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| by Danny Internets | January 13th, 2010 - 8:50 am
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ARTICLE UPDATE:
On January 20th, a new version of the Space Wolves FAQ was released that reversed the ruling made regarding the combination of counter-attack and furious charge. The reversal now concludes definitively that the counter-attack does NOT trigger the bonuses associated with the furious charge universal special rule.
Presumably, this was done because of the unanticipated side effects that the ruling would have both for Tervigon swarms and IG Straken infantry blobs. It’s a good ruling that’s consistent with how most people play the game and settles the issue once and for all. I’ve decided to leave the article up because the Tervigon mathhammering is still applicable, and because the unit remains the premiere selection in the codex.
On the eve of the 5th edition Tyranid codex release, it looks like GW is poised to drop their third top-notch quality codex in a row. While I don’t think the Tyranid book will throw them into the same competitive level as IG and Space Wolves, anything that improves upon the crapfest that is their current army is a giant leap in the right direction.
A few weeks ago, a scanned copy of the new codex leaked from stores in Germany and perhaps the first stand-out unit apparent to everyone was the Tervigon. In addition to being an affordable monstrous creature that can count as Troops and spawn new units, the Tervigon also serves as a potent force multiplier for all nearby Termagaunt units. With the appropriate loadout, these beasts are giving counter-attack, synapse, Ld10, furious charge, and poisoned attacks to an infinite number of critters, albeit within a small radius. Sounds good? Yes, it does. But that’s not the half of it.
Last week, GW released an extremely comprehensive FAQ for their last codex release, the Space Wolves. In it they included the following gem:
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| by Danny Internets | October 30th, 2009 - 9:49 pm
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In order to examine the differences between players concerned with winning and players concerned with competing it is necessary to take a look at the various paths towards victory in Warhammer 40,000. I categorize these methods into 6 inter-connected domains: (1) Strategy, (2) Tactics, (3) Match-up, (4) Mistakes, (5) Luck, and (6) Cheating. This article examines the first four.
Strategy
Strategy is your over-arching framework, your master plan from the point of conception of your army. Strategy begins with list building which in turn determines what assets your army will have at its disposal and, by extension, what you can or cannot hope to accomplish. Your choices will impact how you play 40k and they should always be made with fulfilling mission goals in mind. Each and every selection will affect the vital balancing act that is army composition.
Because mission goals are normally unknown at the outset of each match, whether rolled for randomly in a pickup game or kept secret prior to tournament rounds, strategy has a necessary fluid component. Based on the scenario presented to us we must be able to evaluate the abilities of our list, the abilities of the opposing list, and commit to a course of action that will lead to fulfillment of the victory conditions. This often involves identification and leverage of strengths, but can also include psychological elements, such as misdirection and surprise. Some strategies are geared towards combating a list and others towards combating an opponent—both are valid, effective, and can be employed concurrently.
An example of a employing a strategy would be building a mechanized, Chimera-based Imperial Guard list and pushing your tank line forward to establish a line of scrimmage on the enemy’s side of the board. In an objective-based mission this would ensure that you have control over the battlefield and, hopefully, the majority of the objectives. Leveraging your mechanized strengths (durability and volume) you can make it very difficult for the enemy to break through your line and reach objectives in later turns.
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| by Danny Internets | July 6th, 2009 - 12:09 pm
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Over the holiday weekend I managed to get the first 2 of 3 planned practice games in with my Troopzilla list in preparation for the ‘Ard Boyz tournament on Saturday. I would have liked to get more in, but real life has been calling and my fiancé will kick my ass if I don’t answer (we all need a good ass-kicking from time to time).
On Friday morning, Charlie brought his boards over to my apartment and we squared off against each other in the Drawn and Quartered mission slated for game 3 of the upcoming tournament. The scenario is a modified version of Capture and Control using Spearhead deployment and kill points as a secondary objective to determine the extent of victory (massacre/major/minor). I can’t help but think that the title of the scenario is a good-humored jab at the writers of Capture and Control, which is frequently referred to as the “draw” mission. The modifications are great though, and it is hands-down my favorite of the first round.
I played my Troopzilla list with some slight modifications, swapping out extra armor and heavy flamers for twin-linked lascannons on both Chaos Dreadnoughts and trimming some fat from the CSM units.
Charlie’s army used the Space Marine codex as its primary, but made heavy use of Daemonhunters allies. He was rocking the following list (roughly):
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| by Danny Internets | June 23rd, 2009 - 11:35 am
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For 32 points, an allied (Daemon Hunters) Ordo Malleus Inquisitor and 2 Mystics is a no-brainer for most competitive Imperial Guard armies. This seemingly insignificant throw-away unit can make a properly outfitted army virtually unassailable via deep striking units. Because my Salamanders army is entirely reliant on the deep strike rules, figuring out how to overcome Mystics has become a chief concern, and Imperial Guard are hard enough to beat as it is.
The Inquisitor + Mystics combo is indeed powerful, but, like any strategy, it has weaknesses that can be exploited by a savvy opponent. As always, the first step to beating this tactic is to understand the rules that come into play.
Expect the Inquisition: Know the Mystic Rules
A single Mystic allows the inquisitorial unit to fire upon any unit which deep strikes within 4D6″ after it lands but before it takes any actions. Pretty pointless unless you take Warrior henchmen with special weapons.
The real nastiness is when you take 2 Mystics. Taking two allows any unit within 12″ of the unit containing the Mystics to fire on a unit deep striking within 4D6″ (of the Mystics’ unit). Keep them within a foot of a Leman Russ Executioner and anything landing near your army is deader than dead. It’s especially deadly because the shots are fired before you can use the Run rule to spread out.
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