Genius count-as -Dark Eldar Idea- Kroots!!!!

Today I just want to talk about a modelling concept that would be cheap, cool and fluffy at the same time. But before I cut to the chase let's start at the beginning of the thought process.....

Giant Bomb

It's Some Kind of Magic - A fun little thing with MTG

Heya all and welcome back to the webway!

Today's post is actually not anything 40k related at all, but instead it is about Magic: The Gathering. For a while now I rarely played the game and I only have one simple functioning deck with me due to my earlier times in the US (A white Myr deck for me, cheap enough and good).

But thanks to a fellow forumite in Second Sphere (a 40k forum that I frequent), I found something akin to the Vassal 40k program but for Magic instead called 'Cockatrice' (http://cockatrice.de/). The program allows one to play Magic online in any format, and has all the cards currently in existence throughout Magic. Like Vassal, it allows for one to play the game for free against one another.

I have gone about playing with the program and I actually am rather fond of it, as for once I do not have to suffer the price of paying so much money for cardboard (I rather pay for plastic lol) and just play the game. So far I am having a blast with the program and I managed to build a few decks which would otherwise cost me a number.

The two decks that I have grown to love are my original white Myr deck and a black/blue Heartless summoning deck. Below are the composition for both my decks (My forumite friends tend to play with legacy and we are quite easy-going with each other to the point of not using sideboard);

White Myr Token deck

Artifacts 

1 Myr Turbine

1 Shrine of Loyal Legions

1 Silverskin Armor

1 Unwinding Clock

Creatures

1 Darksteel Juggernaut

2 Gold Myr

4 Hovermyr

1 Indomitable Archangel

3 Myr Galvanizer

3 Myrsmith

2 Palladium Myr

4 Porcelain Legionnaire

1 Myr Battlesphere

2 Shimmer Myr

2 Steel Overseer

Enchantment

2 Oblivion Ring

3 Tempered Steel

Instants

2 Master's Call

4 Path to Exile

Land

4 Burined Ruin

4 Contested War Zone

10 Plains

Planeswalker

2 Elspeth Tirel

This particular deck is my original deck, and the deck is best described as a rather Orky deck in my opinion. The main goal of this deck is to just keep on breeding those tokens (Myr Battlesphere, Shrine of Loyal Legion, Myr Turbine, Myrsmith, Master's Call) and then pump them up with buffing powers (Myr Galvanizer, Tempered Steel, Steel Overseer,, Contested War Zone, Indominable Archangel, Unwinding Clock) that they can storm the field by themselves.

A cute deck, but a good deck nonetheless.

Heartless Control

Creatures

1 Massacre Wurm

2 Perilous Myr

2 Phyrexian Metamorph

4 Rune-Scarred Demon

4 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Sphinx of Uthuun

Enchantment

4 Heartless Summoning

Instant

1 Doom Blade

1 Go for the Throat

4 Mana Leak

1 Think Twice

1 Victim of Night

Land

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Drowned Catacomn

2 Ghost Quarter

5 Island

11 Swamp

Sorcery

2 Black Sun's Zenith

2 Divination

4 Ponders

This deck is an odd one (at least for me), as it's generally a black/blue control deck but with the added danger of putting a lot of big bastards out there as soon as possible and is able to sweep tokens off the table. The deck is not really reliant upon the Heartless Summoning, but it would be preferable to have it in order to make the deck work better.

The deck's main elements are the Heartless Summoning, Rune-Scarred Demon and the Phyrexian Metamorph. They will help me pull out evil meanies as soon as possible and then just flying them towards the enemy to beat face. The rest of the cards are mostly there to search and destroy stuff.

My outlook on the decks are kinda based upon my 40k experiences, so I try to have the best possible balance for everything. Just something for me to do while waiting for 6th edition to come by my door.

Warhammer 40k Episode VI - The New Rules~

Heya all, and welcome back!

Well, the 6th edition rumours of it coming around this year is now proven with GW taking out the 5th edition rulebook from their website. This is very similar as the coming of 5th edition where the 4th edition rulebook is no longer available online before 5th hits us back in 2008. I am still in a state of ' wow, it's already 6th?' as I am still thinking that 5th came out like last year or so, and 4th around 3-4 years ago. But hey, that's what I get for being in this hobby for at least 6 years. 

With that, I can now view the rumors about 6th with less salt than before as any rumors that will be coming out around now would be more or less similar to the real rules that will be out in another month or so. I tend to call this part the 'sweet spot' for rumors as most of the rumors are in essence quite real as compared to those from a few months back. 

Nonetheless, salt in the dish is the order of the day as we are not truly sure of everything. But of course being a player and also a collector there are some things that I would like to be rectified in 6th;

1) Cover save reduction for vehicles: When I first read 5th and cover saves for vehicles, I already knew that the vehicle spam age is coming. For infantry, I say that the 4+ fits them just fine as infantry are supposed to be smaller and are able to take advantage of cover much easier. Of course based upon my experience with GW, the infantry guys may not get their 4+.

No vehicle should have a great cover save unless the building is big and/or solid enough for a vehicle to hide behind. Smoke and stuff are supposed to be around a 5+ cover save, and thus would not confer a save comparable to something solid like those of a brick wall or something. In this sense, the cover system of 4th is actually quite reasonable and I would like to see it come back.

2)A need for a revamp of wound allocation and allowing 'sniping' opportunities: Wound allocation in itself is fine, but when any additional wound is put onto a sacrificial model (Normal Nobs in a Ork Nob squad, barebone Paladin in a Paladin squad) it is somewhat difficult for some armies as their shots are getting wasted. I would like for any additional dice above the squad number to be allocated by the attacker on any model s/he chooses to be used to circumvent this problem. 

In this sense, 'sniping' would be quite reasonable and would prevent the 'hidden powerfist syndrome (for those who are not familiar with the idea of a hidden powerfist, it basically is a technique where in order to get to a particular model to be taken out, they must eliminate everyone else in the squad. This trope came from 4th edition where a powerfist sergeant will be the last model to be taken out. 5th mitigate this to an extent, but it is still present due to the multi-wound shenanigans).

3) A more complex game that at the same time is much more streamlined: I do not want the rules to be dumbed down, and would like a more engaging game. But at the same time, I do not want to be bogged down by page-flipping and ambiguous rules that people could abuse (I am guilty of this too, but at least I know that I am guilty of it). 

If the rules are tight and are easily accessible, it would allow for a much more fairer and more streamlined game that allow for greater playability. 

There are also other nonsense that I would like to be rectified, but they are less important in the face of these big three rules that I have a gripe with 5th. I will admit that I benefit from these rules as well, but as a responsible gamer I would have to say that I do not truly want to win because of a fluke.

A guy can only wish so hard, and I hope that 6th at least do something about these few things to a certain extent that would be beneficial to everyone.

The face?

Heya all, and welcome back to the webway!

So far we have been hit by this hidden marketing ploy by GW about the Dark Angels, and we got no idea who in the Dark Angels are they representing. And now with the newest WD coming out, we could finally see the face and.....

WHO THE HECK IS THIS?

Leaks for the new flyer stuff and opinions about them.

Heya all, I just found some of these stuff on the internet from the Faeit 212 blog and reading the rules via squnting my eyes I have to say some of these aircrafts are actually not that bad rulewise.

Here's the Stormtalon and its rules and fluff.

From the looks of it, this thing could be a viable piece of equipment especially when one consider that 6th is coming up. My Dark Eldar will not be happy with this, as that thing can reliably kill a vehicle a turn with its dakka. But that saying, Dark Eldar vehicles are toilet paper with jet engines and guns slapped on it. On the bright side, it is an AV11 vehicle and that it competes with other cheaper vehicles such as the Land Speeder for some fire support, and not to mention that Marines will have to pay a lot for their other stuff. So in that regard I am happy that I can spam more weapons to have an effective chance to gun it down somehow.

As a Marine player, I can see these things being used as anti-light vehicles and also with 6th coming about, anti-air(?) vehicles. I could see how a Stormraven-based army would have one Stormtalon escorting each Stormraven to battle, and this means a lot of headache on the battlefield in a way but overall the escort rule would be something of a novelty if one could spend enough points to get enough of these things escorting all the deathstar units. 

And here are the Orky stuff.

For the Orky stuff, I say GW really have made a lot of Ork players very happy, and also I can see now that several looted flying vehicles are going to see the battlefield as fluffy vehicles (no count-as anymore!!!!). I would say this time GW did something right about the codex rules.

Among all the Ork jets, Dakkajet is perhaps the best and also the most fun out of the three due to the idea of a triple-twinlinked suppa shoota shooting at targets on a BS 3 is actually quite amazing (9 str 6 shots (18 str 6 shots if you have a Waargh!!!) at your face and you can have three of them!!!! And they are relatively cheap too for what they do, 130 points for such accurate shots (for an Ork at least) is amazing, as any Ork player will tell you (even myself and I run a Deathskull speed-freek army). Take that Mech armies!!!! And now the orks have some answer when it come to ranged anti-tank stuff. Lootas + Dakkajets = Fun Times.


Thankfully I am away from my Ork army now, or else I would buy several of these vehicles and start playing with them immediately. Combined with my Mechanized Ork army, I can see the parody of a Mech IG army becoming a reality.

The Burna-bomba is definitely a good anti-infantry from the looks of it (however it suffers from burnout syndrome after its weaponry are all fired up), and the Blitza bomba is kinda like both the dakkajet and the burna-bomba combined, but not really powerful due to its weapons being less specialized.

Overall, I say it is a lovely release this time round (barring the price increase) and the Ork jets are actually prettier than the Marine vehicle.

The life outside 40k - What do I often do?

Heya and welcome back to the webway!

Today's thread is a little more of a holistic mumbo, as the calm before the storm is upon us in 40k due to the rumors of a new edition around the corner (some may drop out, some will stay, some will come back from the abyss, take your pick).

The majority of us do not have such a blessing/curse as that of being a full-time pro 40k player and we all do have our own lives outside of our hobby or have other interests that will often be the main thing that drives us.

As of this moment, three things define me in the real world; saxophonist, psychology student, geek.

One of my running passions in the real world is my alto saxophone, and I do have a few of them (2 as of this moment, one in Malaysia and one in the US itself). I have been playing the alto saxophone since I was 16, and I have always loved the sound and the vibrant nature of a saxophone as unlike a piano, you can put even more 'soul' into your sound and make it your own. Every saxophonist have their own sound, and I do strive to get my own sound which I will say is an unending process as my taste may change, or my body will make that change for me.

The pretty one (a Temby Alto Custom) that is in Malaysia right now. Pure Silver lacquer and 24 carat gold buttons.

The Yamaha YAS-475 that I currently own in America.

So far in my quest in mastering my saxophone, I am now attempting to play the altissimo range for my saxophone and also to master really hard jazz pieces such as Charlie Parker's 'Confirmation'. It will be a bumpy and noisy road, but a fun one nonetheless. Besides, it is a way cooler instrument to play than the guitar and the piano and I also tend to be the center of attention whenever there is the topic of 'What musical instrument do you play?". Downside? I am sick and tired of having to play people's request for 'Careless Whisper' a.k.a That George Michael Song a.k.a Sexy Sax Man tune.

Another main aspect of my real-world persona is that of a psychology student. This one is somewhat of an accidental thing as I never really think too much about taking psychology in the first place. The only reason I actually knew of its existence as I once followed a friend of mine as he asked our high school counselor for some fields that he could major into, and one of the offered majors is psychology. To be honest, the field that I wanted to go into is the field of zoology but due to my grades not meeting the requirement for the field I am on a lookout for other things, and I remembered that psychology sounds fun. And BAM! I am now a psychology major and never regretted it. 

It is odd how a simple encounter with the field itself actually allowed me to be in a field that I feel truly comfortable in as somehow throughout my studies, I always seem to incorporate psychology theories and stuff much easier than anything else and always seem to score above average grades. That saying, I always have a great yearning for the simple question of 'why people act the way they do?" as a result of a not-too-happy childhood and that in itself could have helped me in assimilating myself into the field. As of this moment, I am a senior and I plan to focus more onto the field of social psychology as I find that field unnaturally fun and practical.

Last but not least, the part that defines me the best is actually being a geek. This part I believe ties into my 40k hobby but can be considered as a distinct element in itself. This is because I tend to be a geek and also to a certain extent a nerd as I always like to incorporate knowledge and weird concepts into my mind ever since I was a kid. My mom even encouraged me to read whenever possible, with kid encyclopedias, comic books, etc. But the time I was 13, I have finished reading the Encyclopedia America and have moved on to the internet for my thirst for knowledge. It is in this capacity that my family and friends tend to say that I am somewhat knowledgeable and all the other words that is often associated with intellectualism. 

As a result of this particular thirst for knowledge, I tend to have at least some working idea about most of the subcultures or I am already part of a subculture such as otaku cubculture, Whovians, military buff, and brony subculture.  Sometimes my desire to know about such subcultures borders on the obsessive and I tend to remember or at least aim to be very familiar with any material that I have my hands on. This also translate to me being able to read about international politics and other scientific fields without even cringing and able to get  a working knowledge of the world as some subcultures are linked with the scientific field and/or political movement of the world and allowed me to have a very open mind to the ideas of the world. Of course I will have to put my feet down to some of the ideals I believe in, but basically I am quite happy to try out new things or hear new ideas even if I disagree with them.

With that, I can conclude that these are the things that keep me going in addition to 40k, as they define who I am, what I am and how I came to be. 40k is a part of my identity too, but being overly focused upon 40k will make the hobby less enjoyable as too much of a good thing is a bad thing and I prefer to have fun with all aspects of my identity.

Mustering of the Kabal - Razorwing Base Complete!

Heya all, I just want to post the pic of the completed Razorwing base that I have been working on for the past few days from all the studying and work. In the end I went with Craftworld Ulthwee as my 'insult' piece and I decided to sculp more flames on the rear section of the Vyper. In the end I am quite happy with the results and now I can say that I did not take the easy way out with my Razorwing base whenever I field it.

New 40k Flyers - Some opinions too as well....

Heya, welcome back to the webway and today I just feel like posting some pics for the upcoming new models. The Necron and Ork Flyer looks amazing and damn I want to have those Ork Flyers for my Deathskull Orks!

The Marine Flyer on the other hand....Looks worse than the Stormraven, and I do not even know how that is even possible. But then GW always impressed me with some nonsensical stuff (like 2 wound FNP terminators for example).

Now I want my Voidraven!!!!!

Pics courtesy of Blood of Kittens Network.

Spicy Baron: Odd kung-fu tricks for the foreseeable future....

Heya and welcome back to the webway.


Today I just want to talk about the weird things I noticed with the odd style of deployment that could be incorporated into one of my rather odd idea that could work.

Just the other day when I was playing a 1750 pts game with my Dark Eldar against a Hybrid Deathwing-Dark Angels list using one of my more adorable testlists that I like to call the 'Cover Mania'.

The 1750 pts list consist of

Baron
1 Haemonculus with Liquifier gun
2 squads of 4 Blasterborn in Venoms with two splinter cannons
20 Hellions with Helliarch with Agoniser
5 Wracks with Liquifier Guns in Raider with flickerfield
3 squads of 5 Kabalite Warriors with 1 blaster in Raider with flickerfield
3 Ravagers with 3 Dark Lances and flickerfields

Since this is a fun game of sorts, I decided to try out a theory.

I reasoned that if I deploy them in a way that would allow everyone to get cover saves provided I had enough terrain/pseudo-terrain to get the hellions to get some cover saves, then I will not need to worry about an Alpha strike list or some mechspam-like lists. In the pic below, I managed to put that theory to the test and it worked.

In this picture, I managed to get my Hellions to get the cover saves they needed from the combination of hiding some of them in the terrain and also behind some of my vehicles while also covering my vehicles with their own massive profile. In return, due to the height of the hellions, I managed to get my vehicles cover saves as well. I managed to get the roll to start first here, but the formation is a one-purpose-fits-all deployment, as I am allowed to actually have enough numbers to soak up the shots if things goes badly for me (either due to them getting first turn or them seizing the initiative) and prevent the uncertainty of an all-reserve game which will feed my forces piece by piece.

This only gets better when my unit started to move.

This is a pic around my second turn. As you can see, some of my units turboboosted as they are unable to target stuff, and thus provided a much needed mobile cover for the hellions. At the same time, the rest of my forces are moving behind the wave, being protected by the hellions. As a result of the deployment of the hellions and also the facing of some of my things, I prevented some of the rhinos from getting cover saves. In this pic unfortunately the Ravagers are slower and thus their targets have to take cover saves, but at the same time, they could also be used to protect the rearguard as well.

My opponent unleashed quite a number of nasty whirlwind shots and also lots of high strength weapons at me, but my casualty in the second turn is just 6 hellions due to the cover saves that I can reap from all the turboboosting and Hellion-wall, while the hellions managed to get their cover raves from the various terrain and also buildings which allow me to get my much desired stealth cover saves.

In turn 3 the hellions dissappeared due to me being overconfident (Damn you Dark Angel scouts?!?!?! HOW YOU WIN COMBAT WITH ONE DEAD HELLION?!?!?!)  but the DA army is quite disoriented from the large amount of targets to kill. Unfortunately for the both of us, we are unable to finish our game and we are forced to stop at turn 4, but the game was very tight indeed as I still have the superior numbers while he is trying to get all the objectives (He managed to get two with one Deathwing squad and a 4 man Tac squad, with one of my warriors getting the other one) but I have enough dark lances and venoms to kill all of them.

This game actually made my 'Cover Mania' list very viable, and despite it being rather abusive it allows for an unseen durability in a Mech Dark Eldar list. In addition, it also provides a very formidable psychological profile as the horde of both vehicles and also the Hellions will force the opponents to struggle with what they want to kill. If they kill the Hellions, the other parts of the army will wreak havoc but if the vehicles are targetted the Hellions will do their nasty deed. If you put the Mathhammer and common sense into the picture you can see that you can't kill everything. Furthermore, iF this is done right, I could actually pop some vehicles and also allow the Hellions to multicharge everything they can reach including vehicles and allow for the protection of the hellions in CC with infantry units as they bust the rest of the mechanized armies apart.

Combined it with the speed of a Mech Dark Eldar army and you can see that the opponent will have very little time to react to the ensuing wave as they got two turns at best to counter everything they see. Combined this factors of durability, speed, Synergy and sensory overload, we could see that this is the strength of this army.

In a 2000 point army, I would put either a Razorwing or for anti-infantry problems or some Reavers for anti-infantry needs and/or also some other units that could further help in harassing the enemy. In essence, this list is meant to make a person have a real big headache, and preferably not me. So far my playtesting with lesser versions of the list is actually quite successful (with one of the lesser version of the list being reported right here) but this is the first time I actually tested the list upwards of 1500 points.

Of course the game would change pretty soon, but the tactics will not differ too much as cover saves for vehicles would still be there (unless we have 4th ed rules again or something happens to cover saves entirely now) and the formation would be a pioneer to hybrid lists. I have heard that some person by the name of Reecius on the internet is now trying a Dark Footdar list with Webway portals and Grots as portal bodyguards. Of course his list is somewhat on the other extreme of what I am planning (I am aiming for a hybrid lists with lots of disruption), but the fundamental ideas apply. Mech Dark Eldar will need to be downtoned a little and the pattern of GW's old ruleset changes of always nerfing whatever is the overwhelming craze for the game of that edition will definitely affect the Dark Eldar in ways we do not know.

I love my Archon and my Mech Dark Eldar, but if I am too attached to it I will not be able to expand as a player and thus I will need to step out of my comfort zones to further advance my skills. Besides, bringing something unexpected is always a good thing as people will be unfamiliar with the way to combat the list.  As of this moment of course, I am taking a sabbatical of sorts with real gaming but that does not mean that I am idle with my 40k theoretical thoughts. Besides this list is a result of a smaller sabbatical which allow me to see the game from an entirely different perspective (Amen Hallelujah Peanut Butter.....).

I will get another chance to test this out, either in 5th or 6th (?), and will see how this hybrid 'cover mania' list would evolve. See ya all later.

Mustering of the Kabal - Razorwing Base WIP

Heya all, just wanted to show a little of what I have spend a while doing during my sadly short breaks between assignments and studies. I am still not sure about the Biel-Tann wreck as I may change the scheme to something else.

My Razorwing base as it is is very barren and there is so much things I could have done to make it awesome. So with a Vyper that I somehow got in my bitz box, I went about making a downed Vyper.

I am aiming for a burning amber earth thing as it burns through the alien landscape which is flammable or something. In this regard I am successful.

However, the lighting for this flame is somewhat weird and will need some revision.

Realistic flames are always a joy to paint, as I do not need to use white in the mix.

Biel-Tann, Uthwee, or some other Craftworld? I am not sure.....more progress will come I guess.

Rumours, Rumours, Rumours.....Why I am not convinced by the chatter right now.

Heya all, and welcome back.

I have been a little out of the 40k scene for the past few weeks thanks to my university stuff and also Doctor Who (Love David Tennant as the 10th Doctor), but I do hear some murmurs and stuff from all the big bloggers and stuff about 6th edition and the codices that will follow with the 6th edition..

My reaction to the rumours is a very big 'MEH.....". From the reasonable rumours such as Chaos Marines having Cultists, to rumours that are just tripping on weed like Ultramarines being the Tau's babysitters, as it stands right now the rumours is too messed up to be taken seriously.

My opinion about the rumours is just a simple experience from my transition from 4th to 5th, and I will say that we will have four things;

1) Poor internet-netlisters will rage: Too bad Mech Guard, too bad Razorspam, they will be nerfed for obvious reasons. The Mech Eldar, SIGAFH, and Seer Council builds have been nerfed by the 5th edition rules during its initial inception. There are other builds of course, but these are on the top of my mind that are affected by the 5th edition transition phase from 4th edition to 5th edition.

2) Tricks will change: My transition from 4th to 5th taught me that stuff will change drastically enough that the game will change drastically. I remembered the time where a transport of almost any kind is a moving coffin, and with 5th it became all the rage. As a person who has played mechanized lists faithfully since 4th, I was lucky that my style of play became the rage, but also at the same time I am steering away from mechanized lists.

3) The fluff is just fluff: Some people rage when Draigo can kick Mortarion's ass, and Necrons now can weep. But then that saying, the story is there to entertain us not to be sold as a main commodity (if you want that go for Black Library or Fantasy Flight). The main appeal is the models and it will remain so.

That saying fluff can be twisted enough to let anything become the truth.

4) Be prepared to spend a lot more: Yeap, games could become bigger, or some units will be nerfed while others will be boosted. They want you to buy more stuff. Not to mention that GW loves to increase their prices.

With these in mind I am actually taking a happy break from 40k until I can see the real rules in my grubby hands, and while I am in my happy sabbatical I will buy more models to paint and model to allow myself the choice of having every option in the book (which means I will not be arsed to be severely affected by the nonsense that will be rule change. Not to mention that having a real-kabal would be bloody awesome.)

That and the Eldar codex.......the Eldar codex would be a cool addition to my Dark Eldar Kabal as mercenaries. I seriously want a Renegade Farseer in my Kabal's force (however unlikely the idea is in real fluff).