Optimizing Marker Lights for the new Tau

Let's take a look at some of the options available for using Marker Lights in the new Tau army. Marker Lights are one of the big strengths for Tau. They give Tau the ability to enhance their shooting any given turn to focus on the primary threats.

Pathfinders
This is a good choice. They are inexpensive and can infiltrate. Set them up in a safe position inside cover such that it will force your opponent to make a tough decision to shoot them. They are fragile though so don't put all your eggs in one basket. You need multiple sources of Marker Lights so two units is the way to go since they are low cost in terms of points. Another advantage to Pathfinders is that they are a Fast Attack unit so they aren't competing with your Elite choices.

Commander with Marker Drones
This is another good choice. You can take a Drone Controller to boost their shooting to BS5... Very reliable. Drones are Relentless so they can move and shoot their Marker Lights at full BS which is a major advantage compared to Pathfinders. This is obviously a more costly unit though but I think if you build the right unit it can work well and not be too much of a point sink. You don't need a full compliment of Marker Drones since they hit on 2+ due to the Drone Controller... You're really getting your points back from this unit quickly right away. This unit can also move around and join other units if necessary instead to boost them (e.g., Broadsides or Crisis Team).

Other Choices
You have the option to take some Drones in other units such as Fire Warriors. The major disadvantage here is these units aren't really intended to provide Marker Light support (i.e., primary target priority mitigates their usefulness) plus you can't boost them above BS3. There are other types of Drones that are a better option for these types of units.

Some of the vehicles have access to Marker Lights as well but again this conflicts with their primary targets. There are some options for Target Lock but again you can't boost their shooting to BS5 so really it's some points better spent elsewhere.

Fire Support Tricks - Stacking Marker Lights
Let us take a look at an example where a squad of Fire Warriors will take the charge from an enemy unit. You've placed them in such a manner that they are well supported by other friendly units that can also fire on Overwatch due to Fire Support. For this example the pair of Pathfinder units are both close enough to lend a helping hand. Assume each unit of Pathfinders consists of ten models. The first Pathfinder unit fires... Assume they hit on average with two to three Marker Lights. The second Pathfinder unit can now hit at BS3 to BS4... This means that the third unit to fire on Overwatch (such as the Fire Warriors) has at least five Marker Lights at their disposal. This can make a huge difference!

Super cool new jump pack from puppetswar

Dedicated gaming table at my FLGS

I am always thrilled to know that my FLGS has a dedicated gaming table for miniature war gaming. People playing card games can't use it. This weekend is another big release for an extremely popular card game but I know I can come into my store and roll some dice. That is an excellent policy.

Intergalactic dong on the Naftka site

I really lol'd when I saw this...

http://natfka.blogspot.com/2013/04/eldar-flyer-silhouette-and-mega-walker.html?m=1

That guy will post anything on his blog.

Whatever happened to the Deathstars ?

Remember when a couple of completely tooled out Wolf Lords riding gigantic wolves accompanied by Thunderwolf cavalry could single handedly win a GT ? They had no ranged shooting !! I was a Draigowing player. Fifth edition really catered to the deathstar going all the way back to Nob bikers in the very beginning. Sixth edition on the other hand is very balanced. For instance any unit can ever hold just one objective. If you're trying to run a deathstar army now then you are bound to fail.

On the other hand there are some units in sixth edition I often refer to as a quasi deathstar (QDS). They are very strong and can go a long way to winning but they can't do it all by their lonesome. I love a unit of tooled Purifiers lead by Inquisitor Coteaz at 1850 points - to me that's a great example of a QDS. A level 3 Librarian leading a squad of five Paladins at 2000+ points is another QSD. I have learned that the QSD is best selected from a non scoring unit - this puts a lot of pressure on your opponent to not focus on killing your scoring units which in turn makes your scoring units all that much stronger. The new Tau Commander is going to be another QSD... He bounces back and forth between various units buffing them to wreck ultimate havoc. I would definitely invest 200+ points in a Tau Commander now - he is just that good in my opinion... Potentially better than any named special character in the new Tau codex if you're willing to pay the points.

Shooting is the king in sixth edition. Can you name one sixth edition deathstar unit that has won a major event ? A blob that sits behind an Aegis Defense Line (ADL) and continually goes to ground is not a deathstar... They are flame bait at best. Deathstars are all about killing lots and lots of enemy units each and every turn. Only if a tournament organizer specifically tailors their missions to a deathstar can they win a big event and that answers my own question I asked above... please pay attention - maybe you just might learn something useful. ; )

A true deathstar might eventually emerge in sixth edition but I don't see it happening any time soon in sixth edition unless the developers majorly screw up. Many a broken unit were due to GW not taking the necessary time to thoroughly review their newly written rules and properly play test them, so what's new... Well it just seems like now GW now will FAQ to death anything that is potentially broken... With a few exceptions like alien robots, heh! Nobody is perfect, right ? No new codices from Mat Ward so far either... He is really busy on the Fantasy side of the game. It will be very interesting to see what eventually emerges.

Psychic powers are really off the hook now - only Eldar and Space Wolves have a strong counter. That's why I love the level 3 Grey Knight Librarian casting three Divination psychic powers each turn... Divination mostly buffs shooting. For example remove the cover save and that annoying blob hunkered down behind the ADL is toast.

That's all I have to say for now on this subject.

More articles coming soon...

I've finally started back to work on my Heresy World Eaters project... Citadel Ceramite White over a light grey base cost is working wonders... Goes on easy and quick plus looks pretty good. I'll try to post some pictures soon. I have to finish this army before I start on anything else - a Tau primary detachment is being heavily considered.

That's it for now.

: )

Tau 1440 point primary detachment w. Grey Knight allied detachment

This is my second shot at a primary list (1440 points now - see note below) with Grey Knight allies.

Tau Primary Detachment
Commander (215)
- 1x Shield Drone
- Fusion Blaster
- XV8-02 Iridium Battle Suit
- Puretide Engram Neurochip
- Multi Spectrum Sensor Suite
- Command & Control Node
- Early Warning Override (Interceptor)
- Velocity Tracker (Sky Fire)

2x XV8 Crisis Suit (160)
- 2x Gun Drone
- 2x Missile Pod
- 2x Fusion Blaster
- 2x Target Lock
- Neuroweb System Jammer

7x Pathfinder & Shas'ui (99)

7x Pathfinder & Shas'ui (99)

Ethereal (55)
- Homing Beacon

12x Fire Warrior incl. Shas'ui (118)

12x Fire Warrior incl. Shas'ui (118)

10x Fire Warrior incl. Shas'ui (100)

15x Kroot incl. Shaper & Hound (120)
- Sniper

2x XV88 Broadside (218)
- 2x twin linked High Yield Missile Pod
- 2x twin linked Smart Missile System
- 2x Velocity Tracker
- 4x Missile Drone

Hammerhead (190)
- Longstrike
- Submunition Rounds
- Twin linked Smart Missile System
- Disruption Pod


Grey Knight Allied Detachment
Inquisitor Coteaz (100)

5x Paladin (360)
- 2x psycannon, 4x daemonhammer, warding stave - psybolt ammo

10x Grey Knight Strike Squad (240)
- 2x psycannon - psybolt ammo

Note
I've switched out a level 3 Librarian for the Inquisitor to save 140 points that goes back into the primary detachment.

Tau 1300 point primary detachment

This is my first shot at a list with Grey Knight allies.

Commander (242)
- 2x Shield Drone
- Missile Pod
- Fusion Blaster
- XV8-02 Iridium Battle Suit
- Puretide Chip
- Multi Spectrum Sensor Suite
- Command & Control Node
- Early Warning System
- Velocity Tracker

2x XV8 Crisis Suit (182)
- 4x Gun Drone
- 2x Missile Pod
- 2x Fusion Blaster
- 2x Target Lock

5x Pathfinder & Shas'ui (78)
- Blacksun Filter

5x Pathfinder & Shas'ui (78)
- Blacksun Filter

Ethereal (55)
- Homing Beacon

12x Fire Warrior incl. Shas'ui (119)
- Bonding Knife

12x Fire Warrior incl. Shas'ui (119)
- Bonding Knife

10x Fire Warrior incl. Shas'ui (101)
- Bonding Knife

20x Kroot incl. Shaper & Hound (155)
- Sniper

2x XV88 Broadside (198)
- 2x twin linked High Yield Missile Pod
- 2x twin linked Smart Missile System
- Velocity Tracker
- 4x Missile Pod

Tau article by Dave Boucher

I played a great game today versus a pure Tau army with my Necron-Grey Knight army. Necrons-Grey Knights won the Adepticon championship this week piloted by Nick Nanavati by the way. I am really excited about Tau and see them as a strong army replacing Imperial Guard as the best shooting army. I don't think Tau lend themselves well though to new players as a lot of thought must go into coordinating the army each turn to yield the best results. Fire Support is really good for example if you do it right. I see Grey Knights as a very strong ally for Tau since they also shoot very well and provide the much needed counter assault element.

Here is a guest article about the new Tau from Dave Boucher who is a fellow club member of the 40k Wrecking Crew.

Now that the Tau Codex has been out for a few weeks, I feel I can make a more objective review of the book. Early reviews of the new codex by myself and my gaming group had a less than positive view of the Tau book. The general view point that we had was the book was marginally better, if better at all, than the previous book. This notion came about from the one major “nerf” of the new Tau codex - the reduction of Broadsides from being S10 AP1 to S8 AP1. The army seemed like it had no new tricks really, but all I can say to that is that I and my friends were misguided.

Before I get into any in-depth thoughts on this book I need to illustrate a few perceptions that I have first. Since sixth edition has dropped I have felt that the game play best represents Epic: Armageddon, which in my opinion is the best rule set GW ever published. This view was never better enacted than with the new Tau Book. The best aspect of each army in Epic is that they play exactly to the fluff. The new Tau Codex does this perfectly. So, just know that the Tau Codex is best played the way Tau fight.

Early Perceptions
When I first got my hands on the book, I immediately looked at what was different and the points. Like most, my first few drafts were all about firepower. Tau are THE shooting army, right? Yes and no. Imperial Guards are about quantity, were as Tau are about the quality. Though I have known this since third edition it is sometimes tough to stay on track and see the nuances in the book right away.

First lesson - Tau will not win the game through sheer might.


Second Thoughts
After the initial ideas proved wrong my next set of ideas was all about tricks. Invisible Farsight Bombs or infiltrating invisible Riptides. Both were novel and could win games but not stand the test in in a competitive environment.

Lesson 2 - Tricks are for kids.


Evolved Ideas
After a series of mind bombs destroying my early perceptions I now have better ideas as to how the army should be played. The best way to describe that is fluidity. The army needs to be able to respond to different threats on the fly. Not in the sense of an all comers list, but more like that of a master surgeon with an extremely sharp Swiss Army Scalpel.

This section will be by far the longest, so stick around.

Tau in previous editions have suffered from a variety of short comings. These mainly consisted of assault and reserve list that Alpha Strike (namely Drop Pods). In the new edition these can be mitigated by the smart commander. First thing we need to do is look at the new rules and wargear available to the Tau. I’m going to skip over supporting fire, as this one is obvious enough. What I want to concentrate on is the following support systems and signature systems:

Early Warning Override
Velocity Trackers
Command and Control Node
Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite

These items combine to make the biggest difference in the book.

Early Warning Override
This upgrade is simple enough. It allows for Interceptor and this is huge. It allows a unit to have a greater command of the game and serve multi roles. What seals the deal on this one is the 5 point price tag. There is so much to this simple upgrade. This is your anti reserve upgrade and to a lesser extent, anti air. Consider this upgrade on a unit of 3 Broadsides with max missile drones and High Yield Missiles. A unit that deep strikes in, outflanks, or comes on from reserves can be targeted at the end of their movement phase. You can shoot them with either 12 shots from the Missile Pods or 12 from the Smart Missiles. You can only shoot one system as the multi tracker only works in your shooting phase but that is fine.

Consider a drop pod coming in with a dreadnought, you can scrap it right away and then in your next turn target another unit in their turn with their remaining weapons or do it the reverse where you nuke an outflanking genestealer unit with your Smart Missiles and unload your S7 shooting into a Big Bug in your turn. Now consider it on a Riptide were he can unleash a S8 AP2 Large Blast weapon with a range of 72” on a unit coming in from reserve. Kill the squad in the drop pod or those pesky cultists coming on from the board edge. The Riptide being a monstrous creature can shoot both his weapons this way if he chooses to do so - very strong defense.

Velocity Trackers
This one is very straight forward. You can choose to use the skyfire rules when shooting. At 20 points this is certainly expensive. I would only use it sparingly such as Broadsides which makes up for their loss of Slow and Purposeful.

Signature Systems - Command and Control Node and Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite
These should be used in tandem. Both can be used together and only when you forgo your shooting. The first allows you to reroll your shots and the second ignores cover. Both effect the entire unit. It is important to note that neither can be used in the opposing phase, so no Interceptor or Overwatch with them. They are amazing. A unit of three Crisis Suits with will average the same amount of hits with all equipped with guns or two with guns and 1 with these and these Ignore Cover. I love these upgrades - used correctly they are so deadly and so versatile.

Puretide Engram Neurochip
It is the perfect example of my ideas of being fluid with your Tau force. It allows you to choose Counter Attack, Furious Charge, Tank Hunter, Monster Hunter or Stubborn each turn and these do carry over into the other turn.


Example
These upgrades all work amazingly well together. Let me give you my basic example of what is possible with all of these options. For this example we will have a Commander with the Multi Spectrum Sensor Suite, the Command and Control Node, the Puretide chip, a missile pod, Early Warning Override and a velocity tracker. He will be joined to a unit of Broadsides all with High Velocity Missiles, Early Warning Overrides and six missile drones. In your turn your unit happily kills something, a tank we will say, and in this example your Commander did not shoot so he was able to use all his gear and he choose Tank Hunter via the Puretide chip. In your opponent's turn something comes in from reserves, it can be a flyer or anything for that matter. In this example we will use a much hated flyer. The Commander intercepts and skyfires with two shots, both should hit as they are twin linked and BS5, and the Broadsides shoot 12 twin linked shots twin linked averaging 3.66 hits for a total of 5.66 hits or 6 for the average. Six hits with S7 and Tank Hunter is enough to kill most flyers out there in one snap. So then your turn comes around your Commander can't shoot so he automatically activates his systems again, twin linking those drones and giving them Ignore Cover. Add in the smart missiles and you can kill something else.

The beauty is that with this combo you can potentially kill something every player turn (i.e., yours and your opponent's) so long as he brings in reserves. Your Commander still gets to shoot even though he isn’t shooting during your own turns.

Taking two Broadside units, one with missiles and the other with railguns is an easy evolution for this idea so you can join the Commander to whichever unit is needed.

Lesson 3 - Evolve !


Stay tuned next week as I discuss more about the Tau and look into units and their specific battlefield roles.

Flyers in sixth edition and the future

Hello everyone ! I have more time to post right now so I'd like to discuss how I think flyers will play out over the course of sixth edition. In my opinion flyers have already passed their zenith. If we look at the championship in Chicago this week BoK has reported there aren't many Heldrake spam armies.

What is currently the best flyer for the points? To me it's hands down the Night Scythe... Fairly cheap for the points plus its a transport. The Night Scythe is a real gamer winner since you can dump a scoring unit on an objective late in the game. I can't really say which is second best - probably most people will say the Heldrake. I really like the Doom Scythe - it's not as survivable as the Heldrake but the death ray has the potential to wreck deathstars and I respect that a lot plus it's got the Tesla Destructor which is really good obviously.

I personally like the shift from heavy mechanization to more infantry based armies, in fact it's one of my favorite things about sixth edition. I think Tau have a lot of really good anti flyer defense and it is a natural deterrent versus skies of death armies. There are lots of people who generally don't like flyers and its turned them off to 40k. Like I said though I think in that frame of mind it's only going to get better. If we look at daemons, Dark Angels and Tau you'll notice none of these armies got over the top broken flyers - that seems to be the new trend and if you think about it Necrons in many ways were one of the first true sixth edition armies so they had a big head start. Each codex has a window of opportunity and sometimes it happens quite late like Tyranids. Maybe several of the fifth edition codices were written more with sixth edition in mind. Only Phil Kelly is left from the past, all the other developers are new guys.

I'm very interested to see the next codex written by Mat Ward. I think it could be very telling for the future of the game. Love or hate armies such as Grey Knights and Necrons they are currently passing the test of time. I've seen lots of codices drop off the map when a new edition is released. I hope that there won't be another over the top broken codex any time soon. That might sound a bit hypocritical since competitively play Necrons-Grey Knights but honest I like the new Chaos and am working on a new army.

Mostly it seems like most of the complaints about sixth edition stem from the lack of things such as spammy units. I'd rather keep learning how to play the game better rather than generating a list of complaints. It will be interesting to see how everything plays out over the next year or two.

The Beta Strike - How To Instructions

This is a tactical article explaining how to execute a Beta Strike. First though I will discuss the Alpha Strike as it is commonly referred to in 40k - the Alpha Strike mostly consists of going first and shooting as much as possible at your opponent's army to quickly cripple them during the first turn of the game. It's just that simple too unfortunately or not.

Mitigating the Alpha Strike
The Alpha Strike sounds good in theory and commonly encourages the use of static gun line armies. There are some fairly mobile armies that can also Alpha Strike as well but typically most units shoot to their full effect if they do not move plus you are paying more points for that movement which can drastically cut down the amount of shooting you can generate the first turn.

Back in the days of the Ard Boys tournament the penultimate Alpha Strike army was an Imperial Guard build referred to as the Leaf Blower created by Nick Rose (aka Darkwynn) from Bells of the Lost Souls. Nick went first each and every game (nine total games - three each in the first round, semi-finals and lastly the finals at the Chicago Battle Bunker) tabling just about everyone and handily winning the title that year. Each turn consisted mostly of the IG player rolling lots and lots of dice to shoot one enemy unit (i.e., Torrent of Fire) after another while the opponent simply rolled dice in turn for any possible saves they had available plus removing lots and lots of their own models from the table. Very boring but it was also very effective obviously. If you the opponent opted to hold any units in reserve IG could use a character in their command squad for -1 to your reserve rolls while the rest of your army bore the full brunt of the enemy IG shooting plus Sly Marbo popping up chucking a demo charge on your best unit to p0wn them all as early as turn two. This was back when IG was at its most potent strength and they had access to an allied Inquisitor from the previous Daemon Hunters codex that had an ability similar to Coteaz's special rule We've Been Expecting You... Seriously broken at the time!

Now though a shrewd opponent can utilize many tactics to neutralize an Alpha Strike. Note that if you find yourself typically playing on tables that have little terrain or its all placed along the table edges you're doing something wrong. GW encourages an ample amount of terrain and it should be placed all around the table.

Some means to negate an Alpha Strike are holding your key units in reserve and placing your other units behind LOS blocking terrain. Of course there might still be some barrage weapons across the table so you'll need a way to quickly nix them.

Cover Saves
There are all kinds of crazy cover saves available now such as the Telepathy psychic power Invisibility which grants both Stealth and Shrouded to the friendly target unit (i.e., Blessing). You can also Go to Ground (GtG) in area terrain for a 2+ cover save... Combine that with a jink if possible and you've got a 2+ or 3+ cover save depending on the type of terrain. You can also GtG behind an Aegis Defense Line for a 2+ cover save... IG can issue an order to their units gone to ground to get back into the fight. It's kind of crazy now - maybe even the case of too much of a good thing.

Mobility
You might be asking why is mobility useful versus an Alpha Strike and it is a good question. Remember that most often there is at best a fifty percent chance your opponent will go first. Of course there are some characters like Vect and Immotekh that can seize the initiative on a 4+ but that's only two races. Going first versus an Alpha Strike army is often very useful so you can either/or jink units, cast the right blessings and move them into better positions for cover saves. Alpha Strike armies typically don't have much in the way of melee dedicated units so you want to move forward as well to close the gap across Dead Man's Land to later launch your assaults.

Placing Objectives
I see players often make the same mistake time after time when placing objectives versus an Alpha Strike army. You should place them in the mid zone (i.e., ead Man's Land). As noted in the previous section Alpha Strike armies are often weak in the assault phase which also tends to make them not so good at taking and holding objectives. Forcing your opponent to move some of their units forward to grab objectives plays against their main strength and can also net you some easy kill points as well.

On the other hand placing objectives deep in your own deployment zone plays right to the strength of an Alpha Strike army. You must dedicate some units to hold them which in turn weakens your opportunities to control the mid zone of the table. I know a lot of players will say you should place at least one objective marker in your own deployment zone behind LoS blocking terrain and camp a cheap scoring unit on it. This strategy seems sound but based upon my experience in the current edition and meta it's almost always better to place objective markers forward... Not so close such that your opponent can reach them the first turn but far enough away from their deployment zone so that they'll need two turns to reach them. It can take a few games to master so practice, practice practice... You'll eventually get it down pat. Use the terrain in the mid zone instead of terrain in your own deployment zone. Even if it is working for you just fine so far I recommend you give a go and see what happens... You might just end up liking it.

The worst thing you can do is place markers in your opponent's deployment zone. Sometimes the mission rules will force you to do so - if this is the case then simply place them along the outer boundary and a good distance from the side table edges. You want the bulk of your army to be able to reach them without splitting up your army.

Of course the overall placement of terrain has a big impact on the optimal locations for objective markers but just as I said above if there's not much on the table you're fundamentally doing something wrong.


BETA STRIKE
So now finally we come to the main point of this article! Let us first define what is a Beta Strike. A Beta Strike is similar to the Alpha Strike - the main difference being you will start with most of your shooting no sooner than the second turn. If properly executed you'll bare the brunt of your total shooting starting on the beginning of your third turn. This might seem counter intuitive at the first glance... I simply ask you to bare with me a bit longer. Beta Strike armies as opposed to Alpha Strike armies should be highly mobile and as such are designed to scoot and shoot. 24" is the optimal range for most of your guns in this type of army and many infantry units are limited to this as their maximum range plus 6" give or take a few inches for their movement. Heavy weapons still have a place since you can either snap fire them or hold those models still while the rest of its unit surges forward.

So you can see immediately this style of army is diametrically opposed to the the Alpha Strike. You place objectives in the mid zone of the table and then move forward towards them to control, shoot and possibly later launch assaults. Reserves can work well with this type of army - more especially so if you have any units that can Outflank. You are boxing in your opponent and quickly controlling objectives, forcing your opponent to move their own units towards you while blasting away all the while with your mighty plethora of mid ranged guns.

This is inherently an aggressive style of play and not for the many squeamish players who want to keep the enemy at arm's length. Remember the closer you move towards the enemy the more you can shoot so this directly works in favor of units with assault and rapid fire weapons.

Obviously it requires more patience to play a Beta Strike army since often you won't be able to shoot the bulk of your guns the first or even possibly the second turn. It is okay though... Trust me. Heh ! Of course your opponent has the potential to outshoot you the first two turns so go back and reread what I said about how to mitigate the Alpha Strike... It most certainly applies to other shooty armies as well.

If you read some of my batreps that will provide in-game examples how a Beta Strike army optimally performs.

A Sample Army
My current tournament army is the combination of Necrons (primary detachment) along with some Grey Knights (allied detachment). You can find the exact list here on this blog if you're really interested. Recently I switched out a full Purifier squad for five Paladins... The two psycannons can always fire four shots each at full ballistic skill unless of course their firing on Overwatch. Those four extra S7 rending shots can and does make a huge difference.


Conclusion
First I defined what is an Alpha Strike army and how to mitigate it. I then defined what is a Beta Strike army. They both shoot a lot (optimally) but the latter type of army first moves into a solid position to control the mid zone then later starts to shoot as much as possible. You might lose a unit or two on the way in but as the game proceeds you should be able to proverbially turn the table and end up outshooting your opponent over the remaining course of a game. You'll need the right army build to pull it off so it will probably require some practice on your part. Don't be afraid to try new things - both the game and meta have changed a lot since the advent of sixth edition... You can do it in time if you're willing to spend some time practicing.

Zombie

Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And if violence causes the silence
Who are we mistaking
But you see it's not me
It's not my family
In your head in your head
They are fighting

With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head in your head they are crying

In your head
In your head
Zombie zombie zombie
What's in your head
In your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie

Another mother's breaking heart is taking over the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
It's the same old thing since 1916
In your head in your head
Their still fighting
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head in your head they are dying

2250 point local RTT results - Necrons with Grey Knight allies

Hi everyone !! Your friendly neighborhood Blowfly here to brighten your day again with a local 40k RTT report. This tournament was three rounds - 2250 points with double FOC and allies but no Forge World. Some buddies and I drove down leaving early in the morning since it's over an hour away. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at McDees via the drive through. This is one of the local FLGS that likes to run larger events and I always try to make these ones since I love big games.

Sorry but no pictures this week. I am in the process of buying a new digital camera so hopefully I will have some nice pix for the next batrep.

Here is my abbreviated army list:

Necrons - Primary Detachment
Destroyer Lord - mindshackle scarabs, 2+ armor (attached to Wraiths)
4x Canoptek Wraith - whip coils

Overlord - warscythe, mindshackle scarabs, phase shifter - Catacomb Command Barge

6x Immortal - Tesla carbines - Night Scythe

5x Warrior
5x Warrior
5x Warrior

Doom Scythe
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

8x Canoptek Scarab

Grey Knights - Allied Detachment
Level 3 Librarian - master crafted warding stave (attached to Paladins)
5x Paladin - 2x psycannon, 4x daemonhammer, master crafted warding stave - psybolt ammo

10x Grey Knight - 2x psycannon - psybolt ammo


Army List Analysis
If you follow my articles on this army you'll know that in the past I used Coteaz attached to a full squad of Purifiers with lots of neat toys for my deathstar unit. I have been wanting to test out Paladins over Purifiers and at this point level I could also take a Librarian in place of the Inquisitor... So I was very interested to see how overall the army would perform with these changes.

I recently played in an 1850 point GT over in Orlando - the army list here is much the same noting the changes above plus the addition of the Canoptek Wraiths to form a retinue for my Destroyer Lord. I did well at the GT and was the only undefeated player going into the final sixth round so I know this army is well tested and has always performed quite well. Ironically I narrowly lost in the final round to the only other Necron-Grey Knight army in an epic low scoring match that knocked us both out of contention for an award. Oh well at least it felt great going into the final round.

I have designed this army to be as completely balanced as possible. It has lots of shooting, plenty of speed plus lots of very strong dedicated melee units. To be competitive in sixth edition it's all about building very balanced armies that excel in all three phases. The Necrons tend to do most of the heavy lifting while the Grey Knights are a razor sharp scalpel. They work very well together and don't have to lend much support to each other except for overlapping focused fire. I don't use any fortifications as I typically move most of my units around the entire game. I also tend to place objective markers in the middle of the table to force opponents to have to come out of their deployment zones to get them.


Mission Summaries

1st Round vs. Blood Angels
The mission had five objectives with DoW deployment.

The Blood Angels army had two land raiders (Crusader & Redeemer) plus two Storm Ravens. There were two full assault squads with jump packs and one had a Priest. The Crusader had a squad of Death Company lead by a Chaplain. The Redeemer had a full assault squad (sans jump packs) lead by a Captain and another Priest.

I felt confident going into this match knowing that Necrons have lots of answers to AV14 plus the barges are really good versus flyers in general.

Highlights
•Anni barges shot down both Stormravens
•Scarabs and Destroyer Lord cracked open both land raiders

Only one Death Company Marine was left at the end for a full massacre (18 points). I ended up only needing to hold one objective.

2nd Round vs. Ork Horde
The mission was Big Guns Never Tire with Hammer and Anvil deployment. There were three objective markers.

My opponent had well over 150 greenskins including Ghaz with a big Nob squad, two battlewagons, looted wagon, some killakanz and Lootaz. I was able to pop all four enemy HS units (destroyed both battlewagons my first turn... Scarabs and Gauss FTW). This game I pulled 16 out of a possible 18 battle points for the win. Ghaz never made it into melee so I couldn't get Slay the Warlord and I needed the Immortals to late game grab one of the uncontested objectives so no Line Breaker either.

3rd Round vs. Tyranids
The mission was The Relic with Vanguard Strike for deployment.

Another horde army with over 200 models - not the typical Internet meta list we see all the time now but this was definitely my toughest game. My opponent had over six scoring units - including two big broods of devilgaunts, two big broods of hormagants, some genestealers and two small Warrior broods. He had a walking Tyrant and the winged jump infantry character for his HQ. There was also some Zoies, Raveners and a Trygon Prime. Definitely a target rich environment !!

There was a big turn out so there were quite a few undefeated players going into the last round. I knew I would need a big win to come out on top. It just seemed like it would very hard to control the Relic versus all those large scoring units and it wouldn't be easy to score any bonus points either.

I got to go first but my opponent seized the initiative - sheet ! This actually worked out to my advantage though since a squad of hiding Warriors popped out to grab the Relic at the end of the last turn. The Tyranid player's dice were smoking hot and mine were below average most of the time but I still managed to pull out the win with 17 battle points out of a possible 18 (he got First Blood because one gaunt in a 20 man brood managed to live taking the full brunt of almost my army's entire shooting - he cast Endurance on them and Denied the Witch when I cast the Misfortune malediction on them).

It wasn't an easy game to say the least... Destroyer Lord with Wraiths and Librarian leading the Paladins were definitely the MVPs this game. The Destroyer Lord and his Canoptek friends took out the Tyrant (MSS FTW) then held off an entire brood of hormagants to prevent them from swamping the area around the objective. My Librarian got Prescience and the Divination psychic power that lets the unit shoot at full BS on Overwatch which allowed them to totally annihilate a big brood of charging Raveners. It was a tight game but everything came together in the end.


Post Tourney Analysis
It was very interesting to play two really large horde armies and the last two games only made it to a third turn... What can you do ? I don't think either of these opponents intentionally slow played but they just didn't seem to manage their time wisely which ended up hurting them a lot more than me... Heh heh . The squad of Immortals in the Night Scythe was a big advantage for late game objective grabs and Line Breaker. So knowing you probably won't be able to get in a full game ahead of time you have to adjust your strategy accordingly. In the past I've gotten frustrated but I was well prepared this time. ; )

I definitely prefer the Paladins over Purifiers... Eight psycannon shots every time with Prescience and sometimes Misfortune and/or Ignore Cover is very powerful (I got all three of these versus the Blood Angels by the way). I found the level 3 Librarian a bit stronger than Coteaz, mostly due to the extra psychic power but I'd only use him over the Inquisitor in games at 2000 points and above.... It's also nice to have the option to deep strike them.

So I ended up in a tie with one other player for first place and we split the store prize support. One of my buddies who down came with me ended up losing to the fellow I tied with for first place in the last round. It was a great day and I liked all my opponents... No problems whatsoever. I used the prize support to get some paints and weathering dust for my World Eaters army I will bring to WarGamesCon for the Heresy campaign.

Four Tau army lists (1850 points) by Dave Boucher

Dave is a friend of mine and fellow club member. Here are four different Tau army lists he designed with some thoughts on each build.


List #1
-Double Trouble Broadsides-

Commander 148
•Missile Pod (36" S7 AP A2)
•Drone Controller (drones use his BS)
•Puretide Engram Neurochip (allows bearer to choose between Tank Hunter, Monster Hunter, Stubborn, Furious Charge or Counter Attack each turn)
•Multi Spectrum Sensor Suit (sacrifices his shooting so unit can Ignore Cover)

Riptide 220
•Ion Accelerator (72" S7 ap2 H3, 72" S8 AP2 H1 Large Blast, Gets Hot, Nova Charge 72" S9 AP2 Ordnance 1 Gets Hot Large Blast)
•Twin Fusion (18" S8 AP1 Melta)
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)

Riptide 220
•Ion Accelerator
•Twin Fusion
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)

5x 10 man Kroot unit w/ sniper upgrade 350

3x Broadside 327
•Twin High Yield Missile Pod (36" S7 AP4 H4)
•Twin Smart Missile System (30" S5 AP5 H4 Ignore Cover, no LOS needed)
•Velocity Tracker (can choose to Sky Fire)
•6x Missile Drone (same gun as commander)

3x Broadside 327
•Twin Heavy Rail Rifle (60" S8 AP1 H1)
•Twin Smart Missile System (30" S5 AP5 H4 Ignore Cover, no LOS needed)
•Velocity Tracker (can choose to Sky Fire)
6x Missile Drone (same gun as Commander)

Hammer Head 180
•Rail Gun (72" S10 AP1 H1 Submunitions 72" S6 AP4 H1 Large Blast)
•Twin Smart Missile System
•Automated Repair system (at the end of your turn on a 6 you repair immobilized or weapon destroyed)
•Long Strike - Gives Hammer Head BS5, Tank Hunter, Preferred Enemy (IG), Black Sun Filter, Overwatch, Fire Support

Skyshield 75

Total Points =1847

This list is straight forward. The Broadsides deploy on the Skyshield. The Skyshield giving them 4++ is like having shield drones and shield generators, but with out taking up systems and still allowing missile drones to be bought. In all it is 45 points cheaper than the Broadsides buying shield generators and still allows for 24 extra S7 missiles.

Commander chooses to join either Broadside unit based on opponent. He gives the unit Ignore Cover and either Tank Hunter or Monster Hunter making them apt at killing a lot of different things.

Kroot outflank.


List #2
-Fun with Shadow Sun-

Commander 148
•Missile Pod (36" S7 AP A2)
•Drone Controller (drones use his BS)
•Puretide Engram Neurochip (allows bearer to choose between Tank Hunter, Monster Hunter, Stubborn, Furious Charge or Counter Attack each turn)
•Multi Spectrum Sensor Suit (sacrifices his shooting so unit can ignore cover)

Shadow Sun 155
1x MV52 Shield Drone (3++)

Bodyguard 175
- Crisis Suit
•Twin Fusion
•Missile Pod
•Onager Guantlet (1 S10 AP1 attack in HTH)
2x Shield Drone

- Crisis Suit
•Twin Fusion
•Missile Pod
1x Shield Drone

Riptide 220
•Ion Accelerator (72" S7 ap2 H3, 72" S8 AP2 H1 large blast, Gets Hot, Nova Charge 72" S9 AP2 Ordnance 1 Gets Hot Large Blast)
•Twin Fusion (18" S8 AP1 Melta)
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)

Riptide 220
•Ion Accelerator
•Twin Fusion
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)

5x 10 man Kroot unit w/ sniper 350

3x Broadside 327
•Twin High Yield Missile Pod (36" S7 AP4 H4)
•Twin Smart Missile System (30" S5 AP5 H4 Ignore Cover no LOS needed)
•Velocity Tracker (can choose to Sky Fire)
6x Missile Drone (same gun as commander)

Hammer Head 180
•Rail Gun (72" S10 AP1 H1 Submunitions 72" S6 AP4 H! large blast)
•Twin Smart Missile System
•Automated Repair System (at the end of your turn on a 6 you repair immobilised or weapon destroyed)
•Long Strike - Gives Hammer Head BS5, Tank Hunter, Preferred Enemy (IG), Black Sun Filter, Overwatch, Fire Support

Skyshield 75

Total Points = 1850

As above list but Shadow Sun replaces the second Broadside unit. She will infiltrate her body guard unit in and they will have a 2+ cover save. Her unit has 2 twin fusions and she has 2 fusions at BS5 and can split fire. So has good anti tank. Her Warlord Trait is [i]A Ghost Amongst Us[/i] and allows her unit to jump back 3d6".


List #3
-Farsight Bomb-

Farsight 165
- WS5 I5 S5 4A
•Dawn Blade AP2 Armorbane
•Plasma S6 AP2 Rapid Fire
•4++ invulnerable save

Shadow Sun 135
(Warlord)

Farsight Body Guard 667
7 x Crisis Suit
- Crisis Suit:
•Onager Gauntlet
•Puretide Engram Neurochip
•Multi Spectrum Sensor Suit
•Command and Control Node (doesn't shoot and unit reroll hits)
•Vectored Retro Thrusters (Hit and Run)
•Neroweb System Jammer (pick a unit in 12" and all their guns have Gets Hot)

- 6x Crisis Suit (identical):
•Fusion
•Plasma
•Target Lock (can shoot another target - unit can shoot 8 different targets with attached characters)
14x Shield Drone

Riptide 240
•Ion Accelerator (72" S7 AP2 H3, 72" S8 AP2 H1 large blast, Gets Hot, Nova Charge 72" S9 AP2 Ordnance 1 Gets Hot Large Blast)
•Twin Fusion (18" S8 AP1 Melta)
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)
•Velocity Tracker

Riptide 240
•Ion Accelerator
•Twin Fusion
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)
•Velocity Tracker

5x 10 man Kroot unit w/ sniper 350

Pathfinder team 44
4x Pathfinder

Total Points = 1843

This list is all deathstar. Farsight allows you to purchase a 7 man body guard unit. The unit with attached characters has 7 plasmas and 8 fusion guns able to split fire to 8 targets if desired with 1 fusion and 1 plasma each and 1 fusion at the eighth. Then can throw out 14 S6 AA2 shots and 8 S8 AP 1 shots all twin linked with Ignore Cover and they can sport Monster Hunter, Tank Hunter, Stubborn, Furious Charge or Counter Attack. They also infiltrate thanks to Shadow Sun have a 2+ cover save while in cover and can jump pack 3d6" with 14 shield drones - lot of ablative wounds. This unit can also do well in HTH against all but the toughest foes since they have the shield drones. Farsight with the Dawn Blade and the Onager Gaunlet also allow for some HTH tank busting.

The Riptides in this list deal with the anti air.

The Pathfinders are filler and can be swapped out if desired.

I would also consider taking allies in this list. I would take a Null Zone Librarian with jump pack to join the death star and some scouts to hide back. ATSKNF + Null Zone + Deny The Witch on 5+ is good.


List #4
-Balanced-

Commander 148
•Missile Pod (36" S7 AP A2)
•Drone Controller (drones use his BS)
•Puretide Engram Neurochip (allows bearer to choose between Tank Hunter, Monster Hunter, Stubborn, Furious Charge or Counter Attack each turn)
•Multi Spectrum Sensor Suit (sacrifices his shooting so unit can Ignore Cover)

Riptide 220
•Ion Accelerator (72" S7 AP2 H3, 72" S8 AP2 H1 large blast, Gets Hot, Nova Charge 72" S9 AP2 Ordnance 1 Gets Hot Large)
•Twin Fusion (18" S8 AP1 Melta)
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)

Riptide 220
•Ion Accelerator
•Twin Fusion
•Stimulant Injector (FNP)

5x 10 man Kroot unit w/ sniper 350

8x Pathfinder 88

8x Pathfinder 88

3x Broadside 351
•Twin High Yield Missile Pod (36" S7 AP4 H4)
•Twin Smart Missile System (30" S5 AP5 H4 Ignore Cover no LOS needed)
•Velocity Tracker (can choose to Sky Fire)
6x Missile Drone (same gun as commander)
3x Seeker Missile

Hammer Head 180
•Rail Gun (72" S10 AP1 H1 Submunitions 72" S6 AP4 H1 large blast)
•Twin Smart Missile System
•Automated Repair system (at the end of your turn on a 6 you repair immobilised or weapon destroyed)
•Long Strike - Gives Hammer Head BS5, Tank Hunter, Preferred Enemy (IG), Black Sun Filter, Overwatch, Fire Support

Sky Ray 115
Smart Missile System

Skyshield 75

Total Points = 1843

This army is more balanced than the others. They Sky Ray takes over for the other Broadside unit for anti air and with the Pathfinders in play your other units are more effective. Since Marker can mark for markers now, an idea I like is to mark a flyer with the Skyrays shots. If you land two hits, then you could choose to use it to shoot with a unit of Pathfinders who should land 4 hits now. This could allow more units to hit the target.



Thoughts on Tau
The codex could be better but I'm not seeing a lot to argue that now. Riptides are hot but they make Crisis Suits useless out sight of Shadow Sun shenanigans.

The race is designed to work in concert, but no matter how experienced you are, that can fall apart quickly.

Kroot got better. Everyone who says they got worse is missing a few big things. First Kroot were horrible in HTH. They cost one point less so you can get more now, or you can opt for snipers and make it so they can actually kill something as opposed to just going to ground on objectives.

Tau flyers are not horrible, but will rely on upgrades to do well.

Overall, Cadre Fireblade, Aun'shi, Darkstrider are all garbage. Aun'vai may be okay at best, and a normal ethereal is okay too but not great. Farsight and Shadow Sun are good and so is the suit commander.

Most everything is okay in the book. Riptides are the star. You need a pair, maybe even three.

Test

This is the original icon for the blog.

Amazing GI Joe Cobra IG army for sale

Gabe Dobkins has put his famous army up for grabs...

Gabe Dobkin's GI Joe Cobra Imperial Guard army

Prodigy

I have been very busy with work so not as much time for blogging unfortunately. Hopefully soon again I'll be able to blog more often again. Anyways there is a lot of excitement for the new Tau. That is good for the hobby and I wish ever codex was so well received initially - for all the right reasons of course. I remember all the excitement when the fifth edition Grey Knight codex was released.

Here is my 2250 point World Eaters army list I'm bringing to WarGamesCon this year for the Heresy narrative campaign. You can bring up to 3000 points so I'm planning to bring Chaos daemons as my ally. I'll discuss what I'm planning to bring for daemons after the World Eaters list.

Abbadon
9x Chosen Marines - 2x power axe, power sword, plasma pistol, flamer, Mark of Khorne, Icon of Wrath
Champion - bolter, lightning claw, power fist
Storm Eagle - extra armor, twin linked lascannon sponsons, twin linked multi-melta

Kharn
6x Khorne Berserker - Icon of Wrath
Champion - bolter, lightning claw, power fist
Land Raider - extra armor, dozer blades, dirge caster

7x Khorne Berserker - Icon of Wrath, Veterans of the Long War
Champion - bolter, lightning claw, power fist
Land Raider - extra armor, dozer blades, dirge caster

Contemptor Dreadnaught - extra armor, Mark of Khorne, heavy conversion beamer, plasma blaster

I'm sure the list seems small for this level of points but believe me when I say it hits like the proverbial ton of bricks. The campaign is solely geared towards having fun so I'm not worried if it's not the most competitive list. I do know it's a lot of fun to play and building all the units is great too. White is a very challenging color to paint and I'm learning a lot on that front.

The theme for the army is to represent the exact point in time when the World Eaters fully committed to the God of War and received his many gifts and blessings. So at this moment the Legion is coupled with Khornate daemons. I want to field a Bloodthirster and Daemon Prince along with a unit of 20 Flesh Hounds plus some Bloodletters.

Fish

Here are my first impressions on Tau. Note that I've not read the new codex.

First I tip my hat to all the many fan boys. This was obviously a very heavily anticipated release. Supposedly Tau were number two in sales to Space Marines back during fourth edition. I remember playing many tournament games versus Tau. They were no joke. It's nice to see them finally get a new codex with updated rules. The rumors sound really good so far and I've seen some of the rules in English posted on the Internet. From what I've seen so far they look like they will be a lot of fun to play and the new minis are gorgeous. What more could you ask for as a gamer ?

I am just thankful I have not read any rumors like they will get to shoot at BS6 while going to ground while simultaneously twin linking all their many guns... That would be just as stupid and we really don't need another broken IG codex. It seems like the new Tau have a lot of neat tricks now to avoid getting assaulted and punish armies that attempt to charge them... I think that even with all these new buffs the assault phase will prove to be there Achilles Heel as a pure army. It always was. It always will because they have absolutely nothing in the way of hand to hand combat.

I never played Tau myself nor do I have any desire to do so but I'm not a hater. Really . Like I've said before one of my favorite things about sixth edition is the new uber balance across the board and I see the new Tau playing right into that fundamental concept. They seem to have some solid anti flyer defense but without Interceptor it will not be the end of flyers - think about it. I do think based on what I've read so far they will help to curtail flyer spam and that's a good thing in my mind... Even more balance and the meta is more diluted than ever before.

I am interested to see if Tau become as popular again as they were back in fourth edition. Maybe they will be more popular as an ally. It's hard to say at this point but I could see it going either way. The Tau in sixth edition are the inter galactic whores of the 40k universe (taken from a friend on Facebook)... They will ally with most any other race with the exception of dark eldar. Why they would ally with one of their worst enemies (Orks) I have no idea but it's still quite intriguing to say the least. I can easily see Tau becoming the top go to ally... What really competitive player doesn't want some new skyfire railguns and suits (taken from my good buddy Goatboy)? The new codex sounds very appealing at a first glance but I keep asking myself how will they fare against horde armies and land raider rush. AV14 is the king now and negates a lot of their cool toys. The lascannon is another jewel against them and the disruption pod is not nearly as good as it was... Still it's something though.

Mostly I'm liking the new special characters and that's something Tau needed to buff their rank and file.

So that's it for now here at Terminus Est. In case you didn't know the Tau evolved from fish, hence the simple title... I'm not going to leave you hanging. Kroot evolved from birds. Vespids evolved from who knows what.