Rules Breakdown - New Flyers Part 4

Ok, this will be the final post on breaking down the rules for the new flyers, and we finish with the Blitza-Bommer. I don't think that I have much to say here, so I'm going to jump straight into it and see how much content I can squeeze out of this thing.

Like the other Ork flyers, it comes with a standard Ork BS, as well as an all round armour value of 10 it's also not open-topped. Base, it costs the same as 9 Lootas, although you can take Red Paint Job on it for an additional 5pts.

In terms of wargear, in comparison to the Burna-Bommer you are losing Twin-Linked on the Big Shoota (although it still keeps the Grot Gunner) and you're swapping the 2 burna bombs for 2 boom bombs. Now, boom bombs come with a good statline, although they don't ignore cover, they effectively have the same statine as an Autocannon, but are blasty. Crucially, they also roll an extra D6 for armour penetration. Pretty nice.

The reason I think that this is an absolutely fantastic unit for standard, pickup game play, but not for tournaments, is that they also come with a rule called Skreamin' descent. This is a 2D6 roll which determines some side effects for the boom bomb. Lets just say that on a low roll bad stuff happens, on a medium roll normal stuff happens, and on a high roll extra good stuff happens

I think that this is great, I really enjoy random rolls, (hence why I have 2 Ork armies, a random one and a tournament one) but I think that in a tournament setting you need a degree of reliability from your army, and unfortunately this doesn't have that. However, I am probably going to be picking up a couple of these kits, and magnetising them to allow me to change them around and use all of the planes.

That's it for this segment. In my new-found, hopefully semi-reliable fashion, I should have the next post up in 2 days time. Bye until then.

Rules Breakdown - New Flyers Part 3

I'm going to move swiftly on with breaking down the rules of the new flyers as it is now a week since their release, and I don't really want to give this segment a short break like has happened with the Arena (still searching around my place for missing codecies). Next up, the Burna-Bommer.

This is one of those units that may become more effective with the release of 6^th edition, this is if the rumours that you will be able to set fire to terrain. If this is the case, I may be tempted to give it the upgrades for Skorcha Missiles at 10pts a pop. But as it stands. No. I'll come on to this a bit later.

It's an odd unit this. I kind of like it (probably because of my soft spot for Orks), but I would never take one. From a straight up perspective it's a skimmer on a flyer base, with the standard Ork ballistic skill and 10 armour all round. Comparing it to the Dakkajet which costs 5pts less (as I can't see you not taking the additional supa-shoota), it loses 2 Twin-Linked Supa-Shootas, but gains a Twin-Linked Big Shoota with +1 BS (grot gunner) and 2 Burna Bombs. It can then take up to 6 Skorcha Missiles for 10pts each and Red Paint Job for 5pts. Compared to the Dakkajet, it has also taken a bit of a change in special rules. It still keeps Supersonic, Waaagh!plane and Aerial Assault, but it loses Strafing run, getting Grot Gunner instead.

Losing Strafing run isn't really a big deal for the Burna-Bommer, as the only reason that you would take it over a Dakkajet is for the Burna-Bombs, which are essentially Heavy Flamer large blast templates.

Now, talking about how this would work on the tabletop, a Burna Bommer can't move flat out and drop a bomb in the same turn, restricting it to 12” movement. The issue here is that in dropping the bomb you're seriously reducing the survivability of the Burna Bommer. Yes, that is slow enough to allow the Battlewagon to keep up but surely if you're doing that you would just run the target unit over with a deffrolla, which should do the job of reducing them to paste. If that doesn't work, yes, you could drop a burna bomb onto the unit provided the Bommer has gone over it, but then you're paying a decent number of points for something that is just going to clean up after the Battlewagon.

I can see a secondary use for this though, and as I previously alluded to it may be more viable in 6^th edition. But, here we go. Take a Burna Bommer and strap a few Skorcha missiles to it. Then, use these missiles to clear opposing scoring units off objectives, as they don't allow for cover saves. What they essentially are are small blast heavy flamers with the range of a Rokkit Launcher, so you can move forward at cruising speed and unleash your missiles.

There is a pretty big risk of this thing being shot down but it depends how high up it comes on your opponents target priority. If you say that you have used all of the missiles from it (which you will have) your opponent may not see it as as much of a threat as it was at the beginning of the game, and thus dedicated his or her firepower to other units such as Battlewagons or in the general direction of a Big Mek with Kustom Forcefield.

I'd probably use it like this though if I'm honest, it's a little risky but can be very useful in all of the book missions. Releasing a load of skorcha missiles in one go will get its kill points back in most situations and the ability to easily clear most non-marine equivilant units from an objective is great, even marines might struggle against all of those S5 hits.

On a final note. Don't like Scarabs? I'd probably say that this is a better choice for getting rid of them than the Dakkajet. Yes you're not doubling them out, but they're vulnerable to blast weapons so you're coming close, and they don't get a cover save. Perfect.

To conclude, overall, do I think that I would take this over a Dakkajet in an all comers army? I think that it's difficult, they certainly both have their merits, but due to its lower points cost, I think that the Dakkajet is probably the better option. Just the Blitza-Bommer left to go.

On a side note that hasn't in any way got anything to do with the new flyer rules, I've finished painting my first squad of marines after 9 years in the hobby. I've also managed to finish their transport to go with them. So, as an excuse to get a picture into this blog – it's been far too long – here they are.

Rules Breakdown - New Flyers Part 2

Ok, so quickly moving on to the second rules review for the new flyers. Next up, the Dakkajet.

First thing of note with this thing is that it is an armour value 10 model (with an Orky BS). Except it isn't. It comes with a rule called strafing run, which effectively gives it +1 BS against a lot of unit types.

It comes with the Supersonic rule again, increasing its maximum move distance, not bad for objective contesting, and it also comes with a pretty nice special rule called Waaagh! Plane, which makes it even shootier during a Waaagh!. Pretty nice.

Anyway, quickly moving through the upgrades, it can take an additional Twin-Linked Supa Shoota (which you are going to do because it increases the shooting capability of a shooty vehicle by 50% for about 9% extra cost), and it can take a red-paint job, which allows you to move an additional 1 inch without penalties, for 5pts. However, the Dakkajet itself costs just over one-hundred points. Now, if it wasn't for the context of the Ork army I'd probably be having a go at this this thing. But because I would argue that when used properly this thing can be more survivable than a Stormtalon as standard, I quite like it. Here's how I see it used.

You take a Big Mek with a Kustom-Force Field, jam him in a Battlewagon with a Deffrolla on the front and some boyz inside to go with him, taking the mandatory Nob with a Power Klaw, and then move the Dakkajet up next to it each turn, as it can go at cruising speed and fire all of its weapons. I may try this out with 2 Dakkajets actually to see how it works, as they are now both a lot more survivable and churning out a pretty good amount of firepower for what you're paying each turn.

This gives you some decent objective contesting ability, some reliable firepower (as much as I love Lootas they can be a little random), and something that is going to shift attention away from the Battlewagons from things like lascannnons, as there is such a small chance of killing a Battlewagon on the front armour anyway without any Melta or Lances. The points cost isn't too bad either. Lets put it this way. It's cheaper than a Stormtalon...

Sorry this one has been a bit brief, but I don't really have much more to say on this one. Next time, the Burna-Bommer.

Rules Breakdown - New Flyers Part 1

Since we have some new rules for 40k out, and I happen to have the latest issue of White Dwarf, I've decided to go ahead and review the shiny new rules for the shiny new flyers that are now out. Bear in mind that this doesn't include the Night/Doom scythe, as their rules have been out for 7 months now, I'm only going to be going over the newest ones.

So, I'm going to start off with Space Marines, and their Stormtalon. First of all, I'm going to say that I'm not a great fan of the model personally. Maybe it'll grow on me like the Necron second wave did, but at the minute I just think it looks a bit silly, can't really put my finger on a specific reason why though.

But anyway, onto the rules. This thing costs the same as a Valkyrie, and what it is really is a shooty vehicle. But it only comes with a Twin-Linked Assault Cannon and a Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter. It can take other upgrades as well though. The problem with the Stormtalon is that it is an armour 11 vehicle on a flyer base, so it isn't going to be getting a cover save from terrain and its armour isn't great. Granted, it has some protection against Melta, but I'm not going to be firing Melta at it, a Missile Launcher or Autocannon will do just fine. So you're going to shunt it forward at cruising speed (not in the scout phase, if it had scout I'd rate it a bit more) as it can go at cruising speed and still fire, shoot, and then die. It also has a weird little hover rule, gives it improved shooting capabilities but makes it forgoe its movement.

You can get it to live a little bit though. Remembering that it is a skimmer it can move flat out and get a cover save from that, making it mildly durable if you do so, and as your opponent looks at it and thinks, 'it's a Twin-Linked assault cannon with a cover save' they may not even bother shooting at it. The problem is that then you're not shooting with it either, which you may not think is too much of a loss as you didn't have much to shoot in the first place other than the assault cannon. So, what it effectively comes down to is that if you're going to want this thing to live you are going to end up having spent quite a few points on something that is going to spend most of the game not doing anything other than zooming around, otherwise, it's going to fly up, maybe kill something if it gets lucky, and then die. Great use of points.

So lets look at this in context of the current (5^th edition) missions. First off, I'm going to finish off the majority of the hate by talking about kill points. This is really just an easy kill point here, unless you spend the entire time whizzing around with it in which case it may not lose a kill point, but its not going to gain any either, and what you're now doing is playing the game with a pretty large deficit because you've sunk those points into a model that is going to do nothing. Yes you can say that you can ram with it with the pretty nice movement that it comes with but there is a pretty good chance that the Stormtalon is going to die in the ram attempt. So, not great as far as kill points is concerned.

Seize ground is probably the mid point in the 3 missions. Yes it can fly out and contest an objective but there is a 67% chance that there are going to be 4+ objectives on the board. Great, I'm contesting one objective, but that still leaves 3 out of 4 objectives still to play for, and when you've sunk that many points into a unit that is redundant other than its ability to contest, your opponent should really be pushing for the win anyway due to the fact that they shouldn't have as much redundancy in their army. Plus, if the game goes on another turn, that Stormtalon is likely going to die anyway.

Finally, capture and control, and this is where I think that this thing works best. You go second if you can, and then spend your time defending your objective as though you're playing for the draw, before flying the Stormtalon straight onto your opponents objective turn 5 (little fact, in 9 years I have never had a game that has gone to turn 7), if the game ends, you win, if not, your opponent will have to kill it turn 6. You will probably have shut down some of their long range shooting over the course of the game and now your opponent will have to try and shift a vehicle with a good cover save which they need to roll well to hit in close combat. If they don't and the game ends at the end of the turn, you win, if the do, draw.

So, pretty good for capture and control and OK for seize ground but all in all I think that this unit is a little mission dependant. In higher points values, I might be able to see the point, but I wouldn't really use them. However, I am by no means an expert on the Marine codex and its units. I rarely see vanilla marines. So, if anyone has any other suggestions or disagrees with a point that I have made. Please feel free to let me know via the comments section at the bottom, or via private messaging on a forum (Dakka is probably the best bet at the minute). Thanks for reading, next up, the Dakkajet.

The Avatar Vs Skarbrand: The Arena

I know that I said I'd have a post on Marneus Calgar up on Wednesday, but from now on I'm going to stop foolishly posting when new posts will be up because I'll just keep missing them. But anyway, that's not up yet as I do not currently have access to a Space Marine codex an I want to do this properly. But anyway, just to keep the blog ticking over here is the latest arena.

We've got some Daemon on Daemon action today as the Avatar of Khaine is drawn against Skarbrand. Despite the fact that Skarbrand has a much larger points cost I wouldn't rule the Avatar out. I personally think that the Avatar is a bargain for his points and that the only reason that he is not commonly seen in tournament level is because he does not fit in well with the Mechdar build, although he is a very important component of footdar. So, on with the fight.

The Avatar strikes first due to his superior initiative, rolling 1124 to hit, despite his weapon skill of 10 only hitting once, but he does get to re-roll the fails due to Skarbrand's special rule. He does better here getting 456, hitting 4 times overall. Rolling to wound, he scores 2455, Skarbrand takes his saves but only rolls 126, reducing him to 2 wounds.

Skarbrand's turn now, he rolls 122345 followed by 2356 on the re-roll in scoring 4 hits overall, he then wounds with all of the hits with a score of 3566 and the Avatar only manages to save one with his invulnerable save after a roll of 2334 reducing him to a single wound.

The Avatar strikes back, getting 2445 to hit and then a 3 on the re-roll resulting in 3 hits, he then gets 136 to wound and Skarbrand only saves 1 with a 2 and a 6. Reducing him to 1 wound also.

Skarbrand then closes in for the kill, but only scores 3 hits after 133556 and 122 on the re-roll. He wounds the Avatar thrice after 246, meaning that the Avatar will have to pass 3 4+ saves on the bounce to stay in the Arena. The first save is rolled......1. Oh. Well to finish it off he then proceeded to roll another 1 and a 2 for his remaining saves, meaning that Skarbrand took him down pretty hard in that last round of combat. In short, Skarbrand is through and the Avatar of Khaine is out, and Skarbrand joins the list of beings who have gone out to beat up an Avatar justto prove how hard they are.

Throne of Skulls preparation begins

Drop Pod rage is at an end. I have finally assembled the thing. I then decided to continue assembling stuff after treating myself to a Rhino on Friday and now I have 20 Grey Hunters, a Rhino, a Drop Pod, a Dreadnought and 10 Wolf Scouts assembled. However, 2 Grey Hunters are still missing heads, backpacks and Melta Guns while 2 scouts are still missing heads and Melta Guns. Although one of my mates says he has some Melta Guns and rocket launchers that I can have so I'll let him have a rummage through my bitz box on Monday.

Anyway, I have also managed to play a game with my Space Wolves (about time). I was playing against my usual opponent in ZachArPaladin, and as we are both attending Throne of Skulls we thought it was a good opportunity to get some practice in. ZachArPaladin is attending the Youngbloods event while I attend the standard Throne of Skulls one a week before, but despite his age my opponent plays to the same standard as many seasoned 40k veterans that I know. Never underestimate players just because they look younger. I know that for you tournament players I am probably making too big a deal out of this but this is my first national tournament and I am really looking forward to it, hopefully moving on to other tournaments when I have a bit more experience of competitive play under my belt

Anyway, we were playing 1,500pts. We rolled up for the mission getting Capture and Control, Spearhead. I was bringing:

HQ:

Rune Priest: Chooser of the Slain, Wolf Tail Talisman, Living Lightning and Murderous Hurricane

Rune Priest: Wolf Tail Talisman, Murderous Hurricane and Jaws of the World Wolf

Elites:

Dreadnought: Multi-Melta, Wolf Tail Talisman and Drop Pod

5 Wolf Scouts: Melta Bombs and Melta Gun

5 Wolf Scouts: Melta Bombs and Melta Gun

Troops:

10 Grey Hunters: 2 Melta Guns and Rhino

7 Grey Hunters: Melta Gun and Rhino

7 Grey Hunters: Melta Gun and Rhino

Heavy Support:

5 Long Fangs: 2 Missile Launchers and 2 Lascannons

5 Long Fangs: 2 Missile Launchers and 2 Lascannons

5 Long Fangs: 2 Missile Launchers and 2 Lascannons

And the Tyranids:

HQ:

The Swarmlord: Tyrant Guard with Lash Whip

Elites:

3 Hive Guard

Venomthrope

3 Zoanthropes

Troops:

Tervigon: Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs and Catalyst

Tervigon: Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs and Catalyst

30 Termagants

22 Termagants: Devourers

The Tyranids won the roll off and chose to go first, deploying in a corner behind the Sanctum Imperialis, leaving me with a rather bare quarter with some bits of ruin in it, they were sufficient to provide some cover but it was not ideal, also it forced me to split my Rhinos up a bit.

The Tyranids deployed in essentially 2 different teams, an attack team and a defence team. The attackers deployed to go for my objective, this included the 22 Devourer Termagants, the Swarmlord and his Tyrant Guard, a Tervigon, the Zoanthropes, the Hive Guard and the Venomthrope. Staying back was the 30 critter squad of Termagants and a Tervigon.

I deployed everything bar the Scouts and Drop Pod, the Rune Priests went in the smaller Grey Hunter squads. My plan being to hopefully play quite defensively, drawing most of the Tyranid threat towards the bulk of my army while the scouts and Dread would hopefully survive long enough to contest the opposing objective. I neglected to try and seize.

The Tyranid turn started with a huge splat, as I imagine the sound would be like of 24 Termagants disgorging from 2 different Tervigons, unfortunately, no doubles were rolled on either, so they could both keep producing, and suddenly the board was alive with creatures. The attack force stomped forwards, coming quite close to my 2 lead Rhinos, 2 of my Long Fangs squads and a Rune Priest.

Due to the sparce nature of the terrain on my side of the board (preparing for a large Warhammer World event properly) the Hive Guard squad was able to pick out the lead Rhino carrying the Rune Priest and his squad, and exploded it, the explosion and some more resultant fire from the Tyranids was enough to kill the entire squad except for the Melta Gun wielder and the Rune Priest, who was left unscathed. The squad leader and a Lascannon from the furthest up Long Fang pack were also obliterated in a shower of gribblies.

The Space Wolves hit back hard. The Dreadnought landed but unfortunately scattered a little too close to the Tervigon, the plan was to use it to tie up the big squad of gants away from the objective, but this did not discourage him from wounding the beast with his Multi-Melta. The Swarmlord was also felled in a shower of Melta, Missile and Las fire. But perhaps the most spectacular event happened before this. The Rune Priest called upon the Jaws of the World Wolf, laying them down upon the Swarmlord and his Tyrant Guard, 4 Termagants and the attacking Tervigon. Although the Swarmlord passed his Initiative test, all of the other critters fell into the deep chasm that was opened up beneath them.

Both squads of scouts had come on turn 2, and with the majority of the Tyranid attack blunted it was just a case of the Long Fangs and the Rune Priests mopping up the remainder, as the defence force was out of Line of Sight behind the Sanctum Imperialis, while the large squad of Grey Hunters pushed forward, in their Rhino, but only 5 remained when they came close to the enemy lines. What the game came down to, on whether it would be a draw or victory to the Space Wolves, was whether or not my forces near the Tyranid objective could survive until the end of the game. It came right down to the wire, but when the dust settled at the end of turn 5 (a 1 one rolled to end the game) 1 lone Grey Hunter with his Meltagun stood tall, in combat with a Tervigon and 13 Termagants, but alive to contest the objective, resulting in a 1-0 victory to the Space Wolves. The scouts had died at the end of turn 4 so the 5 Grey Hunters had to survive 2 assault phases in order to claim victory but they succeeded, just.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing the Space Wolves and am glad that I have not spent £100+ on an army that I hated playing. I've learnt quite a few things with them regarding what certain units can deal with and I'm just hoping now that I'll be able to get my hands on the 2 Rhinos, 3 Devastator squad boxes and 2 Rune Priests that I need for my army now.

I have my next post already lined up, just need to finish reading up on the subject and then I'll be ready to write the next post, it should be up on Wednesday, and is on the subject of, 'Why Marneus Calgar is dreadful'. See you in a few days.

Drop Pod Rage and the Arena

Well I haven't hit my target but at least I'm back to doing some posting. I'm trying to make a real push now to get my Space Wolves ready for Throne of Skulls. So far I have 2 squads of Grey Hunters (1 half painted 1 half assembled), 2 squads of wolf scouts (1 assembled but for the Melta Gunner and 1 still in the box) and a Dreadnought (half painted) with a Drop Pod (half assembled).

If anyone has ever glued something on to a model wrong you'll know part of the frustration that I'm having with this. The main problem was the section where the marines would be strapped in as they fall to the planet. I feel that the instructions weren't exactly clear on this but common sense should have told me that I'd glued these on the wrong way around, as I discovered when I tried to insert the frames of the pod. What's more, I only discovered this the morning after I had glued them. Therefore, I had to pull them off, and try to swap the cables going into the central panel around. I did this by cutting them off where they met the 'chair', and gluing them onto the other side, using Green Stuff to fill in the gaps due to the cutting technique of my rather crappy hardware store pliers.

I then had to clip off the bottoms of the 'chairs', and glue them down without them, as there was now all sorts of gunk in the slots. I'm now trying to put the framework on and insert the little turnbine / storm bolter thing in the middle. Such a task has thus far brought me very close to chucking the drop pod out of the window.

Anyway, I would love to spend all day talking about myself but unfortunately I've got to get down to doing other things, so here's another Arena for you.

Some of you may be familiar with a piece of background in the Space Wolves Codex which involves the ecclesiarchy going off to inspect the Space Wolves on Fenris, so the Space Wolves shoot their ships out of the sky. Today's arena is a similar encounter, with Uriah Jacobus taking on Ragnar Blackmane. Ragnar costs a lot more points than Uriah for a reason, but hey, at the end of the day anything could happen...

Ragnar rolls to hit Jacobus, scoring a 2, a pair of 4s and a pair of 5s, followed up by rolling 1356 to wound, Jacobus takes 345 for his saves and is reduced to 2 wounds. Jacobus' turn now, rolling 14556 to hit and 1236 to wound, Ragnar rolls a 3 for his save nullifying the hit.

Ragnar's turn again, 13455 to hit, 3356 to wound. Jacobus needs to make 3 saves to stay in the game, but only manages to make 2, with 1, 3, 4 and 5. Meaning that Ragnar is promptly through to the next round.

...or not, so Ragnar is through, leaving the field so far as Ragnar, the Swarmlord and Ghazghkull.

So, who do you predict to win?