BeakyCon2 Mission Rules Complete

Hello everyone !!

Before you know it we will be rolling dice again in Tampa. This year is the first for 6th edition and you will be playing in one of the first national GTs to usher in the new edition. Of course this means there will be some changes from last year as we want to embrace the new rules.

I want to let everyone know that your army lists are due by September 1st. We prefer to have you send them to us in the Army Builder format. If you don't have Army Builder that's okay - send us a text file instead - everything should be clearly spelled out with a full breakdown including points, options and wargear for each and every unit. Remember that this year the total points value per army is 1999 points. No Forgeworld this year.

You should email your army list to me at moodhoney@yahoo.com. Make sure to include your name !

We will be publishing a complete set of rules for the GT in August so keep an eye out. Note also that we have decided to include Warlord Traits now for the missions.

We have been plugging away playing plenty of 40k6 games to work out what we think will provide for a competitive tournament and be within the brand new spirit of 6th edition. We won't be using everything from the new rule book though due to the desire to cut down on the overall complexity/randomness and keep the time required to play at least five turns per game at a reasonable length.

So here we go (note there are some important changes)...

— Most of the missions will feature holding objective markers as the primary objective. Each objective marker is worth 3 battle points. The number of objective markers per mission can vary from three to five. Placing the objective markers will be pre-determined and laid out in the rules for each mission.

— Each enemy unit you destroy or is broken and falling back at the end of the game is worth 1 battle point.

— Bonus battle points are awarded as follows (1 battle point each):
• First Blood
• Slay the Warlord
• Linebreaker

If at the end of a game both players are tied on objective markers then the first tie breaker is determined by total battle points.

If at the end of a game both players are also tied on battle points then the second tie breaker is decided by pure victory points.

— Deployment zones will be chosen from the rulebook.

— Terrain will be preplaced on all tables by the TOs.

— Night Fight as per the new rulebook is in.

— Allies are in.

— Double FOC is out.

— New psychic powers are in.

— Special/mysterious terrain effects are out.

— You can take a fortification except for the Fortress of Redemption and Skyshield Landing Pad (due to their large size).

— Warlord traits are in.

— Mysterious objective effects are out.

— Random game length is in but modified as per last year-> six turns then a seventh final turn on a roll of 4+ on 1d6.

— Seize the Initiative is in.

Each round is 2.5 hours long. The TOs will announce when there is one hour left per round, 1/2 hour left per round and 15 minutes left round. Do not start another turn if you don't think both players can finish their turn. We highly encourage everyone to play at least five turns per round and will monitor players for slow play (refer to the corresponding note below). Dice down immediately when time is called!

The first round will have random pairings, after that Swiss style pairings will be used for the rest of the remaining rounds. At the end of the sixth round there will be one undefeated player who will be crowned the Warmaster (best general). The player with the second best record will be crowned the Emperor's Champion (2nd best general). There will be an award for Best Army (appearance and theme - chosen by the TOs) and an award for Players' Choice.

Each game you will record how many turns you played. If a player is found to have only played four turns or less over the course of several games they may have points deducted from their final total battle points score. You will also be required to mark down if you enjoyed your game along with answering some pertinent questions such as "Was your opponent at the table prior to the start of the game?" So good sportsmanship is very important as always - Don't be that person no one enjoys playing!

All armies must be painted (three color minimum plus flocked bases). If you bring an army that isn't fully painted you'll have some points deducted from from your final total battle points.

WYSIWYG is required for every model in your army.

Counts As... Don't bring dark eldar and plan to play them as eldar... Don't bring a Wraithlord and plan to use it as a Talos. Your opponents should be able to easily recognize what every model in your army counts as.

We will use only GW official material for rules - rulebook, codices and FAQs/Errata. A codex must be released to the public for at least one month ahead of the event.

BeakyCon 2 - We want you !!!

Hi everyone !! As of this weekend we are two thirds full with less than 20 slots left to fill. We would love to have a full house with 64 players. Last year BeakyCon went off without a hitch and lots of people told us they had a fantastic time. There will be even more prize support this year including the professionally painted dark eldar army by Next Level Painting including two carrying cases from Sabol. Next year we would love to grow the event to 128 slots and add some other events such as Warhammer Fantasy. BeakyCon has the potential to become a major event in the southeast - we need your support to make it happen. If you are coming from far away you can fly into the Tampa airport and never have to leave until its time to go home... How awesome is that?

Sixth edition is well underway now and has been well received. The tournament is designed to give everyone a fair chance and be a lot of fun while gaming in a competitive environment. There is still plenty of time to sign up.

Guest Tyranid Batrep from Sam G.

Here is a guest batrep from my Hive brother Sam. Enjoy !

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2227320/BR_27072012/report.html

BeakyCon News Flash - Army Lists due by September 1st

I want to let everyone know that your army lists are due by September 1st. We prefer to have you send them to us in the Army Builder format. If you don't have Army Builder that's okay - send us a text file instead - everything should be clearly spelled out with a full breakdown including points, options and wargear for each and every unit. Remember that this year the total points value per army is 1999 points.

You should email your army list to me at moodhoney@yahoo.com. Make sure to include your name !

We will be publishing a complete set of rules for the GT in August so keep an eye out. Note also thst we have decided to include Warlord Traits now for the missions. Everything else is as is.

CLASSIC NERD RAGE - From a BoLS commenter...

I want to take this one step farther. Ive played you a few times in tournements and in other settings. You sir are a cheating, minipulating, whining, son of a biscute. Between you absolute need to creat these cheese @#%K lists and the fact you have no ability to actually play with startagy irritates the hell out of me. You trully are the reason why i began to hate 5th addition. Part of this game is becomming a better general and bosting your stratagy, so that when any situation arises you can meet the challange and defeat your apponant. Between your dreigo list, tyrinid crap( nothing against bugs i love them) , and now this... i think you should be banned from all tournements and should have your web paged removed.( oh one more thing, your an old man, dress like it...sick and tired if seeing you dress like a 1990's gangster wanna-bee).

This was in response to my article on the Daemons Allied Orks army list. It is interesting to note that the ranter can't spell words correctly and has an issue with my gaming attire which I find quite hilarious. Also he didn't have the balls to identify himself either.

Let us argue the rules, the strategy and the tactics and not make ad hominem attacks anonymously over the interwebz.  What a big coward!

Draigo Lysander Wing vs. Tau allied Daemons

I had a game yesterday with my new army list running it at 2k:

Draigo
5x Paladin - 2x daemonhammer & psycannon, daemonhammer, warding stave
Landraider Crusader - psybolt ammo

10x Grey Knight - 2x psycannon

Vindicare assassin

Lysander
5x assault terminator - TH/SS
Landraider - extra armor

5x scout - combat blades & power fist


The Tau allied daemon list looked something like this:

Jump commander - 3x jump suit - 2x shield drone (plasma, missiles, fusion)

3x Crisis (railguns) - 2x shield drone

12x Fire Warrior
12x Fire Warrior
20x Kroot

Hammerhead

Bloodthirster (tooled)

Tzneetch Daemon Prince - wings (tooled)

20x Bloodletter


The Tau allied Daemons list seems pretty good as the selection of units from both races complement each other quite well.

Notes:
* LoS = Line of Sight
* FMC = Flying Monstrous Creature

My Warlord Trait (Draigo) was the one where you get FNP if within a certain distance (3") of any objective marker and my opponent got counter attack for his Warlord Trait. I got the maximum number of units affected by the Grand Strategy granting reroll 1s to wound for the Paladins and Strike squad.

Deployment was the one with the diagonal No Man's Land which was good for me since there is less ground to cover reaching the enemy deployment zone. The mission was the one with different points for the six objective markers... The majority of the higher point objective markers ended up in my opponent's deployment and most them were placed fairly close together spread across both deployment zones and No Man's Land. I got to go first deploying both tanks right up on the line and would have to move them through difficult terrain. I held my Strike squad in reserve so I could deep strike them. I infiltrated the assassin in a ruined building with excellent LoS into the enemy deployment zone. Unfortunately I forgot about the scouts and ended up playing without them.

My opponent deployed his Crisis suits on top of a tower with good LoS into my deployment zone. The jump commander with bodyguard deployed behind the tower. The Hammerhead deployed deep within his deployment zone also with good LoS. One squad of Fire Warriors deployed by a hill. My opponent held the other squad of Fire Warriors in reserve and infiltrated the Kroot deep in my deployment zone. The Bloodthirster and Prince was his preferred wave.


1st Turn Draigo Lysander Wing
Both landraiders moved forward. Note that Lysander's transport immobilized itself but my opponent was kind enough to let me ignore it (very cool). I fired everything into the Crisis team and managed to kill both shield drones.

1st Turn Tau allied Daemons
My opponent got his preferred wave and deep struck both FMC a safe distance from my landraiders. His shooting shook Lysander's landraider.


2nd Turn Draigo Lysander Wing
The Strike squad arrived from reserve deep strking out of cover in front of the Crisis Team with no scatter. This turn Lysander's landraider immobilized itself again so he and his terminators disembarked and ran forward 5". That was a big blow as a full 12" move would have put them in assault range the following turn plus they lost the protection afforded from the trsnsport. Draigo's landraider entered a building only moving 6". I focused most of my shooting on the Crisis team and managed to kill the team leader... They passed their break check.

2nd Turn Tau allied Daemons
The Bloodletters arrived from reserve but mishapped into my Strike squad and went right back into reserve. The Bloodthirster vector struck Lysander's landraider and rolled three 6s to glance it to death and pick up a victory point for First Blood. Shooting saw the Strike squad whittled down to one Knight with a psycannon and only Lysander was left from his squad with 2 wounds remaining... Ouch! The Tzneetch Prince tried to spawn Lysander but he fortunately passed his initiative test.


3rd Turn Draigo Lysander Wing
Draigo's landraider moved forward 6" along the bottom of the ruined building and they disembarked on the far side for maximum protection drawing a bead on the Tau jump commander and his bodyguard. Lysander moved up beside the Bloodthirster. Draigo and his Paladins targeted the big squad of Fire Warriors and brought them down to three but they passed their break check... Drat !! The Vindicare assassin hit the Bloodthirster grounding it but it passed its invulnerable save from crashing and the assassin failed to wound. The landraider Crusader poured all of its fire power into the Crisis team again for no damage. Lysander then charged the greater daemon, failing two invulnerable saves out of three and died scoring another victory point (Slay the Warlord) for my opponent.

3rd Turn Tau allied Daemons
Both the Bloodletters along with the second squad of Fire Warriors came in from reserve. The daemonic horde deep struck beside Draigo's landraider Crusader with minimal scatter. I then decided to concede the game as my luck seemed pretty much abysmal... Losing Lysander on the charge really hurt a lot.

Not much to say other than it felt like many things went wrong because of my very unkind dice. I still like this army a lot and will stick with it. I have that often when I try something new it takes a few games before my luck of the dice stabilize. If not for Lysander's landraider immobilizing the second turn I think it would have been a completely different game. Lysander then failing 2 of 3 invulnerable saves versus the grounded Bloodthirster was the final nail in the coffin.

Turn 7 Wargaming - awesome Tyranid blog

I've just added this site to my blog roll along with another one run by a fellow Tyrsnid player from my neck of the woods which I'll introduce in a separate article. There is a lot of great ideas for Tyranids in 40k6 over on Turn 7 and if you are into the Bugz I highly recommend you check it out. Here is an army he took to a recent tournament:

Hive Tyrant -
Wings, 2x twin-linked devourer; Hive Commander

Tervigon -
Onslaught & Catalyst, Cluster Spines

Tervigon -
Catalyst; Cluster Spines

10x Termagant

2x Carnifex -
2x twin-linked devourer ea.

Trygon -
Toxin Sacs

Trygon -
Toxin Sacs


I really like this list a lot and it's got me thinking about Tyranids again. I'm not sure how it would fare against IG but I think it could give most other armies a run for the money. It's only 1500 points so there is plenty of room to add more units. This type of list really makes me believe Tyranids are a lot stronger now in 40k6... Time to stop the bitching and start kicking some ass with Tyranids again.

New 40k daemon units

Saw this on another blog today...

Screamers

Screamers now cost 9 more points per model and have two wounds, 3 attacks at S5 AP2 with armourbane.  Better against most vehicles. They also get a slashing attack that works like a vector strike if they turbo-boost.  It's d3 S4 AP- hits. Screamers are now terminator killers in addition to anti-armor thanks to 4 S5 AP2 attacks on the charge at I4.

Hellflayer

The new fast attack choice. You can only have a squad of one.  It costs 10 points more than a naked Herald.  It's a non-skimmer chariot that is fast and open-topped with AV 11 (Immune to bolters) and two hull points.  Its Hammer of Wrath attacks are S4 AP- rending and it deals an extra D6 HoW attacks for each hull point it has left, (so 2d6 HOW attacks at full HP).

Soulscent allows the Alluress to take a few more swings for each unsaved wound caused by the HOW attacks before she almost certainly dies. It is Fast and Fleet so it can move 12" after deep striking and reroll the charge move.

Seeker Chariots and Exalted Seeker Chariots

These come in a squadron of 1-3 and have Fleshshredder but not Soulscent. The exalted chariot has 4 HP so can do 4d6 HoW hits. A squadron could do up to 12d6 HoW hits for 270 points.  Which gets you about 7 rending hits plus 36 S4 hits on average.

Flamers

The cost is dropped 12 points, they have 2 wounds and are I4. You can now take a 5 point upgrade character.

Draigo-Lysander Wing 2.5k

I have this fixation on terminators right now. I've been playing lots of 2500 point games lately and for the most part they have run about the same amount of time as 2000 point games back in 40k5. It's obvious that terminators are very strong now in 40k6 - you've got the 2+ armor save versus power weapons which is huge. One of the few short comings for Draigowing is the lack of stormshields and close combat weapons that bypass the 2+ armor save. On the plus side daemonhammers are free for Paladins so that takes care of one shortcoming. I include one warding stave in each unit to soak up instant death wounds in melee using Look Out Sir! (LoS!) appropriately... So a unit of five Paladins lead by a character is still highly survivable plus the daemonhammers are extremely killy, especially with the application of Hammerhsnd for S10 instadeath... Versus a Warboss mounted on a bike attached to a squad of Nob bikers I might have to actually activate the force weapons - problem solved. In terms of stormshields I have multiple psycannons which I believe overall are better than stormshields... Offensive threat versus defense wins out.

I run Draigo as one of my characters who is a level 2 psyker along with a Librarian for the other squad so my psychic defense is 4+ due to Deny the Witch for both squads of Paladins which is about as good as it gets with the exceptions of the rune staff and a Farseer with Runes. Draigo makes his squad fearless which is another boon... Suddenly Imperial Psyker Battle Squads aren't so annoying any more.

I always use the Grand Strategy to cast reroll 1s to hit and wound which is the equivalent of Preferred Enemy plus Paladins are characters so I can direct all hits on a roll of 6+.

I am using the landraider Crusader with psybolt ammo and the Stormraven as transports so it's my choice when I want to engage my Paladins and bring their full strength to bare versus opponents... This is more protection for my army. The landraider is highly survivable and only AP1 ranged weapons can one shot it during the enemy shooting phase for the most part. The Stormraven is currently one of the best fliers available and is also highly survivable plus it often can easily deliver one unit into the heart of battle. If I'm playing against an army with solid anti-flyer defense my flier's embarked squad can use the Stormraven Shadow Skies rule to drop off it's squad so I don't have to worry about them dying to a wreck or explosion... Or I can simply hold the squad in reserve and Deep Strike them onto the battlefield the old fashioned way.

So how does Lysander fit into the mix... He along with a squad of five assault terminators (all equipped with thunderhammers and stormshields) ride in a landraider (note thst the Space Marine landraider transport capacity is 12 Marines or 6 terminators) and hold down the center of table discriminately firing both twin linked lascannons then burst out at the optimal moment to lay down the smack down. This combined unit has lots of synergy with Draigowing and makes up for the lack of melee weapons that bypass the 2+ armor save and stormshields. Lysander is a beast in melee... It is most definitely what it is and hurts the enemy in a big way.

My army has a small model count, which is typically the case, and they are doing just fine. In an epic battle versus a local veteran IG player with lots high strength low AP pie plates I was able to achieve a crushing win.

Is this list kosher for GTs ?

Check out this army list and tell me what you think...

Daemons

Epidemius 110

Herald of Nurgle, Aura of Decay 85

15x Plaguebearers, Chaos Icon 250

15x Plaguebearers, Chaos Icon 250

10x Plaguebearers 150

10x Plaguebearers 150

7x Plaguebearers 105

6x Plaguebearers 90

12x Screamers 192

12x Screamers 192

12x Screamers 192

Ork Allies

Big Mek - bosspole 40

30x Grots - 4x Runtherd 120

Aegis Defence line - Comms relay 70

The total comes to 1996.

Here is how the shenanigans work...

First split your waves like this:

Epi+Herald of Nurgle+1x15 PB, 2x10 PB, 2x Screamers

1x15 PB, 1x7 PB, 1x6 PB, 1x Screamers

Next deploy your grots around the Aegis defence line for cover saves and hope for the right wave. If you get the wrong one you've still got a rerollable 3+ for Epi next turn.

Proceed as follows when Epi comes in:

Deepstrike his squad near the grots. Move the grots into a clump near him and the Herald, try to get them all within 6" of both of them (they should be on the edge of the PB unit). Activate Aura of Decay on both Epi and the Herald, causing str2 hits on every enemy model within 6". Yes, the grots count as enemy models since they are allies of convenience.

You will kill around 25 grots on average. You now have maximum Tally, so your PBs wound on 2+ in melee, ignore armor saves and have a 3+ FnP against EVERYTHING except S10.

Charge forward and profit.

The Screamers are there to break vehicles. You PBs will murder anything else.

Sure, fliers are hard to deal with, just camp objectives and roll saves.

You are essentially running 63 TH-SS terminators... (T5 5++ 3+ FNP is just as effective as T4 2+ against torrents.. against high str/low AP the PBs are far better. They wound on 2+ in CC at ap2, but get to strike at I2).

So, what do you guys think?

Cover saves and vehicle facings

This is a guest article by my friend Dave Boucher who is a fellow 40k Wrecking Crew member.

We have all heard the Internet clamoring that vehicles have been hit by the NERF bat in 40k6. This is both true and false for more reasons than I will describe here.  Today I will describe cover and what it means for vehicles in 40k6 as it has changed in many different ways.

First let's look at the cover rules on pages 74 and 75, most importantly the first bullet:

At least 25 percent of the facing of the vehicle that is being targeted (it's front, side, or rear) needs to be hidden by intervening terrain or models from the point of view of the firer for the vehicle to be in cover.

Let's take a few looks at what constitutes 25 percent being in cover:
 

We see that the Aegis defense line can easily hide 25 percent of a rhino and it provides a 4+ cover save to boot. So a 50 point investment gets your vehicles good cover.

Now lets look at my favorite part of the text I referenced above - At least 25 percent of the facing of the vehicle that is targeted (its front, side, or rear) needs to be hidden by intervening terrain or models from the point of view of the firer for the vehicle to be in cover.

Let's explore this now...
 

The Interceptor has a clear view of the side armor in this picture. In 40k5 this would mean that the tank had no cover, however this is 40k6. All we can consider now is the facing being shot.
 

In this second picture the side armor is is blocked out in blue, giving us a visual aid to show us only the front armor which is clearly 25 percent obscured.

Next we need to take a look at how Armor Facings works in 40k6 compared to 40k5. Let's start with the 40k5 Armor Facing Diagram.
 
40k5 Vehicle Facing Diagram

In 40k5 we drew lines from one corner to next, or as the INAT ruled, we make a cross at the center and have 90 degree facings from the center point. If you notice parts of the top of the vehicle are included in each facing.
 
40k6 Vehicle Facing Diagram

Now if we look at the 40k6 diagram we notice one big change other than the fact that it is in color. The lines do not intersect in the middle of the vehicle. Page 73, where the diagram is in the book, does clarify the issue on how to determine which facing it is by drawing the lines through the corners. However in the this diagram the top of the vehicle is not included in any of the facings. The reason for this change I can only guess is to prevent flyers from completely dominating other vehicles.

Let's take a look at fliers shooting at vehicles:
 

At first glance it would appear that the Aegis defense line is not big enough to give the razorback any cover.
 

From the view of the Stormraven itself it again looks like no cover is provided, but that is because we still see things from a 40k5 point of view:

When we block the top part of the razorback out, like in the the other picture, we now see that the Aegis defense line does in fact still provide 25 percent cover. So obviously the cover rules have changed. Vehicles now almost always get a cover save. Cover may only be 5+ most of the time, but getting it always gives vehicles back some survivability that was lost from losing 4+ cover and gaining Hull Points.

I hope I enlightened some of you on these rules.

A big thanks to Dave for a great article !!

What Tyranids didn't get in 40k6

This article is not so much a rant as a logical look at where Tyranids now stand in 6th edition. The major benefits that have been widely recognized are no more taking No Retreat armor saves due to being fearless and AP2 in close combat via rending, boneswords and monstrous creatures. The rules for flying monstrous creatures applied to the Tyrant also look pretty good. Finally psychic powers are pretty good for us.

We did get boned yet again by GW - no allies and a big nerf on fortifications as well. To me there just seems to be some hate directed at Tyranids from the design studio. Double FOC has been received with a big fat zero from just about every TO in the US so that is another kick in the balls from GW. Just think if we could have allied with Necrons... It makes total sense to me from a background point of view but no it was not to be. Take a long look at the allies chart in the new rulebook - it is not going to change any time soon. Jervis Johnson is the man who said at Adepticon one year that Deathwing is not meant to be fielded as a separate and complete army... O Rly ? The Emperor now sees Tau as a pure and benign race... Hahaha !!! -1 for the retcon.

I recently read an interview from the design studio and Phil Kelly said he wants to write the next codex for Tyranids which left me feeling quite cold. To be completely honest I'd much rather see Mat Ward write the next codex as he did a stellar job with Necrons and now I think a lot of people see Grey Knights as a more balanced army with the release of 40k6. I hate codices that have a few no brainer auto include units like Ghaz and nob bikers then lots of useless units like Tank Bustaz and Flash Gitz. Dark eldar are in my opinion no stronger in 6th edition even with eldar as an ally. It would have only taken a few changes to fix dark eldar like making Vect T4 so he doesn't get insta gibbed by an autocannon and their independent characters should have access to jetbikes in my opinion... Or is this something special just for power armor armies?

My hope is that GW does not release another over the top broken codex again like Space Wolves or Imperial Guard in 5th edition. I hope that the soon to be released CSM codex is balanced. Remember how 40k5 started off with FateCrusher and Lash spam? Broken over the top armies are only fun for WAAC gamers.

How many years out is the next Tyranid codex? Probably at least two which is fine by me and I hope GW gets their sh*t together when they write the next one. Prove me wrong please !!! So like I said this isn't so much a rant as a logical look at the game. I really like 40k6 and seriously hope GW doesn't screw up the game again with another broken over the top codex.

BeakyCon mission format and scoring system

We have been plugging away playing plenty of 40k6 games to work out what we think we provide for a competitive tournament and be within the spirit of 6th edition. We won't be using everything though due to the desire to cut down on the overall complexity/randomness and keep the time required to play at least five turns per game at a reasonable length. What I propose here is our first cut and things might change. If you don't like something I want to know why and kindly ask that you explain why you feel the way you do. Constructive feedback will definitely be taken into consideration!

So here we go...

— Most of the missions will feature holding objective markers as the primary objective. Each objective marker is worth 3 battle points. The number of objective markers per mission can vary from three to five. Objective markers are placed as per the rules from the 6th edition rulebook.

— Each enemy unit you destroy or is broken and falling back at the end of the game is worth 1 battle point.

— Bonus battle points are awarded as follows (1 battle point each):
• First Blood
• Slay the Warlord
• Linebreaker

If at the end of a game both players have an equal number of battle points then the winner is decided by pure victory points (tie breaker).

— Deployment zones will be chosen from the rulebook.

— Terrain will be preplaced on all tables by the TOs.

— Night Fight as per the rulebook is in.

— Allies are in.

— Double FOC is out.

— Special/mysterious terrain effects are out.

— You can take a fortification except for the Fortress of Redemption and Skyshield Landing Pad (due to their large size).

— Warlord traits are out.

— Mysterious terrain is out.

— Mysterious objective effects are out.

— Random game length is in but modified -> six turns then a seventh final turn on a roll of 4+ on 1d6.

— Seize the Initiative is in.

Each round is 2.5 hours long. The TOs will announce when there is one hour left per round, 1/2 hour left per round and 15 minutes left round. Do not start another turn if you don't think both players can finish their turn. We highly encourage everyone to play at least five turns per round and will monitor players for slow play (refer to the corresponding note below). Dice down immediately when time is called!

The first round will have random pairings, after that Swiss style pairings will be used for the rest of the remaining rounds. At the end of the sixth round there will be one undefeated player who will be crowned the Warmaster (best general). The player with the second best record will be crowned the Emperor's Champion (2nd best general). There will be an award for Best Army (appearance and theme - chosen by the TOs) and an award for Players' Choice.

Each game you will record how many turns you played. If a player is found to have only played four turns or less over the course of several games they may have points deducted from their final total battle points score. You will also be required to mark down if you enjoyed your game along with answering some pertinent questions such as "Was your opponent at the table prior to the start of the game?" So good sportsmanship is very important as always - Don't be that person no one enjoys playing!

All armies must be painted (three color minimum plus flocked bases). If you bring an army that isn't fully painted you'll have some points deducted from from your final total battle points.

WYSIWYG is required for every model in your army.

Counts As... Don't bring dark eldar and plan to play them as eldar... Don't bring a Wraithlord and plan to use it as a Talos. Your opponents should be able to easily recognize what every model in your army counts as.

We will use only GW official material for rules - rulebook, codices and FAQs/Errata. A codex must be released to the public for at least one month ahead of the event.

Army lists are due by the beginning of September. If you turn in your army list late a set number of battle points will be deducted from your final score. Bring eight copies of your army list with you. They should all be printed from a printer. Note that we prefer the Army builder format.

hyv3mynd's 1500 point Tyranid army list

I just finished reading a batrep over on the synaps3 blog. I really like Aaron's army list he posted:

Tyranid Prime:
- lashwhip & bonesword, toxin sacs, regeneration

Hive Tyrant:
- wings, devourers, Old Adversary, regeneration

3x Hive Guard

3x Zoanthropes x3 (Biomancy)

30x Termagant

Tervigon:
- crushing claws, toxin sacs, cluster spines (Biomancy)

6x Raveners:
- rending claws

3x Shrikes
- lashwhip & bonesword, toxin sacs

I think this a great core to start an army for 6th edition. I would probably drop the Raveners in exchange for Yrmgsrl genestealers and drop the Zoanthropes for another brood of Hive Guard... And probably cut back on the number of termagants in exchange for devourers. There's still 500 points to play with at 2k so plenty of room for some more units in bigger games. I'd like to run a brood of five Shrikes so they have more staying power.

Ryhme and Reason

So it's looking so far like Tyranids and Grey Knights will be my main two armies to start 6th edition - no surprise there, right? The way I designed my Grey Knights for 5th edition translated very well into 6th edition - I've got everything I need for now. Tyranids are another story... I've posted my first shot list... I'm sure it will have to go through some major revisions to really tighten it up. I definitely am sold for now on running dual Tyrants - one flying and one walking. Some people have pointed out that my initial list has less models than some Space Marine armies. I really love the more elite units and think that an over-abundance of gants is not necessarily necessary. Gants are definitely a lot better now with the change to the Fearless rule assuming you can keep all your lil gribblies in range of synapse. So lots of synapse is still a very good thing. Tomorrow I'll be picking up some of my new models so I can start working on the new army.

On the subject of gants in general I'm much more of a fan of termagants as opposed to hormagaunts. Termagants can shoot which to me is a huge advantage over hormagants. Rage is very nice now for hormagants but still they are one dimensional. I think for my list I need to figure out a way to get more termagants into the mix. A good exercise for building a Tyranid army is to sectionalize your army to see where you've spent all your points. Something very important for any Tyranid army now is to build to account for enemy fliers... It's something that could be a weakness for us but I think we can handle it if we properly account for it. Like I said I'm sure my initial list will need lots of tweaks and I'm looking forward to the playtesting.

One thing I love about 6th edition as opposed to 5th edition is with a properly designed army you can execute more actions each phase and that's very important as you can rack up more damage. In fact 5th edition seems so boring now compared to 6th edition and that is very exciting indeed.

Peace.

New Emperor's Champion model

Tyranids in 6th edition - crystal balls & talking heads

I am the kind of person that lives for the assault phase. Bring your brass knuckles and be ready to throw down... Let's party bros. It looks to me like Tyranids can dominate this phase of the game with lots of broods that have the ability to ignore armor saves. On the flip side I think it's obvious 6th edition has a very strong bias towards the shooting phase. There is all kinds of shooting in the new edition so how can you dominate a game with assaults? Obviously speed and mobility are very important. We have no fliers but we do have a penultimate Flying Monstrous Creature (FMC).

It would seem that Tyranids are suddenly the hippest army ever... Heh. To me that's hilarious. I see lots of articles about the new awesomeness of Tyranids and how super awesome they are now. Funny thing is I don't see any army lists or tactics how to run them for optimal effectiveness. It's one thing to say Tyranids are the bees' knees but definitely another thing to truly explain why and show your audience how to win with them now in 6th edition. We are all learning together... Some things are easy to understand but it seems like there is a bit of a learning curve to 6th edition. Oh well let's enjoy this state of confusion while it lasts.

My goal here is to show you how to win with Tyranids in 6th edition. This was always my goal.

Peace out !

BeakyCon registration to top 40+ this week !!!

With the release of 6th edition players have started to register again... we are hovering right around 40 now. I expect the registration to close out in the next two weeks then I'll start a waiting list.

More thoughts on Grey Knights 6th edition illest

I have been thinking about my current Draigowing list and I have to say it seems pretty tight so far. I am really liking using the Librarian again as I've always been a big fan of psychic powers. That said I think I'll try switching him out for a generic Grand Master - master crafted psycannon, warding stave, rad grenades, psykotropic grenades and blind grenades... Blind grenades now confer Stealth (edit - only out to 8") to any unit that has them plus they count as defensive grenades which is always nice. It'll just be a test to see which one I like better plus it offers more flexibility since it is just as practical for old Draigo to ride in the Stormraven instead of the Land Raider Crusader

I know the general consensus on GK grenades - they are rightly hated on by a lot of people and for good reason. The thing is where I play locally a lot of the people I play bring the SUPER CHEESE and the grenades are an equalizer of sorts plus there is a new psychic power even sicker than rad grenades (-1S & -1T) so there is a wee bit of leveling the playing field going on now... Fight fire with firemen... Heh !!

I really like the idea of a third (BS6) psycannon in one squad - they can really put the hurt on just about anything... That would be three characters with big guns redirecting their S7 AP4 rending shots. The psycannon can easily torrent down IG blobs and is just sick as S7 IDs heavy weapon teams and as the blob gets thinned down I can redirect shots onto sergeants sporting power axes and commissars... Lots of fun - I'm not a big fan of IG in case you hadn't already figured that out by now. In many ways their shooting is more often beneficial than their melee. Psycannons are also decent as anti flier due to its range and the high number of S7 shots.

I also think the Orbital Strike is more viable now if you plan to stay in one place and shoot a lot which obviously can work quite well for Paladins. The Orbital Strike is rather pricy though weighing in at 50 points so I'll have to think about do I really need it. It's going to be very good versus any armor now since the blast template just has to touch a vehicle in order to inflict full damage.

My Tyranids are still sitting on the shelf for now after bringing them back home from Texas... I'm currently in the process of acquiring the new units I'm planning to add to the army plus it will probably take at least a month just build it all. I am very much so looking forward to breaking out my Tyranids again for 6th edition and I'm planning to write more articles about them though at first obviously it will just be about conceptual ideas since I have no real 6th edition experience with them. That will all change soon enough though.

6th edition 2k Draigowing army list

Here is my current 2k list:

Draigo

Librarian - Master crafted warding stave
Might of Titans, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Rift

5x Paladin
2x psycannon & daemonhammer
Warding stave
2x pair of falchions
Sword

5x Paladin
Psycannon & daemonhammer
Psycannon & halberd
Daemonhammer
Warding stave
Sword

Vindicare assassin

Nemesis Dreadknight - Heavy incinerator & Personal teleporter

Landraider Crusader

Stormraven - Extra armor

Draigo and one squad of Paladins ride in the LRC. Librarian and other squad of Paladins ride in the Stormraven (awesome flier now). Vindicare infiltrates into a strategic position while NDK outflanks most of the time.

Very small army but extremely powerful !!! All Paladins are characters so they can use Look Out Sir! and direct their hits on a roll of 6 (shooting and melee)... Same thing for Draigo and Librarian of course. The warding staves really help soak up the armor ignoring wounds in melee! The Dreadknight is a jump monstrous creature now and is a lot better.

Yesterday versus SW-Tau (allied) the Dreadknight took out four units - Rune Priest, Long Fangs and two squads of Fire Warriors... He can use the Nemesis Doomfists now so he is S10 AP2 in melee and doesn't have to halve his number of attacks like other monstrous creatures (Smash).

It's a lot of fun to play such a small elite army. In fifth edition this army wouldn't have worked nearly as well as it does now.

BeakyCon2 and 6th edition

After a lot of thought and much discussion BeakyCon2 will use the new 6th edition rules:

- 1999 points (no double FOC lists)

- Allies are in

- Fliers are in

- Warlord Traits are out

- Fortification is in...
No Fortress of Redemption though. If you play a non Imperial army you can bring a custom built fortification but it must closely match the dimensions of those from GW such as the Aegis Defense Line... No modeling for a gaming advantage.

- The following rules from the 6th edition rulebook will not be used:
• Mysterious terrain (p.102)
• Archotech artefacts (p 106)
• Unique terrain (p. 107)

- Each mission will have a primary objective (e.g., control the most objective markers) with two tie breakers (e.g., Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, etc.). The format is still pure W-L with six rounds and one undefeated player. Note that the following rules for missions from the rulebook will not be used:
• First Blood victory condition (p. 122)


- Armies must be fully painted (3 color minimum and bases flocked).


If you have any questions or comments then let me know.

More thoughts on why Tyranids are better in 6th edition

First I would like to list the units I think will be the best choices in 6th edition for the style of competitive play I invision:

HQ
— Hive Tyrant
I plan to run a pair. One Tyrant will have wings while the other will have an armored shell (2+ armor save) with a pair of Tyrant Guard. The Flyrant will pick his psychic powers from the Biomancy lore while the walking Tyrant will use Paroxsym, Leech Essence plus Hive Commander and Old Adversary. Both will have twin linked devourers with Brainleech ammo plus bonesword and lash whip (mainly for the free lash whip). The role of the Flyrant is to act as either a vanguard or hunt down enemy fliers. The role of the walking Tyrant is to act as the main synaptic hub for the horde. Hordes are back in as competitive for a host of reasons such as Fearless units no longer suffers from No Retreat armor saves. Of course both Tyrants will have toxin sacs because poison is more powerful now since you roll to wound as normal.

Elites
— Yrmgarl Genestealers
Yrmgarl genestealers are one of the few units in 40k that can still assault the turn they arrive from reserve and that's worth taking advantage of in my opinion. You'll need a large brood of eight or more now due to the new Snap Fire rule. Morph up to T5 on the charge to shrug off bolters and lasguns. They can easily destroy vehicles and dreadnaughts on the charge now due to hull points or tie down heavy support in protracted melee such as Long Fangs. Shooting is still the king now so any enemy unit you can prevent from shooting for a turn or more can really help a lot to sway the battle in your favor.

— Hive Guard
Hive Guard have always been quite awesome and even more so now since they ignore the new Night Fight rules. I plan to run two full broods of three each.

Troops
— Tervigon
I know if you follow my blog you are aware I've never been a big fan of the Tervigon but because I want to incorporate more of a horde element in my army she is in now. I will probably stick with her normal psychic powers since they are great for hordes. She can outflank due to the walking Tyrant's Hive Commander which is very tactical in the right situations. Basically the Tervigon buffs the army and can poop out more scoring units when necessary. I believe you need at least four scoring units to be competitive.

— Devilgants
Better than ever and I plan to run a big brood with toxin sacs. They will be an excellent anti troop shooting unit gaining Preferred Enemy from the Walking Tyrant and can bring down some enemy units in melee due to poison.

— Genestealers
I am planning to run one brood of ten lead by a Broodlord (Biomancy) and they will also have toxin sacs. They can play a defensive role protecting the hub of your army, or infiltrate/outflank in the right situations. Genestealers are still one of the premiere melee units and the rending will help a lot versus the new 2+ armor save.

Fast Attack
— Shrikes
I plan to run mine with boneswords, lash whips and toxin sacs. I'd like to run a brood of five. This is another premiere melee unit that also ignores the 2+ armor save and is very fast. They can deep strike if necessary and are a big threat. If you want to save a few points then Raveners are a good substitute but will struggle more versus units such as terminators since they can only rend while the Shrikes with boneswords outright ignore armor saves and reroll failed wounds due to poison versus T4 and lower. Raveners can't take any upgrades and really need the Broodlord to buff them.

So there are my top choices. Many are the same as before and there are a few new units. Null deployment is no longer possible with the new rules but on the plus side you're probably not going to see as much mech out there initially except for armies like Necron Nightscythe spam (yuck... the new MSU mech army). A challenge for all Tyranid players is how you will effectively deal with enemy fliers. You'll notice I dropped the Tyrannofex in favor of a Tervigon. I do not think the Tyrannofex is as strong of a choice now and does not greatly benefit from the walking Tyrant's Preferred Enemy versus armor... You're just rerolling 1s to hit with only two shots. Remember that fliers can neither control objectives nor contest them so it will be all about positional play to force them into range of the Hive Guard who'll greatly benefit from the walking Tyrant's Preferred Enemy since they can generate up to six shots per brood.

Here is a sample 2000 point army list:

Hive Tyrant - wings, twin linked devourer w. BL ammo, bonesword & lash whip, toxin sacs, Biomancy

Hive Tyrant - armored shell, twin linked devourer w. BL ammo, bonesword & lash whip, toxin sacs, Hive Commander, Old Adversary
2x Tyrant Guard w. boneswords

3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard

8x Yrmgarl genestealer

15x Devilgant w. toxin sacs
Tervigon - toxin sacs, Dominion, Catalyst & Onslaught

9x Genestealer w. toxin sacs
- Broodlord (Biomancy)

5x Shrike - toxin sacs, boneswords & lash whips


I really like this list a lot. Of course I've got a good deal of work ahead to build and paint all the new models. Probably within a month or so I'll be ready to start playing my new brood. w00t !!

How Look Out Sir! (LoS) Works

The term unsaved wound only comes into play when you have a unit that all models have the same armor save. This is when you can allocate a wound after a failed save.

(Example 1) 10 tactical Marines suffer 10 wounds and they fail 3 armor saves. The sergeant is the 2nd closest model. The closest model dies first then the sergeant can allocate a wound on the roll of 4+ on 1d6. If successful you can transfer the wound to another model.

(Example 2) 5 Thunderwolf Calvary have an attached Wolf Lord who does NOT have runic armor. They suffer 6 wounds and fail 2 armor saves. The Wolf Lord is the closest model and since he has multiple wounds he would suffer the loss of 2 wounds. However you can use Look Out Sir! (each on the roll of 2+ on 1d6) to a Thunderwolf after the failed the saves.

You allocate wounds before saves in a unit that has more than one type of armor save.

(Example 3) 10 BA tactical Marines are attached to a Sanguinary Priest in terminator armor. The Priest is the second closest model. The unit suffers 10 wounds. Closest model is allocated each wound 1 at a time until he makes them all or dies. In this example he saves the first two then fails the third along with FNP. Now the Priest is closest and there are 7 saves left to make. Either he can make them one at a time until he makes them all or dies, or you can use LoS rolls first. In this example we allocate 2 LoS rolls making saves on two Marines at 3+ and then 5 saves on the Priest. If at any point the Priest fails one of the five saves then the remaining wounds will now have to be saved on the next closest model, etc.

Back to Grey Knights

So I've decided to begin 6th edition playing my Draigowing army again. It's a great army to start the new edition and learn all the rules. Some of the units I often use got even better and others are now worth taking in a competitive environment. We all know that Necrons are probably the best army now so I'm putting them aside for awhile. I am not exactly sure how I want to run my Tyranids yet but eventually I'll come back to them again. It's going to take some careful planning to revamp my Tyranids to be just the way I want them so I'm counting on my first games with Grey Knights to help me figure that out as strange as that might sound.

Some of the Grey Knight units got worse too though so here is a list of some of the major buffs and nerfs:

— Draigo is fearless and confers this to any unit he joins such as Paladins which is huge - no more need to worry about being tank shocked off the table or now succumbing to Fear. It really makes a lot of sense. Draigo is still a beast and probably the most resilient hand to hand combatant in the game. My first game of the new 40k was versus Tau allied with Space Wolves... Draigo was wading through one unit after another smiting down the xenos and pups all alike - very epic indeed !!

— No longer can you use complex wound allocations but Paladins all count as characters and with the rule Look Out Sir! it's just as good (if not better with Draigo attached) plus you don't have to waste any points making your squads fully complex... And every point counts when you play Draigowing. Paladins are still one of the premiere generalist units in 40k, maybe even more so now since the assault phase has taken a really big hit from the nerf bat.

— I have always used a Librarian and still plan to do so. They really buff your army and provide some much needed protection in the way of Sanctuary and The Shrouding. I see 6th edition as being more of a defensive game now so the better your overall protection the more damage you can keep dishing out.

— The Nemesis Dreadknight got several buffs... for instance the Nemesis Doomfists now count as S10 and of course the 2+ armor save is very strong. Sure he is not a flying monstrous creature but he is still very fast and can act as an ultimate shock troop. I plan to often hold him in reserve and use the Outflank rule via the Grand Strategy.

— Psyflemen took a huge hit with the new hull points so I'm planning to run a Vindicare assassin to help plug that hole. In my game versus Tau allied with Space Wolves he slew a lone Thunderwolf then fought off a unit of Wolf Scouts and broke them. I'd love to run the Eversor assassin as well but without the rule to infiltrate this monster it can be really tough to get him into melee.

— Grey Knights have access to one of the best fliers in the game - the Stormraven ! There are obviously some risks embarking a pricy unit in a Stormraven but I think it's definitely worth it. The trick is to put a lot of pressure on the enemy with other units so they can't focus all their big guns on your flier(s).

— I'm also planning to run a Landraider Crusader since this is one of the most resilient tanks in the game again. It can still be one shotted off the table but the chances are much less now. It's main role will be to shuttle a key unit to a strategic location on the battlefield and draw enemy fire away from my other units. Having two vehicles that are hard to destroy with assault ramps is very strong.

Like I said above the assault phase got hit hard with the nerf bat. Shooting is even more powerful now. It's important though to realize that assaults can still win games because they are so deadly. A squad of Paladins with Draigo attached rampaging through your enemy's lines can win games.

The stupidity of Dakka Dakka YMDC

A lot of people are saying that sixth edition has the best rules yet and that they were actually professionally edited. But still there will always be a lot of people that like to cry how bad are GW rules in general so they can try to break them. Here is a perfectly good example... this idiot is saying that a Mawloc can attack a flier while it is in zoom mode...

Dakka YMDC Rules Lawyer Thread

New Forgeworld Necron Unit Recently Spotted

Thoughts on 6th edition after my 1st game

I'm planning to start 6th edition playing my Draigowing since they are a forgiving army. As I gain more experience then I'll venture out more. I also plan to play my Necrons as well. I think that Blood Angels and Nurgle may see a resurgence as competitive armies again.

— MSU and mech are out. Vehicles and walkers with light armor (AV11 or lower) are toast. You can easily focus on one transport and nuke it. Fliers are better due to their in-built protection but have some weaknesses as well.

— The game seems to be more balanced now. For example while I think Grey Knights are still really good I can see they were more designed as an army for 6th edition and are not quite as powerful. Imperial Guard and Space Wolves are still pretty awesome too but not quite as much so. I see IG shifting towards blob with less reliance on chimeras.

— Large units are in... They can soak up a lot of damage and they are a lot harder to destroy at any one point in the game. I see armies such as horde orks doing very well - at least in the beginning as we enter 6th edition. There is a lot of protection in the game for infantry... Regrouping is much easier to do with none of the old limitations.

— Shooting is more powerful than assault due to all the many limitations put on melee. I love the assault phase the most and am planning to use it as more of a special situation. Units that excel at both shooting and melee are the best. Lots of the tricks you could use to launch an assault can now be used to shoot the enemy. For example a unit arriving from reserve cannot launch an assault the same turn (CSM lesser daemons, Vanguard Veterans and Yrmgarl genestealers are all exceptions due to their special rules) but you can use reserves for drive by shooting attacks instead.

— Only one of the rulebook missions uses kill points - the game will be a lot more strategic now which I like a lot!

— Necrons are the top army right now. They were obviously designed for 6th and got a lot of perks with their new FAQ.

Some things I've noted:

• All force weapons are Nemesis... Mephiston and Typhus are really bad news.

• You can take special characters as allies... It's possible to run Typhus and Epidemius in the same list - really sick when the 3++ FNP kicks in plus T5 for MoN stops instant death up to S9 now.