Must-Have Units

Ron at From the Warp has asked fellow bloggers for their favorite must-have units. We're not talking compulsory choices, like troops, but those units that you always find room to squeeze in, no matter the cost.

For my Space Marines, the Legio Draconis, there really isn't one choice that I *absolutely* always field, though there are a couple that I regularly stick in. One of those is the Chapter Librarian, Necronomicus.

He stands on the battlefield with his eyes closed, his jaw set like it was cut from granite. He inhales, his nostrils flaring, picking out the scents of sweat and blood. His psychic hood crackles and those marines standing nearby take a step back as they feel their hair on the backs of their necks begin to rise. Those loyal marines always feel a moment of unease at the start of the battle--it is not fear of their enemy that taunts them, nor fear of death, but fear of the unknown. For each of the hardened battle brothers know that when Necronomicus opens his eyes, when that terrible light shines forth from his mouth, that they are about to be sucked through the Warp, a place meant for no man. Each battle brother says a prayer to the god-emperor, putting his faith momentarily into the god-emperor's noble servant, this keeper of secrets, this Librarian.
Kitted out with The Avenger, Gate of Infinity, and the Epistolary upgrade, he transforms an ordinary tactical squad into a surgical instrument. I often employ a beacon-equipped drop pod to establish a spearhead against my opponent, and being able to teleport the librarian and a tactical squad to the front lines of the battle on the second turn can be crippling to my opponent. The tac squad gives the unit the numbers to take a few casualties, while the Librarian's Avenger power, backed up by a flamer in the tac squad and a hail of bolter fire, can decimate most infantry units.

As an alternate option, I sometimes give the Librarian terminator armor and embed him with a Terminator squad. In this case I will replace Gate of Infinity with Might of Ancients. The termy squad usually packs a Heavy Flamer, giving this squad a decimating pair of template weapons. The ability to boost the Librarian's strength and initiative with Might of Ancients combined with his Force Weapon turns him into a MC/IC killer.

The Librarian may not be the most effective or reliable choice in the Space Marines 'dex, but it is one of the most fun. Being able to teleport 24" per turn, escape from assaults, lay down an AP3 template, counter other psychic powers, and having a free power weapon makes him a fun choice for me and a major headache for my opponent.

Okay, okay, so it's a bit of vanity, too. My Librarian model is the nicest-looking model in my army and made First Cut at Games Day Baltimore 2008. I'm no crazy Golden Demon painter, but I think it came out pretty well, and I just like showcasing it on the tabletop. Here's a pic:

What are your must-have units?

Eldar Pics

My parents were in town this weekend and my mom is a photographer, so I got her to set up her extremely nice camera and do some photos of my WIP Eldar. Check them out!

Eldar Army - WIP Part 3

Finished up the Dire Avengers. Here's a finished pic of the group, followed by a series of stage by stage photos for the Exarch. (I can't figure out why I can't put in larger sized photos. Sorry. One day I will put up a whole gallery of images once I figure out how to take better photos and use the blog tools better.)

Started with the GW Spraygun and a pot of regal blue over black primer. Then painted on a couple more coats of regal blue to bring up the brightness a bit.

Regal blue lightened with a bit of white, built up on the armor in a couple of layers. Starting to see some of the definition in the model.

Well, maybe we missed a few photos in here. My rechargeable batteries suck. But basically, helmet, banner, and tabards were painted astronomican gray thinned and lightened up towards white. Washed with asurmen blue wash. Guns are black with two layers of gray. The top of the gun is bone washed brown and highlighted with lightened bone. Crest is pretty straighforward. Painted it with a brownish foundation paint (some fleshy color), then with my primary colors, washed, then highlighted.

The finished model. I did some more highlighting and evening up around the helmet. Highlighted the armor to add further definition. I did a freehand Dire Avengers symbol on both sides of the banner, which I'm fairly happy with (I suck at freehand). I also did a little doodle on the front of his tabard which you can't really see in this photo. His base is a bit of sand and a chunk of a wine cork. Eyes are shaded with purple.

Here's the finished gang in another shot.

Promptly started to work on the Farseer. My batteries were dead so you missed a number of steps. My primary colors here are hormagaunt purple and hawk turquoise (and bleached bone). I use the purple wash to brighten up the hues of the lightened hormagaunt purple. For the hawk turquoise, I started with orchide green base and washed darker areas with asurmen blue. I'm working on a NMM bronze for the blade. I wanted something that would look good with the model without re-using a color already on the model. My buddy shades suggested bronze, and so far I'm happy with the results. You can see the NMM effect better in the bottom two photos.

I absolutely love this model and intend to keep tinkering with it until it's looking top notch. I might take this to next year's Baltimore Games Day.

Team Games & Thorny Balance Issues

We regularly play team games - 2 players to a side, 4 players total. It adds a nice teamwork dynamic to the game, and allows more of us to get together at our buddy Shades' place. Shades has a great gaming space: a fantastic table, lots of quality terrain, and most importantly, beer. In fact, we're playing a team game this afternoon - 1500 points per team, 750 points for each player.

Early on, the decision was made that the combined army had to adhere to a single force org chart, rather than each player having to adhere. That meant that 1 player could, conceivably, take all the heavy and elite slots while the other player takes troops and HQ. Seems simple enough, right?

Not so fast! One team was running all Tau. On the other team, one player was running IG, the other Marines (me). Since I regularly use reserve units, my teammate, Aaron, decided - hey, let's use the IG Astropath so that the marines get a +1 on Reserve Rolls. This began a massive debate about what should be allowed and what should be unallowed in team games, that is, how should army-wide special abilities and game rules affect a mixed team? Should the Astropath's ability affect Space Marine allies? Can guardsmen climb into an empty Rhino? Can a lone SM Captain join a squad of guardsmen?

If all four player are playing different armies, you can make some global calls about this at the beginning of the game: everything goes, nothing goes, or pick and choose. However in our situation, we have a mixed team with a homogenous team. The all-Tau force doesn't have to consider questions like this. We can safely assume the Shades' Fire Warriors can climb into Erik's Devilfish. It would seem ridiculous to disallow this just because the players are different. Disallowing this would be the same as having a player assist you in playing your own whole army and then deciding that the models that he was controlling couldn't interact with your models in a beneficial way because they were controlled by a different player.

It seemed counterintuitive to the Tau team that SM's and Guard should be able to use each others' abilities, leadership, independent characters, or transports. And it should be pointed out that the SM+Guard team have an ability the Tau team does not have: the ability to make up for the other ones' shortcomings (not that marines have shortcomings) when building our army list. We can build a force of tough-as-nails marine infantry combined with hordes of cheap guard tanks. The question then becomes, does this strategic benefit outweight the tactical ability losses our combined teams suffer?

Here's what we went with: The Tau-team (Shades and Erik) get the army-wide and team-wide benefits of leadership, independent characters, troop transports, as well as special abilities like markerlights and such. The SM-Guard team (Shannon and Aaron), have the opportunity to build a more strategically viable army list thanks to the wider array of unit options and the ability to shore up each others' weaknesses. The SM-Guard team are denied army-wide abilities, shared leadership, trading independent characters, and shared transports.

I still don't know what is balanced, but I DO know that come end of the game, if I win, I want to know it was because I outplayed the other team. I don't want anyone, myself included, to think "if the SM hadn't gotten the astropath ability, they wouldn't have won." So we play as conservatively as possible within the accepted framework (shared force org chart), and if we win, no one can accuse us of breaking the system.

For future games, I think it is best if each team maintains its own independent force org chart. However with a smallish 1500 points per side, its difficult to field tactically viable full force org charts at only 750 points. The table winds up flooded with troops and no one has any heavy choices.

What do you think? Should mixed armies sharing a force org chart be able to share each others' tactical abilities as if they were the same army? Should team-ups contrary to the fluff be permitted (tau+SM)? Is there any way to guarantee game balance in team games?

In my experience, it is always better to decide these questions in advance of the game. Once the dice are rolling, someone is going to be left with a sour taste in their mouth as either they feel they are denied something they ought to have had, or they feel that the other player is breaking the rules. Just talk it out in advance, and if you can't come to an acceptable consensus, don't play. It's that simple.

And don't bother wishing Aaron and I luck. We shouldn't need it. BWAHAHAHA!

Eldar Army - WIP Part 2 - Dire Avengers, cont.

Here are a few more pics of my dire avengers. At this point I have gone over them with a blue lightened with astronomican gray to even out the base colors on the shoulder pads and armor plates. I went over the helmets, first with astro gray, then a wash of asurmen blue, then a gray-white blend. They'll get one or two more coats of gray lightening to white before they're done.

The crests are pretty cool. They are pretty much done - they might get a touch more highlighting. They were easy to paint too, except that I kept slopping paint up against the targeting doohickey that sits on the shoulder. Touch-up work comes later.

The guns took me longer than I expected. They had all gotten blue in the basecoating, so I went over them again in chaos black. Then I edged with a dark gray, then edged again with astronomican gray. The center strip is tallarn flesh base (to cover the black, followed by bleached bone, followed by a brown wash, followed by more bleached bone. I will probably touch it with white on the edges, just to make it pop.

All-in-all they are coming along well, and I'm getting some nice Greek-themed ideas for my Craftworld working on these. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Eldar Army List

Here is my first crack at a list for my new Eldar force. Keep in mind I have only a few models right now, so I'm sort of open on the way I take this army. Any advice - weaknesses you see or improvements you would make - I'm keen to hear.

HQ

Farseer on Jetbike (Singing Spear, Doom, Fortune)

Warlocks x5 on Jetbikes (2x singing spears, Embolden, Enhance, Destructor x3)

Farseer (Doom, Fortune, Mind War) - This Farseer rides with either Dire Avengers or Banshees

Elite

Howling Banshees x10 (Exarch, Mirrorswords)

- Wave Serpent (Shuricannon, EML)

Fire Dragons x6 (Exarch, Firepike, Tank Hunters, Crack Shot) - ride in the Falcon

Troops

Dire Avengers x10 (Exarch, Shuriken Pistol, Power Sword)

- Wave Serpent (Shuricannon, EML)

Dire Avengers x10 (Exarch, 2x Shuricats)

Dire Avengers x10 (Exarch, 2x Shuricats)

Fast Attack

None

Heavy

Falcon (EML, Spirit Stones, Holofield) - carries around the fire dragons

War Walkers x3 (all with EML)

What do you think? Is this list too unfocused? Am I at risk of having too few units on the table? I figure the walkers outflank. Even if they come in on the wrong table edge, with 48" range they should be able to do their business (6 str 8 missiles!) Between the seer council, the fire dragons, and all the missile launchers, the list shouldn't have much problem with vehicles. Horde armies, I lay down the missile launcher str 4 blast templates all over the place and break open the horde with either the seer council or the banshees backed up by a farseer to reroll wounds. If I know I'm going to be facing land raiders, I can trade out some of the EMLs for bright lances.

Space Marines - Legio Draconis, The Fluff

Here's the background and army colors for my Space Marines Chapter, Legio Draconis:

Foundation
During their long wars across the galaxy against the Orks, the Crimson Fists were driven off the world of Korrux. The 2nd Company Veterans were left unaccounted for, presumed destroyed in the fierce battles across the planet’s surface. Indeed, the veterans were caught up behind enemy lines and formed a short-lived resistance against the great beast. Between this brief, bloody struggle and the Crimson Fists’ orbital bombardments that followed, only one veteran survived – a sergeant named Aurumvorax.

Near-fatally wounded, Aurumvorax was nursed back to health by a wise hermit—a psychic outcast from the Imperial Administratum. His name, Necronomicus, was taken from an ancient tome of secrets. He now lives on this feral world in his small library in a cloister to the dragon god Bahamut. Aurumvorax became a local hero of the primitive people—a god among men, a feudal warlord in the primitive society. He took a wife—Maliha—and they bore a child, whom they named Bahamut.

The world of Korrux was threatened by primitive beasts, and Aurumvorax became a great beasthunter, protecting the populace in the name of the region’s feudal master. During one such event, Korrux took his holy bolter out to put down a terrible dragon. He failed and was slaughtered by the beast.

Bahamut grew up in the shadow of his father’s legacy, tutored in the ways of the Imperium and the sacred history of the Space Marines by Necronomicus. When he came of age, he and a band of warriors went out into the wilds, and he slew the beast with broadsword and crossbow. He reclaimed his father’s bolter, and Necronomicus determined that it was time to send him out into the galaxy. When the Crimson Fists returned to Korrux seven years later, Bahamut was a lordly master of the feudal planet.

He was taken into the Crimson Fists and impregnated with the same gene seed as his father, the same seed that was injected into the mighty leader Pedro Kantor. Within the Crimson Fists, Bahamut rose through the ranks of tactical squads, veterans, and quickly rose to the rank of Captain. Leading his own company, Bahamut crushed the Ork invasion of Morlock Prime. But all was not well within the Crimson Fists. Bahamut experimented with new combat techniques, diverging from the rigid structures of the Astartes Tactical Treatise. Other Captains were unhappy with Bahamut’s quick progress and how he was favored by Pedro Kantor. Unease was growing.

Eventually, Kantor released Bahamut from service, providing him with half a company of soldiers, a gene seed, and a variety of equipment from the Tech Priests of Mars. Bahamut returned to Korrux and founded a new chapter: Legio Draconis, the Dragon Legion.

Bahamut
Bahamut is cold, hard, and aggressive, but has powerful ethical notions about protecting humanity. He honors the Crimson Fists, though he disagrees with some of their tactics. Nevertheless, the two chapters have been known to work together on more than one occasion.

Of Proxies and "Counts-As"

A couple of days ago, Goatboy started an interesting discussion at BoLS on the topic of "counts-as" models, WYSIWYG modeling, and proxies. You can read his original post here.

Here are my thoughts on the topic (written partially in reply to other posters who responded in that thread):

This is a really interesting topic - I find I agree with some folks and disagree with others. Let's clarify some situations, to begin with:"Counts-As" typically means using one model from the same army to count as another, usually with some modification to the model. An example is modeling a eldar guardian jetbike to be a warlock on jetbike by changing the arm, head, etc. "Proxying" is subbing a model of one type for another.

What's the difference between counts-as and proxying? That is a fine line, and it is usually based on the intent of the player. A player who has a counts-as model usually intends for the counts-as model to permanently serve as the model it is counting for. This usually involves doing some kit bashing or modeling to make the model look different, or to make it look as intended. The intent behind proxying is merely to have a permanent substitution, usually for the purpose of trying something out. An example of this would be grabbing a spare space marine and subbing him in for a named character. After that game, the spare marine could probably go back to being a plain old marine. (Note that I am not trying to pass judgement on any of these techniques, just trying to clarify terms.)

Next, we have "WYSIWYG" - the idea that a model has exactly what appears to be modeled on it. There are even degrees of this. A loose interpretation would say that a model has to have whatever its main weapon is, but a second weapon wouldn't have to be shown. (Space Marines are supposed to have bolter and bolt pistol). A strict version to say that a model ONLY has the equipment that is modeled on it (A space marine that didn't show both bolter and bolt pistol would only have one.) A variant of "WYSIWYG" that really only appies to marine armies is the chapter markings and paint schemes. This is the idea that a dark angel could be used as a generic space marine or vice versa. I'll call this Chapter-WYSIWYG. Chapter-WYSIWYG deals with swapping codices.

I think the most important thing about proxying, counts-as, or any type of WYSIWYG is that both players agree before any game begins. IF you think that Chapter-WYSIWYG is too cheesy, you don't have to play against it. When that black templars player says he is using the regular marines codex, you can just say "no thanks, I don't want to play against an army like that." No one is forcing you to play against any other player! Tournaments are a special case, obviously, and the rules for what is tournament legal should be established before the tournament begins, and it is your responsibility as a player to know what the terms are.

Now, on to some general thoughts of mine:

Counts-as is totally cool. In some cases, it is necessary, because the GW models don't exist (jetbiked farseer and warlocks). As most players will agree, counts-as is the attempt to convert one model into another, usually to make it fit more with your army's fluff, or because you think the "official" model is inferior. (For example, I converted a squad of normal marines into Sternguard Vets because I didn't like the official models. I did some kitbashing on the bolters to make them cooler and I decked them all out with purity seals and other bits.) Counts-as models should have the same base and model size to ensure that you're not breaking the rules. And counts-as models should fit your army's theme, otherwise, why are you using them! Most players will happily accept counts-as models, as long as it is clear what the counts-as models is supposed to count as.

Proxying is a different story. Whether or not you will play against a player who proxies, or whether or not you proxy is a personal choice. Personally, I'll play against a player who proxies, and have used proxies myself. I usually will play a proxy when I want to try out something new without going and dumping $50 on a new model, but I don't make a habit out of it. I also don't mind other players doing the same thing, but I don't think I would want to play against a proxy army in a tournament. It's sort of a personal limit on what you'll accept. I think if someone rolled up with a 'nids army and tried to tell me they were all space marines, I'd say "no thanks." However, if the same player rolled up and said "Here's my space marine army, however I'm missing an assault marine squad, so I'm going to sub in these chaos raptors," I'd probably be okay with it. The reasons are twofold: First, the fluffy reason - the fiction of the game is broken when players start using proxies. I can personally get over this with one or two proxies, but for a whole army its kind of hard to visualize that they are something completely different. The second reason is practical - unless the models at least resemble what they are, its pretty much impossible for the player or their opponent to keep track of what is what!

WYSIWYG: Basically, I think WYSIWYG is fine as long as its not out of control. Again, the primary reason is that it becomes too difficult to keep track of what is what if nothing is modeled correctly. However if one or two models in your army have different weapons, I'm fine with that. I do this pretty regularly because I built my SM army during 4th edition and I was also new, so I would up later wishing things had been built differently (stupid commander with plasma pistol and 1 lightning claw!) Instead of buying another commander, I generally just say "hey, that's a power fist and bolt pistol" or something of the like. I try generally to play with the weapons shown on the model, but sometimes I change something up, and I don't mind when my opponents do it, as long as I know what is what. Again, as long as both players agree at the beginning of the game, its all honky dory.

Chapter-WYSIWYG is okay with me. To me it makes more sense to take a specific space marine army (dark angels) and play them using the core marine codex, than it does to use a generic marine army and play them using a specific codex like dark angels. However, I don't think I'd really have a problem with this. My decision about whether or not I'd play against such a force is really a matter of whether or not I like the player! If they've got a story behind it, or some reasoning that seems sound, or if they are just cool, I'm liable to allow their oddball army. However if the player is just a jerk, I'm not going to play with him anyway (and not because of his choice of army or codex!)

So, in summary:
- Just agree with your opponent on what's acceptable before your game begins. Nobody is forcing you to play.
- Don't be a jerk! (And you CAN be competetive without being a jerk. The two are not mutually exclusive. But that's a post for another day.)

Space Marines - Legio Draconis, the Dragon Legion

Yes, it is a Chapter, not a Legion, but I like the name, so deal with it. It's homebrew. I'll post my chapter background and official colors up here tomorrow. For now, here's my current 2k point list:

HQ

Captain w/ Relic Blade, Combi-Melter, Melta-bombs

Command Squad + Apothecary w:

1x Power Fist + Bolt Pistol

1x Power Sword + Bolt Pistol

1x Flamer + Chainsword

1x Chainsword + Bolt Pistol + Narcethium (Apothecary)

1x Meltagun + Chainsword

These guys ride around in a Razorback with a TL Heavy Bolter

Epistolary Librarian in Terminator Armor: The Avenger + Might of Ancients

He's partnered with the Termies below and comes in via Deep Strike near one of the teleport homers.

Elite

Sternguard Veterans w/ 2 Combi-Meltas and a Power Fist Sergeant

Sternguard ride in a Rhino w/ Storm Bolter

Terminators x5 w/ Hv Flamer

These guys pair up with the Librarian.

Troops

10x Tac Squad w/ Combi-melta+Teleport Homer Sergeant, Meltagun, and MultiMelta

This squad rides in a Rhino w/ Storm Bolter

10x Tac Squad w/ Lascannon and Sergeant w/ Teleport Homer

These guys park on an objective

Fast Attack

Land Speeder w/ Multi-Melta and Hv. Flamer

Reserve or Deep Strike, really handy unit.

Assault Marines x5 w/ Power Fist Sergeant + a Flamer

Also Reserve or Deep Strike, again, nice for late-game cleanup

Heavy

Devastators x7 w/ 1 Lascannon, 1 Plasma Cannon, and a Sergeant w/ Flamer

These guys also park on the rear lines for fire support, preferably in cover.

Dakka Predator

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Overall this list is a little light on the anti-tank department. The terminators, land speeder, devastators, Predator, and the large number of combi-meltas serve as my main anti-vehicle, but I suspect the list would have serious problems against Mech Guard. I'm still in the fine tuning phase. What do you think?

Eldar Army - WIP Part 1

I picked up the GW spraygun and decided to give it a run in painting up my Dire Avengers. I primed these, along with the other models I have, black, which is a little unusual for me (I usually prime white), but I wanted to try some different painting techniques with this army.

Here's a primed wave serpent packing EML and TL-Shuricannon:

I started taking these photos late, so you missed the starter photos of the Dire Avengers. But here they are after a round under the spraygun (too bad I didn't get a shot of my hands!), along with one round of going over with a slightly lightened blue glaze on the raised bits:


Blue city. Just so you can see what I'm going for, here is a pic of my "test" model that I painted on Sunday:


So what I got from the Spraygun was a whole lot of blue, but overtop of the black primer it was still pretty dark, so there's not a whole lot of shading to do, which is nice. Instead, I took a blend of regal blue and dab of skull white and edged all of the raised areas. I wasn't trying to be too clean here, mostly just trying to avoid the recessed areas and highlight corners and recessed areas. Then I thinned this out and light drybrushed over most of the model to try to even out the color. Here's what I've got so far:


After that, I slapped some light gray on the helmets and tabards and called it a night.

Next steps will be adding a touch more highlighting on the edges and the raised nobby bits, hitting it with a blue glaze to even out the color shifts, and then working over the helmet and tabard with grays, whites, and a blue wash.

Army Overviews

Several months ago, I and some other friends put together overview descriptions of most of the 40k armies. A friend suggested I put the descriptions up here for the use of n00bs interested in learning about 40k. Please keep in mind much of this was not written by me (i.e., I don't have a guard army). Most of these entries were written by friends of mine who own such armies. Some of them are pretty amusing. If you're reading this and you want to amend the list with some additional army overviews, send me an email (rampsputant at yahoo.com) or post a reply to this message. Without further ado:
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Imperial Guard

Imperial Guard have the newest codex, and people are frightened of mech guard. It is entirely possible to cover your field with vehicles. In fact, anything not in a vehicle won't even have the chance to cry out in pain it'll die so fast. They have some fun options and a neat order system, but don't let that suck you in. If you like to win, and most people do, there are far fewer competitive options. I don't play the most competitive list possible, but it's good enough to cause issues. The only thing tough about the IG are the vehicles.

Play style - Tanks tanks tanks transports transport transports. Melta heavy squads. Shoot things with your tanks, pull up with your chimeras and melta your enemy's brains. Did I mention the vehicles?

Strength - Well in case I didn't, vehicles. You have 1 dedicated transport option, 3 tank fast options (which can field 3 per slot), 2 sentinel/walker options (which can field 3 per slot), 2 flying gunship options (which can field 3 per slot). Moving onto the heavy support slots you have like 10 different leman russ variants (3 per slot), 3 different artillery tank options (3 per slot)... shall I go on? There are still a lot more now that we're at the heavies.

Weakness - The men. Once those tanks go up, so does the army. Low leadership, low BS (3 on everything but vets), low strength, bad weapons.Synposis - Fun as hell if you like vehicles. Everything is up to date. But you will get frustrated if you just want to field troops. Gunline armies aren't cutting it that much any more.

Daemonhunters

Daemonhunters have a very outdated codex. Their assault cannons have nothing on "real" Space Marine assault cannons. Their teleport homers don't work. Their land raiders don't have machine spirits AND they are not assault vehicles. Dreads take up heavy slots, which I guess is fine because the only other real choice is land raiders at a minimum of 250 points. The standard Grey Knights have only 2 weapon options, which are good, but at 25 or so points per weapon I'd rather have a missile launcher or lascannon.

What they do have is some pretty decent all around abilities. As a Daemonhunters player, you really need to be able to control the battle, which is difficult because of the lack of dedicated transports (Grey Knights don't get any). Your basic troop (25 points) is WS5 S6 A2, which is nice. They don't get a bonus on the charge, which is not nice. They all come with storm bolters, 24" assault 2 weapons. In summary, if you can manage to do a bit of damage in shoorting you will win in assaults vs non-power weapons.

Play style - You probably want to field some Inquisition storm troopers in dedicated transports with meltas for tank busting and trying to take some fire of the Knights. The Knights can be used as great objective holders (decent shooting, decent charge, need to roll to see them w/ average sight being 33"). They can also provide you a decent punch in the terminators, but their low initiative really bogs them down.

Strengths - everything, but not nearly as good in anything as a specialized army. In short, you need to shoot the assault armies and assault the shooting armies.

Weaknesses - points cost and outdated codex. You pay out the ass for everything to not work as well as it does in newer codices.

Synopsis - don't bother. If you like the army, use it as an allied force.

Tau

Tau have the best base troop gun in the game. They have a very standard BS3 but you can amp that up to BS5 for whole squads. The two basic types of play are static gun line and suit rush. The suits have a 3+SV and a HUGE variety of weapons. Easy to kit out and make wound allocation a breeze. Kroot suck. They are only ok in a few rare instances. They are cheap, but they have no save, hit like a kitten, and can't stand up in melee. 5th ED is very much an assault based system. Assault armies are very powerful along with Mech armies that can stand up to assault armies. Kroot can stand up to neither. Honestly they are only better in melee against Tau and Guard. And the guard can quickly become better then Kroot if you want them too. They are a speed bump.

Theme- Greater Good. They are Communists.

Play style- Gun line or mobile suit. Either way they are not made for taking objectives in a rush. Good at D and moving in at the last minute.

Strenghts- Awesome guns. S5 AP5 30" rapid fire. Awesome. Rail guns S10 AP1 72" even better. Markerlight 36" and does a grip of usefull things including, improving balistic skill, REMOVING cover, and negating night fire. I <3>

Weaknesses- Melee. I have sneezed into kleenex that was tougher. Kroot are no worth it. Vespids are too squishy for their point cost.

Synopsis- They can shoot. Everyone knows it. They will try to keep you from doing it. And with first round assault and deep strike assault you will be hard press to stop it.

Space Marines

Theme: Space Marines are the elite super-soldiers of the Imperium. The finest warriors of the Imperium are implanted with the Emperor's gene seed in order to make them the Emperor's finest - the Space Marines. Armed with the holy Bolter and their sacred Power Armor, the Space Marine is sent to the darkest, deadliest places in the galaxy. Outnumbered 1000 to 1, the Space Marine will fight to the death, and take his enemies with him.

Army Playstyle: Because their warriors are "elite," Space Marines tend towards fewer models on the table. They are definitely not a "horde" army like some others. Marines are good at everything, but they are the best at nothing. In a way, Space Marines are the jack of all trades of 40k. Their strength is their flexibility - high survivability (3+ armor save, 4 toughness), above average WS and BS (4 and 4), and a quality array of weaponry. Basic tactical marines (your primary troop choice) are tough but not particularly good at killing things.

The army's strengths lie in its elite, fast attack, and heavy choices. With options like terminators, sternguard and vanguard veterans, dreadnaughts, and land raiders, Space Marines can dish out some carnage that makes even the most battle-hardened player start to sweat. The recent codex allows for some real flexibility in the army. Synergy is your friend, but synergy is less important in this army than say, Eldar, which rely on it. One nice feature is that many of the named independent characters actually substantially change how the army plays, changing one or more of the special abilities of basic marines. Also, a huge selection of available units in the army list means that you can quite easily field two different marine forces with completely different units. In some ways, its hard to play marines the wrong way, because they're just inherently tough and overall pretty good. However, once you face someone that knows how to play against marines, you will get just as stomped as the next guy unless you really know how to exploit the army's strengths while minimizing its weaknesses.

Strengths: Tough troops, deadly elite and heavy choices, great fast attack and mechanized options for infantry (rhino, drop pod, land raider), mean that board control is key and marines can do it.Weaknesses: Troop choices are tough to kill but less than stellar on the offense. Models are high cost points-wise, so fewer models on the table often means you're getting ganged up on. Also means that loss of one or two important units early on can be crippling to your game.

Other considerations: Lots of plastic options available, so kitbashing is an option, and models are on average cheaper than metal. Also, because of their popularity, Marines tend to be less expensive when you're finding them used, particularly if you're willing to accept less than stellar paint jobs or models from older editions. Though I'm the only basic Marine player (I think - who knows what army Aaron my have next week) in our group, Marines are extremely common and you will see them everywhere. There is a vast amount of fluff for all of the "named" chapters that GW has created. Of course you are also free to create your own chapter (as I have done). There are a number of offshoot Space Marine armies that have their own codices. They also have some of their own models, though all of these offshoot choices share at least a few of the same models and very similar stats to basic marines. These armies are Space Wolves, Dark Angels, and Black Templars.

Tyranids ('Nids)

Theme: Tyranids are a nomadic alien race comprising many genetically engineered forms created from harvested bio-mass. They are known as the "Great Devourer" and seek to consume all in their path, draining all planets of any possible resource with horrific speed and power.

Army Playstyles: Tyranids are typically a close-combat army and rely on overwhelming their enemies through superior numbers, although they may be bio-morphed to rely heavily on ranged combat. Tyranids supplement their massive swarm with an array of monstrous creatures. 'Nids can be played either as a ranged or CC army with different pairs of units being brought to bear against an enemy.

Strength: Numbers! Numbers! Numbers! and monstrous creatures. Swarms of endless gaunts can easily overwhelm with groups of 30 units and tie up big command squads for large portions of the game. Nids have deadly big bugs that can pulverize armor in CC. Genesteaslers, Lictors, and Raveners can outflank, deepstrike, and hit behind enemy lines to force confusion on the battlefield and turn the momentum of the game to your favor.

Weaknesses: Many scoring Nid units require a “synapse unit” to be within 12 inches of them at all times or they become nigh unusable until a synapse unit is near. This makes your synapse units big targets and gives priority to your opponent from the start. Nids are also “glass cannons” and have crap armor. Armor upgrades are cost prohibitive and the heavy hitting squads (Genestealers, Hive Tyrants) are expensive comparitively to other Nids and require attention to the game board and opponents strategies in order to get them into combat before a single round of bolter fire turns 300 of your points into pulp.

Other considerations: Kit bashing and green-stuffing are great with nids. If you are a modeler who favors a bio-morphic.H.E. Giger look, then you can go far making nids all rotten and twisty.

Eldar - The Beginning

So I decided to construct an Eldar army. Not sure why - I've enjoyed Space Marines for two years, but I suddenly got the itch to do something different. A friend had been talking about abandoning his Necron army and was considering which army to collect next. That got me thinking a lot about what the different armies are like. I didn't know much about Eldar - no one in my regular group plays them - but I really like the models. I picked up the Codex and began to read. And I thought, wow, these guys are freaking sweet!


So here's the deal I made with myself - I won't buy anything new until what I have is painted, and I won't play with anything until it is painted. This is to keep myself focused on the project, and so far it is paying off.


I'm not sure what sort of army I'll be building yet, so I started out with a few units I'm pretty confident I'll use, and we'll go from there. In future posts I'll suggest some army lists I'm thinking about for different sized games and get your input. To start with, I've got a farseer, a squad of dire avengers (x10), a wave serpent with shuri-cannon and T-L EML, and 5x warp spiders.


I'll be assembling the army is a custom craftworld. Look for upcoming fluff as I develop the craftworld background. For now, I've got colors - Hormagaunt Purple and Hawk Turquoise. The aspect warriors will be painted using their official colors. This is one of the things I really like about Eldar. I really got tired of painting my space marine army because I was just using the same color scheme over and over again! But the Eldar have the opportunity to have varied color schemes. This keeps it interesting. Already I can't wait to try something different.


I started painting the Dire Avengers last night. I recently acquired a GW spray gun, and I decided to use it to basecoat them. I made something of a mess (I wound up with blue hands), but the spray gun was really effective at basecoating. Within 10-15 minutes, I had basecoated nine DA's. (The tenth one was already painted up as a test job to see how the different colors worked together.) I'll post some WIP photos later on.

So, coming soon in Eldar posts:

• WIP photos, discussion of painting & modeling techniques
• Army list ideas and next purchases
• Craftworld development

Welcome

We've wandered through the webway and stumbled in through the back door. Welcome to the Halls of the Black Library!

This is my first post in the Halls. This blog was started to facilitate discussions and explore ideas of all things 40k. In upcoming posts, look for the following:

• Photos and reports of cons and Games Days
• Essays on topics related to the game, such as good gamesmanship, the use of proxies, and balancing life and gaming
• Articles on strategy
• Battle reports
• WIP photos of my new Eldar army
• Replies to your questions or thoughts

About me:

I've been playing 40k for about 2 1/2 years. I'm not a tournament player, though I am thinking of trying out some tournaments in the future. I've been playing miniatures games much longer - have played various games such as Battletech, WH Fantasy, Confrontation, and others way back to the early 90's. I've been painting since about the same time, and though I'm no Golden Demon winner, I'm usually good enough to make First Cut. I'm also a longtime role-player, boardgamer, and most recently, a novelist.

I've currently got about 2300 points of Space Marines. We'll look at my army lists in later posts so you can tell me what you think. My biggest challenge with the army is getting it to perform well without forking out more cash to get the "badass" units of the 'dex: Land Raiders packed full of Assault Termies and Bike Squads as Troops. My Space Marine force is a custom chapter called "Legio Draconis." It's about 95% complete paint-wise. I'll get some photos up in the near future.

After finishing my novel (a 3-year project), I decided it was time to reward myself by starting a new army. Thus began my fascination with the Eldar. I love the models and I love that the army is all about clever tactics rather than brute force. I've just begun assembling and painting the initial units. We'll look at WIP photos and my ideas for larger army lists in upcoming posts.

So, why the heck are you reading this? I'm not a tournament-winning strategy god like Fritz or the guys at BoLS. I'm also not the greatest painter in the world, so if you're good, you'll likely be telling me more than I tell you.

What I can do is write. I do it professionally for my job, and I do it creatively. I'll post some fun fluff up here. I also have a background in philosophy, and there are a number of philosophical topics that aren't really explored much on other sites. Can a player be both a good gamesman and competitive? How do you handle playing against a cheesy jerk? When is the use of proxies justified? How do you balance gaming and life? How do you approach the game - RAW vs RAI, the ghost of Codex Creep, tournment vs casual play, and other topics?

I hope that you'll read because you find my posts insightful and informative. And if not, well, nobody's forcing you to read this!