{"id":2118,"date":"2014-06-06T10:13:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T14:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/?p=2118"},"modified":"2014-06-06T13:15:37","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T17:15:37","slug":"40k-first-summoning-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/06\/40k-first-summoning-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"40k: First Summoning Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-42\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/kingbreakers-icon.png\" alt=\"kingbreakers-icon\" width=\"81\" height=\"81\" \/>Last night at <a href=\"http:\/\/redcapscorner.com\/\">Redcap&#8217;s<\/a> Ben threw down his first go at a summoning Chaos Daemons list against my Kingbreakers Marines at 1250 points. I was expecting to play Tom M, who I was guessing (correctly) would bring his Night Lords and I&#8217;d be\u00a0king of psykers with my mighty 6\u00a0mastery levels. That&#8217;s actually a fair amount\u00a0for vanilla\u00a0Space Marines. Then Ben dropped 21&#8230; That&#8217;s\u00a0quite a bit when you consider the\u00a0low point level.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0few more photos are in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tjkopena\/sets\/72157645025420552\/\">Flickr gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2135\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7916.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2135\" class=\"wp-image-2135 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7916-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"7th edition.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7916-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7916-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2135\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">7th edition.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Armies<\/h2>\n<p>Ben&#8217;s army was all Tzeentch, all the time. \u00a0Except when it needed to summon Plaguebearers or Bloodletters or Daemonettes or whatever. He started with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fateweaver (ML4)<\/li>\n<li>Flying Daemon Prince (ML3) w\/ Grimoire?<\/li>\n<li>Herald of Tzeentch (ML3)<\/li>\n<li>Herald of Tzeentch (ML3)<\/li>\n<li>Herald of Tzeentch (ML3)<\/li>\n<li>Pink Horrors (11, for ML2)<\/li>\n<li>Pink Horrors (16, for ML3)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Notably, somebody in there was carrying a Portalglyph.\u00a0I believe the Pink Horrors get one master level for the first ten, and\u00a0an additional mastery level for each 5 after that in the blob, rounding up.<\/p>\n<p>Kingbreakers brought my current core for 1000 points, swapping the Imperial Bunker and the extra points for Devastators and Psykers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Capt Angholan\u2014<\/em>Vulkan<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em>Librarian Rorschach<\/em>\u2014Librarian w\/ Terminator Armour, Storm Shield, Mastery Level 2<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Ghost Squad Harmon<\/em>\u2014Sternguard x5 w\/ 3x Combi-Meltas, Poweraxe, Drop Pod<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Squad Scolirus<\/em>\u2014Tacticals x10 w\/ Vet Sgt, Powerfist+Boltgun, Flamer, Multimelta, Drop Pod<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Squad Titus<\/em>\u2014Tacticals x10 w\/ Vet Sgt, Chainsword+Bolt Pistol, Meltagun, Missile Launcher,\u00a0Rhino<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em>Squad McCole<\/em>\u2014Scouts x5 w\/ 5x Camo Cloaks, 4x Sniper Rifles, Missile Launcher<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Devastators x5 w\/ Sgt, Chainsword+Bolt Pistol, Signum, 2x Plasmacannons, 2x Heavy Bolters<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Ordo Xenos Inquisitor w\/ Psyker; Force Sword;\u00a0Divination, Pyromancy, or Telekinesis Powers; Power Armor<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Henchman Warband w\/ Psyker, 2x Acolytes<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Henchman Warband w\/ Psyker, 2x Acolytes<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Henchman Warband w\/ Psyker, 2x Acolytes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Unfortunately I realized afterward that\u00a0I screwed up my spreadsheet rushing to get out the door and first time using\u00a0the Inquisition book. The Acolytes weren&#8217;t accounted for, so I&#8217;m 24 points over. That said, it didn&#8217;t affect the game; Angholan, the Sternguard, and the Tacticals carried the entire affair. The points-burning Inquisitor power armor upgrade alone counts for two Acolytes.\u00a0On two separate turns out of five I forgot my psyker phase entirely because it just didn&#8217;t matter\u00a0so I fell back into the move-&gt;shoot habit. I also didn&#8217;t bother trying\u00a0the Psyker Warband&#8217;s Psychic Barrages though in an ideal world they could have been useful in the\u00a0later turns. All\u00a0of my Librarian&#8217;s successful spells were trivially\u00a0denied. Basically, the 3 extra charges\u00a0from the Warbands\u00a0may as well have not been there compared to the 21 Ben brought. The substantial points spent on psykers were totally useless, particularly after I rolled for\u00a0no particularly interesting powers on the Libby.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2137\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7891.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2137\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2137\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7891-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Sarge? I'm having all these confusing feelings...\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7891-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7891-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2137\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarge? I&#8217;m having all these confusing feelings&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Mission<\/h2>\n<p>We rolled for Crusade with four objectives. I&#8217;m still working on strategy with the new\u00a0objective placement rules. Ben put\u00a0one just off table center along the long axis. I put one nearby in a corner. His second went close to the table edge along the short axis centerline. My second went at the far quartile from the first two along the long axis centerline.<\/p>\n<p>Deployment wound up Vanguard and Ben chose zones. That put two objectives literally just outside his deployment, one inside mine, and\u00a0the fourth\u00a0just a bit closer to mine than his. I deployed first and wound up choosing to go first. I was torn about that, but Ben deployed his whole army on the table and I wanted to come down and hopefully take away some warp charges before he had a chance to roll any protective blessings or summon more units. It&#8217;s worth noting that after deploying first you (seemingly) choose to go first or second after seeing what the other person does in deployment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2122\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/path4143.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2122\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2122\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/path4143-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The photo is from the bottom of Turn 3, but shows deployment zones and objectives placement.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/path4143-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/path4143-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/path4143.jpg 1573w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2122\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The photo is from the bottom of Turn 3, but shows deployment zones and objectives placement.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Fight!<\/h2>\n<p>A Kingbreakers patrol finds a\u00a0small band of Chaos Daemons lead by Fateweaver and a Daemon Prince\u00a0ravaging an already war torn town.\u00a0Angholan and Scolirus drop directly into their ranks, burning away a blob of Pink Horrors at the last moment before\u00a0they break into and infest\u00a0one of the few remaining\u00a0undamaged\u00a0buildings in the area. A small tear erupts in the warp\/materium boundary and\u00a0lesser daemons come on their own to exploit the opening, even as the greater\u00a0daemons conjure\u00a0whole gangs of them\u00a0to\u00a0aid themselves. Harmon&#8217;s Ghosts crash through and destroy another town building, mere collateral damage and well worth\u00a0destroying to keep out of daemons&#8217; claws. Librarian Rorschach fights a tense mind battle with Fateweaver but a surge in the broiling warp storm blasts him to the ground, shattered. Squad Titus is all but\u00a0eliminated by waves of Bloodletters falling from the sky and sheets of Flickering Fire but ultimately stands its ground, stemming the Chaos advance.<\/p>\n<h2>Outcome<\/h2>\n<p>Kingbreakers win: Three objectives, First Blood, and Linebreaker to one objective.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, First Blood was actually given up by a Herald that possessed itself into a\u00a0Lord of Change. \u00a0Librarian Rorschach was obliterated by a Wrath of Khorne attack from the\u00a0Warp Storm table, an\u00a0S8 AP3 barrage blast that didn&#8217;t scatter off him. He wasn&#8217;t really doing anything so I\u00a0took the risk on\u00a0him taking all the hits, rather than trying to Look Out Sir, and\u00a0was he insta-killed.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2139\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7869.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2139\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2139\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7869-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Burn them with fire!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7869-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7869-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2139\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Burn them with fire!<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2136\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7900.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2136\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2136\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7900-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Let's dance!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7900-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7900-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Let&#8217;s dance!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Game Analysis<\/h2>\n<p>Ultimately what won the day here was focusing on playing for the objectives, using the Marines&#8217; variety of tools (both shooting and assault) to take\u00a0out summoned units\u00a0as soon as possible, and being able to do so at a faster rate than new ones could be\u00a0summoned.\u00a0In particular, in the early going Ben wasn&#8217;t allocating enough dice to guarantee successful\u00a0conjurations.<\/p>\n<p>Some other thoughts on this particular game.<\/p>\n<h3>Flame On!<\/h3>\n<p>Turn 1 Angholan (Vulkan) and a Tactical combat squad dropped and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/06\/40k-7th-shooting-the-bane-of-vulkan\/\">double flamed<\/a> the big blob of Horrors. That\u00a0was probably a good call. Ben didn&#8217;t expect it, but I think alpha striking is going to be a big part of countering Daemons: Eliminate\u00a0troops, chip away warp charge, and\/or force them to not deploy on the board.\u00a0I really debated between going for the Horrors\u00a0or bringing down the Sternguard to put wounds on Fateweaver or the Daemon Prince protecting him. However,\u00a0I felt the five Sternguard\u00a0would be unlikely to take out either\u00a0big guy in one go. Going for the Horrors basically got rid of a\u00a0troop unit and still cost Ben two warp charges from the start when 15 of the 16 died. I also put a wound on a Herald by coincidentally flaming him alongside\u00a0the Horrors. Interestingly, the attack\u00a0would have\u00a0probably\u00a0removed the unit and claimed First Blood\u00a0except the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/06\/40k-7th-shooting-the-bane-of-vulkan\/\">new shooting\u00a0algorithm<\/a> and my (ironically) forgetting\u00a0to shoot with the Librarian&#8217;s pistol before the boltguns\u00a0left a single guy tucked out of sight, wasting the Librarian&#8217;s shot.\u00a0In my defense it&#8217;s new for Librarians to be shooting rather than casting.<\/p>\n<p>I have always been a fan of the flamer, even in 5th edition when everybody was meched and they didn&#8217;t\u00a0usually do much. Overwatch in 6e and\u00a0more troops being out on foot made them a lot more valuable. If the metagame does swing toward Chaos Daemons, in 7e I think flamers are\u00a0going to be an even\u00a0bigger\u00a0deal. If there are tons of\u00a0summoned daemons deep striking all over, templates and flamers are going to be useful tools\u00a0to put bunches\u00a0of wounds on them while they&#8217;re blobbed up. In particular, if you&#8217;re holding an objective and a blob summons right next to you to contest it, you&#8217;re going to really wish you had a flamer handy while they&#8217;re standing still and you get one last shot. The daemons are\u00a0also going to laugh at high\u00a0strength, low AP\u00a0single shot weapons like meltaguns. Expect even more flamers\u00a0to show up in the Kingbreakers army.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2133\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7935.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2133\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7935-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Bring it!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7935-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7935-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bring it!<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Portalglyph<\/h3>\n<p>From my perspective, the Portalglyph was almost as much of a pain as the psychic phase summonings. It wound up\u00a0very close to an objective, and vomited forth 4&#8211;6\u00a0smaller daemons on a couple\u00a0of turns to\u00a0run at that\u00a0objective. Those guys supported by Flickering Fire\u00a0actually\u00a0removed Titus&#8217; combat squad of Troops, clearing the way for Daemonettes summoned in the end game to run onto and claim an objective despite me having units on it. A nearby Objective Secured\u00a0Rhino to counter\u00a0was sadly immobilized just short. Unfortunately I did not realize until too late that the Portalglyph is basically a Drop Pod equivalent that I probably would have been able to destroy mid-game somewhat readily.<\/p>\n<h3>Flickering Fire<\/h3>\n<p>Previously I&#8217;d thought of Flickering Fire as mostly kind of a cute spell. Usually I&#8217;ve\u00a0seen it from small to mid-size groups of Horrors, other psykers\u00a0having bigger things to cast. At warp charge 1 that&#8217;s 2D6 shots, not a huge deal. With the way the warp pool works now though, small groups of\u00a0Horrors are a great vehicle for projecting Flickering Fire. They effectively draw charge from the other guys to pump the spell\u00a0up to WC3 and make it a 4D6 shot. Sure, casting the WC3 spell they might get some perils, but better on their blob\u00a0than a Herald or other single expensive character and you can just summon more anyway. Similar goes for other psykers, just less efficiently and more perilously. Unless I&#8217;m missing something or had previously been under-rating it, the warp pool boosts the utility\u00a0of that spell quite a bit.\u00a0Most of my casualties in this game actually came from Flickering Fire.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2134\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7925.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2134\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2134\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7925-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Our house, in the middle of the street, our house...\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7925-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7925-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2134\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Our house, in the middle of the street, our house&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>FMCs<\/h3>\n<p>The flying monstrous creatures I thought were really taken out of the game by not being able to assault after switching modes. I was expecting to play Tom&#8217;s Night Lords so I eagerly dropped the quadgun, only to wish I had it to at least ground an FMC. As it was though I put them at the bottom of\u00a0my shooting\u00a0priorities. I couldn&#8217;t hurt them, they couldn&#8217;t assault me, their direct spell attacks\u00a0hurt a couple times but were weatherable, and I was doing much better clearing out their summoned troops than I was going after them. That said, not being able to do anything about them almost cost me dearly in the endgame.<\/p>\n<p>People have been talking a lot about summoning overwhelming numbers of troops. But I think the thing to really watch out for might actually be\u00a0troops summoned directly onto objectives to claim or contest in the closing or even last turn. That&#8217;s especially true if Cursed Earth is in play, or some other mechanism such that they don&#8217;t scatter.\u00a0Swooping\u00a0FMCs seem like they might work great as delivery systems\u00a0to move very quickly and get in range to conjure up some\u00a0troops at the last minute in all the right places. Here I had fortunately whittled Ben&#8217;s\u00a0warp charge down enough\u00a0by the end that he didn&#8217;t have a ton of capacity to summon a whole\u00a0bunch of units. I also had holding\u00a0squads\u00a0spread out reasonably\u00a0well so the one summoned unit that did land close to target mishapped.\u00a0The\u00a0other scattered well\u00a0out of\u00a0running distance. I was worried\u00a0though once I finally saw this coming,\u00a0and that sort of thing is\u00a0going to be a serious threat to be prepared for going into the endgame. Part of that is going to\u00a0be having walls of defense around objectives, and part of it eliminating the mobile psykers that might\u00a0swoop into range.<\/p>\n<h2>General Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Just a couple\u00a0more general thoughts.<\/p>\n<h3>Objectives<\/h3>\n<p>In placing objectives second, caveat other strategy I&#8217;m thinking you should perhaps just apply a tit-for-tat strategy: If your opponent places an objective\u00a0in the middle, you put one in the middle; if your opponent puts an objective in a corner quadrant, you put one in the diagonally opposite corner quadrant; and so on. One twist on that is that if you&#8217;re playing an assault or deep striking army\u00a0and\u00a0your opponent puts an objective in a corner quadrant, you put one in the closest corner quadrant.<\/p>\n<h3>Summoning &amp; Psykers<\/h3>\n<p>Obviously the big question here is whether or not summoning daemons are\u00a0overpowered. I hesitate to draw too many conclusions from this game, particularly given that it was Ben&#8217;s\u00a0first play with that kind of list. But, obviously they&#8217;re not an auto-win in the truest sense that simply bringing a bunch of warp charge and summoning is going to win the game regardless of what you do. Whether or not\u00a0a list and its use can be optimized to produce some unstoppable play\u00a0still isn&#8217;t clear to me. Currently I would guess the powers are\u00a0right on the line\u00a0between tough but fair and brokenly overpowered, probably still erring toward the latter.\u00a0It&#8217;s worth noting again the triple\u00a0threat: Not just summoning overwhelming numbers of dudes and a continually growing warp pool, but summoning troops at literally the last moment to win\u00a0no matter how diminished and beaten\u00a0the\u00a0daemons are.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2132\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7943.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2132\" class=\"wp-image-2132 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7943-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"You guys think you're so awesome, but how are you gonna feel when I spit a whole squad onto that objective right now, huh? Huh?\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7943-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7943-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2132\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You guys think you&#8217;re so awesome, but how are you gonna feel when I spit a whole squad onto that objective right now, huh? Huh?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>That said, some thoughts for Daemons and other psyker-heavy armies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you&#8217;re playing the summoning game, make sure to at least periodically summon more Horrors or other psykers to keep your warp pool up, even as psykers are eliminated, or possibly even\u00a0growing.<\/li>\n<li>In general, don&#8217;t be greedy\u00a0and try to cast a\u00a0ton of spells with minimal dice. You need to throw a bunch of dice at the spells you really want to go off.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t be too scared of the perils table; ultimately much of it&#8217;s not a huge deal for most casters in one way (lots of wounds) or another (expendable and\/or re-summonable unit).<\/li>\n<li>As best as\u00a0possible, cast possessions from wounded psykers (minimize lost wounds) &amp;\u00a0other spells from non-wounded psykers (minimize risk to warp pool).<\/li>\n<li>Be in position in the end game to summon units directly onto objectives, hopefully at least within running range.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure you&#8217;re doing your bookkeeping! You really need to be faithful in tracking which psykers know\u00a0and have used what powers when you have a ton of them as\u00a0it\u00a0does have significant affects, like where on the board conjured units can come in. If you&#8217;re summoning more psykers, be prepared to quickly roll for their powers so you don&#8217;t slow\u00a0the game.<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re summoning, you&#8217;re going to need a ton of models of each\u00a0variety.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For Space Marines and similar armies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Forget about it. I guess it could make sense to take some very cheap psykers to provide the occasional buff, particularly against armies who\u00a0similarly have no or little psychic power (here&#8217;s looking at you, Necrons!). Inquisitors are looking plausible\u00a0for that role given the cost and Prescience. But generally I think you need to go all out or hardly at all in the psyker phase.\u00a0Against any army like this of Ben&#8217;s the Marines just can&#8217;t compete in the\u00a0warp battle.<\/li>\n<li>Mirroring\u00a0the point above about greedy\u00a0offense, on defense don&#8217;t spread your denials around. You need to anticipate the one spell you need to block and throw all your dice at it. The denial still\u00a0won&#8217;t work, but at least you tried.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Long story short, evaluating the strength of the\u00a0conjurations is going to take more plays but\u00a0it&#8217;s definitely worth playing against to figure that out. Certainly as much as I am generally against outright comp and similar bans, I particularly don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s the correct approach here. It&#8217;s definitely a fun and fluffy army style so if anything it needs to be tweaked, not banned like some are\u00a0advocating.<\/p>\n<h2>There Is Only War<\/h2>\n<p>Right now, my take on 40k 7th edition is that for casual play it&#8217;s definitely the best yet. Almost as streamlined as 5th, almost as balanced as early-edition 5th and more balanced than late edition 5th and all of 6th, and pretty flavorful and flexible. There&#8217;s still too much randomness (Warlord Traits and Psychic Powers) and too many skill equalizations (Snap Shots on 6s rather than -2 BS), but it&#8217;s good. For tournament play I&#8217;m still up in the air on where precisely it lands. The core is\u00a0good. Whether or not summoning, invisibility, and army construction\u00a0need to be reined in seems entirely plausible but not definitively true to me yet.<\/p>\n<p>Again, a few more photos are in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tjkopena\/sets\/72157645025420552\/\">Flickr gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2138\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7874.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2138\" class=\"wp-image-2138 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7874-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Rar rar, raaarrr!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7874-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_7874-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2138\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rar rar, raaarrr! He&#8217;s so cute! The true 7e metaphor???<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night at Redcap&#8217;s Ben threw down his first go at a summoning Chaos Daemons list against my Kingbreakers Marines at 1250 points. I was expecting to play Tom M, who I was guessing (correctly) would bring his Night Lords and I&#8217;d be\u00a0king of psykers with my mighty 6\u00a0mastery levels. That&#8217;s actually a fair amount\u00a0for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/06\/40k-first-summoning-battle\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[272,340,17,274,24],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battle-reports","tag-40k","tag-chaos","tag-kingbreakers","tag-miniatures","tag-space-marines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2118"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2158,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions\/2158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}