Power Weapons in 6th Edition

So, if you ask most people about it, they’ll say that Power weapons got a pretty bad nerf in the 6th edition ruleset. They’re probably right. Still, the new rules do offer some unique advantages that I’m going to talk about today.

First off, they give versatility. Most characters who once could buy ‘Power Swords’ can now take ‘Power Weapons’ (either changed in a FAQ or since their new codex release.) In addition, anywhere that already listed a ‘Power Weapon’ gives you the option to take any weapon you want from the four listed choices. So while the basic sword took a penalty with no gains, if you have a modelling inclination then you can increase the versatility of your space marine captains or whoever else by quite a bit. 

Also, they make low strength models significantly better at killing tough things. Sure, you lose either AP or Initiative if you want a weapon that gives a strength bonus, but in exchange you get guardsman that are S5 or space marines that can wound Hive Tyrants on 4s. 

Now, to talk about each weapon individually:

The Power Sword: Ah, the classic power sword. Compared to its 5th edition counterpart, (where it was AP2 regardless, as was every other power weapon,) it’s just plain worse. It gives no strength bonus, can’t kill Terminators, but at least strikes at initiative. If you are playing against armies who lack 2+ saves for whatever reason, it is a pretty good choice. Consider it the ‘All-rounder.’ It has no specialty, but can take on most things fairly well.

The Power Maul: At AP4, this hardly seems worth it at first glance… except it gives +2 strength. So, you will most definitely lose your ability to crack open big nasties, but in exchange you get extreme boosts against hordes and low toughness gribbly guys. Space Marines will cause instant death against T3 if they’ve got one of these suckers, and against lighter but still semi-armored infantry this is definitely the best choice.

The Power Axe: I’m conflicted on this guy. On the one hand, it is AP2 and cracks open any armor save, and the +1 strength means you still get a fairly good ‘To-wound’ roll. The downside, of course, is that it reduces you to I1 if you try and use it, so you’ll definitely be hitting last. Consider it a ‘Poor-mans Power Fist.’ The strength bonus isn’t as good, but it’s typically cheaper to take a power weapon than a power fist. If you know you’ll be facing lots of terminators or hive tyrants or Meganobz I’d recommend it, but against faster assault units that rely less on armor saves, it’s a waste that will get you killed. Also, if your model already has low Initiative, (For example, Crusaders can take a power weapon and are already I1,) always take this because there is no downside.

Lastly, the Power Lance. This guy is arguably the most situationally useful, but in general the Lance is pretty worthless. When you charge it gives AP3 and +1 strength, making it better than the Power sword with no real downside, but on every other turn you become AP4 without the strength bonus, making it a mediocre and less effective Power Maul. I’d say only take this if you have a squad that’s garunteed the charge and will kill whatever you attack in one turn… Though if you have a squad like that, you don’t need the benefits from the Power Lance very much, do you?

         (Note: Due to bad wording on GW’s part, you could technically argue that the Power Lance gets +1 strength and AP3 on the turn that any squad charges, but that is clearly not RAI and will probably get you dreadsocked.)

 

Now for some Mathhammer: Here’s assuming you get 3 attacks per weapon, and how much damage you’ll cause against models with varying armor saves. (For the Power Axe I couldn’t very well display that you hit lower, so I instead reduced the number of attacks by one to represent the penalty. Keep in mind that if you’re already initiative one, the Power Axe will do significantly better than all other weapons.) (Assumes that all attacks hit and used by a S4 model. Number represents how many unsaved wounds on average.)

 

FAQ Problems and Wording Issues

Just a quick post to complain about a really, (in my opinion,) stupidly done rules wording by GW.

In the Grey Knights FAQ they declared this:

Q: Does the Vindicare Assassin’s Deadshot special rule supersede the Look Out, Sir! special rule for the purposes of wound allocation, meaning that the player who owns the Vindicare Assassin is still allowed to allocate the wounds from its shooting even if their opponent makes and passes a Look Out, Sir! roll? (p53)

A: Yes.

 

I understand the reasoning behind this ruling. After all, the Vindicaire Assassin would be worthless without his Deadshot bonus. But my problem isn’t that they changed this, it’s the wording and way they did it. If they had changed it in the Errata  (IE ‘Change ‘Deadshot’ to read that ‘Look Out, Sir!’ cannot be taken against shots with this special rule,) that would be A-OK. But using the method they did, (Phrasing it as a question,) they actually ignored the way that Look Out, Sir! inherently works. It functions as a way to move the wound AFTER allocation, but using their wording it turns into a special rule that happens during the wound allocation. You can’t re-allocate after armor saves have been taken, (That’s kind of a really major point,) but this says you can and, in fact, it claims that this is how it is supposed to happen.

In other words, this sets precedence for other powers based around allocation going into effect post-armor saves. Not only that, but even if Look Out, Sir! rolls were taken during the allocation phase, it’d still end up going like this:

Wound.

Allocate with the assassin.

Re-allocate with Look Out, Sir!

Re-allocate with assassin.

Re-allocate with Look Out, Sir!

Re-allocate with assassin.

Re-allocate with Look Out, Sir!

Etc. until the roll is failed. 

In other words, I think this ruling is really, really stupid and could have been done a lot better.

Fortifications: Uses and What They are Good For

Today I’m going to take a little time to talk about fortifications in 6th edition, what they do, and why you should (or shouldn’t) take them. Which is kind of obvious from the title of this post…

Aaaaanywaaays…

First off, let’s talk about what GW was trying to accomplish by adding fortifications to the game. It’s clear that with the new rules, (namely, allowing players to set up terrain for the entire board, adjusting cover saves, more objective-based games, etc,) that the new rulebook has a much heavier emphasis on map control. It’s less important that you can kill everything, and far more emphasis is now placed on holding certain points of the board. By adding fortifications, they allow you to have a little more control over how your own deployment zone is set up. In addition, they give Skyfire weapons to armies that would otherwise have none, allow support units to have guaranteed cover saves, and look pretty dang cool.   With that in mind, let’s discuss what each one is capable of.

 

 

Aegis Defense Line: I think this is most likely the most popular fortification to use. It’s cheap,   (both model-wise and points-wise, compared to other fortifications,) it’s effective, and it isn’t so large that it becomes obtuse or gets in the way. It is also large enough to provide a pretty large area of cover for most boards, and is excellent for protecting units from shooting. It doesn’t protect from assault all too well, but if you keep enemies at arm’s length, then you should be fine. For example, a unit of 10 grots, (30-40 points,) is worthless… Until they become an objective-holding squad that has 2+ cover if they can even be seen. For 200 points or so, you’ve got thirty wounds, a definitely held objective, a skyfire weapon that can injure or kill most enemies, and if the squad has to go to ground they become nearly indestructible (at the cost of losing accuracy for the skyfire weapon.) I’m sure there are equivalent units in other armies, I just don’t know what they are…

Pros: It’s pretty cheap, and very effective. Map control is everything, and a 4+ cover save to most of your army’s gun line is invaluable. Plus, for armies lacking skyfire, this becomes a cheap and excellent way to take down aircraft. 

Cons: The most vulnerable fortification against assault. And, if you lose the fortification, you also just gave your enemy a free quad-gun that they can steal. It’s not yours to keep if the enemy swarms it, so make sure your enemy can’t swarm it. (I’ve played a couple games where I commandeered a quad-gun and proceeded to shoot down an enemy flyer or two with it.)

 

Skyshield Landing Pad: This thing’s kind of… Not so great, really. It can’t take emplaced weapons, more expensive than the Aegis line, and rather worthless for map control. You can’t place objectives inside of it (Since you place it after objectives, the objectives would be underneath it,) and the bonus for deep striking units is lost when you realize it has to be deployed in your own deployment zone, at least partially. In other words, you might as well just place units in your deployment zone instead of taking this. Not only that, but enemies can deep strike on it without scattering too, so it will cause more harm than good if your enemy has any deep striking units. It does make a fairly good defensive emplacement for shooting units, but you can get a cheaper and better one with the Aegis.

Pros: Not super expensive, big enough that it allows decent map control, and a 4+ invuln is nothing to scoff at.

Cons: It helps your opponents almost as much as it helps you, it can’t take emplaced weapons, and it makes maneuvering difficult due to its size and shape.

 

Imperial Bastion: This one is another useful option, if you have the points and need something like it. It’s less versatile than an Aegis line (Once again, objectives can’t go inside it,) but more defensive. Models on top get a 3+ cover, and inside become nearly impregnable. Excellent for small, long range shooty units that are otherwise too fragile to use. Snipers, in other words. Put snipers in this. Or maybe a unit of devastators  putting the vanilla ones inside to man the heavy bolters while the lascannons go on top and shoot at everything else. 

Pros: Still pretty cheap, better defense than the Aegis line, and makes assault of your valuable shooting units very difficult. If you want a piece of the map to stay held, it’s the choice for you.

Cons: Limited in use options, and against certain specific units it falls apart quickly. And, should it be destroyed, your otherwise vulnerable unit of shooting specialists will become exposed almost immediately.

 

Lastly, the Fortress of Redemption: This is the big one. Huge, expensive, deadly, and annoying to face. ALWAYS take Krakstorm missiles (there’s no reason not to,) and you’ve got an effective and deadly barricade that seals of whatever portion of the map it’s at. A few emplaced heavy bolters to add better defense against nearby units, and most everyone will have difficulty taking it down.

Pros: For a lot of armies, it’s the only way to get a deadly barrage weapon of that range. No squad is safe from the immensely deadly Krakstorm missiles. Able to put out a lot of firepower, your shooting units will go from decent to amazing when you give them a barricade like this.

Cons: Expensive. 250 points with Krakstorm missiles, 290 with 4 heavy bolters. Plus, while fairly deadly, it has no specific use and suffers from similar drawbacks to the Skyshield. You can’t put objectives in it, it’s obtuse, and most enemies in larger games will be able to ignore it. Plus, if you put a shooting unit inside, they’ll have to forgo using their own guns in order to fire the emplaced ones, so you aren’t gaining too much from buying more weapons for it. 

 

Overall, it’s pretty clear that I love the Aegis line and don’t care much for the others. Especially in tournaments, situational usefulness is not good enough to take, when you could instead take something universally effective. I’d recommend taking an Aegis line frequently, a Bunker occasionally, and the other two only for flavor in friendly games where it doesn’t matter.

Dakkajets: How Good Are They?

Dakkajets are one of the fun and (relatively) new units released by White Dwarf for Orks, and later in Death from the Skies. But, you probably already knew that… Um…

I’m going to talk about using them for their maximum potential. ‘Cause, y’know, they’re pretty cool and stuff.

First off, Dakkajets are the only weapon Orks have that can hit flyers. They also have BS4 against ground units and twin linked (BS4 against flyers if you take Fighta Ace, too,) making them ridiculously accurate for orks. To start off, I’m gonna go over their upgrades.

Extra Soopa Shoota: I don’t know why this option exists. ALWAYS take an extra soopa shoota. Really, they could have increased model cost by ten points, added the gun, and nobody’s lists would have changed.

Fighta Ace: A pretty good upgrade, if you expect to be fighting aerial units. Cheap, too. I’d suggest it unless you are playing an army with no skimmers or fliers. 

Red Paint Job: Fluffy, but completely worthless. You’ve already got up to 36″ movement. It was good in 5th, when it allowed you to get a cover save without losing your firepower, but in 6th it’s almost entirely pointless. Never take this unless you want to for fluff’s sake.

 

With that in mind, the rest of this tactica will assume you have taken the extra supa shoota and fighta ace. 

 

With the dawn of a lot of 6th edition armies, the Dakkajet has taken a bit of a blow. More and more armies have skyfire, and with that in mind less and less people will have trouble killing the Dakkajet. You’re still killy, but gone are the days of nigh-invulnerability with the Dakkajet. Still, it’s cheap and effective at killing.

Speaking of killing, combined with a fast army, Dakkajets are perfect for complete detestation on turn 2. You’ll typically bring it in on that turn, and if you have 2 then you’ll almost always be getting at least one if not both. Combine that with rapid infantry units who will be within charge range on turn two, you’ve got some damned killy stuff. 18 (or 36 with two) shots, about 75% hit, that’s gonna be about 14 or 27 average hits. It also kills anything AV12 or below, so you’ve got the perfect weapon for shredding apart any light tanks. I’ve never played a game with a dakkajet where it didn’t kill something on the turn it came in. 

Also, it’s a great anti aircraft plane. No flyers are better than AV12, so there’s never gonna be something you can’t kill. Admittedly, certain flyers (CoughHelldrakeCough) might still be pretty resilient. On the other hand, you’ll never get a better opportunity to shoot them down.  Lootas are the other good option for Anti Air, but they won’t be getting very many hits so the strength increase is negligible. 

 

Now… Here’s where things can get ridiculous. If you take a Weirdboy, you can call a WAAAGH on every single turn potentially. Even if it’s not every turn, you have about a 1/3 chance (with Warpheads, at least,) which is pretty good, of a free WAAAGH. Combined with the automatic one, you’re looking at 3 or so WAAAGHS a game. Which is 27 more shots, or about 20 more hits. Not bad. 

 

Now, the problems. Dakkajets do use up a fast attack slot, which is pretty valuable for Orks in this edition. In addition, they’re pretty vulnerable to anti air, considering they only have AV10. If your opponent has any Interceptor weapons, you’re gonna have a bad time. 

Sisters of Battle: Not so bad after all? (And a note for Orks.)

Before I get into talking ’bout dem umie gitz, here’s quick tip for dem proppa boyz out dere!

Mob Rule states that you can replace your leadership with the squad size at any point. It doesn’t say that you have to, and it doesn’t say that the modified leadership has to be higher than your natural leadership. What does this mean? It means you can intentionally try to fail leadership tests by substituting a tiny number or just using base leadership instead of Mob leadership. What’s that? A furioso is about to assault your expensive squad of 30 boys, but eight of them were already killed by shooting? Why, take a leadership test, my good fellow! Leadership seven provides a fairly good chance to fail. Run 2d6 away, get out of charge range, and then on your next turn you can automatically regroup by reminding your boys they are fearless.

This has saved my Warboss and some Biker Nobz of mine more times than I can count. (Actually, I can. It’s saved them like five times. Still, that’s pretty good.)

EDIT: Looking at RAW, any squad above 10 models just ‘Counts as Fearless.’ You don’t get to choose. Still, if you have small squads of Nobz or stuff like that, it could be used pretty well… Though you wouldn’t get your auto-regroup, just a LD9 regroup.

Food for thought.

ANYWAYS: Today I’m going to talk about the ever-neglected, rather terrible Sisters of Battle.

Since 2011, when their actual codex was replaced by a 12-unit White Dwarf chunk of suck, they’ve been shelved by basically everyone. You can’t find the codex except on Ebay for exorbitant prices (Or shadily legal PDF version.) There’s a reason that they were nerfed, though, and I’ll get to that in a minute. The point is, they lost most of their best rules, got little good things in return, and were left with a very limited codex and no way to play competitively.

As to why they were nerfed? That requires a way-back machine. In 2003, Codex: Witch Hunters was released. It contained a few underpowered (compared to now) Grey Knights, the Inquisition and everything related to it, and of course our favorite Sisters of Battle. For a while, it was pretty competitive, but after 2 rulebook changes and 8 years, they slowly turned from a deadly super-army to a mediocre and ineffective codex that nobody ever used.

So, Games Workshop decided on a solution. Witch Hunters didn’t sell well, but Space Marines did. Plus, if they added another Space Marine army, they’d have a bunch of bases to start with in terms of releasing new models to sell. So, they decided they would release Grey Knights as a way to get more sales and keep them competitive. But there was a problem: Sisters of Battle were scattered everywhere in the fluff, and couldn’t receive a Squat treatment. (That is, they couldn’t just be removed from history.) Besides, a bunch of people had the SoB models, and wouldn’t appreciate it if their models were completely removed. The Inquisition and Grey Knights were both being moved to the new codex, but Sisters of Battle weren’t. There wasn’t enough time to release a new Sisters codex, and there certainly wasn’t enough time to add any official models or kits to the Sisters either. So, they took only the Sisters models that currently existed, (minus everything else from their codex,) wrote them a mediocre rules set, and released it in White Dwarf issue 379-380. In effect, the Sisters had all their rules safely put aside, the Grey Knights were free to be released with any rules that Games Workshop wanted, and everything was grand.

Except the Sisters of Battle now really, really sucked.

Still, they aren’t completely worthless. I could easily see them functioning as effective allies or doing pretty well in small games. Let’s go down the list and talk about what they’ve got going for them.

The Good:

Saint Celestine: This HQ is a must-have. While not amazing at any particular thing, she’s harder to kill than a Necron. What’s that? You shot her with a Lascannon on turn one and blew her head off? (Next turn. 4+ roll.) Nope! She’s fine. What’s that? A Chainfist just cut her in half? (Two turns later. 4+ roll.) Nope! She’s fine. Any time she dies, you place a marker on where that took place. Every turn ever after it, you roll a D6 and on 4+ she comes back to freaking life. No matter what.

Seraphim: Mobile, fairly cheap, and all armed with pistols. And since you can fire both pistols at the same time, this leads to some awesome combos. 4 hand flamer shots, for example, or 4 melta shots into a Land Raider. I would recommend 1 pair of hand flamers and 1 pair of melta pistols if you’re going for a good-at-everything list. Oh, and did I mention they all have jump packs? And since they all have 2 pistols, that means 2 attacks each, putting them at a combat advantage over most everyone else in their army. And did I mention they can re-roll to wound rolls if you get their Faith test?

Retributor Squad: Essentially, these guys are the Sisters equivalent of Devestators… But they can give all their guns Rending. Including, like, Heavy Flamers and stuff. Which is pretty awesome. Mount them in a Aegis Defense Line with a Quad gun and 4 heavy bolters, and you’ve got a fairly effective way to kill most enemies.

Shield of Faith: Everyone in your army is guaranteed a 6+ invuln. Not amazing… but it’s free.

Uriah Jacobus: I hesitate to put him in the ‘Good Things Sisters Have’ section. On the one hand, his ability is really useful because you get to re-roll Faith Points (more on that later.) However, this isn’t so much ‘A great buff to the army’ as it is, ‘Making the army competent.’ Still, he also lets you take a Battle Conclave and gives his unit Feel No Pain. And he’s got a big freaking shotgun.

Battle Conclaves: Another pretty good unit. Either you get a crapload of S5 attacks (4 per model) or else a whole lot of Power attacks. Also, you can get a good amount of 3+ invulnerable saves, so that’s neat. Other than the 3++, though, they’re pretty vulnerable. (Toughness 3.) And, you can’t assault out of Rhinos anymore, so that’s no good. Still, you get these guys in combat and they’ll rip up most anything they’re designed to kill. (Except 2+ armor. Oh well…)

The Mediocre:

Ecclesiarchy Confessor: Meh. Let’s you take a Battle Conclave, but Uriah is better. No need to pay for hamburger when you’ve got steak for 15 more points.

Arch-Confessor Kyrinov: Another Meh. He’s also better than the Ecclesiarchy Confessor, but once again he’s out-done but Uriah and made pretty well worthless.

Rhinos: Not much to say here, just your standard, run of the mill, rhinos. They can take ’em.

Exorcists: Really expensive and not too sturdy. However, it gets D6 S8 AP1 shots every turn. Die, Terminators, Die!

Penitent Engines: If you get these guys into Close Combat, they’re pretty awesome. D6+1 attacks, Rage, and every unsaved wound caused in Close Combat gives them an extra attack. (Does not stack infinitely, unlike the Furioso…) That means that each of them could get 18 wounds in one assault phase, if you’re lucky. But, they’re pretty bad until you get really close (They have Heavy Flamers, but nothing long range,) and are easy to shoot up. And 85 points a model. Not bad, but not amazing either.

The Bad: (Here’s where it gets ugly. Get it? Get it? Ah, never mind…)

Faith Points: Faith points are the buff everyone gets. When you use them on a squad, that squad gets some kind of buff maybe. You roll, and on a 5+ (+1 if you’ve taken a wound in the squad, have a character leading you, or an independent character. So it could be 2+ if you have a fully set up squad) you get some kind of buff. Dominion Squads all get rending. Troops get to re-roll 1s to hit. Seraphim get to re-roll wounds. Awesome, you say? Why is this in the Bad section? Well, this isn’t so much an ‘Awesome army-booster’ as it is a ‘Competence-maker.’ You see, without Faith points your army is totally screwed. And you only get D6 per turn… No matter how big your army is. 500 point mini-game? D6 per turn. Awesome! 3000 point throwdown? D6 per turn. Hey! (I suggest a house rule of D3 per 500 points, but you’ll have to get approval from your opponents on that.) So on any given turn your army is either competent, or you roll a 1 and your army does practically nothing. (That’s why Uriah is almost a must have: Better Faith control.)

Sisters of Battle: That is, the troops. Not much cheaper than normal marines, T3, and no close combat ability whatsoever. Even marines, (1 attack base,) have WS4. They’re not bad at shooting, but they’ve really got no effective uses on board besides ‘Existing.’ Take 2 of them because you have to, but don’t ever take more than that.

Canoness: I hear the Canoness used to be a really awesome HQ. Now she’s expensive and mediocre, taken only as an excuse to take an expensive and mediocre command retinue. Unfortunately, she’s so bad that you won’t ever take her… Meaning you never get to take a Dialogus. 

Everything in the Elites section: Seriously, was Games Workshop even trying? They’re expensive, mediocre, and it’s hard to tell what they’re trying to accomplish. I think they’re supposed to be the Close Combat guys? But the Celestian Squad is still mediocre in Combat (Ork Boys are better,) and the Repentia are too fragile. Yes, you can get basically 4 Chainfists for 90 points… but they’ve got no armor save except for their 6+ invuln and Feel No Pain. And they can’t take a transport. These guys are gonna be SOOO dead before they get into combat.

Immolators: Okay, these aren’t so terrible… But they are worse than rhinos and more expensive. Therefore, they are completely worthless.

Dominion Squads: Uh, I’m not quite sure what these guys are supposed to do. They’re fast attack, and they have scout? I think the idea is they scout forward with Melta guns, but… I’m really unsure. That’s really the only thing they can do. Really.

Also, that’s it: I just told you about every single model in the Codex. I hear there are Forge World something-or-others, but that’s everything you can take from the White Dwarf codex. That. Is. It. Completely it. I’m pretty sure that some armies have more options than that in just the HQ option. Really, this is just so limited. There’s some good things, sure, but it’s like unto the Tyranid Codex: There are good things, but you have to take all of them to do well.

Say… The Cruddace wrote both of these. I wonder…

Nah. Coincidence.

 

 

ADDITION: Chicop over at SecondSphere.org wrote an excellent rebuttal with some more good points and a differing opinion, which I believe is worth sharing here:

I disagree with some of your assesment.

Bad.

1. Sisters of Battle are not bad. I agree they suck, but are not bad. They cost 1 point more than guard veterans and the same as dark angels scouts. What is the main differance is these factors.

A. The have a 3+ save. The only model in the game that gets a 3+ save at that cost.
B. They shoot like marines, which is better than scouts

The thing that hurts them is very limited options. For example a Sister Superior can out class a veteran, but would struggle with a scout at the same cost.

Also compared to wytches they can blow wytches away or die due to weight of attacks.

If you had an option to go close combat like bolt pistol and ccw in the whole squad they can take on a wytch squad at that point in combat.

The only option you have is to sit back, push up, or jump in rapid fire range, and avoid combat at all cost.

Also unlike marines with higher toughness and some close combat you really feel forced to field rhinos. I personally feel the codex forces you to field rhinos and you really don’t have a choice to do so.

The rhino is not bad,because you need them for mobility and to get within that rapid fire range. 

Than looking at how cheap the rhino is you get what you pay for. Although having a drop pod option would be nice, or options period.

I still say compared to raw models the sisters are one of the best troops priced for what they do. The problem is the options are none which knocks them down from being the best troops. The old faith system made them the best troops for what they did. 

Even so they can re roll hits and have the ability to rally.

Krinov isn’t bad either. I have to re look at him at a latter time, bu last I look he’s not a bad choice. The problem is at the end of the day you will run Jacobs and celestine over him. That doesn’t make him a bad choice if you have 2 better ones in a slot only for 2. If you choose not to use celestine he is the next logical choice. He is better than your other HQ choices.

Exorcist is one of the good models they have, due to the only long range model they have. They are very cheap for what they do. On average rolling you should get 3-4 shots that hit 2-3 times. They are not good if you roll bad a lot. If you roll average or good they are awesome. Out of anything this unit have a great kill record in my sisters army. They eat MC’s due to wounding most on 2s and few can save against the ap unless they have invulnerable saves. On top of that anything with 13 armour and lower really feel the pain. Actually it’s 12 and below now due to the new vehicle charts. The old chart glance due to ap 1 you had a better chance of killing 13 armour. Now with a glance only doing hp damage the weapon have a tougher time dealing with 13 armour.

Even so it is well worth taking 3. Also I always field them when I take allies since they still better than the ally options and much cheaper than most tank options.

Facing with this tank is important and you do not want to field them in the middle where side armour is easily exposed.

Faith is midiocre instead of bad. If I remember correctly your troops can also rally using faith or have fearless, one of the two. The key is to selectively use faith where it is needed. If you have 1-3 faith you have to think who wil use it. 4-6 will give you more options. It forces you to not rely on faith as heavily as you did last edition. I can say last edition faith system was over the top if you realized how easy it was to abused. This system forces you to win on the army a lone and use faith

 for the extra little push. After playing away I’ll say it’s midiocre. Also it’s not bad if you take sisters as allies.

I’m confussed??? You have Dominions as Good and Bad. I got of my lasy butt and got my book.

I guess you saying the Retributor squads since you mentioned rending is in the good cat.

And you saying the Dominions with scout is bad.

I disagree on the dominions since like the exorcist if you want to be competetive you have to take them. A full squad can have 4 twin linked meltas, or flamers and each sister cost as much as a chaos marine. 

The reason they have scout is for them to be put in rhinos. For them to be effective you have to use rhinos. You than throw out re rolling to wound flamers, or twin linked melta love on a target.

The problem with the Dominion and you rarely see more than one squad of them, I mean Retributors is they going to have a rending heavy flamer, heavy bolter, or multi-melta. You’re forfieting a 48″ ranged weapon to take this squad. At the end of the day you’ll realize you need Exorcist over this squad and either not field them at all, or field at least one squad.
A. If you go the rending flamer route you could just run dominion which is just as effectice and more so against swarms.

B. The multi is a good choice, but seems a waste for rending. Helpful against a raider. The limited range how ever will make you want an exorcist.

C. The rending heavy bolters are what I see people do with them, but again it takes a slot away for actual ranged. Also it is helpful, but your whole army has a ton of mid ranged weapons and it doesn’t help with your lack of long range options.

Why run Kyrinov.

1. Makes a squad fearless
2. He has a 6″ fearless bubble 
3. Can add faith points, via laud hailer which if you have enough you can generate more faith
4. Also he makes faith more likly to happen.
5. Re roll to wound in asault

He’s not bad. He is just not as good as Jacobs or Celestine.

Also if you heaven forbid field a cannoness and use a command squad with Kyrinov you can have 2 luad hailers in your army. Essentually on average rolling that means 1 extra faith point a turn or 5 more faith points in 5 turns. Now if you roll 6s a lot like in 1 turn you can have a possible 18 faith points a turn thanks to two hailers and rolling 6 on to determining faith. Since that is unlikely it’s more common that you get an extra faith for every 3 faith you get.

A Word (Or several hundred) on Strategy

As opposed to talking about strategy for specific units, today I’m going to talk about something I haven’t before: How to actually win games. 

Obviously, this won’t be a completely perfect tactica. Depending on your army and playstyle, the following might not be applicable at all. However, I’m going to give my opinions on playing (Hopefully with as little Orky bias as possible) and playing to win.

FIRST OFF: I am NOT referring to power-gaming. If you take ‘optimized’ army lists you pulled off the internet and are playing entirely to win… Not what I’m going for here. Rather, this is a guide for improving strategies so that you can win with whatever list you want. Therefore, I am going to skip the ‘list-building’ phase for the most part. (Especially since I don’t know much about a lot of codices.) Also, I’m going to use examples… Most of them are going to revolve around marines, guard, tyranids and orks since those are the most commonly played armies at my local Games Workshop. With that in mind…

 

Stage 1. Pre-game. So, you’ve started a game with someone, have you? The first thing you need to do is analyze your opponents army and compare it to yours. What are their strengths? Weaknesses? What do they have that’ll be the biggest threat to you? If you’re taking a tank line, this could mean meltaguns or lascannons. If you’ve taken a bunch of terminators, this refers to plasma and AP2 weapons. But it doesn’t matter what you have or they have, so long as you recognize threats. Never go into a game without knowing what you will be facing, at least approximately. (Even if you are playing blind, so you don’t know their list until post-deployment, you will still know the army they are playing and what to expect from them.)

Once you know what your enemy is taking that’ll be a threat, figure out what you have that beats that threat. If you’ve taken horde orks and they’ve got battlecannons, decide how you are going to deal with that. Will you try and use board cover and spread out models to dodge fire until you reach combat? Mass heavy fire against it and hope to destroy your target before they cause to much damage? There are no bad plans here. (Okay, there are. But there’s a lot of good ones too.) Just make sure that you HAVE a plan, and you’ll be better off.

 

Stage 2. Deployment. This is possibly the trickiest stage, depending on how talented your opponents are. It may seem ideal to go with first turn every time you get the chance, but before you do think about it… If you are playing a close combat army and it is night fighting, do you really want to give up your Shrouded by moving closer, while losing the ability to see the enemy’s deployment? Moving second is no disadvantage if you know what you are doing. 

Since you’ve already assessed the threats on the enemies army, make sure you are prepared to kill them. If you deploy first, this means making sure your solution to the threat is as close to centered on the board as possible so you have rapid response. If you go second, then make sure the vulnerable units are as far away as possible and that the killy stuff is near his vulnerable stuff. You can’t simply form a giant gun-line across the board and expect it to work without prioritization and planning beforehand. (Trust me, I’ve seen people try this… A lot… and it never works.) Make sure to take game type into account. If you’re playing killpoints it’s obvious what you have to do, but your plan changes if there’s five objectives on the board. If the Relic is centered, do you place your fastest guys ready to seize it or just make sure your battle cannons are in range to blast anyone who tries to take it? If you’re a mainly defensive army, will you try and keep the opponent from taking objectives or just take them yourself and fend him off? Remember: Your decisions deploying will determine your deadliness all day. (Alliterations are always amazingly awesome!) 

Stage 3. Actually playing the game. If you followed the first two steps properly, this is actually the easiest part. A well laid plan to flank the enemy, seize objectives, take out his HQ, or…

CREEEEEEEEEEEED!

Assuming that doesn’t happen though, a well built plan should go along smoothly. You’ll obviously have to adapt when he does something you don’t expect, but you should be fine. 

If your opponent DOES do something you don’t expect, then stop before you move on. Let’s say he got a lucky roll and killed your most powerful unit, or dropped five Grey Knights Paladins on the main objective, or whatever. Immediately figure out how you are going to deal with it. You’ll probably have to divert models from a less important objective. You might even have to completely abandon parts of the board to deal with it, but make sure to prioritize and take care of the biggest problems first. A couple of marines with heavy bolters might be annoying, but you can ignore them for the Land Raider full of terminators if you don’t have the models to spare. 

 

Now, a word on Map control. In 6th edition, killing your enemy outright is no longer the most vital part of the game. You can pound your enemy to fine dust and leave almost no survivors, but that doesn’t mean you’ll win. I once saw a game where a Dark Angels player demolished all but a single model in his opponent’s Chaos army. But… That model was a troops choice, it was the last turn, and he was standing by the relic with nobody to contest. Despite having put hardly a dent in his enemies army, and being almost completely vaporized, the Chaos player won because he had better map control. NEVER consider the game to be ‘Four turns of swapping firepower than a turn to seize the objectives.’ You obviously don’t need to be holding any objectives on turns 1-4. It’s probably not vital on turn five. But you still have to keep an eye on where the objectives are in relation to your army if you want to get anywhere. Another fun tactic is to target troop choices, denying chances to hold any objectives by the last turn and guaranteeing he won’t be able to get many victory points. Unfortunately this tactic requires you to ignore the bigger threats (Land Raider full of Terminators cough cough…) but it’s really effective in larger games where you have the firepower to spare. 

I’m Back to WAAAGH! In 6th Edition

… Maybe. I’m going to try to get back into posting regularly, but no promises.

Anyways, to start everything off I thought I’d give my once-over opinion of Ork models in 6th Edition. (I’m going to go over standard choices first, then mention Special Characters at the end.)

HQ Choices:

Warboss. Ah, the Warboss. Lovely, just as deadly as always, and if you gear him up he’s the badass he’s always been. You can’t stick him at the front of squads anymore or he’ll take a ton of shots and die, though. The Biker Boss got an even better buff though, because at T6 he’s now immune to instant death unless you are facing Force weapons or Bonesabers. (Or Destroyer weapons, in Apocalypse games.)

Big Mek: Another HQ choice that stayed effective. The Kustom Force field is marginally weaker, but about half your games (More, if you roll on Command Traits and roll 2’s,) are going to start on nightfighting… Meaning 3+ cover for your vehicles and 2+ for your boys. The Shokk Attack gun also got buffed marginally, because you don’t need the hole of the blast weapon to be over vehicles to be at full strength anymore. That means one blast weapon is now far better at taking out vehicle squadrons. Nice!

Weirdboy: Still… rather mediocre. Fun, fluffy, but worthless. If the Warphead got to be Mastery Level 2 and use 2 powers, he’d be far more effective, (Maybe even roll 3 dice and pick the two you want? Eh? That’d be awesome,) but right now he’s not a good choice for much of anything… Especially with Deny The Witch giving a 6+ to resist all your shooting attacks with him.

Elites:

Nobs. Well, wound shenanigans are more difficult now (Especially since they were FAQ’ed and no longer count as characters… Oh well.) A standard squad is marginally useful, but I’d never run them. They are only so tough, and decent firepower can take them down even in a vehicle. Besides, they chew up your Elites slots… Slots you will want to use for other things like:

Nob Bikers. These guys are freaking badass. Only vulnerable to S10 instant death, which means they will always at minimum be getting two 5+ saves (5+ invuln and 5+ FNP,) or else they’ll be getting a 4+ 5+ (4+ cover or armor) or even better, a 2+ or 3+ cover if it’s nightfighting. Add their massive durability to their massive killyness, and the fact that A WARBOSS MAKES THEM TROOPS, and you’ve got an incredibly (expensive) powerful unit only killable by the most overpowered and dedicated close combat units. (Cough*GreyKnightsSuck*Cough.)

Meganobz. Another unit buffed by 6th edition. Now only a small number of power weapons make it through their 2+ armor, so they will be saving a lot more wounds. Space marine captains with power swords are no longer a bother. Throw them in a battlewagon and charge forward, nothing can kill you. (Or… Very few things can kill you.)

Kommandos: Screw you, Matt Ward! You can no longer assault when you outflank, turning these guys into tiny squad, expensive boys that will get shot to death before they can do anything.

Tankbustas: Still fairly mediocre, in my opinion. They do get lots of rokkits, but they still have mediocre BS and aren’t any tougher than normal boys. Add that to the fact that they’re going to be running in circles and have to get in the open to get into range, you don’t have the best guys ever. (They do have awesome models, though.)

Lootas: Here we get back to awesome units. Overwatch means they are far less vulnerable to assault, their massive number of shots makes them great AA, and with building emplacements you can always guarantee that they will get a good cover save.

Burnas: I LOVE BURNAS. In an open topped vehicle, there’s literally no squad that seven or eight of them can’t kill. Consistently getting 60+ wounds on any unit they shoot at, they’re equally good in combat. What’s that, you say? You blew up my tank and now you’re assaulting me? Oh, let me just take my twenty or so Overwatch auto hits.

Troops:

Ork Boys: Bread and butter of the Ork Army. Shoota Boys are now awesome with Overwatch, no longer leaving us vulnerable to being assaulted by tough units. Back in 5th, if you got assaulted you lost. In 6th, now, if you get assaulted they take a bunch of wounds and THEN fight you, so you’ve got a higher chance of winning. Slugga boys are still good, but only if you can guarantee first strike. In a trukk or battlewagon, I’d take sluggas, but on foot go shootas all the way.

Grots: I never liked grots, but in 6th that might change a bit. They still suck on their own, but they function as fairly good assault shields… Or you stick them in a Fortress of Redemption with all the guns you can fit, and you’ve suddenly got BS3 efficient firing… Something really rare for orks.

Dedicated Transports:

Trukks. Sucky, as always, but less vulnerable to single heavy shots. (And do you really expect awesomeness for 35 points? For the price they are great.) Massed fire takes them down as consistently as ever, if not more consistently, but a single Lascannon or Multi Melta is now somewhat less effective at getting first turn death.

Fast Attack:

Stormboyz: Dey’z be the shiznitz now. Hammer of Wrath basically gives a free extra attack… Albiet at strength three, but still. You hit before everything with it. Add that with a potential range of 30″ assault, and you’ve got a recipe for first turn assaults.

Warbuggies: Meh. Still fragile, only more so due to hull points… Deffkoptas are better.

Deffkoptas: Fun! You no longer get to make 24″ movement on turn one and get 3+ cover, but getting a 5+ cover is almost guaranteed with them now, even if you fire your rokkits. Less awesome than they used to be… But they also occasionally are really awesome. (Once, someone attempted to assault a single deffkopta with a Hellbrute that was facing the wrong way. I rolled a 6 to hit, due to twin linked and sweet, sweet re-rolls… Penetrated, and immobilized him with his rear armor exposed to my entire army.)

Biker Boyz: Oh, sweet sweet T5 amazingness. Hammer of Wrath benefits them too, and with everything they are really cool. The problem is, it costs a hundred and sixty bucks to get a full sized squad… Not exactly IRL cost effective.

Dakkajets: The Ork Answer to killing flyers. Every time I bring them in, I’ve never failed to blow up at least its point value worth of models in one turn. The only weakness is AV10 all around, but hey. It’s a cheap-as-heck ork flyer. What did you expect?

Other Ork Flyers: I haven’t played with them, but they look… Decent. But considering how amazing everything else in the Fast Attack section is, do you really want to chew up your slots with just decent stuff?

Heavy Support:

Battlewagons: Certainly not improved by 6th Edition, but they weren’t hurt either. Deff Rollas are still the best Anti-Tank in the game, if you can get close enough. When ramming with them, I’ve never failed to blow up my target, or at least wreck it. For me, at least one Battlewagon full of something killy is a must-take no matter my list.

Deff Dreads: Fun. Not super deadly, but fun. They are cheap enough that it’s not a huge investment, but they take up prized Heavy Support slots. I’d take one if I had a mek in my army and a spare Troops slot, but otherwise these guys will stay on the shelf and look cool.

Killa Kans: Somewhat nerfed by Hull Point rules, but not overtly so. At least immobilization no longer outright kills them, though. Personal Opinion rules here on whether or not you want to take it.

Flash Gits: Still suck completely. Seriously, screw these guys. They’re worse than Sisters of Battle.

Artillery: I’ve never seen the point of artillery. Sure, it’s not too expensive and it provides decent supporting fire, but there are better ways to get supporting fire and they cause more damage. Lobbas are okay, what with Barrage, but there are already too many things in Ork armies to take down light troops. Kannons are all purpose, but with only 3 shots and BS3 they aren’t going to be hitting too much. Zzap guns, while cool, are too random to be trusted or used for anything more than looking neat.

Looted Wagons: Depending on the situation, these guys are fun but not required. As a cheap transport for Burnas, for example, it’s a fine choice. It also is a good choice for support fire, though a bit fragile for my tastes.

(Author’s Note: With the First Blood rule active in nearly every mission type, I despise anything fragile that might cost me that victory point. If it’s fragile, it better not be on the board until I get first blood.)

Special Characters:

Ghazkull Thraka: Beast. That’s what he is. With somewhat different Fleet rules, he now guarantees you’ll get a minimum of 7″ assault, or a maximum of 12″. (You roll 2D6 for charging and replace one of the rolls with an automatic 6.) Combine that with his utter awesomeness in combat, and you’ve essentially got a point-and-kill weapon that will destroy anything on the board… Until his 2+ invuln wears off. Still, quite possible The Best close combat monster in 40K. Watch Matt Ward turn him into a snivveling grot in the codex update…

Wazdakka: Only useful if you want to take an all Warbiker army. Admittedly I’d LOVE to take an all biker army. Problem, though, is that I’m not a millionaire and as such can’t afford an all biker army.

Mad Dok Grotsnik: When I first read the new rulebook, I mistakenly remembered Mad Dok Grotsnik as having the Rage special rule and whooped for joy. Then I remembered that he merely had a functional equivalent to Rage and that its rules didn’t change… He’s still good, but with his FNP only 5+ now, he’s not quite as good as he used to be.

Old Zogwort: About as effective as you’d expect a souped up Weirdboy to be… That is, not so much. Very occasionally, your opponent will hilariously turn into a squig, and if he gets his attacks off then he’s pretty deadly, but he’s not all to sturdy and will die pretty easily.

Snikrot: Once the boss of all stealth units, he’s now utterly worthless with the new outflank rules.

Zagstruk: No more or less effective than he used to be, though as a Jump unit received a slight buff due to the slight buff to jump units.

Badrukk: As deadly as a souped up Flash Git. In other words, costly and worthless.

Da Grand WAAAAGH!

So, I joined a weekly escalation league. For now there have only been two battles, but I’m planning on posting a report for each one as it goes along.
For context, every time you win you add 100 points to your next list, every time you lose you add 200 points. (Starting at 500.) So, while the early games are balanced, later games may end up with pretty big point differences. Scoring works based on Victory Points, so a victory with only two VPs is actually worse than a loss with 4-5. Also, the army lists are generally from memory (Especially with my opponents) so there might be subtle inaccuracies.

Game 1: The WAAAGH Begins. (500 points each)
Armies: Orks VS Imperial Guard
Orks:
1 Warboss with Mega Armor, Attack Squig, bosspole
4 Meganobz (no gear, taken as troops)
1 Trukk (No gear, transport for Meganobz)
25 Shoota Boyz, Power Klaw/Bosspole Nob

Imperial Guard:
1 Command Squad
1 Commissar, (I think? Independant Character with a bolt pistol and a sword.)
10 Veterans
10 more Veterans

Deployment: It was a 4′-4′ board, so we just had standard 12″ from the board edge deployment.
Game type: The Relic.
Terrain: There were three pieces of Area terrain lined up in the middle of the board, (Because the hobby store was using 2 tables for 3 game boards, and we were on the middle table so there was a thin fault line) and nothing else.

I deployed first, putting my Trukk filled with pain on the left side of the board, close to the center. My boys piled up on the edge of their deployment, ready to make a beeline towards the objective.
He put his command squad in the far back, with both Veterans spread out in a defensive line, protecting the Command Squad and ready to issue orders. His Commissar (Once again, unsure of that label) was by himself, on the far left of the board (All lefts and rights are from my perspective.)

Turn one!
I charged my boys towards the Relic, then ran them as well. Meanwhile, my trukk shot forward 12″, so that I could fire out. I managed to land just 1 wound on his commissar, even with all my Meganobz shooting out, so not my deadliest turn.
He then proceeded to fire both squads of Veterans at my boys, causing about ten wounds. It hurt, but I wasn’t anywhere close to a leadership test yet. (FEARLESS FTW.) His commissar, meanwhile,  was apparently set aside to try and get a lucky shot on my truck. His pistol fired, and caused no damage. So, he charged!
What’s dat, boss? Da umey with da sword be chargin us? Hurr hurr. FIRE!
I Overwatched him to death, getting First Blood AND Kill the Warlord.

Turn two!
My boys seized the Relic, and got into cover. Two very important things. My Meganobz got out of their Trukk and slogged forward, with my Boss seperating from the unit and heading towards his Command Squad. An insubstantial shooting phase followed, with a couple wounds against his Veterans, and absolutely jack done towards his Command Squad. My shootas caused a little damage to his other squad of Veterans, but once again my shooting did little harm. My assault phase was different. I called a WAAAGH!
Meganobz versus Vets, Boss versus Command Squad. The Vets died. The Command Squad caused no wounds and failed a leadership test, running off the board. (Apparently, placing them two inches from the board edge wasn’t a good idea.)
With one squad of Vets left, he proceeded to cause zero wounds shooting at my Meganobz. Figuring he had nothing left to lose, he charged them. And died.

VICTORY FOR THE ORKS! A total of 6 victory points to zero, putting me substantially in the lead for the League.

Game two:
Those orks ripped through our men, sir!
That’s okay, they won’t stand a chance, this time. We brought the Space Marines.
Orks VS Dark Angles. 600 points each. (We both won our first game.)

Army lists:
Orks:
1 Warboss with Mega Armor, Attack Squig, bosspole
4 Meganobz (no gear, taken as troops)
1 Trukk (No gear, transport for Meganobz)
20 Shoota Boyz, Power Klaw/Bosspole Nob
Battlewagon w/ Deff Rolla, 3 big shootas
Templar:
Azreal, Supreme Grand Master.
I think a Captain? Some kind of cheap HQ choice.
A Squad of Terminators (Power Fists, a rocket launcher, and a couple Assault Cannons)
A squad of Space Marines (A Lascannon and a Plasma Cannon were in them, otherwise standard gear.)

Game type: Purge the Alien!
Deployment: 12″ Standard (Once again, it was a 4′-4′ board.)

Deployment Phase:
He got deployment first, and put all of his guys in a cluster near the top left corner. Perhaps not the most clever idea ever, as you’ll later see…
I put all my boys in the Battlewagon, and then put my MegaNobz in the trukk. To deploy, I put my battlewagon directly in front of the trukk, making it nearly impossible for the space marines to see.

Turn One! I stole initiative.
And did very little with it… I moved my battlewagon forward, so that all he could see was my front armor. My trukk directly behind it, it only moved 12″ and so technically could have shot… but it couldn’t see anything.
He fired everything he had, but was only able to see the front armor of my Battlewagon. His Plasma Cannon hit but caused no damage, and his Lascannon missed.

Turn Two!
The exact same dang thing happened. He had deployed far enough away that a full turn of movement still left him out of assault range.
One of the Assault Cannons he had was actually able to see my side armor (for my Battlewagon) this time, and managed to cause a glancing hit. One structure point down, three to go… His lascannon missed again.

Turn Three!
Everything I had piled out of their vehicles after moving 6 or 12 inches forward. I shot a crapload of stuff into his unit and caused three terminators and a few marines to die. Then I assaulted…
And he surrendered.

Final score: 7 more Victory Points to me! None to him!

Currently I’m at 13 Victory points for the League. The closest is at 8… I think I’m doing well, but we’ll see if I can stand up against armies with a couple hundred more points than me.

 

Back with Strategy

I am not going to bore you with an excuse as to why I haven’t posted an article in over a month. I just haven’t gotten around to it. However, recently I have been motivated to do a bit more writing, so I thought I would write some strategies for taking out Tyranids in the new codex.

First off, Tervigons. (Or, Proof that Games Workshop hates you.) These guys are vraiment difficile de tuer. (Pardon my French.) There are only two good techniques I have thought of for fighting them. The first one is a Warboss, mounted on a Warbike, armed with a Power Klaw. Make sure you get the chance to assault the Tervigon, and it will die. You might lose the Warboss, but you also will keep him from spawning more gaunts, giving Feel No Pain, and causing the nearby aliens to become super-warriors. The other one is Deffkoptas with Rokkits and Buzzsaws. Soften up the target with your rokkits and then hack it apart in close combat. However, the problem with these is that it often costs equal or more than the Tervigon just to kill it.

The Tyrannofex is another big nasty that is hard to kill. Rokkits dont work, and it is really hard to kill in CC. I find the only way to kill it is mass fire, or Meganobz. Huge amounts of power attacks are the best.

 

Anti-Nidz: Hordes and Nidzilla

Recently, I played a game against a friend of mine, who plays Nidz. I got to try out an all-elites army, (using two warbosses, so Nobz became Troops.) It was fun, (The Nobz managed to shred everything they came in contact with,) and I learned some new tricks.

First off, when using Nobz against Tyranids, here are a couple of words of advice: They kill everything, and nothing can kill them, with three exceptions I have found: Carnifaxes, (because they are S9-10 on the charge, so they cause instant death,) Tyranid Warriors, (because of high initiative and bonesabres,) and Tyrannofexes, (once again due to instant-death causing.) With a unit of 10 Nobz and a warboss, (two power klaws plus the warboss’s,  a couple of big choppas, painboyz, cyborks and armor all around, and a waaagh! banner,) I charged a Hive Tyrant, a Carnifax, and a Tervigon. Only the Carnifax caused a death. (Also, all 3 Nidz died in 2 turns of combat.) Then, he charged me with his THIRD carnifax and killed my warboss. (caused instant death.) My Nobz killed it, and then took a third objective, (out of five,) winning me the game.

Another technique that is killer against horde Nidz is burnas. I had two burnas in a unit of kommandos who outflanked. I ended up next to a unit of Genestealers, and with one turn of firing from the burnas, I killed ten of them. I shudder to think how much damage I would of caused if I had nine or ten in a battlewagon. (Actually I don’t shudder. It sounds awesome.) They also are good for cracking through MC’s, but that is just a bonus.