Necrons M.I.A.

So maybe it's just me, but I have noticed a distinct lack of the oldest race (and codex) of them all on GW's website.

Perhaps there is a bit of truth in the rumors of them being next up in the realm of new codexes... or they couldn't live with the shame of bro fisting the Blood Angels and committed mass suicide.

Then again if they wanted to commit suicide they could always just play a battle with their current codex :P

Criteria of Competitive

by Ishamael

Yay, near-alliteration!

So, one of the most interesting thought experiments we can engage in in our games is what criteria come together to make a thing competitive or not. So, let's talk some competitive in warhams. So, I'll toss out some criteria, and explain them:

Melta
A huge change from 4th to 5th came when GW created a use for AP 1 weaponry. Turned this weapon from being a decent anti-tank weapon to a required one for reliable tank-killing.

Mobility
This comes in the form of having plenty of troop-carrying vehicles around so you can get around the board enough to threaten objectives. Foot lists generally don't have this unless they have their own special form of mobility, like Templars.

Troops
They're worth taking if a 5th ed. book, because only they can capture objectives, and by and large they're also capable of dealing damage to enemies, as well as threatening tanks.

Target Saturation
So, we have this concept called Multiple Small Units (hence MSU) wherein a player spreads his threats out to where there are no linchpins in his army that would severely weaken it should a unit that costs a lot be lost. This also forces your opponent to worry about target priority depending on your deployment.

Support Fire
Pretty much every army needs support fire in some way. Gotta open transports to assault the juicy bits inside somehow. This is also where you place your longer range suppression units.

Movement Blocking
Most of the time we can see where an opponent is going, or will want to go. So, how do we deny him that? Well, stick an expendable unit or a vehicle in the way to deny him his prize for a turn.

Deep Strike Defense
This is something I need pictures to do, but essentially you define your deployment zone to do two things: make dangerous places for your opponent to deep strike, and also use your extra bodies to push out possible landing zones away. Decent use for combat squads against a full Drop Pod army. Albeit, in that case you will want to use your mechanized elements as well to push them back.

Field of Fire
When you deploy a unit, be sure to eyeball how much of the field it will actually be able to see before you finalize your zone.

Weight of Dice
All other things being equal, dice will determine the day. As such, when you really, really need something to die, regardless of how many wounds or what saves it has, force that unit to keep rolling dice, and hope for some fails. Primary anti-Terminator bugspray.

Given that these are just a few concepts to be aware of in this game, what else might we need to be aware of when building lists, considering deployment, or whatever while enjoying our games of Warhammer 40k?

PLASTIC TOY SOLDIERS <3, Ishamael

Guest Articles

Hello everyone.

I have recently been talking with a few of our fellow gamers out there and the thought occurred to me that we at Rites of Battle would like to extend our horizons a bit. We can only write so much about so many things, and given our time constraints sometimes... we hate to leave our page un-updated for the lengths of time it often goes.

So I would like to extend an invitation to our readers out there to get involved. We would love to see your thoughts on future articles, but also... if you would like to write an article up and send it our way, we'd love to credit you and put it up on RoB.

just send your articles, any pictures you would like with it, and the author name you would like with it to zelemmy@gmail.com and we'll put it up on the site.

Hope to get some good articles from you soon.

Cheers!

A First Review: Space Marine

Hello fellow gamers, I will preface this article with a solid recommendation for this game.

So after waiting and waiting I've finally gotten to play, beat, and love this game. Ever since it's announcement, I've been drooling and fervently praying to the Golden Throne it would come out sooner. Well the wait was most defiantly worth it. The game has just about everything going for it. Like everything new it has one or two things that it needs a tweak on, but I can't really complain about them.

So I wanted to look at some of the pros and cons as well as some interesting thoughts and speculations. WARNING SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!

Pros

1. The Scale
The first thing I noticed about the game was not only was the aesthetic perfect, but the size of everything was unbelievable! I walked out of the first building, and looked up, and up, and up. The environment is full of Giant Gothic towers, and huge manufactorums. Even one of the first missions has you push giant planetary defense projectiles into a huge cannon! Just awesome.

As you progress through the game more and more of the classic forgeworld look is visible, and I loved ever part of it.

2. The Battles
I have to quote Corvus on this one. "Everything you do just feels... epic." This is true Literally every battle is a fight, and on a huge scale. Hordes of orks, packs of deamons, and the foul forces of chaos tend to make everything a challenge... Hell even walking outside to take a piss would probably end up being a huge ordeal. That's exactly what the grim darkness of the far future should feel like.

3. The Space Marines
Now with the exception of my natural dislike for the sons of Rowboat Girlyman... the marines were fantastic... cept Leandros... The character models were very beautiful, and felt like they had a real bulk and weight behind everything they did. The voice acting was exceptional, and the characters themselves had great character.

My only real issue was a general lack of helmets, as well as the ones who did wear helmets didn't have that metalic vox sound to their voices. Would have loved to see this. I would have also enjoyed a little deeper pitch to the volume of the non-captain actors.

4. The Suspense
Now I do enjoy a good plot, which I'll get to later, but the game kept me wanting more. Even the ending had the added suspense of making me want more! Now that' a well done finish to make you want more.


Cons

1. The Plot
It seems to me that a long time ago when the original Dawn of War was released... this plot line had seen it's debut. Now it is a good plot... no qualms there, but I was a little bummed when I felt like I had done a lot of this before. Some things were a little different, but on the whole it felt a little copy pasted to me.

2. The Boss
This fight let me very underwhelmed. I expected a hardcore fight to the finish with a daemonprince. But what I got was a falling sequence with quick time events... wtf?! Come on! After the complete success of everything prior, I get this! I could barely watch the fight as I was to busy watching what button I had to press next. Bleh. Next time give me a boss I can actually fight.

3. The Ending
Ok, so while the ending left me wanting more... I feel it might be more or less because I hated the ending. Now I want to see what happens to Captain Titus, and hope Leandros gets hit by an intergalactic Mack truck, but after everything I went through... I felt cheated.

But beyond anything else what bothered me the most was truly because I'm a fan boy. MY TEMPLAR! I was so excited when i heard that the Templar would finally be in a game! I was ready to see them kick ass and then I got... well a very disappointing appearance. First, they all had the same character model (had to show off their custom skin instead of a little customization to the squad), they all carried bolters, and they were escorting a PSYCKER! WHAT THE UNHOLY FUCKEDY FUCK IS THIS!?! The absolute last chapter to have escorting a psycker inquisitor is the Templar! Uhhg.

Was not pleased by that fluff wrenching appearance. I'm expecting somewhere in the development stages of this game, Ward found his way into the room and planted another one of his "hey... wouldn't it be cool if" ideas into the team's fragile minds.


But I do have a puzzling thought. All of the pics released prior to launch have a squad of guys who do not seem to be in the basic game. Could this be the coop play they have talked about releasing next month? I'll bet it is. Notice that Deff Dread that was rather absent in the campaign?

So how again, if you havent played the game, I urge you to at least watch it. For the most part, everything is darn near perfect!

Cheers!

A Fully Loaded Hobby Table.

Well it has been some time since I was able to appropriately give 40k the time I'd like to give it. With Grad school starting up, starting a business, and general other things to do... I haven't had any real time for it... well that all changes soon I hope. SO I suppose there are a few things I need to update on.

I currently have a few armies that I am trying to maintain, a little here and there I guess. I still have my beloved Templar army, which I am now returning to. I plan to get as much done in the coming weeks as I can. I have told myself I would do at least a model a day until I have my usual list done. I currently have 20 fully painted and based marines, and 5 neophytes... given that I generally run 2 blobs and a rhino squad... I have some work ahead of me... primarily neophytes.

Not all is lost, I did manage to finish my latest additions to the Army. Godfrey the Emperor's Champion was updated, and is now a custom sculpt using the new Resin model... better keep him out of the sun though :P I also finished painting a Thunder Hammer Storm Shield Terminator Model from Scibor Monster Minis I picked up at GenCon.

And speaking of GenCon, I found a deal I couldn't pass up on. I snagged a Tyranid army there on the cheap. Managing to grab 6 carnifexes, 90 hormigaunts, a trygon, 3 resin Hive Guard, a resin tyrant and 2 tyrant guard, 9 Warriors, and the codex all for $450... I couldn't pass it up. I plan to run them as such.

Recently people have declared the codex to be the worst of 5th edition. I will agree with that statement without any real question. I do feel like it received one to many nerf bats to the face, and I really hope GW will give it some new models soon seeing how they have released a whole new model line for other armies, but have yet to produce a real wave of nids in a while is a little disturbing.

Where my opinion shifts from the common is that people believe the nids only have 1 good build... Tervispam as I call it. It's everywhere in rearguards to nids... Well When I picked up my Templar (after my brother officially made them mine) it was under the idea that the popular belief was they didn't work. So I challenged myself to make them work... and I feel I have. Now the Nids are my new project. I am running a list that is all Hormigaunts and Carnifexes because I love the units, I love their models, and darned it all I'm gonna try to make em work. I have played a few games so far, and I'd have to say I've had a fair bit of success. I think I have an element of surprise, as not many people are used to seeing it. I'll try to keep you posted on their results.

I have two other little armies I'm sitting on currently. One of Which is my Crimson Fist army. I am still looking to sell these as my Marine army of choice is hands down the Black Templar. I did have a though of converting it into a Sternguard Drop pod army sometime in the future, but that is a ways down the pipe. My other is a Grey Knight terminator Army. I love the models, and enjoyed customizing my own Dreadknight. A friend expressed interest in the models and it would be his first army. I'll keep a few as I'm proud of them, and my have a use for them... but I am probably going to sell this army to him so he has a cheap way to get into the hobby. Another player is always a good thing in the 40k community.

And with the absence of the Daemonhunters... comes a thought from left field. Corvus and I have been discussing the idea of building daemons... as a nice side project. A while back I bought a box of Bloodletters to model some fun conversions, but never got to it. Now it seems I may have a use for them again. I love Khorne Daemons, and used to have a fairly sizable army of them. If I can find my old Skarbrand, I'd love to get him back.. loved that model. So while I collect skulls for yon Skull Throne, Corvus is looking into a duel army of Tzeench and Slaanesh. I would pick up Nurgle daemons to round us out... but I have never been fond of their rules, or their models. So Gramps may have to sit out for this particular round.

But after my look into Forgeworld (yes, still drooling over the Khorne Daemonprince) I have one thing that bothers me. I love... and I mean LOVE the Khorne Bezerker upgrade. I want to use them so very badly, but I don't want to run Khorne Bezerkers as I have a marine army that likes to insert chain weapons into the opposing side's face. Corvus and Warmaster Havoc have given my a few suggestions on how to use them... but I'm not sure if I really could. So I may just have to sniffle and not buy them. For now anyways ^.^

I haven't started this army yet though, so for now it's not high on my importance list. I have a simple scheme on my Tyranids that should allow me to move through that army relatively fast, while still being a pretty decent looking lot :p, and if I can keep up the pace I should be able to get my templar back up and running soon.

Oh last thing, I did manage to pick up a box of Space Hulk recently. But since I do not play Blood Angels, the obvious ting to do it convert the models (oh how gorgeous) to Templar. i can also paint my Levi Stealers in my Tyranid scheme... win win huh. And speaking of Space Hulk, I may have our own Corvus write a guest article on a new game variant we have created.

So there you have it. I'm not sure when I went from having Templar to everything else, but I have my hands full of 40k goodness once again, and I'll be trying to keep up on them all. That is in between bouts of Space Marine.

^.^ Cheers!

The Fighter

The world of Probitas had an ancient tradition, maintained for untold millennia after its original settlers left Terra, a meditative practice that was said to unlock hidden powers latent within every person. It was said that if one could empty the self of all fears and emotion, a strange "light" would radiate from within the self, and by channeling that could one become more than human. Probitas was an agri-world, under the jurisdiction and governance of the Lord of Macragge, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines. Yearly calls for fighting men would be sent to every tribe by an unknown method to the natives: a large being resembling an armored God would visit and from his strange helmet would an authoritative voice announce the challenge.

Sextus was practicing the forms of fighting with a quarterstaff when he heard the announcement from a training ground outside the main ring of houses. He was now old enough to fight in the sight of these Godlike beings. Unlike anyone he knew, Sextus was able to empty himself and grasp the strange power his people spoke of with a reverent tone. Beyond enhancing his senses, he had not found another use for it as of yet, but the elders implied that much could be done with it.