Steel Your Mind: (Lack of) Psychic Defence in 40k

So I was talking about the new Grey Knight army with my freind Mesdoram and he brought up a good point:

"Psychic defense needs to be ubiquitous if you're going to (pump) out rules like that".

Really when you look at it, recent codices have been stacking up the psychic awesomeness, and Grey Knights are going to take the cake. And they also have good defence: Librarian with a hood is a standard marine defence, but top it off with Aegis Armour on everyone and Stabilization feilds on vehicles that can cast powers, well you have a pretty psy resistant force.

There are 3 Armies I can think of that can decently resist this

1- Eldar. Specifically Eldrad. 3d6 tests on everything, the GK will face more perils than George Bush at the DNC.

2- Blood Angels- Standard Librarian psychic hood, but also the chance to take Librarian dreads, offering more hoods

3- Space Wolves- Able to take 4 rune priests. Which means 4 hoods

BUT those are expensive options. And that is only 3 armies. Lets look at 2 armies that have no psychic defence, but very much should

1- Deamons (besides the Blood Thirster)

2- CSM

WHAT? Why do these armies suffer? The only army that should not have defence is Tau, for obvious reasons. If anything, Eldrad's rule should be an army wide rule for Daemons. And CSM should have something equivalent to psychic hoods.

And these armies are about to majorly suffer at the hand of the GK. With no way to block powers, they will be at the mercy of the new horde of psykers. For instance, it costs 20 pts to Deamonically posses a rhino. Whereas it will cost 5 points to essentially do the same thing for a GK rhino, without the loss of BS. It will only need to pass a psychic test. On LD 10. Which many armies will not be able to stop. Yes, we know CSM are outdated and depressing at this point, but any inherent benefits are about to be trumped by the GK. Hammerhand is a standard power in GK codex. Plauge Marines are the Troop of choice for CSM at T5, FNP. Downside- I3. They will be shredded by S5, Pweap weilding, I4 combat beasts. Oh yeah, the GK are 3 points cheaper. Forgot to mention that. It wouldn't be as bad if the CSM could block hammerhand, but there is no way for them to.

Other armies suffer this too. EG Tyranids should have a shadow of the warp ability, which should be like a table wide psychic hood of sorts.

This new force is a cost effective Psychic army, and their is not much in the game that can stand against their psychic might. So while at a glance, some things may seem fair and balanced, you must remember that who they are facing may not be able to handle the heat.

Fearmongering- Will GK invalidate other Elite Armies and how BA can deal with them

Okay, so this is like 2 posts rolled into one. Part 1- How will other "Elite" armies do in a post GK meta-game. Part 2- Thoughts on how Blood Angels will combat this new threat.

Part One-
So what I fear most of this upcoming book is that it will be an army of super elite warriors that armies of elite warriors/assault armies won't be able to handle. Take things like Blood Angels (especially DoA), SW Wolf Guard/Thunderwolf, DA Death Wing, CSM Khornate. These are elite (assault) armies. Numbers around 40. What I am worried is that an army of 40 of them will not be able to handle an Army of 30 GK. They all have Power Weapons and Stormbolters, plus stat boosting weapons and powers, so they can outshoot and out kill a straight up DoA army, as well as many other power armour armies, and it won't really have the numbers to deal with it.
What is the scariest part of the GK is the Grandmaster ability to make d3 units scoring. So you can take mimimum Troops and still be confident that you will have 3-5 scoring units, more if you combat squad. Then you can have personal teleporters to make these squads zoom 30 inches to cap/contest last turn, including beastly montrous creatures. AND you know you have very few Kill Points to give up as well, since you are as small as small can be.  Where as other elite armies will likely have more kill points and need to take more Troop choices to cap objectives.
The name of the game against the GK will be volume of fire/numbers. So horde armies are safe there. BUT Elite armeis can achieve this too. We will have to localize our strength and overwhelm/outnumber them in one spot, eliminate, then move to the next. As well, get the charge. ALWAYS. You need to bring the number of attacks that charging can. And you want Furious Charge, as I5 will give you a chance to eliminate some of the power weapons before they hit back. Anything that can help here too will be critical. Lighting Claws, Litatnies of Hate, Chapter Banners, etc. etc.

Part 2- Thoughts for BA

I think there might be a slight paradigm shift in BA. Almost everyone and their mom will include an assassin, the Vindicare being the most likely candidate. This puts out priests in great danger. As well, everyone carries a Power Weapon, so even clever movement and assaulting on your part won't keep a deadly weapon away from a priest. Furthermore, FNP isn't as good against a Power Weapon weilding army. BUT priests give that important Furious Charge as I pointed out above.
BUT there are ways to do this without Priests. Namely Astorath and Death Company.

These guys are FNP, furious charging, able to have power weapons and the like, and Re-roll to hit and wound with Astorath/any Chaplain. Plus higher WS to boot, meaning you are harder to hit.
Astorath also has the advantage of making your normal BA squads FC and Fearless, making up for the loss of a priest or two.
In my opinion, Dante and Mephiston are out. As are Sanguinary Guard. Too expensive and vulnerable/useless against an army of power weapons.
WHAT IS IN is Chaplains, Librarians and Dreadnoughts. Bikes are also a little more valid with their boosted Toughness. But back to the others. Chaplains I already pointed out as beneficial with Litanies of Hate.
Librarians are now CRITICAL. Psychic hoods will really be essential to combat the psyker crazy GK. And BA Librarians have some nice powers to cast on themselves/Blood Angels rather than just on enemies. Quickening will give a needed I boost, The Sanguine Sword/Force Weapons will be great against Dreadknights/Paladins.
Librarian Dreadnoughts and Death Company Dreadnoughts will be great. Especially with Blood Talons. The Librarian ones will be able to use psychic hoods against the GK, plus thier force weapon and/or quickening make them Dreadknight slayers. Armour 13 on the front makes them nigh invulnerable to the average GK, as even Hammer Hand and Might of Titan powers will not be enough to hurt them and you are back to only S doubling weapons being able to. A 12 on DC dreads are not as good, but still good enough to avoid penetrating hits with both those powers on them unless they have S boosting weapons, plus they ignore Shaken and Stunned anyways. The fact they fleet and FC into the GK will be clutch though, as they will kill several a turn with little chance of reprisal back.
Lack of High S weapons/long range make Storm Ravens (Dreads+Ravens) and Land Raiders really good, and TH&SS termies are still a good choice.
As for deployment, just avoid DoA and deploy your Jump Troops on the table or mech up. Too many things in the GK army are deadly/bad for the Deep Strike. You will either get slaughtered when you land or not be able to land at all, so just avoid it. And be prepared to face your own tactics, as they are likely to use DS alot. If they are all DS, you can risk deploying from DS yourself, as you can beat them in with DoA.

In short, we will have to play with units that untill now have been uncommon. You will have to be even more concious of what you are doing with your limited numbers and when and with whom to chage. Ranges for powers, assaults, and psychic hoods will be critical to keep in mind. You will have to earn your victory. You will then deserve it. So let Churchill motivate you and hopefully some of my ideas work to your advantage.

Grey Knights - Discordian

So Grey Knights, scary boogie men fighters of the Imperial Empire. My forth 40k army acquired through my travels. Fun fluff, sweet gear, and awesome models. Their KNIGHTS with CHAIN FED GRENADE LAUNCHERS, what is not to like.

Like This but more Knighty..... but just as sweet

I never really had a erg to play any of the space marines, but I made a exception for the Grey Knights. Mostly because they're models look really cool as Ive already said. Here are my Grey Knights that are all painted (and save for storm shields they should all be usable).

These guys say BOO to the Boogie men

These guys help

I also liked the the rules for them when I started, the whole str 6, WS 5 and fearless across the army was pretty sweet. Made them feel very elite compared to their brothers in blue.... kind of like SWAT. Unfortunately they where pretty expensive, so I fielded them with a supporting guard platoon and storm troopers. I also had enough storm troopers to field the platoon entirely out of storm troopers. The only things not shown are the heavy weapons and chimeras I borrow from my friend every-time I play.

Can you guess what my response was

to finding out they aren't in the next one?

And here are my Raiders all raiding your land and shit. I made the one one the left able to switch between all the current variants. Which is good becasue I love redeemers and soon I'll be able to play one in normal games.

Vvvrrooomm Vrrroommm

So Whats around the Corner?

So unless you have been under a rock or your actually a sensible gamer and stay away from the ramblings of all the 40k internet chipmunks like myself, you should have seen a lot of what the new Grey Knight codex will include.

I don't want to just copy and paste all the fun facts that have been spreading through the nets so ill point you in a few directions

-Heres a good round-up of everything known

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/347121.page

-Here for new things that will be probably be popping out soon

http://bloodofkittens.com/

So Heres Are Some of My Thoughts

So grey knights lost str 6, ws 5, and fearless. Instead they now have And Thou Shall Not Know No Fear and power weapons, also preferred enemy daemons and some other shit.

So losing str 6 and ws 5 across the army kind of made me mad. Instead they have PE:daemons and power weapons to change how they interact in close combat. So instead of being Str 6 to help them hurt all kinds of daemons of various toughness they just ramped up hitting. The problem I have with it is that now Grey knights will just be really good at hurting everything tough 4 and armored. Which for the most part is not daemons but just everything else. Str 6 meant they could all take on monstrous creatures and actually cause wounds, now instead you have to struggle to wound things (granted they have power weapons so they will ignore iron hide). There are ways of beefing up the str of the squads through psychic powers, but I feel its just kind of all a excuse to make a marine army entirely made up of power weapons. I will be happy that the army does ignore all this stupid Feel No Pain crap that has been handed out like candy in the last few codexs, just annoyed that it had to be through simply being lazy and handing out power weapons.

As for losing fearless, I cant complain too much. Their marines of course they shouldn't be blindly charging people without regards to tactics. Which is why I like ATSNKF, "hey we should fall back thats gonna hurt, now we regroup and hurt them", "Shit they are shooting us duck", and "lets run... wait their gonna catch us hold your ground then", All this makes sense for a fighting force of super space marines. So I'm pretty happy about that, also as a bonus Grey Knights got combat squads. Sweet.

So units......

Grandmasters are really cool and they add so much versatility to your army through grand strategy, kind of made them a no brainier choice for most armies (also kind of shafting brother captains, who really don't get anything). Also I really like Mordrack because he fights people with his imaginary friends, and most people's imaginary friends aren't a unit of terminators. Theres also Supreme High Lord Commander ........PHD esquire III Draigo who is a total beast of a special character. Stern is also in the book and he kind of has this grumpy old man feel to him, complete with a new power called "GET OFF MY LAWN" (everyone friend/foe make a str check or be removed form play).

Librarians have some pretty sweet powers, I mean really sweet ones. Powers that activate in your opponents turn are incredible. Grey Knight Librarians are like the ultimate utility box for Grey Knights. I can easily see myself fielding these guys.

Inquisitors can get lots of fun toys and are the only way to unlock supporting mooks for grey knights, too bad they really aren't comparable to stormtroopers more like just guardsmen with tons of toys. They also decided to throw in Daemon, Xeno, and Witch hunter versions (somehow Karamazov got lost and he ended up in this book too, I really wonder if SOB will have him too).

Terminators are troops and if you really want two wound versions you can take Draigo, thats his whole thing.

Normal grey knights come in several versions. Base troops with some options, Purfiers that are elite horde killers, Jump pack versions that take up fast attack, and Purgation heavy squads that bring firepower. They also have the options to get rhinos and razorbacks as dedicated transports, who wants to guess how long it will take for grey knight razor spam to catch on. Be prepared, halberds are upgrades for these units .... So GW kind of screwed us there with older models.

Assassins are still in, in all their varying forms with a few new surprises. Vindicares have unlimited ammo for one.

There are also the stormraven and land raider variants are in, complete with psychic powers that can make them immune to shaken and stunned.

Also the codex comes complete with Voltron Defender of the universe (check out the picture of the dreadknight if you don't believe me). Its size is one of the many things that piss me off.

Far left and right side next to the Ravens

I think I bored you enough with this post, so I'll call it a night. But I should be able to get a few more miles worth of posts out of this new GW crack about to hit the streets at some point.

P.S. I'm sad about one thing that didn't come to be in the new dex...

Zoooooommmmm

Book Review: Redemption Corps by Rob Sanders

SO I just finished the latest installment in the Imperial Guard novel series: Remption Corps by Rob Sanders.

I had high hopes for this book. A new BL author, which the BL has been good about recruiting only the best. As they broaden, they can afford to seperate the wheat from the chaff. Plus it is a book about Storm Troopers: guys so BA that if they had been born on worlds with SM legions they would have made the cut.

BUT this book sadly dissapointed me. Before I go into the dissapointing aspects, I will say what I liked.
1- The Characters- Mr. Sanders created some likeable and hateable (SoB) characters. A man who would give Arnold a run for his money in one of his own movies and who doesn't love to hate Sisters. He also makes a few other decent characters (Rask, Rosenkratz, Krieg). They aren't poorly constructed and you can get a good feel and backstory from each of them. Jopallian Pilot working off her debt, Inq Stormtrooper turned commissar, the likeable middleman IG captain. They all work.
2- The flash forwards. In between each chapter, Rob fast forwards to the end and slowly developes the finale through out the book. These were actually some of the most understandable moments of the book, and were the best parts to read. I also liked piecing together the mystery. Plus, I get to continually seeth with hatred towards Sisters of Battle, and for multiple reasons.

BUT the rest of the book is painful. It isn't his language. His descriptions are good. He has some good settings and ideas. It is his execution. As I said in number 2 above, the flash forwards are understandable. You can follow what is happening. The rest of the book is like reading a play without stage directions, or watching a movie with 5 of every 15-20 frames missing. I think Rob wrote the fast forwards then realised he needed a book to go with it and just slapped a first draft on paper and turned it in. Things/Character actions happen and you are instantly lost, because he fails to set them up or assumes you know the intervening steps. It is like stop motion writing. Stop motion animation is fine, because it is so fast my mind fills in the blanks, but written I can't. I think Mr. Sanders saw it in his head, which I get from the settings and the characters, but he just couldn't write down the action coherently.  He assumes you are watching the same thing he sees. Unfortunately Mr. Sanders, I am not. BUT try giving comic books/graphic novels a shot. THEN I can see, and your story will make more sense. But as it is, Rob can't reliably get the action from pen to paper. Too many gaps.

It had soo much potential, being about crazy Storm Troopers that take on the toughest jobs. It had a chance to be the new Last Chancers, but Rob put a nail in that coffin. I'll take Schaeffer over Mortensen any day.

Unless this book is in an Omnibus, pass it up. Seriously, save your time and read something else. The only reason I stuck with it was to write this.

Verdict- What is good can't NEARLY cover what is bad. Lowest rating to date- 1 out of 5 aquillas

Inspirado- Ideas for Rogue Trader Themed Imperial Guard Armies

The other day I was just sitting eating dinner by myself and I was struck by inspirado. A Rouge Trader themed IG force
So this is what hit me first. Using Imperial Guard to represent a Rogue Trader household. Some of the most powerful RT dynasties would definately have personal militias.

Thoughts on themeing
It should be a smaller elite force, eclectic in style, with very little to no armour to speak of. Imperial Skimmers/Flyers should be the only vehicles present really, as an RT will be deploying from his ship. If he does have armour, it will be in the form of the most common of imperial tanks (Chimeras, Hellhound, Leman Russ Battle Tank) and thats about it.

HQ: Company Commanders are obviously the RT. The squad he is with could either be household guards, or family. Take Body Guards and maybe a fleet officer or master astropath advisor to fit the theme. Straken also makes a good RT, with his bionic enhancements that a man like an RT could afford. To model the RT, I would go with the Which Hunter Inquistors, Classic IG Characters, A Vostroyen or something from Necromunda.
Every RT with a private militia also probably has a head of that militia, or if he is the head at least a experienced 2nd in command. A Commissar Lord does very nicely in this role rules wise, as far as model goes, I'd say DON'T use a commissar model, but rather an officer from whatever you are using as your household troopers.
A primaris psyker may be pushing the edges of the envelope, as any RT with one is most likely stepping outside the boands of Imperial Law (more so that usual) and would likely draw the attention of the Ordos (esp Hereticus), which no RT wants. BUT There are those that will do it, OR if they are on an Inq sanctioned explorator mission, it maybe very likely.
Enginseers are also a decent fit. And chances are they will have a good amount of sevitors with them, as the RT will spare no expenses on having the best equipment.

TROOPS: Choices are Veterans to represent household militia. A Rogue Trader is going to  have a small number of elite troops, rather than platoon sized enitites. Transports would be best represented via arvus lighters/aquila landers IMO, but Chimeras and Valkyries are fine as well, as some RTs are that powerful. Cadians work just fine as models, but so do Necromunda Enforcers or VanSaar, FW Elysians. Vostroyan first born will look particularly nice as well, as they are very ornamental
Penal Legion Troopers are also a good fit as mercenaries in the force. A fun unit for a themed army like this and a great opportunity for modeling unique a flavourful individuals in a squad.

ELITES: Storm Troopers are a good fit as the most elite of the household militia. I would go with old school ones over Kasrkin models. Just a more RT look to them. You can also convert up some fancier versions of your household troops, or a new look altoghter.
Abhumans are actually GREAT fits for RT armies. Ogryns and Ratlings would be easily aquired (via legal and illegal means) during a RTs adventures, and chances are that the RT has no scrupples over employing such deviations from humanity, after all chances are he/she deals with Xenos time to time. I personally think Ogryns are a better fit, but it is up to you.
I say psyker battle squads are out. To much psychic for an RT to afford/risk. That would definately bring down the Inquisition on them.

FAST ATTACK: If you take FA, stick with Valkyries and Vendettas. Maybe, MAYBE a hellhound or Rough Riders, but these are unlikely. Rough Riders though are eclectic, so maybe an RT would take them. BUT I would go with Vlaks still, as Heavy Support is going to be light.
Sentinels can be used to, but not armoured ones. If anything FW lifter sentinels make more sense, but a RT maybe able to convert them back in forth as needed, so guns can be found on them.

HEAVY SUPPORT: There is really nothing in the HS section that makes much since. If you aren't afraid of using FW models/rules, Vulture Gunships work. But a RT is unlikely to have tanks. If he does, it will be Leman Russ, and thats about it.

Modelling- Pick a consitent theme and go with it. Say you want to have fluff of a guy on the eastern fringe. Incorporate tau looking stuff into everything, maybe have a squad of kroot walking around (Penal Legion Troopers IMO). Want them to be fancy. Use Marcharius as your RT and then Vostroyans as all your troopers. High Tech, a Witch Hunter Inq in Power armour and Necromunda VanSaar/Enforcers as your troopers, along with Stormtroopers. Gothic, Witch Hunter guy in trench coat and Empire Soldiers kitbashed with guardsmen. Does he deal with eldar alot? Well use some eldar/dark eldar bits.
Then add little jewels of flare and ecleticism. Things like Penal Legion "Mercenaries" and Ogryns. Make these guys feel entirely different from everything else. Maybe use ogre kingdom ogres and make your mercenaries look like they are mongols as well. Maybe make them all look individual and criminal like. Maybe if you have a gothic force, make them look high tech and proffessional. But have a contrasting unit will go a long way to making the force fit the RT Theme
OR you can go completely inxonsistent and make every squad different to represent a totally eclectic RT.

What would be really cool would to see an actual codex on RT, or at least a white dwarf one. I am sure it would be very upgrade and wargear oriented and be designed aroung synergentic builds.

Meet Jerry: Hive Tyrant (Rant) - Discordian

He is all that is left of my 2000sih collection of Tyranids. Honestly he was the only model I bought, the rest of it was two battle forces my friend had lost in his basement. He never actually played them, he just had them for some reason. Jerry is the standard new metal Hive Tyrant plus the wings from GW's Balrog. I even took the time to magnetize his arms, which was really easy just make sure your poles are right or it will get very annoying later.

Size Inconvenience - Yes, Sweet looking - YES

CAW CAW

Decisions Decisions

I had this whole paint scheme based around those creepy moths with eyes on there wings. A whole bunch of gaunts where done like this, but they where some of the first to go so I don't have any pictures of them.

Boo

Ultimately I think the main reason I gave up on Tyranids was because I simply hated playing the horde. As much as I liked the picture of a ton of ravenous creatures scurrying across the battle field it was a bitch and a half to field.

Hide your kids hide your wives

Now for the rant part of my post........

Jerry as show equipped would have run around 200 points when I first made him. Now in the new edition it comes to around 230, losing the grenades and 2+ for some cool psychic shooting powers and higher weapon skill (and this is without any of his actually useful upgrades).

The fact that the new tyrant can't get warp field kind of made me mad but I understood it seeing how it changed. I got really mad though when I found out all of the new monsters in the book get 6 wounds while the tyrant is stuck at 4 and for the most part costs way more. Sure he can take guard but that makes him more expensive (Also they don't get Move Through Cover for some freaking reason). All in all I just felt the hive tyrant got shafted in the new edition because all the newer things where made as better choices.

GW ruining all your standard choices with each new edition

Give him wings he becomes easy to kill and super expensive. Give him guard and he becomes super slow and super duper expensive. Plus now he becomes easier to just ignore. I do this to my friend all the time, ill kill the rest of his army and if I have time ill circle back around and take out the tyrant. He just isn't the pressing of a issue when Ive got genestealers all up in my picnic baskets. I wouldn't mind this if when the tyrant showed up he had some fun, but my games go either one of two ways.

-I kill the rest of the army breathing down my neck and turn my guns on the tyrant right before he gets in range to do things

-Or the main bulk of his army kills me and when the tyrant finally shows up its party time because theres nothing left to do

I have another friend who uses them just to give him +2 to reserves (One normal and one Swarm lord). It worked really good because the rest of his army was in reserves and was waiting for turn two where they'd pop out of every unturned rock in my deployment zone. Pretty devastating because he did this to me in Ard'boyz against my poor tau. But for the rest of the game his tyrants where just walking and did nothing else.

They're on the Everything!

I don't like the idea of tyrants being cheerleaders. And if I see them try and do more they end up being picked off way to easily considering how much a investment they are. Sure you can put up distractions or something to draw fire but if your playing against anyone who has a general knowledge about bugs he wont get very far even on the best of days.

Also your opponent will be laughing at you from inside terrain because nobody worth a dam has grenades anymore.

P.S. There is one thing in the Codex that pissing me off more then Jerry's makeover. Its the simple fact that Ravenors have acute senses............. WHY!!!
(Gothmog's Notes: For those of you who don't know, the Ravenor has no range over 18" and the minimum night fighting is 18", so you would never need to re-roll for night fighting as accute senses allows.)

Eldar - Discordian

Now for a showcase for my angry space elfs.

The Better of My Models

So heres a peak at my Eldar models. Since I took a more elite style of play with my Eldar, I end up usually only fielding very few models. This in result made it much easier for me to approach the army painting wise.

Picture Time

So lets start with the leaders. I was always a fan of the Eye of Terror strike force list and was very tempted to build one when I started out, but edition changes and out-dating kept me from diving into it. But I still like the the tag team that is Eldrad and Maugan, one guy to buff my army and one guy to just be buff.

Eldrad: "That Way"

Maugan: "NO that way"

Avatar: "MAKE UP YOUR MIND"

The main center piece of my army is a full unit of Wraithguard. The only reason I have them is because I got them really cheap from a friend, the idea of actually buying them at price from GW sends shivers through me. With fortune its like pulling teeth trying to get rid of them, just keep them away from heavy hitting assault units.

Ghost Robots and Friend..... I really hope they bring back Iyanna

Banshees are one of my favorite units in the whole codex. They do one thing and they do it very well. And they do it so angry.

PUT THE TOILET SEAT DOWN!

So recently I've been playing around with storm guardians as my second primary troop choice. This spot was usually taken up by dire avengers but I wanted something that screwed over people thinking cover saves would like save them. So enter a squad of two flamers and a heavy flamer. Since I've just started using them they are kind of only partially painted, but the next time I feel board they are so gonna get some cleaning up.

Roasting Time

Last part of my army are the parts that ensure my list usually has a lot of speed, in fact other then my ponderous wraiths everything usually has some way of moving 24 in a turn.

Zoom Zoom

Not Wraithlord, he only wishes he could fly

General Army Composition

So Eldar was my second army so for the most part when I started planning out the lists I wanted to field things that made for a different style game. So hq choices that where special, fast, and anything that was beastly at close range. All things that where very not tau.

Heres a glimpse of my 2000 all comers list.

HQ

Steve (Eldrad) - Fortune, Fortune.... and I guess doom or something. His mission is to give me rerolls. And he hardly disappoints, although several times he's nearly periled himself to death.

Maugan Ra - He laughs at your pleas for cover saves and walks with wraiths to act as a speed bump.

Elites

Banshees - As my friend once put it "They're so angry!". A squad of power weapons that always go first...... awesome. Do not believe that makes them good though, with out without doom support they will usually have a hard time breaking out of a paper bag.

Troops

Full Wraithguard - Slowly walking up the field or staying in one place acting as a huge scary walking bubble of our guns will suck you into the warp. Expenive? Yes, but they give me such a huge contrast from my tau almost all my list have them.

Storm Guardians - I needed a reliable way to fight hordes of guys. For awhile it was a squad of dire avengers, but I got tired of people abusing the fuck out of cover saves with hordes of cheap guys. Riding around in their serpent to get where they need to be and if I happened to get doom off on the target they are dps monsters..... unless their target survived then they die.

Guardian Jetbikes - Small, fast, cheap, scoring. When I have about 1/4 of my army invested in a slow moving squad of wraiths, its really nice to have these guys bounce around and pick up the slack.

Heavy

2 Fire Prisms - My prims are legendary for surviving entire games, ending up with no weapons left, thanks to holofields. Usually they hover around blasting the first two two turns and then late game end up acting as objective contesters.

1 Nightspinner - Personally dubbed the Inconvenience Tank. I don't expect it to kill much but I expect to inconvenience EVERYTHING!

My Thoughts on the Whole

Baring a few 5th edition internal balancing and cost issues its one of the few of the last editions that isn't in a rush to be updated. And this isn't because they where overpowered... maybe a little..... but because all the rules for what its units where supposed to do where included inside the codex and despite all the major changes in 5th most of their units came into the new edition unmolested by concept changes.

Not Done Yet

They can be both offensive and defensive. Usually in unique ways that few other codexs replicate making them feel and play different then most armies. They also have a lot of different units that do different things, which can allow you to mix up your game every once and awhile.

I Feel a few units do show their age more then others. Swooping Hawks, Support Weapons, Vypers come to mind. They have really cool rules but they have to pay for it more then others. I do hope in the next update for them they get a chance to shine again. The support weapons for one should change considering their new model in fact changes how they operate, it dosnt make much sense that a artillery piece rules wise operated by two dudes on foot, now only has one, model wise.

Old and Dusty

New Hotness

Next time I show you my very small Grey Knight force and will probably give a few thoughts on whats about to happen to them.

Großer Verpester aka Great Unclean One Painted

Hey all. Mesdoram here with a painting update. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on one of the Ultraforge Greater Plaguedemons, and finally got around to detailing it. The model is beautiful, and it was a great pleasure to paint. The rust effects were achieved with one of Les Bursley's weathering powders from awesomepaintjob.com.








And a preview of things to come:

Tau - Discordian

So I promised that I'd start making showcase posts for each of my armies. And I figured I'd start off with my first, my mighty fighting space cows with guns, the Tau.

The better of my models

For starters lets take a look at the model that convinced me to start playing tau and 40K itself, the mighty Hammerhead. If anyone ever asks me what the str of a that thing I'm shooting at them is, my usual response it str "Railgun". Its mobile, sleek, hard hitting, and can be loaded with tons of fun technological gadgets. This my friends is what the Tau are all about.... or at least how I feel they should be represented.

PHEW

Heres my standard HQ, every-bodies favorite 1+ commander, his friends call him Bob (I have a common trend of calling my HQ odd non-threating names). When I first started playing he was a Shas'O but after realizing that I didn't really need the higher ws and +1 attack, he became a Shas'El with a targeting Array. The only thing useful Ive found with having a big O around is the magically leadership 10. Ahhhh the little things most armies take for granted.

His Shit is Custom

My Elites are usually always represented on the table through the simple yet effective Twin-Linked Missile Pods. I just recently converted these two and they are next on my list to become partially painted.

Do yourself a favor keep them simple and keep them cheap, and they wont disappoint

Though every once and awhile I break out my swiss army style stealth suits.

Like Tau Terminators just will....... not

Next Lets take a peak at my troops. Unfortunately these days if I ever need to cut points this is where I start. I like them and their sweet helmets, I just wish I knew what they where hitting half the time.

P.S. those are not their transports

Next is my Pathfinder squads which I recently have taken the option of equipping some with rail rifles. The only part that really pisses me off is the fact I have to say every time I use them "Yes they can shoot at a different target then the squad".

There theirs because they have to buy them.

No joke otherwise they'd have to make them a troop choice or something.

Fuck you 5th edition.

How many people have a fast attack choices made up of Heavy Laser Pointers, these guys.

General Army Composition

For the most part my army usually looks like this.

HQ - Shas'El with a targeting array, attaching any squad I feel needs protecting from first turn shooting

Elites - A squad of Twin-Linked Missile Pods

Elites - A suicide squad armed with meltas, flamers, and a air burster if I can afford it.

Troops - 3 squads of fire warriors of which at least one at full strength

Fast - 2 Pathfinder squads whose transports immediately pick up my troop choices

Heavy - Hammerhead

Heavy - 2 Broadsides with A.S.S. (not joking, that is the upgrade that makes them relentless)

Heavy - 2 Broadsides with A.S.S.

I play around with things here and there, but I usually gravitate back to something that looks like the above, because it has proven pretty reliable for me a all comers list.

My Thoughts on The Whole

Sit back the first couple of turns and then proceed to scream not the face. The best way to play tau is prioritize threats early, hit hard, and do anything and everything possible to slow your opponent from getting where he needs to go (Because if its not you its somewhere you have to be too).

From my experience there are three ways to play tau and one way to not really play the game.

Gun-line - keep it cheap and you'll get a lot of guns, don't plan on moving any of your models....ever.

In a perfect world

Mechanized - if it cant move and shoot, drop it.

Don't look back

Hybrid, the middle ground between the two. Which is often enough where my lists take me. Expect to loss stuff, just make it count while its still table side.

For the Greater Good

Ninja, yeah you heard me. Tau have a huge amount of things that can enter the table from reserves through deep strike and outflank, and they also have a way of stalling the flow so a good majority of the army will show up turn 5 (If your curious look at the Positional Relay). I don't like the style that much because for the most part your not playing the game against your opponent, your just like party crashing way late...... going "hey guys whats going on dudes" ........and all the beer is gone.

What they are good at - Tau specialize in making people walk, break there toys and laugh. Just do it early on or they will walk up to you and ask for your insurance information. Applied pressure, you can put frightening amount of hurt on any unit thats dumb enough to venture close without any support. Crisis suits can specialize to play any role on the battle field, just don't rely on them too much or they end up being a massive points sink.

What they are bad at - Against anything fast tau crumble, they just don't have any tricks to keep them safe from early rushes or anything with special reserve rules. Its hard to have a shooting war with Guard because they honestly have better guns and usually more of them. And against anything with "Foot" in it you have to be very careful with your initial setup and fire lanes or your not going to kill enough of whatever is footing your way.

So thats the Tau, Discordian Style. If you have and comments or critiques start typing.

Next time my very angry Space Elves.

I typed in angry elves and got this little gem