First Forays Into 6th Edition: The Vehicle Damage Table

Yes, yes.  Everyone’s done it already.  Never mind, eh?  On with the sixthiness!

Now that I’ve played a few games of 6th edition (not as many as I’d like) I can form a bit of an opinion in gameplay terms.  So far, the results are very positive.  Vehicles have naturally been toned down, which many people will probably not agree with.  I’m very much in the other camp, viewing the vehicle damage table as one of the greatest blights to confront the game in quite some time.  Well, maybe that’s overstating things a tad, but it was still annoying as hell to only have a 1 in 3 chance of killing a vehicle with a penetrating hit and to have nigh-on no chance when glancing.  Given the semi-competitive circles I play in quite often, it did reduce a lot of games to pure chance.  I mean, what can you do to improve the chances of killing a vehicle in 5th?  Just score more pens.  That was it (at least until Scarabs came along).  It led to infuriating situations when you just couldn’t roll a 5 or 6 regardless of how many chances you got. Adding more order to the proceedings has edged the game more towards the tactical as opposed to blind chance.

It also reducing the ‘bunkering’ tactic that I disliked so much in 5th.  Vehicles in 4th Ed were pretty much regarded as metal coffins for the troops inside, what with the punitive damage tables and harsh penalties for passengers.  5th Edition swung the other way, thanks to the resilience of the Vehicle Damage Table, and mechanised infantry ruled the board.  Well, not quite.  Light vehicle squadrons packed quite a punch to, adding the squadron damage allocation shenanigans to the damage table for added resilience, but that’s beside the point.

Mechanised troops were a big thing in 5th, due to the fact that they could score tucked up inside their metal boxes, shrugging off the majority of incoming damage.  Hell, even if the bunker was killed, the guys inside would be fine (give or take a few shrapnel-based casualties) and they would still be scoring, plus in receipt of some fancy bespoke cover saves, courtesy of their former ride.  They were hell to dislodge with shooting.  If you were running an assault army, it was even worse.  Vehicles didn’t need to move far to be very hard to hit in assault, reducing your mob’s already slim chances of cracking it open.  That has been remedied (possibly a little too much, but that discussion’s for another time), and vehicles are a lot easier to take down in a fistfight, helping out the assault armies a bit and devaluing the mechanised infantry brigades.

Don’t get me wrong, the game wasn’t bad in 5th, and I’m aware that the previous few paragraphs may have just been an extended, poorly punctuated rant on a single perceived ill of the system.  It’s just that the introduction of the Hull Point system has really helped mitigate a deficiency in the old edition.  The vehicle damage table still exists, and on the surface, it’s got even less forgiving.  You need a 6 to kill a vehicle flat out with penetrating hit, but the glance = hull point system keeps this table from being a hugely defining factor in the game.  The end result has been that vehicles are now easier to kill, but harder to suppress.  They will keep doing the job you bought them for until they die.  Which will probably happen much sooner than it used to.

As a Dark Eldar player, I really don’t have a problem with that, as all of my vehicles were built to perform a specific task and then die to the return fire.  So, to everyone complaining that their Chimeras and their Rhinos are just too brittle in the new edition, I say this: 

Welcome to my world, suckers!

Overthinking the Overload: Part 2

The next game was a bit of a whitewash, unfortunately.

My partner was Powderfan from the forum, playing a Space Wolf Drop-pod army with far too many Rune Priests. Our opponents were my podcasting colleague Dagmire and club regular Kipper (yes I use forum names all the time.  It’s easier for me to remember for some reason), and they were both bringing Guard to the party.  This could be seen as a big advantage for them, but it was not to be.  The mission set up really worked against the vehicle-heavy guard list.

The deployment we rolled up required three units to be deployed at the start of the game and everything else in reserve.  Everything.  This can really screw with a battle plan.  Luckily, both Powerfan and I had a way round the restriction.  My mechanised assault spearhead turns up on turn 1 regardless, and half of the Drop-pods would turn up on turn one as well.  Add that to the three units that I deployed at the start of the game (Spyders and Scarabs, since you ask), and we were fairly well represented turn 1.  The same could not be said of the Guard, who fielded a Basilisk, a Sentinel and a company command squad in defensive positions in the back field.  All their tanks had to roll for reserves and trundle in their short edge.  This lead to a major problem for Tank Brigades in the game.  Logjam.  The game started with both Powerfan and me putting on a lot of pressure in the opponent’s backfield and the Drop Pods deployed very aggressively and the Command Barges (although they rolled the wrong side for outflank) were a clear and present danger.  By doing this, we managed to basically control our side of the board for rearguard troops to advance without any Guard fire being lozzed at us.

When the Guard tanks did turn up, they elected to move slow and let rip with their guns at the melta-toting Wolves that were always too close for comfort.  We responded by fling more drop-pods and jump infantry (wraiths) into their deployment zone and restricting tank manoeuvrability even more.  There was hope for the Guard in the shape of a spearhead of tank-busting Vendettas filled with melta-wielding demolition veterans from Dagmire, but due to unlucky rolling, they didn’t show up until turn 5.  It was too late in the game for them to dig out our entrenched troops.  We had enough firepower secreted about the battlefield to enact very swift and unremitting punishment to the poor humans.

The game was an undisputed win for the Necron-Wolf alliance, although a bit unsatisfying, as whitewashes tend to be.  We just rolled a setup that really punished our opponents and played to our strengths.  We were good enough tactically to take advantage of the situation, but it was really just down to that starting roll and the late arrival of Dagmire’s reinforcements.

The final game was more interesting.  This time, I was playing against two previous allies from my two previous games, and allied with a recent enemy.  I had allied with Kipper’s guard against the Necron player (sorry, no forum name for you!) and Powderfan.  I’ll tell you this; my Initiative two units were not looking forward to tangling with Jaws of the World Wolf coming from multiple sources (and every one of Powerfan’s many Rune Priests was packing that filthy little power).

We rolled the escalation setup again (three units, everything else in reserve) and Kipper deployed his Basilisk and a couple of other vehicles, while I kept everything back.  However, seeing how badly logjam crippled the Guard last game, we played very much with that in mind.  Fortunately, my Necrons don’t take up anywhere near the same amount of  board space as a Guard armoured detachment and most of them are Skimmers, so I could mitigate this to high degree.  Our opponents deploy their heavy support spearhead, but were unable to capitalize on it due to low range on the Annihilation Barges and bad scatters on the Doomsday Ark.  My Overlords outflanked nicely on the correct side of the table (this time) and immediately struck powerful blows against the Necron heavy support, with one Barge blowing up and another losing its gun.  That was basically what my Overlords were doing the entire game.  Turbo-boosting merrily from one place to another and smashing things up with Warscythes.  Brutal.  The Sweep Attack is a very powerful tactic, especially combined with the difficulty of bringing down the Command Barge.  I don’t think it’ll fare so well in 6th edition though.  Just a feeling, I’ve got.

Powderfan tried to put pressure on us early with bold deep-striking on his drop pods, but his Necron ally wasn’t manoeuvrable enough to back up the initial assault and our reserves made a good impression on the isolated Wolf squads.  I had a couple of assault units roll in early and the Wraiths and Spyders did a very good job chewing through some Wolf units, while my Scarabs devoured the pods they rode in on.  The forward assault plan form the Wolves was dropped soon after and they concentrated more on claiming objectives rather than applying direct pressure on our units.  The enemy Necrons boasted an impressive quantity of foot troops (about forty of them!) and they were swamping their end of the board in a slow march.  The objective marker on their side was pretty much lost to us in a sea of Robot Zombies.  So Kipper and I focussed more on the middle objective, which would be the decider.

Unfortunately for our opponents, they lacked the speed to make good on reclaiming the middle ground and after clearing out the deep-striking Wolves, we had a good defensive perimeter going.  If the game had continued another turn, the bulk of the Necron foot troops might have reached it, as they were proving very hard to shoot down (as it is meant to be, really).  The game didn’t continue though, and the middle objective resolutely remained ours.  Our rear objective was under threat from the final Wolf drop pod, but their run move was (thankfully) too low for a contestation result.  It’s odd when a game really can rest on a 50/50 roll of a single die to decide between a victory and a draw.

Luckily for us, it was a victory!  I managed to place joint first in the competition, winning my three games and claiming four objectives throughout the day, but my other podcasting colleague Jason, managed to equally my tally and in the final roll-off, he proved to be luckier and so I didn’t get the big prize.

Well, balls!

Overthinking the Overload!

Well, the Overload event was fun!

It was very interesting not only to have the Spearhead itself as the new ‘n’ shiny, but also random pairings per game.  In fact, the random pairings aspect was so much fun that we are thinking of incorporating it into more regular events.  Having to come up with synergies and tactics on the fly with your (temporary) team mate can be very challenging at times, but is a lot of fun and very rewarding when it actually works.

It also cuts down on the amount of cheese, as you can’t tailor your lists excessively for one particular task.  Your opponent might not be able to capitalise on your list and that could cost you again, because if you don’t support your ally you’ll be outnumbered and outgunned.  That said there is still a ripe harvest of cheese to be gathered.  Can cheese be harvested?  Ah, sod it.  Onwards!

I ran with an odd Necron list for the event, with no Troop choices at all, as Spearhead lets you do stuff like that.  There are no compulsory choices for your force, although you are still limited by the Force Org chart.  So I went a little nuts and mad a force comprised entirely of all of my available HQ, Fast Attack and Heavy Support slots and a stack of AV13.  Two Annihilation Barges, two Spyders, 2 minimum squads of Scarabs, a squad of 5 Wraith and 2 Overlords with Warscythes in Command Barges.  For some odd fluff I made a bit of back-story around those two; the basic idea being that during the biotransference process, an error occurred and this Overlord was accidentally transferred into two bodies sharing one consciousness.  Thus Drathykyr the Twain was born.

This was my first major attempt at running Sweep Attacks (a special move permitted by the Command Barge), and I have to say that they’re lethal.  Basically, sweep attacks allow you to make three attacks at unit you pass over during the movement phase.  These attacks hit on a 4+ (or a 3+ if you’re only moving at combat speed).  Vehicles hit on rear armour, no cover save.  Combo that up with an S7 power weapon and 2D6 armour pen and there is no target it’s not good for.  To make matters even nastier, it you roll a 6 to hit when attack infantry, you get to pick who gets the hit!  Drive-by character sniping.  Be a bastard, it works.

So, my list was based around the Twain, and they were priced to match, costing 360 of my allotted 1,000 points.  In addition, I put them in a Mechanised Assault Spearhead, which basically allows them to outflank on turn 1, guaranteed.  Nothing is safe!  Unless they turn up on the wrong side of the board.

The first game was against a pair of Eldar generals and my ally was another Necron player.  My ally had not really played a great deal with his ‘crons though, which left me feeling like a bit of a dictator as I just kept barking orders at all and sundry whenever he asked for advice.  I wasn’t relishing the Eldar game, as the irritation they’ve inflicted on my Dark Eldar still runs deep.  As you can imagine, there was a fair amount of mech going around, although one of my opponents (occasional compatriot Skew), ran three Wraithlords in something of berserker Spearhead, giving them rage, counter attack, furious charge and all manner of nastiness.  Very nasty to behold.  The setup began with the Necrons basically fielding every damn thing in a tight wedge for a unified sluggish march up the table and the Eldar field as little possible, as is their pointy-eared way, the little cowards.  They deployed two tanks of stuff, safely tucked away behind a building.

It wasn’t enough to save them from the Twain though.  I rolled nicely for the side and the Twain inflicted a nice bit of damage on the pair of them, destroying weapons and immobilising the tanks where they stood.  Well, at least stunning them.  That’s nearly as good, right?  The Eldar countered with a Mechanised Assault of their own, but moved in to reinforce their stricken tanks rather than attack the body of the Necron forces.  This, I feel, was a mistake.  They would have been better laying a heavy strike down on the Necron rearguard and leaving their two starting tanks to be rescued by their regular reserves, including the berserker Wraithlords.  My Overlords hit what they could, as hard as they could and retreated back being sure to stay out of possible Wraithlord reach.  To be fair, those things were a major concern of mine.  The Necrons can do a lot, but I wasn’t confident in their ability to handle three T8 monstrous creatures on the rampage.  The game continued in this vein for a bit, with the footslogging Necron forces making a steady advance, the Eldar forces trying to consolidate in the back field and lacking the concentrated firepower to really dent the Necron forces.

A squadron of Tank-hunting Warwalkers outflanked to one side near the Necron forces, but concentrated their fire on scarab swarms.  I was lucky with my cover saves though, and was left with plenty of bugs on the field.  My Wraiths made good ground, very quickly and threw themselves into the Wraithlords to hold them up or kill them.  Wraiths were pretty much the only thing I had going that could be effective against that threat.  They’ve got a good invulnerable save and plenty of rending attacks, plus Fearless as well.  Unfortunately, they were slacking that game and didn’t quite kill the Wraithlord they charged and two of the Wraiths got doubled out with the return swings.  Then next turn the other two Wraithlords joined in…

The Necron advance was finally reaching its destination, with the Annihilation Barges laying down constant streams of lightning and the Scarabs chowing down on whatever tank they could reach.  Those little buggers can move when they want to!  My ally was laying down the support fire as well, his Doomsday Ark and his two Annihilation Barges hurling firepower downfield wherever they could.  It was a good day to be an unfeeling metal bastard.

The game was called on turn four, as we were timed out.  I blame the relative unfamiliarity with the Spearhead rules for that.  The subsequent games went a lot quicker.  Anyway, the end result was a Necron victory; two objectives to one.  The Eldar had flung a tank next to their home objective and the my team mate had our objective thoroughly swamped with Necron infantry.  The midfield objective was a hard sell though, what with the all the corpses and tank wreckage.  In fact, for some reason, I was convinced the game was a draw and that no-one held the middle, until it was pointed out that my Overlord, fresh from wiping the floor with some Dire Avengers was scoring (part of a Spearhead formation) and actually within 3” of the objective, but only just.

I exhaled.  Phew.  Long game, and were it not for the bad luck on the Eldar side (their reserves were decidedly less than punctual and the outflanking units kept appearing on the wrong board edges), it could easily have been a draw.

Never mind, eh?  On to game two!

Later, though.  Definitely later.

Friday Fiction

Hey guys!

If you’ll scan your eyes briefly to the right of this very sentence, then they will encounter the Underlings blog list.  Yes, these guy are all other Overlords forumites of various degrees of personhood who have taken it upon themselves to spew their own brand of gibberish onto the increasing corrupted noospheric tubes of teh Interwebz.  Enjoy or not at your peril.

Speaking of your own peril, below is an excerpt from my short story that I’m writing for the Black Library submissions window (closing in but a few short days!).  I’ll be culling the best 1,000 words from it to send in, but until then, why not enjoy these raw, unculled 1,000 words straight from the story itself.

In other words; this is a fanfic.  It is mine.  I hope you enjoy it.  I plan on posting it up in a number of sections every Friday.  Hopefully it’ll keep me writing, as I am very much the type of person who needs a deadline to do anything!

Any comments or criticism, please let rip.  I’m all ears.

Not literally.

Here we go!

Xandrei

Space isn’t cold.

Temperature is a property of matter.  Space, by definition, is its absence.

Cast adrift in the harsh void, Xandrei burned.  He burned with rage, consumed by hate and indignation.

The attack had occurred an indeterminate amount of time ago.  Xandrei hadn’t been able to get an accurate reading.  His chronometric systems had been knocked out by the explosion.  He had been maglocked to the hull of the Eisensperre overseeing void shield repair when the splinter fleet rent its way into the materium with a fractal burst of non-colour and a pulse of screams.  The ships were jagged, twisted things.  Foul grotesqueries that offended the eye with their mocking imitation of Imperial design.  Tendrils of warp-stuff trailed after them, slowly dissipating into the vacuum of space.  The raiders opened fire immediately, their tainted weapons sparking against the reserve shielding before overloading them in a blinding flash.

Forge-brother Xandrei Kimmel canted furious orders to his servitor work team to bring the main shields back up, but was interrupted. A red-black beam tore a mighty gash in the hull mere metres from Xandrei’s position and the resultant explosion of a hull-imbedded fuel line widened the gap quicker than he could react.  The sudden conflagration overwhelmed the maglock system in his armour and he was thrown voidward, shards of the Eisensperre’s black hull cascading after him.  In a desperate attempt to slow his flight he triggered his harness’s void-guidance thrusters and vented precious internal atmosphere and pneumatic gasses from his suit to add to the arresting force and turn him round.

The free-flying fragments of the Eisensperre’s hull bombarded him, the sound of the impacts reverberating inside his armour at a deafening volume.  He curled into a ball to reduce the debris collision, but too late.  A sheet of ceramite hull plate several metres across smashed into him head on.  He felt his chest crack and splinter, he felt his servos dislocate and he felt the air tear its way out of his lungs.  Pain lanced into his brain from every area of his stricken form. Unconsciousness claimed him.

He woke to a world of rage and pain. The sudden attack, the clear evidence of warp-taint in the ambushers, his failing to anticipate the assault, his inability to provide more than a token resistance.  All these fed into a maelstrom of anger and loathing, directed both at the enemy and at himself.  Such feelings were natural, inevitable and understandable; even for a Space Marine.  But Xandrei Kimmel was an Iron Hand, and such base, instinctive, emotional responses to stimuli were not to be tolerated.  Not in this state.

Within a moment, through a combination of hormonal regulators, Astartes conditioning and sheer force of will, the swirling morass of emotion was contained, harnessed and focussed; changed from a blazing fire to fine blue flame of purpose.  He took stock of the situation.  He could feel the abrasive grind of shards of his fused ribcage rubbing against each other as he breathed.  His right arm refused to rotate properly, sending a jagged spike of pain through his brain whenever he attempted it. Internal diagnostics reported fourteen minor breaches in inner atmosphere containment.  He could feel warm liquid pooling in the left boot of his power armour, although whether it was blood or lubricant, he could not say.  He did not register any internal haemorrhaging, but the damage to his form was significant.

The collision with the hull fragment had spun him, but thankfully had not propelled him much further from his starting point and his velocity had mostly arrested, the automated gyroscopic systems of his suit having managed to stabilise him even during unconsciousness.  He turned his gaze to the Eisensperre.  It was adrift.  The thermal imaging systems in his right eye registered patches of radiated thermal activity, indicative of multiple on-board fires.  The vessels of the Archenemy were clustered round the majestic barge like scavengers, boarding tubes penetrating to the various rents and gashes in the Eisensperre’s hull.  Individually they seemed tiny and insignificant, but Xandrei knew that that many simultaneous boarding contacts were often a death knell for any voidfaring ship, the defenders having to respond to too many invaders to maintain control.

The command ship of the enemy splinter fleet loomed large over the stricken Eisensperre, closing in as if for a killing strike, but without charging its weapons.  This was not a mission of annihilation for them, he surmised, but for resources.  They were planning to use the ship, his ship, in whole or in part to serve their unholy ends.  Whether they planned to strip out all the useful systems and supplies or retask the vessel wholesale, Xandrei did not know.  Nor did he care.  It would not happen.  He would not allow it.  He triggered his suit’s void thrusters and set his course.  The Eisensperre could not be taken.

====================================><=======================================

He didn’t know how it had started, really.  What had driven him to this point?  Fear?  Possibly.  Conversion instead of death was a common choice.  Anger?  The lies of his old life, futile untruths used to justify the cold unwarranted cruelty of an innately unjust system, were surely a cause for retribution.  Curiosity?  After the truth of the False Emperor was revealed to him, what other revelations lay ahead for him to explore? The temptation of forbidden knowledge was undeniably powerful.  No.  It wasn’t any of those.  Not primarily.

It was gratitude.  The lies had been stripped clean, the Emperor’s shackles had been torn asunder and the experience was exhilarating.  He was free.  It was bliss.  He would do anything to feel that way again, but knew that it couldn’t happen.  Nevertheless, he treasured those moments and not a day went past when he did not thank the man who gave them to him, although he could not be considered a man any longer.

Gideon Lock gave thanks when the airlock opened and the cool oil-scented atmosphere of the enemy ship flooded into the boarding tube.  He gave thanks as his men stormed through the spartan plasteel corridors, weapons ready.   He gave thanks as he pounced on the terrified black-clad deckhand, the warped scorpion’s claw that was once his right hand sinking deep into the man’s neck, severing both jugular veins and spraying him in the crimson backwash.  He gave thanks as he savoured the sticky warmth across his face and knew that he had freed one more soul for his lord.  He could hear the clatter of boots on the metal floor as enemy reinforcements approached.  With spittle dribbling from his distended jaws, Gideon gave thanks once more and broke into a run.

Drükkskar Rises...

Well, Clan Drükkskar is currently arrayed in a variety of boxes in the corner of the room.  I can’t lie; I haven’t really done much with them since their acquisition in this current raw state.  I flung a few justifications around:  I haven’t had time; I want to have the whole clan together before I assemble.  Nothing that really held water though.  I just can’t be bothered at the moment.  That will change though, most certainly.  Last time I talked about my clan I estimated the total list at about 5,000 points.  Unfortunately that has changed; it’s inexorably on the increase.  Especially with the release of the Stormtalon.  Now, a lot of people have problems with how it looks.  People always have problems with how marine vehicles look.  They are ugly.  Always have been.  It’s the aesthetic.  We heard bitching about the Stormraven, saw it in the plastic and some people hated it.  Others thought it looked better now that they could see it out of the promo shots.  I never thought it was that bad.  I still don’t.  That probably why the Drükkskar are going to have a couple.  Aside from everything else, these guys need transports and I still oddly averse to the Rhino chassis.  And if I have to struggle with another bloody drop-pod I’ll fire jagged pins of hate into the wall.

So I was thinking that I may as well give my few inexplicably (occasionally) interested readers a quick and quite possibly slightly inaccurate rundown of my plans for my clan.  Now, the Iron Hands don’t run strict Codex.  They share more of a similar setup to the Space Wolves in that the various chapter subdivisions are based on clan and family.  This means that although they have ten clans, just like other chapters have ten companies, each clan is effectively a chapter in microcosm.  Each clan will have its own Librarians, Terminators, Dreadnoughts, Scouts, etc.  I’m happy with this arrangement as it provides me with a greater license to get the clan how I want it.

Nevertheless, the core of the clan is the Tactical Squad and that’s no different for the Drükkskar.  I’m packing 4 full tactical squads, each lead by a sergeant in Terminator armour, each with a different weapon load out.  Apart from the sarge though, each squad is kitted out the same way.  Ten-man squads, one Meltagun, one Heavy Bolter.  Proper all-rounders in the mould of the Xth.  Next up are a couple of Devastator squads: one kitted out to the gills with heavy bolters, the other with the more conventional tank-busting weaponry.  Then I’ve got a bit of an odd choice.  I’m packing a jump-packless Assault squad with no dedicated transport.  I might (might) get a Drop Pod for them, but that’s sketchy.  This is more a flavour and cheapness thing than anything else.  I’ve got a load of chainsword/bolter arms and a load of standard tactical marines.  I may as well have a footslogging assault list.  Gives my Iron Father some guys to tool around with.  I might promote them to Vanguards though.  It’s still a bit up in the air.

Backing up the 70-strong core of the clan, I’m going for a large, but bare bones Sternguard squad, the special ammo not really needing a replacement and playing really well with the Relentless bolters rule I’m giving the chapter.  And next up: the Dreadnoughts.  I’m packing a lot of Dreads.  Two regular, one Contemptor, two Ironclad, maybe one more Contemptor with a Heavy Conversion Beamer for kicks.  That covers ground forces.  In terms of air support, I’ve already assembled my Storm Eagle (really nice model, but precisely the wrong shape and size for any container I own!) and I plan to run a couple of additional Ravens for transport duties.  Accompanying them will be a full wing (probably three, although if I sell my vestigial third kidney, I might get six) of Stormtalons because they’re ugly as all hell and I love ‘em for it.

Now we move on to a decidedly oddball choice for me.  I’m going to convert up a Nemesis Dreadknight for the Clan.  This guy is going to be decidedly one-off.  Especially as I’m going to use him as a Dreadknight.  My reasoning is that being the Iron Hands and unfathomably deep in with the Mechanicum, they have managed to acquire and retrofit one of these chassis to suit their needs.  This is going to be a fairly big conversion project for me, as I’m going to try to give him a Mechanicum axe to use as a Greatsword and to replace the stupid counter-intuitive design of the pilot’s cradle with a cockpit.  You see, the Storm Eagle contains all the parts for the Stormraven’s turret mounted guns, but none of those parts are ever used.  I am going to use them for this piece.  I’m not a fantastic converter, but I’m looking forward to trying my hand at this one.

Speaking of being deep in with the Mechanicum, I’ve also got a Mechanicum detachment planned for the clan.  I’ve already got a Shadowsord Baneblade variant painted black (bought it second hand from an Overlord) and I felt that I needed some indenture Mechanicum type to accompany it.  I managed to find a load of Micro Arts Studio models that work really well as Techpriests and Skitarii and so I constructed some decent ‘counts-as’ rules for them using the Grey Knights Codex.  Steering clear of most of the filth.  In fact, with the addition of an Assassin to make up the points, they’re a perfectly functional 750pts list.  Nothing horrific (apart from the Assassin if you hate them.  I don’t because they’re too easy to kill).

Finally, we have Independent Characters which is where the fun is.  I’ve rambled on enough for now, so I’ll get into them and their retinues at a later date.

So long.

I'm back! But for how long...

Hello again.

Well, I’m back now.  Hopefully for a while, but you never know.  I’ve been on holiday in Ireland for the past few days.  It’s always nice to hang round there for a bit, even if there is nothing to do apart from look at the scenery, walk round the scenery and read about something that isn’t the bloody scenery.

In my case, my holiday reading has been some particularly thrilling Anti-Money Laundering coursework material.  Please don’t spoil the ending for me.  It’s really hotting up now, 57 pages in.

Anyway, aside from that I also took the holiday time to (finally) get started on my writing sample for the Black Library submissions window.  I possibly left it a little late, as the window closes in a fortnight.  I’m also not helping my case by doing my piece a little arse-backwards.  You see, the way the submissions procedure goes for BL, you submit 1,000 word sample of your writing, and then they read it, disregard it and you move on with your life.  A thousand words isn’t particularly hard.  It’ll take me about an hour, maybe two.  However, I took it on myself to write an entire short story (about 10,000 words) and then cull the best 1,000 words out of that and hand it in.  This seems unwise.

However, it hasn’t stopped me.  Not quite.  I was in Ireland for four days and managed to churn out just over 5,000 words of the story.  Hardly prolific, but I’m happy with the story so far.  Iron Hands based (so no surprise there).  I had a bit of a concern as to whether or not the main character was interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention, but I think I’ve managed it.  Anyway, that’s going to be the main project for the rest of the month.  I should get the whole story finished soon and then I can excise the best thousand words and send it off.  And then probably use it to keep the blog updated for a bit.  I’m thinking of posting the story in pieces every Friday.  Hopefully use that Friday deadline to get some fiction writing done.  If I can work it into my routine, then that can only improve the ‘thwarted writer’ status I’ve clearly been hungering after for so long.

Anyhoo, another thing that’s been getting in the way of updating this overgrown and ill-maintained piece of webspace is that during my lunchtimes, I have been reading the Malifaux background.  From all three of the rulebooks (one main and two expansions).  It’s been interesting to read about the world and, whilst the quality of the writing is variable, it really does help add atmosphere to the world.  I’ll do a bit more of an in-depth write-up of my impressions on the Malifaux stories later on the in the week, time and laziness permitting.  Speaking of Malifaux, I have fallen for the game in a big way recently.  Seriously enjoying it and trying to spread the sickness to other club members, as is my disgusting wont.  The key seems to be finding a model or concept that the target finds cool, be it undead cowboys, zombie Chihuahuas, hulking steampunk mechs or, in the case of my friend Alex, a Johnny Cash expy.

Sue is awesome.

That last sentence totally made sense in context.  I swear.

Bad things...

Well, I’ve talked enough Iron Hands, so I’m going to let that lie for a spell.  Next up: Malifaux chatter.

I’ve been interested in this game for over a year now, but it’s only been relatively recently that I’ve actually been able to get into it.  I had one test game at a club in North London and got on with it fine, although that was mainly down to luck and Hans the sniper.  It was only a couple of months after that that I was able to assemble some sample crews and get a couple of test games at my club.  Naturally, I stumbled at that point too, seeing as most of the rules were still a mystery to me.  Some of them still are, quite frankly.

Thankfully, it resonated well with a couple of the guys at the club and we’ve been playing semi-regularly for the past couple of months, although we’re only just getting round to using the special terrain section of book.  Another spot of good news is that we all have a different favourite faction which leads to a handy natural division for games, rather than having to deal with mirror matches.  One of us really likes the Guild, another goes for Resurrectionists in a big way and me; I’m an Outcast player.  I realise I may be getting a little ahead here, as some of you may not know much about the game, so such information is pretty much meaningless.  Let me explain.

No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.

It’s the turn of the century.  The 19th century, just edging to the 20th.  A rip in the fabric of reality occurs in California and a parallel dimension is discovered.  This dimension has interesting natural resources called ‘soulstones’ which allow genuine magic to be enacted on both sides of the rip (called the ‘Breach’.  A town is discovered just inside the rip, fully built, but utterly empty.  A town called Malifaux.  This is used as a base of operations and general conurbation for mining expeditions to recover soulstones, and the assorted businesses and hangers-on that go with this kind of prospecting operation.  Then the Breach closes inexplicably for a number of years.  During this time, a society used to using soulstones in a variety of ways struggles to adjust to their ever-increasing rarity and an unfortunate discovery is made: that when someone dies near a soulstone, it recharges.  Take this factoid through to its logical conclusion.  Thoroughly unpretty.

Anyway, suddenly the Breach opens up again.  The town is just how it was, but there are no people again.  No bodies either.  All deserted.  Naturally, people being people, Malifaux is soon repopulated and the business of mining continues ever onward.  That’s the rough idea.  Now the factions.  You’ve got five factions in this game.  The Guild, who are the forces of law and order in Malifaux, but (naturally) corrupt and tending towards fascism.  Resurrectionists, who are your necromancer types.  Very easy to see why they’re not liked.  It’s the smell, I think.  Then you have the Arcanists, who are unsanctioned magic users railing against the rules of the Guild.  After that there are the Neverborn, who are basically demons and nightmare creatures.  Pretty much the native inhabitants of Malifaux.  They don’t seem to like the humans being around.  At all.  And last you have the Outcasts, who are the oddities and mercenaries hanging around the place.

Most of the Outcasts can be hired by other factions, but you can have a full Outcast crew, and that’s what I focus on.  That said, I’ve got a crew for all the factions other than Resurrectionists as I wanted to get a variety of crews to give intro games and such.  And I don’t particularly like Resurrectionists.  Zombies are overplayed.  There, I’ve said it.

Anyway, I’ve very much got a favourite Outcast crew, being the Freikorps, who are basically steampunk special forces.  Military outfit, gas masks and a lot of clockwork guns.  I’ve been doing fairly well with them, and that’s actually a bit of a problem.  I’m worried that they may be a little overpowered.  It could well be that my opponents both favour spell casting leaders, and a big plus point for the Freikorps is that their armour is very good at shrugging off a lot of magic and renders them pretty much immune to area-of effect damage.  This tips the balance very much in my favour versus my two regular opponents.

They don’t seem put off by it though, which is good.  Nevertheless, I’m exploring a different sort of Outcast crew now.  I’m think the Viktorias, maybe with some Freikorps backup.  Whether or not this works out for me remains to be seen.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  So long readers!