Sunday 28 October 2018

Quick Hits - October 2018 Dark Angels

Our next quick hit is Codex Adeptus Astartes Dark Angels. Many unit reviews can be found here
 http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.com/2018/05/quick-hits-may-2018-space-marines.html
so this review will cover the changes and additional units.


Special Rules 

Jink 
Ravenwing get a 4+ Invulnerable save when they advance. This gives them decent protection.

Inner Circle 
Auto-pass morale is always good. The extra ability against Fallen is gravy.

HQ 

Azrael 
Such a key HQ, re-rolling hits and providing an Invulnerable save. It's so hard to imagine not wanting to take him, his Sword of Secrets can also dole out Mortal Wounds.

Belial 
A decent support character for your Deathwing.

Sammael on Corvex 
A great support character for Ravenwing, although I would never risk overcharging his Plasma Cannon.

Sammael in Sableclaw 
A better steed for Sammael if you are expecting to face a lot of hordes of Infantry.

Interrogator-Chaplain/Interrogator-Chaplain in Terminator Armour 
Like a regular Chaplain, but with a negative Leadership aura. Not overly impressed.

Ravenwing Talonmaster 
A Lieutenant on a Land Speeder. A decent choice for a mobile buff, with a lot of built-in firepower.

Asmodai 
Gives extra attacks, but is rather unimpressive for a special character.

Ezekial
A better Librarian, but not by much, unfortunately.

Elites 

Deathwing Apothecary
An Apothecary, but able to Deep Strike in with the rest of the Deathwing.

Deathwing Terminator Squad 
The biggest things they get are access to Plasma Cannon and the Watcher in the Dark. Having a built-in, once per game protection against Psychic powers is amazing.

Deathwing Knights 
The assault version of Deathwing, they are equipped with Flails that do 2 damage each and the damage spreads across the unit. You just have to get them to combat.

Ravenwing Apothecary 
A very mobile version of an Apothecary that can heal bikes.

Fast Attack 

Ravenwing Darkshroud 
A Land Speeder that gives a negative to-hit aura. Really good for keeping things alive.

Ravenwing Land Speeder Vengeance 
A Land Speeder with a Plasma Storm Battery. There are many, many better sources of Plasma in the Dark Angels.

Ravenwing Black Knights 
With mobile Plasma, these guys are really good. The Plasma being assault means they can still shoot it when they advance and benefit from Jink.

Flyer 

Ravenwing Dark Talon 
With the Hurricane Bolters and (admittedly once per game) Stasis Bomb, this is really good against Infantry, but the Rift Cannon is great against Vehicles and Titanics. I guess that makes it a really good all-rounder.

Nephilim Jetfighter 
I like the Avenger Mega Bolter. not sure about the Missiles/Lascannons.

Grim Resolve 

Re-roll 1s to hit for shooting if you haven't moved is good for the non-Ravenwing units. Only losing one model a turn to Morale is amazing though.

Stratagems 

Stand-out Stratagems
  • Deathwing Assault
  • Never Forgive, Never Forget!
  • The Lion and the Wolf
  • Hunt the Fallen
  • Weapons from the Dark Age
  • Intractable
  • Speed of the Raven
Warlord Traits 

A smorgasbord of standard Marine traits, nothing really stands out as Dark Angel, to be honest.

Relics of Caliban 

Stand-out Relics
  • Shroud of Heroes
  • Lion's Roar
  • The Eye of the Unseen
Interromancy Discipline

These powers are amazing. The only bad one is Engulfing Fear, as there may end up not being any Morale tests near the Librarian.


Monday 22 October 2018

Quick Hits October 2018 - Adeptus Mechanicus

After a short delay, our next quick hit is Codex Adeptus Mechanicus. As the Knights codex released after this and made changes to the Knights part of the codex, I won't be re-covering them here. See
https://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.com/2018/07/quick-hits-july-2018-imperial-knights.html for my opinions on that book.


Special Rules

Canticles of the Omnissiah gives a random, army-wide buff each round. You can mitigate the randomness by choosing, but you then lose access to that effect for later rounds. Some of these are less than helpful if they appear at the wrong time, but the option to choose makes u for it.

HQ

Belisarius Cawl

He lets you modify the roll when randomly choosing your Canticle (in a Forge World that lets you roll twice on the table and gain both) and is also a pretty good Warlord. He is expensive and locks you into Mars though. He does bring better healing and re-roll ability than a regular Dominus though.

Tech-Priest Dominus
Brings a re-roll 1s to hit aura and can heal friendly models. Their weapon choices aren't too bad either.

Tech-Priest Enginseer
Not expected to be seen much outside an Astra Militarum army. I guess they are useful if you need a cheap HQ choice.

Troops

Skitari Rangers
Galvanic Rifles are okay as a basic weapon, especially with a range of 30". The special weapon options are interesting too.

Skitarii Vanguard
The mobile Troops choice and they can put a fair bit of damage out with some lucky rolls. I think I'd rather stick with the solid Rangers though.

Kataphron Breachers
They have melee weapons that you don't really want them to be in a position to use, and their firepower is aimed at wrecking vehicles. Shame the Heavy Arc Rifle is only strength 6.

Kataphron Destroyers
I'd want these guys armed with Plasma Culverins to put out the damage and Cognis Flamers to limit the ability to the opponent to lock them in melee. I rate these guys over the Breachers.

Elites 

Servitors 
Originally designed to accompany Tech-Priest Enginseers in older editions, you should be able to find better units to take.

Cybernetica Datasmith 
Used to be a unit leader for Kastelan Robots, now they are just another character that can give out healing. They are also used to change the Data Protocols of the Robots, but they don't have much use outside of that.

Sicarian Ruststalkers 
A pure melee unit, they can put out a bunch of Mortal Wounds with enough 6s to wound.

Sicarian Infiltrators 
With Flechette Blasters and Taser Goads, they are really good at clearing out screening units at close range. It's a shame that their "Infiltrate" puts them into Reserve, as the latest Big FAQ leaves them unable to arrive until Turn 2.

Fulgurite Electro-Priests 
A unit that in large numbers can do a tonne of Mortal Wounds. They can also improve their Invulnerable Save if they defeat a unit in melee. They are threatening to almost anything once they get into combat.

Corpuscarii Electro-Priests 
A hardy unit that is pretty good at clearing out screens once it gets close to them.

Fast Attack 

Sydonian Dragoons 
I'd keep these guys cheap and just take the Taser Lance. They are fast, hit like a truck and have a negative modifier for ranged weapons to hit them.

Ironstrider Ballistarii 
These guys have a decent ballistic skill, and can advance and fire their heavy weapons! That gives them a massive threat range and both weapon options are really good for hammering opposing vehicles.

Heavy Support 

Kastelan Robots 
I love how these guys look like 1950's sci-fi robots. They are also pretty good on the table, acting like a unit of Dreadnoughts. They can be kitted out for melee or shooting and do a great job at either. Expect them to draw a lot of firepower.

Onager Dunecrawler 
I think the best loadout for this vehicle is the Icarus Array for 10 anti-Fly shots.

Forge World Dogma 

Lucius feels like a bit of a dud, though I may be underestimating how many -1 AP weapons are in use. The rest are really good though.

Stratagems 

Stand-out Stratagems
  • Zealous Congregation
  • Binharic Override
  • Scryerskull
  • Protector Doctrina Imperative
  • Conqueror Doctrina Imperative
  • Tech-Adept
  • Dunestriders
  • Acquisition At Any Cost
  • Infoslave Skull
  • Machine Spirit's Revenge
  • Fresh Converts
  • Legio Teleportarium
  • Plasma Specialists
  • Steel Mind, Iron Logic
  • Deafening Assault
  • Knight of the Cog
Warlord Traits

Most of the options are a bit underwhelming,  although I think the Metalica one is fantastic.

Arcana Mechanicum

Stand-out Relics
  • Anzion's Pseudogenetor
  • Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land
  • The Omniscient Mask
  • The Cerebral Techno-Mitre
  • The Eye of Xi-Lexum
 

Tuesday 9 October 2018

Warhammer 40K - The Big FAQ

Between Real Life issues and waiting to chat with some players, it's finally time to post my thoughts on the second Big FAQ for 40K.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/09/28/28th-sept-warhammer-40000-big-faq-2-the-low-downgw-homepage-post-1/

So, let's dive straight in.


Finalised Match Play Rules

They moved three rules from the first FAQ from Beta status to full rule.

Battle Brothers

This solves the problem Games Workshop want to solve. They want you to use the Detachment system to build armies, while each Detachment remains specific to a Codex. A lot of the outcry is from people who think that the problem is armies where each Detachment is from a different Codex.

 I get it, there are people who want to play single Codex and do well. Not all Codexes are made equally and adding other forces to your army lets you take units that circumvent the weakness of a single book. However, I suspect that removing the ability to ally won't suddenly make single-book armies viable, and the top lists will just come from the strongest 2-3 Codexes. This is a separate issue from the Battle Brothers rule, and worthy of a full discussion on its own.

I'm happy with this rule, although some Index units (notably Assassins and Sisters of Silence) are a bit awkward to field now. Hopefully, they will get something in the future to make them better.

Psychic Focus

The only two armies that can reliably cast more than a couple of Smites each turn are the two that only do 1 damage per Smite. This rule has proven to be a fair solution to the armies that can take a bunch of cheap Psykers and dole out large amounts of Mortal Wounds.

I like the change. It caused people to either reduce the number of Psykers they took or made them look at the other Powers available to their Psykers.

Targeting Characters

This rule has gotten a lot of criticism, from people who look for realism in their rules. The reason that units you can't see stop you from targeting a character has nothing to do with their ability to distract you from taking the shot! It is a rule to help those characters survive on the battlefield without being gunned down by massed fire from regular weapons.

This clarifies that by making the RAW (rules as written) match the RAI (rules as intended) while stopping you from using characters to screen each other, which was allowing people to abuse the Culexus Assassin's Etherium rule.

This rule serves the purpose it is intended to and stops squishy characters like Imperial Guard Officers getting gunned down unless you really position your army poorly, or your opponent is having a good Shooting Phase anyway.

Beta Matched Play Rules

Tactical Reserves

Here comes the big one. We have returned to 7th Edition, where your reserves can only arrive from turn two onwards. At least they haven't gone back to being random.

When this rule was originally changed, it cared about Power Level, when the majority of Matched Play players didn't. It also opened up a problem where you could double a unit's Power Level simply by adding one member, allowing you to manipulate the Reserve allowance. Simple fix, well done.

Also, the ability to arrive in turn one but only in your own deployment zone wasn't fit for purpose. It stopped the armies that wanted their Reserves to assault in the first turn. Which is great. While there are still units that can get to you in the first turn, when they go first,  it's no longer half the opposing force. You can also attempt to mitigate that, dependant on Deployment.

Where it failed was it allowed shooting armies to put units in Reserve with no intention of bringing them in near the enemy, and setting up a devastating Beta Strike, while dodging the opposing Alpha Strike. I've done this, and it's not fun for the opponent. It's hard to have decent target priority when the priority targets are hiding off-table.

This change has lead to a handful of abilities getting changed. Some of these have become a pre-game movement, while Rangers have moved into Reserves. These errata attempt to let those units behave the way they are intended, while not breaking the Tactical Reserve rule. That's why this rule is Beta, as it needs more people testing it.

I'm currently in favour of this change but want to get some games in to test it before I make a concrete decision.


Prepared Positions

This is a nice Stratagem, and an attempt to take a little of the sting away from going second. It also has the slight consequence of being useless for a couple of mini-factions (there is a Hive Fleet that has this ability built in for instance), and Harlequins, while actually buffing your opponent (if they are Imperial Fists, or manage a first turn Charge with Striking Scorpions).

I'm looking forward to playing with this available. How often I use it will depend on what I'm facing and how many Command Points I have available.

Tactical Restraint

There had been some other solutions to this problem that I've seen suggested. This is the simplest one and I believe it does the job well. Finally, we will start to see more variety in Warlord Traits. My one issue is the Autarch, who spends centuries studying and practising command at war, can only get Command Points back on a 6, while many other Codexes since the Craftworlds one trigger similar abilities on a 5-6.

It's a good change and stops some armies feeling like they have infinite Command Points. It doesn't address the armies that start with far more Command Points than others, but I guess a small change is better than none.

Interim Balance Review 

We have a couple of Stratagems getting errata, and a handful going up in Command Point costs. These, again, will take some time to see the full effects of. It does show that if a Stratagem is proving either ubiquitous or key to an oppressive army list, that Games Workshop is willing to adjust its cost. I wonder if they will look at doing the same for Stratagems that support units that aren't seeing much play at the moment.

Bonus Round

Not mentioned in the article, or the FAQ itself, but tucked away in the Rulebook FAQ is a change to units with the Fly keyword. They no longer ignore terrain and models during the Charge Phase.

This makes screening units stronger, as it's harder to bypass them now. It also removes the ability to use elevated terrain to get around short Overwatch ranges. It has meant that a handful of other units have been given errata to match, like Necron Wraiths and Harlequin Flip Belts.

Summary

Overall, I can see why some people were disappointed with this FAQ. They wanted point changes, up for Knights and down for Power/Terminator Armour. That's very much the domain of Chapter Approved.

What it did do though, was cement some good changes that were Beta in the last one and offer some more changes to trial. I like the changes, and as per the last FAQ want to try them out. It's only really by getting some games in that we can really see the impact.