Come the Apocalypse - Warhammer 40k Podcast: Recent Episodes
Robert Chandler
Come the Apocalypse is dedicated to covering competitive Warhammer 40,000 including army and list reviews, hobby tips and advice, and tips to improve your Warhammer 40k experience.
Hosts: Robert Chandler and Daniel HestersSpecial Guest: Seth "Mad Dok" Oster, winner of Best Overall at Warzone Giga-bytesMusic: Heroic Demise by Matthew Pablo licensed under CC-BY available hereThe CTA Podcast returns! Daniel and Robert sit down to discuss 9th edition, what we've been up to during the COVID-19 Pandemic. We also interview Seth Oster of the Dangli Boyz to talk about his big win at Warzone Giga-Bytes GT with his Ork Buggy list. Finally, we break down the Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament Mission Pack Secondaries with opinions on list design and capitalizing on making the most out of secondary selections in the new 9th edition missions.
COVID-19 has definitely changed how we do things in our everyday lives these days, and Warhammer 40k is certainly no exception to that. With 9th edition on the horizon most people are taking a pause from playing the game as we get ready to focus on the new edition which is fast approaching. However, if you still need to scratch that 40k itch and the quarantine has you down, fortunately Tabletop Simulator is a great way to get some games in. There is a large community supporting the game on TTS which has grown exponentially since the virus hit.
In this short tutorial video I explain how to get setup with playing Warhammer 40k in Tabletop Simulator, how to get the files you need installed and how to build a list the simple way in the program.
With a heavy heart we have to announce that Warzone: Come the Apocalypse will be canceled for 2020 due to COVID-19. We will return in 2021 and look forward to bringing you a top notch event for 9th edition! Thank you all for understanding and stay safe everyone.
This past month saw the release of the latest offering in the Psychic Awakening series, Blood of Baal. This volume includes new rules for Blood Angels and Tyranids,both of which got some pretty good buffs, the Blood Angels really came out on top with this book. So much so, in fact, that it is my opinion that Blood Angels are now a tier one army in competitive 40k.
Rather than go on a long review about the book itself, I'm going to highlight what I feel are some of the best changes, some tactics and synergy to use to make the most out of the new book and finally a look over my current Blood Angels army list.
The Big Changes
First, we have updates to several datasheets including, of course, the new Primaris version of Mephiston. He is essentially the same as before only he now has 1 more attack and wound. And he got a points reduction. He was already good but now is probably an auto-take in most Blood Angels armies henceforth. Additionally we saw updates to Astorath and Lemartes which now have access to the coveted Litany abilities, themselves big game changers for the army. We also get the official Sanguinary Priest with the option to add a jump pack which is actually quite an important addition for the army. Of course there are several other datasheets presented in the book, including Death Company Intercessors, and the newish units that released long after the original codex.
We finally have access to Combat Doctrines just as normal Marines, which is honestly a huge boost. Additionally, Blood Angels have their own special ability which triggers during the Assault Doctrine if your army is entirely composed of Blood Angels; Savage Echoes. While the Assault Doctrine is active (turn 3 onward) when a Blood Angels unit charges, is charged or performs a Heroic Intervention, add 1 to the attacks characteristic of models in that unit. This also combos with Shock assault which basically does the same thing. What this means is that when you get to turn 3 your Blood Angels units are putting out some real pain on the enemy. We'll get to more of that in a bit.
Red Thirst has also seen an update from the standard codex version. Now in addition to giving Blood Angels +1 to wound in the Fight Phase, it also lets them add 1 to all Advance and Charge rolls. This is a huge boost for the army. Flesh Tearers also get their own version of this, but it is simply not as good as Red Thirst. Being able to need an 8 out of reserves to make a charge is a huge boon for this army.
As mentioned above, Blood Angels now have access to the litanies for Chaplains, which is really nice. They even have their own special litany which allows you to choose a Blood Angels unit within 6" and when that unit makes a wound roll during melee all unmodified 6s become AP -4. Not a bad buff, by any stretch, but Canticle of Hate is where it's at for Blood Angels. If this litany is inspiring then any units within 6" of the Chaplain may add 2 to their charge rolls and pile-in and consolidate an additional 3".
New Stratagems. Boy there are a lot of new stratagems in here for Blood Angels. Many of them were simply ported over from Codex Space Marines, but Blood Angels have access to several clutch stratagems which I will cover here:
- Refusal to Die: 1 CP Once per turn only. Give a Death Company unit a 5+++ to ignore wounds. This goes a long way to help increase the survival of those Death Company. An amazing strat.
- Death on the Winds. 1 CP During the Fight Phase select one Sanguinary Guard unit. Until the end of that phase treat a result of a 1 on the d3 damage as a 2 instead. Sanguinary Guard can dish out a lot of pain in this updated and this really ramps up the damage.
- Unbridled Ardour. 1 CP Select a Blood Angels unit during the Charge phase. That unit may perform a Heroic Intervention as if it were a character and may move 6". This is probably one of the more underrated strats in the book, but it is extremely good for counter charging units.
These are just 3 of the main standouts. Naturally there are some other amazing strats such as Transhuman Physiology, Duty Eternal and Hero of the Chapter. And of course they have all the strats in their current codex as well. This means that of all the Marine variants, Blood Angels have the most stratagems available to them which gives them a lot of flexibility in list design.Blood of Baal Tactics and SynergyThese updates have really ramped up Blood Angels to a tier one level. In the hands of a capable general they can really cause havoc on the table top. Let's take a look at some of the key synergies you should be running.Death Company blobs supported by Lemartes. 15 Death Company with 4-5 thunder hammers and chainswords and boltguns on the rest. Sure you can deploy them on the board and move upfield with Forlorn Fury if you go first. But that requires deploying them on the table and risking them getting shot up. We don't want that especially given the rise of units such as the Thunderfire Cannon and other units which ignore line of sight. It's best to just stick this blob in deep strike.Lemartes you will want to actually deploy on the field. With units such as scouts and infiltrators to screen out, Lemartes will most often be safe. You will want to deploy him either last or close to the last drop. And you'll want to put him down near where you want the Death Company to hit in turn 2. At the start of the battle round you want to pop off the Canticle of Hate. Move him up and advance if needed (don't forget your +1 to the roll if you advance). On turn 2, the Death Company will come down by Lemartes and the fun begins. When the Death Company drop, you'll likely want to send in your Smash Captain with Angel's Wings first to prevent overwatch. Losing Death Company to overwatch is one of the most frustrating things to deal with and Blood Angels have no way to stop that other than using either the Angel's Wings relic or the Flesh Tearers warlord trait character to deny overwatch. So, if facing a nasty gunline like Iron Hands, who can buff up overwatch to 4+ to hit, you'll want to keep that smash captain close by so he can deny that overwatch.So, the Death Company have dropped and now you need a 7 on the dice to make a charge and next to Lemartes you can reroll this giving you about an 82% chance of sticking that charge on 2d6. Which is nice because this means you are no longer dependent on Descent of Angels. Sure, you can use it if you want, but your chances are high enough after the litany goes off to hold back the CP if you wish and have a great chance of landing that charge. You'll want to leave enough room for Lemartes to get in there as well. Because we want to get the extra movement on pile-in and consolidation. Getting 6" on these gives you some incredible distance to cover and goes a long way in allowing you to finish off a couple of good targets and wrapping up a unit to prevent the Death Company from being shot in your opponent's following turn. This can often be a game changing move if pulled off appropriately.Now it is turn 3 and you're going to drop in the Sanguinary Guard at this point and this is where the meat grinding begins. Savage Echoes is kicking in at this point meaning that combined with the Sanguinor buff, which you will most certainly want nearby, each Sanguinary Guard is swinging 5 attacks each! That is a ridiculous amount of attacks. Throw Unleash Rage on them and now that number is 6 attacks each. This is a murder blend unit of death and by the time they come in, they should be in a good position to get to something good. If not, don't be afraid to drop them down behind terrain and wait maybe another turn to make a move. Having a unit like this in the late parts of the game when resources are thin for your opponent can be devastating.Ideally, on turn 3 you'll want to drop them in perhaps next to Astorath (who can throw down 2 litanies) for Canticle of Hate. For sure you're going to want the Sanguinor, Sanguinary Ancient, and probably a Sanguinary Priest with the new relic Icon of the Angel. The Icon is, in my opinion, one of the best relics in the army and easily an auto-take. It allows any unit within 3" of the bearer to re-roll any number of dice when making a charge move. That is huge combined with +1 to charge rolls. Now, the Sanguinary Guard, Sanguinor, and Sanguinary Ancient are needing an 8" with a re-roll to get in. This is still only around a 65% chance to get in. But having Descent of Angels in your back pocket with a re-roll for Sanguinary Guard, something they did not have before this update, is huge in ensuring they get in. It also helps make sure your buff characters like Sanguinor aren't trailing behind and not in combat. When this unit sticks it's charge you are looking at 45-50 power fist attacks on Turn 3! You'll want your warlord or a similar character nearby to give them a re-roll buff. With the Priest in range of the unit they are STR 10 which combined with Red Thirst is enough to wound anything in the game on 2s. And of course with the Sanguinary Ancient you'll be re-rolling 1s to wound. Let me make this perfectly clear, there is nothing in the game that will likely survive this sort of damage output. Not a knight, or a similar super heavy. You'd be hard pressed even to find a titan that would not fall from this barrage of attacks. Simply put, whatever this unit touches dies. Period.The Sanguinary Ancient relic banner Standard of Sacrifice is still the go to here. The new relic to give the unit an extra 2" to movement is nice, but these guys need to survive. Between Transhuman Physiology and the Standard of Sacrifice, you have a unit that is incredibly hard to remove and capable of dishing out some pain. My Current List Post Blood of BaalBlood Angels have always been a CP heavy army and with the release of Blood of Baal they are even moreso than before. So, we want a list that can maximize their CP. At minimum I think you need 2 Battalions. The list I'll be running features 3 Battalions. That is 18 CP and most likely by turn 3 you'll be out of Command Points entirely. But hopefully by then you've done enough damage that it won't matter. Anyway, on to the list++Battalion++Captain, Jump Pack, Thunderhammer, Storm shield (Angel's Wings, Hero of the Chapter: Artisan of War)Mephiston3x 5 Scouts, Combat Knives++Battalion++LemartesAstorath2x 5 Scouts, Boltguns5 Infiltrators++Battalion++The Sanguinor, WarlordSanguinary Priest with Jump Pack (Icon of the Angel)3x 5 Intercessors15 Death Company with Jump Packs, 4x Thunderhammers, 1 Power Fist, 10 Chainswords, 11 Boltungs9 Sanguinary Guard, 9x Power fists, Angelus BoltgunsSanguinary Ancient, Sword (Standard of Sacrifice)In the pre-game you're spending 3 CP to take all the relics. Another CP for Hero of the Chapter, which is clutch as it lets you get that smash captain up to 4 damage on his thunderhammer without basically giving your opponent the Warlord kill. And we'll spend another CP for Death Visions on him to get that extra attack on the charge and 6+++ (which we can boost to a 5+++ in turn one with Refusal to Die.) That leaves you with 13 CP to spend during the game. Plenty to do most of the tricks you'll want to do with the army over the first few turns.The first turn is generally about movement and positioning. You're moving Lemartes near where you want the Death Company to drop in turn 2. Most of the time this will be at the heart of the army. You're also deploying with forward pressure with the Infiltratos and combat scouts to hit screens hard in turn one. Intercessors are typically in the backfield slowly advancing upfield or sitting on objectives as needed. Turn 2, the Death Company drop in, as described above, with Lemartes buffing them they can cause a LOT of damage and can wrap up a unit to keep them from being shot up. This also helps protect incoming characters like Mephiston, Smash Captain (if you haven't sent him in already) and Astorath. Turn 3 the Sanguinary Guard drop and the real party begins. As noted above these guys just begin to plow through anything on the board. I have tested this list over several games against a variety of builds and it has performed quite well. It is, of course, not without it's weaknesses. Infiltrators really make this army hard to work using deep strike shenanigans. Tau and Iron Hands overwatch can hurt as well. Against many armies, and dare I say, most armies, however, you can do a massive amount of work with the new Blood Angels.
In Episode 31 we cover our recent Warzone: CTA GT which was this past weekend. We chat about Warzone: Atlanta and how to list design for the Warzone missions. And we chat a bit about SoCal Open.
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Daniel Hesters, Derek Rowe
I know what you're probably thinking. Assault Centurions? For Space Marines? Are those even a THING? The answer is yes! Not only do they exist, but most Space Marines armies either will be using them or should be using them.
When Space Marines were released back in 6th edition, Centurions were the new hotness and, as with most new model releases, had an immediate impact on the game, which lasted well into 7th edition. In those days, however, crazy deathstars were being built around Devastator Centurions. No one ever considered Assault Centurions, and for good reason. They were slow, had mediocre shooting, etc. Devastator Centurions were especially awesome because of access to what was then devastating Grav Cannon firepower.
Fast forward to 8th edition, Primaris marines are the new hotness, grav weaponry in general is just mediocre, and Centurions have been sitting on the shelf for years. With the release of the newest Space Marines codex, and particularly their respective codex supplements, Centurions are seeing play again, but this time it's in their assault loadout. Not only are Assault Centurions good now, they are actually great and many lists are being built around them as the primary core component.
Let's take a look at their basic profile. The Centurion Assault Squad is an Elites choice in Codex Space Marines. The unit contains 3 models each armed with Centurion Assault Launchers, 2 Flamers, and Siege Drills. They have a Move characteristic of 4" so they don't move especially fast. A WS and BS of 3+, Strength and Toughness of 5, with 4 Wounds each, 3 Attacks each (4 on the Sgt), Leadership of 8, and a Save of 2+. They have the Angels of Death special rule, Omniscope (which allows the unit to ignore cover), and the Combat Squads ability. Centurion Assault Launchers allows you to roll for each model that is within 1" of an enemy unit after finishing a charge move and on a 4+ that unit suffers a mortal wound...meh.
Their base profile is underwhelming, until we look at their wargear options. Assault Centurions can replace their mediocre Assault Launchers for Hurricane Bolters. In doing so, they lose the ability to cause a mortal wound on the charge, but thanks to Bolter Discipline, can fire off 12 shots each from 24" out! Not too shabby. And when they do make combat, they have 4 attacks each (5 on the sgt) thanks to Shock Assault that hit at STR 10, -4 AP (-5 if the Assault Doctrine is active), and 3 Damage flat. Wow these guys hit like a freight train if they can get in there! Sadly with a 4" move, that makes it pretty difficult. That's where the new Codex supplements come in. There are quite a few tricks you can use to make Assault Centurions go from medicore on paper to absolute nightmares to deal with on the table top!
Before we deep dive into some particularly nasty combos with Assault Centurions, we need to consider the basic considerations from Codex Space Marines. Regardless of which Chapter you decide to go for in order to really make these guys work we need to look at putting them into a detachment that is designed around custom Successor Traits. In particular we are looking at Long-range Marksmen. This trait extends the range of all ranged weapons for any unit by 3". This is extremely important as now those 2 Flamers each are 11" range instead of 8". This makes a difference when we get into Codex Supplement details because there are many tricks you can use to get these guys in close out of reserves. As for the second Successor Traits, that can be built maybe to maximize the other elements of your list, but I think Master Artisans is a good consideration.
Now let's look at some specific combos that make Assault Centurions the devastating beasts they are in combat.
White Scars
Assault Centurions will appear most frequently in White Scars armies. Why is this? Because of the Encirclement Stratagem. For 1 CP you can deploy these guys off the table. On Turns 2 or 3 they can then come in off any battlefield edge, more than 9" away from enemy units. With Long-range Marksmen now they are within range of those 2 Flamers they are each equipped with. So, a squad of 6 of these guys is throwing out 12d6 Flamer shots and 72 Bolter shots. That is well over 100 shots on the turn they come in! Throw a buff character nearby allowing re-rolls and you have some incredibly dangerous firepower. Toss in a Librarian throwing Ride the Winds and Storm-Wreathed on them and now the unit adds 2" to their charge roll and cannot be Overwatched! And when they get into combat? Well, they are putting out 25 attacks with their Siege Drills. If you're in Turn 3 and the Assault Doctrine is active, Those Siege Drills are doing 4 damage each at AP -5!
They will roll over anything they touch in combat usually. And, if you tag team them with your warlord nearby with Master of Snares, on a 4+ you can keep a unit from falling back. But, if they do fall back, so what. For 1 CP you can use Butchered Quarry to make attacks on them when they attempt to fall back which will usually be enough to kill anything lucky enough to have lived from your initial charge. And even if after all that a unit gets away freeing your Assault Centurions to be shot? For 2 CP you toss Transhuman Physiology on them and now you have a unit with Toughness 5, that can only be wounded on a 4+ regardless of the shooting weapon's strength, with a 2+ save, making them incredibly hard to remove.
Raven Guard
While White Scars offers a great turn 2 or 3 beta strike with Assault Centurions, Raven Guard can get out there and punch you in the face turn 1 with a devastating alpha strike. An ill prepared opponent will find the game over in the first turn if they do not know what they are in for and how to guard against it. This combo centers around a Raven Guard smash captain with the Master of Ambush warlord trait. At the start of the first battle round, before the first turn begins, the warlord and one Raven Guard Infantry unit may be removed from the battlefield and redeployed more than 9" from the enemy deployment zone and enemy models. Obviously you want to do this if you go first as it allows you to pick up your Assault Centurions, drop them within 9" before the first turn begins, then move, shoot and charge with them. Throw a Raven Guard librarian nearby to cast Enveloping Darkness on an enemy unit to deny them Overwatch, and suddenly these Assault Centurions are right in your lines crushing your army on turn 1.
If this tactic is too bold for your taste, you can always pay 1 CP for Strike from the Shadows and put the Assault Centurions into reserves, allowing them to come in anywhere on the table turns 2 or 3 more than 9" away from enemy models. Again, we are using Long-range marksmen so we can be in range to use those 2 flamers each on the turn they come in.
The Centurion Assault Squad, when given the proper wargear, traits and support, can make for a unit that can shift a game entirely. A unit of 6 with hurricane bolters is 312 points. A great value considering all the tricks you can pull with them to maximize their use. Expect to see them a lot on the top tables in the future.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last month or so, you probably know by now that the new Iron Hands Codex Supplement has arrived and boy is it a nasty one. Iron Hands is likely to shake up the meta quite a bit in competitive Warhammer 40,000, but it is not an insurmountable matchup to overcome. The list can be beaten by employing the proper tactics. Let's take a look.
How Does it Work?Before we can really deep dive into the question of "how do I beat this army," we must first understand how it functions. There are several list build archetypes you will see with Iron Hands but the parameters fall under two categories; Repulsor Executioner spam or Shooting Dreadnought spam.The core of most of the Iron Hands lists that you will see will include the new unique Iron Hands character, Feirros. Feirros is a great buff character as he grants several amazing abilities including a 5++ Invulnerable save to any Iron Hands unit within 6". This is huge as it gives units that otherwise would be very vulnerable to dying quickly, such as Repulsor Executioners, some amazing survivability. Additionally, at the start of the Shooting Phase he can pick an Iron Hands unit and give it BS 2+. Again, quite good on units with great long range firepower that degrade. To top it off he has the ability to heal any Vehicle within 3" a whopping 3 wounds per turn. Not to mention, he can use a stratagem to do it twice...to the same vehicle.The core components of the primary build centers around 3 Repulsor Executioners or 2 Repulsor Executioners and a Leviathan Dread with dual Storm Cannons. Follow that up with Feirros, a Chapter Master upgrade Captain with the Ironstone relic, a Lieutenant and a Librarian and now we have a giant bubble of death. The Leviathan in this build is particularly deadly here because of the Space Marines Duty Eternal stratagem that allows you to halve all damage inflicted on a dreadnought backed up by a character carrying the Ironstone relic to further reduce that damage by 1. You have a Toughness 8 gun platform with a 2+/4++/6+++ that is halving damage and reducing it furthermore by 1. This Leviathan is hard as hell to bring down.Another build archetype you might see are various Dreadnought platforms with twin lascannon/missile launcher combinations that are all made Characters using the Iron Hands pre-game stratagem. Now you have several dreads firing powerful shots, with less than 10 wounds that are characters and thus cannot be targeted by enemy shooting unless they are the closest enemy unit. Both of these build archetypes will also feature units like Infiltrators and Scouts to make it very difficult to deep strike close to the death bubble units.Sounds pretty scary yes? Indeed, it is, but not unbeatable. In fact, I believe that in ITC Champions Missions, the Iron Hands army is more of a gatekeeper list. That is, one you must be prepared to fight and have a gameplan to beat if you plan to make it to the top table of an ITC Major event.General WeaknessesGoing into the Iron Hands matchup, there are several weaknesses that the list has which can be exposed by generally any army. 1. The army is slow. This army does not want to move much. In either variation, the list will not move much if at all for the first few turns. This is to capitalize on shooting the Executioner's primary gun twice. In the dreadnought variation, the dreads don't want to get close usually as they want to maximize their ability to remain untargeted while putting out damaging firepower. This allows you to utilize terrain and mobility to your advantage. Iron Hands lists are designed to maximize the "kill more" portion of the mission and will focus on secondaries revolving around killing units such as Butcher's Bill, The Reaper, Titanslayers, etc.2. Bunched up units. As Feirros's heal and increased BS ability has a short range of 3", coupled with the fact that Feirros himself isn't exactly very fast, the bubble of Repulsors/Leviathan/Characters will all be relatively close and bunched up together. While we noted above that it is slow moving, it also lacks speed. Against certain matchups, such as Eldar Flyers, this isn't that important as most of the time they'll be able to draw line of sight on the planes in their bubble. Against many armies, however this provides a problem unless there is just no good terrain on the tables at all. Most competitive events feature decent line of sight blocking terrain though, meaning you can position many of your units around to block out line of sight and reduce the shooting ability of the death bubble.3. Mortal Wounds. While the Ironstone can reduce damage by 1 from attacks, Mortal Wounds are dealt individually 1 at a time. Meaning that if you can crank out some mortal wounds (looking at you Ad Mech, Ork Shock Attack Guns, and Imperial Fists Cohort) you can chew through the death bubble. Iron Hands have a stratagem that allows them to shut down any psychic power on a 4+ AFTER a deny the witch attempt as well, however, meaning they can negate super Smite casts. Generally speaking however, the army will struggle to deal with some builds that can dish out lots of mortal wounds while being protected by chaff units. Example being the Jim Vesal style Chaos list.4. Combat. While Feirros is no slouch in combat by any stretch, Iron Hands have no access to anything which allows them to Fall Back and shoot. This means that if you can get within 1" of a Leviathan or other dreads you can shut their shooting down for a turn. This is important for moving and positioning. This will be difficult to do for many armies because of Infiltrators and the Leviathan being protected by Heroic Intervening characters and Repulsors which reduce charge distances by 2". That said, if you can get into and touch the Leviathan you can limit it's efficiency. Repulsors of course have Fly so simply touching them will not work.General StrategiesWhen facing off against Iron Hands in ITC Champions Missions, you're best suited going for board control secondaries. The Iron Hands lists are incredibly elite but have units that seemingly just will not die. In a game of attrition, very few armies can deal with them in a shooting match. That makes other ITC Secondaries such as Engineers, Recon, and Ground Control more appealing. It might be tempting to take Big Game Hunter, but this is a trap. The likelihood of you killing 4 Iron Hands vehicles over the course of a game is very low for most builds.In turn, the Iron Hands army wants to kill your units. Most of the time they will pick Secondaries centered around killing things. If they pick Marked for Death, for example, on one of your nasty units, then just hide the unit from them. Sure you may miss out on the killing power, but as we are noting here, you're going to struggle killing them anyway. You're better off playing the deny game in many cases.Understand that most likely you will not win the Kill/Kill More battle. Basically anything that is exposed to the Repulsors will die. And in retaliation most of the time you won't be able to put enough damage on them fast enough to get Kill More. Instead, focus on Hold/Hold More on the primary. As noted above, Iron Hands are slow and want to kill you. They certainly have the capacity to hold a couple of objectives a turn, but in the larger scheme you want to be earning Hold/Hold More as often as possible to beat them.If you do decide to expose a unit to shoot at one of their units, ensure that you can kill it. You will not win by simply chipping away wounds off of Repulsors or the Leviathan. You can calculate the risk you might take but understand that when you send a unit in to do the job, they need to do it completely. That might be GSC units with Rocksaws, Assault Centurions, Ad Mech Robots firing mortal wounds, etc. But have either some way to protect these units or ensure that whatever they target will die. Keep in mind that assaulting this death bubble is hard because they can Overwatch on 4s, re-rolling all hits, and can also reduce charge distances, as we noted above.Have a Plan and Implement ItWhen you get to the table against the Iron Hands player, analyze the terrain relative to where the objectives will be placed for the match. If possible try to put them into deployment zones where the terrain is favorable and provides your army with as many hiding spots as possible while still being able to score the objectives.Understand how you plan to deploy relative to the Secondaries they select. If they Mark For Death your units have a plan to protect some of them, if not all of them. You want to reduce their ability to get points and outscore them. If the terrain is not very favorable then try and saturate them with as many threats as possible so your troops units can move into position to hide and score points. That might be pressing a unit forward that you know will die sacrificing it to ensure your units can get into more favorable areas of the board without getting shot.These are just some general guidelines and tips on how to deal with Iron Hands. Many factions have very specific answers to Iron Hands. If you have questions on faction specific tips, comment below for some advice on how your faction can handle Iron Hands.
Recently I was contacted by app developer Jacob Noble, to take a look over his new MathHammer app. He was kind enough to give me a free version of the app to review and being more than a little bit of a mathhammer nerd I was more than happy to oblige. So, does this app deliver? Let's take a look.
First, off some of you might be wondering, what exactly does the term "Mathhammer" mean anyway? In the world of Warhammer 40k, the term mathhammer is used as a means of understanding how efficient a unit's weapons/attacks are at wounding or killing opposing units. It's basically a breakdown of the "odds" of damage output on an average dice roll. Figuring out all the numbers on your own or within a spreadsheet can be cumbersome, to say the least. Especially if you're not exactly mathematically inclined (like me for example.) That's where the MathHammer App comes in to do the heavy lifting for you. You can download the MathHammer App on the Google Play store and it will soon be available on the App Store for iPhone users.
Pros:
The MathHammer app has a lot of cool features. The user interface is very user friendly and intuitive. The app has variables for just about everything you can think of. Want to know how efficient a unit of 10 Intercessors is shooting at a squad of Plaguebearers? The app can figure in the invulnerable save, and Disgustingly Resilient rules to give you an average number of models killed.
One of my favorite features of the app is the ability to save "Profiles" for units so you can easily load them up. This is such an awesome feature and really saves a lot of time. You can set up profiles for your attacking units as well as enemy units as well. It even includes a field to input the unit's points to see the unit's efficiency vs that target! The app also includes a handy FAQ which I advise anyone planning on using the app to read and look over.
Let's take a look at how efficient a Repulsor Executioner Laser Destroyer, buffed by the Forge Father, and a Lieutenant is at hurting an Imperial Knight with a 4++ Invulnerable save.
We've loaded up the Repulsor Executioner Laser Destroyer weapon here and factored in the BS of 2+ from the Forge Father, firing twice, re-rolling 1s to hit, and re-rolling 1s to wound. To make it even better, we've also included the exploding 6s stratagem available to Iron Hands. All of these can be adjusted in the Settings for the unit. We've also set up the Defender's profile as an Imperial Knight Crusader with the Rotate Ion Shield stratagem for a 4++ invulnerable.
As you can see the expected damage output to a knight with a 4++ using the Repulsor Laser Destroyer is around 9.5 wounds. Not too shabby.
And that in a nutshell is what MathHammer will be able to do for you. You know, that you can expect a fully buffed out Repulsor Executioner shooting twice to put around 9-10 damage onto an Imperial Knight with a 4++.
Cons:
Honestly, there aren't many. Presuming the built in math is correct (and I have no reason to believe it isn't), the app doesn't have a lot of drawbacks. There are some settings that need to be updated, such as the full re-roll for Chapter Master's and Guilliman which have been changed since the launch of the Space Marines codex. As of now, the app will allow you to re-roll hit rolls in the settings, but this is factoring in modifiers applied after re-rolls. As we know now, with the new Space Marines Rites of Battle for Chapter Masters, they ignore the requirement to apply the modifiers after the re-rolls. That being said, Mr. Noble has assured me he will be working to add this feature in the future.
Is it worth it:
The app is only $3.50 in the Google Play store, which isn't a bad price considering what the app can do for you. I for one, love mathhammering out units for efficiency so I find the price to be a great value. If Mathhammer isn't exactly your thing, then maybe you won't find it worth your money. I have used the app a lot since I have downloaded it and find it to be a great little tool and a good value for the money.
Episode 30
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Daniel Hesters, Red Powell
We are joined by The Worthiest Adversary, Red Powell, as we chat about the common pitfalls and mistakes players make in competitive 40k and how to avoid them.
Also we chat a bit about Iron Hands and the new Space Marines and how they will impact the meta as well as previewing upcoming events including our own Warzone: Come the Apocalypse GT.
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Daniel Hesters, Nick St Amour
Special Guest: Tony Pierce
In Episode 29 we bring on Tony Pierce, head TO of Carolina Crusade, to discuss his first major event, lessons learned and plans for the future. We also recap Nick's journey to number 2 at the Landmass RTT in Biloxi, MS
Link to the Forge World Imperial Fortress-
https://aminiatureodyssey.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/forge-world-imperial-fortress-walls-part-i/
You've been collecting Warhammer 40,000 miniatures for a bit now. You and your buddies have gotten some games in, or perhaps you play weekly or monthly at your local club or game shop with your army. You see advertisements at your club and in your Facebook Groups for local tournaments but you're not sure what that means or even where to begin to learn about tournament play. If you're new to tournament competitive Warhammer 40k then this post is for you. The goal of this article is to provide you with useful information to help you get started on this new journey of learning to play Warhammer 40k at a competitive level.Getting StartedAssuming you have purchased a rulebook, an army codex and some miniatures to start your collection, this section will focus more on going to the next level in the game. The rulebook is divided into several sections, but the sections most relevant to competitive 40k are the Core Rules and the sections on Matched Play and Advanced Rules. The term "Matched Play" is used to refer to tournament level play, although the rules contained within them are not specific to tournaments only, the Matched Play rules are used by most Tournament Organizers around the globe as a basis for their events. All tournaments use Battle Forged armies. The rules for creating a Battle Forged army can be found in the Advanced Rules section of the rulebook and contain information on how detachments are constructed and are critical to building an army list for tournament play.Additionally, Games Workshop publishes updates to the game via the Warhammer Community website. These updates, or FAQs, are published twice a year in the Spring and Fall and make changes or clarify questions regarding the core rules of the game. Additionally, they add rules specific for Matched Play and tournament play. Also, when a new Army Codex is released, they will publish an FAQ for that army within a month. All current FAQs can be found at the link below:https://warhammer-community.com/faqs/Finally, Games Workshop publishes an annual softback book called Chapter Approved which contains updated points changes to units and wargear for all armies while also including new missions and styles to try for Matched Play. The point values contained in Chapter Approved supersede those contained in your Army Codex.Occasionally, Games Workshop will produce new content such as Campaign books (like the Vigilus series) which contain new rules for Matched Play including new detachments, stratagems, and even new units and datasheets.Tournament FormatsOk, you've gotten your army together, you have the latest FAQs and you've created a battle forged army. Where do you go from here? There are multiple tournament formats used throughout the world, but the links to the most popular are presented below:Independent Tournament Circuit (ITC) - https://www.frontlinegaming.org/community/frontline-gamings-independent-tournament-circuit/European Team Championship (ETC) - https://www.glasshammergaming.co.uk/latest-rulespack/The ITC is the most popular format in North America and Canada and most events utilize the ITC Champions Mission packet for their events. The ETC is more popular in the UK and other parts of Europe and has it's own separate mission packet which generally features a mixture of Eternal War and Maelstrom missions.Additionally there are a multitude of other tournament formats and missions used across the globe including the NOVA missions, Adepticon, Warzone: Atlanta, and Renegade Open mission formats.Tools for Tournament PlayersThere are several useful tools available to you as a tournament player, some of which you might already be using in your casual games. BattleScribe - Available on Google Play and the Apple App Store.This app is invaluable as a tool for list creation and building. It is free to download and the data files used to build armies and lists include points and options to change wargear as needed. It allows you to build lists in minutes rather than hours you might spend to build a list using pen and paper. It is a very popular app and chances are, you are already using it. Best Coast Pairings Players App (BCP Players) - Available on Google Play and the Apple App Storehttps://www.bestcoastpairings.com Best Coast Pairings specializes in tournament management software. This tool allows Tournament Organizers to run events and automate pairings, submit lists and much more. The Players app is a fantastic resource for players as it allows you to view ITC events across the globe and look at winning army lists to get help and inspiration and to see what armies are performing well in the meta. It comes with a subscription fee of $5 a month to view prior events and lists, but is the best $5 you will spend as a tournament player. Otherwise use of the app is totally free. This is a must have app for anyone pursuing serious tournament competition! Additionally, Best Coast Pairings lists local upcoming tournaments for those looking to find events close to their area.Mathhammer - Fields of Blood - https://mathhammer.thefieldsofblood.com/What is "mathhammer?" Mathhammer gives you the statistical odds of how units in your army might perform in game based on statistical probability. Want to know just how many genestealers a 10 man unit of Tactical Marines can kill? Or how likely your 6 lascannons are to actually drop an Imperial Knight? This is mathhammer. The site factors in a multitude of options including modifiers, armor penetration, invulnerable saves, etc. It is an invaluable resource for players as it helps you understand how to prioritize your targets in the game with the units you have available. Obviously you cannot use this during a game, as it will take too long, but it helps in preparation and list design.Online Resources and MediaThere are a multitude of websites, blogs, podcasts and social media outlets that focus on competitive play. In fact, there are more now than ever before. Below are some of the best in the business.Social Media -Comp 40k - https://facebook.com/groups/Competitive40k Largest collection of competitive players online in the worldr/WarhammerCompetitive - Sub-reddit for competitive 40k advice and discussionWebsites-Frontline Gaming - Home of the ITC. Also features hundreds of review and tactics articles.Glasshammer Gaming - Home of the ETC. Also features a pay program to help you improve your 40k experience. Nights at the Game Table - Features articles on tournament play and list design. Also features a pay program to get personalized coaching from former ITC Champion Nick Nanavati.Video Channels-Frontline Gaming - Weekly video cast with updates on Competitive 40kD6Evolution - Features tactics videos with top players, Battle Reports and moreTabletop Tactics - The best in the business when it comes to Battle Reports. Free videos on YouTube but the best content is behind a pay wall of $4 a month. Well worth the investment.Vanguard Tactics - YouTube channel focused on competitive 40k battle reportsCanHammer - YouTube channel of the Canadian ETC team focusing on competitive 40k battle reports and tactics videosGlasshammer Gaming - YouTube channel of the UK ETC team focusing on competitive 40k battle reports and tacticsAlmost Pro Gaming - YouTube channel devoted to weekly tournament and meta analysis. Want to see what lists are winning events? Almost Pro Gaming covers this very wellHellstorm Wargaming - YouTube channel focused on competitive 40k battle reportsPodcasts-There are number of Podcasts out there that focus on competitive 40k (including our own monthly show). All of these can be found on Google Play or iTunes. Some of the best include:Best in FactionFacing the Grey TideFog of WarFlying MonkeysLife After the Cover SaveTFG RadioSignals from the FrontlineVeteran Gamer ReenlistedWide World of WargamingCanHammerDangli BoyzChapter TacticsCome the ApocalypseThe Best GeneralThe BattlehostsMOB RulesForge the NarrativeGet out ThereThe best way to get into competitive tournament Warhammer 40k is to just get out there and jump in. Find local events close to you and find out the requirements. Do they require a fully painted army? What is the point level? What missions etc. Put a list together and get out there and play. The competitive community in Warhammer 40k is one of the best in gaming. Most players are happy to help a new player learn the missions and format. It might sound daunting to get into at first, but it is well worth investing into if you are fan of this hobby.
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Roger Jones, Derek Rowe, and Daniel Hesters
Special Guest: (Luscious) Nick St Amour
In this episode we go over our experiences with the new ITC Beta Champions Missions and talk about our experience at the Visions of the Grimdark Grand Tournament held in Montgomery, AL. Joining us is our special guest the luscious Nick St Amour from the Luscious Nick Warhammer Hour Podcast.
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Daniel Hesters and Roger Jones
Special Guest: Brandon Grant
In Episode 27 we sit down with Brandon Grant, the LVO 2019 and 2018 ITC Champion on his road to the Las Vegas Open, his philosophy on preparing for and playing in events and list building.
Hey everyone, Chandler here with another article in our Basic Tactics series. This series is designed to give newer or less experienced tournament players the fundamentals of playing Warhammer 40k at the competitive level. In our last article I discussed List Design. Today, I am going to be talking about target priority. So, let's dive in.
What is Target Priority Anyway?
What exactly does "target priority" mean? In short, target priority in Warhammer 40k is identifying what units in your opponent's army are the most immediate threat to your own and determining which weapons you need to remove that threat.
Most people think of "target priority" as something restrictive to shooting, but that is not the case at all. If you are playing an assault based army, where your list is delivering it's most devastating damage in the Fight Phase of the game, you still need to understand how to prioritize your targets.
The Two Types of Target Priority in 40k
There are two ways to look at target priority. The first is the Macro view. This is done at the list exchange phase before the game has even begun. You will review your opponent's list at this point and determine what units your opponent has in his army list that will be the most damaging to your army and prioritize how you are going to destroy them. Or, perhaps understand that you don't have the tools capable of destroying the units, and plan strategies on how to mitigate their impact in the game.
Maybe you look over your opponent's list and see they have Knight Castellan and your list is heavily mechanized. Obviously the Castellan is then the most damaging threat in your opponent's list. But he also has 2 Knight Gallants, which are meant to apply pressure "demanding" to be dealt with. How are you going to handle that in your army list? Those are the questions you should be asking yourself and figuring out during deployment. Conversely, you might be running a Chaos horde army and see your opponent is running a Castellan, which does not do great against horde style armies. But he might have 4 Assault Cannon Razorbacks capable of wiping out your hordes quickly. Which has the higher priority in preparation? The Razorbacks, of course.
Micro target priority is where you apply your strategy on how you are going to deal with your targets at the unit by unit level. This is typically done turn by turn as the game begins to develop. You come into the game having an idea on how you will mitigate or destroy your opponent's most threatening units at the macro level. At the micro level you are implementing those tactics and determining what to shoot/assault and when to do it turn by turn.
At it's most basic level, micro target priority is determining which tools are at your disposal to deal with threats, and prioritizing the order to utilize those tools. It is generally where most mistakes are made during the game of 40k.
It's simple really. Shoot what you can kill and use the weapons designed to kill the right targets. Anti-tank/monster weapons (lascannons, meltaguns, volcano lance, etc) at the vehicles and monsters and Anti-infantry (boltguns, mortars, lasguns) at the infantry and swarms.
Deny Target Priority to Your Opponent
On the other hand, understand what in your own list is the target priority for your opponent, and try and take that away from them. Your opponent would love to blast your Custodes Bikes away turn 1 with his Dark Reapers. Maybe you should spend the CP and put them in reserves instead. Try to deny your opponent from using the threats they have against you.
The pic above was taken from my Round 1 game at Warzone: Atlanta 2018. My opponent had a wonderful and deadly Knights army supported by Astra Militarum. In turn 1, I made it so that all he had to choose to target with his Knights was a blob of 40 Chaos Cultists that were fearless, as opposed to my Daemon Princes or Ahriman, which are targets he wants to shoot with them. His macro target priority has been denied for now, so he has to determine at the micro level how he is going to get to the targets he wants before they do devastating damage or manage to earn me more points. Shooting Cultists with Knights is not optimal for his list, but he has no choice as there is nothing else to really shoot at. I have denied him target priority. I will cover this in more detail later on in a Deployment tactics article.
Establishing the Order of Shots
Each turn, before your turn begins, you should be analyzing the battle field and preparing your micro target prioritization for that turn. What is available to you to use? What threats need to die/be severely diminished on that turn? Use the tools in the right order and properly to do the job.
Generally speaking you want to fire off all your anti-vehicle/monster weaponry first. But you need to decide what you need to devote to it. Let's say you have a Hive Tyrant on 1 wound in your face and another on full health behind it. You have a Devastator squad with a heavy bolter and a lascannon within range. You opt to shoot the heavy bolter, popping a Hellfire Rounds stratagem to do a mortal wound and kill the Tyrant on a single wound, then shoot the lascannon at the other on full health. Why? Because you don't want to waste the d6 damage on the Tyrant with only 1 wound left. You have the potential to get more wounds through onto the Tyrant with full health behind it. Use the tools to get the job done in the right order.
Don't shoot weapons at units that require a 5+ to wound. As a general rule, this is a bad idea unless you have absolutely nothing else to shoot at other than that target. You want to ensure that you're wounding what you target. Mortars are great at clearing Chaos Cultists and Infantry Squads of Guard. They are not great at trying to wound Hellhounds or Hemlocks. Shoot what you can kill and kill what you can shoot.
Sometimes this isn't always possible. Obviously if that Cultist squad is out of range of your bolters, and the only target in range is an Imperial Knight, then yes, shoot the knight. But try to position your units so that they actually can shoot at targets they can hurt.
Units that do multi-damage and have a high Armour Penetration value should be fired at those targets that they are designed to kill. A Knight Crusader for example could kill a squad of 10 Infantry perhaps with his Avenger Gatling Cannon, but would those shots be better served into your opponent's 5 man Hellblaster squad? Yes absolutely. Because each unsaved wound deals 2 damage and they have 2 wounds each. Unless necessary, don't waste multi-damage shots on single wound models. Sometimes you might have to, for example, if you need to shoot a unit off an objective to score the point. But prioritize what tools you have to do that job.
Closing Thoughts
Target priority can, of course, get much more complex than the examples in this article. This is just a core fundamental guide to help the newer or less experienced player in understanding how to determine their target priority in the game. It can get much more complex especially as a game develops, but it can be mastered over time. Experience is the best teacher, and you will learn the most about target priority by playing games of 40k. So, get out there, roll some dice and slaughter your buddy's plastic toys.
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Roger Jones, Derek Rowe, and Daniel Hesters
It's been a while since we gathered around to chat Warhammer and we had a lot to catch up on. This show is nearly 4 hours long! But we have everything conveniently time stamped here (see below) so you can get to the content that matters most to you (probably LVO stuff.)
In this episode we chat about 2018 and what we accomplished, 2019 resolutions, a little about Chapter Approved and Vigilus, a preview of the upcoming Las Vegas Open 2019 the world's largest Warhammer 40k tournament, and finally we round it out with some listener questions.
Time stamps:
News and Announcements - 2:00
Hobby Progress and Games Played - 20:19
2018 Recap and 2019 Resolutions - 1:03:40
Chapter Approved and Vigilus Chat - 1:33:40
LVO 2019 Preview - 2:21:13
Listener Questions - 3:09:52
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Roger Jones, Derek Rowe, Daniel Hesters
Special Guest Red Powell, Warzone: Atlanta 2018 Warmaster
Produced by Roger Jones
In episode 25 we recap Warzone: Atlanta 2018 and sit down for an interview with the Warmaster, Red Powell on his rise to glory as the best general of Warzone: Atlanta.
Hey, everyone. Chandler here with a recap of my day 2 at Warzone: Atlanta 2018. For the day 1 recap click the link here.
So, day 1 was a wrap and I sat at 2-1 with around 54 battle points or so. For me to have a chance to contend to get a top 10 spot I'd need to have big wins in my last two games, but more than that I just wanted to have some awesome matches to wrap up the event. Fortunately I couldn't have had two better opponents to close out WZA 2018.
Game 4 vs Adeptus Custodes, Astra Militarum, Assassins
So, the pairings go up for Round 4 and initially I thought I might be facing off against the triple Castellan list (which was a matchup I was salivating for) but instead I found myself pitted up against none other than Joe "Papa Bear" Behrend. For those who don't know, Joe won NOVA 2018 Best Overall and would go on to win a much deserved Best Painted award at Warzone: Atlanta this year. His army is legitimately one of the best armies I have ever laid eyes on.
Joe is known mostly for his hobby skills, but he was also a pretty incredible player as well. His army was unique in that it wasn't the typical Custodes jetbike spam army (one I'm guilty of running). Instead his army featured mostly Custodes infantry with 3 Custodian Guard squads, some Terminators, and a couple of characters. He did have one Shield Captain on bike. He also had a loyal 32 Guard Battalion for his backfield and to get CP, but what had me most worried in this game were the 3 Culexus Assassins he had. As noted from my day 1 recap, those damn Assassins really can put a hurt on my army. It would take some tactical acumen to overcome this.
The mission was Manifest Destiny II which included a kill point Primary which gave each player a victory point for every 100 points of units destroyed at the end of the match rounded to the nearest hundredth. The secondary was table quarters in which obsec style units counted as double their wound value. This was going to be a tough battle because the Assassins would really limit the amount of damage I could put out with my Psychic phase but I felt confident I could pull this one out.
I will say Joe was an absolute class act opponent and this was probably my most well executed game tactically of the tournament. The deployment was the Hammer and Anvil type with the tip. He deployed most of his Guard units in the backfield and leaned his Custodes heavy to one flank. He made one error in deployment which was putting a Mortar team right up near his deployment tip with an Assassin in front of them.
I got turn one and spent it positioning mostly. His mortars scared me a bit because if left unchecked they could do some damage to the cultists, which was a unit he really didn't have a good answer for. I shifted to the left hard and out of the Culexus range and warptimed a Prince up after casting Weaver of Fates on him to kill the mortar team getting me First Blood. On his turn one, Joe moved the bike shield captain up to charge the demon prince and just shifted the assassins into the neutral zone. He sent a ton of shots into my prince but was unable to bring him down thanks to Weaver of Fates. He ended up charging the prince with his bike captain and still could not kill him. I breathed a sigh of relief as it meant we would not split the First Blood tertiary.
On my turn 2 I dropped the Bloodletters down onto the left flank where he only had one squad of Custodian Guard who were sitting close to a squad of Guardsmen. I did manage to get Death Hex off on his Bike Captain, thinking I would then kill him in combat with my prince. But I realized that would mean he would get the chance to interrupt me as my Bloodletters, being chargers, would have to swing first. I took the chance on it as I needed the Bloodletters in there in his backfield. Sure enough the Bloodletters killed the Custodian Guard and piled in and consolidated into the nearby squad of Guardsmen, wrapping them up so he would not be able to fall back. I also charged a squad of Pinks into the Assassins he had mid-field to wrap them up in order to control their 18" bubble of -2 to cast ability.
As the game went on, I was able to keep the Culexus wrapped up allowing me to maneuver to get powers off as needed to buff, such as Death Hex on his terminators when they dropped into my backfield. I countered with Obliterator firepower and the Khorne Prince killing them and one of the support characters. Meanwhile my Bloodletters completely cleared his backfield earning me Slay the Warlord.
At the end of the game we tallied it up and Joe had killed 835 points of my army while I had killed 899 of his. I squeezed out a narrow in on the primary. We ended up splitting the table quarters secondary. And I had taken First Blood and Slay the Warlord and we split Linebreaker. In the end I pulled out the narrow win. Joe was amazing to play against and we had a fantastic game.
Win: 19-10
Game 5 vs Chaos Daemons and Thousand Sons
After game 4 I meet with my buddy Mark Wise, who is one of my best friends and also traveled with our crew up for his first Warzone. We are getting ready for lunch at the hotel, which provided amazing catered food by the way. He tells me, guess what; we're playing each other in Round 5. Although we were both a bit disappointed because it was essentially a mirror match, we at least knew we'd have a great match.
The mission was Give no Ground which featured 4 objectives that were scored at the end of the game. One in each deployment zone and then one in each player's table half outside the deployment zone. We drew Vanguard Strike for the map and got our objectives down. The way the mission works essentially is that the further away the objective is from your deployment zone, the more points it is worth at the end of the game. The secondary in this was based on Warzone Kill Points. You get a Battle Point for each Warzone Kill Point you earn up to 6 and then at the end of the game, whoever has the most Warzone Kill Points gets 3 more.
His list featured 2 Chaos Daemon Battalions with Skulltaker, a Khorne DP with Skullreaver, and 3 smaller squads of Bloodletters. He also had a Tzeentch battalion with two fluxmasters, and a 30 man horror blob with 2 brimstone squads. Filling it out was a Thousand Sons supreme command with 3 Daemon Princes and Magnus. It is a tough hard hitting list.
He gets turn one and mostly just positions models. He rushes Magnus up with Warptime towards my Cultist blob who I have protected by a screen of brimstones. He rolls poorly on his Smite with Magnus and doesn't kill enough of them forcing him to charge them instead of the cultists. He doesn't kill them and I pass my morale.
On my turn 1 I move up my Pink Horror blob and blast a squad of Brimstones away earning me First Blood. I shoot my Cultists into Magnus but only plink away 5 wounds.
On Mark's turn 2 he drops all his Bloodletters in as well as the Khorne prince and Skulltaker. I have forced him into hitting my horrors head on rather than hitting me on a flank. He hits my unit but I rolled an epic amount of 4++ saves on them only taking minimal damage. Magnus finally charges into the Cultists and kills a few but Abaddon is there to keep them in the fight.
On my turn 2 I'm finally able to drop Magnus thanks to Obliterator firepower and my Khorne Prince charging in and dropping him. I counter assault into the bloodletters wiping them out as well.
This would go on back and forth but at the end, I had managed to kill a good chunk of his army while my losses had been mostly minimal. He made a mistake and pulled a unit off his own neutral zone objective meanwhile I had secured 2 of the 4. This gave me a win on the Primary. I also got the full 9 on the secondary and I ended up with only 2 points on the Tertiary as I never killed his warlord or got linebreaker. It was enough to give me the victory however.
Win: 21-10
Event Wrap Up
I finished the event with a 4-1 record and 94 Battle Points. I managed to max my paint score this year, which I was very proud of, and had 2 First favorite opponent votes and 2 Second favorite opponent votes. This was enough to secure me 18th Overall out of 119 which isn't too shabby. I ranked 38th in Battle Points.
On day 2, everyone is split into 16 groups based on your Battle Points from day 1. I was in Group 7 and ended up winning my Group on day 2 netting me a cool trophy and a box of Blightlord Terminators.
I was happy with where I ended up this year. I didn't think I would make top 10 but was hoping for the shot. I felt I'd probably go 3-2 but I went 4-1 which exceeded my expectation for the event. I had a wonderful time. Warzone: Atlanta truly is a unique experience and is easily my favorite tournament of the year. Can't wait for 2019!
Hey everyone. Chandler here to give you guys a rundown of my Warzone: Atlanta 2018 experience. For those who don't know, Warzone: Atlanta is a 120 player ITC Major event held in Atlanta, Georgia every year on Veteran's Day weekend. It is by far my favorite event of the year and the one I look forward to the most. Not only is the event just awesome, but it's a chance for me to see old friends again and catch up. I have now attended the past 3 Warzone: Atlanta events and it has become a must attend event for me.
Before diving in I'll rundown my list and why I chose the army and composition. My list was as follows:
++++Battalion Detachment - Chaos Daemons++++
Fluxmaster, Staff of Change - Flickering Flames, Gaze of Fate
Daemon Prince of Khorne, Wings, Daemonic Axe
Horrors: 9 Brimstone, 1 Blue
Horrors: 9 Brimstone, 1 Blue
Horrors: 10 Blue, 20 Pink
25 Bloodletters, Daemonic Icon, Instrument
++++Supreme Command Detachment - Thousand Sons++++
Ahriman on Disc - Death Hex, Doombolt, Weaver of Fates
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, Wings, Hellforged Sword - Tzeentch's Firestorm, Warptime
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, Wings, Talons - Gaze of Fate, Infernal Gaze
++++Patrol Detachment - Chaos Space Marines Black Legion++++
Abaddon (Warlord)
Chaos Sorcerer on Bike, Mark of Slaanesh, Force Stave - Delightful Agonies, Prescience
40 Cultists, Mark of Slaanesh
3 Obliterators, Mark of Slaanesh
1999 Points, 11 CP
Warzone Atlanta has it's own custom mission set and includes what they refer to as Warzone Kill Points. Units are worth certain kill points based on certain factors. Multi-model units with 10 or fewer wounds are worth 1 kill point while multi-model units with 11+ models are worth an additional kill point. Single model units are worth 1 kill point per 8 wounds. Characters and Lords of War also give up 1 kill point respectively. This means that Magnus, for example, gives up 4 Warzone Kill Points when destroyed and depending on the setup, an Imperial Knight could give up as many as 5! I wanted to maximize efficiency here so I included large squads which would be difficult to kill while also giving up minimal kill points in the process. No unit in my list gives up more than 2 Warzone Kill Points.
Additionally, each mission uses the Alternating First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker tertiaries, which are worth 2 Battle Points to each player when achieved, unless both players achieve them in which case they are worth 1 Battle Point each. My goal here was also to prevent splitting those points. My list is very difficult to get first blood on and slay the warlord and it has board control and maneuverability to allow me to get linebreaker without giving it up often also.
With those factors in mind, it was mostly focusing on the primary missions and outscoring my opponent in each one. With the number of bodies and damage output I have in the list, it would be able to efficiently score objectives on the primary objectives while also not giving up many kill points.
The common mistake many people made when they saw my list was thinking it didn't have very good shooting. The Pink Horrors and Cultists combined with the Obliterators are capable of putting out an insane volume of firepower that can cause lots of wounds through the use of stratagems, character and psychic buffs. It also performs well in the assault and psychic phases, which is what I was going for; an army that would be fully capable in every phase of the game.
Game 1 vs Imperial Knights and Guard
It was well known going into the event that there would be a very strong Knights presence, and my army was designed to kill them and do so very well. So round 1 sees me pitted up against a friend of mine named Eric Swing. Eric and I have played at Warzone before and he is one of my favorite people to play against. He is from South Carolina and is a Clemson fan (but we won't hold that against him).
His list included a Gallant, Crusader, and a Castellan along with a standard Guard Battalion and a Scions Battalion. The mission was called Firestorm and we drew Hammer and Anvil deployment. This mission seems like a standard progressive mission with 6 objectives on the table as the primary. The interesting part of the mission is that you can choose to "raze" an objective in your opponent's deployment zone if you control it. When you raze an objective you score d3 victory points, which you can use a CP to re-roll if you want, and the objective is removed from the table and can't be scored again. The secondary in the mission is called marked for death in which you pick 3 units in your opponent's army and you gain battle points for killing them as well as preventing them from killing your own marked for death units.
Eric chose my 3 daemon princes to mark for death while I chose his Gallant, and 2 of his plasma scion squads. I knew that all of those units would need to get in close to me to be effective which would give me the opportunity to kill them.
This game was a slug fest which included my Skullreaver Khorne Prince knocking down his Gallant to 2 wounds on turn 1, allowing him another turn to operate at full profile which he used to kill 2 of my Daemon Princes and Ahriman in round 2. That was a devastating blow. Additionally, my Bloodletters failed a key charge in turn 2 when they dropped that likely would have handed me the game definitively. I did manage to kill his Gallant, Castellan and all the Scions I had marked for death meanwhile he killed all of my princes as well. The game was about board control though as I left him no gaps to get into my backfield to raze my objectives really. And because I was spread out I was earning more objective points every turn. I ended up pulling out the W against him in a hard fought match.
Eric would go on to have a fantastic event, not losing another game all weekend!
Win: 20-12
Game 2 vs Tyranids
Game 2 would see me pitted up against Corey Reece and his Tyranids. His list was interesting and at first had me a bit nervous. He had a Malanthrope, Old One Eye, 9 Carnifexes and 3 Exocrines. I looked over his list at the table and saw that all the Carnifexes were all kitted out for close combat instead of shooting, which led me to breathe a sigh of relief. These Carnifexes would be great at killing things like Knights, but against my list, not so much.
The mission was called Dig Site which was a combination of progressive and end game objectives. It was an interesting mission, but not one I had played much because I honestly didn't think it would make the final cut for the packet from the primer. But it did and there we were. This mission uses 6 objectives which you can either choose to score progressively by "digging" them. If you do, roll a die, and if it is equal to or less than the turn number, the objective is removed after scoring it. You can choose not to dig them, and if so any objectives left at the end of the game are worth 3 points to the player controlling them. Once there are only 2 objectives remaining you can no longer dig.
The secondary objective here is standard kill points (rather than Warzone Kill Points) which means all those monsters would be worth only 1 kill point. This favored me however because he lacked the shooting to deal with my hordes and I had the upper hand on the secondary as they only gave up 1 kill point each.
We deployed and got Vanguard Strike. The terrain was setup in such a way with ruins and large rock formations that I would be able to move block his Carnifexes with horrors and pick them off by psychic powers and combat from the Princes. Meanwhile the Bloodletters would come down and touch the Exocrines and take them out of the game, as he deployed them all bunched together.
That is pretty much how the game went. I kept funneling his Carnifexes through narrow gaps and placing horrors as speed bumps because they could not move around the walls or terrain and don't have fly to hop the horrors in movement. Then I'd counter charge with princes after shooting. At the end of the game, I still had most of my army minus a demon prince and a horror squad while he had effectively been tabled. Corey was a super fun guy to play, and took it in good spirits. We had a great time laughing and drinking.
MVP of this match was the Khorne Prince who slaughtered multiple carnifexes and even managed to sneak in and kill Old One Eye. Skullreaver is an amazing relic if you can keep that prince protected.
Win: 27-7
Game 3 vs Tallarn Guard, Assassins, and Custodes
Game 3 would have me pitted up against Bobby Ezell and his awesome Tallarn Guard army. Bobby and I are friends and have played each other before in events. When I first approached the table I saw his army and had confidence I could defeat it, until he mentioned the 2 Culexus assassins he had which then made my heart sink ha. His list included 3 Russ tank commanders all with triple plasma cannons, 3 hellhounds, 3 squads of Infantry, 9 Rough Riders, a Calladus Assassin and the 2 Culexus as well as 3 Custodes Shield Captains on Dawneagle jetbikes.
The mission was going to be rough for me here. The primary was High Value Targets. In this mission each player selects 4 units from the opponent's army and when you kill those units you earn their Warzone Kill Point value in victory points. The player who earns the most gets additional victory points as well. The secondary mission was the Relic. My list is designed to capitalize on this mission because as mentioned above, the most Warzone Kill Points I can give up in this scenario is 8. He also chose my cultists, which was a mistake on his part (this unit never died through the entire event). That meant all I needed to get was 3 units of his and I could win.
We then drew the Hammer and Anvil deployment with the forward tip.
This game really boiled down to who went first and he won the roll. Which meant he pulled his Cullexus up to the center of the table and was able to protect him with a Shield Captain long enough to secure the relic. He also wisely spread out and took control of the board. I was also super tired after an exhausting first 2 games which both went the full distance on time. I made a lot of mistakes this game that ultimately cost me, but Bobby is also a fantastic player and he was able to capitalize on them. In the end, he was able to barely squeak by on the primary but he had the relic well protected and buried behind his lines which I would never get to.
In hindsight I made some errors in this game that cost me, but his ability to take the board first turn and his Cullexus Assasins really limited what I could do. None of my powers were going off and I wasn't able to really gain any ground or get any pressure on him. Ultimately it cost me the game. It was still a fun time and Bobby and I shared a few beers and had a wonderful time.
Loss: 19-7
Day One Recap
So, day one was in the books and I was happy with where I stood. 2-1 was not horrible, but I would need to really crank up the battle points in day two to have a chance to place overall. All in all day one was a success. I had 3 great games with 3 fantastic opponents. It made voting for favorite opponent really difficult. But that is the nature of Warzone Atlanta. The majority of players there are not only great on the table, but also just great people in general.
Thanks for reading and I'll look to have the day 2 recap up soon!
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Roger Jones, Derek Rowe, Daniel Hesters
Produced by Roger Jones
In episode 24 we sit down with Kelly Wallace of The General Staff, and head Tournament Organizer of Warzone: Atlanta to chat about Warzone: Atlanta 2018 November 10th-11th in Atlanta, GA. Warzone: Atlanta is the largest ITC Major in the South region of the United States with 120 players. We also cover the Warzone: Atlanta meta courtesy of the Dangli Boyz breakdown which can be found at the Google Drive link here. Check out the Warzone: Atlanta Facebook for the Google Drive link to the lists and visit their website at warzoneatlanta.com for details on the event.
Hey all, Chandler here. Warzone: Atlanta 2018 is now only 2 weeks away. I've been busy getting ready for the event, of course, practicing the missions, finishing up the painting and display board and getting pumped for my favorite weekend of Warhammer 40k.
Warzone: Atlanta released their first primer mission packet back around July, and since then have tweaked it a bit. The Warzone missions are fun, but different from most events which tend to run ITC Champs missions.
In the Warzone: Atlanta mission set there is a max of 33 Battle Points (BP) that can be earned in a match, with a Primary, Secondary and 3 Tertiaries. Typically the missions contain a mix of Kill Points and Objectives with a mix of end game and progressive and with some missions even including Relic objectives. It's a hard mission set to try and build towards, but it the Warzone: Atlanta missions also provide some of the most fun and engaging 40k battles.
Additionally, Warzone has specific rules regarding Kill Points. A multi-model unit with less than 10 wounds gives up 1 KP, while any unit with 11 or more wounds gives up 2 KP. Single model units give up 1 KP for every 8 wounds (meaning Rhinos for example give up 2 KP). If a model has the Character or Lord of War keywords they give up 1 KP each respectively as well. It's an interesting dynamic making for more engaging games, which is ultimately what we want out of the game right?
The List
I started and spent most of the 2018 season playing Blood Angels. I love the army and always have, but with the recurring hammers to it's ability with the FAQ changes, I can't rely on them much anymore. That left me with 2 options remaining out of my collection; Custodes/Guard or Chaos Soup. I chose Chaos Soup in the end as I feel I have a better chance with the mission set. So here's the list:
Battalion Detachment - Chaos Daemons
Fluxmaster - Staff of Change
Daemon Prince of Khorne with Wings and Axe
9 Brimstones, 1 Blue Horror x2
20 Pink Horrors, 10 Blue Horrors
25 Bloodletters, Icon, Instrument
Supreme Command Detachment - Thousand Sons
Ahriman on Disc
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with Wings x2
Patrol Detachment - Chaos Space Marines - Black Legion
Abaddon (warlord)
Chaos Sorcerer on Bike, Force Stave, MoS
40 Chaos Cultists, Autoguns, MoS
3 Obliterators, MoS
Total - 1999
CP - 11
The idea behind this list is centered around board control and protecting characters allowing them to do their work in the game. I wanted to design a list that could compete in every phase of the game, Movement, Psychic, Shooting and Assault while being able to mitigate morale losses. It doesn't quite have the CP I'd like, and is probably not maximized to complete efficiency, but I think it can do alright.
Abaddon is here to give me extra CP as the Warlord, but more importantly to keep my cultists fearless long enough for me to use Tide of Traitors on them. The Bike Sorc probably seems like a weird addition, but I wanted the flexibility of movement and an ability to cast Delightful Agonies on the Cultists so they have a 5+++ to ignore wounds, which will make them even more difficult to remove. Toss in Prescience and Vets of the Long War and fire them twice with the stratagem and suddenly they can clear out a lot of space. The Obliterators are here to soften up hard targets like Knights or to drop down out of reserve like a scalpel to eliminate a big target after it has lost it's invulnerable from Death Hex.
The Pink Horrors serve as a wall surrounding the Tzeentch Daemon Princes and Ahriman as they move up the board and lay down mortal wounds. The Fluxmaster stays close by also with Flickering Flames letting them shoot 60 STR 4 shots re-rolling 1s and wounding most things on 3s or 4s.
The Bloodletters come in mid-game to hit an opponent in a weak spot or expose a vulnerable flank. The Bloodletter bomb hits like a ton of bricks of course, and there's no trick really to what they can do. Just let them plow into things and murder them. The Khorne Daemon Prince is here for Skullreaver. With the relic axe he can absolutely drop a Knight in one single round of combat without breaking a sweat.
In practice games, the list has done well thus far. It gives me the tools to handle pretty much all the missions effectively, but of course the real test will happen in a couple of weeks. I'm definitely excited about going to Warzone: Atlanta and seeing everyone again and hopefully defending my Best Sportsmanship award!
Hey all, Chandler here with the first in our new Basic Tactics series of posts for Warhammer 8th edition. The Basic Tactics series will be a group of articles covering the basics of competitive play in Warhammer 40k 8th Edition. These are basic concepts for newbies into the game or those just starting their journey into tournament 40k to help improve their experience. First up is the concept of list design.
There is this notion that list design in Warhammer 40k is basically a mini-game; a game within the game. Let me state up front that lists are important in this game. Having a well designed list can give you an edge and the best players at events are often using the best lists they can build. Too often we put a bit too much emphasis on Army Lists, however, and not enough on player skill. You can go online to a variety of sources from Reddit, to Facebook, to Best Coast Pairings and pull down lists of tournament winners. But the list will only carry you so far. Your skill as a player is what will make the list work or not. You can pull the meanest nastiest net list used by some of the top tier players in the game, but if you have a limited understanding of how it works, you will struggle to use it effectively.
Set Realistic Goals
Before approaching the list design phase of entering a competitive event, take a moment and ask yourself; what are my goals for this event? Is your goal to win the event? Is your goal to try and win Best Painted or Best Sportsman (if so then list design most likely isn't that important to you.) If your goal is to win, and you know the meta you are going into, then do you have the tools to beat those lists? As of October 2018, the best armies in the game are any of the Eldar varieties, and along the way you can expect to face Chaos and Imperial Knights, just on the whole, if your goal is to get to the top table. Can you beat those armies? And can you do so and also beat the random Tyranids, Necrons, or Tau army you may play along the way?
Use What You Know
We all have at least one army in our collection that we know extremely well. Perhaps it is because it is our favorite army lore wise, or perhaps it just fits our play style. But we can pick that army up and usually always do well with it. Generally speaking, unless you play Warhammer 40k 3-4 times a week with various armies, you're going to have maybe one or two armies in your collection that are tournament capable.
The idea of using what you know hearkens back to the earlier point of players getting net lists and not understanding how they work. There are lots of nuances and intricacies in this game and you can't simply rely on a net list to get you through without understanding those nuances. You might be a Chaos player and see that a top tier tourney player won a Major or GT using Dark Eldar, but you don't know squat about Dark Eldar. Chances are, if you just go out and buy that army to use in tournaments without understanding the army, you will not do well. Stick to what you know and more importantly what you like. The reality for most is that you won't ever win a Grand Tournament or Major event. But you can still go to these events, take a good list, and compete, which is what most of us want to do.
What is Your Army Good At Doing?
The idea of a take all comer's list in 8th edition is often a recipe for disaster. I know that sounds crazy, but you don't necessarily have to have an answer to everything you might face. For example, if you run Blood Angels, a marine army that does well in assault primarily, do you need to run 3 Devastator squads? Probably not. If you are Ultramarines, however, and you have access to Guilliman, then you might reconsider that notion.
Is your army good at assault? Or is it perhaps good at out maneuvering the enemy (Eldar)? Maybe it's incredibly powerful in the psychic phase? Key in on the aspects your army can capitalize on and use them to their fullest.
What Are the Missions?
This is probably the most important (and most often overlooked) aspect of list design. If you are attending an event, you need to review the missions carefully. Most ITC events use the ITC Champions Mission Packet. If that is the case, look at the missions and try and design around those parameters. You know, for example, in those missions you need to be able to hold more objectives than your opponent every round, kill more units than your opponent every round, and build to deny as many secondaries as you can for your opponent, or make them incredibly difficult to achieve, while having answers to scoring secondaries yourself. That sounds like a lot to soak in, I know. But these are things the top players are considering in list design and they are things you should be considering as well.
Core Concepts of Every List
There are several core concepts of every list in 8th edition that are, in my opinion, critical to success in every list, regardless of the faction:
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Board control - Can your list control the board? Why is that important? I will go more in depth on that in a future article, but the basic concept is, can you control the neutral zone and your own deployment zone to prevent enemy units from jumping on you quickly or denying where your opponent can go in Movement/Assault? Every single successful list in the game has some measure of board control.
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Objective Campers and Grabbers- You need units to both hold objectives, hopefully while hiding in your backfield, and go and take objectives. Every army has units that are good at these. and you need them in your list to be successful.
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Character Protection - Characters can't be targeted in shooting as long as there are non-character units, or characters with more than 10+ starting wounds in front of them. This is often critical in your success as these characters often provide excellent counter punch, aura buffs, and other powerful abilities. Smash captains aside, as these are often just suicide units anyway, most of your characters you want to be able to get into position in the middle of the game to do their damage. In order to do that, you need to be able to protect them with either durable screens (think Ogryns) or forward deploying units that can hide (think Nurglings). Being able to protect your characters will likely be vital to your success.
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Synergy - Every unit in your list has a purpose in the game. Be it characters buffing them as they move up and take objectives, or maybe just serving as screens to important units, or perhaps coming in to outflank the enemy in Turn 2 or 3. Your list should have synergy and each unit selection should have a role and purpose in your army list.
Wrapping it Up
Make no mistake, list design is very important to performing well at events. But when putting together your list, make sure you understand what your army can do, what missions you will be playing and how to build towards them, and understand the core concepts of successful lists in 8th edition. Hopefully you found this article helpful. Stay tuned for more basic tactics articles coming in the future.
Hey all, Chandler here with some exciting news about the changes to our Patreon! As you all know, we started this podcast back in 2016 to help support and promote our Grand Tournament which we hold every year. Since then, the podcast has grown and become even more popular and we want to keep bringing you that great content regularly. But if you would like to take that a step even further we have some great Patreon rewards for you as well!
https://patreon.com/ComeTheApocGT
Reward Tiers
We have several reward tiers designed which include several various rewards for those interested in helping support the show including a private Facebook Group available only to our Patreon supporters at the Inquisitor Tier and above.
Acolyte Tier
For just $1 a month you can help us grow the show. At this level we will provide you with a personal shout out on the show!
Inquisitor Tier
For $5 a month you get a shout out on the show as well as access to our private Facebook Group and Chat designed just for Patrons and the hosts on the show! You can post list ideas, ask for advice, we will provide tactics to help improve your games, hobby advice and more!
Scout Tier
For $10 a month you get all of the above rewards including access to the Facebook Group and chat as well as a set of our awesome CTA GT Objective Markers
Space Marine TierFor $20 a month over 2 months, you get ALL the rewards of the previous tiers as well as a ticket to CTA Grand Tournament 2019! We want to continue to provide you all with great content every month and perhaps even more often than that! Your help can go a long way to ensure we can bring you high quality content. Thanks for listening and see you on the table top!
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Roger Jones, Derek Rowe, Daniel HestersProduced by Roger JonesIn episode 23, we recap our CTA Grand Tournament 2018 and review the September Big FAQ. For just the FAQ recap skip to the 1:11 mark.
Hi, everyone, Chandler here to talk about the new September FAQ for Warhammer 40,000 Matched Play, and what it means. The goal here is to offer some insight from my perspective on how these changes will impact the meta, how to prepare your lists for the changes, and what you might expect to see.
The FAQ brought along with it some sweeping changes, which we discuss in Episode 23 of our podcast. The meta will most certainly shift in light of these changes. Of course, the ability to regenerate Command Points is now limited to only 1 CP per Battle Round regardless of the source you are using to regenerate. This was a nice change, but is it enough?
Command Point Farming
Again, the nerf to CP farming and the increase to several game altering stratagems in Warhammer 40k, particularly for the new Imperial Knights, certainly makes it harder to play them, but does it make them irrelevant? Far from it. It is still worth investing in the CP train if you want to run Knights. Here's why:
Astra Militarum is still the best ally for Knights. So, you can't really count on Blood Angels smash captains anymore as the nerf to the Fly keyword and CP regeneration has neutered their effectiveness as an ally for Knights. AM on the other hand is still very much an ally to be reckoned with. When you look at the AM warlord traits, Grand Strategist is still king even with the nerfs to regeneration. There simply isn't another one that comes close to being as good really. Sure, you can bring your ultra fluffy Armageddon army and take something that synergizes well, but we are not talking about that here. We are talking about what you will find at tournaments.
You can easily bring an AM brigade of Catachans along with a Castellan, you are looking at tons of bodies with multiple attacks hitting on Strength 4 as screens with the ability to fight in the Shooting phase. On top of that you have an army that brings 18 CP to the table and will regenerate 6 over the course of a standard battle in ITC. And those guard bodies make excellent screens for your Castellan knight as you feed it CP every turn for re-rolls, 3++ saves, etc. In short, this problem did not go away. 24 Command Points is more than enough to fuel the Castellan for 2-3 turns which is all you need out of it anyway.
Assault Has Changed
The change to the Fly keyword means that no longer can you declare a charge against a Leman Russ behind a screen and just hop the screen to hit the tank behind it. You can only use the Fly rule to move over other models and terrain in the Movement phase. This correlates to cheap screen bodies being invaluable to the game.
Units like Brimstone Horrors, Guardsmen, Cultists, and other cheap throw away units become MVP for being able to block your opponent from charging shooty units like Knights or Russ tanks or Sicarans. Expect Knights players to layer Castellans in rows of Guardsmen and Conscripts which you will have to chew through before even touching the Knight.
Importance of Counter Charging
The change to Fly has added a more layered dimension to combat. I think everyone can agree the Fly keyword made assault strategies very easy to implement. Now, with careful positioning you can set your hard hitting units, like Daemon Princes and even smash Captain, behind screens to strike at the right moment after the screens have absorbed the charge. The change to not being able to arrive via Reinforcements until Battle Round 2 did hurt, but now assault armies will adjust. In fact, you could argue that being in reinforcements is more of a detriment than a boon.
It's not about getting that monstrous charge out of full reserves, but rather having the ability to counter charge with your hard hitting units in assault. Space Wolves become incredibly valuable here because they have a 6" Heroic Intervention, allowing you to place your characters safely behind the screen in front of them and HI in to fight. Have the Armour of Russ on? Now your opponent is fighting last. The combos can get pretty crazy.
Screening and Board Control
Early on in 8th screening properly was critical to winning, but those were the days when anything could come down on you turn 1 and you had to be prepared. That wavered slightly in the Spring FAQ because you had time to position and zone out your units to block your opponent. Now, your opponent has to chew through screens to even get to your good stuff. This makes chaff units, as we mentioned above, incredibly powerful. Controlling the board is also instrumental. Positioning units so they are 18" away from each other and the board edge, which with many armies is very easy to do. (Even marines can do it in the right setups) means you have a huge advantage.
Reserve units will likely be used less and less as we see the meta form. Aside from specialized circumstances such as Bloodletter bombs, etc most armies will begin fully deployed and it will become a cat and mouse of movement, positioning and counter assaulting as I mentioned above.
Chaff Removal
Of course, if you are going to be playing against these types of lists, which you will see a lot I feel, you need to be able to get them off the table quickly. This can be from hard hitting assault units stacking loads of attacks like Death Company, or via the more safe option, shooting. Units like Razorbacks with twin Assault Cannons have been useful since the dawn of 8th and continue to be so. Being able to stack lots of dakka down on the enemies chaff while protecting these units with layers of your own screens will be critical in successful horde mitigation.
In summary, I think we see loads of more chaff coming back on the scene. Guardsmen are more important than ever for Imperium players. Scouts additionally offer the fantastic ability of deploying in the neutral zone which is huge in establishing board control early in the game and buffering important marine units with screens. Other armies will have to rely on chaff units to absorb hits and charges like Scarabs for Necrons or Gaunts for Nids. The FAQ has certainly changed the game. We can only hope for the better.
Hosts: Robert Chandler, Roger Jones, Derek Rowe, and Daniel Hesters
Produced by Roger Jones
In Episode 22 we discuss the recent Visions RTT we attended as well as recap Warzone: Giga-Bites Major. Also we preview the upcoming Warzone: Come the Apocalypse GT later this month which we are hosting in Dothan, AL. Finally, we discuss the new Space Wolves codex and where we think they land in the competitive meta.