Space Sharks: League Reports

More from our 6th edition tryouts.

Movin' Out

 

Oof.  I just heard that my long-time buddy and gamer-buddy is moving. 

It's not like we're exactly neighbors now.  We live in different cities and actually see each other only about every month or so, though I always look forward to it.  We've lived further apart before, during college and afterwards, but always settled back somewhat near each other.  He'll be moving about an hour and a half away, and I'm sure that I'll still see him from time to time and talk fairly regularly, but it just feels like a more permanent shift further away.  

For your consideration - check out these blogs

 

I think that it's been a while since I put up some of my recent finds or re-finds, so here's a quick selection.  Check them out, there's some good stuff going on out there!

Chronowraith's Corner - I just found this one recently, and just in time to stumble into a contest win!  Luck of the semi-Irish I guess.  I can't promise that you'll win anything by checking it out, but you will find some recent articles on 6th edition 40K, Skaven, and some cool WIP models that should turn out really well.

Chimps in Space - Some other content too, but the reviews of current and retro White Dwarfs is what drew me in.

AJ's Gaming World - Batreps and IG conversions, a great combo.

A Downward Spyrle  - Neat terrain ideas plus other things.

Fawcett Avenue Conscripts - 40K stuff plus lots of neat reports on other eras, especially modern or modern-ish conflicts.

The Shiny Silver Inquisition - If you liked my 6th ed Impressions series, you'll like his series where he's been going over different unit types in the new rules.  Hopefully he'll continue to cover other things as well.

Imperial Guard 4 the Win - Indeed.  Batreps, campaigns, terrain, IG thoughts, other stuff.

So I guess lightsabers are AP3

Watching Star Wars with my son this weekend I found myself realizing things I had never known before, which prove what a visionary George Lucas really is, and how much of 6th edition 40K can be found in Star Wars.

Imperial Armour: Horus Heresy incoming

We all saw it coming with all the earlier armor marks Forge World has been releasing and the success of the Horus Heresy Black Library books.  FW IA books for the Horus Heresy coming starting Autumn 2012.


Sixth edition....new Chaos Marines...now Horus Heresy IA books...oh my aching bank accounts!

Personally, what I'm looking forward to most are the limited edition empty bases representing the missing primarchs! ;-)

Conway Chaos: Battle Report Deathfin vs. Daemons

from http://felipechoque.newgrounds.com/

While on vacation, I happened to be be close to where the 11th Company plays, and had arranged with Pat to meet up and get a game in.  Between getting on the wrong road and then going to what proved to be an old location for the store I was running a good deal behind, but we still managed to get the game and a little visitation in.

Eleventhification

Just a quick 11th Company related post from the road. Apologies for lack of links; the iPad and I haven't fully worked this out yet. First, I have a brief interview with Pat on episode 127 of the 11th Company about the 6th edition impressions series. If you're finding your way here from there, you can use the labels or hop to the 40k Basics tab up top for the series. Second, I'm near their stomping grounds, and have duly arranged to meet them and get stomped! My Deathfin and IG allies have an appointment to get crushed by Pat and a bunch of daemons and csm. I expect to have breath/wind of chaos nightmares for a while. I'm sure you can hear about it on ep. 128 and hopefully see pics here next week!

6th Ed Impressions, Part Ten - Instrumental Changes

 

 As I've gone through this series of posts, looking at the different rules and using them in-game, I've come to see some of what may be the rationales for some of the ways rules work in combination, and I've also gotten some ideas for things I would have liked to have seen included.

In no particular order:

Battle Report: Orks vs. Tau, 5th vs. 6th

 

 I went over to Joshua's the other day, and while our kids played with their toys, we played with ours.  Joshua wanted to try out Tau, and I had a bunch of another friend's sitting around in storage, so we broke those out for a test game against Orks.  Joshua hasn't read any of the 6th ed stuff yet, so we kept the game 5th ed.  I took pics as a matter of habit, but thought I probably wouldn't post a battle report given the edition change.  However, thinking about it today I thought it might be interesting to show this 5th edition game and make some comments about how things would have been different if it were a 6th edition game instead!

6th edition 40K - Dawn of a New Era

 

With 6th edition Warhammer 40,000 out, there may be a number of new or returning players thinking about coming to the game.  I just wanted to point to some links that might help.

For new players especially, the links in the HEY SONS! tab above may be helpful, providing a starting place for information about models and modeling, the background, various factions, as well as some advice on making smart purchases.  I'm also happy to help new folks out and enjoy talking about all this stuff, so feel free to email me through the contact info on the right.  I will warn you that my free advice may be worth exactly what you pay for it!

For returning players, or those who have yet to read the new rules, my series on 6th Edition Impressions talking about some of the changes from 5th edition and the implications has been added to the 40K Basics tab above, hopefully a more convenient place to find it.  Let me know what you think, and feel free as always to add in the comments on the relevant post what I may have missed, gotten wrong, or your ideas on what the changes mean for our games going forward.  Note that some of the older 40K Basics articles specifically talk about 5th edition rules - I've noted them where it's especially relevant so hopefully folks won't get confused, but I'll leave them up for posterity and vanity's sake.  For the most part, anything prior to June 2012 will be under old rules, though some of the information may still be valid.

Some other older posts that may also be relevant in the dawn of the new era:

• As people look through new rules and reconsider their armies, you may want to think about Planning for the long haul
• With a new Chaos Space Marine codex allegedly coming in the next few months, I must admit that I will be glad to see the fading of the often inaccurate and misinformed Chaos 4.0 hate that has been so prevalent, though it saddens me that it will inevitably be replaced by some form of Chaos 6.0 hate.  I will experience some schadenfreude over hearing the lamentations of previous deriders of 4.0 who will complain about X in the 6th ed book not being as good as it was in 4.0, options being different, etc.  The sweet, sweet tears of hypocrisy and unfulfillable expectations.

League Pictures - 6th ed Tryouts

Shark attack!

Sunday was another league day at Gaming Underground.  This month we're not using the league rules or counting any points for wins/losses, just using the month to give 6th edition a shakedown.  I got in two 1000pt games using the Space Sharks, and took some pics of other games too.

6th Ed Impressions, Part Nine - Bringing it Home

 

 Overall I like 6th edition 40K.  There are some wrinkles, but for fun games with fun opponents I think you can have a great time with this system.  With fun lists and terrain and missions set up to tell a particular story or a campaign I think it will be fantastic.  Random pick up games or tournament games with random people using random objectives and random terrain etc etc, can still have fun but it's not using the whole potential.  For those with a dedicated gaming group that are into narrative gaming this will be a golden age of 40K.  With promises of more terrain, warlord traits, missions and the like to come in White Dwarf we may also see a return to some of the fun and free-wheeling of the old Chapter Approved days.

6th Ed Impressions, Part Eight - Getting Ready

 

 OK, so now you've chosen your army list including your allies and fortifications and your opponent has done the same.  You've gotten together for a battle and need to get your mission and set up the table.  What's the 6th ed way to do that?

6th Ed Impressions, Part Seven - FOC Allies, Warlords and Fortifications

 

 A number of topics to squeeze into this one, the FOC chart, Allies, Warlords, and Fortifications.  Some shouldn't take long to touch upon, and some will be more relevant after the next bit on Setting up a Battle and the missions.

6th Ed Impressions, Part Six - Terrain

 

Terrain!  That third (hopefully) painted force on the table that affects the other two.  In this edition 40K has re-introduced some of the more bizarre types of terrain from earlier days that was largely ignored in the 3rd-5th years. Personally I like seeing some of this sort of stuff return, but prefer it to be more narratively created (and modeled) by the players in advance instead of the result of random rolls in the middle of the game.

6th Ed Impressions, Part Five - Vehicles

 

Vehicles.  The kings of 5th edition have seen some significant changes in 6th, some that make them better, some that make them worse.  Will they retain their throne?

6th Ed Impressions, Part Four - Characters and Psykers

 Characters!  A lot stays the same, but there are some big changes and some special ways they interact with wound allocation.

6th Ed Impressions, Part Three - Unit Types, Weapons

 

Continuing the series, see prior posts for parts 1 and 2.

*Bikes - BIKES CANNOT BE PINNED and cannot go to ground.  I know that I'll forget that, hopefully you'll remember!  Have Hammer of Wrath (the Impact Hits thing), Jink (5+ cover), and Relentless.  Turbo-Boost is done in the shooting phase.  Turbo for regular bikes is 12", jetbikes 24", and Eldar/DE jetbikes 36".  So Eldar jetbikes can come in from reserve and end the turn touching the enemy board edge given long-edge deployment.  I also don't see any restrictions about turbo-boosting through terrain, so you can apparently do that (just take dangerous terrain tests).  Eldar jetbike assault phase move anywhere move is 2d6".

     - Toughness boost counting for ID is a nice boost for attack bikes and characters on bikes (and bikers that get FNP, like DE reavers and BA bikers with a priest handy).  Jink is a nice survivability boost for bikers in general.  The real winner here tactically in my mind though is the change for turbo-boost (and flat out for vehicles) happening in the shooting phase, instead of in movement.  This opens up a TON of options for players.

          - Move bikes/vehicles up in position to shoot or charge, fire rest of army.  No longer need them to shoot?  Turbo somewhere else (out of danger, into blocking position, whatever).

          - Move out of the way to allow friendlies to shoot cleanly, then turbo in front of them to provide them cover, block enemy chargers, etc.  

          - And so forth.  The ability to stagger your movement out over several phases gives you lots of options, especially when that movement is reliable and of significant distance.  Run is nice, but a guaranteed 12, 24, or 36 is awesome.  Expect to see lots of dirty tricks pulled with bikers and vehicles going flat out.

6th Ed Impressions, Part Two - Special Rules

 

 You can find part one here.

First, since I don't recall seeing it mentioned elsewhere, a little snippet from the very back: "WRITTEN BY: Adam Troke, Jeremy Vetock and Mat Ward"  Guys like Jervis Johnson, Robin Cruddace and Phil Kelly (Sixes be upon him) are listed in additional rules development and playtesting, but presumably the three aforementioned gentlemen were primarily responsible for the sixth edition rules.  Perhaps we'll start seeing 40K codices from Mr. Troke and Mr. Vetock before long?

On to Special Rules!  Some of which may be indicators of the future...

40K League: Picture Dump

Got down to Gaming Underground today for some 40K games.  Got in my last two 750pt / 5th edition games for this league round as well as a first game of 6th ed, at 1000pts.  I wanted to go ahead and get the pics up; the 6th edition rundown series will continue shortly.

Here's the pics from those games as well as a bunch from other folks' games.  We had a good turnout, with IIRC seven players plus a prospective player.  Plus a ton of Pokemon players in the back!  Most of them were fine, but the kid of one of the Pokemon guys spent a lot of time at our table during Leonard and my game, picking up and dropping figures, moving stuff, asking tons of questions and repeatedly asking us to buy him models or give him some.  Very annoying and distracting.  But not enough to mar a pretty fun day!

Dark Eldar and Nids face off

6th Ed Impressions, Part One

 

Yes, yet another of those posts.  Having just gotten through the book and seen parts of a few games played, here are my impressions on the new rule set.  

I'm not going to go into detail about all the changes - if you've been paying attention you probably know a lot of the major basic stuff already.  Rather I'll go through the book and point out some things and my thoughts on potential impacts.

Overall I think the set is pretty well written.  Most questions I've had while reading are soon answered by continuing to read or with a little cross referencing.  There are a few points that are a bit confusing and I'll try to remember to point them out below.  For the most part though I think it's a pretty well-written product, and hope that the future codices are as well thought-out.  I may not agree with all the decisions, but at least they're pretty clearly presented for the most part.

I am also somewhat amused at a number of the changes that match or are close to what my buddies and I came up with as house rules back in 3rd ed (and what a number of others doubtless did too - things like throwing grenades, being able to fall back from something you can't hurt).

Space Sharks: More 750pt League Games

 

Today I dropped by Gaming Underground for some more games in our 40K league.  Though we had a lot of 6th edition chatter, the games today were still in 5th edition.  Next month we'll switch over to 6th, with a month of games that don't count to let everyone get broken in with the new edition.