Redcap’s 40k 1000pt December Tournament

Posted on 2012/12/16 by tjkopena

Colin, Jason, Justin, Lovell, and I went out for Redcap’s December monthly tournament yesterday. Three games, 1000pts, standard missions and force organization. Final standings:

Chaos Marines (Chris)—16
Tyranid (Byron)—11
Tie: Chaos Marines (Colin) and Chaos Marines (James)—10
Space Marines (Joe)—9
Eldar (Justin)—8
Dark Angels (Jason)—7
Tyranid (Lovell)—4

Missions were drawn from the standard rulebook with straightforward bonuses:

Big Guns Never Tire/Hammer and Anvil/Bonus: No enemy units in their deployment zone.
Crusade/Dawn of War/Bonus: Warlord ends game in enemy deployment zone.
Relic/Vanguard Strike/Bonus: Your warlord slays enemy warlord.

These were my first games in 6th edition after a good length hiatus in general. In addition to the PAGE guys going, this tournament worked out well as a re-introduction. The low points limit kept out crazy units and complicated rules, as well as giving plenty of time to play.

Army

I took a pretty simple list, inspired by two criterion:

I was willing to bend on this, but I really wanted to take a fully painted force.
I wanted to keep everything super simple and familiar to me so I could just focus on the core 6ed rule changes.

I wound up taking 1000pts exactly:

Captain Angholan (Vulkan)
Sternguard x10 w/ Powersword, 6xCombi-Meltas, Multi-Melta, Drop Pod
Tactical x10 w/ Powerfist, Plasmagun, Missile Launcher, Razorback w/ Hunter-Killer
Tactical x10 w/ Chainsword, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino w/ Hunter-Killer

In the end everything was painted except the magnetized hunter-killers and two guys’ bases.

Round 1

First I faced Justin and his Eldar. All four objectives wound up tightly clustered near the center of the table. For my part, I’d encouraged this because I figured it would lead to more close combat scraps over objectives, which I figured my stalwart Marines would tend to win.

In the end I claimed a massacre, but it was super bloody. I only had five guys plus the captain and a Rhino left, facing fifteen or more Eldar. However, the Eldar had all been pushed away from the objectives and had not claimed any bonuses. One interesting thing about this was that much of it was done by tank shocking the Eldar away from objectives. This was done a couple times, but a late game charge by the remaining empty Rhino cleared the Eldar off their last objective, swinging the Kingbreakers from a major victory to a massacre. Also of note was that my captain’s Warlord Trait made him a scoring unit. In the end it didn’t matter in some sense as a single tactical Marine was left standing on the central objective with him, but it seemed powerful that the highly robust (2+/3++) Angholan would have been able to hold that objective all by himself.

Usually you should try to *not* be completely surrounded…

Round 2

Next came Chris, the eventual winner, and his Chaos Marines. He was able to tightly cluster three objectives in his zone. I put my two pretty far away, more or less tucked into a relatively remote corner. The final score on victory points wound up being 10–8, Chaos.

For the most part this was a fairly close game. Other than three Rhinos, Chris didn’t have a ton of mobility, so I felt fairly safe leaving just a combat squad each to guard my two home objectives, and they indeed wound up unmolested the whole game. The Sternguard dropped into the heart of the Chaos objective cluster and did a reasonable job of gumming up everything in there. Between pressure from them and a flanking sweep from the remaining Tac Marines, the Chaos right side was rolling up and at least a third objective definitely achievable, if not a fourth. As expected though, a pair of Obliterators came down behind that flank and I decided to fight them. On the one hand, they got pretty lucky and rolled a large number of 5+ saves for several turns, stalling out my entire offensive. On the other hand, I maybe should have just ignored them; it was probably a mistake to fight them rather than just roll on. They would have been lethal, but if the push had just kept going it may have been able to gain enough distance to settle on the objective and effectively ignore them. Contrarily though, they’re not as slow as they used to be with the changes to Slow + Purposeful, so that would not have been as effective a move as in 5e.

Oblits begin to stall out the Kingbreakers’ flanking rush.

One other thought about the mission was that allowing the first player to place an uneven number of objectives seems like a significant advantage. Especially when they’re playing armies that want to get into a close quarters fight, it seems unfortunate for the first player to be given a significant lead from the get-go and be able to play more defensively.

Also, between all the Traits, Boons, and Demon Weapons, even fairly standard Chaos Lords seem to be able to throw down an astounding number of close combat attacks now.

Chaos hunkers down around the local watering hole…

Round 3

After that slight loss I went against Byron and his Tyranid. To some extent I was starting to fade here. Between getting up super early to cram for a few hours on the new rules and already playing for 4 hours, it was a fair bit of 40k from a cold start. Compounding that, I don’t have a ton of experience against the latest Tyranid codex. It seems like it has fared well with the new rulebook. I thought it also well suited for the Relic mission. A Tervigon with Iron Arm cast on it is a pretty imposing scoring unit for carrying the relic around…

Oh yeah, you bad! (this Tervigon’s actually in Lovell’s army)

I think my biggest problem though was not having any psychic protection. It’s tough to fit two Marine HQs into 1000pts and Vulkan’s so useful that I’m not sure I’d have taken a librarian even if I hadn’t consciously set him aside as I wouldn’t have been really up on the new rules for using him. However, a hood or something would be really useful. Most of the Tyranid spent the game walking around covered by a Telekine Dome, both making them extraordinarily harder to kill than they usually are, and hurting my own guys as shots bounced back. If I’d been able to counter that at least once in a while things could have turned out much differently from the massacre it wound up.

Generally, this kind of scene won’t end well for humanity…

General Analysis

I knew this going on and ignored it in favor of a simple and familiar army, but my list had really a lot of points spent on Sternguard for this size game. There generally aren’t enough juicy units lying around for them to recoup points in the alpha-strike fashion I tend to play them. They did ok, but for this size battle there just aren’t big enough targets for them to be really effective in that way.

As noted, I’ll probably have to reevaluate my tradeoffs on different HQs at different point levels. Vulkan was definitely very useful throughout the day, as usual. But a librarian would have dramatically altered the final round. I haven’t fully digested the new rules and tables, but I could believe 6ed will accelerate the already strong resurgence of psychers as something you need to be able to at least counter.

The new missions also place even more emphasis on scoring units. Even setting aside inevitable casualties, if you don’t have the ability to credibly hold at least three objectives, you’re probably not going to be competitive. It would be good for me to work in one or two cheap rearguard scoring units, potentially Guard or Tau allies.

In general I’ll have to really study the missions. For example, in the Relic mission, it almost seems not worth really worrying about the Relic and instead focusing on taking and denying the bonuses as together they’re worth just as much. I’ll also have to think about the tournament format Redcap’s has converged on. Being able to take that single tournament bonus point in just a mission or two could really make the difference.

6th Edition

Overall I’m super happy with sixth edition 40k as I learn more about it. Continuing the vast improvements made in 5th, the rulebook seems even better written and less ambiguous.

I’m very excited about the changes to vehicles, I think they got cut down quite a bit but without clearly going too far. Even if nothing else, it’s great to have a much more predictable idea of when a vehicle will go down, based on chipping away at hull points.

I’m also pretty excited about Allies. I think it can lead to a bit of gameyness and some hard-to-justify fluff. However, it does open up a lot of options for mixing and matching to counter strengths and weaknesses. It’ll also allow a lot more modeling without the commitment to fielding an entire army. I’ll never field a full Guard or Tau force anytime soon, but I’m pretty excited to now have a realistic reason to put some together.

Allies = Interdimensional BFFs?

I have mixed feelings about putting wounds on the closest models. It’s more intuitive to newcomers than the previous wound pools, but certainly didn’t speed up gameplay—repeatedly rolling individual wounds in cases where it matters can be extremely slow. In thematic ways it’s unfortunate now that there’s a lot of incentive to not have your sergeants or whatnot leading the group. It also slows things down as much more care now has to be placed on very precise model placement, where everybody is in the unit. To me this is unfortunate as I don’t generally find it that interested, and often problematic: There’s only so much precision you can have with these kinds of games, between terrain, eyeballing tape measures, and so on. That focus on precise placement is a big part of what I really don’t like about Warmachine/Hordes and Battlefleet Gothic, both otherwise excellent games. On the other hand, it can bring a lot of strategy and narrative to movement. For example: Do you put Vulkan and his crazy armor up front, shielding the way for a tac squad as they rush headlong into torrents of fire? That’s a thought provoking tradeoff to have to make, in addition to having a great dramatic component.

All in all though, things seem even more streamlined and yet more strategic, and I was already pretty happy with 5th edition 40k.

There are a few more photos from the day in my Flickr gallery.

Not typically what you want to see over the castle walls, no…

First 40k Sixth Edition Game

Posted on 2012/09/03 by tjkopena

Tonight at PAGE, Jason, Valerie, Colin, and I got in my first match of sixth edition 40k. Colin and I teamed up for a 2 on 2 of Space Marines and Imperial Guard versus Jason’s Deathwing Dark Angels and Valerie’s Eldar. It was mostly a learning game as Jason coached Valerie in her very first game of 40k, with Colin also talking up changes for sixth edition.

Jason prepares for his doom!

Catachans stare down the oncoming treacherous Dark Angels.

There are definitely a lot of details all over the place that have changed and will require some attention to not overlook. So far among the perhaps small yet I think consequential changes is that Rapid Fire weapons can now fire once at the full range, even after moving. When I started playing 40k, two things really bothered about Space Marine Tactical Squads: 1) They didn’t have pistols, so they couldn’t shoot a unit they were about to assault. 2) They couldn’t move and shoot at range. Both of these really cut down their options and just didn’t make much sense. The previous edition took care of the first one, so it’s nice now for that second point to be closed up.

Kingbreakrs and Eldar race for the central objective.

Kingbreakers heroically assault deep into enemy lines.

Another interesting bit I had not caught up to until the game is that leaving Space Marine Drop Pods is a standard disembark, which now basically has a 6″ bubble around the vehicle. That’s quite a bit of room to get out, move around, and shoot stuff up or dive into cover.

Focus Fire is also something of which good use of is going to be the hallmark of a good player over an average player. It probably won’t have huge effects, but I think appropriate use of it could really help you out at times, and it presents a strong strategic tradeoff between more possible kills versus more likely kills.

A Dark Angel ancient stands fast in the face of the Kingbreaker attack.

The Dark Angels have neither mercy nor fear for the fallen.

Overall, I remain optimistic about the new edition. In a few places it seems a bit more fiddly than the previous one, but not overly so. Certainly there is a ton of new stuff in the rulebook, like flyers and terrain, but I think a lot of that can be safely set aside until everyone’s ready to incorporate it. Or, you know, somebody shows up with a Stormtalon and everybody has to get ready in a hurry.

On a largely unrelated side note, the just-released Dark Vengeance box sets are absolutely amazing. It seems like a great value at $107 for 49 miniatures (I guess $99 for 48 in the standard edition), and those miniatures are absolutely amazing. The cultists in particular are super cool looking and extremely detailed. I had to work really hard to impose some self-discipline and not pick up a box.

Magnetizing A Predator

Posted on 2011/08/09 by tjkopena

Space Marines are among the best equipped and flexible armies in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Their vehicles are therefore loaded with many options. This short tutorial presents some notes on magnetizing the weapons for a Predator tank so that different configurations can be easily used in different battles.

All the weapons options available for the Predator model in the box.

The process begins by assembling all the weapons and the main hull. The turret can be glued together, but don’t insert a weapon, as in the picture above.

An important point is to leave the various hatches unglued, and to assemble appropriately to meet all loadouts. By leaving the main turret mount unglued, the standard Rhino top doors may be put on to use the vehicle as a Rhino. Similarly, it’s rare for a Predator to equip an additional Storm Bolter, but this is standard kit for a Rhino. By assembling a blank and a Storm Bolter hatch but leaving them unglued, these can be readily swapped.

Note that the hatch holes might have to be scraped and sanded to enlarge them in order to easily plug the hatches in and out after painting. For this model the hatches have been assembled closed and the Storm Bolter on the basic swivel mount as other models in the army use the variants with exposed Marines.

Side sponson panels could also be magnetized for swapping with standard Rhino doors. However, this may not be worth the effort and is not done here as simply not mounting sponson weapons and putting on the standard top hatch and Storm Bolter will render the model clearly usable as a Rhino. Dozer blades are also a good candidate for magnetization, but are also not done here.

Hunter-Killer

Although probably the last part that should be done, the hunter-killer missile is a good example of a component worth magnetizing. It’s not typically equipped every game, and removing it during battle after firing is a great WYSIWYG reminder that it’s no longer available.

The first step is to determine an adequate space for the missile to be mounted on, and then use a pin vise to drill a pilot hole at that location.

Pin-drilling a pilot hole for the larger bit.

The pilot hole to guide the larger bit.

Standard 1/8″ rare earth magnets are used here, so a 1/8″ hole is made in the hull, into which one will fit snugly. A standard drill bit manipulated by hand will create such a hole quickly, cleanly, and easily. The pilot hole gives the larger bit a place to start and prevents it from shifting, creating an overly large hole or damaging the surrounding area. It’s fine to drill all the way through the thin top section of the hull. The magnet will fit snugly enough to not fall through, and this will enable it to be mounted flush with the top.

Drilling a larger hole for the magnet to sit into.

A 1/8″ hole in which the magnet will sit snugly.

Super-glue should then be dabbed into the hole and the magnet inserted. An easy way to do this is to put the magnet on a flat metal tool such as a hobby knife blade or the backside of a scraper. Insert the magnet into the hole, press it down flush with the top, and then slide the tool off horizontally. The magnet will stay in place as the tool slides. This is much easier to do than inserting it with fingers or tweezers.

Manipulating the magnet using a flat metal piece.

The magnet set in the Predator hull.

This process is then repeated for the hunter-killer missile, carefully drilling a pilot hole, then enlarging it, dabbing super-glue inside, and inserting a magnet. This hole should not be as deep as a magnet is tall, so that it sticks out slightly and provides a bit of a standoff.

Pin-drilling a pilot hole in the hunter-killer missile.

The pilot hole in the hunter-killer missile.

Drilling out the magnet hole in the hunter-killer missile.

The magnet hole in the hunter-killer missile.

Once set in place, the magnets can be very hard to extract. It is therefore critical to get the polarity correct the first time. A useful step is to put the second magnet on the target, ensuring it is aligned correctly, then sliding it off onto the tool to be manipulated so that the face to be inserted remains showing.

Checking the polarity orientation of the magnet to put in the hunter-killer.

The magnet set in the hunter-killer.

Another critical point is that it is well worth ensuring that all of the similar magnetized pieces in an army are oriented to the same polarity. For example, every hunter-killer missile should have their magnet set with the same magnetic facing, so that any one of them may be used on any tank. It is a true inconvenience to have magnetized parts but still have to match particular components up to particular models.

Finally, if super-glue does not adequately hold a magnet in place, deepen the hole slightly, insert a blob of greenstuff or greystuff, and re-insert the magnet. Once hardened, the clay will hold the magnet securely.

Sponsons

Using the same basic techniques, the sponsons are easily magnetized. The key aspect of this is to ensure at least the same side weapons use the same polarity orientation! The slots on top of the weapons could be filled with greenstuff or similar, but are completely obscured on the tabletop by the support arms so it’s unnecessary.

Magnets set in the sponson weapons.

Setting magnets in the sponson arms is a simple matter of slightly enlarging the existing holes, applying glue, inserting the magnet, and gluing the sensor piece on top.

These could be made more elaborate by building up a standoff or attaching the magnet to the original weapon strut. However, this is extra work that is not noticeable on the tabletop. Attaching the magnet to the strut is also significantly more flimsy, with the magnet liable to being popped off the arm in transit.

Magnet set in the sponson arms.

Turret

The final component to magnetize is then the main turret. There are several approaches to doing this, but all involve sheering off the pivot arms of the weapons so that the sides are flush.

One approach is then to mount a magnet in the side of the turret opening where the pivot arms would otherwise go, and then mount magnets in the sides of each weapon. However, this approach is slightly tricky to pull off such that the weapon does not tilt slightly when set. It is also prone to the weapon drooping.

Much easier and more reliably better looking is to mount a magnet in the top leading edge of the turret and in the top of the weapon backend, just behind the angle plate. These would be tricky to line up exactly, but it’s not necessary. The magnets are strong enough to hold the weapon in place even when not perfectly touching. As long as the magnets are roughly flush and centered, the weapon will align correctly and not droop when placed.

Again, make sure to double check the polarity orientation of the magnets before inserting into the weapons, and to use the same arrangement as on other tanks in the army if applicable.

Magnets set in the main turret weapons.

Finished

And that’s it, the Predator is now ready to roll with whatever weapons the day’s opponent entails!

The finished Predator, loaded out as DakkaPred.

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