Merry Christmas!

Greetings, hope you're all enjoying the festive period. Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Crucible.

Hopefully Santa has brought you all shed loads of plastic crack to keep you occupied over the holidays while the rellies take over your sofa and eat you out of house and home!

See you all in 2014! :)

Gaming Focus - Solid Lists with Fluffy Twists

Evening all, today I'd like to talk to you  about list writing, specifically writing lists with some fluff justification behind them. 

Nowadays,  it seems as if the rise in hyper-competitive tournament play has caused the types of list we see to become stagnant and cookie-cutter like, with the onus on min-maxing the crap out of the best units in the codex or fielding ridiculous, hard to counter combos such as the screamerstar (seriously, who thinks of these stupid names?!). In my opinion, these kind of lists are killing 40K for the casual gamer. Now, I'll hold my hands up now and say when I write a list for attending a tournament, obviously I'll try and beard it up as much as I can to try and give myself that edge over my opponents to hopefully allow me to place in the final rankings. 

However not everyone likes to play in tournaments and so aren't as hardened to seeing these sledgehammer lists go at each other all the time, and these players often naïvely agree to games which are effectively over by the end of turn 2. Think about it, how many of you have that one player at your club who brings the most douchebag lists week in week out even when you've  arranged a series of silly, fun games? My old club certainly did and it got that bad that many members refused to play him. Those he did manage to convince to play then got pwnd and he lost yet another future opponent as they joined the growing ranks of gamers who ostracised him for being "that guy" all the time. Not fun for his opponent and not fun for him as he's running out of possible opponents. 

Now I know some of you will be sat there thinking "What's wrong with using the cheesy, broken units GW has put in the codex? They're all legit choices!". Well to be honest, nothing at all. Like I said, I'm not averse to being "that guy" in a tournament situation, but when it comes to normal club nights, I like to be a little less cutthroat.

An that leads me onto the main course of today's post, namely writing lists which present a balanced challenge, yet aren't totally unbeatable, with a fluff justification for the list composition.

The below list is one I cobbled together this afternoon after reading some of the current Tyranid rumours on some of the forums. As you can see, it's an Imperial/Eldar alliance.

When I wrote this list, in my brain I had a storyline ticking along where the Imperium and Eldar had begrudgingly joined forces to repel a fledgling Tyranid splinter fleet. Led by an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos and a Deathwatch Kill Team, the noble Salamanders 2nd Co. have mobilised for war with an enigmatic Eldar psyker and a cohort of her warriors in tow, with the objective of purging the ravenous vanguard of tyranids from the system.

With that little narrative seed planted, I then started to construct the list on that basis. So starting with the Inquisitor, I got him tooled up for fighting nids, equipping him with the needle pistol and rad grenades to help with the releatively high toughness of the bigger bugs, power armour to try and keep him alive & kicking for as long as possible and servo skulls to create a defensive ring to keep enemy infiltrators at bay during deployment.

Once I'd sorted the Inquisitor out, I then moved onto the Eldar cohort. I knew that I wanted quick units that could keep out of harms way but that could lay down a fairly solid base of fire that had the ability to cause considerable damage. Enter the jetbikes with the pseudo-rending of bladestorm and the monofilament death delivered by warp spiders. I also gave the farseer a spear, providing her with the ability to try and rid the bigger bugs of the odd wound here and there should the opportunity arise.

I then went on to construct the marine list. As you can see, I've tried to strike a real balance of units. There's plenty of high strength shots from the meltas and missile lauchers mixed with the low AP grav-cannons. All of the missile launchers that were able to have them have been equipped with flakk missiles for AA support against flying gribblies, while the high amount of templates and blasts will deal with hordes. The Sternguard count as the Deathwatch Kill Team for the Inquisitor to ride with, while the Ironclad can mix it up in melee with the mid-sized beasties.

The final thing to note is the amount of psychic power this list provides also. Up to 6 powers per turn is nothing to sniff at and could be quite the game changer. 

Through writing the list with an anti-Tyranid fluff aspect in mind, it's actually turned into a solid all-comers list that should provide competent players with a range of options in offense and defense an give both parties a good, challenging, fun game.

I'd love you guys to give it go if you can and let me know how it performs. If you do have a bash with it, hit me up in the comments and let us know how you got on! :)

Getting ready for PAW 2014 - Calamari marches to WAR!

Evening all, Calamari here! I recently got a reminder that the other local club in my area is holding their annual event at the start of February and I’ve decided to join in. It is an 1850 40k tourney using standard book missions and, like all events like this, it's supposed to be toppers with filthy armies and players. Seeing as my Necrons are still a long way from being ready, I’m going to be taking my Daemons flying circus.

Now, I have been playing with these guys for quite a while (since well before the 6^th ed codex, I've always used lots of Princes) and I’m constantly trying to refine it. At the moment my list is Fateweaver, a Great Unclean One, 3 Nurgle Princes with all the toys, a few Screamers and a couple of token troops. This has been really irritating to a few people at my FLGS but I think I’ve seen some areas that need improvement. Namely MOOOAAAAR firepower and the loadout of the Princes.

To get more shooting in the list, I have dropped most of the Screamers and the GUO, allowing me to add a squad of Horrors.  I was sceptical of these guys when I first saw them. They can be stopped by a lucky Deny the Witch roll and then could go on to hand out FNP like it’s going out of fashion. However, after I looked at them a bit longer and used them in a couple of games, I’ve come to appreciate them more. While they aren’t ideal due to the issues I mentioned above, they can potentially throw out a huge amount of mid strength shots regardless of how many models there are in the unit in addition to them being scoring. Winner!

I was never overly happy with the setup of the Princes. The thing that mark of Nurgle has going for it is shrouding. Being able to hide my DPs in a ruin for 2+ cover on the way into combat was awesome. This was not without it’s disadvantages though. Losing out on the ability to run or being able to Sweeping Advance hurts. Slaanesh is a good mark for the extra speed plus I get access to the Lash of Submission for even more firepower. I’m kind of forced into taking Mark of Tzeentch on at least 2 of the Princes due to taking Fateweaver. This isn’t really a bad thing. Apart from being the most expensive mark, rerolling saves of a 1 and getting to cast all of my powers at Ld 10 is very helpful. Using this set up I can free up a Heavy slot for a Soul Grinder.

So far, my list is looking like this:

Fateweaver

Daemon Prince

Slaanesh, Armour, Flight, Exalted Reward (Portalglyph), Lesser Reward (Lash), Mastery level3

17 Plaguebearers

10 Daemonettes

Allurres

11 Horrors

Soul Grinder

Slaanesh, Baleful Torrent

Daemon Prince

Tzeentch, Flight, Armour, Exalted Reward (Gimoire), Greater Reward, Mastery Level 3

Daemon Prince

Tzeentch, Flight, Armour, 2 Greater Rewards, Mastery Level 3

Total: 1849

So this list keeps most of the elements of my original list but with more improvements. The portalglyph can give me more troops if needed. The Grimoire coupled with Fateweaver’s reroll can make a unit really survivable for a turn and the Daemon Princes are much more rounded and backed up by more shooting. Plenty of time for playtesting in the meantime though!

Joining the Twitterverse

Evening all, hope you're all enjoying your Friday.

Just a quick one to let you know, the Crucible has it's own twitter feed now so go on, give it a follow. You can just click the follow button on the right hand side of the page

You know you want to.... 

 

:-P

Building a Dynasty – Impressions of the Necron book and plans for the future

As I mentioned in my first post, I’m starting Necrons. There are 3 main reasons for this:

1: I want a new army.

2: I want an army that can hold it’s own on the tourney scene.

3: They aren’t Eldar or Tau.

I love my Daemons but I have been playing them almost constantly for the last 3 years. I have played my Deathwing for a bit during that time but they are just a bit of fun really. As for point number 2, I might be fairly new to the 40k competitive scene but I want a decent chance of not getting utterly trashed at a tourney. The reason for me not wanting Eldar or Tau are a combination of the fact they are rampant at my club (and I here they are like rats, pretty much everywhere) and that I can never really find a list I like the look of.

So Necrons then right? I like their fluff and look. The whole Stargate type thing and the very Macbeth story of their tragic rise to power appeals to me. I’ve borrowed a friend’s codex and I’ll be looking through it over the next few weeks looking for units to catch my attention.

A few units grab my attention. Nightscythes, Deathmarks and Wraiths all look awesome, they will all definitely find a way into my lists. They also happen to be 3 of the best things in the book, lucky me right? As for a HQ, I’m looking at Nemesor Zandrehk. This dude is the daddy of the Necron special characters, yes, even better than Imotehk and his gimmicky lightning trick. He can dish out any one of a bunch of special rules to a friendly unit, of particular note is Stealth and Tank Hunter. Stealthed Warriors? Tank Hunting Annihilation Barges? Yes please! The flip side of this is that he can strip certain special rules from enemy units. Again, stealth is a big one here.

Doomsday Arks on the other hand seem to be awful in comparison to the other Heavy Support choices. A skimmer that can’t move because it will make it’s gun weak? Not that a single str 9 template is anything to write home about, especially when it costs 185 points.

I’m going to keep looking at the book and lurking on some forums and put a list together. I’m really quite excited for this. I’ve not built a brand new army in a while.

Moving on up...

Morning all, how are we on this crisp November day, good I hope?

Just a quick one today to thank you all for your continued viewing of my humble (and now Calamari's) ramblings.

This blog of ours has hit over 550 individual views now since it launched In September. I know to some that mine seem like a piddly amount, but I'm quite chuffed with it. I'm humbled that people are actually taking time to read the posts.

So thank you all very much for your continued support.

Hobby Focus - Unto the Anvil of War! Salamanders 2nd Company

Evening all, today I'd like to reveal my forthcoming plans for my Space Marine army:

The full 2nd Company of the Salamanders

That's right, a whole battle company consisting of:

• Captain
• Chaplain
• Librarian
• Techmarine
• Command Squad
• Servitors
• x6 Tactical Squads
• x2 Assault Squads (& variations thereof)
• x2 Devastator Squads (& variations thereof)
• x2 Dreadnoughts
• Assorted transports & vehicles

That little list equates to over 100 miniatures and is going to be quite the challenge to keep the motivation up to get to the end of it, but, I have made a start.

So far I've got the bones of the HQ section sorted, the heavy weapon section of one of the devastator squads, 1 1/2 tactical squads and most of my sergeants assembled. I'm going to concentrate on getting those bits painted first otherwise I'll end up swimming in a sea of grey plastic as usual! 

For the devastator and assault variations, they're going to be centurions and bikers/landspeeders/storm talons respectively but they aren't so much of a priority to start with. I'm also hoping to get some Forge World goodies in there too (I'm looking at you Bray'arth Ashmantle & Mk IV Ironclad!).

I've already painted my company standard as I thought that'd be a good place to start to get motivated, and here it is below.

And so "Into the Fires of Battle, Unto the Anvil of War!"

Reinventing the Wheel: Part 2

So last week we looked at a couple of ideas I’ve been kicking around for new tournament missions and this week, I have 2 more for you lovely people.

Mission 3: Take and Hold

In this mission players get to place an objective in each quarter (2 each) with a fifth objective placed in the center of the board. Players deploy using Vanguard Strike from the rulebook. The twist on this mission is that each player scores a point at the end of every game turn for each objective that they claim. The idea behind this is that it makes players consider all objectives on the board. Claiming another objective, even for a turn, can earn you the points needed to get the win.

Mission 4: Cleanse

That’s right! I’m bringing this 3^rd edition favourite back, with a 6^th edition slant. Using the old Spearhead deployment, players will have to fight to clear the table quarters and claim them with their own scoring units. A quarter is claimed when a scoring unit has the majority of its models within a given table quarter and as long as there are no opposing enemy scoring/denial units in their as well. A contested quarter is worth 1 point; a claimed quarter is worth 3 and a fully claimed enemy deployment one is worth 4. I like this mission as it discourages castling up and could lead to some pretty awesome micro battles happening around the board as each player tries to control the table quarters.

These could all use a bit of play testing and refinement but I’m interested in changing up the sometimes stagnant tourney scene of my local shop. Thoughts and opinions on this?

Re-inventing the wheel: New missions for 40K tournaments. Part 1

After attending and organising several tournaments at my local FLGS, The Giant’s Lair *coughshamelessplugcough*, I have gotten a bit bored of using the same old missions out of the book. Especially seeing as in a tournament situation they seem to get a bit sterilised in the name of balance, for example removing the random numbers of objectives. So I have taken upon myself to try and slip in some new and interesting missions into the mix.

First of all is a fairly simple addition to the mission roster, I call it Forlorn Hope. Basically it follows on from the Scouring and Big Guns in that it makes new units scoring, in this case elites. Hardly ground breaking I know but at the moment there is next to no incentive to take elites for mission reasons and I think it makes for a more rounded event. This minor tweak is going to be the first thing I try and get the other committee members to agree to.

Mission 2: Seize Ground

In this mission the objectives are set up as shown in the awesomely drawn MSPaint diagram, 3 objectives placed equally along the centre of the table. The red objective is worth 4 points; the blue ones are worth 2 each. Sounds pretty standard right? But there is a twist; if the blue objectives are contested they give 1 point to each player. This is to encourage the players to think about which objectives they will go for. Going for the middle objective while contesting the others is risky while relying on getting the side objectives might not get you enough points to get the win. I know this mission might end up with a lot of draw results but I’ll have to see how the play testing goes. More to come in part 2…

Retailer Review - Element Games

Morning/Afternoon/Evening (delete as appropriate) all, just wanted to share with you my experiences of buying stuff from Element Games. 

Since moving from Plymouth to Hertfordshire, I've been on the hunt for a local brick and mortar store that offered a similar discount rate to my spiritual home, the Giant's Lair. With no luck, I turned to the internet. After reading around about the webstores out there, I bit the bullet and headed for Element.

I ordered the new plastic librarian, new tactical squad, a devastator squad and some paints (including some VMC colours, therefore Element are now my default go-to guys for Vallejo) on Sunday afternoon and they arrived today. Ideal! And, not only do Element do quick delivery, they also do quick, free delivery within the UK if you spend over £80 (which let's be honest, isn't particularly difficult in our hobby).

On top of that, they also give you a 15% discount off RRP for GW and can also source some of the big seasonal bundles, again discounted, which means you can enjoy the GW hobby without the GW prices. Bargain!

And if all that wasn't enough, you can also generate store credit in the form of "Element Crystals" which can then be used towards future purchases. The way it seems to work is for every whole £10 you spend, you get 1 crystal which equates to 10p's worth of store credit. Add that to the friends and family referral code generated with your order which gives you double crystals when used and you can soon start racking up the credit. Sweet!

So there we go, give Element a bash if your after stuff quickly and reasonably priced!

"We're putting a team together..."

Afternoon all, some exciting news for you today on this dreary November Sunday. I now have a collaborator on this blog of mine in the guise of my partner in crime, Calamari. We figured two heads are better than one when it comes to keeping to the content flowing so on board he comes. He's written a little bio about himself for you to peruse below:

"Hi there, I’m Jake, or Calamari on most forums that I use. I’ve known Geochimp for about 5 years and we were regular opponents until recently when he ran away from Plymouth! I’ve been playing since 2008 and have dabbled in lots of armies since then. At first I used my Space Marines from when I was a kid back in the early 2000s; then moved onto IG, back to Marines and so on. I used to have a really bad case of shiny syndrome and so have dabbled in quite a few armies. My current armies are Deathwing heavy Dark Angels, Daemons and I am starting a Necron army very soon. I am part of the organising team for the 40K events at my FLGS, The Giant’s Lair in Plymouth. This has been running for just over a year now and so I am making an effort to get into the UK tourney scene.I also play Infinity, Battlefleet Gothic, Malifaux and a little bit of Warmahordes.

I have lurked on a few blogs like 3++ and Fritz40K and they have guided my tactics a fair bit. I also sporadically listen to the 11th Company podcast. If you want to catch me on forums you can find me on Heresy Online or on the Giant’s Lair forum under the username JakeM."

So there you have it, all you need to know about Calamari! As an aside, if anyone else wants a platform to share some of their insights into the hobby but aren't really into forums or blogging, then drop us a line at crucibleoffate@gmail.com and we'll see what we can do.

3. 2. 1. You're Back In The Room

Evening all, just a quick one tonight to update you all as to what's happening. 

So, the move has been completed, I'm getting settled into my new digs and I start my new job on Monday (woo!).

It'll still be a little sporadic for the time being but never fear, I've got some meaty posts in the pipeline. The first of which will be a tutorial on how I paint my Salamanders. It's a biggie and requires a lot of pictures to give the full-on step-by-step process. Once my hobby area is all set up, I can get cracking with that, but in the mean time I'm hashing out the text for it.

For now though, I'm going to enjoy my last few days off before going back to work, enjoy Wales vs South Africa on Saturday, get my hobby gear unpacked and start looking for a new gaming club.

Have a good weekend guys! :)

All Quiet on the Western Front

Afternoon all, just a quick one today to apologise for the lack of activity over the last few weeks. I'm currently in the middle of moving and it's all gotten a bit manic and as a result I've not had much time to myself.

Rest assured though, normal service will resume within the next few weeks.

Until then though, wish me luck!

Gaming Focus - The Art of Objective Placement in 40K

Evening all, in today's post I'm going to look at objective placement. In 6th edition objectives are king, and where to place them on the board is paramount to your success at holding them and ultimately going on to win the game.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to give you the be-all and end-all guide to placing objectives, but hopefully this guide will help some of you think about how you place yours in your future games.

So, lets get cracking. Below is an example of a typically set up 6'x4' table in my FLGS. As you can see, there is a ruin in each corner quadrant and one in the centre (the grey bits) and then scatter/area terrain between (the green bits).

For this the purpose of this guide, we're going to go with the Dawn of War deployment set up, and on the diagram you can see the deployment zones and table centre line marked on it. But obviously the principles mentioned can be put to use in Hammer & Anvil and Vanguard Strike deployments also.

Example 1 - x2 Objectives 

In this first example, we'll deal with each player having one objective each to place. In this type of game, most players tend to gravitate towards placing their objective in a chunk of terrain in their own deployment zone and castling up as shown in the diagram below. 

Before I go any further, I should point out that the objectives on the diagram are the solid, coloured dots in the centre of the circles. The circles are the 12" zones around the objective where you can't place any other objectives. This "control zone" (as I like to call it) is actually a powerful tool that you must learn to harness to give you the upper hand in the game.

Right, back to the guide. As I said, when presented with a 2 objective game, most players tend to castle up in their deployment zone as above and it generally turns into a game won by the player who gets First Blood and/or Slay The Warlord. This is of course unless one player decides to grow a pair and launch an assault to clear out the unit claiming the opposite objective or contest it. Either way, it's not a very exciting game with an inevitable outcome. Yawn!

The other issue with castling up is the potential to give away an easy secondary in Line Breaker. Think about it, if you place your one and only primary objective in your deployment zone, and your opponent decides to go for it to either claim or contest, you're basically inviting them to get Line Breaker, feasibly handing them the win on a plate through minimal effort on their part.

To try to mitigate this, don't place your objective in your deployment zone. Try placing it in the midzone, just outside your deployment zone as shown below. This still gives you the choice to castle up nearby in cover and then go for the last turn claim but also negate the Line Breaker threat somewhat. I know what you're thinking, "I'd still go for Line Breaker, it's easy!", but be honest with yourself, when playing how often do you get tunnel vision for the primary objectives and the killy secondaries and forget about Line Breaker? Psychological tactics you see. If you get tunnel vision, what are the odds your oppo does too? 

Example 2 - x3 Objectives

Things get a little more interesting when you've got more than 1 objective each to deal with, and this is where things start to get tactical. That's what we're going to look at in this example.

Ideally, you obviously want to place first as then you are in complete control of where your oppo needs to go. This is where the "control zones" come in. These are actually used as cover denial believe it or not. I'll demonstrate below:

Player B wins the roll off for objective placement and places their first objective in the midzone. Note how the placement means that the control zone extends into the central ruin. This serves 2 purposes. Firstly, there is no way that Player A can now legally place their objective within the ruin, denying them the option of deploying scoring infiltrators straight into hard cover on an objective within the midzone. Secondly, the actual location of the objective marker in Player A's half is enticing. If he takes the bait, it forces him to place his unit in the open if he wishes to claim it, leaving it vulnerable to shooting attacks (get those big guns ready!) and easy to assault if necessary. However, fight the urge to claim this objective yourself early in the game as it leaves you open to the possibility of receiving an asskicking in the same vein as you were hoping to deliver, unless you have some hard as nails scoring unit you can stick on there such as wraithguard etc.

Next up, Player A gets to place his objective. Let's assume he wants to play it safe and keep a home objective to give him a bit of security. The table now looks like this:

Player B then gets to place the final objective. Now this is the kicker as the final location is really dependent on the type of army you have. If it's a fast army then the final location should be in your oppo's deployment zone to give you Line Breaker if you get there. If it's a slower army then it should be in the midzone to prevent your oppo getting Line Breaker. Lets assume Player B is an Eldar player (like me!) and has a load of jetbikes in his army. So he places his final objective like so:

This final placement again forces Player A to claim the objective while out in the open and exposed to attack. This kind of layout allows Player B to corral Player A's forces and effectively control the movement of Player A's army and hopefully pick it apart and leave Player B to move onto the objectives at his leisure.

For games with more objectives, just take the principles discussed and expand on them. Same process, just more markers. Also, with more objectives you can also give yourself a freebie in your home deployment zone, just remember to give your oppo more tempting options in the midzone so that your home objective is ignored.

Now, as I said before, this isn't the be-all and end-all guide but hopefully it's been of some use. Just remember, it's not an unbeatable system and Lady Luck will always do her best to screw over your best laid plans but don't forget, fortune favours the brave!

Any thoughts? Anything you'd do differently? Hit me up in the comments

Getting Started with 40K - 500pts of Fun!

Afternoon all, today I thought I'd take a look at putting together some basic lists for new players with the aim of allowing them to have short, hopefully fun games with small armies which will help to reinforce the main game rules, along with some of the quirky rules that come with specific forces. Now before we get going, I should also point out that these lists are designed to be as wallet friendly as possible to put together because, as we all know, this glorious hobby of ours isn't the cheapest! So, with that in mind, I've tried to make multiple units out of single boxes where possible to try and keep the start up costs down.

The Lists:

1) - CRAFTWORLD ELDAR

HQ: 

Spirit Seer

TROOPS: 

x3 Jetbikes

x3 Jetbikes

x5 Dire Avengers in a basic Wave Serpent w. Holofields

FAST:

x5 Warp Spiders

HEAVY:

x1 Support Platform armed with a Shadow Weaver

Army Total = 492pts

Eldar are an extremely elite army and are therefore quite expensive to get a sizable force going due to the small squad sizes you get in the boxes. However, as you can see from the above list, what you can do is put together quite an effective force at a relatively low points cost, especially with the new codex. This list gives the new player plenty to get to grips with, without overloading them with too many rules. 

Basic rules wise, they get a psyker, a tank (which is both fast and a skimmer), a deep striking jetpack unit, a jetbike unit with twin linked weaponry, turbo-boosting, Hammer of Wrath, jink saves and an artillery unit with a barrage weapon. Army specific rules wise, they get to play with battle focus, bladestorm, the serpent shield and holofields, eldar jetbike movement, the warp jump generator and the monofilament rule. The small model count and mixed unit types means multiple games can be played in a short amount of time enabling the new player to reinforce the basics and the Eldar specific rules.

2) - SPACE MARINES

HQ:

Mastery Level 2 Librarian

TROOPS:

x6 Tactical Marines armed with a plasmagun w. Veteran Sergeant upgrade armed with plasma pistol

x6 Tactical Marines armed with a plasmagun w. Veteran Sergeant upgrade armed with plasma pistol

x5 Scouts w. Veteran Sergeant

FAST:

x5 Assault Marines w. x2 flamers

Army Total = 498pts

Marines are another elite army, but being the poster boys of 40K, they arrive in slightly more wallet friendly squads (although the new plastic librarian's £18 price tag is taking the mick a bit if you ask me, but that's a whole other conversation). They're also a fairly forgiving army for a beginner due to their decent BS, T & 3+ save.

The above list is a nicely rounded list which I feel gives a measure of tactical freedom while also helping to nail down the basics again quite nicely. Main rules wise we have a psyker, scouts, jump infantry, Hammer of Wrath, Gets Hot!, Template weapons, rapid fire and high AP weapons. Army specific rules gives you psychic hoods, "And They Shall Know No Fear" and then Chapter Tactics. The plasma weaponry in the list will give players something to help deal with any light armour that might pop up in this size list, and MEQ opponents. The jump pack flamers will help deal with any lightly armoured horde infantry. This would be a nice list to play on a 4'x4' table packed with plenty of cover, such as a cityfight board.

3) - DARK ELDAR

HQ:

Archon w. Agoniser, Ghostplate Armour & Webway Portal

TROOPS:

x5 Wyches w. Hekatrix upgrade & Phantasm Grenades in a Venom w. Night Shield

x10 Kabalite Warriors w. Splinter Cannon

ELITES:

x4 Kabalite Trueborn w. Shard Carbines in a Venom w. Night Shield

Army Total = 493pts

Ah, the Dark Eldar, the literal definition of a glass hammer. These guys are a fairly advanced army to play, more so even then their Craftworld cousins I'd say. The reason for this is they aren't as forgiving as the other armies. They have no psykers to help buff/de-buff units and they are extremely fragile but dear lord they don't half pack a punch. They are excellent at shooting but thrive off combat. They have the tools to deal with most enemies including big gribblies such as Wraithknights and Trygons etc due to the abundance of poison weaponry they possess. However, if your attack fails YOU WILL BE PUNISHED. SEVERELY! Dark Eldar armour is either non-existent or made of papier mache, depending on what type of units you're fielding. Having said that though, they are great fun to play and the codex offers an extremely wide range of army builds to play with.

This list exposes new players to the following main rules: invulnerable saves, fast skimmers, open-topped vehicles,jink saves, poison weapons, assault weaponry, reserves & fleet. Army specific rules really only include Power from Pain and some of the specific wargear rules. The basic tactic for this list is to get up the board as quickly as possible in the venoms, deploy the webway gate and get the warriors deployed from the webway and shooting at anything and everything!

4) - TAU EMPIRE

HQ:

Cadre Fireblade w. x2 Shield Drones

TROOPS:

x7 Fire Warriors w. Shas'ui upgrade armed with Markerlight, Target Lock & x2 Shield Drones

x7 Fire Warriors

FAST:

x4 Pathfinders w. Shas'ui upgrade & Blacksun Filter

x4 Pathfinders w. Shas'ui upgrade & Blacksun Filter

HEAVY:

x2 Broadsides w. High-yield Missile Pods

Army Total = 499pts

The Tau are the epitome of All for One and One for All. Their units are designed to support one another and provide overlapping fire options. They're crap in combat, but with the amount of firepower they can lay down, you shouldn't be letting your opponent get into combat. The presence of markerlights and supporting fire means if your opponent does attempt a charge, they're unlikely to make it into combat without losing a few plastic dudesmen on the way in due to the increased BS for overwatch and the amount of rounds coming their way.

The above list allows players to get to grips with the following main rules: Jetpack infantry, ignores cover, invulnerable saves, mixed units, overwatch, split fire & rapid fire weapons. Army specific rules include markerlight effects & supporting fire. I think it's a fun little list with a low model count which should allow a few games to be played in short time frame. The only downside is the physical costs of the broadsides as they're 30 quid a pop from GW direct, but can be sourced cheaper from indies/online retailers.

So there we have it, my take on 4 starter lists for some of the more popular 40K armies (and to be honest, because they're the codices I have! :P). I know they aren't really competitive but that's really not the point. They're basic, solid backbones to base larger armies on, which will allow new players to get to grips with the main game mechanics while not breaking the bank. Of course, there are loads of other options that could be put into the lists, but that's for the newbies to decide as don't forget, a big part of the game is to devise your own lists and develop your own play style. Us vets can't do it all for them!

Any thoughts on the lists? Anything you'd change without getting too competitive and without give the new guys all the answers? Hit me up in the comments!

The Ebb & Flow of the Traffic

Afternoon all, just thought I'd post a quick update on how things are going with the blog.

It's been just over 2 weeks since I launched and I've been pleasantly surprised with the amount of visits I've had.

Since my first post I've managed just shy of 250 unique views, which (for a one-man band like myself with not a huge amount of content at the moment) is frankly amazing!

So firstly, to all of you who've taken the time out to have a look at what I'm up to a big thank you! The fact that you've actively clicked on a link to one of my posts is very appreciated and extremely encouraging, as to be honest if people weren't looking then I'd probably stop posting. Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to again shout out to Lee & the guys at Talk Wargaming, and to thank them for letting me join the TWG Blog Network as this has provided a lot of my visitors.

Secondly, I want to know what you guys, my readers (awesome, I actually have readers! ^_^ ), want to hear about. Are there any wargaming or hobby topics you want me to cover that don't seem to get much air time on the other blogs? Do you have something you want to post about but don't have a blog yourself on which to post it? If so, then either ping me a PM on Twitter (@geochimp) or Heresy (where I post as "Jams"), or email me through here to let me know what you're thinking. I'm more than happy to have guest posts if people want somewhere to lay down some thoughts or show off some mad hobby skillz.

So thanks again for the first 250 views and here's to the next 250 and beyond!

New Logo

Morning all, big news today.

I now have an official logo! Check it out at the top of the page. Cool eh? 

One of my buddies Cris (aka Varakir over at Heresy) knocked it up with his awesome photoshop/illustrator art-fu.

I think having a proper logo adds a bit of class to these random musings of mine :)

Opinions? Hit me up in the comments.

Path of the Artisan - Part IIa: I hate my brain!

Morning all, just a quick update on my plans for single 40k mini entries.

While helping out a fellow #warmonger on Twitter with regards to an alternative to use for a spiritseer, I came up with the brilliant idea of mixing a bonesinger with the current spiritseer model. Now this might be a tad on the difficult side as, for those of you who don't know, the bonesinger was a limited edition release with the 2006 Eldar codex and they now go for stupid money on eBay.

Luckily, I have 2 of them, one of which is missing some bits and will therefore be the perfect candidate for a conversion. This might give me the edge a bit as I don't think there'll be many bonesingers kicking about at Golden Daemon.

Oh, while I'm on the subject, when I was rummaging in my bitz box, I also found the limited edition Inquisitor Gideon Lorr so there's another option.

I hate my brain sometimes...

Path of the Artisan - Part II: The Saga Begins

Evening all, as I mentioned last time, I'm aiming to enter the 2014 Golden Daemon and this week I've started laying down my plans and deciding on what categories to go for.

The definite categories I'm going to enter are: -

• Warhammer 40,000 Single Miniature
• Warhammer 40,000 Monster
• Warhammer Single Miniature

Then the possible categories depending on time, money & motivation are: -

• Diorama
• Duel
• Warhammer Monster

quite the ambitious workload I think you'll agree!

Now, what will I actually be painting I hear you ask? Well, that's still up in the air a bit. The possibilities are:

40K Single Mini:

40K Monster:

Warhammer Single Mini:

(All of the above images are used without permission. Copyright Games Workshop PLC)

So those are the contenders for the main categories I'm looking to enter. I just need to tie down my final choices and decide on basing themes etc (which isn't my strong point unfortunately).

Over the next few days if I get time, I'm going to start sketching out my ideas for the diorama and duel categories so wish me luck.

That's it for now though, any preferences on which of the possibles I should go for? Hit me up in the comments.