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.
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.
Monday, February 24, 2014
RTT Results - Test rules for using Void Shields at the next RTT
Hey all
Excuse the long delay in posting - Lots o' real life stuff going on, not that it's an excuse, we all do in general.
RTT Results!
So, in first place, was none other than Chip! Of ToF fame. He was playing a beastpack elder army.
Second place went to Werner with his Necron army!
Third place with to Lee with his Necrons
Fourth went to Matt with his Eldar.
Midpack award after a dice off went to Zach.
I was to tired to come up with a clever award, so we just went with a 4th place this time around.
So it seems Necron still have plenty o' game left in them. Good job all.
So this RTT went off very well, we were done on time, which was nice! We had 20 people in attendance, of which, 4 or 5 were tyranid! I was surprised to say the least. Tyranids look fun to play, if nothing else. Though I'm not sure how their backs felt by day end with all those models to move / lean over. I have to give special thanks to Chris, the owner of Huzzah. He's gone the extra mile to set up the room for us wargaming hobbyists. Now it has trays for people to transport armies on (in case you forgot yours!), two new tables and more terrain!
I've been considering doing a tactics type class at some point. Having run these RTT's for a long while now, I see returning faces often. I've gotten to sorta tell who is going to do well at what, and it may be time to have a tactics session. I say this, because our RTT is often attended by both GT players, and hobbyists. And while I love the diversity, I feel a little bad for the hobbyists getting socked round 1 due to random pairings (as after that they are more structured).
I'm not saying anyone's bad, don't take it that way, I've seen a lot of improvements too. I just notice a trend with some players being stronger than others vs. different things.
It's nothing to do with armies either, I see players fielding strong armies, or well designed, well crafted with obvious a lot of love and thought put into them, then still lose consistently. Its just playstyle.
Myself personally,
Getting ready for the ToF tourney next week, gotta fix up models and get practice games in! Also been working on painting 2k of Tau on commission from the adepticon team "Space Ninja's 3000"... Aka, personal request.
I'll post some of those up later.
In the meantime, here are the rules for using void shields in the next RTT, which I have copied in pasted from the rules I wrote for the Nova Trios event. So excuse it if it seems to have weird comments.
Stronghold Assault
- All of the Stronghold Assault supplement are legal with the following restrictions
- Stronghold Assault models which have D-weapons, or have any single armor facing equal to AV15, and/or networked void shields, (a single voidshield is ok!) are not allowed.
- To use void shields, the following rules will be followed
- To “penetrate or wound” models inside a void shield, after rolling to hit, roll each dice to
penetrate individually, until all dice in the current pool are gone, or the shield has collapsed.
- After the shield has collapsed, roll all remaining dice against the intended target unit as normal.
- The order in which dice are rolled to penetrate the shield, is determined by the firing player.
- For blast or template weapons, determine how many hits occur by counting the number of
models underneath the template.
- All models, whose size and dimensions are not listed in the Stronghold Assault rulebook, may be no
larger than 2 (1/2) inches tall, and 2 inches wide.
- Any model whose dimensions are only partially listed, example, 3 inches wide but not how long or tall, may be no wider or longer than the partially listed dimension, and may only be 2(1/2) inches tall.
- All battlefield debris and associated terrain, may be no larger than 1 inch long, wide, and tall.
-Models must be WYSIWYG when available
- All models may move onto, or off of, a skyshield landing pad if within two inches of the model, by
taking a dangerous terrain test. There is no 3 inch penalty for moving up or down as with a ruin.
Special exemption for the next RTT, anyone who has crafted their own voidshield model may bring it regardless of size dimensions to the next RTT for a trial run. If it works out, then we will adjust the dimension allowance accordingly.
Excuse the long delay in posting - Lots o' real life stuff going on, not that it's an excuse, we all do in general.
RTT Results!
So, in first place, was none other than Chip! Of ToF fame. He was playing a beastpack elder army.
Second place went to Werner with his Necron army!
Third place with to Lee with his Necrons
Fourth went to Matt with his Eldar.
Midpack award after a dice off went to Zach.
I was to tired to come up with a clever award, so we just went with a 4th place this time around.
So it seems Necron still have plenty o' game left in them. Good job all.
So this RTT went off very well, we were done on time, which was nice! We had 20 people in attendance, of which, 4 or 5 were tyranid! I was surprised to say the least. Tyranids look fun to play, if nothing else. Though I'm not sure how their backs felt by day end with all those models to move / lean over. I have to give special thanks to Chris, the owner of Huzzah. He's gone the extra mile to set up the room for us wargaming hobbyists. Now it has trays for people to transport armies on (in case you forgot yours!), two new tables and more terrain!
I've been considering doing a tactics type class at some point. Having run these RTT's for a long while now, I see returning faces often. I've gotten to sorta tell who is going to do well at what, and it may be time to have a tactics session. I say this, because our RTT is often attended by both GT players, and hobbyists. And while I love the diversity, I feel a little bad for the hobbyists getting socked round 1 due to random pairings (as after that they are more structured).
I'm not saying anyone's bad, don't take it that way, I've seen a lot of improvements too. I just notice a trend with some players being stronger than others vs. different things.
It's nothing to do with armies either, I see players fielding strong armies, or well designed, well crafted with obvious a lot of love and thought put into them, then still lose consistently. Its just playstyle.
Myself personally,
Getting ready for the ToF tourney next week, gotta fix up models and get practice games in! Also been working on painting 2k of Tau on commission from the adepticon team "Space Ninja's 3000"... Aka, personal request.
I'll post some of those up later.
In the meantime, here are the rules for using void shields in the next RTT, which I have copied in pasted from the rules I wrote for the Nova Trios event. So excuse it if it seems to have weird comments.
Stronghold Assault
- All of the Stronghold Assault supplement are legal with the following restrictions
- Stronghold Assault models which have D-weapons, or have any single armor facing equal to AV15, and/or networked void shields, (a single voidshield is ok!) are not allowed.
- To use void shields, the following rules will be followed
- To “penetrate or wound” models inside a void shield, after rolling to hit, roll each dice to
penetrate individually, until all dice in the current pool are gone, or the shield has collapsed.
- After the shield has collapsed, roll all remaining dice against the intended target unit as normal.
- The order in which dice are rolled to penetrate the shield, is determined by the firing player.
- For blast or template weapons, determine how many hits occur by counting the number of
models underneath the template.
- All models, whose size and dimensions are not listed in the Stronghold Assault rulebook, may be no
larger than 2 (1/2) inches tall, and 2 inches wide.
- Any model whose dimensions are only partially listed, example, 3 inches wide but not how long or tall, may be no wider or longer than the partially listed dimension, and may only be 2(1/2) inches tall.
- All battlefield debris and associated terrain, may be no larger than 1 inch long, wide, and tall.
-Models must be WYSIWYG when available
- All models may move onto, or off of, a skyshield landing pad if within two inches of the model, by
taking a dangerous terrain test. There is no 3 inch penalty for moving up or down as with a ruin.
Special exemption for the next RTT, anyone who has crafted their own voidshield model may bring it regardless of size dimensions to the next RTT for a trial run. If it works out, then we will adjust the dimension allowance accordingly.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
40k 1850 RTT at huzzah hobbies this sunday Feb 16th.
Hey all,
Just wanted to let everyone know our monthly RTT at Huzzah Hobbies in Ashburn, VA www.huzzahhobbies.com will be held this Sunday Feb 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 and given as follows
1st - 2nd - 3rd
and two additional floater awards, this will be decided at the event based on attendance and army quality. They can range from a mid-pack award given to the person in the dead middle for BP's, to a last place award, to a best painted. This is to mix it up and encourage people who are not on the top tables to still play and have fun, knowing they still might win a prize.
Rules:
1850
We allow all codex's, dataslates, and stronghold assault - EXCLUDING any AV15 buildings, D-Weapons, networked buildings, and void shields.
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 proxied, and use the same base.
Painting is not required.
This event is run and tracked in torrent of fire. www.torrentoffire.com.
Just wanted to let everyone know our monthly RTT at Huzzah Hobbies in Ashburn, VA www.huzzahhobbies.com will be held this Sunday Feb 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 and given as follows
1st - 2nd - 3rd
and two additional floater awards, this will be decided at the event based on attendance and army quality. They can range from a mid-pack award given to the person in the dead middle for BP's, to a last place award, to a best painted. This is to mix it up and encourage people who are not on the top tables to still play and have fun, knowing they still might win a prize.
Rules:
1850
We allow all codex's, dataslates, and stronghold assault - EXCLUDING any AV15 buildings, D-Weapons, networked buildings, and void shields.
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 proxied, and use the same base.
Painting is not required.
This event is run and tracked in torrent of fire. www.torrentoffire.com.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
NOVA Open Registration today at 10AM!!! Register up!
I'm going to copy / paste from the post from MVB / Naftka because they say it better than I could. My 40k year revolves around three important 40k events. The Nova Open, the 11th Company and Adepticon. These are the events which define the hobby for me. I strongly encourage everyone to attend (them). It's always a good time!
link to original post here: http://natfka.blogspot.com/2014/01/nova-open-registration-begins_31.html#more
/-----------------
Registration for the 5th Annual NOVA Open - Washington, DC's Tabletop Wargaming Convention - begins this Saturday at 10AM US Eastern Time, February 1st.
The NOVA Open occurs from Thursday, August 28 - Sunday, August 31, 2014.
Full details and information on the schedule and events can be found at http://novaopen.com
Here's a quick-hitter on some highlights for this year ...
Look VERY CAREFULLY AT THE SCHEDULE
Every year we hear people surprised at what else they could have done if only they'd known!
For instance, it's a totally conflict-free schedule experience to participate in the 40K GT, an Infinity Hunger Games activity, a Sunday single-day tournament in a smaller event, The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience and the 40K Narrative Nightfighter's track event. Look at it carefully - see what all you can get into to make the most of your experience :)
The SuperNOVA Program
Previously titled the "VIP" Program, we changed the name to better reflect the NOVA "brand" if you will, and also because it didn't seem right to call people VIPs just for buying a more expensive and swanky pass ... you're all VIP to us (and cheesy as it sounds, anyone who knows us well will tell you we're dead serious about that).
So the SuperNOVA Bags are limited to 80 items, and then they're gone. They sell FAST. The purchase of the bag this year includes the cost of your weekend badge (to make things simpler), and also includes as usual a KR MultiCase. In addition to the below, you gain access to the SuperNOVA registration quick-line and army/personal item storage perks.
If you're in your first year of the SuperNOVA program (counting when it was named "VIP"), you'll receive a KR BackPack 2 ($82.49 value)
If you're in your second year of the program, you can choose a Kaiser2 or another BackPack 2.
If you're in your third year of the program, you'll for the first time be able to select a Kaiser3 (50% larger than the other two in terms of model capacity)
Once you purchase a SuperNOVA at any point in time, any subsequent NOVA you attend includes (whether you SuperNOVA again or not) a Buy One Get One Free from KR along with your registration materials. It allows you to acquire one KR Card Case with Custom Foam (or core foam or no foam if you really want) free with the purchase of one, basically 50% off filling your BackPack or Kaiser2 bags. You get one every subsequent year you attend for life. Daryl Elms @ KR Multicase is a pretty amazing guy.
The bags are also loaded with limited edition and vendor-supplied swag. They include everything from beer steins to special gifts matched to the army you select during check-out, and tons in between. The total net value of the items in the bag and the bag itself typically comes to several hundred dollars' worth of items.
NOVA Open 40K GT
The NOVA Open's 40K GTs is one of the better known 40K events out there, and is one of the largest singles GTs on the planet (256 player, a la AdeptiCon and LVO). With a unique bracketing system that ensures most players wind up facing their peers for most of the weekend, and a huge array of prizes tuned to all different player types, it's consistently one of our highest rated and best attended events. It's specifically designed to allow all player types the opportunity to compete for prizes, recognition and good old fashioned fun against their list/competitive peers - you don't need to just bring a beat-face Tau or Eldar list to win swag and have a great time at the NOVA! Tickets sold out last year, and have sold faster and faster with each passing year. Don't miss yours!
NOVA Open Narrative Tickets - Warlord and Nightfighter Tracks
The NOVA Open Narrative more than doubled last year, and surveys/interest seem to imply it'll do so again. Further, we've made a portion of the Narrative - the Warlord Track - a full-on GT-level 7-game event, inclusive of 3 day and 4 night games (first game is Thursday at night), as well as social activities and daily "Model UN Styled" planning sessions where the Narrative Warlords directly impact the mission direction and player deployment of the larger open-attended Nightfighter track.
If you're playing in the 40K GT and want to get some awesome games in with really innovative missions and rules battling across LED-lit boutique terrain ... participate in the Nightfighter track, scheduled to allow participation in both.
If you're looking for a full weekend of awesome Narrative gaming participating in a unique universe of the NOVA's creation, fueled by player participation, participate in the Warlords Track. There are only ABOUT THIRTY TWO SPOTS available for the Warlord Track, with only 16 initial offerings per Faction (Virtue or Human). If you want in this, you'd better sign up fast!
40K Trios Team Tournament
In order to make participation less grueling, and also to give Trios players the opportunity to participate in the Narrative events, we've pushed the Trios event to Thursday in entirety - all three rounds will begin and end that day. In the past, you've had to play Trios at night after a long GT day. This innovative Team Tournament is also NO HOLDS BARRED - the singles lists each player will use once over the course of 3 rounds can include ANY units in the game - from Escalation to Forgeworld. This is one of our legacy 40K events, under a management upgrade of veteran NOVA organizer James Watkins plus three-time Trios champion Troy Esposito. They're passionate about bringing an awesome event to start your NOVA Open experience.
X-Wing
The dedicated folks over at A Few Maneuvers are running a HUGE array of X-Wing events all weekend long at the NOVA Open this year, and we're super excited about it (as well as about their excitement). Many of these may sell pretty quick given the rising popularity of the game and the incredible team running the events. We're also working on building MASSIVE X-Wing spacecraft to have "human-sized" X-Wing demos and mini-games. More to come.
Infinity
The NOVA Open introduced a full weekend of day and night Infinity events last year, after kicking the game off well in 2012. Infinity enters its third year at the NOVA under the direction of stellar lead Craig Roberts and a dramatically-upgraded terrain building project. Check out the entire primer and weekend of events at the NOVA Open site (where all primers are located), novaopen.com. The swag for this event is especially appealing - everybody gets something direct from Corvus Belli on top of winners' prizes. Further, expect some really special prizes - last year Corvus Belli's entire staff of owners, designers, artists, writers, etc., all drew custom notes and sketch artwork on the inside cover of several hardback rulebooks addressed specifically to NOVA attendees, and sent them over as prize support (handed out both to event winners and based upon random draws among Infinity attendees)!
Warmachine/Hordes
Brendon Caulkins spent the past several years constantly building the success of Warmachine and Hordes at the NOVA Open. This year we are proudly a Warmachine Weekend Qualifier, and it looks to be an even better year than ever before, with new open gaming / iron arena and boutique terrain tables being added, and a stronger and more focused array of events spread across the schedule.
Malifaux and Blood Bowl
Both of these game systems will be at the NOVA Open this year. We're finalizing plans with the new leads who've stepped up, and we're VERY excited about it. We'll have more information on these after Registration, anticipating the opening of sales for these events and info about them by (ideally) mid-February.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience
What does it mean to experience a "successful" GT? This interactive seminar will certainly involve discussion about how best to play the missions and format of the NOVA Open's 40K GT, but it will also include discussion about the best way to leave the NOVA on Sunday feeling like your weekend was exciting and successful regardless of the outcome of your games on the tabletop. It's not just how you play the game, but how you treat and interact with your opponents that matters. Further, you're in Washington, D.C. for four days - get some local insight on the best things for you and your friends/family/significant others to do while you're there! Hear from organizers and veteran attendees while observing gaming examples and getting a last minute fire drill on the best way to "succeed" at the 2014 NOVA Open.
Seminars at the NOVA Open
The Seminars at the NOVA have grown in popularity and coverage every year. This will be their best year yet. Courses offered include a full suite of amazing art classes taught by Justin McCoy and Caleb Wissenback. Additionally, Joe Orteza of AdeptiCon fame will be joining us to teach his renowned classes teaching you to Lose Your Fear of Green Stuff. Also of note - the Build Your Own Display Board class introduced successfully and quite popularly last year is being advanced in 2014 - we'll be joined by the 11th Company's Tactical Terrain master, Eric, and Chris Michaels of Powered Play Gaming. They'll combine to teach an amazing build-and-take that brings you from a little bit of pink foam through a fully LED-lit and useable display board to show off your minis all NOVA Open long. Chris and Eric will also be teaching separate courses on lighting your models and building your own terrain, respectively. Don't miss any of these before they sell out!
Capital Palette Independent Figure Art Competition
The Capital Palette took off in an amazing way in 2013, and it's looking to dramatically expand in 2014 into one of the premier figure art competitions in the country. You can register models on an individual basis, or you can buy a pass that gives you unlimited submissions. To encourage even more participation this year despite the incredible competition, we'll also be giving away some amazing prizes based purely on participation and submission of entries to the exhibition. Show off your best work and sneak some listens in at the display area as people oooh and aaah all weekend long. The prizes for this event are off the charts - including top tier Grex Airbrushes in every prize category.
Free Charity Lounge Talks
Last year the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation secured a charitable ABC license and rented out the Presidential Suite atop the Hyatt Regency, with fantastic views of Crystal City and Washington, DC, and hosted special guests, staff and SuperNOVA bag purchasers all weekend long. This year we're opening it up to EVERYONE! Come on up and enjoy discount beverages (100% of the proceeds go to the charities supported by the Foundation) while listening in on a variety of talks all weekend long given by game developers, artists, industry experts and more. There'll be a full itinerary of Lounge Talks forthcoming as we get closer to the NOVA proper, but subjects may include "How to Break Into the Industry," "How to Run Your Own Con or GT - Panel Talk" and "An Inside Look at Designing and Developing a Successful Wargame." Want to hear the developer of your favorite skirmish game talk to you about how he came up with the rules while sipping your favorite beer or whiskey and occasionally glancing at the Washingon Monument out the window? Yup! You'll be able to hang in the lounge and participate in the Lounge Talks just by having a Con Pass.
Besides all of this, there'll be a TON more activity in the vendor hall, in a new demo row and with a bunch of side activities that add much more "Fun stuff" for the average attendee to do while they're at the NOVA. Already on our list of demo companies, by the way? Dropzone Commander, that's who! Many more are in early talks.
Who is signing up this Saturday? What are you signing up for? We're all a little exhausted, hard at work getting everything as close to perfect as we can ... but we can't WAIT to see everyone at this year's NOVA ... our 5th Anniversary will be our best yet!
-Mike Brandt
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link to original post here: http://natfka.blogspot.com/2014/01/nova-open-registration-begins_31.html#more
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Registration for the 5th Annual NOVA Open - Washington, DC's Tabletop Wargaming Convention - begins this Saturday at 10AM US Eastern Time, February 1st.
The NOVA Open occurs from Thursday, August 28 - Sunday, August 31, 2014.
Full details and information on the schedule and events can be found at http://novaopen.com
Here's a quick-hitter on some highlights for this year ...
Look VERY CAREFULLY AT THE SCHEDULE
Every year we hear people surprised at what else they could have done if only they'd known!
For instance, it's a totally conflict-free schedule experience to participate in the 40K GT, an Infinity Hunger Games activity, a Sunday single-day tournament in a smaller event, The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience and the 40K Narrative Nightfighter's track event. Look at it carefully - see what all you can get into to make the most of your experience :)
The SuperNOVA Program
Previously titled the "VIP" Program, we changed the name to better reflect the NOVA "brand" if you will, and also because it didn't seem right to call people VIPs just for buying a more expensive and swanky pass ... you're all VIP to us (and cheesy as it sounds, anyone who knows us well will tell you we're dead serious about that).
So the SuperNOVA Bags are limited to 80 items, and then they're gone. They sell FAST. The purchase of the bag this year includes the cost of your weekend badge (to make things simpler), and also includes as usual a KR MultiCase. In addition to the below, you gain access to the SuperNOVA registration quick-line and army/personal item storage perks.
If you're in your first year of the SuperNOVA program (counting when it was named "VIP"), you'll receive a KR BackPack 2 ($82.49 value)
If you're in your second year of the program, you can choose a Kaiser2 or another BackPack 2.
If you're in your third year of the program, you'll for the first time be able to select a Kaiser3 (50% larger than the other two in terms of model capacity)
Once you purchase a SuperNOVA at any point in time, any subsequent NOVA you attend includes (whether you SuperNOVA again or not) a Buy One Get One Free from KR along with your registration materials. It allows you to acquire one KR Card Case with Custom Foam (or core foam or no foam if you really want) free with the purchase of one, basically 50% off filling your BackPack or Kaiser2 bags. You get one every subsequent year you attend for life. Daryl Elms @ KR Multicase is a pretty amazing guy.
The bags are also loaded with limited edition and vendor-supplied swag. They include everything from beer steins to special gifts matched to the army you select during check-out, and tons in between. The total net value of the items in the bag and the bag itself typically comes to several hundred dollars' worth of items.
NOVA Open 40K GT
The NOVA Open's 40K GTs is one of the better known 40K events out there, and is one of the largest singles GTs on the planet (256 player, a la AdeptiCon and LVO). With a unique bracketing system that ensures most players wind up facing their peers for most of the weekend, and a huge array of prizes tuned to all different player types, it's consistently one of our highest rated and best attended events. It's specifically designed to allow all player types the opportunity to compete for prizes, recognition and good old fashioned fun against their list/competitive peers - you don't need to just bring a beat-face Tau or Eldar list to win swag and have a great time at the NOVA! Tickets sold out last year, and have sold faster and faster with each passing year. Don't miss yours!
NOVA Open Narrative Tickets - Warlord and Nightfighter Tracks
The NOVA Open Narrative more than doubled last year, and surveys/interest seem to imply it'll do so again. Further, we've made a portion of the Narrative - the Warlord Track - a full-on GT-level 7-game event, inclusive of 3 day and 4 night games (first game is Thursday at night), as well as social activities and daily "Model UN Styled" planning sessions where the Narrative Warlords directly impact the mission direction and player deployment of the larger open-attended Nightfighter track.
If you're playing in the 40K GT and want to get some awesome games in with really innovative missions and rules battling across LED-lit boutique terrain ... participate in the Nightfighter track, scheduled to allow participation in both.
If you're looking for a full weekend of awesome Narrative gaming participating in a unique universe of the NOVA's creation, fueled by player participation, participate in the Warlords Track. There are only ABOUT THIRTY TWO SPOTS available for the Warlord Track, with only 16 initial offerings per Faction (Virtue or Human). If you want in this, you'd better sign up fast!
40K Trios Team Tournament
In order to make participation less grueling, and also to give Trios players the opportunity to participate in the Narrative events, we've pushed the Trios event to Thursday in entirety - all three rounds will begin and end that day. In the past, you've had to play Trios at night after a long GT day. This innovative Team Tournament is also NO HOLDS BARRED - the singles lists each player will use once over the course of 3 rounds can include ANY units in the game - from Escalation to Forgeworld. This is one of our legacy 40K events, under a management upgrade of veteran NOVA organizer James Watkins plus three-time Trios champion Troy Esposito. They're passionate about bringing an awesome event to start your NOVA Open experience.
X-Wing
The dedicated folks over at A Few Maneuvers are running a HUGE array of X-Wing events all weekend long at the NOVA Open this year, and we're super excited about it (as well as about their excitement). Many of these may sell pretty quick given the rising popularity of the game and the incredible team running the events. We're also working on building MASSIVE X-Wing spacecraft to have "human-sized" X-Wing demos and mini-games. More to come.
Infinity
The NOVA Open introduced a full weekend of day and night Infinity events last year, after kicking the game off well in 2012. Infinity enters its third year at the NOVA under the direction of stellar lead Craig Roberts and a dramatically-upgraded terrain building project. Check out the entire primer and weekend of events at the NOVA Open site (where all primers are located), novaopen.com. The swag for this event is especially appealing - everybody gets something direct from Corvus Belli on top of winners' prizes. Further, expect some really special prizes - last year Corvus Belli's entire staff of owners, designers, artists, writers, etc., all drew custom notes and sketch artwork on the inside cover of several hardback rulebooks addressed specifically to NOVA attendees, and sent them over as prize support (handed out both to event winners and based upon random draws among Infinity attendees)!
Warmachine/Hordes
Brendon Caulkins spent the past several years constantly building the success of Warmachine and Hordes at the NOVA Open. This year we are proudly a Warmachine Weekend Qualifier, and it looks to be an even better year than ever before, with new open gaming / iron arena and boutique terrain tables being added, and a stronger and more focused array of events spread across the schedule.
Malifaux and Blood Bowl
Both of these game systems will be at the NOVA Open this year. We're finalizing plans with the new leads who've stepped up, and we're VERY excited about it. We'll have more information on these after Registration, anticipating the opening of sales for these events and info about them by (ideally) mid-February.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience
What does it mean to experience a "successful" GT? This interactive seminar will certainly involve discussion about how best to play the missions and format of the NOVA Open's 40K GT, but it will also include discussion about the best way to leave the NOVA on Sunday feeling like your weekend was exciting and successful regardless of the outcome of your games on the tabletop. It's not just how you play the game, but how you treat and interact with your opponents that matters. Further, you're in Washington, D.C. for four days - get some local insight on the best things for you and your friends/family/significant others to do while you're there! Hear from organizers and veteran attendees while observing gaming examples and getting a last minute fire drill on the best way to "succeed" at the 2014 NOVA Open.
Seminars at the NOVA Open
The Seminars at the NOVA have grown in popularity and coverage every year. This will be their best year yet. Courses offered include a full suite of amazing art classes taught by Justin McCoy and Caleb Wissenback. Additionally, Joe Orteza of AdeptiCon fame will be joining us to teach his renowned classes teaching you to Lose Your Fear of Green Stuff. Also of note - the Build Your Own Display Board class introduced successfully and quite popularly last year is being advanced in 2014 - we'll be joined by the 11th Company's Tactical Terrain master, Eric, and Chris Michaels of Powered Play Gaming. They'll combine to teach an amazing build-and-take that brings you from a little bit of pink foam through a fully LED-lit and useable display board to show off your minis all NOVA Open long. Chris and Eric will also be teaching separate courses on lighting your models and building your own terrain, respectively. Don't miss any of these before they sell out!
Capital Palette Independent Figure Art Competition
The Capital Palette took off in an amazing way in 2013, and it's looking to dramatically expand in 2014 into one of the premier figure art competitions in the country. You can register models on an individual basis, or you can buy a pass that gives you unlimited submissions. To encourage even more participation this year despite the incredible competition, we'll also be giving away some amazing prizes based purely on participation and submission of entries to the exhibition. Show off your best work and sneak some listens in at the display area as people oooh and aaah all weekend long. The prizes for this event are off the charts - including top tier Grex Airbrushes in every prize category.
Free Charity Lounge Talks
Last year the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation secured a charitable ABC license and rented out the Presidential Suite atop the Hyatt Regency, with fantastic views of Crystal City and Washington, DC, and hosted special guests, staff and SuperNOVA bag purchasers all weekend long. This year we're opening it up to EVERYONE! Come on up and enjoy discount beverages (100% of the proceeds go to the charities supported by the Foundation) while listening in on a variety of talks all weekend long given by game developers, artists, industry experts and more. There'll be a full itinerary of Lounge Talks forthcoming as we get closer to the NOVA proper, but subjects may include "How to Break Into the Industry," "How to Run Your Own Con or GT - Panel Talk" and "An Inside Look at Designing and Developing a Successful Wargame." Want to hear the developer of your favorite skirmish game talk to you about how he came up with the rules while sipping your favorite beer or whiskey and occasionally glancing at the Washingon Monument out the window? Yup! You'll be able to hang in the lounge and participate in the Lounge Talks just by having a Con Pass.
Besides all of this, there'll be a TON more activity in the vendor hall, in a new demo row and with a bunch of side activities that add much more "Fun stuff" for the average attendee to do while they're at the NOVA. Already on our list of demo companies, by the way? Dropzone Commander, that's who! Many more are in early talks.
Who is signing up this Saturday? What are you signing up for? We're all a little exhausted, hard at work getting everything as close to perfect as we can ... but we can't WAIT to see everyone at this year's NOVA ... our 5th Anniversary will be our best yet!
-Mike Brandt
//----------------------------
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
What would fix tyranids? 4 simple errata changes would solve it
Having now played with the new Tyranids a lot, and theory crafted them like crazy, here are four simple changes I think would elevate the book from - awful - to, CSM/Dark Angel level of power.
1) Reduce the point cost of the Tyranid prime by about 50-60pts. He's an IC that gives synapse, which is what tyranids need to keep their army operating. A cost effective way to hide that synapse in a huge blob of gaunts or gargoyles or carnifex's where it can't be insta-gibbed. With his current points cost, there becomes very little reason not to just make the leap to a Tyrant, which outperforms him in every way for close to the same points value. If he was reduced in cost he suddenly becomes a much more interesting HQ. Possibly changing ideal HQ's to the tyranid prime & a flyrant, or him and deathleaper. It at least makes it viable.
2) Give venomthropes the IC or Character special rules, or a special rule which allows their squad to "merge" with another unit of tyranids (any unit would be fine), effectively becoming part of that squad, but able to use those other bodies as a meatshield. The stealth / whatever aura's would not need rules updates as they'd simply radiate from the Venomthrope models as they do now. They need the character special rule, to allow them some small chance of "look out sir!" on hits, as it could be presumed a good hive mind thinking tactically would wish to at least attempt to preserve its cover.
3) Upgrade their anti-tank guns to confer "Tank Hunters". It wouldn't take much, but given how few anti-tank guns tyranids have, and how few shots those guns have, allowing a re-roll to penetrate armor would make a huge difference. Their ballistic skill is bad enough as it is, the odds of their big-anti tank guns doing anything is minimal currently. You figure, after rolling to hit, penetrate, then the opponent takes a cover save, that two shot S10 gun, suddenly doesn't seem all that great. Nor do hive guard frankly (though obviously minus the cover save).
4) Give Deathleaper synapse. This is super important. For a unit that has to run around by itself, and is super vulnerable to being annihilated easily (esp by tau), its important to at least have something positive going for him worth losing a flyrant or tyranid prime for. It's hard enough to get synapse in the army as it is.
Not to mention, it's really silly to have this super elite infiltrator, pop out, totally has his shit together for a single turn, then loses it and lurks like a wimp out of synapse.
Now I could go on as I have in previous posts about all the other things that suck about Tyranids, and the numerous changes needed to make the book functional. But I've done that already, and rather than suggest a million changes that can't happen, I'm suggesting four that could happen, if I'm lucky, and some GW FAQ writer stumbles across this blog post (unlikely), a few errata tweaks could easily turn the book around.
Naturally I still think tervigons got the shaft, and other things really cripple this book. However, its unreasonable to expect such a core changes on a printed book.
I would point to the lack of being able to take book powers, or being able to ally with themselves as additional features that hurt tyranids.
The synapse table is brutal.
Serious lack of punch by the little ones (due to tervigon nerf) is disheartening.
The tyranid artifacts are decent, they are just super over-costed. An across the board lowering by 10-15 pts on each item would make them more more palatable.
That kinda stuff.
But we can work around those problems, if the four changes listed above were made.
I know full well I can't ever expect them to happen, so I'm just kinda wishlisting it.
I've heard bandied around the internet that GW is designing books to be fun, not to be competitive. My answer to that is, its not fun to get curb-stomped and lose. This is a strategy game as much as it is a model painting game, we should be encouraging the creation of models which can participate in both sides of that equation. It's not fun to paint a super awesome model, then watch it sit on your shelf because its so horrendous to use. It's also not fun to play armies which lose consistently. I don't care how beer and pretzels of a player you are, if you always lose and games are super difficult, its disheartening and far from fun.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Slow clap for Adepticon!
In case everyone missed it, the Adepticon staff have updated their rules for events, and more important to me, their 40k rules.
It seems that the Adepticon staff have taken the difficult decision to do the following in a very brief summary:
no dataslates, no formations, no escalation, limited use of stronghold (following the rules for the models but w/ caveats and restrictions), no core game changes such as those proposed by FoB or the LVO.
I applaud them for these decisions. With the internet in turmoil over escalation and stronhold, it looks like they have decided to play it safe, not let in game busting elements as much as possible. No doubt they will be savaged by people for their decisions, but I think its the right call.
Well done Adepticon, I strongly look forward to attending in a few short months.
It seems that the Adepticon staff have taken the difficult decision to do the following in a very brief summary:
no dataslates, no formations, no escalation, limited use of stronghold (following the rules for the models but w/ caveats and restrictions), no core game changes such as those proposed by FoB or the LVO.
I applaud them for these decisions. With the internet in turmoil over escalation and stronhold, it looks like they have decided to play it safe, not let in game busting elements as much as possible. No doubt they will be savaged by people for their decisions, but I think its the right call.
Well done Adepticon, I strongly look forward to attending in a few short months.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
RTT January 19th @ Huzzah Hobbies, Ashburn VA
NEXT RTT will be at 1850 pts. THIS SUNDAY January 19th
I will be allowing,
0-1 Formation
All dataslates
Stronghold assault models which are not AV15, have D-weapons, or are networked systems.
NO ESCALATION
www.huzzahhobbies.com
as always - registration starts at 10am, first game at 1045. Entry is 15 and covers lunch. The rest is rolled directly into prize support. As usual we do not require any painting or fancing basing.
For those interested in proxying models, as long as you don't have any other models of that type in your army, and they have a passing resembelance to the models being proxied, proxies are O.K.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Codex Tyranids is BAD (yes i have it and have read it and played it)
So I'm going to come out and say it, not that the rest of the internet hasn't already. I think Codex Tyranids was actually better in its 5th edition form.
Far, far, far, far better.
Let me say also, I really truly hope, that someone pulls some epic list ou this book, and proves to me that this book is great, and i'm wrong.
So let me give the recipe for the 6th edition codex
Take all the good things about the codex in 5th, then either remove them, make them substantially more expensive, or change the rules to make them awful for your army.
Now imagine all the bad units in 5th edition codex, now leave them as they are or make them worse.
Introduce new units and abilities, which could be labeled as average at best.
Add a dash of random rolling tables for things which are in a lot of ways, not meaningful or bad (being out of synapse can mean running off the board now!)
and that's kinda what the new 6th codex looks like.
I write this, as a seriously annoyed 40k player.
I notice there was a short thank you notice to some playtesters on page 1,
sooo Nick, John, Stefano, Paul, Matt, Trevor and Jim, you guys failed at your jobs, are letting down pretty much the entire 40k community as a whole, and I am dubious to the "playtesting" you did.
The rules in it are just punishingly bad.
How insultingly bad are the changes? Allow me to illustrate
Bad
Swarmlord got nerfed, and costs more.
Can't use book psychic powers.
Ymaryls are gone.
Doom is gone.
Hive tyrant powers are mediocre
Can't get easy access
Tail biomorphs are pretty badf and over-costed
Gaunts are effectively more expensive and less effective simultaneously, why? Because in their 4pt iteration, they arn't really all that great, but are decent. But in order to make them really killy, you need to take poison, or addrenal glands, or both.
Previously you could buy the upgrade on a Tervigon and spread it to the little ones, including newly produced ones. So it was a more expensive MC, that buffed others, so it evened out. This, no longer.
Genestealers are still bad.. =/
Zoanthropes got worse, podding/deep strike is gone!
Venomthropes are a great idea for this army, to bad they are super easy to snipe out and destroy. These little guys should have been IC's you could attach to a larger squad.
Tyranid book powers are decent. All of them are a decent buff or debuff.
The haurespex or whatever would be fantastic, except its slow as dirt. Why isn't this thing moving 12 inches, fleet, and +d3 for run? It's basically a giant waste of points otherwise.
The shooty one, whose name escapes me with the plasma gun, to me seems to be a huge waste of points also. I'll have to try it more before i firm that up, but I'd rather take three of these and run forward shooting + assaulting than one hauraspex or however its spelled.
Harpy's are decent now actually, this is one of the ones that are fine with me. My only beef is the actual model itself. EVERY OTHER FMC IS ON A SMALL BASE AND SITS ON THE GROUND. This and the freaking hive crone hang out in the air like a flier, and are super easy to target / nail / destroy. WHY! Also its huge. I built one last night, seriously this thing is helldrake sized.
Hive crone likewise about being decent/appropriate, though the flamer really should be torrent.
Very very little access to decent synapse creatures. You end up with two HQ's for synapse, zoanthropes, and that's kinda it. You can take Tervigons as troops for synapse of course, but that's stupidly expensive.
Leading me to my my biggest complaint, which makes me the saltiest of all is the Tervigon.
Tervigons blowing up when they die now affects gaunts within 12 inches instead of 6, and does 3d6 ignore cover (didn't ignore cover previously). Also, upgrades on the tervigon no longer affect surrounding gaunts, instead gaunts have counter-attack.. whoopty doo, that'll help vs. all those broadside assault armies we see out there... Also, no way to increase past psyker level 1 is .. bad!
This monster is prohibitively expensive, and add's almost no battlefield support. It's a huge synapse creature which is easy to kill, and if it dies will most likely trash most of your existing gaunt squads if its placed forward offensively. If its in the rear guarding your backfield / providing synapse, its now not contributing anything meaningful to the game except maybe the two-three gaunt squads you can reasonably expect to poop out. No offensive punch though, for almost 200 points, is super bad.
I think that's GW's way of telling us to not take Tervigons anymore.
So i've played a few games with this book now, trying out the new models and a variety of lists.
Playing this what i'd consider more top tier lists, eldar wave serpent spam, tau broadside/ riptides, and vanilla marine bikers.
I found that, while I could get a ton of bodies on the board, they basically lacked in real punch. My opponents difficulty was not in staying alive, but simply killing through the horde deployed against them.
I took lists with harpies w/ twin-linked heavy venom cannons / tyranofax's w/ their S10 gun + hive guard ect. All that firepower just kinda.. missed, or plinked off of eldar, or failed to penetrate.
Lots of people are making positive noise about the tyranofex being good now, with its point cost lowered. Let me put that one to rest, it's still pretty bad. Two shots, so your likely to only hit with one, if you hit at all, for 200ish points, isn't really that good. Compare it to a riptide or wraithknight, which for being in the similar range, are substantially more damaging at shooting (both) and CC(wraithknight) and movement (both), and survivability (both, one has an invuln, the other has T8).
Hive guard in particular have a problem now, with so many S6 / S7 guns in the meta, being T6 just isn't what it used to be (frankly this is true of all of the tyranid monsters, they all should have been T7ish.) Then having a 4+ is not particularly good save. They need a longer range than 24 to be effective in their current toughness / save. With only 24 inches, you have to place them up front, where LoS blocking coverage is usually scarce. you're likely to lose them immediately as they are probably the biggest threat going to AV armies.
Being BS 3 with them now kinda stinks.
Not having all the cool little twin-linking and/or armor bane / monster hunters that the eldar / tau / marines have access to is painful, and made it feel like a struggle.
Its made all the more by the fact that the the flying MC to pop tanks ect, to really be effective have to be in the 0 to 36 inch range, which means they are painfully easy to nock down, then dakka to death.
Worse is synapse issues, if i wanted to run a gaunt / gargoyle horde. Having synapse is a massive problem. With flyrants being relatively easy to ground / destroy, you need a backup plan.
This leaves you with Tervigons -- which, no longer buff your army, if they die, they're likely to kill a bunch of gaunts within 12 inches, (which is .. surprise! synapse range).
Warriors - which still suck, are easily doubled out, especially with a 4+. These guys should have been able to be split off to join individual broods as sergeant upgrades, like wolf guard...
Prime - which is great, but now your losing flyrants if you wanted to go that route.
Zoanthropes - die super easily
not much else.
BOTTOM LINE
I rather suspect, any good player when matched with tyranids, is just going to shoot the piss out of the synapse creatures, and then watch most of the tyranid army run off the board. The parts that don't run off, won't be combat effective so are easy to then break apart and destroy.
There simply isn't enough synapse, unless you take units that are bad and/or overcosted. If you take those units, you won't have the firepower you need to crack open tanks, and then deal with the juicy innards, or you'll be stuck running a horde which is severely underpowered (no furious charge or poison), that will struggle to do damage after the first charge.
And that, friends, is the underlying problem with this book.
Far, far, far, far better.
Let me say also, I really truly hope, that someone pulls some epic list ou this book, and proves to me that this book is great, and i'm wrong.
So let me give the recipe for the 6th edition codex
Take all the good things about the codex in 5th, then either remove them, make them substantially more expensive, or change the rules to make them awful for your army.
Now imagine all the bad units in 5th edition codex, now leave them as they are or make them worse.
Introduce new units and abilities, which could be labeled as average at best.
Add a dash of random rolling tables for things which are in a lot of ways, not meaningful or bad (being out of synapse can mean running off the board now!)
and that's kinda what the new 6th codex looks like.
I write this, as a seriously annoyed 40k player.
I notice there was a short thank you notice to some playtesters on page 1,
sooo Nick, John, Stefano, Paul, Matt, Trevor and Jim, you guys failed at your jobs, are letting down pretty much the entire 40k community as a whole, and I am dubious to the "playtesting" you did.
The rules in it are just punishingly bad.
How insultingly bad are the changes? Allow me to illustrate
Bad
Swarmlord got nerfed, and costs more.
Can't use book psychic powers.
Ymaryls are gone.
Doom is gone.
Hive tyrant powers are mediocre
Can't get easy access
Tail biomorphs are pretty badf and over-costed
Gaunts are effectively more expensive and less effective simultaneously, why? Because in their 4pt iteration, they arn't really all that great, but are decent. But in order to make them really killy, you need to take poison, or addrenal glands, or both.
Previously you could buy the upgrade on a Tervigon and spread it to the little ones, including newly produced ones. So it was a more expensive MC, that buffed others, so it evened out. This, no longer.
Genestealers are still bad.. =/
Zoanthropes got worse, podding/deep strike is gone!
Venomthropes are a great idea for this army, to bad they are super easy to snipe out and destroy. These little guys should have been IC's you could attach to a larger squad.
Tyranid book powers are decent. All of them are a decent buff or debuff.
The haurespex or whatever would be fantastic, except its slow as dirt. Why isn't this thing moving 12 inches, fleet, and +d3 for run? It's basically a giant waste of points otherwise.
The shooty one, whose name escapes me with the plasma gun, to me seems to be a huge waste of points also. I'll have to try it more before i firm that up, but I'd rather take three of these and run forward shooting + assaulting than one hauraspex or however its spelled.
Harpy's are decent now actually, this is one of the ones that are fine with me. My only beef is the actual model itself. EVERY OTHER FMC IS ON A SMALL BASE AND SITS ON THE GROUND. This and the freaking hive crone hang out in the air like a flier, and are super easy to target / nail / destroy. WHY! Also its huge. I built one last night, seriously this thing is helldrake sized.
Hive crone likewise about being decent/appropriate, though the flamer really should be torrent.
Very very little access to decent synapse creatures. You end up with two HQ's for synapse, zoanthropes, and that's kinda it. You can take Tervigons as troops for synapse of course, but that's stupidly expensive.
Leading me to my my biggest complaint, which makes me the saltiest of all is the Tervigon.
Tervigons blowing up when they die now affects gaunts within 12 inches instead of 6, and does 3d6 ignore cover (didn't ignore cover previously). Also, upgrades on the tervigon no longer affect surrounding gaunts, instead gaunts have counter-attack.. whoopty doo, that'll help vs. all those broadside assault armies we see out there... Also, no way to increase past psyker level 1 is .. bad!
This monster is prohibitively expensive, and add's almost no battlefield support. It's a huge synapse creature which is easy to kill, and if it dies will most likely trash most of your existing gaunt squads if its placed forward offensively. If its in the rear guarding your backfield / providing synapse, its now not contributing anything meaningful to the game except maybe the two-three gaunt squads you can reasonably expect to poop out. No offensive punch though, for almost 200 points, is super bad.
I think that's GW's way of telling us to not take Tervigons anymore.
So i've played a few games with this book now, trying out the new models and a variety of lists.
Playing this what i'd consider more top tier lists, eldar wave serpent spam, tau broadside/ riptides, and vanilla marine bikers.
I found that, while I could get a ton of bodies on the board, they basically lacked in real punch. My opponents difficulty was not in staying alive, but simply killing through the horde deployed against them.
I took lists with harpies w/ twin-linked heavy venom cannons / tyranofax's w/ their S10 gun + hive guard ect. All that firepower just kinda.. missed, or plinked off of eldar, or failed to penetrate.
Lots of people are making positive noise about the tyranofex being good now, with its point cost lowered. Let me put that one to rest, it's still pretty bad. Two shots, so your likely to only hit with one, if you hit at all, for 200ish points, isn't really that good. Compare it to a riptide or wraithknight, which for being in the similar range, are substantially more damaging at shooting (both) and CC(wraithknight) and movement (both), and survivability (both, one has an invuln, the other has T8).
Hive guard in particular have a problem now, with so many S6 / S7 guns in the meta, being T6 just isn't what it used to be (frankly this is true of all of the tyranid monsters, they all should have been T7ish.) Then having a 4+ is not particularly good save. They need a longer range than 24 to be effective in their current toughness / save. With only 24 inches, you have to place them up front, where LoS blocking coverage is usually scarce. you're likely to lose them immediately as they are probably the biggest threat going to AV armies.
Being BS 3 with them now kinda stinks.
Not having all the cool little twin-linking and/or armor bane / monster hunters that the eldar / tau / marines have access to is painful, and made it feel like a struggle.
Its made all the more by the fact that the the flying MC to pop tanks ect, to really be effective have to be in the 0 to 36 inch range, which means they are painfully easy to nock down, then dakka to death.
Worse is synapse issues, if i wanted to run a gaunt / gargoyle horde. Having synapse is a massive problem. With flyrants being relatively easy to ground / destroy, you need a backup plan.
This leaves you with Tervigons -- which, no longer buff your army, if they die, they're likely to kill a bunch of gaunts within 12 inches, (which is .. surprise! synapse range).
Warriors - which still suck, are easily doubled out, especially with a 4+. These guys should have been able to be split off to join individual broods as sergeant upgrades, like wolf guard...
Prime - which is great, but now your losing flyrants if you wanted to go that route.
Zoanthropes - die super easily
not much else.
BOTTOM LINE
I rather suspect, any good player when matched with tyranids, is just going to shoot the piss out of the synapse creatures, and then watch most of the tyranid army run off the board. The parts that don't run off, won't be combat effective so are easy to then break apart and destroy.
There simply isn't enough synapse, unless you take units that are bad and/or overcosted. If you take those units, you won't have the firepower you need to crack open tanks, and then deal with the juicy innards, or you'll be stuck running a horde which is severely underpowered (no furious charge or poison), that will struggle to do damage after the first charge.
And that, friends, is the underlying problem with this book.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Escalation, Stronghold, Formations, and thoughts on them.
So, this post got really long. I'm going to break it down
into 4 sections.
I want to caveat one thing before you get started on this rant wall. I am talking about competitive, tournament style playing. I am not talking about casual beer and pretzels play. I encourage everyone, to be as thematic, epic, awesome, and bring in as many crazy models / units / rules as possible in non-tourney play. I love both tourney play, and casual; so I am not looking to poo on anyone's private games.
I myself have already used escalation to run around (and be run over by) my khorne lord of skulls. It's a thing.
Also, before anyone gets on their high horse and accuses me of not wanting to change things because I'm one of those eldar/tau/ whatever players who are looking to lose a lot, I'm not.
I play assault armies, almost exclusively, you know, that part of the game that everyone claims is dead.
Orks, CSM Spawn-tide, I only use one helldrake ever, never more than one.. That's pretty much it. All of these Tau/Eldar/ New stuff are seriously difficult for my armies to play against.
Total side note, I've seen people referencing some BR's posted by Naftka/others as proving that escalation is not OP. Those BR's for the most part are rubbish, taking a TAU list specifically designed to kill Titans, and then waving it around as proving titan's arn't op'd is nonsense.
Why not take some "fluffy" lists, or an ork army, or IG, or ravenwin, or ... hell, anything but tau farsight bomb, and see if you can replicate that result. I guarantee it'll be much harder.
A lot of people are also saying, oh, with a lord of war, you can't afford to have much else in your army so just kill everything but the LoW and it'll be fine. That's great if your opponents a bad player. When you play someone good, they'll reserve what's delicate, deploy appropriately, and push your shit in with a unstoppable lord of war. Especially since they'll probably be doing some reserve manipulation to keep their delicates off until your stuff is to dead to do anything about it anyways.
People fall for that every time.
What
I suggest
Modifications to game
Here's the bottom line, (quite literally!) People can QQ / Rant / Bitch all they want, about the right way to play 40k. We all see comments all the time, trashing people for proposing, or denying their style of what they consider 40k acceptable.
However, at the end of the day, people PAY money to attend these events, these tournaments, ect, and there is an obligation, as a TO, when taking someone elses money, to ensure they get the best time you can give them, and making sure they are playing in a realm of reasonable expectations.
It's one thing to have a social contract with a club or a group of friends to come over and play beer and pretzels with you. It's quite another when you take someones money. They are buying a service from you, whether or not you keep the money or plow it right back into prize support / food / venue ect. There is an expectation that service is a well run - fair as possible - game system they can compete in, and be competed with.
It is our responsibility, to live up to that expectation.
Thoughts on people trying to "fix" the game
My own thoughts on stronghold / Formations / Escalation /
Data Slates
The Stupid Cheese Army of the Future
What I suggest
I want to caveat one thing before you get started on this rant wall. I am talking about competitive, tournament style playing. I am not talking about casual beer and pretzels play. I encourage everyone, to be as thematic, epic, awesome, and bring in as many crazy models / units / rules as possible in non-tourney play. I love both tourney play, and casual; so I am not looking to poo on anyone's private games.
Thoughts
on people trying to "fix" the game
So, first, as I mentioned in my previous post, I allowed the
formations and data slates at my previous RTT, with the caveat that formations
must be 0-1. Some people indeed, brought formations, and data slate guys.
Now I should mention why I allowed them. Simply put, to the extent I can run as "fair" as possible a tournament,
I don't like telling people which official GW models they can use, and which they can't. Before people go into a frenzy about forgeworld, let's save that can of worms for another day, I have allowed limited forgeworld into my RTT's before and have mixed opinions on it.
I get as excited as anyone else about buying up all these new models, terrain,
and putting them together. I don't want to crush other people’s enjoyment of
the same. I myself own /built / painted every new piece of GW terrain,
including the expensive Aquila strongpoint, and also a Khorne lord of Skulls.
We all know and agree that some of W40k is inherently unfair; some codexes
are more viable than others. Any trust in the "points" system, as GW
uses it, is flawed. We have no basis for assuming GW assigns points or rules
for models on anything but an arbitrary basis, or if not arbitrary, at least a
very loose set of guidelines.
On top of that, list design and execution can play a huge part of the game. It is often true, that a games outcome can be more or less guessed accurately based on the armies / players in the game. Stereotypes exist for a reason.
On top of that, list design and execution can play a huge part of the game. It is often true, that a games outcome can be more or less guessed accurately based on the armies / players in the game. Stereotypes exist for a reason.
We can't shut our eyes and pretend this is not so. This is
not public school, not everyone gets a sticker for doing a good job.
So what can we do as TO's and players in general? We need to
use our reasonable judgment on what's fine, and what's not fine, in as unbiased
a way as possible, and key point not changing explicit GW rules unless absolutely necessary.
Key there, I do not agree with for example, the proposed FoB
approach. I found the ranty post on 3++ about the rules changes and rational,
to be disingenuous and childish.
That said, I also do not agree with people
from BOLS who seem to have embraced escalation / stronghold giddily and without
thought, nor do I agree with naftka and his posts about how great they are.
Their opinions also have huge problems and implications, for varying reasons outlined later.
We all play this game; we clearly all have this love/hate
relationship with it enough to post on blogs, read each other's blogs, attack
each other for our opinions, and once in a while, actually play the game.
We should try then, in the interest of not sparking further
drama, to keep the manipulating of core rules, to a bare minimum, as those definitely
cause the most contentious arguments.
I.e.,
Don’t change a second re-roll on a 2+ save to a 4+.
D-Weapons should not become S10 AP1 Ignore cover/ ect ect /
ect.
I've seen some other bad suggestions, lowering the average points of a game to 1.2k or 1.5k ect. This is in "answer" to escalation. To lower the points level of toys we play with, to prevent the models we all know are broken-good, from making an appearance in our games.
Why not... just ban the broken expansion book those models came from? Doing otherwise just comes off as perverse logic.
I think the best answer I've seen to this thus far, came
from MVB, posting about using the missions to change game play incentives.
Changing incentives, is how we drive economics, it follows that it'll work in
40k too if done properly.
My
own thoughts on stronghold / Formations / Escalation / Data Slates
So then, moving back to the RTT I just held. I had some
thoughts as I watched the games play out. Notably, while it’s crazy to have 4
armies on the table, I can say I don't feel like it "broke" the game;
so much as it drunkenly stumbled through the streets like a dejected whore.
What do I mean by that?
I think GW is muddying the waters of game play. Allies are
one thing, near unlimited use of models that may or may not be part of your army (or
allies) and FOC's are quite another. This tends to have an affect of cheapening the brand of armies. To pick on a friend of mine, Why am I playing an IG army, with space wolves, inquisition, and then tau to top it off? What army am I really playing? I feel like this cheapens some of what really makes the game near and dear to our hearts. That "ownership" of an army, sort of like owning a football team. You play that "army", you identify with them, you associate with their tactics and fluff, even if marginally. You're proud of them when they win, dejected when they lose. I personally think GW is gaining sales short term, and hurting long term prospects, that's just me though.
So moving back on point:
If you've followed some of the internet arguments. You'll note that a lot of them boil down to: that because GW allows allies, and allies are "optional", then by that logic, the supplements’, dataslates ect, are also "optional", therefore, all GW "optional" are good to go.
So moving back on point:
If you've followed some of the internet arguments. You'll note that a lot of them boil down to: that because GW allows allies, and allies are "optional", then by that logic, the supplements’, dataslates ect, are also "optional", therefore, all GW "optional" are good to go.
Except it’s a fucking stupid argument. Contrasting core rule-sets
with expansion/supplemental rule sets that fundamentally alter the rules of the
game are comparing apples and oranges. The reason these books are released
later, rather than FAQ'd or released into say, 6.1 edition rules, is because
they are expansions. People may choose to play with, or without them. Trying to
twist the use of allies as "optional" into saying anything
"optional" is required, is asinine.
What's hilarious is, if you browse the archives of BoLS and
other prominent blogs / forums, you'll find the same people promoting allies /
ect when 6th first came out, bitterly cursing them, and/or promoting escalation
/ forgeworld / whatever, as means to "fix" issues caused by allies.
It's like they didn't learn the first time around.
1) Formations -
These had a lot of potential, but are ultimately a flawed
creation. If formations were a good idea, they ideally should have been
included directly into the codexes of the army. You can essence make your own formations
in some cases anyways (buff commander anyone?).
That aside, if GW had done this properly, they should have
released it as a mini ally. Take this "formation" which is this exact
group of models you take in the normal ally "slot" and you get some bonus, or they
bend the ally FoC to include something cool. Think IG lemon russ- detachment,
or artillery ect.
Even on their current form, formations have some potential
if reigned in, but there are serious problems atm. Why ? Because this squad, is
breaking your FOC. There needs to be some negative consequence for taking a
unit of models that essentially lives outside your FOC. What is the rational
for allowing me to place 12 or 18 broadsides + 3 riptides, in addition to my
normal heavy support, which btw, are now all skyray's, for extra cheese and
marker lights. There is none.
A simple solution to that Tau Formation for example? Make them all have to fire at the same target. If the target dies / is out of line of sight, the others in the formation simply don't get to shoot. It'd explain the tank hunters in a fluffy way (focus firing the shit out of stuff with missiles is going to soften it up a hella a lot).
A simple solution to that Tau Formation for example? Make them all have to fire at the same target. If the target dies / is out of line of sight, the others in the formation simply don't get to shoot. It'd explain the tank hunters in a fluffy way (focus firing the shit out of stuff with missiles is going to soften it up a hella a lot).
You have this squad that's frankly
better in every way than the normal units, with no real negatives.
2) Codex Inquisition
I have no beef with the codex itself, that's fine. It's the
problem that it’s essentially allowed to ally in as a 3rd... Ally...
Why?
There is no logical reason for this abrupt shift or change.
It simply punishes those who can't ally with the codex, rewards those who can,
and breaks rules in the core rulebook for allying factions in.
3) Escalation
I could write an entire thesis on why this is a bad idea.
Suffice it to say, it’s not just because of D-weapons, though those are definitely
a huge factor. Part of this problem, is the "balance" for this book,
hinges on using Stronghold. The other part is, quite simply, you can create
some of the most broken lists this game has ever seen, using this book. People
tend to "escalate" as it were, towards the most powerful lists /
builds in their own codex, and codex's in general. This book in one easy pass
eliminates anyone but Eldar and Necron (with tau allies, if any) from being tournament viable armies. Why? Because
their Lords of War are powerful on such a scale, as to render everyone else’s
armies impotent, and it gets even worse if you allow stronghold. See the cheese
list section for why.
4) Stronghold
Stronghold in and of itself, is not broken. I am in fact,
allowing its use, with the caveat of NO AV15 buildings, and no D-weapon
buildings and no networked systems, at my next RTT. Stronghold is needed to
allow escalation, but escalation is not needed for stronghold.
So why am I allowing stronghold? Several reasons, I love
terrain, the more I see on the table the better. The terrain in the book is
hardly much different from what's currently available. The automated fire guns
are actually pretty bad. Then finally, fortifications are one area GW is
seriously lacking in model support and rules. I'm not going to shit on a book
which finally puts more into the game, even if minimally.
Also lets be honest, some of that new GW terrain is frankly amazing looking.
Also lets be honest, some of that new GW terrain is frankly amazing looking.
So, what's wrong with this book? Lots!
Let's cut to the chase though, the big daddy of rules
problems. Void Shields
You find me one person out there who knows entirely how they
work, and I'll show you someone who is making up their own rules.
Examples:
What happens if I fire 4 Lascannons at a broadside squad
inside a 2 level void-shield generated bubble? Let's say for the sake of
argument, they all hit, but only 2 glance/pen, so the shield collapses, and the
next squad fires at them... Ok. That's clear fine and well.
What happens if there are three pens? Two pen's collapse the
shield, then what? Is the third pen lost? Does anyone even know? If it’s not
lost, how would you apply it against a broadside model? You rolled to penetrate
armor, AV 12, and now you’re hitting a T4 2+ model.
Let's take it a step further, what happens if you’re
shooting at an AV14 vehicle? You rolled to pen vs. the AV12, and pen'd, but you
rolled all 4's, so would have failed your pen rolls vs. the AV14. Is your
penetrating hit lost there?
What happens if it’s a blast weapon? Do you count / roll for
every model under the template? What if it’s a D-Weapon? Do you roll to blow it
up, and then roll to... wound?
No one knows, this is unclear, and it’s definitely not FAQ’d
anywhere.
Now obviously, I'm sure someone is angrily posting a response right now to the void shield question with their "answer", the solution is to roll void shield pen's one at a time, until it collapses, then roll the rest as normal. That's probably the RAI, but is it RAW? no. Someone please point out if they found a RAW somewhere I over-looked (and quote it word for word with a page number)
I really want to allow void shields, then hide my 6 broadsides, riptide, and jetseer council behind them
/sarcasmNow obviously, I'm sure someone is angrily posting a response right now to the void shield question with their "answer", the solution is to roll void shield pen's one at a time, until it collapses, then roll the rest as normal. That's probably the RAI, but is it RAW? no. Someone please point out if they found a RAW somewhere I over-looked (and quote it word for word with a page number)
I really want to allow void shields, then hide my 6 broadsides, riptide, and jetseer council behind them
Size of the buildings without official models is also a
serious problem. The void shield generator itself is a building, AV13, and a
bubble of 12 inches. So, how big is that building? Why not make it the size of
a land raider, and then have yourself a 12 inch bubble o' awesome. Don't sit
there and tell me people wouldn't do that either, people totally would, and
where are you able to point out that they are wrong? You can't.
Other buildings also don't have models / sizes / dimensions,
/face palm
The
Stupid Cheese Army of the Future
If we allow this, here’s what the game scene will look like
at around 1850pts.
Anyone going to a tournament, who doesn't want to get their shit pushed in, will play....
Eldar farseers
Eldar Seer Council
Eldar Revenanant
Void Shields network, maximum capacity. or Skyshield!
Lots ' jet bikes
Oh what, you mean you can't ever, no matter what you bring,
ever beat that army?
Yeah, you'd be right. Good luck, you'll lose every game.
That's the future these guys are promoting, without even thinking about it. Now
mind you, there may be some variant around this theme... like...
Typhus
Zombies x6
4x Helldrake
1x Khorne lord of Skulls
Void shield network - maximum capacity, or hell, even a
skyshield, why not right?
Daemon allies to bring the book, and give the Lord of Skulls a 3+ invuln.
Oh wait, what about..... No I won't brutalize you with even more broken combinations that all of these promoters of the expansions have yet to think of.
Oh wait, what about..... No I won't brutalize you with even more broken combinations that all of these promoters of the expansions have yet to think of.
Total side note, I've seen people referencing some BR's posted by Naftka/others as proving that escalation is not OP. Those BR's for the most part are rubbish, taking a TAU list specifically designed to kill Titans, and then waving it around as proving titan's arn't op'd is nonsense.
Why not take some "fluffy" lists, or an ork army, or IG, or ravenwin, or ... hell, anything but tau farsight bomb, and see if you can replicate that result. I guarantee it'll be much harder.
A lot of people are also saying, oh, with a lord of war, you can't afford to have much else in your army so just kill everything but the LoW and it'll be fine. That's great if your opponents a bad player. When you play someone good, they'll reserve what's delicate, deploy appropriately, and push your shit in with a unstoppable lord of war. Especially since they'll probably be doing some reserve manipulation to keep their delicates off until your stuff is to dead to do anything about it anyways.
Reminds me of people thinking that somehow more government regulation and
oversight, solves every problem, including past inadequacy in
....wait for it... regulation and oversight.
People fall for that every time.
We clearly should not be in the business of modifying the
game, to the best extent possible. I am not proposing we make core rules
changes. I would expect, as reasonable and rational TO's, to review every
expansion/supplement release as they comes out, and decide on the merits of that books rules, if it should be allowed or not.
I hate comp, I think I've ranted about comp many times in
the past. But clearly, some banning or establishment of what is collectively
"acceptable" for tournament settings is in order.
Game modification list like this, ready?
Forgeworld - Ban
Escalation - Ban
Or if that's not good, lets try
Or if that's not good, lets try
Banning by Model
Voidshields
Networked systems
Aquila strongpoint
Fortress of Redemption
All Lords of War.
All Lords of War.
Modifications to game
Formations are now 0-1
Done.
How much have I just changed the game?
Basically none.
I've disallowed some retarded strong / game breaking models
which were never even present in the tourney scene previously, I've avoided
rules dilemma’s about stronghold and I'm reigning in
the OP aspect of formations.
Have I changed anything else in the game? No.
Have I changed anything that was previously part of the
game? Not in the slightest
Have I kept an open mind, and allowed new toys to be used?
Absolutely.
You know what else is super easy?
Ban list
Escalation
Stronghold
Limit formations 0-1
Done, no game controversies.
You know what else is super easy?
Ban list
Escalation
Stronghold
Limit formations 0-1
Done, no game controversies.
Here's the bottom line, (quite literally!) People can QQ / Rant / Bitch all they want, about the right way to play 40k. We all see comments all the time, trashing people for proposing, or denying their style of what they consider 40k acceptable.
However, at the end of the day, people PAY money to attend these events, these tournaments, ect, and there is an obligation, as a TO, when taking someone elses money, to ensure they get the best time you can give them, and making sure they are playing in a realm of reasonable expectations.
It's one thing to have a social contract with a club or a group of friends to come over and play beer and pretzels with you. It's quite another when you take someones money. They are buying a service from you, whether or not you keep the money or plow it right back into prize support / food / venue ect. There is an expectation that service is a well run - fair as possible - game system they can compete in, and be competed with.
It is our responsibility, to live up to that expectation.
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