Thursday, March 20, 2014

Huzzah Hobbies RTT March 16th Recap, Crimson Slaughter / Imperial knights thoughts.


So before anything else.
Please note that next months RTT will be held April 13th, as Easter is the 3rd Sunday of April, so we will be using the 2nd Sunday just for next month.

So quick recap of the RTT of march 16th.

By win-loss - with two undefeated, the higher BP undefeated won first.

1st place - Joseph with his crimson slaughter and chaos daemons
2nd place - Brad with ovesa star

By Battle Points

1st - Robert with his deamon FMC
2nd - Pierre with his eldar
3rd - Kevin with his Tyranids

Now I will note, I messed up the BP on ToF for the last round because I'm a retard. Kevin and Pierre were only 1 point away from each other, due to my screw up, I mis-calculated Kevin as the top of that 1 point difference, when it was in fact Pierre. So I will be retrieving another 2nd place BP prize for Pierre for next RTT to hand off. Kevin, as he did totally awesome with his tyranids, will keep his prize and have it renamed "super epic tyranid bro's player award".

Innovation award - This went to Chris, who was using imperial knights. He thoughtfully had large shield symbols to show his opponents the exact facings being covered by the shield. This was very useful and a nice consideration for his opponents.

Midpack - Was decided by a roll-off between Charlie and matt, and went to Charlie


Now some thoughts about the event.

Void shield generator thingy went over well. So for future events, a void shield generator will be allowed. with the provision it is not a networked system. Thank you to Jon who voluntarily tested it.

Imperial Knights- pretty powerful, those of you out there saying they are easy to beat have clearly not been playing them right, or vs. a good player. Chris rampaged at the RTT with them, however he was nocked out by a deamon FMC player, who was able to out-maneuver him. Interviewing his opponents after the games revealed a little annoyance at the imperial knights, but nothing more than I'd expect than someone who had just matched a seer council. I think its to early to tell if these guys should be banned or not, so for the present time, I'll continue to allow them.

I just wish GW wasn't as retarded about this whole ally thing. They need to stop breaking their own FoC's, and coming up with these super dex's that only benefit imperial or "good" armies.

I will mention, playing as a ringer, I allied an imperial knight with my CSM crimson slaughter (super illegal, I know!) and Jon used hive crones to vector strike it to death by bottom of turn 2 or 3.

Crimson Slaughter - This book is pretty solid, and by book, I basically mean the relics. Having possessed as troops is decent, they're super pricey and tend to die easily. You can fit about 30 into a list at 1850 if your rhino'ing up and take other units like maulers and helldrakes. They suffer from the same thing every marine does, forcing a volume of saves eliminates them pretty quickly. I don't think running them on foot is a good idea. Rhinos give one turn of protection or movement distance to get you closer. Overall I would recommend sticking with tried and true cultists, unless you want to base an army around possessed. I will be dropping my black legion allies though to take crimson slaughter, no doubt about that. The divination psyker is a decent thought. There may be something to taking CS primary, and taking a nurgle psyker / rolling for divination. Take an AP2 force axe, and now you've got two characters who can go around instant deathing. If you get lucky in your rolling, maybe some good buffs for the spawn.

Worth a thought.


So I don't really like the idea of D-weapons and imperial knights in the game. However I do like the model quite a bit. So I picked one up from huzzah and have been painting it up. I finished basing the bulk of it, and washed it. Now I need to drybrush then start highlighting. You may be wondering why I washed the flat surfaces of the model. I am theorizing it'll turn out looking nice after I start drybrushing. If not.. oh well!





Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Huzzah Hobbies RTT Sunday March 16th.



Hi all,

An update to the RTT rules this week. After giving it a lot of thought and talking to lots of other 40kers, I have decided to allow codex Imperial Knights at the RTT this sunday with no caveats or changes.

We will see how it goes, and report back to the internets at large; then make decisions on how to handle it in the future based on the event.

All of the other normal rules as per my previous post apply.

Friday, March 7, 2014

RTT @ Huzzah Hobbies March 16th and thoughts on how to handle codex imperial knights

Hey all,


Just wanted to let everyone know our monthly RTT at Huzzah Hobbies in Ashburn, VA www.huzzahhobbies.com will be held March 16th. Registration starts at 10am, and games begin at 10:45. If you are going to be late please call the store at 703-466-0460 and let us know.

Entry fee is $15, and covers a pizza lunch and two drinks. The remaining cash is rolled entirely into prize support.

Prize support will be based on attendance


I have not yet decided if I am going to allow Codex: Imperial Knights, pending the release of the actual book. We don't yet know if its supposed to be an escalation only deal, etc.. I'm assuming GW is essentially disregarding their own rules system, and shoving it into normal 40k. So I'm going to have to make the decision on how to handle it as the T.O.

So hear out my thoughts on this.

I don't want to ban a GW codex. It's one thing to ban clear expansions / suppliments like Escalation, its quite another to disallow Imperial Knights. My issue is, they allow D-weapons / super heavies into normal 40k, which I find to be pretty much utter trash.

I think D-Weapons and the concept behind super heavies ruin the game. They turn what should be a strategy game into a race for the bottom, he who spends the most wins the most. While this is more or less true in 40k as a general rule (buying up the latest and greatest armies), two wrong's do not make a right. Subverting the current problem with newer and bigger problems does not solve the original problem. To make it worse, it's a slippery slope. If I allow one super heavy, why not allow others? In addition, as it appears codex imperial knights can only ally with Imperial armies, this is yet another game enhancer that benefits the currently powerful armies (as for some stupid reason tau and elder can ally w/ them too), while hurting the underpowered armies  (ork, cron, chaos ect).

So I will post later this week after I read the damn thing, and hopefully after feedback from readers and other 40kers to decide if I'm going to allow this into our 40k games.

I have been toying with some ideas for changes to D-Weapons. Something that maintains a good power level of what the D once was so as to not be retarded bad, but doesn't make it the monster. Because as I said, slippery slope, we don't want to change the D-weapon, then have to change it again to compensate for some other crazy codex.

So my proposal for how the D should be changed rolls something like this:
 All D-weapons become S10, Ap1, removes model from play on the role of a 6 to wound with no saves of any kind allowed, and ignores eternal warrior ect.
When taking a cover save against a D-weapon, subtract 1 from your best possible cover save. (This means at best you should only ever get a 3+ cover save vs. a D).
Against vehicles, may re-roll armor pen and armor penetration results.

I feel this lets D-weapons still feel powerful, but not break the game.

Now what to do about the super-heavies?

Well super heavy walkers move 12, which is more or less ok. But their real issue is their stomp attack. It's really powerful, deceptively so, if you've never played against a walker doing it. It's basically another D-weapon attack.

So my proposal would be, stomp becomes S7, Ap3, may not be placed over models which are not engaged in the current combat.

Could also change the S / AP value to be S4 Ap2, as another direction to go with that.

So, would appreciate any and all feedback on said topic. When thinking about these things, don't think only in the context of imperial knights either, think long term, and application to other D-weapon wielding units / super heavies. B/c this thing is slippery slope, if GW is willing to put out one, they're probably going to put out more.


Rules:

1850 pts

We allow all codex's, dataslates, and stronghold assault - EXCLUDING any AV15 buildings, D-Weapons, networked buildings..

Formations are allowed, but are treated as a separate special detachment whose limit is 0-1, so multiple formations are not allowed.

Escalation is not allowed.

Forgeworld 40k approved models are only allowed if we are contacted in advance of the event to ask about specific models. This allows us to review the rules of the model in question and determine if its reasonable or not.  Please contact me or leave a reply to this post to ask.

We will be following NOVA Open FAQ's unless otherwise stated by the judge at the event.

Proxies are totally fine as long as they are roughly the same size as the model being proxies, and use the same base.

Painting is not required.

This event is run and tracked in torrent of fire. www.torrentoffire.com.