Public Service Announcement - 40k Required Reading

I sure there's going to be a lot to say about Big FAQ 2.

But for now here is a handy chart of all required reading materials to play 40k (Malal and Squats need not apply).

"8th Edition is going to make things so much clearer than 7th guys! We won't need nearly as many books I swear!"  -Clueless people on facebook



UPDATE:
A small surprise. I realized after I made this that BIG 1 FAQ has been merged into the other relevant faqs. One less folks!

A Modest Proposal - Inquistion

I get that the core rules of 8th edition is here to stay..... probably with a couple more Character targeting rule re-clarifications (for the record we are at 5 right now).

But they're just too many instances where Armies and/or Units end up being severe handicaps even in the most casual of instances.

And I have a couple of modest proposals to put forth. Probably none of them will happen, but its not like I have anything better to do while waiting for the next BIG changes.

So lets start with Inquisition, the codex-less with no prospects in site.

We also have cool hats.

1. Henchman (Now Acolytes)

Right now Acolytes as a Unit is okay. I don't mind they lost all their friends. If you look at their printed wound-count there's a chance they might have eaten them.....

But they just need to be changed in some way. Which is actually really hard because of how they are written. If you make them troops, you create the cheapest battalion in the game. If you increase their stats they become more tempting special weapon bolt-ons.

So for starters they need to have a larger squad size (Lets say 5) and "Authority of the Inquisition" needs to be re-worked so that it only applies if they ride with a Inquisitor. Maybe limit the number of special weapons.... that last one sounds familiar for some reason.

After that happens, its not so bad if they become troops.


2. Units

Inquisition needs its units flushed out in some way. I'm not expecting Codex Daemonhunters and Witchhunters back, but at least all the retinue options need to come back in some way.

This is a picture from the Inquisitional section in the Index, 

Only three of those models are actually Inquisition right now.

If Acolytes move to Troops, you can leave the Elite slot for things like Daemonhosts, Jokaero, and Crusaders. Then put death-cult assassins in FA and Gun Servitors in Heavy support. Its not like they'd have to create new datasheets or models, just give Inquisition back what they already had with faction keywords.


3. Transports

I get what they were doing. Why bother giving Inquisition rides if they can just jump in anything.

But its not hard for Inquisition to get back a few dedicated transports options. I mean they've copy/pasted Deep-Strike a million times at this point, one more chimera and rhino datasheet with a Inquisitional pre-fix wouldn't break the bank

Also Landraiders going back into Heavy Support would mean those fancy Raider doors I have make sense.

4. Ordos Traits / Inquisitor abilities

Right now each Ordos group hates their intended target, like really hates. As in they re-roll everything to-hit and to-wound. Which makes sense in theory, but when they're full-tilt all the time you literally can't give them any other rules.

If you pull it back to only re-roll 1s or make it a aura on the inquisitor, you can start to give them other things without it becoming a very specific one sided murder match-up.

Another more nifty option would be to make the Inquisitors have some kind of friendly targeting ability, a unique Ordo Inquisitional order-like thing. Coteaz could scare a target unit into being being brave, Greyfax suggesting a unit dodge that screaming fireball, and Karamoza could be good at suggesting friendlies be targeted.......

5. Detachment Bonuses Intentional, Stratagems and the like

This is were it gets tricky, you do have to make Ordos good at fighting their intended target. Ordo Xenos is supposed to be good against Xenos. But if they are too good, you aren't going to see people actually wanting to play each-other, and Tournament Bros are just going to have another tool to exploit in Detachment Soups.

They need to be more like Deathwatch stratagems, and less like Vect.

Another option with this is to make it so Ordos have a reason to be taken with their co-workers. For example, Ordo Malleus does something helpful with Greyknights. Like if you changed the Ordo Malleus re-roll to a Generic reroll 1s aura (like every decent army these days), make it so that it effects Ordo Malleus and GKs.

But it's very important that whatever actually happens with Inquisition, is worded to include Inquisition units present and participating. Other wise we run into the same problem we have now, where a Guard Commanders are really good at yelling at knights.

Allies of Inconvenience- Podcast now on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Stitcher!

HEY YOU! You should totally check out our Podcast, Allies of Inconvenience. See that cool logo? Get the not so subtle reference in our title? Yes? To Both! Then what are you waiting for, we are now on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Stitcher! There is NO REASON you can't listen to us, because every major option is there!

Listen/Subscribe on iTunes Listen/Subscribe on SpotifyListen/Subscribe on Google PlayListen/Subscribe on Stitcher

We try to keep each episode between an hour and 90 minutes, cover our hobby progress and 2-3 different current hobby subjects or fluff discussions, with plenty of humour in between! And we are ad free! So what are you waiting for? Check us out! Oh, and if you enjoy, please give a Review!

Fallen Mistake - A Dead-end Thought Exercise

Discordian here. So when I'm not trying to re-purpose my Fantasy models for my Dark Eldar, I also have a Grey Knight Army. And every once and awhile I try and think of new interesting ways to make them interesting again.

So here is my latest attempt of convincing myself to buy new models.

Fallen exist....

They have the interesting distinction of being the only Chaos/Imperial units. They've got one cool character named Cypher, who's a model I own because he's cool. And I was like "Hey maybe they can add something to my GK".

I even thought of a good base for converted Fallen Dudes

definitely lose the heads

But Woof..... those rules. And I thought Gk had it bad. I'm fairly sure they're only two units in the faction, Cypher and Stern-guard without special ammunition. Which I guess isn't terrible if you plan to play them with Chaos, you know that book they come in. But even then, you start realize they aren't even good there.

They cant ride in transports and they can't use any stratagems. The only special rule rule they have is re-roll ones-to-hit if they don't move.

You know that thing EVERYONE has

They do have a special morale thing, for you know those common cases you're playing someone that can't kill a small number of power armor dudes. And Cypher is a character with a re-roll 1s aura... that thing they already have....

It's at this point I realized they lost the whole infiltrating thing and that what I'm looking at is a faction of 5th edition CSM.....

I'm not saying a bunch of Powered Armoured marines in cover shooting special weapons is a bad thing, I'm just saying I'm better off using any other Imperial Power Armoured marines.

So now I return the beginning of my thought exercise.

Fallen exist..... And I thought I should share that with you.....

Hobby Progress: Prophets of Bark and the Spooky Bunch, Part 3

Hello.

Recently I went to NOVA 2018. And I used it as motivation to complete an army I've been working on for quite some time.

This Army.

This whole army started because I liked Mandrakes. So everything is themed around that, so stayed with spooky things.

AOS Tree Revenants as Wracks & Haemonculus

Archon

As a add-on I wanted to use some Silent Shroud Harlequins, because you know scary stuff.

Had a few Razorwings laying around 

Sticks out for now, but I plan to replace it 

with the next High Elf Skycutter I see

One of the last things I worked on was finishing my Skyweavers, but not the 6 actual ones I already had partially painted.

These Guys

The very last thing I worked on was a small Eldar detachment for much larger NOVA events.

Deer-Locks

Wraith-seer was a old Project, 

but I gave him some blue to help him fit in

I'm not sure where I'll go from here with this army. It filled out pretty nicely, and I've done pretty good of exhausting GWs mandrake-like and bird selection. But maybe one day GW will revisit actual Wood Elves and give me something else to work with.

If you want to see more of this army and what ended up happening at NOVA, the below links will take you there.

PART 1
PART 2
NOVA RECAP

Allies of Inconvenience: Episode 13- NOVA Narrative Recap and Changing the 2018 Meta

This Episode the Evan "Gothmog" and Chris "Discordian" recap their excellent experience attending NOVA and playing in the Narrative event for 40k, Evan with his BA Dreadnoughts and Chris with his Dark Eldar spooky bunch. After that we launch into talking about the meta, what it is and where we would like to see it go!

Also, here is a link to the KHARN we talk about!

Listen/Subscribe on iTunes
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00:00 Intro

04:16 Hobby Progress

26:30 NOVA Narrative Recap

53:09 The Meta and What to Change

Songs and Soundclips

Blue Mark- Atlan Urtag

Kaap mere- Bugotak

Clip 1 - The Wrath of Khan

Clip 2 - Zeonic Front

Clip 3 - Blade Runner

5 things to Change in 8th Edition

So another big event happened. Another round of contemplation. Another list of things that could change.... That probably wont.....

1. Auras Still Suck
There needs to be less auras abilities and more targeted abilities. I.E. instead of one lieutenant giving everything with 6" re-roll 1s, have him have a fixed number of units per turn he can apply it to. More expensive characters can have more targets.

SHOOT EVERYTHING BETTER

Having flat auras lowers the power ceiling and screws up scaling. One character next to one unit isn't a big deal, one character next to 5 units makes a firing-squad with very little investment.

2. Command Points and Soup Still a Problem
Guard battalions are the biggest offenders here, but CPs/Soup in general need to be curbed somehow.

The easiest thing I can think of without screwing to much up, is to give the battle-forged bonus (also maybe increasing it) only to Armies that have at least 2 matching faction keywords.

Also CP regeneration needs to have limits, definitely no stacking multiple abilities.

Other possible limiting factors could be you HAVE to share the same faction keyword as the detachment you want to spend the CP on. This way you could have something like Cadians spending CP across multiple Cadian detachments, but not on their Allied Blood Angels.

3. Planes
Need to be harder to kill. I'm saying this fully understanding that it will make my arch nemesis the Fire-Raptor better. But I think a leaf on the wind should be harder to hit than a Eldar Pathfinder in tree-camo hiding in a open field.

Grunt "Captain that bush shot us"

Captain "There's nothing there, must be your imagination"

Grunt "Bob is Dead!"

Captain "It looks like a mystery is a foot!"

All planes, save Alaitoc Hemlocks, are way to easy to kill. And I think to the thing to do is to change "Hard to Hit" to -2 to hit, but make it so 6s always hit.

A crazy thought would be to change that to only apply to planes without hover, but I would hate to be actually murdered by any fire-raptors that take offense to that.....

4. First Blood
This needs to become first strike in the rule book. The game is already so Alpha-strike oriented, we essentially reward people a secondary objective for winning the roll off to see who goes first. It is crap.

First Strike is a point so long as you kill something 1st turn- this gives both players a chance to score it. Several tournament systems have already moved towards this.

Alternatively, you could do First Blood/Last Blood- a point for the First AND Last thing killed in the game. This gives the second player a distinct advantage at the end of a game to counter the 1st turn advantage their opponent had.

5. Deepstrike
I really like the changes to reserves the "BIG" Faq made. The turn 1 only being able to arrive in your own deployment zone, overnight changed the game so that you can't both shoot and punch the table turn one (usually).

And it also meant that everyone wasn't burning a ton of time in deployment trying to fence off areas.

But I do think it needs to be revisited. 40k is still primarily a shooting game, and the "BIG" didn't do anything to address that with alpha striking. I don't expect them to change that really, but I think reserve rules could be lacked a little bit to account for it.

Change it again. To only being able to deploy in your table half turn 1, or at most just not your opponents deployment zone. Brings back some pressure, just not too much.

NOVA Narrative Recap- The Unstoppable Dreadnoughts

NOVA was this last weekend and man was it a BLAST. It is definitely a smooth run operation and I plan on going back again for a third time next year. Last year I took my all Death Rider Army to the NOVA GT and Trios. This year I intended to do the Trios again, but due to team mate issues, I instead went to DC and did the tourist thing on the day of the trios. This is one of the untold bonuses of NOVA, you are practically in Washington, and taking an uber or the Metro to the museums/monuments is easily done and worth it if you are not from the area.  But after a day of site seeing I got to jump into the NOVA Narrative! Check out their mission pack here. Some really fun and cool missions you should try at home (especially Shuttle Crash and Refinery IMO).

My 2500 point army. All my armies would be made from this!

I had started this article a few days ago, but now I feel I must temper my enthusiasm before I launch into the review.
Edit: I leave the following 2 paragraphs for completions sake, but I wan't it to be known I have since spoken to Joe the TO. He is a real class act and got back to me with a solid explanation and apology of what happened, and "honor is satisfied" on my part from what you are about to read below. It really wan a GREAT event and the mistakes that follow in the next 2 paragraphs really are just a confluence of bad luck and pre-con impediments to a 100% smooth Narrative. That being said, I really do appreciate the explanation and discussion with the NOVA Narrative TO.

The narrative, while being great for come and go play and just general fun, had some record keeping issues apparently. I get that is can be really really hard with the open format that it is, but I played every non-kill team game. But reviewing the records afterward, I have the wrong Fame Score (I should have 0... they gave me 27. I saved no civilians). I am missing 2 rounds of battlepoints. My APOC score is not associated to me, and I am missing a hobby score.

As they record shows, I am #9 on the virtue team. If I it JUST added my battlepoints, I would be 4th. With a measly 5 hobby points I would be tied for 3rd. 11 would have had me tied for 2nd. 19 tied for 1st. Seeing as no one got less than 9 if they got judged, I should have placed, and I'd like to think at least 2nd if not 1st (by maybe 1 point)... Its really disheartening to have put all this effort into something and then learn I walked away empty handed not for lack of my effort, but because of just bad book keeping. I know they are volunteers, but as a customer, I feel a bit cheated. I know little can be done at this point, but if there was a certificate or medal that the people who placed got, it would be nice to have one sent. Not looking for the prizes. Just something to mark my accomplishment.

Anyway, onto the coverage! I was on Team Virtue (story in the mission pack), helping eliminate the Forces of Humanity. My Battlegroup was the Guns of Waaaghust.

All my lists are available here. But I'll sum up below
I had 13 dreadnoughts
-Chaplain with Claws and Heavy Flamers
-Librarian with Halberd, Fist and Melta-gun
-Contemptor with Assault cannon and Fist+combi-bolter
-2 x Furiosos
-2 x Death Company Dreads (Cassor the Damned and Moriar the Chosen)
-3 x Mortis Dreads w/ autocannons, assault cannons and the occasional heavy bolter
-Deredeo w/ Autocannons and heavy bolters and  a nice shield projector the FW still hasn't released despite showing it off at every event they do for over a year.
-Leviathan in a Drop pod with a melta lance and siege claw OR no drop pod and Storm cannons (Yay magnets)
-Redemptor with Gatlings, Icarus, and Frag launchers

A key to each of my lists was the Deredeo with Mortis surrounding it. His Atomantic Pavaise (the shield projector) gave my dreads a bubble invlun. I would then spend my CP pretty much EXCLUSIVELY on popping wisdom of the ancients on the same Deredeo to give my shooty dreads rerolls. My Warlord ALWAYS had the Veritas Vitae to regain this CP, which usually stretched my measly 4 or 5 into 6 to 8 CP, which was more than enough to pop Wisdom and get a few 1 time rerolls for saves or damage. I also found myself usually taking Shield of Sanguinius or Quickening and Wings of Sanguinius for my psychic powers.

When my Warlord was my Librarian I took the Gift of Foresight WL trait (6+ FNP rerolling 1s). If it was my chaplain, I took Soul Warden, allowing him to deny the witch, which was often useful as my Librarian usually suicide charged turn 1 or they would be on my flanks opposite each other, giving me good coverage with 2 denies.

Game 1 (Win): 2000 pts vs Death Guard- Mission: Slaughter Zone, Hammer and Anvil Deployment
A great opening game for the Narrative for me. Only my 3rd time facing Death Guard and I knew it would be a close one.  We definitely based each other for a bit, but eventually his disgusting resilience wasn't enough and the wall of steel overcame him. His Plague Drones were beasts though!
My favourite moment of the game was probably when my Leviathan and Typhus met in hand to hand. The first round of combat saw them stalemated, but in the second round I was able to smash his to a foetid pulp before he could even strike.

Game 2 (Win): 1000 pts vs Salamanders- Mission: Open Ground, Font-line Assault Deployment
One of my tougher games at first I feel. Those salamander rerolls can be brutal on a Lascannon or Missile Launcher. My opponent also had a really clutch use of the Flakk missile strategem + Signum against my Wings of Sanguinius Librarian Dreadnought. He gains FLY, so that was a good move. In the end though, my opponents foot Marines couldn't stand up to my Dreads and the NOVA terrain really played to my advantage blocking LOS so my punchy dreads could close. Game ended close points wise, but still a W for me and very few sons of Vulkan left on the table.

Game 3 (Loss): 2000 pts Doubles (1k ea) vs Dark Eldar and Death Guard- Mission: Refinery, Hammer and Anvil Deployment.
This time, myself and Discordian with his Prophets of Bark and the Spooky Bunch Teamed up. I was against the same Death Guard player as turn 1, but teamed up with a very shooty DE list. This game was REALLY close and we lost 16-17, by 1 point - essentially they had first blood and we didn't (I really wish more events used First Strike instead for this very reason. Winning because you went first when all other things means the game would be tied seems silly. We managed to kill something Turn 1 as well AFTER getting shot. But 0 points for that. But I digress). The DE player was the only person the whole weekend who implicitly KNEW to go for my Deredeo to begin with, a lesson all others would learn too late the rest of the weekend. Had he been like them and taken my Furioso bait instead, or we had gone first, the game would have likely came out with Chris and I as the victors. Either way, super fun and a cool mission with progressively scored main objectives (as you siphon off fuel tanks).

Game 4 (Win): 2500 pts vs Orks- Mission: Shuttle Crash, Front-line Assault Deployment
This was one of my MOST FUN GAMES EVER. The Ork player had an amazing "Orkperium" themed army, lead by two PrimeOrks (Growlman was one of them and I forget the other). All the orks had different SM chapter shoulder pads. He had a Gorkanaut and a Morkanaut. Crazy fun! What really saved my bacon is the shuttle crashed in front of my Dreadnought Firebase, and to run at me meant facing a wall of Firepower. Once more the NOVA terrain did me wonders, keeping my Mortis and Deredeo hidden from his big walkers, while my Librarian was able to fly up and severely damage them and my Leviathan come in and do some damage too. Unfortunately, he royally whiffed every melta lance shot I made all weekend... Meanwhile his rockets could roll nothing but 6s (he would do 0 with a heavy 20 weapons, and then nail me with both rockets... 3 turns in a row!). Those orks must have looted some Tau Seeker heads, because they were deadly accurate.
This game was also the first time I got to use my Redemptor. While he didn't last the whole game, he did squish PrimeOrk Growlman, and his Gatlings chewed up some boys good and proper.

Game 5 (Win): 1000 pts vs Death Guard- Mission: Slaughter Zone, Spearhead Assault Deployment.
A great sport who I unfortunately tabled by the top of turn 3... Its rough when a game goes like that. His army was pox walkers, some Plague Marines and Characters, and Mortarion. Turns out when Two Autocannon Mortis dreads have LoS first turn and reroll ones from Wisdom of the Ancients... well Morty doesn't last too long... and to finish him off I was able to charge a Furioso with Blood Talons turn 2. Just not a good day for the Primarch of the Death Guard. In the end my Deredeo and Mortis dreads made light work of the Pox Walkers and Plague Marines while my Librarian ate a few Characters. Could have been different had he gone first, but eventually Mortarion would have had to come into LoS of the Autocannons, and that just spelled his doom.

Game 6 (Win): 1500 pts vs Thousand Sons- Mission: Refinery,  Vanguard Strike Deployment
A fun game amongst a ton of terrain. Firelanes were challenging at times for me. But it proved more problematic for the Thousand Sons. By the end of the game he had 3 models left and I had scored the Maxmimum off my Fuel dumps and at least once off of his. Things I learned- Obliterators are still really scary and Chaos has better Leviathans than the Imperium (and charging one with a Librarian dread may not work out as a result, especially if you fail to cast shield of sanguinius 2 turns in a row)

Game 7 (Win): 3000 pts Doubles (1500 ea) vs Space Wolves and Ad Mech- Mission: Convoy, Vanguard Strike Deployment
My dreads and the Spooky bunch paired up again for fight on a neat winter themed table. Top take away from this game- Wrack Screens are great for shooting dreads! We had a great pair of Opponents from the Crew Shaken podcast. Facing down some Wulfen, my team castled up and left them with no viable first turn charge. Our opponents also threw a Stormfang Gunship at us full of some mean stuff, which we managed to blast from the sky and explode behind our lines, greatly aiding our cause. Our opponents also made an early game push to drive their objective convoy across the field, but our DE Scourges and Mandrakes came in on the edge of our own Deployment zone bottom of 1 and put an end to that. In the end the faltered first turn charge of the Wolves cost our opponents dearly, letting my dreadnoughts take the fight to him first and allowing our firepower and some void raven bombing runs to do the trick and eliminate the worst threats to us early on.

Game 8: Apocalypse (Win)
What can I say about this. Crazy big cool game. The biggest thing on the Table was a Manta, but otherwise nothing bigger than a Warhound Titan, and really just a lot of Knights and Mini-Knights. For this game to get up in points, I had to break out some non-dread units. I had some good fun flying my Xiphon and Fireraptor (WHICH WAS SOME HOW THE ONLY FIRE RAPTOR IN THE GAME) up the board killing knights! I also got to step on a Captain Slamguinius with my Knight Atrapos. Crowing moment for our team though was taking our opponents primary objective bottom of Turn 5 by Orks (our Battlegroup Warlord none the less!) making "Da Jump" and charging in to eliminate all before them. Its really good when something like Apoc comes down to the infantry fighting rather than just who has more big guns.

Biggest take aways
-Narrative is WAY less stressful than the GT and a ton of fun
-Get a better camera and use a flash
-Make sure your scores are recorded properly