn't take Sun Tzu to spot that the cavalry and artillery in particular were spectacularly mishandled. I've seen a few comments expressed to the effect of this not mattering, or things like 'I must have missed the bit in The Art of War about fighting zombies with dragons', as one particular God of Snark put it. As you might expect, I disagree pretty strongly.
Here's the thing- if your heroes are meant to be everyday men in the street, there's no problem with them doing dumb things on occasion. It always annoys me when critics whine about dialogue in movies or books where people respond to stressful situations by shouting 'F*@k you!' because they say it's 'cliched' or uninspired when the reality is that real people don't always come up with the best and most poetic lines on the spot. But if your heroes are meant to be experienced military commanders (and in the case of GoT, they had enough veteran warriors and strategists to run three campaigns at once) it's important that they at least give some impression of being just that.
In part this is that old classic 'show, don't tell'. You can tell us Sir Hack of Slash is a military genius, or you can show him pulling off a brilliant tactic against impossible odds and make us believe it. Better yet, do both. In the specific case of GoT, it's entirely fair to say that given that their enemy had effectively unlimited numbers and could raise the dead to fight again, no strategy the defenders might have employed would have made much difference, but that isn't really the point. Had we seen the defence well-planned, with a properly obstructed killing-zone, the artillery pounding a hampered advance, archers killing hundreds of the enemy whilst they were held up in the field, etc, it makes the true scale of the threat that much more impressive when they take all of that and just keep coming. As it was, we're left with the impression, false though it may be, that the various heroic sacrifices might have been completely unnecessary.
We see this in a lot of games and movies. One of the Dragon Age expansions, for example, tasks you with defending a castle against Darkspawn, and at one point presents you with the 'choice' of sending troops out to defend farmers in their fields (weakening the castle's defences), or leaving them to die. Of course, anyone who knows the first thing about castles and the feudal system knows that the whole point of the damn things is to bring the food and the peasantry inside at the first sign of trouble, which makes the whole 'choice' feel cheap and the inevitable NPC harangue you have to endure whatever decision you make feel undeserved.
Likewise, in some 40k novels and shorts we see troops fighting using tactics that make no sense whatsoever. Quite some time ago I reviewed the short story 'Mercy' by Danie Ware and whilst I actually quite like that author from what I've seen I stand by my main criticism of it, which is that the tactics employed (and their result) don't make sense. If you write a story where a Guard commander has been reading too much Regimental Standard and orders his men to engage Orks or Genestealers in melee with bayonets rather than 'waste' ammunition on them, that had better not work or all you've done is make the enemy look like a joke. Even if it fails, you've opened the door to the idea that defeat would have been avoided with a competent commander, which is fine if that's what you're going for, but a big problem if he was supposed to be highly-skilled. Losing against impossible odds is fine and can be heroic, but it doesn't look that way if you make the enemy's job easier for them. Death is acceptable, failure is not, to use the old Imperial adage.
Orks! Thousands of 'em!
As a counterpoint, we could think about some of the great desperate defences of history, like Rourke's Drift, The Alamo, the Knights of St John in Malta or Stalingrad in WWII. Whilst adaptations of most of those exist, to varying degrees of success (both on the part of the adaptation, and of the defence) one thing they have in common is that most of the best at least pay lip-service to getting the facts straight where possible. At some, like Stalingrad, both sides made horrendous mistakes at various times and trying to gloss over that seriously distorts the narrative. (As an aside, the directors of GoT could have done a lot worse than watching Zulu for some ideas!) In fantasy, we could look at the defences of Minas Tirith and Helms Deep in LoTR, which to my mind did a far better job of showing a defence that failed (or could have) not because of incompetence or cowardice, but due to the sheer numerical advantage of the enemy.*
So anyway, that's my hot take. Consistency and accuracy matter, not because of the need to ablate torrents of potential nerd-rage** but because if you don't have them, it begins to cheapen your story and weaken any sense of peril or threat, a trap more than one otherwise good author has fallen into.*** Of course, we should be careful not to lay too much of this on the shoulders of GRRM, since his story will presumably work out a little differently.****
Oh, and 'they' were still bad-ass. You know who I mean.
*And in at least one incident, their flat refusal to die when pin-cushioned with arrows. Torch Ork can serve in my Waaagh any time.
**Because as I've said before, once a certain crowd decides they don't like you there's literally nothing you can do to change that...
*** Cough-The Belgariad-Cough. I'm not kidding, I do have a cough.
****If the stubborn bugger survives long enough to finish it.
I'll admit that was a sneaky effort to lever the title of a particularly solid Kiuas track in, but it's sort of relevant, as is Kjeldor Thricecurse up there, and not just because he's all Nurgley. The recent reveal of the new Havocs for Chaos and the Warhammer Community tactica piece has got me thinking about something in 40k that gets less discussion than it possibly should- the subject of Decay.
Not these guys
The Havocs are a particularly interesting example of this mechanic, which boils down to models and units getting weaker as they take damage. In the game, it happens to basically any unit with more than one model in it, or which is a single model with 10 or more Wounds, but it's quite a bit more complicated than that. The new Havocs, with their Toughness of 5 and ability to fire on the move, have got quite a few people excited about power-creep and auto-take units. Whilst I don't really see why the Havocs are T5 (unless they're supposed to be wearing a Chaos Armour version of Gravis Armour*) I think people are missing a more important change in the grand scheme of things.
Havocs, as modelled in that image from the Community article, are capped at five models strong. On top of that, their default equipment is either a Heavy Bolter or Lascannon. Taken together, this means that the very most Wounds a unit of Havocs can take before its firepower begins to be reduced is one, and that assumes you're prepared to remove the Champion first. As an aside, being the Champion of a Havoc squad seems to be one of the worst jobs in a CSM army now. You don't add anything to the squad unless it gets very close (unlike, say, a Devastator Sergeant with his Signum) and you're almost certain to either spend the game doing nothing, or get killed. Compared to the old version of Havocs, who could have up to five bolter-armed chaff models added to the squad, the firepower of the new ones is very fragile.
Now of course, adding those bolter marines costs points, points which you could now spend on something else, like, say, more Havocs. But those guys don't simply add survivability to the unit, they can actively discourage an enemy from shooting at it at all. I recently saw a game in which an Iron Warriors force with two units of ten Havocs (Slaanesh of course) sat them in ruins blazing away at an oncoming Khorne force, and lost barely any of them for the entire game. The reason was that the Khorne army's firepower was limited, and whilst it could have killed a few Havocs each turn it couldn't remove enough in one round of shooting to reach the big guns, which were the only things doing anything. You will often see this in other units, too- players will ask how close a model is to the next stage of its decaying profile, and then try to damage it enough to reduce its effectiveness.
I know they're the wrong scale, but hey
Decay is even more complicated than that, though, because different models decay in different ways. The general rule-of-thumb is that a model starts to lose some level of effectiveness once it's lost half of its Wounds, but this only holds true up to a point. A Stompa, for example, starts to decay having lost only 10 Wounds of its 40 (25%) whereas a Warlord Titan similarly takes 10 Wounds to reach its first break-point but has 70 of them (~14%). An Imperial Knight, on the other hand, has the more common three levels to its profile, meaning that in the case of a Castellan it has to take 14 Wounds before it begins to suffer. Just as 8 Wounds is the 'sweet spot' for a Character where they can't be targeted but are reasonably tough (9 would be even better but is rare), for Vehicles it seems to fall somewhere near 30, meaning the Castellan is in a good place and the Stompa takes it in the shorts.** This also leads to the odd situation with light vehicles where a Dreadnought or Buggy with 8 Wounds 'feels' more durable than one with 10, since the 10-wound versions start to decay very fast- 5 Wounds will weaken a Contemptor but have no effect on a basic Dread.
But wait, there's more! Even when a model or unit does decay, the significance of that decay varies massively. A Morkanaut, for example, loses Movement, WS and Attacks as it's damaged, but if it's being used as an anchor for a Freeboota gun-line doesn't much care, since its (bad) BS remains unchanged. The same effects are far more pronounced on the more assault-minded Gorkanaut. Infantry squads of course lose models to Wounds, which reduces their overall effectiveness, but a Combat Squad camping an objective with a Lascannon marine can be reduced to a single model and still play a significant part in the proceedings.
Overall then, decay is something every player needs to be thinking about, both from the point of view of their own forces and that of the enemy. It makes certain abilities and Stratagems that inflict or repair relatively small amounts of damage potential game-winners when used to cross a break-point in one direction or the other, and can make some units less of a bargain or game-breaker than they might appear. It's also a mechanic, like much else in 40k, with some serious oddities that could possibly use a tweak.
