Cult Status: Part 2

Well, not quite later in the week, but I think we’re all used to my abysmal timekeeping on this score, aren’t we?  Anyway, I’ve already said that I’m flinging in some Guard with my Chaos cult.  On one level, this would be a perfect mix, as the Guard are the other army that can match Cultists in numbers and low quality indivduals.  Apart from ‘Nids.  Not going there, although if I were to proxy up, the Shadow in the Warp would be a very good substitute for Khorne’s hatred of Psykers.  It’s annoyed me immensely that Khornate armies and characters (with the exception of Kharn and Karnak) do not have any anti-psyker toys, and that would be a good justification for roping the nids in I guess.  However, it’s not legal, so say goodbye to that idea!  Would probably have been a lot of work anyway.

Cult Status: Part 1

Well, the escalation league has been going on for a couple of months now and, although I haven’t yet played my second month games with my 750 force, I have messed around with various units I want to add.  The final version of my list (due to be reached in November) is definitely beginning to take shape and should prove to be quite fun.  As I said in an earlier post, I’m building this list on a vague storyline and with a definite focus on theme rather than sheer efficiency or competitiveness, although I don’t think it’ll be bad in that department.  I’ve maintained for a while that you can make lists that are strong on theme whilst still being decent in and of their own right.  It’s what I do with my lists; hit on a story, theme or character and then figure out how to make it functional, possibly even good.

40k Battle Report: Khorking It! Phase Two

I went in aggressively during my turn, taking as much advantage of the positional weakness in the Orks as possible.  Both my flamer Raptor squads turned up, and although one misshaped and landed in a distant table-corner, the other landed dead on target near the closely group teleported boys.  My Terminators moved up to the same squad, and together they had an impromptu barbecue.  About 12 Orks died to the incoming fire (it would have been so much more if they weren’t ‘Ard Boyz) and then found themselves on the receiving end of a triple charge with the spawn, the spawn’s squad and the Lord with his terminators all having a go.  The berserkers went first, got hit by the Overwatch but failed to reach the target.  Luckily the other two did.  You can kind of guess how that combat went.  Orks are decent, but caught by a squad full of raging lightning clawed-terminators, their odds of success were low.  They ended with eleven guys still alive in the squad, just enough for Fearless to still apply.  The big moment of the match though was my terminator champion, who called out the Nob leader, summarily dispatched him and then promptly turned into a Daemon.  It was joyous, and also the first time I’ve had both transformations occur in the same match.

A tiny squad of Berzerker remnants went for distraction on the Deff Dread, knocked a point off it with bolt pistols and barrelled into close combat to hold it up.  There were too many units I didn’t want it to assault and the fearless ‘zerkers were my best call at stopping that from happening.  Fortunately, they did and the combat raged on with one guys just refusing to die.  The Land Raider, having somehow failed to remove the final hull point from the battlewagon (despite hitting the thing with both lascannons in the side) disgorged its cargo and the Apostle’s Possessed unit swarmed all over the vehicle, ripping it apart in short order.  Luckily for me, the wagon full-on exploded as a result and the lack of space meant that a few of the Nobs straight died as a result.  It really was the beginning of the end for the Orks.

Ork air co-ordination must be terrible.  Who’s manning the radio?  The Dakkajet stubbornly refused to turn up in turn three, and my opponents options were highly limited.  The Lootas, in a small squad were unable to deal much damage to the oncoming Berzerkers, the Boyz and Dredd were both caught in assaults and the Warboss and his squad did the only thing they could do: charge the Possessed.  Unfortunately for them, Possessed Marines hit like a truck, even without the charge and the lack of decent saves on any of the Orks put them at a bit of a disadvantage.  My Apostle reduced the Warboss down to one wound, but got crushed into the dirt by the return swing.  Luckily the Possessed still benefited from Hatred and were able to hit the Orks hard, taking several of them out and taking relatively little damage in return.

Stuck between a Spawn, my Terminator Lord, his squad of Khornate Termie back-up and a freshly minted Daemon Prince, the ‘Ard Boyz were demolished, losing most of their squad and pegging it, being run down by the Daemon Prince, who they could outrun, even theoretically.  It was at that point that the opponent threw in the towel, and I don't blame him for that at all.  Even if the Warboss and his unit had managed to win their combat in short order next turn, there would be precious little for them to do, the Lootas were going to get Berzerker charged and the Dredd was about to get a Daemon prince rammed up it. 

Personally, I would have played his list a bit differently.  The Warboss and his goons would have stayed near the Boyz mob and I would have swept forward, keeping the Dredd and Warbikers as flank guard, concentrating on killing one unit at a time rather than getting into a multitude of fights.  The bad roll for the Wyrdboy power pretty much killed the ‘Ard Boyz in the end and, whilst you can’t protect against a power like that going off, I would have deep struck somewhere safer, out of multiple charge ranges, certainly.  However, this all armchair generalship.  There’s no way of knowing whether that would have served me any better anyway.

Overall, I really like my little Khorne list, although I think it has some major shortcomings, particularly when it comes to Walkers and Flyers and have yet to play it against a heavily mechanised force, which would be an interesting challenge.  I would like to boost the raptor numbers a bit.  I think a third squad with a lord in it could pay some major dividends.  However, I don’t know what I would sacrifice to make those changes, and it still wouldn’t help with the flyer problem.  Havocs and Fortification just aren’t in the style of the list though, and I don’t think a Heldrake fits either.  I reckon I may just have to weather a flyer-heavy list and hope the Land Raider gets lucky.  So far though, my opinon of this list remains rather… sanguine.

I know, I’m sorry.

40k Battle Report: Khorking It! Phase One

Well, first things first; a little housekeeping is in order on this blog.  As appears to be a regular excuse, work is thoroughly kicking my posterior at the moment and resulting in a poor posting rate.  However, it will be an excuse no more! (Clarification: it could totally continue to be an excuse).

I’ve decided that I’ll starting blogging at home rather than at work, so I should be posting at least once a week, and may finally get round to fully reviewing this year's Adepticon before I go to the next one.  However, I’d like to emphasise the use of the word ‘may’ in that previous sentence.  It’s a slim get-out clause, but I take what I can.  I’ll be writing up my Malifaux tournament experience over the weekend and so should hopefully have some stuff every Monday.

But just to keep my hand in, I have a brief battle report for you fine people.  I had a game with one of the club regulars on Tuesday for 1750 points.  Orks vs Chaos Marines.  Recently I’ve been experimenting with pure Marine lists rather than mixing in my Daemons.  It helps keep things interesting and I don’t want people to be able to easily predict what I’m going to bring in each week.  This time round, it was pure Khorne.  Not one of my usuals, I have to say.  I’m normally a Slaanesh player for my Chaos Marines, with the Warpsmith being to only real Khornate presence in the lot most of the time.  However, this time around, I went for something different: a legitimately small army (by my standards).  I was packing:

Chaos Lord: Mark of Khorne, terminator armour and lightning claws

Dark Apostle: Mark of Khorne

7 Terminators: Lightning claws, a heavy flamer, Mark of Khorne

7 Possessed: Mark of Khorne, Icon of Wrath

3 x 8 Berzerkers: No upgrades

2 x 5 Raptors: 2 x Flamers per squad, all with Mark of Khorne

Land Raider: Dirge Casters, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher

My opponent brought:

Warboss: squig, power klaw, cybork

10 Nobz: Painboy, 2 x klaws and a lot of big axes

5 Lootas

Dakkajet

30 man squad of ‘Ard Boyz with sluggas

Wyrdboy Warphead

Deathroller Battlewagon

Killkannon Battlewagon

6 Warbikers with squad leader

So, even with my ‘small’ list, I was nearly on par my Ork opponent’s numbers.  The game set up as Relic with diagonal deployment.  I was lucky enough to get a Master of Deception and infiltrated all my berzerkers as far forward as they would go, all in separate sections of the board to put the pressure on the Orks as quickly as possible.  My Raptors languished in reserve and the Possessed with the Apostle in the Landraider and the foot squad of Terminators with my Lord were deployed as aggressively as I could manage.  The Orks were deployed slightly more defensively, given my first turn, with the Wyrdboy and Ard Boyz in cover behind a wall and the killkannon in backfield.  The only aggressive deployment was the warboss and his squad in the Deathroller wagon.

Unluckily for me, my initiative was stole and the Orks advanced first.  Luckily for me, the Warbikers were positioned for the charge on my infiltrating berzerkers… which no-one can do turn one.  That charge positioning just left them open for a juicy counter-assault during my following turn.  The rest of his turn involved a bit of footslogging, advancing the warboss’ wagon and doing whatever shooting could be managed that early on.  My berzerkers took most of the hits and not a single squad escaped casualties, but they were still fairly solid by the end of the turn.  The killkannon aimed at my terminators, but accomplished nothing.

My turn was also fairly uneventful for the most part, with me lacking any significant firepower apart from the landraider, which chose to stand its ground in front of the careening battlewagon and fail to achieve anything with the lascannons.  Everything else was just in an advance.  Thing kicked off a little in the assault phase and two of my berzerkers reached combat: one squad with the Warbikers and one with the battlewagon.  The warbiker combat went soundly, but the bikers managed to take it, rolling the 4 they needed to stand their ground.  The battlewagon got grenaded to within an inch of its life, but aggravatingly limped by with one hull point remaining.

Things were hotting up for turn two, although the Dakkajet didn’t turn up (bullet dodged there…), there were plenty of options for the discerning Ork player to spread some havoc and run amok.  However, here is where things started to go awry for him.  The battlewagon (and the guys inside) ignored the berserker remnants that had assaulted them last turn and decided to pile-drive straight into the landraider, hoping for the Deathroller to inflict some serious damage.  It didn’t, fortunately, and only one hull point was lost.  This move also cost the Boss’s unit any chance to get into assault as they couldn’t leave due to the wagon’s speed.  The Dread decided to aim its rockets at terminators rather than the berzerkers standing close by and that also precluded him a charge opportunity as well.  The big problem was the warphead however.  He power that got used was the teleport, and the entire mob of some 30 boyz suddenly ‘ported about 6” to the left.  I understand why that decision was made, as a form of damage limitation, but given the nature of the game and his playstyle so far, I would definitely have moved them elsewhere.  It would have positioned them further away from the relic, sure, but it would have stopped what happened next as well…  The Berzerkers finished off the warbikers that phase, their victory only marred by the champion mutating into a seething mound of mindless flesh.  I’m sure he was thrilled.

That concludes phase one of this report and I'll be here with phase two fairly shortly (geoligically speaking).

Adepticon Build-Up: The Stractics

Well, yesterday you got the setup.  Today it’s time for the punchline.  It was a deliberate choice to go for a full Bastion instead of the traditional Aegis Line plus Quad Gun and it was made for two reasons.  The first is that every bugger brings an Aegis Line, and I like to try different things to the choices everyone else is making.  The second is to see how many people know how buildings work.  It’s a point of curiosity to me.  Buildings are big, they can be scary, but they are nowhere near as hard to take down as people think.  They also force a different style of play to counter them.  I mean, yeah the usual heavy tank-busting equipment can certainly do for them, like anything else, but anti-troop stuff can actually be more effective.  If you can clear out the occupants, then you can take the building for yourself, and that can be a hell of an advantage.  All it takes is a few frag and krak grenades and maybe a couple of flamers.  You just need to get close.

Anyway, the basic plan behind the army focuses round the Bastion, set up in a non-dickish manner (that is certainly something to bear in mind when using buildings) and fully populated.  One of the problems I have with this list is that it seems a little troop-light.  It’s got 50 foot troops in it, sure, but they are all really quite squishy, and what can I do if they get wiped out?  The Bastion should go a fair way to keeping some of troops alive for the late game objective rush.  I plan to have the small squad of cultists occupying the building and a squad of bloodletters on the battlements with the Quad Gun.  The Bloodletters, despite being a heavy assault unit are actually really well suited to this kind of duty.  They all have a Ballistic Skill of 5, making them excellent gunners regardless of who in the squad is taking the job and they automatically pass all Morale tests, mean that they can’t be forced off base.  Always go for Fearless (or semi-Fearless) when manning battlements if you can.  You really don’t want them panicking and flinging themselves off the building!

For outside the building, I have some big guns, in the shape of my two Soul Grinders and the Forgefiend, who can fling a decent amount of fire downfield, although the Grinders will have to be on the advance for me to get to most out of them.  All three are also handy for dealing with incoming air traffic; the Grinders skyfiring and the fiend just soaking the skies with S8, all the while supported by a twin-linked BS5 Quad Gun.  A decent wall of flak there.  Now we’re talking about aerial superiority, I have the Bloodthirster and the Heldrake as a pair of durable flying units (although not entirely effective versus other flyers) to help keep the pressure on the opponent’s defences.  Both are very capable of dealing with ground targets, whilst being scary in their own right.

My Warpsmith pulls double duty in this list, useful in aiding and repairing my various vehicles, but also able to really hurt something in assault.  Provided I don’t roll a 1 for the daemon weapon, he’s pulling a hefty 8 AP2 attacks in a single turn.  His Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill take downgrades due to the weapon, but if he’s against Marines, then he’s still more than capable of chewing through squad leaders or even most characters.  Particularly because most of the weapons that can nullify his 2+ armour save will be striking after him in an assault.  For most of the game, he’ll be tooling around with a squad of 20 cultists for a bit of survivability versus enemy fire, although concentrated flak will definitely whittle that number down quickly.  I’m hoping that he and his squad will be overlooked in favour of the multitude of bigger, nastier things that’ll be taking the field with them.

The main weakness in this army, from my view, is the troops.  Once they are gone (and it won’t take too much to make that happen), then I have practically no denial units in the entire army and that spells trouble for any list.  The basic plan will have to be to concentrate on taking down enemy troop number to limit their objective-scoring capacity and bring it in line with mine before going in for the kill.  I should have enough high strength firepower to deal with a wall of light to medium vehicles.  The heavier ones will have to be dealt with in assault though.  Hopefully my Bloodthirster is up to the job there.

That's about it, really.  I’ve just got to hope to play well, and roll high on the Warp Storm table!

So long.

Adepticon Build-Up: The List

The sky cracked, spilling a baleful red light over the blasted landscape.  Iorveth Threx looked up from his work and surveyed the approaching army.  Significantly larger than anticipated.  No matter.  He would adapt.  The dark, red-tinted clouds swirled high in the air as he completed the final connections on his latest project.  The formerly inactive machine shuddered as energies, both electric and aetheric, flooded through its systems.  Cogs and gear clanked and ground.  Pistons slid in and out of their housings.  The machine stirred.  What had once been misshapen mound of metal shifted and reordered itself, forming itself into a distinct predatory shape.  The cannons that comprised its forelimbs spun a slow cycle and the beast took a step forward, its ironclad foot planting on the decking with a resounding clang.  Threx laid his iron hand on the creature’s flank.  Dark energies pulsed under his touch.  Acceptable.

A servitor approached and blurted a fractured spurt of nonsense code.  Either reprogramming or sacrifice lay in its immediate future.  It turned and shambled away.  Threx followed.  The preparations were complete and soon the enemy would have more than just his machines to contend with…

I’m taking a bit of an odd list to Adepticon.  It’s not a list I planned on making.  Not for this event anyway.  I mentioned a list late last year, in the wake of the Chaos Marine Codex.  It was a pure Chaos Marine list and combined some Khorne elements with a lot of Slaanesh.  A tonne of cultists, some Noise Marines, a big squad of Slaaneshi Marines.  Slightly hordeish.  That was this list I was going to take, but I ran into a problem, and that was painting the thing.  In particular, painting the Marines.  I had a colour scheme vaguely in mind, but the models themselves were just so busy with detail, I couldn’t visualise it properly.  I was going to go with a grey base and black trim, with a bright red/pink/purple colour for lights and sigils and what have you.  But I couldn’t settle on a look that seemed right.  The scheme would take a while to paint on each marine due to the detail on the models and as each test was taking upward of forty minutes to complete, I was fast running out of patience.  I seriously considered bringing Necrons or Dark Eldar to the event.  But thanks to the Daemon Codex, I now have an alternative plan.

My Warpsmith was always going to be a Chaos Iron Hand, because, you know, me and the Iron Hands.  So it was a natural fit to have him in charge of the Daemon engines and fortifications, rather than my Slaaneshi Chaos Lord, who would have all the Marine resources.  The Warpsmith (Iorveth Threx) would have scrapcode infested servitors and menial workers that would fit into the cultist mould quite nicely so I could have two distinct armies that could nevertheless fit together in what I called a storyline list focusing on the corruption and capture of a forgeworld.

Given the problems I had getting Chaos Marines painted, daemons were tempting, as they all have broadly the same schemes and the models were less detail-heavy and could be painted faster.  But I didn’t have enough Daemons to form a list I was happy with.  Then in steps Iorveth Threx.  Being Khorne-worshipping already, it was a simple matter to write some Khorne Daemons into the list, focus on a relatively low model count so I could get everything painted in time (still ongoing, as it happens), and have it fit my storyline nicely.  And so, I present to you: The Malicant Locus, Defence of the Daemonforge.

Primary Detachment

HQ: Bloodthirster

Troops: 10 x Bloodletters

Troops: 10 x Bloodletters

Heavy Support: Soul Grinder with Mark of Khorne

Heavy Support: Soul Grinder with Mark of Khorne

Allied Detachment

Warpsmith Iroveth Threx: Mark of Khorne, Veteran of the Long War, Axe of Blind Fury

Troops: 10 x Cultists

Troops: 20 x Cultists with 2 Flamers

Fast Attack: Heldrake with Bale Flamer

Heavy Support: Forgefiend with 2 Hades Autocannons

Fortifications

Bastion with Quad Gun

All that comes in at 1,500 points.  I’ll get into some tactics and try to justify myself tomorrow.

So long!

Christerval and Wintermas

Well, it’s been a while since I last wrote on this thing, due to a confluence of events.  Stuff gets busier towards Christmas, naturally, and I also had coursework and studying taking up most of my lunchtimes.  Or at the very least, I had worrying about coursework and studying taking up most of my lunchtimes.  I didn’t think after leaving University that I’d be stuck with coursework again, and I’d underestimated just how insidiously it would annoy me and make me slightly less happy.  Every time I’d do something I’d normally enjoy, the spectre of coursework would be there, squatting at the back of my mind, idly scratching itself, just reminding me that it was still undone.

But that ended on Monday, just in time for me to be ill. Yay, I guess.  Regardless, here I am now, work has slowed down to a thoroughly lethargic pace and I can at last alleviate my boredom with waffle.  In the spirit of the season, I proffer you all belated and ill-considered Merry Christmas and Happy New Year platitudes, without the receipt for either, so you can’t exchange them.  For me, this has been the Christmas of IT problems.  My Mum received an iPad 3 to replace here old model and I spent most of Christmas and the Boxing Day transferring her seemingly insurmountable pile of crap from one device to the other whilst reconfiguring a used laptop that she had been given as well.  It was an experience so aggravating that I may well elect to get a non-iPhone come upgrade time, purely to put more distance between myself and fucking iTunes.

Anyway, with luck I can get the blog back on track and, thanks to one of my three commenters, I have a subject to occupy myself with here over the next several days.  But before that, there is the standard Christmas update to be had, and I have a ton of GW stuff to assemble.  So much so that I haven’t actually done any of the painting I had scheduled for the holiday.  I’ve just been too busy during my non-unpaid technical support time to get round to it and I much prefer gluing models together than getting them actually looking decent.  It’s just not an aspect of the hobby I really enjoy.  If I have the time and patience to figure out airbrushing then that might make the prospect somewhat less daunting.  At least a vague colour scheme has now been worked out for the Missionaries of the Whispered Word.  Grey base colour, black trim and red/purple spot colour with generic metal colours in the usual places and probably washed to crap to disguise my ineptitude.

The Warpsmith will be painted Iron Hands colours though, so: black.  The Chapter symbol will be red and bloody instead of white/metal, but that’s going to be the only Chaosy colour deviation for him.  He’s still an Iron Hand after all, just one who has lost his mind over protracted periods of bloodshed and sanity strip-mining in the Eye of Terror.  He’s just had the superstition surrounding warp entities removed from his mind and now treats them like any other resource to be modified and engineered.  The Imperium probably isn’t ready for that though.  Philistines.

The big announcement for the New Year will be my resolution, which is going to be quite a challenge by all accounts.  I’ll be giving up buying GW models for the year.  I’ll not be giving up the hobby as whole; far from it.  I’m going to Adepticon after all and I’ll still buy the paints and various books, but I’m staying away from purchasing more of the models.  I spend a lot on them (cue the regular jokery), and I don’t think I use a lot of them enough to warrant the expenditure.  At least for a while.  I am the type of person who will drop a far old whack of money on a couple of big kits for an army idea and then never use them again.  This resolution will help me better appreciate the models and armies I have now and at the very least, I’ll have saved some money in the process.  All that said, I have seen some of the new models for the Dark Angels and they look pretty sweet.  Damn…

The Headquarters of Villainy

You may have noticed that when I have been writing posts for this place, they have mainly been about Chaos.  Well, this time I thought for a change that we would talk about Chaos again.  Not the same disorganised jumble of thoughts as the last post, but more based around a problem I’m having with my army as it stands.

Well, maybe ‘problem’ is overstating it.  I enjoy the army a lot and it’s solid without (I think) being dickish, although you’d doubtless find those who would disagree with that assessment. The quandary I’ve got is really an overabundance of HQ choices, all of which I like very much.  And that’s the rub.  It’s hard to settle for one combo in particular.  Here’s the rundown:

Chaos Lord with Black Mace, Sigil of Corruption, Mark of Slaanesh: 150pts.  This guy is really my go-to Warlord.  The Black Mace is quite horrific and the Fearless rule he’s got makes him a very handy unit buff for either the regular CSM or the Cultists.  He comes in nice and cheap (for a Marine-type HQ at any rate) and can punch exceptionally hard with that mace.  Also, he allows me to take Noise Marines as Troops, which is a very useful trait.

Warpsmith with Burning Brand of Skalathrax, Veterans of the Long War and Aura of Dark Glory: 165pts.  Vital for my storyline as he’s the creator of my Daemon engines and the source of my Cultists (indentured Mechanicum serfs infect with scrapcode).  It’s nice to have a more ranged HQ unit, even if the range is short, and he’s not a slouch in assault, with 4 attacks flatfooted at S5 AP2, even if he is striking last.  The Brand makes him a monster versus foot Marines and also contributes to a decent Overwatch if his unit gets charged.  I used to run him with a Mark of Khorne as well, but it was far better synergistically for him to have the option of running with the CSM, and having a rival Mark would preclude that.  Also, it was easy to justify in storyline, as he is more mad and corrupted than a pure and voluntary Chaos devotee.  He also lets me weaken a piece of terrain for my opponent, which is very handy against some armies.

Level 3 Sorcerer with Terminator Armour and Mark of Slaanesh: 150pts.  I really like using Psychic powers in this edition and the Sorcerers are an excellent source of random nastiness.  I usually pack one Slaaneshi power and two Biomancy ones, and they can pan out nicely, with decent odds of getting something really cool to use.  The Terminator armour really helps with survivability against small arms fire and anyone not packing dedicated AP2 kit, with the cost of reducing the number of his attacks in any given fight.  I’m still undecided as to what force weapon to give him.  Sword is good for marine killing, Staff is better for everything else (including Terminators) and Axe is way out.  I have a Mark of Slaanesh.  I don’t want to waste it using an axe.  Now, I like this guy, but he has a brother:

Level 3 Sorcerer with Mark of Slaanesh, Sigil of Corruption and Jump Pack: 150pts.  I like this guy for similar reasons to his brother, but he has the advantage of a great deal of manoeuvrability and a better invulnerable save and an extra attack for two close combat weapons.  When I field him, he’s tied to a Warp Talon unit, so if I’m not playing my Talons, then he doesn’t see the field mainly because one jump packer on his own is just going to get punked.  Nevertheless, he packs a harder punch in combat than the Terminator and can run down enemies as well.  He and his squad are very much anti-Marine specialists.

The annoyance for me is whichever two I take, I feel like I’m missing out on the cool stuff the others can do.  I should quit complaining about this, because this is surely the sign of something going very right!  Maybe it’s a sign that I should play bigger games in order to include all of them, who knows?

As an additional complication, when assembling the Terminator Sorcerer, I found out that I really like the Chaos Terminator Lord kit.  So now, Lord Hieronymus Reach of the Whispered Word may be getting an armour upgrade!  Obviously, this brings new aspects to be considered.  Losing an attack doesn’t matter as much when you’re wielding a Daemon Weapon and the 2+ regular save (new and improved in 6th!) will probably more than balance out the downgrade of his Invulnerable Save from 4+ to 5+ (no, I am not buying a Sigil of Corruption for a Terminator! Unless he’s Tzeentch, then it’s cool).  The big deal from a rule standpoint is the inability for him or his unit to run down enemies in assault.  With rallying being far easier and shepherding units of the board simply not happening any more, this could be a very bad thing, but a risk I reckon he’ll be willing to take.  After all, you don’t get a roll on the boon table if you just run down an enemy character.  You need to murder them properly.  Also, the other roadblock for me is that I'm using the maul-wielding Chosen from Dark Vengeance, and I love the model.  He just looks like a leader and he is very much who I picture when I think of Lord Reach.  Awesome as the Chaos terminator Lord kit is, If I had an option for artificier armour for this guy, then the Terminator armour wouldn't even get a second thought!

So anyway, that’s the state of play at the moment.  There could be a lot of 3,000 point games in my future if I want to run everything!

So long, for now…

In which I try to say something, but fail...

I’ve been playing a few games with my Chaos now and I’m starting to get a bit more of a feel as to how they play.  The results have been interesting and not entirely what I expected.  One of the things that surprised me was just how assault oriented my army has become.  That wasn’t really part of the plan.  They were meant to be fairly evenly divided between shooting and close combat, with the Heldrake, Forgefiend, Noise Marines and throngs of gun-toting cultists laying down a torrent of fire, with my CSM going for a jack-of-all-trades feel with bolters and additional assault weapons.  But repeated plays have whittled this down a little.  The Marines have dropped their bolters, the cultists do nothing bar desperate point-defence point-capture.  I’m seriously considering switching my Forgefiend for another Maulerfiend.

I played a 3,000 point game versus Deathwing/Codex Bike Marines a while back and was surprised to find out that about two thirds of the list didn’t have a range longer than 12” and half of them didn’t have a ranged weapon at all.  As I flooded the field with Possessed, Maulerfiends, Warp Talons and Spawn, I couldn’t help but think that maybe this was a subconscious backlash against playing the Necrons for so long.

This development appears to go against a lot of what the new edition seems to trumpet with the increased effectiveness of shooting vs assault and the advent of Flyers.  However, the Chaos codex does seem to be very much weighted in this direction from certain viewpoints.  The obsession with Challenges and the preponderance of short range shooting (Chaos weapon ranges do tend towards the shorter side of the spectrum when compared to their Imperial counterparts) do give that impression after all.

That’s not to say they can’t put lead downfield, as Havocs and Forgefiends can testify.  But even then, that’s only 48” at best and all in the heavy support slot.  You can have the occasional ranged specialist in the other slots, like Noise Marines, Chosen and Terminators, and you can get a smattering of heavy weapons for your troops, but it hardly dispels the image of Chaos being very much in the “Hack! Slash! Sever! Rend!” camp.  And I’ve decided to embrace that aspect of them a bit more in my lists.  Hence the third Maulerfiend.

And that’s the crux of the post really.  In every game I’ve played, the Forgefiend is a priority target for my opponent, which is understandable. 8 S8 shots a turn can be very scary.  The problem I’m encountering is a similar one that plagues the Venom.  The number of shots doesn’t necessarily add up to a lot of damage.  A mass of S8 Autocannon shots is all big and scary on a Dreadnought, because said Dreadnought is packing BS4 and twin-linked guns.  Per Dread, they will average the same number of hits as the fiend plus they’re cheaper and you can bring more along.  Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not complaining about the Forgefiend, I’m just trying to say that the perceived threat of the thing is definitely greater than what it can actually dish out. 

The Maulerfiends seem to be more on the other side of the spectrum.  At least, that is, until people see them move.  Stat wise, I suppose they’re not particularly impressive, as they come across as a standard dreadnought, albeit one with no ranged weaponry at all.  The look bigger, obviously, because they are, but they still only have 3 Hull Points and so can be fairly easy to write off on paper unlike the 4HP Defiler.  Then they move, and that’s when you can identify the people who haven’t looked at the Codex much by the expression of confusion and apprehension they exhibit when you explain that, yes they move 12” and no, they don’t care about difficult terrain and, yes they’re fleet as well.

Oh, and they have an Invulnerable Save.

Anyway, that’s my brief paean to close combat with my Chaos at the moment.  Not the most coherent of monologues, but things have been a bit weird at work, and as that’s where I write all this, any workplace strangeness is going to have a knock-on effect.

My next post ought to be less disjointed as I may actually have a point!

So long.

I Feel Your Pain: Slaaneshi Powers

And last, but certainly not least, we have Slaanesh.

Sensory Overload is the Primaris power for you perusal here.  24” range assault 4 with S4 and AP4 and inflicts a few status ailments on the target unit including concussion (reduced to I1 if wounded, but this unlikely to kick in on single wound models) and blind, which involves and initiative test or the reduction of WS and BS of the unit to 1.  This only kicks in if you score a wound, but it’s still a nice thing to consider.  Overall, I’d say this is my favourite of the Chaos Primaris power as it is a handy, if unspectacular, ranged power that brings a number of very nice disruptive side-effects at a decent range.  This is an extremely viable option for use against shooty armies, such as Necrons, Guard and Tau, as they are more likely to die to the shots and far more likely to get blinded.  An excellent double whammy.

Hysterical Frenzy is next on our list Slaanesh nastiness.  This is a blessing power that gives a friendly non-vehicle unit a random stat upgrade of +1 Initiative, Attack or Strength.  Admittedly, you don’t know which until you cast it, but they are pretty much all useful.  The weak link in the chain is probably going to be the Initiative bump as that’s more situational than the others.  If your initiative is already higher, then it’ll do nothing for you, but if it isn’t, then it could be massively important.  On the other hand, the Strength and Attack upgrades are always going to be useful.  Quality power.

Symphony of Pain is our Malediction for the round.  24” range and the target unit receives -1WS and   -1BS.  Useful, but unremarkable.  It can give you a strong edge in assault against other MEQs or it can significantly reduce the effectiveness of enemy shooting.  However, it wouldn’t be a Chaos power without some weird little addendum.  The addendum in this case is that any sonic weaponry fired at a unit under this malediction gain +1S.  This does make it a rather nice combo power and certainly aids in point defence from a squad of Noise Marines, who, if stationary, are already packing a cruel number of shots.  It’s also worth noting that this malediction can be cast on vehicles to boost the strength of Noise Marines to take down armour.  As a final note, this power can be cast multiple times on the same unit, and its effects are cumulative, making it a very nice combo if you’re running multiple Slaaneshi Sorcerers (unlikely as that may be).  Overall, I really like this power and it’s undeniably useful even if you’re not packing noise marines in that game.  However, if that is the case, you might be better off trading it for Sensory overload instead.  It depends on what you opponents forces are and how geared for an assault you want your list to be.

And the last power we have here is Ecstatic Seizures.  This, in common with the other two, is a double charge power and is fairly situational in its effectiveness.  It has no Strength and no AP and is an Assault 1 with 24” range.  If the enemy unit is hit and doesn’t manage to Deny the Witch, the every non-vehicle in that unit will take a hit at their unmodified strength.  By the way, what units have a mix of vehicles and non vehicles?  Only time will tell…  Anyway, as you can imagine, if you’re flinging this at a tactical squad, it’s unlikely to achieve much.  10 guys, 5 wounds caused, either 1 or 2 Marines dead.  However, it start coming more and more into its own as the target squad increases in size.  If you’re throwing this into a 30-strong Boys mob, then you’ll take eight or nine of them.  You’ll kill about a third of any given Guard squad and about half for termagants.  This is a very effective form of crowd control against the more numerous enemy types and the randomness of the damage inflicted could scupper the effectiveness of their special weapons even if their positioned to deny this opportunity to regular shooting.  I can see the debate over whether or not the unit gains a cover save cropping up, and at the moment, my view is that they do not, as the shot itself is not causing wounds or having a direct effect.  You get a similar situation with Tau Markerlights.  You don’t get cover against them because they are not hurting you.  Like I say, I can see this question arising and I’m prepared to admit that I may be wrong upon deeper FAQs being released, but at the moment, that’s my reading.  I like this power, but it is very much down to what your opponent is running as to whether or not it’ll be of any great use to you.

So that’s it!  I’m really not sure who the best God is in psyker terms, as they all have very distinct flavours and useful powers.  At the moment, I’m in favour of Slaanesh, but that could well change down the line.  Right now, I’m just having fun playing Chaos!

So long!

Turn Your Head and Cough: Nurgle Powers

And so we come to Grandfather Nurgle.  Again, we have a varied set of powers to cut our teeth on.

The Primaris Power is the classic Nurgle’s Rot.  This is a 6” Nova power (all enemy units within 6” of the Sorcerer get hit) and any unit that gets hit immediately takes D6+1 Poisoned 4+ AP5 hits.  It’s not going to tear armies asunder and you need to be murderously close to deploy it, but it is a very handy backup power to cull the weak from the herd before an assault.  I quite like this power, but as I don’t really play Nurgle, I’m unlikely to give it a good playtest.  It strikes me as a solid Primaris power.

Next up we have Weapon Curse, which is a lot of fun.  It’s a Malediction power with 24” range.  If successful, the targeted enemy unit receives Gets Hot on all its ranged weapons until the end of their next turn.  In that sense it work similarly to the Warpsmith’s Machine Curse, except it’s got longer range, can affect infantry and automatically hits.  So, you know, better in nearly every respect.  This has a great deal of tactical application, although it is unlikely to result in a wave of enemy deaths, it is significantly more likely to prod your opponent towards inaction in the shooting phase.  It’s this psychological effect on the other player that is the power’s greatest asset, I think.  If your opponent is running MSU or good armour saves, then it may well not have much of an effect, but I think it will find a very valid target in most games.

The third power is Gift of Contagion which is the power I’m least struck on from Papa Nurgle’s armoury. It’s another Malediction (who’d have thought? The disease god would specialise in Maledictions!) and hits the target unit with a random debilitation.  The enemy would potentially lose an Attack and receive Shrouding, lose a point of Strength and be unable to run, or lose both a point of Strength and of Toughness.  Obviously the randomness of this power could be its making or breaking in the eyes of the player.  You’d probably not want the first effect to crop up, but if you’re assaulting that unit, what do you care if they’re Shrouded while you do so?  Anyway, the major plus point for this power, as opposed to Enfeeble (it gives the unit -1S and -1T) is the range.  The range of this ability is a mighty 48”.  Suddenly the power becomes a lot more viable, especially for the backfield psyker.  Not to mention, that the effects of multiple gifts are cumulative.  This could have serious defensive implications if you’re up against a hammer unit.  Even Paladins would have a hard time with a couple of contagions giving them the shits.

The final power, just like in the Tzeentch list is a 2 Warp charge one, but is (again) thoroughly worth it.  Plague Wind does essentially the same thing as Breath, but is a large blast with a 12” range instead.  And it can’t hurt vehicles, but that’s only a minor thing when you look at how horrific this power will be against any given hammer unit.  There is significant risk of nuking yourself with it, so be careful plaguemongers!  A comparison between Plague Wind and Breath of Chaos is kind of inevitable, so I’ll sum it up quickly.  Plague Wind is the high risk, high reward version of Breath.  It can’t take vehicle (but Breath isn’t great at that with one shot anyway) and the enemy get their cover saves, but apart from that there isn’t much bad to say about Plague Wind.  Just hold your breath when you cast it, alright?

Anyway, the last of the literate pantheon, Slaanesh will get the once over next time. 

See you then!

All Change Please! Tzeentch Powers

Right then.  Let’s start with the Tzeentch powers.

The first up is the Primaris power: Firestorm of Tzeentch.  This is an odd one, but I kind of like it.  I don’t think it’s going to be terrifically useful against MEQ’s but may well throw a wrench in the works of chaff units and the armies that depend on them.  Basically, it goes like this: 24” range, assault 1 blast with no AP and Strength of D6+1.  That gives you a low side average of S4 which will do the business against Guard, Nids and Eldar.  High side of average will work very nicely on most things for simple wound rolls.  The lack of AP is a bit of a pisser, but there you go.  The kicker for this power is that it inflicts bonus hits for each casualty it causes.  D3 S3 auto hits for each casualty.  This power could get very nasty very quickly, or it could fizzle into an embarrassed silence.  Roughly what you expect for Tzeentch really.  I’m not sure what to make of this one, myself.  Could be fun, but it’s more likely to be useless against any army with decent armour saves.

The next power is Boon of Mutation, which is a close range blessing for a character with 2” of the Sorcerer.  The ‘blessed’ character takes a S4 AP- hit and (provided he survives) gets a roll on the Mutation chart.  It’s a nice, fun ability and certainly has its place in casual play, but the chance of killing the recipient (1 in 6 for the standard Chaos Marine squad sergeant) and the randomness of the mutation table render this a terrible power for competitive play.  It’ll be fun the spam this power amongst your army (especially as Thousand Sons Aspiring Sorcerers can get it too!) and if you have three guys using it, you should get at least one Daemon Prince out of the deal!

The third power is Doombolt, which has changed a fair bit from the weaksauce Heavy Bolter it used to be.  I see it compared a lot of Bolt of Tzeentch, but it’s really a different animal even from that.  The statline looks similar (18” range, S8, AP1), but there are a couple of nice differences.  The first is the Detonate ability, which means that when you cause a vehicle to explode with it, that vehicle explodes 2D6 inches rather than just a single D6.  This has tremendous capacity for funniness mid-game, although the overall effect is likely to be fairly middling on non-horde armies.  That’s nice an all, but how is this power majorly different from the old Bolt?  Because it is a Beam.  You trace a line from the Sorcerer and any unit under that line takes a hit (or as many hits as models in that unit that it passes over).  The Strength reduces by one for each model beyond the first, but that still changes this power from pure vehicle takedown to scything through high priority targets.  By which I mean Terminators.  The rules don’t allow the ridiculous model sniping that Jaws and Warp Rift are capable of but is still a very nice power.

Finally, we a Breath of Chaos, which is the same as it always was, except it is two warp charge instead of one.  I don’t need to go into this one, really.  Flamer template, everyone under it gets wounded on 4+ regardless of toughness and there’s no armour save allowed.  Excellent power and I don’t have a problem with it costing a lot of charge.  It good enough to warrant it.

And there you are, Tzeentch, in all its ever-shifting glory.  It’s the most random of the powers, but you’d expect that, really.

Next on the list: Nurgle

Taking the Mark

Well, the recording of the podcast last night went way over schedule (on top of a technical-difficulty-inspired late start), so I am knackered this morning and slightly annoyed that we couldn’t give the codex and its rules and units the thorough dissections that such specimens deserve.

Suffice to say, you should still listen to it though.  Pure gold.  In that is has no practical purpose in the real world and is criminally overvalued.  Anyway, there were a couple of points that I wanted to address, but that we just didn’t have the time, or I didn’t have the wherewithal to do so.  So what better platform to air the than here?

Well, okay.  Maybe there are better options, but hey, it’s a slow day at work and I’ve got to keep myself occupied somehow.

The Marks have stayed broadly the same, but two of them have received downgrades.  Slaanesh and Nurgle are identical to how they were.  That’s all well and good.  Tzeentch has been hit a little now, with the mark being unappealing for bog standard troops, only providing a 6+ Inv rather than the far more useful 5+ of the past.  It also provides no additional benefit for Psykers, which is a surprise and a disappointment, as it used to at least grant you an extra power (even though it didn’t allow you to cast more of them in the same turn).  No longer, unfortunately.  Overall Tzeentch is my favourite power from a story perspective, but when you translate it to game terms, it just isn’t worthwhile unless the guy who’s taking it already has an Invulnerable save.  The other Mark downgrade is Khorne, although it may not appear that way initially.  Gaining access to Rage and Counter-attack is awesome and scary: true.  However, it doesn’t give you any advantage over the old Mark, which gave you +1 Attack on you profile.  What the new Mark does is limit its effect to only the first round of a combat and introduce the chance of failure (certainly for Counter-attack).  Make no mistake, it’s still a good mark and can massively increase the combat effectiveness of any given unit.  It’s just got a little worse since its last incarnation.

Anyway, a lot of people already know this (and it was addressed on the podcast), but here’s a point that wasn’t.  You can’t mix marks in the same unit.  Slaanesh won’t play with Khorne, or Nurgle or Tzeentch.  It’s something that I’d not released until well after my first game because that rule is buried halfway through the intro paragraph above the Mark section.  It’s nothing crippling, but it’s certainly something to bear in mind, particularly if you’re playing against someone who’s using it.

Another thing to bear in mind mark-wise is the effects it has on psykers.  A psyker with a mark has to take at least one power from the required Chaos God.  I like these powers, all in all.  Some are definitely better than others, and you’d think that Tzeentch would have some kind of edge in that department, but sadly not.  Anyway, I’ll talk about the psychic powers some other time, because they certainly bear analysis.  The point IU was originally trying to make before sidetracking myself was this: You can’t take solely from your god’s powers.  You can take up to half (which would be two if you’re level 3 or Ahriman, 1 if you’re anyone else).  This means that no Psyker can completely flood the table to get the power he wants automatically.

Actually, having touched on Psychic powers, I think they warrant more attention, and as the IT problems at work appear to have been fixed, I don’t have the time to address them right now.  Check in next time for the brain ‘splosions that are the Chaos Psychic Powers!

The Whispered Word and the Malicant Locus

Well, I skipped out yesterday, but 4 out of 5 isn’t bad is it?

First, some brief housekeeping:  I got the Daemonforge rule wrong last post.  You can only do it once per game and have to declare at the beginning of the shooting or assault phase in order to pull it off, so, although the downside is still very minor, think a lot before blowing stuff up with it!

Next, I was going to do a unit-by-unit first impressions thing for the Codex, but my fellow Underling Ollie at Predictably Unconventional is doing that and in more detail that I would have done, so I urge you to give his series a read.  He’s up to Cult Troops and he’s more or less on the money as far as the analysis goes.  Good stuff.  I’ll just concentrate on what ever grabs my attention at the time, which in this case, is the prospective army I’m planning to build.  So sit down and pay attention, because its story time.

My planned CSM army is currently at about 2,000 points, but (as is the way with many of these things for me) could easily run to so, so much more.  This interesting thing for me is that the army is basically made of two different factions, each a force in its own right and both with their own backstories.  This makes it a fun deal for me and a nice exercise in army fluff, which I haven’t talked about much for ages, what with the competition-style Necrons I’ve been running.  My CSM aren’t going to be a hardcore tournament list, I don’t think (not that they’ll be any slouch in that department), but should be a fun force to play against.  I think of them as a more ‘Throne of Skulls’ level list.  Good for pickup games without me feeling like a prick.

Anyway, the first force is a bit of a holdover from back when I played Warriors of Chaos in Fantasy, and had an army called The Whispered Word, who were Tzeentch aligned but would visit Empire border-towns and incite rebellion, bring a fair bit of Khorne along with them because of this.  So I’ve updated the Whispered Word and brought them forward to the 41st millennium.  However, their god has now changed from Tzeentch to Slaanesh for, I will admit, game play reasons.  For your bog-standard troops in 40k, Tzeentch just isn’t an effective power.  For anyone with an Invulnerable save, Tzeentch is still awesome and its Icon is a lot of fun, but the Initiative bump from Slaanesh and the FnP from the Icon is just too good to pass up.  However, story wise, is still very easy to see Slaanesh as a Machiavellian corrupting presence in Imperial space, so it’s a change I’m fairly happy with.  This side of the army is the Power Armour side. Almost exclusively foot troops (with one Flyer for support) and almost exclusively Slaanesh aligned.  I’ve even got a couple of Warp Talons in there for shits and giggle, even if the lack of grenades and the high price tag could make them difficult to squeeze value out of.

The other side came to me when I was looking through the Codex.  I always knew I was going to get a Warpsmith.  It was a given.  My favourite HQ choice in the original Space Marines codex was the mast of the forge and the model looks awesome, and this is his Chaos counterpart.  It had to be done.  In fact, this guy beats the regular master of the forge for a simple reason.  He has access to an Invulnerable save.  It still boggles my mind that the master of all the technology in a Chapter cannot even get his hands on a bloody Refractor field.  Imperial Guard Officers get them for Emperor’s sake!

Anyway, another thing I liked when looking through book were the Daemon Engines.  I think they’re a good step forward to making Chaos more unique on the table and I really like the models too.  The image of the hideously beweaponed Warpsmith walking alongside these gun-wielding metal clad monsters the same way master would his hounds was a good image, and so the Malicant Locus was born.

Then there was the matter of the cultists.  I’ve made no pretence about my feeling about these guys.  I think they are an excellent addition to the ‘dex and long, long overdue.  There was never going to be a serious chance of my lists not having a sizable quantity of them.  Both of the forces can easily take them due to back story, but in the end I decided that since I want to run a massive mob of Khorne assault cultists, and as the models mainly look like crudely bionic-ed manufactorum workers, I decided that they should be part of the Malicant Locus. 

My Warpsmith (let’s call him Threx) would target Forge worlds and manufactora planets and infect the more vulnerable systems and altered personnel with scrapcode, causing widespread unrest and violent sedition.  My Chaos Lord (Hieronymus Reach) and his cohorts would make contact under the guise of the loyalist chapter ‘The Emperor’s Call’ and assist in quelling the uprisings whilst undermining planetary defence and communications.  Eventually the chaos caused by Threx would come to a head and the daemon Engines would be unleashed against the combine forces of the loyalist PDF, Imperial Guard and skitarii, supported by the space marines of the Emperor’s Call.  Who would then turn on the loyalists with whomever they had coaxed over to their side.

That’s the plan anyway.  But you know what they about plans and contact with the enemy.

That said, I think there could well be a Black Crusade RPG campaign in this army’s back-story.  Time will tell…

First blood for the Chaos!

Hey guys.  Just a quick one today, as work is being little mental.  IT issues.  Don’t ask.

I played my first game with the new CSM codex last night.  Not really an ideal matchup for the Chaos (that would be Codex Marines, obviously!) as I was pitted against Eldar.  It was a bits and pieces Eldar list with nothing spectacular or new in it, just decent workhorse units.  Squad of Guardians, squad of Rangers, Farseer, Fire Dragons and Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents, War Walkers and a Wraithlord.

Also, some D-cannons.  Alright then, maybe this was a little interesting!  Anyway, I was packing 40 cultists, in two small squads of ranged guys, one big for assaults, led by my Chaos Lord and…  Hang on.  If I continue like this then this post isn’t going to be short at all.

The important thing was that I was playing with some new units.  I got a delivery from the fine folks at Triple Helix on Monday and so I spent  most of that evening assembling the new plastic hotness and came away with a Forgefiend, a Heldrake, 5 Warp Talons and a headache.  The Talons, Drake and Fiend all got a debut performance in that Eldar game.

The Heldrake was vicious, zooming onto the board and Vector striking a squadron of Warwalkers, (killing one) before blitzing a load of guardians with the Baleflamer.  It only got one more shot with the flamer before an Icarus lascannon took the gun away, but it still made its presence felt with the Vector strikes.  Overall, it performed well and I think I rank the Baleflamer higher than the Hades Autocannon and the precision you can get with it is insane and it denies practically all saves.  However, it has no capacity to take down fliers and is only of middling effectiveness concerning vehicle takedown.  So the field is very much open on that score, as vector strike is not an ideal method of flyer killing (although it’s far from useless).

The Forgefiend did well, despite a poor start.  It didn’t manage to damage a single vehicle, but it can annihilation non-MEQ squads with almost insulting ease and it can deal enough raw damage in a round to break through 3+ saves as well.  Daemonforge is only really worth triggering for vehicle shots in my opinion, although the risks are low enough for it to be a valid all-purpose play.  Really, the biggest impact it had on the game was the fact that my opponent was oddly, almost myopically focussed on taking it down, and I just kept it wandering out of range of his tank-killing guns, forcing his troops into crossfires.

The Warp Talons were disappointing, but that wasn’t the fault of the actual unit.  I deep struck them and they didn’t turn up until Turn 4 and couldn’t charge anything until Turn 5, so they didn’t have much of an impact, particularly because their Warpstrike blindy-power is next to useless versus Eldar.  I still think they’re probably overpriced at 30 points apiece and no grenades (seriously, that is a massive black mark against them, although they are manoeuvrable enough to mitigate this somewhat), but they’re very cool models and a bit of fun for the army.  I’ll probably take a couple of small squads, max out on mutations for the Champion.

Speaking of which, the Boon Table.  Quite frankly it didn’t have a great impact on the game.  My Possessed champion got Icy Aura (all enemies in base contact get a S4, AP5 hit at I1 in assault), but never got into a fight with anything that wasn’t a tank.  My Lord earned an Instant Death Melee upgrade, but only ended up against single wound models.  The best result I got on the table was that my Warp talon Champion got Shrouded, but that was squandered by me putting them in reserve.  I should have deployed them on the board in cover and used the cover to advance (they’re certainly fast enough to cover hop) and eat something worthwhile.

Final note: Chaos Artefacts.  I think the go to Chaos Artefact (certainly for me) is the Black Mace.  It is positively brutal.  So many attacks, decent chance of instant death and the 3” wave is horrific (although it won’t affect combat resolution).  It is possibly overpowered.  If you see an opponent equip one of his characters with this, then stay the hell away from that character.  Even models not involved in the same combat (or any combat at all) can get nuked by the range of the Cursed effect.

Anyway that’s all for today folks.  Fingers’ crossed for another blog post tomorrow!