Well, first of all, here are the Ard Boyz Semi-final Missions.
I was starting to wonder when they would post them, but then we were all wondering that for the Qualifiers.
Look them over, then let me share my thoughts:
Let’s go on to the game by game battle report, shall we? 40k Preliminary Ard Boyz missions are here. I should mention that our T.O. had ruled, ahead of time, that Infiltrate and Scout were universal rules that were active in all missions.
Game 1:
So, I hope the kid never finds this blog, because I don’t want to hurt his feelings, but my round 1 opponent was a 17 year old puppy we’ll abbreviate as J. And I stomped the puppy. Nothing noble in it, but I took it for the opportunity it was to get full battle points.
The internets, by and wide, seem pretty happy with the new GK codex. Well, I’m not.
No, it’s not sour grapes cuz they made the GK codex less powerful, or nerfed my favorite trick. Quite the opposite, I think it made GK more powerful.
What I hate is that these FAQs (both the Main Rulebook FAQ and Grey Knight FAQ) is that it was kinda the usual thing, only more so. They answered questions that no one was asking, didn’t answer most of the questions actually had, and then made some extra stupid decisions besides.
So, I’m going to grade the FAQs. 1 pt for each questions answered, -1 pt for each totally stupid ruling made, and then divide that by the total questions people actually had. I’ll leave the questions they answered that no one was asking neutral.
Questions they answered that no one was asking (0 pts):
From the Main FAQ:
- Q: Are Wounds from Dangerous Terrain tests allocated….?
- Q: Can a model equipped with multiple grenades us….?
- Q: What psychic powers count as psychic shooting…..?
- Q: Do psychic shooting attacks need to roll to hit….?
From GK FAQ:
- Q: If a unit is the target of Unyielding Anvil, from the Grand Strategy special rule, and it splits into combat squads…?
- Q: Can vehicles benefit from the effect of The Shrouding psychic power if they are in range?
- Q: What effect does the Cleansing Flame psychic powerhave on vehicles?
- Q: Does a Dreadknight armed with two Nemesis doomfists get an extra attack in close combat?
- Q: Can Brother-Captain Stern use his Zone of Banishment psychic power if he is not engaged incombat?
- Q: If Justicar Thawn is dead at the end of a game involving kill points, does he only give away one killpoint regardless of how many times he was killed?
- Q: When are the shooting attacks from Inquisitor Coteaz’s I’ve Been Expecting You special rule fired?
- Q: Will Inquisitorial Servitors in a squad without an Inquisitor that has been joined by a Techmarine stillsuffer from Mindlock?
- Q: If a Callidus Assassin chooses a unit of vehicles as itstarget for its Polymorphine special rule what facing ishit?
- Q: If an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor takes 2 Daemonblades how is this resolved?
- Q: Does the entire unit need to be equipped with rad, psyk-out and/or psychotroke grenades for their effects to work or is just one model being equiped with them enough?
- Q: Do you take into account the strength increase fromthe psybolt and psyflame ammunition vehicle upgradeswhen working out if a weapon is a defensive weaponor not? If a vehicle has either of these upgrades, mustyou use them?
- Q: Can you only take an Inquisitorial henchmen warband if you have an Inquisitor in your army?
OK, folks that is 4+14=17 absolutely useless questions. They don’t hurt anything, but seriously, no one wondered this stuff. Just wasting our time and assuming we’re stupid.
Jun 012011
I dunno about you, but when I first looked at Anval Thawn, and his stats, my first thought was “Why?”. Specifically, I wondered at his huge point cost, why would you want a simple sergeant, that cannot die? Looking him over a bit more, turning him over in my head, and using my brain juices to chew on him for a bit, I came to some conclusions that eventually drove me to use him through a whole tournament.
- First, he cannot die. We knew this. But the important thing is, he is the upgrade character for a troops unit. Presumably, this means that when he dies, resurrects and splits off, he is still a troops unit. A one man, unkillable, unit that can score. He’s like the eternal watchman. He will be forever vigilant. The enemy cannot get rid of him, but only suppress him, at best.
This means that, through wound allocation, you can kill him off on purpose, and wait until he comes back to have him run and grab another objective, sorta similar to combat squading a unit, and for the same reasons. Of course, he is a terminator, and often sorta hard to kill. This leads to the somewhat entertaining situation, wherein you are trying to kill him off, and he won’t die. Amusingly, I find your opponent often gets into this game, and upon the first wound allocated to the unit, you roll a die, and you both wind up yelling “Thawn!” as if he had just entered the bar at “Cheers”.
That’s his main and primary benefit, and it may just be worth 75 pts. But he has a few cool secondary advantages, too. Unfortunately, 2 out of 3 of them are disputable, i.e. they need to be FAQ’d.
- Non-controversially, he has psychic mastery 2, often overlooked. This means the unit can cast both Hammerhand, and use Force Weapons. This clearly works because he is the justicar, all powers are cast through him, anyway. Perils of the Warp also conveniently kills him off for you.
- He’s also WS 5. This doesn’t count, it’s too small an advantage. Had to be mentioned, though. Continue reading »
Jun 012011
This happens to be my first post on this, my new blog, and one of the things, other than certain tactical bits of advice that were bursting to be let out, what drove me to start writing this blog.
So, lo, the some 11 years awaited new Grey Knight codex has been released, two full months ago, and to some degree the dust has settled, and people have had the chance to fully absorb the codex.
I think it’s a good codex. It’s reasonably balanced, both internally (as in it is tough to choose what units to take), and externally (despite much moaning, it seems to be able to take on most enemies, while at the same time it does represent an “easy win” against most other codexes, not even tyranids). It’s certainly a decent “apology” codex to all those who for years and years wanted to play a Grey Knight army, in which group I myself would belong to. The previous codex was specifically intended to make an all GK army hard to pull-off.
I even like most of the fluff, ridiculous though it may be. I do, however dislike how they made GK much more like regular marines. They were once WS 5, Strength 6 fearless, with a crippling lack of rhinos. Now they are basically just regular marines, all of whom, granted, are mini librarians, but other than that, they’re merely same old Astartes, but with shinier gear.
But the rules, the rules are good. Well, at least what we think the rules are.
Because Games Workshop, ever known for writing ambiguous rules, has done one of the worst jobs ever with this codex. Epically bad rules-writing. All they had to do was ask your typical 9th grade D&D rules lawyer what to make of these rules, and that would have easily told them how poor these rules were, but no, they couldn’t be brought to do that.
Let’s see how long a list we can make, shall we? After each question, I will make some notes regarding RAW (read as written), RAI (read as intended), and GAP (game as played, which simply means what the consensus has been to play it as, in the lack of any other direction, or perhaps “screw it, rule is fucked) Continue reading »
