Story Time

All right boys and girls it’s time to gather around the campfire and swap some stories.

40k has many aspects to it from collecting the miniatures, customizing them, and then painting them, but one of the largest, and my personal favorite, is actually playing the game on the tabletop. Even the actual playing has a number of aspects to it that people can focus on. However, as everyone knows when you start to roll dice things can go sideways in a hurry. On the flip-side, sometimes it seems like everything goes your way, and it is these moments that can let even a normal infantry dude do incredible acts sure to get his name passed down in the annals of history and net him a promotion. So let’s share some stories of epic luck (good or bad) that you have personally experienced.

I’ll start it off with one of my favorite stories about a sanguinary priest in a game with Heretic and his Tau. Now I know that it isn’t news to anyone that Blood Angels will mop the floor with Tau in close combat, but in this case the priest took it to all new levels. A sanguinary priest is a 50 point independent character who had been given a 25 point jump pack. Priests are excellent support characters giving and friendly units within 6 inches the furious charge and feel no pain special rules, but when it comes to fighting they aren’t much better than the average assault marine. Their stats are exactly the same except for +1 WS (for a total of 5) and they have only the 1 wound and no invulnerable save. While they can be given power weapons, I almost never spend the points to do so as I try to keep them in the back ranks to prevent them from being hit in close combat (also meaning they can’t attack as they are still ICs) so a power weapon usually isn’t worth it.

The game was annihilation at 1850 using the dawn of war set-up. Both of our armies ended up crowding around the middle of the board. I was able to dodge some of the worst shots as I ran up the center to get at him, but he has able to circle the wagons using his devilfish as a shield wall to buy him some more time to fire at me. Fortunately one of my assault squads with its priests was able to jump to the side and barely squeeze in between a building and his flank. This squad was able to multi-assault a full fire-warrior squad, a crisis suit team, and a two-man team of broadsides. By directing the majority of their attacks at the fire warriors they were able to win combat by enough that all three units failed their leadership and tried to only to get cut down or make it off the board. Of course this left the squad completely exposed with their entire backup still fighting through a devilfish wall. Unsurprisingly Heretic made them his primary target and dumped a buttload of shots in to them. The squad itself was vaporized with the priest barely living after making like 7 armor saves. With only the priest still standing Heretic turned his fire on the rest of army that was approaching. This turned out to be a big mistake as the priest then assaulted a full squad of pathfinders and killed enough that they tried to run away and single-handedly sweeping advanced them. By know the rest of my army had busted through the fish wall and therefore took all the fire from Heretic’s next turn. Trying to save his command and attached crisis suit squad Heretic was able to jump them out of the assault range of most of my units, but not the lone priest who charged in and caused one wound which one of the suits failed to save and passed all the saves put on him. Because of this on wound the suits and commander failed their leadership tried to run, only to be cut down by the lone priest. By now the game was pretty clearly mine, but this didn’t stop the priest from joining one of my other assault squads (now rather reduced in number) to finish off another squad of fire warriors to completely table Heretic. Now obviously for a 50 point model with 25 points of wargear to single-handedly take down nearly 500 points of stuff (and be involved in the destruction of another 500) requires some serious luck on my part and a serious lack of it on Heretics, so this epic story wasn’t due to either one of doing something right or wrong, but it does make for some awesome retelling.

Now that you’ve heard one of my stories how about getting on the comments and hitting me up with one of your own favorites?

Hobby Table II

Hello everyone, Loki here with another edition of Hobby Table. This time we'll be focusing on my latest pet project for a good friend of mine. Mr. Clark has been extremely interested in running a Blood Ravens army as he really enjoyed them from the Dawn of War series, and we were trying to find a way to match their fluff.

After a disappointing look into the standard Marine codex, as well as a look into the Space Wolves codex, we weren't entirely happy with the fit either way. Thus the idea was born to create a home brew codex that would take the Codex Space Marines, and give it some tweaks here and there to make it a feel of it's own.

Since the chapter has a huge thing for psychers we are giving it a good many perks to both powers to use, and gaining an edge (a psycher wargear item called The Raven's Claw is buyable for librarians that make ties on psychic hood checks go to them instead of the usual caster).

We have introduced a number of characters including many from the dawn of war two games (Tarkus, Cyrus, Thule, and Angelos are among them) and will be mostly upgrades for their respective squads, though some would be Independent Characters as to be expected.

Though we've only reached the tip of the iceberg, I plan to spend a lot of time making this codex and of course it won't be legal in tournament play, there will be many play tests and a lot of good games to see coming from our home brew dex that should be great to see.

I hope this peaks your interest and would love to here your thoughts and any suggestions you may have.

Cheers!

Life after the Cover Save

I don't know about you all, but I know I enjoy sitting down and listening to a podcast every so often. For the longest time I would listen to 40k Radio, sometimes even catching them live when I was at home. But with the end of Spencer, Scott and Chipley's run on 40k Radio and the continuation of the show by others, I just don't feel that it is the same show anymore. Now I'll admit I haven't been up to date with the show for a long time. The last episode I listened to was from around April. If you follow(ed) 40k Radio you probably know about the fiasco with Spencer's family being threatened and it probably left the same bad taste in your mouth that it did in mine, albeit maybe with more dirty gym sock.

With (for me) the end of 40k Radio, I stopped listening to most podcasts all together. There are some others I could recommend, but I just got done listening to the first episode of a new 40k podcast called Life after the Cover Save. The episode, as most first episodes are, was mainly concerned with introducing the hosts to their audience. What time they had left was split up between trying to do the news (with much more success then Scott ever had), their Rapid Fire Rant segment concerning how to deal with cocked dice which was rather calm actually and discussing a hypothetical decision mid-game and discussing how and why they would resolve the situation. All in all a well produced (after the first few minutes) podcast with generally likable hosts who love our shared hobby and want to put together something worth your time.

You can look up their website here or they are available for download free of charge on iTunes. I will be listening to see how their adventure in 40k cyberspace pans out and hope you will too. As they say "Life is always sweeter after the cover save."

Forgeworld's Little Secret

There has been a lot of talk floating around the interweb about these two pictures forgeworld released. The only hint they gave was that the time frame in which these models belong is in fact the present (so they aren't technically heresy helms) but they look beautiful.

As for me, I hope they belong to a new Templar set, as they do look very much like the helms I have. But they could also be a Grey Knight set, or something brand new. Who knows what the mystery is.

What about you guys? Any thoughts on the matter?

Jumping the Gun

So today I will be taking a closer look into what makes the Jump Infantry units unique in the Imperium of Man; specifically the ones belonging to the Angels of Death. A while back I was having a conversation regarding the Black Templar assault marines, and it lead to a larger conversation about the assault marines from every marine codex. So lets take a closer look at this agile and unique unit.

Assault Marines in General

Of course we all know that these marines strive to hit close combat as that is what they are geared to achieve. Armed with a bolt pistol and a close combat weapon, this bumps them to 2 attacks base with a 3rd on the charge. The jump pack allows them a 12" movement making them deadly up to 18" away. This is a pretty large charge radius on the table top. Of course the unit can be used in a number of ways allowing them to be very tactically flexible and accomplish a great many tasks (such as point contesting, key unit strikes, and flanking maneuvers).

Looking at the marine codex's in general, the assault marine squad is one of the most recognizable and in most cases the best bang for your buck as far as points are concerned. You can add up to two flamers or 2 plasma pistols into the squad to allow them to have some extra bite to the enemy which really helps tip the scales in their favor


Codex Astartes

Now this codex doesn't change much from the humble assault marine, but it does add some neat tricks for the unit to make them better. The first and foremost is the ability to combat squad, turning one 10 man unit into 2 5 man units. This is a nifty little trick that is very helpful when it comes to covering more ground with a smaller number of starting units. A word of caution though as a 5 man squad can often have troubles getting to the assault and still have enough attacks to make a successful assault.

The second trick from this codex is the Combat Tactics rule. This allows a unit to voluntarily fail a leadership test. This can be a good trick if it is more beneficial to have the enemy unit you are attacking to be able to get shot at and then charged yet again in your next turn. This does require the timing to be right, but if it works it turns out to be a great strategy.

The last little trick this codex adds is the ability to take characters to help them work a little better. In this case, Shrike would be the biggest example. Now, in taking him, you lose the combat tactics rule, but you replace this with the fleet special rule. Instead of having a leadership trick, you gain an addition range on the charge making them dangerous at an effective range of 24" if a 6 on the fleet role is made. This means you can close the gap on the standard match on the first turn... this is amazing for the assault marine as there is 0 down time. There is also the addition of the Infiltrating unit attached to Shrike himself. This unit will be able to set up in a good location to get a charge on a specific unit and thus cripple a major piece of the enemy's battle plan.

All in all the Assault Marines (especial those with Shrike on the field) can be a pretty amazing unit for the standard Marine armies out there.


Dark Angels

This is not meant to offend any Dark Angels players out there who enjoy their assault marines, but I can't say they are a really good choice for this codex. They gain no real benefits, and the use of Ravenwing is a pretty superior choice from this codex. Now they aren't bad inherently, but the bikers and speeders just offer much more than this unit can. Of course if Sammael hits the table, the Ravenwing become troops and then the fast attack option is open for these units, however I would still suggest putting more points into the Ravenwing themselves.

All in all it's not much, but they can still serve a useful roll in this army despite my poor feelings towards them.


Black Templar

Again this is a choice that I have a hard time saying yes to. There are a few reasons for this, and the biggest of which is the redundancy problem. The core of this army which already has over costed units due to it's age is the Crusader Squad. Not only is this unit scoring, but it has the ability to have the same wargear, more options, and with the righteous zeal moves, they can be just as fast. The Assault Marines do not have the zeal move, and so they miss out on this.

With their age does come a slight benefit as they still have the old ability of the assault marine to take melta bombs on every member of the unit. This can be great at getting rid of a pesky tank or two, but the main problem is that it takes the assault to do it. This means the assault is wasted on the transport instead of hitting unit inside, which can then come and destroy the assault squad.

The last problem with the unit is the cost it takes to run them. Minimum number of 5 as 22 points per model base, and 24 with melta bombs. Now if you add a special weapon of some sort, the cost keeps going up. Overall, in a codex that scrambles to get points where it can, this units just hogs too many of them for very little benefit over other similar and frankly better units.

This makes the Templar player in me sad as I really love what the assault marine can accomplish and the look of the jump pack.


Space Wolves

So basically these are the bloodclaws who found a way to strap jump packs to their armor and take off before the artificer found out. I like to imagine he was too drunk to really know what was going on. Either way these guys have some ups and downs, but overall not a bad choice.

They do have a little lower stat line as they are still technically scouts (in power armor). so other MEQ armies will be hitting them on 3's. However, the unit does benefit from the bloodclaw special rule regarding the charge, gaining not 1, but 2 additional attacks on the charge. This can be devastating to anything they hit, especially if a wolf priest is present to help lend them a hand and allow shooting on the way in.

Overall... a solid choice in the codex, especially if one wants to build a great bloodclaw themed army.


Blood Angels

Now for those of you who missed 1st grade, you should know that 1+ 1 = 2, nap time is great, and Blood Angels run assault marines. As some of the other armies had several reason not to run these marines, this codex as several reasons why you should.

First and foremost, they're troops. That's all that is really needed to say on this regard as scoring units are what win the games when objectives are used as well as the ability to run an army wide Assault Marine army.

Second. They have the ability to run something that not many other assault marine can use...

Melta guns make this unit go, as they can now pop transports of all shapes and sizes (yes even the mighty land raider starts shaking in it's boots at the sight of this over abundant weapon) and then hit the unit inside with the charge. All and all one could argue this fact alone allows the unit to work better than any others.

Another great benefit is the Blood Angels rule which makes them roll a dice before the game. Oddly enough it's looked at as being a bad thing, but it makes them fearless and gain the furious charge rule. Keep in mind this (much like Shrike) can be amplified by taking Astorath. There is nothing bad about furious charge Assault marines.

And the big reason behind this unit's great success is the fact that not only can they swap out their packs fro fast rhinos, they can use a different transport unique to the army, the Stormraven. Not only is this a deadly flying firing platform, but it can transport jump infantry, and a dreadnought to support them. When this model finally hits the shelves, the Blood Angels players world wide will more than likely find it the most potent and beautiful weapon in their already impressive arsenal.


So there you have it. The Assault Marines across the board. So what do you think about this unit?

Cheers!

Shas'o R'alai: Why oh why?

This weekend Forgeworld released the rules for their latest Tau commander Shas'O R'alai. As with most Forgworld units I've got a mixed reaction to R'alai, especially with his use in game. So lets look at his stats first:

WS 4 BS 4 S 5 T 5 W 4 I 4 A 4 Ld 10 Sv 3+

Looks pretty good so far, a Shas'O stat line with the toughness of an XV-9 suit. He has a Pulse Submunitions Rifle with Special Ammunition, Vectored Retro-Thrusters, a Blacksun Filter, two Marker Drones with Blacksun Filters and his 'Eclipse' shield Generator. He is Stubborn, but more on that later.

His weapon can fire in four modes, two pretty good, but one is simply bad. The standard shot is two strength 4 ap 5 small blasts that don't allow cover saves. That's pretty good at killing light infantry, but you take him for his special rules, right? He is a unique character after all. Then you get an EMP shell, which is like throwing an EMP grenade, but with ap -, so you get a -1 modifier on the damage table. So what you get with that shot is a hit on a 2+, glance on a 4 or 5 and pen on a six shot. Next we have the Hyper-Density Sabot round and I like this one. It gets an extra 12" on all the other shots, bringing it up to a 36" range. It's a strength 9 ap 3 shot, which isn't bad, but doesn't really measure up to other Tau vehicle killing weapons. Finally we have the Ionic Cluster-Beam Shell and that's a mouth full. It's a strength 4 ap 4 large blast that rends. It's not bad at killing 4+ armored infantry and can generally reduce the unit's cover save by one because of R'alai's two marker drones.

Then we have the Eclipse generator and, thank the ethereals, it doesn't make him sparkle! In fact, it kind of does the opposite. It always gives him a 4+ invulnerable save and if he stays stationary for a turn he counts as having a Stealth Field Generator when he's fired at next turn. This affects his Marker Drones if he's by himself and he will get the stealth field if he starts on the table and your opponent gets top of turn one. As with all stealth fields it only applies if all non-drone models in the unit have a Stealth Field Generator.

Now let's see why I don't really like him. To put it simply, most of his rules are either wasted or counterproductive.

First, his Stubborn USR will hurt him unless your looking at temporary negatives to leadership. In the shooting phase unless your hit with devourers or markerlights trying to pin you, everyone already has Stubborn. In the assault Stubborn hurts his chances to run away from combat and let the rest of the army kill whatever killed him, if he gets into combat. He could be a tank, but will eventually lose combat and Tau can only hope he holds up enemy units until their opponent's next turn.

Next, his Marker Drones really hurt him and increase his points massively. Marker Drones are 30 points a piece, admittedly you don't have to pay more for them, but they aren't that great. And then you look at why you want one to die: majority unit toughness. Unlike Shield Drones who take the toughness and armor save of their controller and get a 4+ invulnerable save, Marker Drones are toughness 3 with a 4+ armor save and no invulnerable save. Because they are inseparable from R'alai you have a unit with one toughness 5 model and two toughness three models, making the majority toughness 3. That means a lasgun will wound on a 4+ instead of a 6 and a bolter on a 3+ instead of a 5+; that's a big difference.

Finally, his Special Ammunition. The standard shot is actually pretty good, as is the Cluster-Beam Shell, especially with markerligts to strip away cover saves. The EMP shell is horrible, unless you want to shoot it, and the rest of his unit, at a Land Raider or a Monolith, and then you're getting a -3 on a glance and a -1 on a penetrating hit. The Sabot round is good, but not compared to a railgun, which you have in your army. The real problem is that, except for the standard shot they all have the Gets Hot! rule. Admittedly that's only on a roll of a 1 and he hits on a 2+, but even though it's 'experimental' it doesn't make sense that Tau engineers would make that. They figured out how to make plasma that doesn't overheat, but a sabot round (essentially a dart) does?

Is he cool? Hell yes he is! But is he worth his 225 point cost? I'm not sure. If I buy Hazard Suits I'll probably buy him too, just to have a Hazard Suit commander. So that's Commander R'alai, what do you think of him?

Inside Look: Daemon Prince

GW has finally released the sprue pictures for the new Daemon Prince model, and from the looks of it, this will make several beautiful variants. I like the detail that has been put into the model which is a vast improvement over the older metal model (which is still gorgeous), though I am surprised by the lack of the dark god iconography that usually comes with the chaos models.

Look to see this and the other boxes hitting stores soon. Check out the link to see the full Daemons Pre-Order line up.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1490603&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k

From Mech to Wreck

Hello everyone, Loki here with a question to the gamers out there. Does the Mech army really have the advantage? I have assembled a few reasons as to what makes a Mech list a little more dangerous than what first meets the eye. The obvious reason to run a Mech list is the protection it offers the units inside while giving them the benefit of speed. But do the cons out way the pros? Well here are the biggest cons of the Mech-based lists:

1. Kill Points
In 5th, each Dedicated transport offers another kill point. That means the rhino paid for the unit, now increases the points from 1 to 2. This can be a real problem when Annihilation rolls around, or if a tournament uses kill points as a tie breaker.

2. Pinned!
If a vehicle is either wrecked or explodes, the unit must make a pinning test. Many armies have an answer to leadership, but many do not. This means that not only does the unit lose the benefit offered from the transport that is now gone, but they themselves may not act on the next turn. This means that the points spent to help the unit perform better has actually crippled the unit's ability to work in the game, thus giving more advantage to the enemy.

3. EXPLOSION!
Ka Boom! Although this can lead to some interesting, and often times comical results, the simple matter is this can really hurt the controlling player. Units outside the hull are often a mix of both friendly and enemy, so that is somewhat neutral especially given the low strength of 3. However, the unit inside are hit with S4 (baring open topped transports of course)and now suffer a higher number of wounds. Even marines die to bad rolls, and loosing enough to cause a leadership can further reduce the unit's ability to work well overall.

4. Boom goes the Dynamite
In 5th edition, there is Dynamite, and it's name is melta rule. With the over abundance of this weapon (which is completely against it's fluff in the first place seeing as it is supposed to represent ancient and almost lost technology) units can easily destroy enemy vehicles with ease, causing one of the above mentioned problems as a possible side effect. Not even the fear inspiring Land Raiders can stand up to a few shots from the melta weapons.

5. Clean Up That Mess!
Mech units tend to leave behind debris when they go. Whether this is a crater or a wreck, this can lead to some interfering terrain when it comes to drawing line of sight, moving units of any type), and overall tactical ability of the army. Now this can be used as a good defensive strategy, but often times it is not the latter and tends to leave the owners with nothing but a mess, and some worthless spare keys.

6. Why is this jogger catching up to us?
So many vehicles (baring the fast skimmers) are limited to around 12" movements tops. Now that isn't bad at all... but remember that with 5th came run. This effectively makes everyone on foot fast. 6" movement, followed by potentially 6" more. So now that transport that was bought to speed up the unit's mobility was just matched by the unit that opted not to ride and simply hoof it. Funny huh?

7. It's gonna be a bumpy... Damnit!
Hey look, difficult terrain. Hope you have dozer blades or you can float, because if you roll a one, it looks like your staying right there. This may not seem like much, but can often tip the scales of a battle, and in a tournament using victory points, there goes half the points to your enemy. Now with a 35 point rhino it isn't terrible, but giving the enemy 130 points because you land raider hit a bump is not exactly tactically sound.

8. Trapped!
Not a fan of this maneuver, but it's legal, and it's all kinds of sad. When your vehicle becomes a barrel full of fish... it's time to evaluate what makes this thing worth fielding.

9. The Trade off
Run transports, or more units? You have to spend your points in one place or the other, and if you chose to run transports, that points you can't spend to run another fully functional unit. Without a doubt this can be the biggest points sink as a whole when building a list, as transports and other Mech types begin to really add up fast.

10. the Lucky shot.
A lucky shot is that first turn Lascannon in their backfield that popped the Land Raider before it moves at all. It isn't probable, but it is possible, and must be accounted for when weighing the pros and cons of taking a vehicle and using the points there instead of elsewhere.

Overall infantry and other small units benefit from a massive influx of cover in 5th. Vehicles can often get the save, but if it's failed can often leave the vehicle smoking for different reasons, while the infantry unit only loses a grunt. Now that isn't to say that Mech doesn't have it's pros (like making most small arms fire worthless). However, this article never claims to say Mech has no purpose; its only intent is to help bring new thoughts when it comes to using the vehicles over foot based.

Now I want to hear your thoughts. What do you think about Mech as a whole? In 5th? Is it worth it or not? All of these thoughts and more are yours to ponder. I hope this has been an interesting look at the use of Mech.

Cheers!

Warmachine!

by Ishamael

Hey folks, I'm here to make my first post on Privateer Press' miniatures war game, WARMACHINE. While I have only just recently had models come into my possession, I'm going to give my initial impressions, and the plans I have for the army.

With only a few games under my belt, I can say that this game is quite different than other wargaming systems. Requiring one to plan ahead through the allocation of focus, as well as knowing what your caster is capable of doing, in addition to the rest of one's army, is quite a bit of fun. Since I started playing Khador, my favorite units so far have been the Widowmakers and Winterguard Rifle Corps. The former rocks for high RAT and the Sniper special rule, the latter for its field control, as well as allied units being able to draw line of sight through them. With these preferences in mind, I have calculated the following 35 point list to build:


Sorscha List 35pt
Kommander Sorscha 65
Beast-09 11
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts) 3
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) 4
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts) 2
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts) 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (Leader and 9 Grunts) 8
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (Leader and 9 Grunts) 8
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Widowmaker Marksman 2

It is a Sorscha-themed list (y'know, because you get bonuses for themes in this game). With units able to control the movement of enemy infantry, as well as decent ranged anti-jack units in the Widowmakers and field gun crews, I hope to be able to stall enemies, cripple their forces, and use Beast/Sorscha as a countercharge bomb against anything that gets close. The Winterguard units, through Grigorovich's speeches, can stand up and take enemy charges to buy more time.

So, here are my initial thoughts on playing Khador in Warmachine, and soon I hope to set up some pictures in an attempt to plan out my tactics for fighting.

Just something to prove I'm playing multiple game systems!

Messias non est,
Ishamael

A New Look and Feel

Moving one step at a time, our site has become closer to a real web page. Here's to hoping we can gain more fans in the coming months. We will continue to bring as much 40k goodness to all of you for as long as we'z gots teef ta pay da bilz!

So raise a choppa and keep up da gude Waaagh!

Cheers!

Inferring distances.

by Ishamael

Hey wankers, it's been a while since I've posted, and that's mainly because I'm enjoying my summer break. So eff off!

Today I'm going to give my thoughts on a major change in the Warhammer Fantasy ruleset that has been gestating in my mind. That thing is the ability of players to pre-measure everything in the game! Now, initially I was ambivalent towards this game mechanic, borderline against it, yet there are a ridiculous number of simple mental tricks one can use to gauge distance without even needing to pick up a ruler. So, we'll break this into two sections:

What does this mean for the new player?

When I started this game I could not eyeball distances worth a shit. It made games an exercise in my own idiocy, and whenever I played against someone that had played for some time, I was outclassed because he could just eyeball that charge range, or guess how far away my models were. This mechanic levels that playing field, and encourages new players to play even more because they don't have to worry about eyeballing distances on the battlefield. Now, what about vet players, those guys that have played long enough that they can whack baby seals with distance the whole game.

What does this mean for the experienced gamer?

I've already mentioned how longtime players can just gauge distance by looking. What this means for them is that within the Fantasy rules they don't have a huge advantage over the young 'uns when playing. Knowing precisely how far it is until you hit the enemy's lines, how far to guess with your artillery dice, all that jazz is now balanced by the other fellow's ability to just measure that. So, what'll vets do? Pre-measure as well! Everybody wins, and just about the only people that won't use this tool will be a bunch of random "old school" players that find it sacrilegious that this is in the game. Burn those players, they just don't want new guys to have an equal playing field.

This is just a quick overview of this new mechanic for Fantasy. I find no problems with it, as everyone gets to start the game on a level playing field with guys who've played the game longer than some of us have been on this planet.

"Hey! You mentioned inferring distance, explain!"

Alright alright, here I'll highlight a couple of nice tricks for knowing whether or not one is in range depending on where one is on the board. First one is something I try with my Pathfinders. In Spearhead or Pitched Battle deployment, my Pathfinders take a nice advantage of the 24 inch gap between players. For the purpose of quickly explaining, we'll assume Pitched deployment. So, my Pathfinders have a 36 inch gun, and I have a 12 inch deployment zone. I know the table is 48 inches wide. If they deploy at the 12 inch mark, I can hit just about anything on my opponent's deployment zone. Yet, what I tend to do is set them up at the 6 inch mark, which gives me a 42 inch total threat range. I can hit his front line, and it buys them a turn of enemy movement to them, after going through the Kroot of course.

Here's another one, but this requires a bit of math. Assuming I have a Hammerhead in one corner, and my target is in the other corner, can I feasibly guess that I'm within range? One might intuit "yes", but let's be sure.

Epistemology! "What do we know?"

The board is 6 feet by 4 feet, broken down into 72 inches by 48 inches. The table forms a right angle, and I'm firing on the hypotenuse, so this calls for the Pythagorean Theorem:

a squared + b squared = c squared, where c squared in the hypotenuse of a right triangle, a is the short edge, and b is the long edge.

So, now we plug in our values. I'm going to go ahead and square 'em.

2304 + 5184 = 7488 - Now, we need to take the square root of our sum.

The square root of 7488 is (rounded) 86.53 inches.

So, I'd be out of range with my 72 inch Railgun! Good thing I knew that before the game even started!

So, in this short article I've touched on the pre-measuring mechanic in Fantasy 8th edition, and even some minor tricks available in 40k.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

Yo, Joe!

-Ishamael

Rules Shenanigans: Baal Predator

Good morning everyone, I came across this earlier and thought this might peak your interest. As you probably know, GW recently published FAQs for the Blood Angels and Tyranid codices. Why the Blood Angels FAQ was produced in a shorter time after the publishing of the codex than the Tyranid FAQ, I don't know. For the most part these FAQs make sense, even when they change initial interpretations based on the big rule book, but the ruling on the Baal Predator makes me wonder if the author thought this all the way through.

The Question:
Can a Baal Predator use its Smoke Launchers during its scout move?

The Answer:
Yes

The Shenanigans:
This may not seem like a problem, but look closely at the wording of Smoke Launchers on page 62 of the big rule book. Smoke Launchers may be triggered by the vehicle "after completing its move." Fine so far, a scout move is a move and therefore Baal Predators should be able to trigger their smoke launchers.

Where the shenanigans begin is when you look at the duration of smoke launchers. The precise phrasing states the vehicle "will count as obscured in the next enemy Shooting phase, receiving a 4+ cover save." Now let's say the Blood Angels player goes first, scouts his Baal and pops smoke. They will then be able to take a turn as normal, including moving and firing any weapons they desire and they will still benefit from the smoke launchers. There are no caveats about a turn taken between the triggering of the smoke launchers and the next enemy shooting phase.

Now let's look at how to exploit this, most likely with the Baal's shiny new weapon the Flamestorm Cannon. It only has a template range from the tip of the Cannon, but being a fast vehicle it's speed makes it a practical weapon. A Baal can move 18" in its scout move and then move 12" in its first movement phase and fire one weapon, all of this under the effects of the smoke launchers. This allows a Blood Angels player to get a Flamestorm Cannon 6" into your deployment zone in a Pitched Battle or Spearhead game before you can take a turn and benefit from smoke launchers in your first turn.

Will this cause problems with 40k as a whole? I don't think it will, as it only affects one army and can only be exploited if they go first. Will this cause any changes to my gaming experience? I don't think it will because no one in my gaming group runs Baal Predators. What does it make me think of GW's FAQ writers? I think they should have thought more of the implications of their rulings.

Will it change your gaming experience, if so how?

Progress Report: Godfrey's Templar I

Hello again everyone. Loki here presenting you all with a look at the progress of my newest army, the Black Templar. I have decided to go with the standard Black with white shoulders scheme on the majority of the army. I have spiced up a few little bits with my own personal touch, and after seeing the initial work, I am pleased to say it adds a nice unique touch to the squads I want to have stand out.

I recently purchased a new desk that was large enough to accommodate my computer and my hobby supplies without having to constantly shuffle them around each other. Having the entire army set out on the table, It gave me a good look at all the models in the army and so I will show you what I have by unit. I'll just start from the bottom and work up.

Crusader Squads
Like any army the core of it's ability to work usually lies in the troops branch of the Force Organization Tree. Templar armies are a prime example of how to make the most of limited, but powerful troops. Though they are still running with the issues an older codex can bring upon units, this very same issue often lends a helping hand as well.

Even though the codex only has one troops choice, the ability to run neophytes (scouts) with the unit makes them extremely versatile. This allows for squads to use lesser point models for allocating early wounds to so that you don't lose as much in the inevitable casualty rate of the 40th millennium. It also allows for squad sizes reaching 20 (plus independent characters) making them the largest Space Marine squad available. The added ability to make them bolter based, assualt based, or a combination of the two makes this already good unit into an amazing unit.

But without a doubt what really makes these troops units stand out is simply the Templar rule for Preferred Enemy granted by the Emperor's Champion. With the other vows being null and void or not worth taking, this rule is practically an Army Special rule when facing Templar. I usually run my Champion with a squad of Crusaders to give them some extra bite in the assault phase.

All in all, these units make one heck of a scoring unit, as well as a bread and butter unit to make sure the battles are never boring.

Heavy Hitters

These are the units I can count on bringing some major pain to the enemy's units, be they great or small, these units never care, as they are all only hurdles that must be jumped to reach to final goal... uncompromising victory!

My vindicator, Big Fau is a relatively new addition to the crusade. I have always been a big fan of the Demolisher cannon's role in the marine army, as it often rids me of extremely pesky enemy units. Having looked into the codex, I realized that this codex still allows me to buy "Power of the Machine Spirit" for vehicles. Now Vindicators are notorious for being deadly, but add the ability to shoot almost constantly makes for an amazing tank.

I used spare Templar Land Raider doors from the Upgrade boxes, on the side hatches, as well as some other fun bits to make the tank feel a little more like it belongs within the zealous ranks of my marines. All in all it has performed most admirably since it's induction.

I do not have a picture to go with my Venerable Dreadnought as I wanted Privett (Our local Painting Wizard) to make him extra pretty. He uses a Venerable Black Templar Torso from Forgeworld, with a few extra bits from the new plastic Venerable kit, as well as a custom home made sword to use as a DCCW. With the added perk of Tank Hunters, he becomes a great anti-armor unit, with some extra melee support for tactical response. Holding up swarms of Hormigaunts with nothing but an unbeatable dreadnought is extremely helpful.

Next in line is the Sword Brethren Terminator Squad. Though they are converted from Black Reach bodies, they still manage to bring fear into the minds of the enemy. Pictured with them is a Terminator Chaplain as well as a Terminator Marshal. These two HQ's rarely see battle, but I enjoy the ability and the option to have them if I feel it prudent to run Tactical Dreadnought Armor. I love this unit's ability to devastate just about any unit it hits on the field... However I rarely run them. This is due to two major reasons. 1. Every Templar Army out there seems to run them, and 2. I have an alternative Hammer unit to replace them...



The Command Squad, and the baby of my Army.

Without a doubt this is my favorite unit in the codex. I know they require a lot of points to make worth the taking, but if run well, they are a devastating unit to combat. Now I will caution that the only real way to run them is with Helbrecht as the unit becomes a full blown retinue and has the ability to run up to 5 neophytes with it. These two additional rules alone make the squad amazing.

I wanted these models to stick out among the rest of the army, so their shoulder pads are a dark red with bronze trim. This makes the unit not only stand out, but offer a great alternative scheme while simultaneously keeping the black armor to keep an army-wide uniform feel. This unit is by far my biggest reason for starting this army, and though they have their flaws, I love em!

Other Units

These units are great models, and offer me some variety to add to my list to keep the army from getting old. I have played many different lists and often incorporate these additional models and units into the fray to make it interesting.

Using the Hector Rex model from Forgeworld, I sometimes run a Grey Knight Grand Master as he has two things that help the army out immensely, a great psychic Hood, and a Nemesis Force Weapon. I love the model, and the ability to run him as an Allied HQ makes for a great addition both Tactically and artistically. After a week of work on the model, I can say it is the most beautiful model I have ever painted.

To continue giving myself some alternative modeling and tactical options, I have additional HQ units (A Marshal and a Chaplain). These models are made from Sicarius and a Legion of the Damned Sergent with some conversion work to both. These models are beautiful, and I use the as non-named HQ units.

NEW!

You can still catch the fumes rolling off these models as they just came in today. Grimaldus hits the table for some high toned and fancy painting soon. I may try out the tough as nails Chaplain in the future, but for now I just like having the model at my disposal. He's a beaut' and I can't wait to get the brushes on him soon.

So there you have it. I know this almost felt like a codex review, but I will try to keep you all posted on the progress of the army as it gets closer to the finish line. Hope everyone else is getting some modeling and hobbyin' time over the summer.

Cheers!

40k Overview: The Hammer of the Emperor

Good evening, good morning, good afternoon as the case may be.

After overhearing a discussion between Loki, ZerkeX, and a friend I wanted to get your opinions. I would like to hear your views on the Imperial Guard, their past and present, and how they affect(ed) the game. Have at, but first some of my own views.

As a Tau player, I'm not used to being outshot or having too many vehicles to target and kill, but the Guard are the army most able to put me in this position. When we look at the Guard, the most pivotal part of the army list is the troops section. While generally a shooting-based army, the choice of troops can make Guard from a horde army to a (relatively) small, more elite army. I will go into more detail on this army if you like, but the troops choices can dictate the feel of the army.

First the veteran squad, probably the most common troops choice on the internet, is the essential 5th edition "Powergaming" choice. For one hundred fifty-five points, fifteen less than a bare bones tactical squad, you can buy a veteran squad with three meltaguns in a chimera. By itself this unit has approximately a 56% chance of killing a land raider. With orders this can be raised to approximately a 72% chance. For being cheap and able to de-mechanize the enemy no matter their transport, the veteran squad can be used to make some of the "hardest" armies in any tournament.

My favorite troops choice, the infantry platoon, is the back bone of the "classic" Guard army. Consisting of 25-147 guardsmen per platoon, the platoon has the option to bring an answer to most any opponent and illustrates the "untold billions" in service to the God Emperor. While it can be built to be a competetive choice, they eat points faster than terminators. A good versatile choice and representative of the story of the 40k universe, the infantry platoon can simply swamp the board with bodies and baffle an opponent as to how to kill that many models.

Finally, Loki's favorite troops choice the penal legion squad. Akin to the CSM possessed squad, their speciality changes based on a random dice roll. This unpredictability and their lack of access to anti-vehicle weaponry means they are automatically discounted from "serious" lists. They are an interesting choice and can provide a cheap troops unit to allow more room for other choices or be a replacement for the Schaffer's Last Chancers from the previous codex. They also open up modeling opportunities for the hobbyist and a wide variety of story options for anyone who wants a laugh.

What I'm trying to say is that while the Imperial Guard codex allows for some of the deadliest and hardest to beat army lists in the current 40k atmosphere, but it can also allow some of the most hilarious stories for gamers to play out. I enjoy the challenge of playing against guard who always give me a good fight. Remember that a challenge can also be fun and the sky is not actually falling.

Hobby Table I

The Hobby Table will be a continuing post dealing with the sides of 40k that don't happen on the battlefield. These discussion will deal with the topics mostly found outside of battles such as the painting, mission creation, and other miscellaneous topics that don't fit in battle reports. Enjoy.

Mission: Meat Grinder

So today I ventured down the the keep where a Joe and a Sabo were in the midst of a battle. After a short conversation, Sabo agreed to come over and play again at the house. I decided when I got home that I wanted to have a little more fun with this game than a standard mission. My first thought was to try out the Evacuation mission from the back pages of the BRB. After Sabo showed a little hesitation due to the harsh environment rules... I decided that perhaps it was a good opportunity to dust off the old mission I had come up with while coming up with unique missions for a prior tournament event.

This game is a little more interesting than a usual mission and is suppose to simulate the very heart of a major battle. These fights generally consist of two major objectives, 1. Claim vital intelligence points on the battlefield which could be key to holding the field after the struggle has begun. 2. Destroy the enemy down to the final grunt.

Of course a battle depends on the ability for an army to tactically respond to every situation and to do this an HQ must be in the area to help maintain a sense of order.


Objective
The goal for both armies is to hold the majority of the objectives by the end of the battle; in addition they must also have more kill points than the enemy.


Set Up
The Table is split into 6 equal 1 foot wide sections along the length of the long table edge. Once done, both players roll a dice and the winner chooses a section closest to one of the short table edges. The opponent then takes the opposite section. 6 objectives are to be placed on the board (one in each section), but must remain more than 12" from another objective. Players set up objectives in the half of the board closest to their deployment zone, starting with the section closest to the board's center working out. Each player sets up one, then the opponent sets up one, until all are objective markers are placed.


Deployment
Both armies are to be set up in the far sections (the two closest to the board's short table edges) and the two armies take it in turns to set up one unit at a time until all units are deployed. All units must be placed in the section closet to the army's respective board edge. Units with the "Fleet" special rule, and all units purchased in the "Fast Attack" slot may be placed in the first or second sections.

Please note that units fall back towards the short table edges in this game.


Reserves
Both armies may use reserves as normal.


Victory Conditions
The mission calls for the armies to have nothing less than a merciless victory. In order to win, a player must hold the majority of objectives, and have more kill points than the enemy. If one of these requirements is not met, then the battle is a draw.


Special Rules

Meat Grinder: All non-HQ units have this rule. So long as a friendly HQ remains on the table, units that are completely destroyed (including any dedicated transports purchased for that unit) must return to the battlefield from reserves as if they had been placed there and return in the following controlling player's turn.

If there are no friendly HQ models left on the board, units that have been completely destroyed must roll to see if they can continue to come back into play. On a 4+ the unit will return as normal, but on a 3 or lower, the unit has been lost in the insuring chaos brought on by the lack or organization and are no longer in play.

Please note that units yield kill points as normal every time they are completely destroyed.


Objective Secured: If either player has a scoring unit within 3" of an objectiveat the end of their turn, then the objective is said to have been "secured". A secured objective counts as being controlled even if the unit that secured it moves off.

The only way the objective can change hands is for an enemy scoring unit to secure it themselves (just as described above).




The game uses standard mission length, and allows any and all standard rules to be used (i.e. Deepstrike, Outflant, Scout, etc.)



I hope you enjoy the mission as much as we did. and there will be a picture based battle report soon to show you how the game went. Until then...

Cheers!

The Cat's in the Crater

Well I was pondering on a topic for conversation and the idea of craters popped into my head as a relevant point of conversation. These pieces of terrain are on nearly every board in the 40k universe, and rightly so seeing as the universe has been in turmoil for centuries. This being said, there is an interesting gap in the rulebook regarding this widely varied and common terrain piece. So what category do we put them in?

I have been pouring through the rulebooks and other pages on the interwebs attempting to unravel the mystery of what makes a crater a crater. Many people have found calling them area terrain as the most simple of the categories and leaving it at that. But lets slow down and think about the cons of just simply going the simple route here. Area terrain (in 5th) does not allow a barrage weapon to remove the cover save from units hit when they are in these pieces. Now in some cases I can see this being alright as this rule was put in to simulate the walls of ruins, and or the dense foliage to cause problems actually getting an accurate location of the enemy. Were I can see a crater being useful to dodge, dive, dip, duck, and dodge from direct fire (much like a sandbag)... I find it hard to believe that a crater will stop barrage style weaponry which is suppose to simulate fire falling from above.

I was a huge fan of the Band of Brothers series on the History Channel, and one episode depicted them getting, well barraged from enemy fire, and their only "protection" was hiding in fox holes (or small craters dug to protect the soldiers from enemy fire). These worked well until the artillery shells landed in the holes... quickly reducing the protection, and the men to bits.

Now going back to game terms, I think that gaining a cover save from normal weaponry and any non-barrage style weapons out there is fine. I'll even say that a barrage weapon outside the crater still granting a save makes sense. The Rule Book says it's a 4+ cover and I can buy that. It also defines area terrain in a fuzzy manner. Any piece of terrain that does not have a defined edge is a little tricky in many circumstances as most do. To make matters worse, I look to a specific example in the new Tyranid codex. The Ymgarl Genestealers allow them to set up in a piece of area terrain. Now for them I can see the crater being a good spot to set up in... but I still do not think the crater should be area terrain.

This is where you the reader say "But then what would you call a crater?" And to that I have a simple answer. I call it a 4+ direction cover. My comparison would be saying it is like having a circle of sandbags. This allows the unit that is more than half in the center of the crater, to gain the benefits of cover from normal fire, while not negating barrage effectiveness against them. I find it hard to believe that by having a few men in a crater, that an Orbital Bombardment which is used to glass a planet, can't breach a craters defenses.

To be fair, I allow rules which utilize area terrain (such as the Ymgarl's set up) to still be used on terrain craters, but to me it just seems logical. Since the rules are a little iffy on what to call terrain... this is what makes sense to me as a player and logical human being.

What do you think? I am interested in your thoughts on the matter. Which way do you think it should be? Area? Directional? Or do you have a different idea? We would love to hear your thoughts. Until then...

Cheers!

Happy 4th

Well There's no article here folks, but the guys and I would like to wish you all a happy 4th. So go chug a beer, and Waaagh the good Waaagh!

Cheers!

The Aftermath: dramatt

While I’m also fairly late in talking about our latest tournament I suppose that some of you might like to hear how the games went down. Loki and Ishamael have already done a good job of explaining the tournament style and the setup, so I’ll just jump right to my army list.

1850 Point Tournament List
HQ
Reclusiarch 130

Troops
Assault Squad 215
10-man w/sarge power weapon, meltagun
Assault Squad 215
10-man w/sarge power weapon, meltagun
Assault Squad 215
10-man w/sarge power weapon, meltagun

Elites
Furioso Dreadnought 140
w/ Blood talons + extra armor
Assault Terminators 300
3 lightning claws, 4 storm shield/thunder hammer
Sanguinary Priests 255
2 w/ jump packs + Corbulo

Heavy Support
Dreadnought 105

Dedicated Transports
Land Raider Crusader 275
w/ multi-melta + extra armor


Game 1:
Game 1 saw me go up against the only other guy here playing a Blood Angel army. However, it really wasn’t a mirror match as he was playing a very different style than I was. Rather than focus on the all-out assault like I was, he was playing a much more balanced list that could be run under all most any marine codex and still work. It had three tac squads in rhinos, two assault squads (one with a captain with lightning claws), 3 multi-melta land speeders, and a full dev team with two missile launchers and 2 lascannons. The game went largely in my favor due to our starting positions. I won the roll off to go first and placed all of my units as far up as I could and centered around the middle. He choose to meet me in the middle, placing his land speeders on the front line and his devs close behind while keeping his assault teams and rhinos towards the back. He failed to seize the initiative, but managed to make two of his tac squads “happy” due to the red thirst. I managed to make one assault squad and the furioso dreadnought “happy” as well, but due to the presence of the priests it didn’t matter much. Turn one I surged as far forward as I could and took some pot shots at the land speeders, but failed to cause any damage. His turn one saw him fan one speeder out to the side while the other two mostly stayed put and fired into the land raider, but only shook it up a little. His dev choose to stay put and fired into the land raider, but only scratched the paint. This surprised me as this put his devs in assault range from pretty much my entire army, but then I realized that that was exactly what he had intended as his rhinos and assault squads were positioned a little behind ready to counter-charge my whole army once I’d finished his devs. Seeing this plan allowed me to come up with one of my own. I charged my termies into his devs and managed to fan out enough to also hit and destroy the two land speeders that had stuck around, with the land raider taking out the third after the termies got out. The rest of my army positioned itself behind the termies, but out of charge range of his army, ready to counter his counter-assault. With so many deadly terminators right in the middle of his field he had no choice, but to throw his entire army at them after his shooting failed to kill anyone (2+ saves with 4+ FNP is great for that especially with 3+ invuls for melta shots and the like). While they did get thoroughly devastated by that many guys attacking at once, one lightning claw and the reclusiarch managed to hold strong so that on the next turn my three assault squads fell on them like a ton of bricks and showed the kind of devastion that thirty furious charge assault marines can dish out. After that it was all over, except for the clean-up with me finishing the last of his rhinos off during turn 6 for a complete table.

Game 2:
Game 2 saw me playing another marine player, this one running Imperial Fists out of the vanilla marine codex. Night fighting was in effect the entire game, but my best range being 24” and getting first turn, we spent the entire game too close to each other for it to have any real effect. His army was a pretty balanced one using three tac squads, one on foot, one in a land raider with Lysander, and a six man squad in a razorback. He also had a shooty dreadnought using a twin-linked lascannon and a missle launcher, an assault squad with librarian, a sniper scout squad, infiltrating scout bikers, and regular bikers. The game was pretty straight-forward with me controlling the two points on my half of the field and him controlling one on his side with the two of us fighting over the point towards the middle (technically on his side). It pretty much stayed his way with him feeding me a squad at a time in order to keep my guys in the middle locked in combat. With Lysander making some awesome saves my guys didn’t go much of anywhere. Since the game was a fixed number of turns it turned into a draw when on the bottom of the last turn the razorback, which had just hid until this point zoomed out to contest one of my points causing a 1-1 draw. I knew it was coming, but unfortunately there was nothing I could send to stop it without losing one of my points anyway.

Game 3:
Game 3 was against our very own Heretic and was more or less the battle for second place. The Dawn of War set-up used isn’t as advantageous for my army as it is for most other assault armies as my assault squads rely heavily on the attached priests I usually choose to have everything walk on to the board turn one. Furthermore, using the modified system of kill points where each of my priests is worth 2 kill points can be something of a disadvantage. However, these are very small disadvantages when compared to the problems Heretic and his Tau army had. His tau list almost never has a good time against assault based armies and Dawn of War means he loses his first turn heavy shots from broadsides and no markerlights from the pathfinders. To be honest, it wasn’t a very fair match-up and the fact that I was making good rolls and he practically couldn’t buy a save didn’t help. I’ll leave it to him to better describe the contents of his army. His strategy, of grouping together and trying to use the devilfish as assault screens, was the best he could have done under the circumstances, but my power armor and FNP made me practically immune to anything his fire warriors could dish out. The 5 crisis suits and the commander (in two squads of 3) dished out some unsaveable hurt, but just not enough to stop me from rolling through his infantry to table him. To illustrate his luck the very first time I fired anything was a meltagun out of 6” into a devilfish blowing it up and taking a total of 10 fire warriors with it. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have any bad luck of my own, as at one point later in the game a squad of 8 assault marines and their priest had to jump into a crater to get within assault range of the last fire warrior squad remaining. Three of them got 1s on the dangerous terrain test and died causing a Leadership test, which they failed and ran away. Of course by that point it didn’t matter much. MVP for me that game was definitely my second priest with a jump pack (who is going to get his own name after this game). He and his squad were able to slip in around the devilfish screen on the right side and because of that got to assault and wipe out/sweeping advance a fire warrior squad, a team of 2 broadsides, and a team of 3 crisis suits (not the one with the commander though). This definitely earned the attention of the rest of the tau as they then turned their guns on the squads and with tons of fire warrior fire and the plasma from the other suit team quickly mowed down the squad until only the priest was left alive. That priest was then able to assault a group of pathfinders killing a couple and running them down when they tried to flee. Out in the open again he didn’t take too much fire and saved what he did take as the tau had to worry about the other squad of assault marines and the terminators who had busted their way through the devilfish screen and taken out the front fire warriors. In trying to keep out of the way of the termies and remaining assault squads, but still be in rapid fire plasma range the commander and his two suits left themselves open to assault by the priest who did just that. The priest was able to cause 2 wounds, one of which was not saved and then passed two saves of his own to win combat by one. The commander managed to fail his leadership and got run down by the lone priest.

All-in-all it was a horrible game on many levels for Heretic, but he took it well and I can’t complain as it gave me second place in the tournament.

Some thoughts from the Battlefield

Good evening folks, I have a question for you that first seriously occurred to me this Saturday. I was playing at the Game Preserve tournament with many of you and a situation came up where my sportsmanship and desire to win were at odds.

Ishmael and I played our second game since he has started his new Tau army and it was a both a good game and a solid win for me. Because of this win I was matched up with Lucas. Before the game, during the lunch break, I was walking back into the game room and saw the matchup sheet and found out that Lucas and I were in the winner's bracket along with Loki and Lucas' brother. While Lucas and I took our time with playing the game and while the game was still going on we found out that Lucas' brother had beaten Loki.

Now I was faced with a dilemma: If I won Lucas' brother and I would be the only two undefeated players in the tournament and would square off for the grand prize. I might have been able to pull out at least third place with a loss and two wins, but if I tied Lucas there was a possibility I would be able to play someone else. Lucas' brother's army is based on the use of Capt. Shrike making his army fleet, a horrible thing for Tau, especially when used with twenty terminators and twenty assault marines. So the question became "do I want to win and play Zach or tie and face some unknown opponent?" As I've said before I view playing your best game as a way of honoring your opponent and showing that you believe they are a worthwhile player.

Which is more important to you, giving your opponent the best game you can or playing in the hopes of winning the tournament as a whole?