The Genestealer/ Chaos Cult Collision Conundrum

With Genestealer Cults about to get their epic new update, I thought it was about time to address the elephant in the room* with them as far as I'm concerned. For the uninitiated (and why are you still uninitiated when the link is right there?) the Cults have all sorts of re-purposed civilian and mining gear and use guerrilla** tactics like ambushes and attacking from underground tunnels. Among the more notable recent examples are snipers dragooned on bikes:

Do we deliver? Yes we do!

Not to mention the Achilles Ridgerunner, a lightly-armed and armoured scout vehicle that somehow got named after a nigh-invulnerable Greek warrior hero:

Actually, looking at the preview, not all that lightly-armed

I think we can all agree that this is pretty damn cool. If your spider-sense is tingling at this point it means two things:
1: You'd be handy to have around during a Cult Uprising.
2: You should possibly turn yourself in for mandatory purging on the grounds of irredeemable mutation.
3: You can sense a 'but' coming.
4: I really can't count.

The 'but'.
Ah, there it is! The 'but' is that all this sounds very familiar. There's another faction that lurks beneath the surface of Imperial society, biding its time, before rising up to overthrow the oppressor and herald in a new golden age.*** They're called Chaos Cults, and somehow, with Chaos gnawing at the very roots of the Imperium and trying to break down the doors to Terra via Vigilus, they're not a thing as far as 40k is concerned at the moment. Right now, the only Chaos Cultists playable in 40k outside of a terrible Forge World list that I'm not going to complain about again**** are those in the Chaos Marine Codex, who are just terribly equipped Guardsmen who recently got more expensive, thank you very much tournament meta.

The label on the toybox
Chaos has always felt like a bit of a poor relation when it comes to available models and rules. Whilst most Marine Chapters get access to the full range of equipment, be it Primaris or previously Chapter-exclusive things like the Stormraven or Land Raider Crusader, Chaos Marines start with a very limited pool of kit and lose access to even more if they happen to belong to one of the Legions that has benefited from a specific Codex. When the Crimson Slaughter fell to Chaos, to give a notorious example, apparently every one of their Land Speeders, Stormravens, Land Raiders that weren't Godhammer-pattern, Thunderfire Cannons etc etc immediately fell to bits or got impounded. Likewise, if a planet's PDF rebels, they immediately forget all their training, kill all their Officers, and get led by some dimwit who doesn't even know how to shout 'Move move move!'. Alternatively, they just all start running about with Autoguns and let the Chaos Marines  do everything complicated.

What I'm saying here is that GW seems to have a big problem with Chaos Rebellions actually having rebellious Imperial elements in them. You'd expect that what would actually happen when a Chaos Cult rose up would be much like what happens when a Genestealer Cult does- key personnel would be revealed to be Traitors, PDF regiments would switch sides, and civilian Cultists would grab whatever equipment they could before trying to sow enough, well, chaos to keep the defenders off-balance until the Black Crusade turns up. But for some reason, rather than going with the rebels that are key to the whole Imperial storyline, they've gone with the ones that are key to an entirely different doomsday clock. Whether an actual Hive Fleet is going to turn up and eat Vigilus is anyone's guess, but we know damned well that Abaddon is.

Gear Envy
Now I'm not saying that Chaos players can't get inventive and use good-old 'counts-as' to sidestep some of these problems. My own Third Trojan Regiment have been using Imperial rules since 8th dropped, and here's my Taurox:

Hot Escher-on-Goliath action!

But that only goes so far. If I want my Emperor's Children to respond to my renegades' call for aid, either we need to do some keyword shenanigans or they have to pretend to be Sisters of Battle with odd dress-sense. Maybe the Achilles could  use the rules for a Tauros Venator? Maybe the bikes could possibly be Rough Riders? It all just seems very odd that Renegades are getting so little love at a time when they should be so important.

So every time I see a new Genestealer Cults release at the moment, I get this odd little twinge of knowing that this is stuff my Renegades could have got, but didn't. Some people think that they'll have their time in the sun and a bunch of conversion kits or reworked models, but at the moment I'm not optimistic. At least it gives my wallet a breather!


*Or 'purestrain in the creche', if you prefer.
** No matter how many times I spell it like that, I still imagine them using heavily-armed great apes in battle.
*** For two weeks before they all get murdered/ otherwise horribly abused by Daemons. Or Astartes, if they're lucky.
**** Except just then.

Con Job

We interrupt the usual output of this blog to bring you this important announcement. On the 1st and 2nd of June, I'm going to be a guest at Great Yarmouth Comic Con 2019!

I should point out straight away that this is largely because I'll be helping out the good folks at Wyldstorm Games, who'll have stalls and demo games at the event, but everyone involved have graciously allowed me to also attend in my capacity as an author, so I'll have books for sale (which I will, of course, be signing). I'm also hoping to premiere the third book in the Curriculum, The Flyblown Crusade, at the event.

Obviously it goes without saying that I'm incredibly excited to be a part of something like this, and I'll be sure to bring you a convention report once the dust settles. Maybe I'll even see you there!

Of course, if you absolutely can't wait to see what all the fuss is about*, you can always check out the links to the right and pick up either Kindle or Paperback versions of the first two books right now!






*Statistically there must be some somewhere.

The Argumentative Truth

Games are well-known for their ability to inspire perfectly rational people to have long, daft arguments, and 40k is no exception. I'm sure I'm not alone in having looked at a forum post posing what seemed like a perfectly simple rules question and come away fifty pages later willing to believe that there might be an 18th planet in the Solar System composed entirely of blancmange. The rules of sane, logical discourse go out the window fast, is what I'm saying here. Also that we should prepare for the invasion of the Custard Corps.

Now, it's commonly suggested, when rules issues come up, that it's the fault of Games Workshop (or whatever other developer is involved) for not writing the rules unambiguously in the first place. Sometimes, of course, this is absolutely true. The original designer of Magic: The Gathering used to tell a story of when they were testing the game, and one of the players told him that his deck had a card in it that meant he always won as soon as he cast it. The spell in question was Time Twister, which at the time was worded "Opponent loses next turn." It was supposed to mean that the opponent's next turn didn't happen, allowing the caster to take two turns in a row, but it's easy with hindsight to see where the confusion arose.

Much of the time, however, it's not so much the writing of the rules themselves as it is the mentality of the players reading them. If a player turns up in a mood where they're looking for a fight, they'll find one no matter how tight the rules are. We could look at the infamous 1978 World Chess Championship  in which according to some reports a board had to be installed to stop the players kicking each other. Just the other day, there was a story of a bridge champion who went ballistic on being told a piece of paperwork he'd filled in was on the wrong sort of form. (This is an incredibly dull story and involves the guy being autistic and maybe, or maybe not, having his disability misinterpreted etc.)

I remember vividly many years ago (probably around 3rd-4th Ed. 40k) that the UK's Channel 4 ran a series on gaming called Movers and Shakers, which followed players of various high-profile games. One episode looked at two kids who regularly played Monopoly, and a group who played 40k. Now the rules of Monopoly are pretty clear-cut, not to mention that the entire thing was being filmed, whereas 40k's rules were if anything even looser back then than they are now, and the group was playing a custom multiplayer scenario into the bargain. Much to the evident surprise of the documentary makers and most TV pundits at the time, the kids playing 40k ("a violent fantasy war-game about armies of grotesque monsters") had a whale of a time and resolved their rules problems by talking them out and coming to a conclusion, whereas the Monopoly kids had a tearful falling-out over cheating allegations, even though video evidence of exactly what had happened was readily available. Ultimately, it wasn't the rules, but the personalities and mind-sets of the players, that determined whether the game went off harmoniously.

Uh-oh,

I was reminded of all this by a couple of examples this week. A recent BoLS piece, which I'm not going to link because like a large chunk of BoLS stuff it was blatant click-bait, suggested removing LOS rules from 40k altogether. The reason? Because it would 'reduce the number of arguments'. Spoiler: Nope. The exact same claim was made for the removal of templates and I can count the number of times those caused an argument longer than "what do you think, five or six?" in my experience on the fingers of one hand. Throwing templates out was already a case of losing the baby with the bathwater- ditch LOS as well and you're dropping the bath on the poor little guy's head.

The other- and this is an absolute lulu- is the recent Chapter Approved FAQ which felt the need to clarify that if you're playing with the Acceptable Casualties rule (i.e. you can still win on Victory Points even if tabled) and you concede, you lose. Let that sink in for a moment. Savour the taste of it. What manner of person- no, of semi-sentient life-form- could conceivably think that they could say to their opponent 'OK, I give up, you win' and then claim 'however, because of this rule that means I win.'? Even Orks would struggle to rationalise that one, though doubtless the Regimental Standard could pull it off.

Now, when poked with the Stick of Mockery, some characters popped up to inform us that this 'clarification' (Emperor help us all) was needed for events with a 'margin of victory' system- i.e., if player A is winning by 5 points to 3 but concedes, on paper that means player B's margin of victory is -2, which mathematically looks like a loss. We poor simpletons who move in less rarefied circles might simply say 'oh, but you conceded, which means the other guy wins by maximum points and you get the Golden Salt Cellar' but you do then run into the problem of someone 'tactically quitting' to artificially inflate their opponent's score, which they might possibly do for complicated reasons. It's certainly something a TO needs to consider, but it's not a question of who won, its a question of how hard they won. (And the truly committed could simply 'play to lose' if they were that determined to inflate a score.)

This nicely illustrates the point, though- that no matter how tight your rules, how detailed your code of conduct and how diligent your referees, someone is going to find a way to take the piss. Maybe its that old classic, the 'you moved a deep-striker so now your Movement phase is over'* gambit. Maybe its the infamous 'this guy told me he plans to add a decal to his Knight later, so it's not fully painted and is therefore an illegal model' strategy**. Or entering pro-painted models in the 'best painted army' category and pretending its your own work. Or meeting a '3-colour minimum' painting standard by abusing undercoated models with blue spray from the front and red spray from the back***.

And that's the final point, really. No type of entertainment, no pursuit that involves two or more people coming together to have 'fun', is immune to being ruined by That Guy if That Guy decides to ruin it. You can look at international-level sport- cricketers with sandpaper in their pockets to rough up the ball, rugby players faking 'blood' injuries, boxing trainers sabotaging the stitching in their man's gloves to buy more corner-time, footballers 'diving'.

Oh, footballers.

But that's nowhere near an exhaustive list. I've always maintained that no type of gaming or sport- none whatsoever- is improved for the players by going 'professional'****. Sure, e-sports champions and international footballers live enviable lives in many respects, but are they enjoying  their 'games'? Look at their faces, and you can see the answer. As soon as a million-pound prize hinges on the result, rolling a 3 when you needed a 4 stops being a fun game mechanic, and starts being something that needs to be avoided at all costs.

To prevent arguments, of course.


*This happened, apparently.

**So did this.

***I'm almost too depressed to admit I've seen multiple examples of this one.

**** I did think of an exception, which is motor racing. Largely because 'amateur motor racing' is usually also described as 'driving without due care and attention' or more simply 'speeding'.

(Not quite so) early Sororitas impressions, Part 3

For my third look at the new Sororitas rules, I'm going to take a quick look at the Stratagems and go through how the Codex is feeling to me so far. Certainly to me, at least, the current selection seems quite solid. I'm not going to bother with simple ones like Open the Reliquaries since everyone has that in some form, and there's still a fair few I've not had any experience with.

Burning Descent
We're starting with a good one! Burning Descent allows a Seraphim unit that's just arrived from Reserve via Sky Strike to shoot at the end of the Movement Phase. On top of that, it increases the range of any Hand Flamers in the unit to 12" for that attack. Bonus shooting attacks are always good to have, and if your Seraphim are looking to clear out enemy infantry quickly this is a real bargain for 1CP. There are a couple of downsides- since you're not actually in the Shooting Phase you can't improve the attack with Stratagems or Acts that are restricted to that phase, and the most powerful gun Seraphim can get, the Inferno Pistol, only has a 6" range and isn't improved by this Stratagem. Still, very good indeed.

Vessel of the Emperor's Will
Probably the most potentially impressive Stratagem in the Codex, if you can make it work, well worth 3CP. It takes an Act of Faith that a Character has just successfully performed and turns it into a 6" radius bubble. I've talked about this quite a bit before, the short version being that it's very versatile and quite risky, since you're relying heavily on a Character to get an Act off (on which more below). There are also a few odd rules issues- apart from the silly one (which is that it seems to affect Vehicles) there's also the question of whether the Book of Lucius makes the effect extend to 9" and what happens if the Character dies before all the units affected have used the Act. (Eg, to a Counter Assault or a plasma overheat)

Suffer not the Witch
A wound re-roll for a unit vs a Psyker in either the Fight or Shooting phase. It actually causes the target to re-roll wound rolls against all Psykers for the phase, so it might be useful against multiple targets at once. Quite a few big scary things like Tyranids or Daemons are also Psykers, so for one CP this is a very handy Stratagem, particularly in combat where that Strength 3 can be an issue.

Extremis Trigger Word, Final Redemption
I've not tried either of these yet, having not used the relevant units. Both rely on getting some quite fragile models into Assault, which I'm not sure is all that viable. The Trigger Word gives you effectively six Attacks per Flagellant, which makes them quite choppy, and Final Redemption gives a 4+ chance for Repentia to put a Mortal Wound on something that kills them in combat, which is certainly worth it if any number of them get into contact. Certainly using it and then following up with Spirit of the Martyr and a Hospitaller to bring some of the casualties back is amusingly cheeky.

Blessed Bolts
Turns a unit's Storm Bolters into Damage 2, AP -2 weapons. On Dominions who can take five of the things, potentially very nasty indeed for 1 CP. Few players (not me, for one) have enough of the relevant models to use it right now, though.

Faith and Fury
Re-roll 1s to wound for a unit that's passed an Act of Faith that phase. Useful for Dominions trying to melt tanks and handy if you manage to get The Passion off. For 1CP, it's a tough call whether its worth it for other attacks.

Sacred Banner of the  Order Militant
Gives a Simulacrum the additional ability to improve Shield of Faith by +1 for the unit, an ability that lasts for an entire Battle Round. You have to do this pre-battle, but if you're planning on having a dismounted unit camping an objective it can be very handy.

Rally The Faithful
Halve the number of models that flee (rounding down) after a failed Morale test. I've not used this yet, but since it's activated once the test is already failed it's a very handy safety net.

Purity of Faith
A 4+ Deny The Witch for 1CP. It's always a tough call to use a Stratagem that might then do nothing, but there are several powers it's well worth trying to stop. Certainly no-one is going to be entirely confident of any plan that relies on a particular power knowing you have this sitting in your hand.

Martyrdom
Gain D3 Faith if one of your Characters dies, or 3 if the Warlord does. Very situational, but good to be aware of.

Holy Trinity
This is, in many ways, a defining stratagem. Gain +1 To Wound if shooting a bolt, flame and melta weapon from a unit at the same target. All my units tend to take at least one of each for this reason- Dominions in particular are much better at tank hunting if their meltas are wounding on 3+. It's worth noting that all weapons in the unit gain the bonus, including grenades and plasma weapons, so for example a Seraphim Superior now has more reason to take a plasma pistol. A powerful stratagem on its own, which becomes all the more deadly if combo'd with Divine Guidance. On top of that, of course, if you get Guidance off you can also add Faith and Fury to the mix.

Sacred Rites
Swap a CP for a Faith Point at the start of the Movement Phase. It's a thing.


Updated Impressions
I've now got three games in with my Sisters and so far to me they feel pretty solid and importantly, like Sisters. I've seem some criticism of the Faith Point system being too similar to Command Points, which is true to some extent, but I don't feel it makes them any less fun to use- Acts are generally cheaper than Stratagems, but less reliable. I've managed to pull off the Passion/ Beacon of Faith 'Hail Mary' play once and it allowed Celestine and a beat-stick Canoness to destroy a Shadowsword* which was pretty impressive.

One issue that has been raised that I do agree with is that it's odd that Characters find Acts harder than squads do, since they can't benefit from a Simulacrum. Celestine in particular is badly affected by this since she can't have an Order and so can't even get the +1 from Ebon Chalice. This in particular makes Vessel of the Emperor's Will harder to use than it could be. Even if this is intentional (Vessel is very powerful, after all) it feels wrong. The obvious dirty fix is to give Characters +1 to Faith Tests and to be honest I'd give Celestine a flat +2 because come on. Alternatively, Celestine could get a Warlord Trait that's a +1 bonus to Acts in a bubble around her to go with the +1 for Characters- this could even replace the current version of Beacon of Faith and would be more like her prior incarnation (literally).

The Angel of Fail
I think Celestine warrants a bit more attention. As well as the Act of Faith issue, I don't think the current approach to the Geminae really works well. Splitting the Geminae into a separate unit means that if an area effect goes off (such as an exploding vehicle or an orbital bombardment) both Celestine and the Geminae get hit separately. With the Geminae having so few Wounds, that usually wipes them out since the wounds Celestine takes get passed on to them too, and once the unit is gone Celestine can't bring them back. In three games, I've not used Healing Tears once- the Geminae have never survived damage. On top of that, with the Geminae needing to stay within 3" of Celestine to do their job, both Advancing and Assaulting are a total lottery with them.

I'd suggest Celestine and the Geminae go back to being a Character Unit like they were in the Index, but keeping a version of the Geminae's new Lifewards rule so that they soak wounds for Celestine on a 2+. As a unit, you could of course assign wounds to the Geminae first anyway, but Lifewards allows them to keep doing their job even once Celestine is wounded. Healing Tears would then work like it did in the Index and bring one back per turn, even if they're both dead.

Valorous Heart
I've played all my games as the Order of the Valorous Heart since that's how my girls are painted, and I stand by my original impression- i.e. their Order Trait sucks. A 6+ wound ignore save so rarely does anything of note that on some occasions, such as taking hits from Damage 3 or higher weapons, it's just not worth the time to roll it. I really think the Order needs an additional bonus, such as Simulacrums conferring a chance for a retaliation attack like Marine Ancients, or Vehicles using higher damage tracks like Valhallans. Of course, any Order-specific Relics or Stratagems might change things, too.

Playstyle
The Sisters, primarily, are a short-range firefight army but I've found it's important not to discount Assault. Whilst they're not all that good in combat, with Power Armour they can survive there against other non-specialists, and so it's often well worth assaulting the remains of a target unit to prevent retaliatory fire and maybe finish them off. If bunkered up in transports and supported by Celestine and a Warlord with Indomitable Belief they can shrug off a lot of first-turn shooting before closing for the attack. Many players (quite rightly!) worry when Exorcists open up on them and will tend to target them first, allowing the rest of your force some time to close in. I'll finish this up with a brief summary of my current test list, and how it tends to play.

Battalion

HQ

Canoness (Power Sword, replaced with Blade of Admonition)

Celestine

ELITES

8 Celestians, Power Sword, Flamer (Dedicated Transport: Rhino)

TROOPS
10 Sisters, Flamer, Melta, Superior with Combi-Melta and Power Maul (Dedicated Transport: Repressor)
10 Sisters, 2 Meltas, Superior with Combi-Flamer and Power Sword  (Dedicated Transport: Repressor)
5 Sisters, 2 Flamers, Superior with Combi-Melta. (Dedicated Transport: Immolator with Immolation Flamers)
FAST ATTACK
10 Seraphim, 2 Inferno Pistols, 2 Hand Flamers, Superior with Plasma Pistol and Power Sword.
6 Dominions, 4 Meltas, Superior with Combi-Flamer, Simulacrum. (Dedicated Transport: Immolator with Immolation Flamers)

Spearhead

HQ

Canoness, Warlord (Indomitable Will), Storm Bolter, Book of St. Lucius

HEAVY SUPPORT

2 Exorcists

10 Retributors, 4 Heavy Bolters, Superior with Storm Bolter, Simulacrum.

Vanguard

HQ

Uriah Jacobus

ELITES

2 Geminae Superia

Sister Hospitaller

Sister Dialogus

This list gives a total of 9 Faith Points, and 10 Command Points, one of which is spent to get the extra Relic. I should point out straight away that the Geminae are in a different Detachment to Celestine so that they can fill an Elite slot- if Celestine were in the Vanguard the Geminae wouldn't fill a slot and the Detachment wouldn't be complete. Odd, but there you go. (EDIT: The Celestians could fill that slot. I have no idea why this didn't occur to me at the time!)

Usually, the Warlord Canoness, Hospitaller, Dialogus and Retributors form a fire-base with the Exorcists, set up with Celestine within 6" to give all the units a 4++ on the first turn. Between the Hospitaller, Spirit of the Martyr (with the Simulacrum bonus and the Dialogus re-roll) and the Invulnerable save, the Retributors are hard to shift and can come back if they die. The Transports deploy taking advantage of the save bonuses as much as possible and move up to attack as fast as they can. The Seraphim drop in when needed, ideally taking advantage of one or both of the Save bonuses as well** and linking up with Celestine***. The sword-armed Canoness rides with the Celestians and Uriah in the Rhino, supporting the advance and looking to pile into combat when needed- the bonus Attack from Uriah's Banner of Sanctity gives the Celestians 3 Attacks each and helps make up for their low Strength to an extent.

So far, this list has been quite successful, and most importantly feels like a Sisters of Battle army to me. The Celestians have yet to really shine, mostly due to them not facing much enemy Infantry, but they do help keep the Canoness and Celestine alive. Their light equipment is due to the way I built the Raging Heroes models I use for them- they're first in line to be replaced with shiny new plastic Sisters...

* To be fair, it already had a few big holes in it.
** This almost never happens.
*** This happens even less.