Adepticon Coverage Part 4: Necromunda by Night Tournament

Just a quick post continuing my Adepticon Coverage

I got to play Necromunda by Night on thursday night and I took my Arbites gang. Every gang was allowed to bring 1200 points and could take 2 Hired Guns. As Arbites I was allowed an extra 200 and they COULD be Hired Guns, so I took a Sniper and a Wyrd painted up as a sanctioned psyker to keep is all super fluffy.

We got to play 4 games, and I had fun in all of them. Won 1, Tied 2 and Lost 1. Loved playing ALL my opponents and there were some beautiful gangs (wish I had some pictures, but lighting was TERRIBLE in the room). Best painted was this crazy Chaos Goliath Gang.

Overall, I was really glad to get to play as it has been a while, but I don't think I will be doing it again next year. Just a few things that were disappointing IMO

1- The terrain on the top 2 tables was awesome. The middle two was okay. The last two were kinda crappy, and table 5 was unfairly set up (both my opponent and I agreed. And I played on it twice). There was a huge train in the way and it completely blocked line of sight for 3/4 of the board width.

2- The games were rushed. We had about an hour a game, which would be okay it we were all on top of our game rules wise AND got to see the scenarios BEFORE Adepticon. But neither was the case for anyone, so no games seemed to ever finish. And in between I always felt rushed to advance my gang, and we weren't doing territory or anything either...

3- Mission design.They were fun missions but there were a few issues. Each mission had something wrong with it IMO.
-Game one was 5 objective markers, but the organizer walked down one side of the table, so on my table (Table 5) I had 1 marker in my table half, 1 dead center, and 3 on my opponent's table half, 2 of which were behind that annoying train. Due to the time constraints on the TO, in a rush he made a perfectly reasonable mission was imbalanced. Fortunately, somehow I managed to tie this game, as you had to move objective markers back to the board edge to scare them and my Cyber Hound is SUPER FAST so I got to bring back mine and the center one and through shooting kept my opponent from getting the ONE I could even see on his side. Thank the God-Emperor for my Sniper.
-Game two was this weird creature hunting one. What stunk about this is he could show up turn 1 and you rolled for each member of your gang and on a 6 he showed up next to them. So I as Arbites had only 7 guys on the table and my opponent was Redemptionists and had 14, so instantly stacked in his favour. We went 37 rolls before getting a 6 though, but it still showed up on my opponent's side and he killed it immediately (though it was Epic. He flamed his own juve to kill it, which was a really fluffy sacrifice for the Emperor). It seemed on a full 1/2 of the tables it was killed in the turn it showed up OR it showed up and then proceeded to kill 1/2 of the gang it was next to, so it was either an instant win or loss for a player and a tournament spoiler if it killed a bunch of your gang. On table two, it showed up on the first roll and he melted it in the first shot, winning before his opponent could do anything. Any game where this can happen is not "good". A better mechanic would be a single roll per player turn that progressively increased as the turns went on, and then the monster would RANDOMLY show up on 1 or 4 or 5 terrain pieces or objective markers. Just would've made it more fun and fair.
-Game three COULD have been cool, but once again I feel the TO rushed and set up poorly. There were 3 ork boys that had beastly stat lines, but they were set up in the middle of the table. So between my opponent and I we killed them by turn two and they didn't even get to move because they were constantly down or pinned. I killed 2 of the 3, but that didn't matter, as the victory condition wasn't around the orks, but around bottling the opponent, which is near impossible in such short time frames, especially against 12-16 man gangs... This was a tie for me.
-Game four was replaced with a game from the day Necro Tournament. It was a modified shootout. I ended up randomly bringing 2 arbites and my psyker. I won the shootout and quickly removed 2 of his players by charging them while they were down. I then proceeded to roll my first Perils on my weird in the Tournament and he got POSSESSED! Great way to end the tourney! But as for the rest of the game, because of the way the shootout was, the side that lost that was basically 1 casualty away from bottling, so the game could end really quickly and there was really no strategy to the shootout. It was random how many guys came, random which guys came to it, and random who shot first. So yeah, just poor mission design again IMO.

But I guess that's the under hive.

Now, I am not trying to complain that much. I did have fun and I am glad the event is run. BUT I think the TO should send the missions out before hand and take a little more time himself to make sure he is prepped for each mission.

Next year, we are probably all just going to Medieval Times Thursday night.

New Legion Cataphractii Shoulder Pads

Well these look pretty neat! Want to customize your Cataphractii a little more?

Well Forge World just released Legion Terminator Shoulder Pads

So far they have shoulder pads for
Sons of Horus
Alpha Legion
Iron Warriors
World Eaters
Iron Hands
Death Guard

Angels of Death Psychic Power Strategies (and Shenanigans)

So I will resume my Adepticon coverage tomorrow or Friday, but I HAD to get in an article about the new Astartes Powers ASAP. A few of these are just cool combos or silly ideas, but my last point is game breaking, so reader beware. It is the kinda thing you are going to start seeing in top ITC builds I believe, and really makes me question GW's playtesting (Hey guys SM 30th b-day! BREAK EVERTYHING!!!)

GET TO THE TREES!!! Terrain Surfing
So this is really ALL ABOUT Geokenesis Power 6: Shifting Worldscape. Now this is a WC 3 power so you need some heavy hitters on the board. Things like Tiggy, Mephiston, Full Conclaves and Grey Knights work great for this.  CRAZY RIGHT!

So read the power in the picture. Pretty spiffy and ridiculous. And completely open for some especially funny stuff.
1- Spin Terrain a vehicle is hiding in to get rear armour, or partially in to force dangerous terrain tests.
2- Make it really annoyingly dense in from of vehicles, jump infantry, bikes and jetbikes
etc. etc. I am sure you all can come up with some good stuff.

BUT the real idea here is why bother with Transports like Rhinos? Why not surf on Ruins towards your enemies. They are better than Rhinos, because your guys will be more resilient IMO and can "Disembark" and assault in the same turn. Make it even better by bolstering your Ruins with a Techmarine. You can also bring the enemy to you I guess, but that is not nearly as fun.

10 Internet Points to the first person that makes a Crimson Permanent Assurance Chapter.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! Fortification Nullification
CONTINUING with shifting world scape from above, something really funny is you can move NON-BUILDING fortifications so
1- Skyshields
2- Promethium Relays
3- Aegis Defence Lines
4- Tau Tide Walls
etc. etc.

The reason it HAS to be Non-building stuff, is because right now I am ruling conservatively and going with the building rules on page 110 BRB, where it states Buildings use the Transport Vehicle Rules, the only difference is THEY CANNOT MOVE. So even though the power says "Anything that can be physically picked up" I am going with the more conservative rule.

BUT this means you can STEAL a defence line or a prometium relay, or move all the Tau on their tidewall INTO ASSAULT RANGE or deny someone the benefits of their skyshield. All pretty annoying. And if you play you can move buildings to, you can do even meaner things, throwing bastions off of objectives and the like.

DAFT PUNKS- Technomantic Knights
For this one you can have one knight LOW or really any unit of Knights. If you are taking 1 knight, don't bother with a full Technomantic Librarian Conclave, just 1 Lib will do. BUT if you are running any formation knights, check this

3-5 Knights (Baronial Court, Adamantine Lance, Exalted Court, Gallant Lance etc. etc. Which ever you like best. It doesn't matter) + Librarian Conclave. I would likely use White Scars or Ravenguard chapter tactics. White Scars if I could afford bikes. All Libs roll on Technomantic IMO, but you can spread it out obviously, But you at least need to get Powers 4 and 5, Reforge and Warpmetal Armour. Basically, just buff and repair your knights CONSTANTLY. Haywire armour threats to them if you have nothing else to do, and let the Knights worry about the infantry. I really like this table and to me it is the "Best" in that every power on their is useful in some way in a balanced list and nothing is overtly broken either, like on some of the other new tables.

THE ULTIMATE POWER IN THE UNIVERSE- Death Star Hyperdrive
I am sorry for this one. I really am. This is game breaking. I know. But I have to put it out there...
So look on the Fulmination table, power #6

Electrodisplacement. If anything should be WC3, it is electrodisplacement. What is allows you to do is swap your  psyker and his unit with another friendly, non vehicle unit. And you can charge after doing this. That is what makes this the utterly most broken power in the range of them all. Why? Well, Superfirends Death Stars can now get a near guaranteed turn 1 assault, especially if you have a full conclave. Why try and get invisibility when you can just BE THERE.

So the three best ways to deploy this IMO
1- A random drop podded in unit. Either something REALLY cheap you don't care about in case you fail your psychic test, OR something resilient that needs to be near the enemy anyway, like Grav Cents or Flamer Sternguard.
2- A Skyhammer Devastator Squad. Equip one of the Squads with 4 x Missile Launchers or Lascannons so when you warp them out of there, they still have Range to shoot. However, still in your enemies face is another Dev Squad, 2 Assault Squads, and now a Death Star. But you will have 3 hard hitting units ASSAULTING TURN 1 in your enemies deployment zone.
3- This is the most OP IMO. Where the others rely on room to deploy a drop pod and can go off the board, this can not AND it can last ALL GAME, allowing you to warp around the board LIKE LIGHTING. What is it? A squad of scout bikers. Particularly white scars or astral claws if you can help it, for the skilled rider.
Why them? Well they infiltrate. Then scout move 6". Then move 12". Then you warp them out and your psyker in and they can assault 12". AND your bikes can then turbo boost off to the next big threat and be there for a turn 2 or 3 assault!. OH AND THEY CAN HAVE A LOCATOR BEACON to bring on all your other stuff.

So there you go. And remember, it is just a game...

Adepticon Coverage Part Three: Cool Hoth Board

So just a really quick post to share one of the coolest boards there. I may sign up for this next year TBH.

It is apparently a home ruled Hoth Battle. They appear to use WoC and Imperial Assault minis, though I noticed the X-Wing and the Snowspeeder are old Micro Machine Action Fleet toys painted up a little better.

Adepticon Coverage Part Two: Top 8 Lessons Learned

A quick rundown on the 8 most important thing my team mates and I learned at Adepticon this year.

8- If you are making a display board, make it light. Unless you are going for best display, just keep it light and simple. (see coverage part one to see what I mean).

7- There is a Medieval Times in Schaumburg. This is getting built into next years schedule for my friends and I.

Actual photo I took :(

6- Bring a Camera, not your phone. There is A TON of cool stuff. TONS AND TONS! But overall the lighting is pretty bad. I have tons of unusable photos because they looked okay on my phone and terrible now. Poorly lit and blurry. Having a real camera would make a big big difference.

5- If you can help it, bring a car. Driving means more time off work, yes, but it makes a giant difference while there. There is nothing immediately around the hotel, and you don't want to be wasting your precious hobby dollars on taxis/ubers. If at least one person in your gaming cohort can bring a car, do it. It will save you from eating ONLY over priced chicken fingers all weekend.

4- Make sure you have enough space to bring back all your swag. Seriously, our Swag bags had tons of stuff in them, plus everything we bought. Fitting it all for the return journey was a little tough. We all thought about it before hand, and it was still tough. SO REALLY REALLY Think about it.

3- Model Movement: How are you going to do it? This maybe a regular consideration for most tournament players, but is something I had not given much thought to. You are going to need something stable, safe, easy and fast all weekend. Your custom cut foam trays are not that, nor is your regular carrying case even. You have to be able to go from Hotel Room to event, and table to table, all in very short times. Packing and unpack models is unrealistic and can severely cut into game time. I am thinking of making some sort of custom tray myself.

2- Take Monday off. Seriously, if you are already taking work off to go, just Spring for that extra day on the back end. You are going to want it to get some sleep and calm down from a helluva weekend. You are non-stop all weekend, and it is intense. Plus, if you are playing in any Sunday events, you are likely flying out late, and as such getting in late. I got back to CA at midnight and had to drive 2 hours. Finally got to sleep at 3am only to get up at 6am. It sucked. Take the extra day. Speaking of flights....

1- Check your flight times. This was a really hard lesson learned for my team. One of my team mates booked MONTHS ago, and forgot to double check times until the Saturday night after day 1 of the team tourney. He unfortunately had to leave before the tournament ended, so we backed out. It wasn't a total loss, as we had an easy Sunday and weren't going to win anything big (though we were doing MUCH better overall than we had been expecting). But a hard lesson learned none the less.

So if you are planning on going to ANY major event, take these as food for thought.

Angels of Death New Formation and Detachment, with pics and rules!

If GW didn't want us to really know what these were already they wouldn't put up HD Youtube videos. All pulled direct from them. 

EDIT: APPARENTLY THIS FORMATION IS IN KAUYON. SCROLL DOWN FOR THE NEW DETACHMENT.

Hunting Force
1 Captain
0-1 Chaplain
0-1 Librarian
2-5 Bike squads
1-3 Assault Bike Squads
1-3 Scout Bike Squads
Restriction: Everything needs to be on a bike
Khan may be taken in place of a Captain. Must have Moondraken

"Special Rules: The Hunter's Prey- After deployment is complete, pick an HQ unit in the enemy army to be this Formation's Primary Target, then two other units to be the Formation's secondary and tertiary targets. The primary target is the formation's prey at the start of the game, once that unit is completely destroyed, the secondary target becomes the formations prey, and so on. When attacking (unreadable) prey, units from this formation reroll To Hit and To Wound rolls. In addition, if a unit from this Formation charges their prey, they have the Furious Charge special rules until the end of the phase."

(Unreadable) Assault: Models from this Formation that make Hammer of Wrath attacks make two (unreadble. hits?) instead of one if there are at least five models in their unit."

Anvil Strike force next. If you like tanks, this is for you.

Anvil Strike Force:
Same restrictions IRT core, aux and command as a Gladius except only allowed 2 command instead of 3.

Command Benefits:
"Master of mechanised warfare: You may choose a vehicle form this detachment to be your warlord, even if your army inclues characters. If you do, your warlord has the following warlord trait:

Big Guns Never Tire: (skipping fluff) At the eng of your shooting phase, your warlord can nominate himself or another vehicle from this detachment that is within 24" of him. This vehicle can immediately fir its weapon again.

Armour of Contempt: Vehicles in an Anvil Strike Force Detachment ignore the effects of Crew Shaken and Crew stunned damage results, though they will still loose a Hull Point"

And make of this last part what you will. We shall see who gets access to them and who doesn't.

EDIT: So there is this to clarify...

Adepticon Coverage Part One: My Completed Display Board!

So after taking a week to calm down from Adepticon and reintegrate into real life, I am able to start sharing my Adepticon experience. First post: The display board I made.

You can see the WIP post here!

So the requirement is that I had to be able to break it down and fly with it, so I did two 2 x 2 segments that I put spacers between and bolted together then boxed up, which actually made it super resilient with virtually no damage on the plane (2 tiles popped out, but I popped them right back in).

Our Theme was the Fall of Medusa V, the old GW global campaign that every faction fought at. It was the only thing we could come up with the fit our rag tag composition (we were using armies we had this year. Next year we are building for Adepticon specifically).

Stay tuned for more coverage of ADEPTICON 2016!