Review/Drinking Game: Warhams 40k 7Ed: Send Help

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Koumei
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Review/Drinking Game: Warhams 40k 7Ed: Send Help

Post by Koumei »

Coming to you this December... wait shit it's already December, fuck.

Okay, I'm going to try to do this in small chunks and gloss over loads of stuff in the hopes of actually finishing this before I get bored/go into a coma.

And not from the alcohol, the game is just that bad.

The first few posts I'll try to make relatively brief because there may be power outages today. If I type up something huge then lose it all to an outage, then I will throw my hands in the air and call this project off. You all knew that.

I'm not saying how it is I have all these rules available, but on a totally unrelated note, the drink of choice is once again Bundaberg Mutiny.

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In this thread, I will attempt to cover not just the base rules, but a whole bunch of codices as well. For every good thing, I will award a purity seal:

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Spoiler: Try to remember what that looks like, you won't be seeing many of these in future posts.

This review will have actual drinking game rules:
For every RANDOM TABLE, roll once on the following random table to determine how many drinks to consume, rolling 2drop1 if there are enough potential modifiers to negate the entire roll:
d6 rollDrink
1Don't drink :(
2Drink once
3Drink twice
4Drink three times
5Drink three times
6Down the cup

For every useless rule (ie "This thing has the Unwieldy rule and can only be taken by Monstrous Creatures, which ignore the Unwieldy rule"), drink once.

If a rule is obviously an overreaction to a previous thing, drink once.

If a good rule is replaced with a bad one, or a simple one replaced with an overly complex one, or an interesting and unique (yet not too complex) one replaced with a standard kind of boring rule, drink once.

*If that doesn't even fix the perceived problem with the old one, down the cup.

When losing the will to live, drink at least once.

When you think "Man, this hellish world of slaughter and oblivion and despair is escapism" or find yourself sympathising with followers of a Chaos God, drink once.

Any time they mention FORGING THE NARRATIVE, down the entire cup.

So as I said, I will start with the basic rules of 7Ed and how they've changed, along with mentions of stuff that comes to me as I go.

After that, I will cover the following two, in order of people's preference (or failing that, rolling a die): Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard), Dark Eldar. Because these guys suffer from the unfortunate fate of being pre-Necrons, which heralded an amazing new thing.

After that will be Necrons, to call particular attention to something actually good.

Then there will be, in order of whatever, the following: SPESS MERIHNS, Space Elfs, Harlequins (motherfuckers get their own bookdex), both flavours of Adeptus Mechanicus (motherfuckers get TWO bookdexes), Khorne's Own Special Bookdex, Tau, Inquisition, Assassins, Imperial Knights of the Round, and the Monty Carlos Mont'ka campaign thing. Which has a few hilarious notes.

Be strong, brethren.
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Post by CapnTthePirateG »

It's a ruleset designed to make you spend $60 to get 10 plastic dudes.

I don't think making it a good game was a priority.
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Post by name_here »

On the contrary, that's all the more reason to put effort into making it a good game so people don't get bored and quit and they want all the kinds of plastic dudes.
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Post by Koumei »

So, guess what it literally says on the first proper non-index, non-filler page of the book?

If you guessed "a textbox with a big bold label of FORGING THE NARRATIVE", then you're right! You know what that means, everyone!

("It's okay, I haven't donated any of my livers, I'll be fine!" "You only have one liver. Two kidneys, one liver.")

I then get to skip a whole heap of pages because I'm not here to explain the rules of the game, I'm here to mock the failing points and drink heavily. They call out the fact that you can now measure distances any time you like. Players of older editions might remember "Guess" weapons where you have to guess the range for ordinance then measure out and target the actual point for that measurement and scatter from there. Or that some units had targeters that let them pre-measure. That's all in the past. You can sit there measuring every distance you like now. Whatevs. Some like including spatial awareness as part of the skill of play, others feel it's just a pain in the ass and want to focus more on unit abilities and other elements of tactical planning and removing room for error.

Special mention MUST go to the "random models" rule. This comes up all the fucking time for things. Usually stuff like "this causes 3d6 automatic hits at S 5 AP 6 with No Cover Saves Allowed, allocated randomly". Every time that shit happens, you're supposed to find some vaguely even way to randomly allocate. For instance if you have a unit of 17 models, for each random hit you would divide this into two lots of 6 and one lot of 5, then roll 1d3 to determine which sub-group to roll 1d6 on, re-rolling a 6 for the final group.

FUCK THAT BULLSHIT FUCK IT SO HARD.

Anyone who has actually used the rule will tell you how much it slows the game down, and most people actually don't use it (whether they know they're houseruling or not), they just pick "the nearest models" or whatever. Honestly, for anything with a direction you should say "the nearest models are affected first", and for things without direction (falling out of an aircraft, deadly hail), just go "roll 1d6. On a 1-3, the opponent selects the models so you lose your Sergeant and Missile Launcher, on a 4-6 you choose so you lose some normal dudes".

Seriously, it is not that hard. They should hire me to write the rules. Or my dog.

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He charges by the hour, but accepts biscuits and ear-scritching as payment.

There is a mention of "re-roll cocked dice. Some players only re-roll them if they are really cocked, if one face is basically up they stick with that. If you have a cluttered table, use a tray or box." Honestly they should say "Roll your dice in a little box or tray or dice tower. If you roll on the table we will personally interrupt your game and confiscate everything, before calling you stupid."

Then they mention that if dice fall off the table and under a couch, just re-roll, and fetch the dice after the game, don't go digging under furniture. Along with mention that they know one guy who rules that any dice that fall off the table are automatic failures because "If you can't even hit the table, how can you expect to hit the enemy?"

I am taking this moment to drink.

At this point I need to remind everyone that Apocalypse, Escalation, the Buildings/Strongholds/GI Joe Playset book and whatever are all basically rolled into core. Your standard detachment just HAS 0-1 Fortifications and 0-1 Lords of War (Baneblades and stuff). As such, the special Apocalypse templates are actually mentioned in the core rules - the 7" Massive Blast, the 10" Apocalyptic Blast, the Apocalyptic Barrage (5xLarge Blast), Hellstorm Template (Flamer that's around 16" long), and Apocalyptic Mega-Blast (15" divided into three areas).

Even if it rarely comes up, it's probably good that they mention these things exist. So I guess that's nice?

Anyway yeah, the fact is that Super-Heavy stuff and Gargantuan Creatures are just part of the game and that's that. If you ban them, that's a house rule.

After some more talk about characteristic tests and scatter and such, they mention THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME. You know what? That's close enough to FORGING THE NARRATIVE as far as I'm concerned. DRINKY TIME
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Post by Koumei »

All right, let's talk about line of sight. Some systems use a really simple thing where you basically look overhead and see if you can draw a straight line between them, even if it's a thin line. This one instead makes you crouch behind your minis and basically they can see what you can see, and if there's a window in some ruins and you can see their leg through that, it's all good. I guess points for realism, but fuck it's annoying. And also designed to place greater emphasis on height and shape of terrain, just to make it harder to use simple web tools instead of playing in real time with billions of dollars of plastic men.
Naturally, you can’t ask your models what they can see – they’re plastic and resin, which is always a barrier to effective communication
That's kind of funny.

Also they state that you only include the head, torso, arms and legs of a model for line of sight, so that you aren't penalised for having really big and fancy guns and banners. They also call out Wobbly Model Syndrome, where you place a mini on terrain that is clearly open ground, but the actual mini base or terrain texture makes it wobble and fall. They say "Let your opponent know it's standing there, put a marker there, and put the mini somewhere safe." I guess if they're going to be a mini-selling company, they at least know to tell you to take care of them.

Can I mention that you can just move up and down basically at will? You don't need ladders and stairs, you can just flat-out change floors as regular movement. Also, basically all terrain is Difficult Terrain, and it still blocks Line of Sight, but unless it's specifically called out as being impassable, you can walk through it, so the walls of buildings really just slow you down, you can still go through them.

Who the fuck typed IDSPISPOPD into the console?

Now for the Psychic Phase. I don't look forward to this.

So you know it has its own phase now. And you generate powers by having a Mastery Level, and then rolling that many dice on a RANDOM TABLE (5, drink three times, DON'T MIND IF I DO). If you roll all your dice on the same table, then you also get the "Result zero" primaris power. If you belong to a specific Chaos God, you automatically get their primaris power in addition to anything else, even if you don't roll on their table at all. Stuff like "having a Force Weapon" doesn't count, for the record - and I want to call something out.

Previously, you activated a Force Weapon whenever you deal unsaved wounds, thus making it Instant Death. Now, there used to be a blank spot of "I have Feel no Pain, which is a special save that is only denied by Instant Death. Do you activate after I fail my regular save, thus denying me my FnP, or do I roll FnP before you attempt to make it a Force weapon?" No longer: now you turn Force on in the Psy phase, which just makes your weapon Instant Death: it denies FnP if it's active.

Also, it says to reroll if you roll the same power twice, which is awfully kind of them, and yes as soon as you roll a power you can sub in the primaris power instead. Kind of pointless if you're drawing all powers from the same table.

I've explained before the way powers work, it's closer to WHFB. Also, it's worth noting that Grey Knights are the only people who can safely cast Sanctic (banishing) Daemonology powers, and can't use Malefic (summoning) Daemonology powers. Vice versa for Daemons (Chaos Sorcerers can try banishing if they want, but it's risky, and yes, Astra Militarum psykers and Inquisitors can totally do the risky Summoning thing, but the former will have explosive-tipped questions to answer after the battle, and the latter... doesn't give a shit). The risk of using Daemonology is just that you Perils on any double, not just double sixes. Do you want to know the heading of that paragraph however?

FORGING THE NARRATIVE!

Pretty sure I basically get to skip the shooting phase, it's the same as d6Ed, complete with like three weapons having the Salvo type. Oh, anyone armed with two Pistols gets to fire both. And that covers... some unit leaders/independent characters that specifically take those upgrades, and Seraphim Choirs? I think that is literally every single instance of it? I would be okay with Astra Militarum having Desperadoes as a Veteran type, running Twin Pistols.

Oh wait, Bombs might be new: if you're ZOOOOOOOMING (or Swooping for Flying Monsters), you can drop a bomb over any model over which you moved. You then roll scatter, but instead of 2d6-BS, it's just flat 1d6 no mods. And on a Hit it doesn't scatter. That isn't terrible.

No, not even Super Heavy Flyers have Bombs with 7"+ blasts. Keep in mind that the game DOES have basically ICBMs (with the crazy blasts of what, 5-7"). They may as well just drop nuclear bombs as it is.

What's the blast radius for your average mortar, bazooka rocket, HE tank shell, air-strike missile and all that, anyway? Like, in real life. In this, when the US Astra Militarum wants to do an air strike on some brown green people, the missiles and bombs have car-sized explosions, if that.

They now specify that if you have Armourbane (which roll 2d6+Strength to penetrate vehicle armour) and also something like Ordinance or Tank Hunters (which roll 2drop1), you roll 3drop1 instead of rolling two separate pools of 2d6. Sure, whatever.

Primary Weapons used to be important because they had a saving throw against being Destroyed/Stunned. But they're only on Super-Heavies, which now ignore the whole damage table. So now it's just "Rolls 2drop1 like Ordinance, but you can move, fire at full profile and BS, and still assault". Whatevs.

At this point I am very happy that the Assault Phase is basically the same as before. Not because it's good - d6Ed made it more random and even harder for close combat people - no, I'm happy because I can just skip the whole chapter. But they didn't fix anything. If you are dedicated to charging, you are definitely going to be starting by throwing sacrificial units into the overwatch, then hurling your main force into the enemy.

This is already boring. I look forwards to the codices with the pretty pictures.
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Post by Koumei »

Okay, here's something good. Sadly, it's under the title of FORGING THE NARRATIVE.
We know several gamers who use cotton wool to represent the smoke billowing from destroyed vehicles, a visually pleasing solution and doubly handy if someone spills their tea.
How fucking British is that?

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ENGLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!

Goddamn it, RIGHT AFTER THAT is another Narrative Forging section. It's like they hate me. (They do, they hate everyone)

Flyers work a little differently now: if they can Hover, then that means they are treated as Fast Skimmers (have to worry about certain terrain, no minimum movement, can't zoom across the whole table at once, restrictions on firing, passengers can embark/disembark, can shoot them normally). Otherwise they're flying as normal. Supersonic no longer prevents Hover Mode, so they actually CAN carry troops now, yay! Supersonic just boosts their movement when they are ZOOOOOOMING. I hate that they call it ZOOOOOOOOOOMing, so I am going to drink now.

For that matter I'm not too happy about the Cover Save being "jink". I have not heard this as a real word before (and my browser doesn't recognise it), so all it makes me think of is "Jinkies!", as though this is an episode of Scoobie Doo.

And the ghost was an Alpha Legion marine all along!

Oh, they're really doubling down on the "You need to spend at least one turn on the table being shot at before you assault" thing. If a transport vehicle enters play from Reserves, then even if it's an Assault Vehicle you can't leap out and attack. Interceptor weapons work when Outflanking, and you can't Outflank + assault on the same turn. DRINK TIME!

Stomping and Strength: D weapons have all been weakened. Do we particularly care? No? Okay then.

It says in order to FORGE A NARRATIVE you should name your characters, but mentions they won't necessarily fight better if you do. Thanks for explaining that, can you also point out that wiping the dice on the head of a bald man won't make them roll higher?

For fuck's sake. They're FORGING even more NARRATIVE. Good thing I hadn't refilled my drink. IMMUNE! So when issuing a challenge, it says to roleplay it, shouting stuff at your opponent "in character". Now it does say to remember you're insulting or belittling the character, not your opponent, which is good, but do we really need to encourage these assholes to shout? Solution: equip every character with a vuvuzela, and bring one of your own. If your opponent does the shouty thing, then every time you issue or accept a challenge, you know what to do!

Right, so let's talk about detachments.

You can do the Unbound thing (slap X points worth of stuff on the table, get zero special benefits). Many tournaments ban this, it's worth noting.

You can also make your army out of various detachments and formations. Note that if you do this, it applies to the whole army. So you could have 2x Combined Arms Detachment, 1x Allied Detachment, 1x Realspace Raiders, and a specific Harlequin detachment. You couldn't also just add an extra Super-Heavy to that (this is most noteworthy when not using Combined Arms Detachments, if only one Formation actually includes the unit you want, then you have to take that Formation and not just have "Some Unbound, Some Formation").

In this book, they mention the basic ones that apply to anyone:
Allied Detachment: 1 HQ, 1-2 Troops, 0-1 Elites, 0-1 Fast Attack, 0-1 Heavy Support. This can't be your Primary detachment with your Warlord. They get ObSec (see below).

Combined Arms Detachment: 1-2 HQ, 2-6 Troops, 0-3 Elites, 0-3 Fast Attack, 0-6 Heavy Support, 0-1 Fortifications, 0-1 Lords of War. HI, 3-5 EDITION! This detachment gets Objective Secured: they steal objectives out from under enemy units that don't have ObSec. Also you can roll twice for Warlord Traits and choose the best one.

It's worth noting that the updated Planetstrike book has two other ones (Attacker: more Fast and Elite, benefits regarding Deep Striking, no minimum Troops choices. Defender: more Troops and Heavy, benefits regarding staying in the area and not running away).

Now I'll admit, I like list-building. It's fun to go over it in theory, and to fiddle with numbers, it's like character building in RPGs. So this new thing where there are new formations? Golden, I loves it.

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Also, here's a new change in the Allies Matrix: all Imperium is now just Imperium. They've also massively reduced the amount of BFFs: everyone is BFF with themselves (and can even use each others' transports and have independent characters from one join units from the other). Both flavours of Chaos are BFFs. Both flavours of Eldar are BFFs with each other and with Harlequins. That is it.
This level basically treats them as the same army.

Convenience: Eldar and Imperium, Eldar and Tau, Tau and Necrons, Chaos Marines and Necrons, Chaos Marines and Orks.
At this level, they're basically "another army". Like enemies that can't attack each other. So they can't move within 1" of each other, can't use beneficial psychic powers on each other and so on.

Desperation: Imperium and Dark Eldar, Imperium and Tau, Daemons and Orks, any Chaos and Dark Eldar, Chaos Meringues and Tau, Dark Eldar and Orks, Dark Eldar and Tau, Eldar and Orks, Necrons and Orks,
Like above, except you don't want such units to be within 6" of each other or there's a chance of them be paralysed by suspicion and paranoia. Still can't actually shoot each other.

Go Fuck Yourself: the rest. This is treated like Desperate Allies, except you can't even deploy within 12" of each other.

So let's talk some more about the Imperium. Folding them into one was sadly needed, because currently we're talking: Adepta Sororitas, Adeptus Mechanicus (Cult Mechanicus), Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii), Astra Militarum, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Imperial Knights, Inquisition, Officio Assassinorum, Space Marines, Space Wolves.

But it's kind of a shame. I like the idea that Sistaz only particularly liked the Inquisition, the Assassins, Imperial Guard, and one specific chapter of Space Marines (it's part of their Chapter Tactics, and ALSO requires an Inquisitor be present). I like that Space Marines can't all buddy together wildly, and that Dark Angels don't really get along with anyone. But I still accept the necessity.

Besides, Sisters have a weird new value: you take a Combined Arms Space Marine force with 3 Drop Pods taken as Fast Attack choices. You take a Combined Arms Sororitas force with 3 Dominion squads taken as Fast Attack choices, each with 4 Melta Guns (optional Combi-Melta for the Sister Superior). Then you put them in the pods, and slam them down behind your enemies' biggest tanks (or Imperial Knights that everyone takes). Unleash Melta, watch explosion. This has seriously become a big thing.

But you know that when we talk about alliances, you know what they're going to say, don't you? They're going to talk about stories behind these alliances, and that means a header of FORGING A NARRATIVE.

Oh right, and for Warlords, you now have FOUR ~random tables~ you can roll on for Warlord Traits. The three normal ones (Strategic, Command, Personal), and a new-ish one regarding the Tactical Objectives rule. Called Tactical Traits.

Basically, if using Tactical Objectives, you draw cards each turn, up to a maximum hand size, and can only discard 1 per turn, but each time you complete one (like "Wipe out one enemy unit" or "Capture battlefield objective X") you get a victory point and also discard that card (in addition to any you choose to discard). So it encourages you to really haul ass and move about, trying to achieve specific objectives and not just "sit on at least half the objectives, win game". But it adds a lot of randomness so a lot of people don't like it. Also, 5/6 of the objectives are universal, but each army has their own 1/6 of them suited to them. Anyway, if you're a Tactical Warlord, you can do stuff like discard extra cards or get extra VP for certain objectives.

I am so happy to say that skipping all the other uninteresting stuff brings us to the end of this book. So what do we want next: MANS IN TANKS, or EMOGOTH SPACE ELFS?
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Post by Maxus »

SPACE ELFS
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

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Post by Username17 »

On Guess weaponry: since the dimensions of the table are known and the starting positions of units and terrain measured and known, you can accurately gauge the distance between any two points by using the Pythagorean Theorem. That makes the game good as an educational tool, and also is amusing in the sense that to be a good modern major general you need "many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse."

But of course, this also means that the entire "Guess" portion is just a sham. People who attain the relevant skill level never guess particularly wrong, and the entire exercise is a waste of time in any specific game (though the math skills it requires are independently useful). The only real game effect it has is to allow you to deliberately "guess wrong" in order to shoot at targets that are obscured by nearer ones.

-Username17
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Post by Koumei »

Okay, so let's look at the DARK ELDAR: LIKE ELDAR EXCEPT EMO AND SPIKY. AND ALSO KIND OF SHIT.

The biggest problem with Dark Eldar is that A) their dex came out just before Necrons changed the way things work, and B) their dex was basically a quick smooth-over of their previous one - no new units, a lot of good things becoming shit, and a half-hearted attempt at pushing Haemonculi (which had received new plastic kits and thus everyone should buy it).

I'm not really going to comment on the fluff, because nobody cares. I will point out, however, that according to the art, Eldar and Guardsmen and Space Marines are all the same height.

Anyway, we have now skipped about a hundred pages, because there's a lot of story information, descriptions of stuff, pictures and all that. If anyone wants to know about the specific wargear table, I'm just going to tell you that characters can't swap weapons for pistols, and their only options (without going into unit-specific things that come later, or Artefacts) for close combat weapons are power swords (not axes, mauls or lances) and agonizers (which are AP 3 weapons that always wound on a 4+ and cost more than power swords). These guys who like to stay on the move have four heavy weapon options and only two special weapon options, well done guys. Also they don't get the option to take Plasma Grenades (Frag Grenades), either a unit has them or it doesn't.

Now they USED to be able to take Phantasm Grenade Launchers. Or rather, they still can, but they USED to count as Defensive Grenades + Frag Grenades. So you can charge people hiding behind trees. Now? It just gets used as a shooting weapon that causes wounds on a failed Leadership test, and Space Marines are specifically immune to it. That's like five drinks worth of stupid.

Haemonculus-based units get their own special wargear in addition to other stuff, complete with Instant Death Sniper Rifles, random-AP Flamers and shit like that. Vehicles lost the ability to take Flickerfields (Invulnerable Save), now it's just one transport that always has it, the rest can get fucked and explode when shot.

THE POWER FROM PAIN: this used to be a thing where in theory they collect tokens by slaughtering units in close combat, but actually they took free tokens by having Haemonculi attached, then swapped Haemonculi to double their tokens, meaning one unit started the game with Feel No Pain and Furious Charge, the other started with that and also Fearless.

Now it just affects the whole army, counting up each turn to give more and more benefits.
Starting with None, and leading up towards Feel No Pain 5+, Furious Charge, Fearless and Rage. Which is to say charging for +1 attack on top of the +1 for charging, +1 Strength (so they hit at Strength 4), getting a bonus 5+ save even if they fail a save or don't get a saving throw (negated by Instant Death, including Strength 6 attacks), and being Fearless.

Combat Drugs (for Wych Cult stuff) are just roll on a random table, drink three times, and then get +1 to either Attacks, Strength, Initiative, Toughness, Weapon Skill, or Leadership. One of these results (Ld) is generally good, but worthless as soon as you get Fearless, two of these are awesome (S and T), two are probably useless but not always, depending on your foes (WS and I), and Attacks... you can always do with more.

Warlord Traits Table: they have their own they can use. Some results are better than others. Like re-rolls for Reserves and Night Fighting (nice), gaining Fear (crap), +1 WS (booo), getting Rage without waiting until turn 6 (a small bonus, and then no bonus at the end of the game), a Fearless bubble (pretty handy until later in the game where you have that anyway) and Hatred of everyone (everyone loves combat re-rolls)! Aren't they exciting?

HQ choices: start with the Archon

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POWER OVERWHELMING

Starcraft references aside (for now), the Archon is just the Commander of Dark Eldar. With an impressive statline (but still suffers instant death from an Autocannon) and an amazing 5+ Armour Save, this guy does get Plasma Grenades, and can actually take a full Blaster if he doesn't mind losing one attack. He can also take a special Huskblade, which I imagine is a Power Sword that causes Instant Death. OH LOOK I'M RIGHT. And he can take a Venom as a dedicated transport.

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You could believe that, for these guys. But actually it's just a fast skimmer thing. With a Flickerfield.

He can also take a royal court, which consists of any mix of: really cheap model with a Poison 2+ weapon (technically you can take this model alone as your one HQ choice for all of 10 points), big I HIT IN FACE things, dudes with AP 3 Flamer template eye beams, and Yuan-ti Abominations with a pistol, sword AND shootygun.

They can take their choice of transport. Because they aren't taken in addition to the unit of 1 Archon, it's just that if you take an Archon, you can take one of these units without using the other HQ slot.

Not included in this book: ANY NAMED ARCHON, NOT EVEN ASDRUBAEL MOTHERFUCKING VECT. That's right, the King of Badda-Bing does not appear in this codex. DE players were fucking livid. I'm just taking the opportunity to drink once.

(Seriously, they added the new type "Chariot" for 6E and currently there are about 7 units that use it. One of those is a special character for Space Wolves, and five of those are from Chaos Daemons. Would it kill them to include him and have his Dais be a Chariot?)

Next is the Succubus: a Wych leader with grenades who can take Wych weapons (either re-roll failed hits in combat, re-roll failed wounds in combat, or re-roll 1s to hit and wound in combat), or the usual stuff like the power sword and all, or a special weapon only for her, which is a Power Weapon that, if wielded 2-handed, hits at +1 Strength, AP 2, without reducing Initiative (with Furious Charge and the right Drugs roll, that's a hilarious Strength 6, enough to instant-death her own kind). Or for the bonus attack she can hold it one-handed as a Power Sword. She gets a 4++ against Close Combat Attacks. Note: that's specifically close combat attacks, not Overwatch shooting in close combat, not blowing enemy vehicles up in close combat. So basically you always want to be in close combat because that's where she excels and also where she is safest.

Personally I would have at least extended it to "all wounds suffered in the entire Assault Phase".

For double the cost of a naked Succubus... sorry that's a poor choice of words. For double the cost of a Succubus without upgrades, you can take Lelith, who is kind of expensive for what she does. Her Warlord Trait is seriously "Is Weapon Skill 10 instead of 9", meaning compared to previous games, her Weapon Skill is 1 lower, unless taken as a Warlord where her special trait is "Suffers no innate penalty". That's two drinks. What I would have done: give her the WS 10 and pretend anybody cares, then make her trait a special one where you roll twice for Combat Drugs (re-rolling doubles) and choose which one you want the Wych Cult to use. Or even roll twice, then start with one, and change to the other at the start of any turn (change once, don't swap back and forth).

Still dies to a single plasma round because lol Toughness 3, but her close combat Save is 3++ and against everything else she has a 4++ so at least there is that. She is great in a challenge, and ignores all armour saves, so is an amazing character-killer (7 attacks on the charge at WS 9 or 10, Strength 10 but with re-rolls). Even against mobs, she has Rampage so it's 8-10 attacks on the charge, no re-rolls.

DOES NOT GET COMBAT DRUGS

Haemonculus is another good cheap HQ thing, and his unit treats the turn as 1 higher for the purpose of Power From Pain benefits. And they are Toughness 4 so you need a Battle Cannon to one-shot them. They get fun wargear options but can get expensive. For the cost of two naked ones, there's Urien Rakarth, who is actually Toughness FIVE, and his "Treat the Pain Level as one higher" rule extends to all units within a foot. He also has Feel No Pain 4+ if he fails his saves, a Clone Field (4++ save), AND regenerates a Wound each turn on a 5+, so has pretty good staying power.

Drazhar is a really expensive HQ choice, but has S 4 T 4 with a 2+ save so that's something. He can only join Incubus squads, and doing so gives them +1 WS. He has a pile of special rules, including Immunity to Instant Death, Fearless, and Rampage. And each 6 to Wound in close combat generates a bonus attack (these can't make new attacks themselves).

There are no more heroes.

For Troops you have either squads of 5-20 Kabalites (really cheap guys who shoot you with Poison 4+ weapons at Ballistic Skill 4), or squads of 5-15 wyches (less cheap, only actually WS 4 I 6, but they get the 4++ in close combat, and combat drugs - they still lose to Space Marines in close combat). They can both take either form of transport, and the former can upgrade with special and heavy weapons, the latter can just take some wych weapons but has grenades.

Now you can also upgrade either of these to Elites. An elite Kabalite squad basically means everyone has the statline of a normal Kabalite squad leader (+1 A and Ld), and they get more heavy/special weapon options. If you spend the points on the squad leader for that, he just has 3 attacks per round. An elite Wych squad also does the +1 A and Ld "Like a squad full of unit leaders" and again, the unit leader can go up to 3 Attacks (4 for dual-wielding, 5 on the charge, 7 if charging with Rage and getting the good drugs).

For something that is just flat-out Elite, you have Incubi, who have 3+ armour saves and carry big two-handed swords that are Strength +1 and AP 2 with no Initiative reduction. A unit leader gets Rampage and can take a special weapon that can be used as two Power Swords, or linked together to do the same as above, so it is just like the Succubus glaive. They are 100% close combat, and so naturally they don't get grenades. DRINK.

They can take either transport.

MANDRAKES!

Image

(I'd show a picture of the old mandrake minis, which looked nowhere near as cool, except they have their tits out, and apparently you can go to hell for posting tits.)

Mandrakes are also Elite, and nobody ever takes them even though the minis are cool. Basically they have a 4+ Cover Save when out in the open, and a 2+ Cover Save when in basically any cover ever, they hit at 2 attacks each (3 for the leader), at Initiative 5, Strength four (!), and they have Fear, Move Through Cover, Fleet and Infiltrate. At 12 points per model, that's... kind of expensive for Dark Eldar. They also get special close range death rays (18" S 4 AP 4 Assault 2 that sets enemies on fire after for MAYBE a couple of extra casualties). But at the end of the day... they don't hit very hard, a lot of weapons ignore cover these days, you can just close-combat them to death, almost everyone is Fearless, and it's too easy to just end up with some ineffective guys cut off from the rest of their army. Also no Grenades.

Sorry guys. (Though they're less bad than before, so you might find a use for them. 2+ Cover saves are great when your enemy can't negate them, after all.)

Wracks are a relatively cheap Elite unit that carry poisoned weapons, automatically have Feel no Pain, and can take special "Poisons you and if you die you explode, hitting friendly models" guns or the flamers with random AP values. No Grenades, and they can take a transport.

Grotesques are very expensive, like, almost as costly as Terminators, but are S 5 T 5 W 3. They don't just have poisoned weapons, they have poisoned weapons that cause Instant Death on a 6 to Wound, and they have Rampage, Bulky and Feel no Pain. They can take the flamer things, and can take the bigger transport, the Raider.

I am leaving the Fast Attack and Heavy choices and the special Detachment for a later date where I care more than now. Maybe I should have included more pictures.
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Post by Stahlseele »

pictures are always good, specifically those of the WH40K universe, since they are usually pretty cool looking.

also:
the mandrakes crunch clahes horribly with their fluff for me, after just having finished reading the DE Paths trilogy . .
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Post by nockermensch »

So, Kickstarter for Koumei's new liver when?
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Post by Maxus »

nockermensch wrote:So, Kickstarter for Koumei's new liver when?
She's Australian. They've evolved to have ultra livers.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

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Post by Longes »

Speaking of Dark Eldar. Warhammer 40k RPG allowed you to play them. Once. In Rogue Trader. And it was horrible. The dark eldar class was released in the appendix to a terrible DE-centric railroad adventure. Dark Eldar had less starting agility than a human who took origin paths that give him agility, and had a useless trait "Unnatural Agility". The trait was useless, because Agility bonus influenced precisely two things in the game: falling height and speed. Ability to jump down from a little bit taller buildings is garbage in the world with ropes, jetpacks and antigrav belts. Speed was covered by the trait "Unnatural Speed", because fuck you. In addition to that you were never going to get any eldar equipment ever, because it's all availability "near unique". In addition to that, if you wanted to be a wych, then fuck you. You start with a knife and a skin-tight wet tissue. And you don't even get the knife weapon proficiency because you should be playing a fucking human, you rollplaying shit. Speaking of classes - there are two. You can be a cabalyte warrior (a shooty eldar) or a wych (a stabby eldar). In the middle of the game you can progress to a haemonculus (a mad scientist eldar) and in the end of the game you can become an incubus initiate (an armored stabby eldar). Only you won't, because eldars have shit Int for bieng a mad scientist, and because you need to find a teacher for your sorry human-loving ass. And finally no GM ever would allow you to actually play a Dark Eldar, because everyone knows that all dark eldar are backstabbing evil masochistic assholes who can't take a step without eating a puppy.
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Post by Koumei »

Yeah, the description for Mandrakes describes them as relentless predators wielding surgical tools, hunting you down and then tearing the flesh from you.

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Now you can run, you can hide - you can TRY to. But he always has a way of finding you...

It says they can leap from reflections, or from people's shadows, and that they are rumoured to be X, Y and also Z, all of which are spooky things, and that they live in their own spooky realm. So maybe give them the Callidus Assassin's rule of "I can Deep Strike with perfect precision, and on the turn I enter play, you shoot at me with BS 1"? You're still looking at "a bunch of S 4 AP - attacks in close combat" and "a bunch of weak and annoying eye beams", but it's a start at least.

And here's a bonus picture of someone's Lelith:

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Remain always classy.

---

Fast Attack is where it's at. There are so many good things in Fast Attack, so let's start with Beast Masters!

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You had to know this was coming. As Pokemon Trainers, they just catch Dark pokemon - Khymerae are Dark, Clawed Fiends are Dark/Fighting, and Razorwings are Dark/Flying.

These used to be 1-3 Beastmasters per slot, each with a mandatory retinue of either X number of Khymerae, 1-2 Razorwing Flocks, or 1 Clawed Fiend (which had its own rules for getting more Strength and Attacks based on the number of Wounds it suffered). Now it's nice and simple: one unit is 1-12 models of any of the above, in any combination. Yes you could really take just a single Khymera if you really wanted.

Don't do that though. The monsters are all Ld 5, whereas the Beastmaster has Ld 8 and Power From Pain so can even turn the whole unit Fearless. They can also take special Melee weapons if they like. By which I mean the Power Sword or the Power Sword that wounds on a 4+.

Anyway, Khymerae (YES I KNOW THE WORD CHIMERA HAS A C, THEY USE A K IN THIS BECAUSE THEY PLAYED MORTAL KOMBAT OR SOMETHING) fight like Space Marines, except with Initiative 6, 3 Attacks and only 5 Ld. Without Power Armour, so only a 6+ Armour Save. But they're Daemons, so cause Fear (worthless) and have a 5+ Invulnerable Save (worth plenty). And move like Beasts (because they ARE beasts).

Clawed Fiends are big and bulky: 3 0 5 5 3 5 4 5 6+ with Rage (6 attacks on the charge). No armour piercing or anything though, so you'd use them to grab Guardsmen and Ork Boys and slam them about, or Glance vehicles.

Razorwing Flocks aren't so good if you look at most of their numbers, but then you see they have 3 Wounds and make 4 Rending attacks. So they're actually not bad for nibbling Carnifexes or Glancing vehicles.
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The fluff says they sometimes manage to capture Space Marines and use them in battle. I really wish that were an option. Make them Assault Marines to explain why they keep up with the Beast unit, and give them two close combat weapons and reduced Leadership, no guns. Mainly just because you could enrage the kids who play Space Marines at the local store. Paint them up in the chapter colours they use (or just use Grey Knights!), watch them fume.

If you play Dark Eldar, please model one Razorwing in a flock as a Honchkrow pokemon. That'd be awesome.

Raiders are open-topped fast skimmers that you can take as a dedicated transport or just as a cheap Fast Attack vehicle. Armour 10 on all sides and 3 Hull Points, so basically it has the consistency of any vehicle in Just Cause. It can hold 10 peeps, and has a Disintegrator that can be upgraded to a Dark Lance on the cheap. It can also take the usual upgrades, and can Deep Strike without needing to buy an upgrade for it now. That's nice. (Incidentally a Dark Lance is a Bright Lance but dark. A Disintegrator is three feet of S 5 AP 2 Heavy 3, so you use it to take out a bunch of Space Marines... or you just pay up and upgrade to the Lance.)

If you face Dark Eldar, you will see loads of these.
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Not necessarily this pretty.
For the same price you could also take a Venom, which is the same as above except only 2 Hull Points, comes with a Flickerfield + Twin Splinter Rifle + Splinter Cannon (Rifles can be upgraded to another Cannon), and only holds 5 models. I really wish it were six, because that's a minimum squad plus an attached HQ choice.

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Now it is a sad day, because we need to talk about Reavers.

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Is this Tron?

Reavers are Eldar Jetbikes, so they get the nice movement and Toughness 4. They have hand weapon + splinter pistol each (they can steer with their knees!), and the bikes have underslung splinter rifles. 1/3 can be swapped out for either a Blaster (short range S 8 Lance weapon, good times) or a Heat Lance (S 6 AP 3 but Melta AND Lance). Yes I know Craftworld Eldar can swap ALL jetbike weapons for cannons, but that's because they're assholes.

Anyway, they USED to have a special rule where, if they move over an enemy unit in the move phase, then one unit they moved over takes a bunch of hits. And you can upgrade some to deal heaps of decent strength Rending hits, or to make it a Pinning attack. That was really good.

Now... now we drink once or twice. Because instead, it just boosts their Hammer of Wrath. Hammer of Wrath is a special attack some units get, at Initiative 10 (so "first"), but that means being locked in combat and also means absorbing some Overwatch shooting first. These guys come in small enough units that Overwatch really hurts. Previously you were safe: no Overwatch, and no combat round, you just hit them in a way that's more efficient than shooting. Yes, they have Hit & Run, but that still happens after the combat round where you take hits from the enemy.

The baseline Hammer of Wrath is "1 hit at unmodified Strength, AP -, no wargear applies unless it specifically says it does". For these guys, it's Strength 4 Rending. All models with Grav-Talons have S 4 Concussive (reduces enemies to Initiative 1). All models with Cluster Caltrops have 1d6 S 6 Rending hits.

They have Combat Drugs because they're Wyches. NO GRENADES.

HELLIONS!
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Hellion's a pretty good guy. Eh flies around on hoverboards and doesn't afraid of anybody.

So they're basically Wyches with Jump Packs and +1 Strength from their glaives. Also their skyboards are better at shooting than pistols. NO GRENADES. They get drugs. Yes, the right Drugs roll and Pain -> Furious Charge means they charge for Strength 6 and spear-tackle Space Marines.

The unit leader can take a Stun Claw. This used to be circumstantial but hilarious: if you Hit & Run away from combat with an enemy squad that has an independent character attached, you take the character with you. You could pull characters out of their bubblewrap to murder them. Now it's just "In a Challenge, he causes Instant Death". The Stunclaw is basically a Hookshot/"GET OVER HERE".

Now for the Razorwing Jetfighter: it's a Supersonic Flyer that can't Hover (but isn't a transport so why would you?), and has two disintegrators (can be upgraded to lances), a twin splinter rifle (can be upgraded to a cannon), and four Monoscythe Missiles (four feet, S 6 AP 5 Large Blast). The missiles can be replaced with Necrotoxin Missiles (four feet, Large Blast, Poison 2+) or Shatterfields (four feet, S 7 AP - Large Blast, re-roll failed Wound rolls). Also it can take Night Shields.

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Scourges are Dark Eldar with wings and a 4+ Armour Save, 6+ Invulnerable Save. Anyway, they're worth taking. They get Grenades despite being shooty: their base weapon is the Shardcarbine (slightly better than rifles), and up to four can swap for any special or heavy weapon (Shredder, Blaster, Dark Lance, Splinter Cannon, Haywire Blaster, Heat Lance). Many of these are Heavy, and thus mean not using their wings. The leader has a few melee options like a Power Lance or a 2+ poisoned weapon.

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I have it on good authority the wings are a pain to glue to the torso.

In the next post I'll try to finish up with the Dark Eldar. Drinks so far: several. Purity seals so far: NONE
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Post by OgreBattle »

Every once in a while I get a perverse urge to write a *Dark Eldar fandex as if to prove that a stream of consciousness forum post will be better written/balanced/flavorful/streamlined than official GW printed stuff.

*and Craftworld Eldar, and imperial guard, and tyranids, and chaos, and orks
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Post by CapnTthePirateG »

Weird...I remember Scourges having jetpacks back when I was going to get into the game.

Then I got grounded for trading minis at school and didn't make it to the game store selling these on clearance.

Best grounding of my life.
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Post by Koumei »

Capn: well, wings == Jump Packs, and I think the old minis back in 3Ed (or was it 4?) just had jump packs. Can't remember.

Ogre: same. Actually I did write my own Wych Cult supplemental fandex out of boredom once. That way between this dex, that fandex, the Forgeworld bonus Heavy Supports, and the Haemonculus supplement (I don't feel like also covering that), people could have a decent DE army.

---

HEAVY SUPPOOOOOOORT!

Note: it's not THAT heavy.

So the Talos used to look like this:
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Now it looks like this:
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More in-theme, but there is still something cool about the old one. So it's a Monstrous Creature that comes in squads of 1-3 and plods along at 6" per round. It doesn't get Power From Pain, but it automatically has Feel No Pain and Fearless. Also it's Strength and Toughness 7, Weapon Skill 5, 3 Wounds and Attacks (+1 A for two weapons), Init 4, 3+ Save. So it's really bulky and immune to Lasguns, but it's only wrecking your face *if it reaches you*. That's a serious problem. Carnifexes will tell you all about it.

Its tail is a twinned splinter cannon, but that can be swapped for a twinned heat lance, a blast, or a twinned haywire blaster. So you decide whether it wrecks tanks or infantry with shooting on the off chance it reaches them. Assuming it charges for 5 attacks, you can of course opt to instead just make 3 attacks at S 10 AP 1 and crack tanks open... if it gets that close. It can also take a few other options but whatever. Basically if you have a way to put them up in the enemy face, they are actually scary. Otherwise they plod along and the enemy just ignores them.

The Cronos is made from the same kit and looks like this:
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It has a lower WS and S, and doesn't have the shooty thing, nor does it have 2 close combat weapons. Also it's cheaper, can still be taken in units of 1-3,and has a Spirit Syphon, which is a S 3 AP 3 (so, a Sister-Killer) Flamer.

It can be upgraded with either a Spirit Probe (it gets FnP 4+, and everything within 12" increases their FnP by 1, up to 4+) or Spirit Vortex (18" Sister-Killer Large Blast). Great support things if you can dump them into the thick of it. They used to drop extra pain tokens out onto allies when they killed enemies, but it wasn't such a sure thing. I guess the current thing is better.

Now for Ravagers:

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Ravagers used to be the bread and butter of Dark Eldar. To be honest they're still great and if you took 3 of them that would be okay. They are open-topped fast skimmers that can deep strike, but unlike raiders the front and side armour is ELEVEN! HEAVY AS A FUCKING RHINO MOTHERFUCKERS!

It has three D-Cannons that can all be upgraded to Dark Lances, and can take the usual vehicle gear.

Voidraven Bombers are pretty good. And they look like this.
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But usually not as pretty. So they're supersonic flyers with a void mine (1-use large blast bomb, S 9 AP 2 Lance) and a pair of Void Lances (stronger Dark Lances). They can take Night Shields, replaces the Void Lances with Dark Scythes (a shorter-range Dark Lance with the Blast rule), and take either four Shatterfields, two Shatterfields and two Implosion Missiles, or four Implosion missiles. Implosions are small Blasts, but S 6 AP 2. So they pop Terminators.

LORDS OF WAR:
Hahaha go fuck yourself they don't get any. Go to Forgeworld if you want that (all their LoW options can also be taken by Eldar and Corsairs, mind you).

Various people have converted giant flying pirate ships as custom Lords of War for Dark Eldar, or made giant monsters that are basically "the Haemonculus got bored and glued five Talos together". I basically approve of this.

Now, this book presents two new ways to field Dark Eldar. The first is the Kabalite Raiding Party, a specific formation:
1 Archon, 1 Court of the Archon, 1 Incubus unit, 1 Ravager, 6 units of Kabalites (may upgrade to Trueborn), 1 unit of Scourges, 1 unit of Hellions. All units have to take a Dedicated Transport. Apparently this includes the Scourges and Hellions, which can't, and the Ravager, which is actually a vehicle. STUPID WORDING, DRINK ONCE.

Benefits are: they treat the Pain counter as 1 higher, they have a cover save when there is Night Fighting and also on turn 1 (Troops: 5+, other: 6+. Night Fighting of course increases this). Oh and re-roll the Warlord trait if you want, assuming the Warlord is taken from this formation and rolls on the Dark Eldar table.

The other, more flexible option, is the Realspace Raiders Detachment:
1-2 HQ, 2-6 Troops, 0-3 Elites, 1-6 Fast Attack (YES PLEASE), 0-3 Heavy. No Fortifications or Lords of War. Same benefits as above, except they don't get the Power From Pain boost. If you were going to take a Combined Arms Detachment for Dark Eldar anyway, take this instead. You were going to take at least one Fast Attack, you probably wished you could take six. Now you can.

Let's finish with a picture:
Image
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Post by Koumei »

So, one down, so many to go. The next one in the world of pre-Necrons...

THE ASTRA MILITARUM (aka Imperial Guard)

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You knew I'd go for that cheap shot.

Same rule as before: ignore all the fluff because fuuuuuuuck that's a lot. Though they give a bit more info on recruitment and the Schola Progenum and all that stuff, which is nice.

Let's start with their special rules: Heavy Weapons Teams are big bases with two people on the base, but each one is a single model (with two Wounds). You don't count individual people.

Warlord Traits vary between granting Outflank to some units (yes you can Outflank a Baneblade), Preferred Enemy against one Codex of choice (Warlord's unit only), bubble of "Not Fearless but you don't take Morale tests for shooting casualties", Relentless (Warlord's unit only), boost to Commands, or a different boost to Commands.

Commands are the big thing of Guard. Officers with this rule can issue one order per turn, from a list given to them. They choose the order, and choose a unit within 12" (non-vehicle friendly units from this codex only). The unit gets the effects if they pass a Ld test. Snake Eyes on the test means all further Orders you make this turn automatically succeed, box cars mean you can't issue any more Orders this turn.

Orders include things like "Shoot someone, every 6 to Hit lets you pick the specific model that you shot", "You, shoot someone, except one model can shoot someone else", "You, shoot someone. All your Lasguns and Hot-Shot Lasguns fire one extra shot (2 at long range or 3 at close range)", "Shoot someone and then Run", "Run, but be super fleet about it", "Shoot someone in a pinning sort of way".

Senior officers also get "Shoot something, and gain Tank Hunters and Monster Hunters while you're at it", "Shoot something and ignore it's cover", and "Stop falling back/going to ground, get up and immediately act normally" - that last one is a favourite for sneaky cover saves, by Going to Ground then negating it the very next turn with this order.

Great so that's all done. By the way, this army has NO SPECIAL DETACHMENTS.

That means we're already looking at HQ choices.

A Company Command Squad is the "proper" HQ choice: it's a senior officer, and a bunch of veterans who can all take special weapons, one can be a medic, two can form a weapons team, one can take a vox caster... and you can add up to three special extras: Master of Ordinance can call down powerful artillery bombardments, Astropaths are level 1 Psykers (Telepathy only), and Officers of the Fleet let you either add one to your Reserves rolls or subtract one from enemy Reserves rolls. Can take a Chimera or a Taurox.

There are a couple of special Commanders: Iron Hand Straken is Strength 6 and has the Smash rule as well as being a Fearless Monster Hunter. He also grants his unit Furious Charge and Counter Attack. The only drawback is he has to issue and accept challenges when possible. Castellan CREEEEEEEED gets loads of Commands and is a TACTICAL GENIUS - as Warlord, you roll twice (either on different tables or both on the one table, rer-olling doubles). But he no longer automatically gets to make Baneblades outflank. You can also take his buddy Kell, who is a bullet magnet, always leaps in to accept challenges on behalf of Creed so Creed doesn't get splattered, and helps units pass Ld tests for Orders.

You can also take the loyal Ogryn, Nork, to join a unit. He butts in and accepts challenges to spare others, he is a bullet magnet, he can swap his S 5 AP - attacks for a single S 8 AP 3 Concussive attack, and if killed in close combat, he immediately unleashes his full load of attacks (and can swap them out for the above attack) before dying - even if he already attacked that round. Doing that lets him re-roll failed Hit and Wound rolls, too.

A Tank Commander brings their own sort of leadership.

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Basically it's a Lemon Ruski Squadron (minimum 2 tanks), but one of them is the commander, so shoots at BS 4 and pays a small points premium. They can be the Warlord, and can make a Ld 9 Leadership Test each turn to either ignore that they're Heavy (moving 1d6+6 inches), fire upon a different target from the rest of the squadron, or get the whole squadron to fire their weapons then immediately use smoke launchers.

There is a special one of these called Pask. His tank gets to re-roll failed armour penetration rolls, and the main gun either re-rolls misses/scatter (most guns), gets Rending (exterminator cannon/punisher gat), or for the triple plasma cannon, he can instead fire it as 3 feet S 7 AP 2 Heavy 1 Large Blast, Blind, Gets Hot!

THE COMMISSARIAT
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Lord Commissars used to be S 4 T 4 back in 2Ed. Sadly no longer. You can take a Lord Commissar for your HQ choices if you like. Leadership 10, doesn't issue Orders, can only be Warlord if you have no Senior Officers. Stubborn (so always tests against Ld 10), fights decently if you ignore the human stats, and has an Invulnerable Save, both grenades, Bolt Pistol and CCW. He actually spreads his Ld out to any friendly IG units within 6", and of course, if his unit fails a Fear/Pinning/Morale test (after any rerolls they might have), then you can choose to make an example. Roll 1d6, on a 3+ you remove a model of your choice (can't be the Lord Commissar himself. INSPIRING SUICIDE!), on a 1-2 your opponent chooses (still can't be INSPIRING SUICIDE). Then the unit passes the test.

They can take your fancy wargear options, including relics. They have their own special Bolt Pistol that is Commissar only. It fires Heavy Bolter rounds, is Master-Crafted. and on a 6 to hit, you choose the model you shot.

Commissar Yarrick is still an option, complete with returning from the dead, laser eye and Power Klaw he stole from an ork.

You can also get regular Commissars (single Wound weaker models, only Ld 9, don't have any of the special rules except for Summary Execution, and are automatically attached to units and have to stay attached to them) and Priests (Zealots with an Invulnerable Save, attach them to units and they stay attached, pass Ld tests to grant the unit re-rolls on stuff or to let the priest have the Smash rule, hitting at S 6 AP 1). These aren't actual HQ choices though.

You can also take, again not as your HQ choices but just in the HQ section, a bunch of Enginseers, optionally with servitors. Enginseers are Tech-Priests with Power Armour, Power Axes, Servo-Arms and grenades. He can either repair vehicles, or grant vehicles the Power of the Machine Spirit special rule, turning them into Space Marine tanks basically.

You can take a few Primaris Psykers, also not as HQ choices. Mastery 1 (can upgrade to 2), drawing powers from Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy and Telekinesis. If kept in the same squad as a Commissar of any kind, then should they suffer Perils of the Warp and survive it, they are killed anyway (by the Commissar).

TROOPS:
Where you learn that quantity has a quality of its own.

If you want to skimp on points for Troops, you can take squads of Veterans. But if you only take 2x Veteran squad and spend the rest on tanks, people give you a dirty look. I'm not saying don't do that, mind you.

Veterans actually shoot at BS 4, come in squads of 10 (but 2 can fuse into a weapon team), and they can be upgraded with either Melta Bombs (plus one model gets a demolition charge), Camouflage, or 4+ Armour Saves. One unit can be upgraded to have Sergeant Harker, who carries a Rending Heavy Bolter and is Relentless.

Generally you're expected to take Infantry Platoons though. One Troops choice means one Platoon Command Squad (5 guys), 2-5 Infantry Squads (10 guys each), 0-5 Heavy Weapon Squads (3 weapon teams each), 0-3 Special Weapon Squads (6 guys each), and 0-1 Conscript Squads (up to 50 men). Some of these can take Chimerae or Taurox vehicles.

The Transports have changed since 5Ed:
Chimera: this is your good old amphibious friend that looks like a modern tank. Yes they fixed the thing where you can fire any weapons out of the side lasguns, meaning heavy weapon teams fire autocannons out from the safety of a tank. But one heavy weapon team can fire out of the top hatch still, and it can be used to issue orders if it holds an officer.

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Then you have the slightly cheaper Taurox, which couldn't decide if it wanted treads or wheels.

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It has weaker front armour, only has 2 fire points per side, and it has a twin-linked autocannon. Wait, twin autocannon? SOLD! Oh also it re-rolls failed Dangerous Terrain tests (ie "basically has a dozer blade"), it isn't a Tank, it can't be used for issuing orders and it has more access points.

For Militarum Tempestus (described later), you have the TAUROX PRIME!

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More expensive than a Chimera, it's a Taurox, except BS 4 because it has Militarum Tempestus pilots. Also instead of the Autocannons, it has a Twin Hotshot Volley Gun (fires a whole load of S 4 AP 3 shots) and a "small" battle cannon (4 feet, S 7 AP 4 Heavy 1 Blast). The battle cannon can be replaced with a gat (not the Lemon Ruski one, only 10 shots) or a Missile Launcher that fires twice the rockets, and the volley gun can be swapped for a twin autocannon if you want more strength.

I'm going to take a break now. I like the weapon load-outs for these, but the models look really stupid.
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Post by Koumei »

Elite: MILITARUM TEMPESTUS!
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These are like Elite Infantry Platoons. One Elite choice gives you 1-3 Tempestus Scions (5-10 guys each) and 0-1 Tempestus Command Squad (5 guys). The command squad can issue orders, which I should have mentioned Infantry command can do, and they can all Deep Strike and Move Through Cover. They get better armour and hot-shot lasguns (AP 3 bitches!) If you line them up against Space Marines in equal numbers, they all hit at the same amount, and each hit does 1/3 of a Wound to the Marines (Wounds on 5+, no save) and each hit does 1/3 of a Wound to the Scions (Wounds on a 3+, 4+ save). So it's even steven, though Marines have better Leadership and do better in the assault after. But still, crazy times!

They can take special weapons but not heavy ones, and Tempestus are the only guys who can take Hot-Shot Volleys as special weapons.

They can take either a Chimera or a Taurox Prime for their car.

Ogryns are big strong tough things that barely fit into vehicles and basically wield multi-barrel shotguns. They have grenades and can slam into you before combat starts. You can take a Chimera or Taurox for them even if you have too many to stuff into it.

Bullgryns are like Ogryns, but more expensive and clad in more armour. Also they have shields that give great saves and let others use them as amazing cover, and gauntlets that fire frag grenades. They can spend heaps of points to swap those for power mauls (hitting at S 7!) and shields that give Invulnerable saves and better Hammer of Wrath.

You can also take Ratling snipers. They're cowards, but they have Stealth, Infiltrate, and Sniper Rifles. Also they can shoot and then Run.

The last Elite choice is Wyrdvane Psykers. Psyker squads that are collectively level 1, and can generate from Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy and Telekinesis.

Elite isn't very interesting for Guard. I mean, I like Militarum Tempestus, but still. I wonder if there's anything better in OH LOOK FAST ATTACK :D

SENTINELS!
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We all wish. No, Sentinels are these:
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Scout ones are slightly cheaper, but are Armour 10 all around as opposed to the Front 12 of Armoured ones. Scouts get Scout and Move Through Cover, Armoured don't. Either way they're armed with Multilasers, but can swap out for a bunch of weapons. Only Armoured ones can take Plasma Cannons though.

Rough riders are men on horsies, with explosive lances, and are not very interesting.

Hell Hounds are awesome. They're squads of 1-3 Fast Tanks, in any combination of Hellhound (has a strong Heavy Flamer with the Torrent rule so you can fire it further), Devil Dog (has a Blast Melta), or Bane Wolf (has a Poison 2+ AP 3 Template chemical spray). They're super-duper. Also they no longer explode extra hard/more than anything else.

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VALKYRIES! (You may all start humming Flight of the Valkyries)
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No, these:
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A classic Imperial Navy vehicle, but nobody takes it because of what comes next. Still, it's a transport flyer that has Hover and can dump people on the ground more recklessly than most. It has a multilaser and two shitty rockets that can be swapped for lovely rocket pods (Large Blasts that hit like boltguns). Oh and it can take a couple of Heavy Bolters too, if you really want.

Anyway, people don't take them because they take Vendettas instead.
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Or alternatively, picture a Valkyrie, but replace the rockets and multilaser with three sets of twin-linked lascannon. Now remember it's flying around, so it's a highly mobile set of three twin lascannons. That can take Heavy Bolters and carry people.

Note: the Imperial Armour Aircraft book has a lot of other options for Flyers, in Fast Attack, Heavy Support and Lord of War slots. There's the good old Lightning craft (lascannons and rockets and autocannon), the Vulture (can take 4 missile pods, or twin gatling guns, or a whole heap of anti-vehicle missiles), and all sorts of fun.

But it's not time for Imperial Armour, it's time for HEAVY SUPPORT!

Lemon Ruski tanks come first, obviously.
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They come in squadrons of 1-3, and you can play around with the weapon loadouts. There's the battle cannon, the anti-tank vanquisher, the close range demolisher, the No Cover Saves eradicator, the Triple Plasma executioner, the Lots of Autocannon exterminator, and the Gatling punisher. Then you can swap the front Heavy Bolter for a Heavy Flamer or Lascannon. And take side sponsons with Heavy Flamers, Heavy Bolters, Multi-Meltas or Plasma Cannons.

Yes, you can have a tank that unleashes five Plasma Cannon shots per turn. But vehicles are subject to Gets Hot! rolls, so... yeah.

Leman Russ Squadrons are delightful.

Everyone remember Hydras, the anti-aircraft autocannon tanks? Great, you can take squadrons of 1-3 and that's swell.

Remember Basilisks? The massive artillery cannons? Yep, can take 1-3 as a squadron. Super duper.

Wyverns are a new thing, to replace the "uses the Basilisk chassis but doesn't really have a kit" things like the Griffin. It fires four twin-linked Blasts per turn at relatively close range, with the Shred and Ignores Cover rules thanks to razor shards raining on them. You can take these in squadrons of 1-3.
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Manticores cannot be taken in squadrons, but they still have four very powerful single-use rockets.

Then there is... THE DEATHSTRIKE!
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Don't make a penis reference, don't make a penis reference...

I know I could have shown a picture of Lady Deathstrike. Anyway, no squadrons, it's just one tank with a one-use missile that has a random count-down before you can fire it. So hold it in Reserves, it can probably fire by the time it comes into play. This rocket uses the Apocalyptic Blast, so it's a full 10" diameter of doom. The description mentions that it is an ICBM, that improper use of one is a capital offence, and that they have until recently seen little use. It also mentions that some use Vortex missiles or virus payloads or plasma. They don't actually have rules for these, it's just an N2 bomb.

I'm going to give a special treat here and throw in the Militarum Tempestus supplement.

They get their own orders in this: "Shoot someone but Twin-Link it!", "Shoot someone but re-roll all 1s to hit and wound!", "Everyone become a Crusader!", "Everyone have the Fleet rule!", "Everyone, I order you to stand still and be Pinning Snipers!", and "Everyone, shoot in a Rending way!"

They also have their own Warlord Traits - Fearless, great with grenades, Aura of Stubborn, Awesome Deep Strike, Aura of extended range on Hot-Shot guns when immobile, and +1 Ld (hope it's not the Lord Commissar)

They can take a Lord Commissar and regular ones like normal
They have their own HQ Command Squad which is a lot like a normal Guard one but with better stats and Deep Strike and stuff. Can take a Taurox Prime.
You can take 5-10 Scions as a Troops choice and they can take a Taurox Prime.
Fast Attack choices are Valkyrie Squadron (not Vendettas) or Taurox Prime.

Special: AIRBORNE ASSAULT FORMATION
1 Commissar, 1 Tempestus Command, 3 Tempestus Scions squads, 4 Valkyries. The Commissar has to join one of the squads and everyone needs to board a Valkyrie at the start. When diving recklessly out of a moving valkyrie, they get to re-roll the scatter. Any turn where a unit disembarks, whether normally or leaping out like mad, they get Split Fire and Twin-Linked. Also you make one Reserves roll (with re-rolls) for the whole formation.

Special: GROUND ASSAULT FORMATION
1 Commissar, 1 Tempestus Command, 3 Tempestus Scions squads, 4 Tauroxes Prime. Attach the Commissar, everyone starts in a T-Prime. They all either start on the table, or in Reserves, no splitting them up between the two options. If in Reserves, you roll for the whole lot at once, with a re-roll. Any time a unit disembarks, they get Twin-Linked and Pinning.

And that is seriously all.

WHO IS LOOKING FORWARD TO NECRONS NEXT?
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

I am curious as to what happened with their codex and why it was such a big deal.
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Post by Ghremdal »

Well basically pre Necron codexes are not as good as the stuff that came out later, and they have to compete with:

Necrons with their ultra durable units.
Eldar with bunch of D strength and S6 shooting.
Marines with a bunch of stuff for 0 points.

I am guessing Koumei plays the two armies he reviews above and is sad they don't get the better stuff so he she drinks.
Last edited by Ghremdal on Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by vagrant »

Koumei is a girl.
Then, once you have absorbed the lesson, that your so-called "friends" are nothing but meat sacks flopping around in the fashion of an outgassing corpse, pile all of your dice and pencils and graph-paper in the corner and SET THEM ON FIRE. Weep meaningless tears.

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Post by Ghremdal »

Mea culpa.
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Post by Koumei »

I will get to it later, but basically, Necrons had a really good, solid Dex that was released right at the end of 5Ed but with 6Ed rules all in mind. It had a basically painless transition to 6Ed, and then had a bandaid patch applied to the 7Ed one just to remove ultra-powerful LoW options, grant Warlord Traits, NOPE the whole "Hahaha, my special ability triggers on a 6 to hit, so Snap Shots are awesome" and provide... THE DECURION.

The Decurion is my favourite thing about this edition, and it started with Crons, and was then applied to Eldar, Tau, Space Marines, Khorne and, thanks to Monty Carlos, the Imperial Guard.

I covered those two because, what with coming out before Decurions (and not being sort of mini-dexes like Harlequins that do their own thing), they are the biggest disappointment in that field. My younger sister used to play Deldar back in the day, as in 5th Edition. I played Adepta Sororitas back in 5th Edition, and currently just have a whole heap of them (slightly over 100 actual Sisters, plus however many tanks), along with a handful of Inquisition and Astra Militarum, three Space Marines (yes three), a Dreadnought, some Scourges, a load of Tyranid Gaunts and a couple of their MCs, and three Necron models (Overlord and the two Forgeworld centipedes). I just like assembling, painting and listbuilding.

But yes, my only disappointment in the old books being pretty pisspoor is that we should be able to expect better from GW.
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Post by Maxus »

angelfromanotherpin wrote:I am curious as to what happened with their codex and why it was such a big deal.
Also, early Necrons were seriously space zombies. They had no minds, and no motivations that anyone could see. As one acquaintance of mine said, "They sleep, they wake up, they kill everything alive, they go back to sleep. They're terrifyingly predictable."

This guy asked my advice for a Rogue Trader game, and flipped out when I suggested that the necron in the hold of the ship killing people have a workshop built, because that was so obviously against canon, etc etc etc

Well, then the new Necron fluff hit, and it turns out that the basic footsoldiers are mindless, but the higher-ranked ones retain more and more of their original personalities, until you hit the Necron Lords and Overlords and Cryptechs, who are mentally themselves in a self-repairing robot egyptian zombie body.

It gave Necrons multiple different Dynasties who are squabbling for power/control, have their own motivations/wants, and they're willing to cut deals and cooperate, lay plans, trade, etc etc etc.

Made them into people instead of a black black tide that kills all life on a world down to bacteria.

And some people loved it, and some people went apeshit.
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