What Floats Your Boat?

G'day all, it's been a while since I last did a pure opinion piece, but today I thought I would. I was chatting with a mate who works at Games Workshop and he was talking about how he liked a miniature that I dislike. The conversation got me thinking, isn't it funny what we like and how strong our opinions are when we don't like something?

There are some things almost universally disliked and yet somehow loved at the same time, such as "Billy the Intern", but who is Billy?

Leviathan Siege Dreadnought Analysis

The Leviathan Siege Dreadnought. It's new. It looks cool. But is it worthit? Macca here, and today we take a look at the Leviathan, the newest Dreadnought from Forge World. Now, I will preface this article with the fact that 'worthit' is a subjective term. Rule of Cool always trumps in-game performance, and I do think this thing looks awesome, but we are going to look at this walker from a gaming perspective.

An Introduction To 30k For 40k Players: Part 2

In Part 1, we looked at how the Force Organisation Chart and force selection in general worked. Today, we are going to look at how to actually play the missions, because it isn't quite the same as 40k, and I'm going to explain why. There are some subtle differences, but mostly the confusion lies in how units score/are able to score, and I want to shed some light on this.

Deployment Types:

First off, I want to go in to deployment types. In the Horus Heresy, the missions have 6 different deployment types. Sometimes these are specifically stated in the mission, other times they are randomly rolled for. These deployments, measurements and such are all aimed at the 2500-3000 point per side game, and as such they use the 6x4 table and corresponding measurements.

An Example Mission:

This mission is from Book V: Tempest (Word Bearers vs Ultramarines at Calth). The points of note are as follows:

-The armies selected are to use the Battles in the age of Darkness rules and FOC's. This means that you cannot bring over bizarre rules from 40k, except where stated expressly.
-The deployment type is random in this mission, selected as per the previous six options listed above.
-The terrain is placed/
-The warlord traits and psychic abilities are rolled, then the players roll off to see who will deploy first (and take first turn).

However...

You want to understand the mission prior to deployment. This mission has several special rules, namely Night Fighting and Reserves (as per 40k) but also Heavy Armour (a Heresy special rule for this mission, which makes all vehicles with the Tank type, as well as Super-Heavy Vehicles and Walkers SCORING UNITS). Now the fact that the available scoring units most likely increased for both players will change how they play the mission.

As per 40k, there are Secondary Objectives, however, these are specifically listed in the mission, in this case, Slay the Warlord and Last Man Standing. This means there is no Linebreaker, no First Blood etc. in this mission.

From here, the mission is set up and played out as per the objectives for the mission. From this point on, it will play out identically to 40k.

Notes On 40K Missions In 30k:

In 30k, only Troops and units specifically listed as scoring, are actually scoring. The Obj. secured rule only applies to these units, not to their transports, or any other units. This limits the amount of scoring, and can make some missions incredibly more difficult than for a similar 40k army. For example, a Maelstrom of War mission will severely handicap the average Heresy force, with most only averaging 3-4 scoring units below 2000 points.

As for the missions themselves, I personally prefer to ignore them in favour of the 30k missions, as they are more interesting and are designed to link together in order to form a larger narrative (for example, you can literally play from the start of the Istvaan V massacre all the way through to a skirmish level game involving the surviving loyalists tackling the traitors and all the way into the Last Stand of the Raven Guard before their rescue, needing around 18 missions to play out in full!).

Conclusion:

Although not a lengthy article, I felt it was important to demonstrate to the community how 30k deviates from 40k, and where the two systems can potentially clash. This isn't designed to demonise 40k, just to let people know the perils of cross-system gameplay. At the end of the day, play what you like, in fact, I would house-rule it so that 40k units had to score the same as a 30k army, in order to balance it out a little, but that's just me...

~Macca

An Introduction To 30k For 40k Players

G'day guys, Macca here and today we are taking a look at the key differences between 30k and 40k from a basic list construction and regulation stand point. The Horus Heresy seems to scare people away, as well as making T.O's everywhere question the right of HH to be played in their tournaments or in their Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS). I want to sway you over today and assure you that the Horus Heresy is indeed a well balanced game and is easy to grasp, despite the subtle differences to the parent game.

Maintaining Your Drive

Sometimes, the hardest thing of all when it comes to the hobby is maintaining your drive. G'day everyone, Macca here, and today I want to talk about one thing: Motivation. I will probably talk about other things, but that's ok, it's all loosely related.

I find sometimes that I really lack the drive to complete a project. This can be due to any number of reasons, I may be tired, or had a rough week, lots is going on in my life or with my family even. It can be hard to get out of a hobby slump, but I thought I'd share a few of the things that motivate me.

Alpha Legion Rite of War: The Coils of the Hydra

G'day guys, Macca here and today I am bringing you a look at the most complex and difficult to use Legion and Rite of War so far: The Alpha Legion and the Coils of the Hydra. The Alpha Legion is one of the few forces that aren't just a 'pick up and play' army. They require a deft touch and a sly general to get the most out of them... just like the real deal.

The Alpha Legion lacks a lot of the style that other Legions do. There are no specialist melee units, no Palantine Blades, no Gal Vorback and no Suzerin. The units they have are in fact an unorthodox combination of Recon Squads meet Veteran Tacticals on one hand, and Terminators meet Tactical Support Squads. Their units are nothing special, and in a one vs one fight they won't hold out for long, but...

Iron Warriors Rite of War: Hammer of Olympia

Macca here, and today I want to talk about the Iron Warriors and their Rite of War, The Hammer of Olympia. I will preface this by saying that this is one of the BEST Rites of War, as the negatives are almost all positives.

So, where do I begin?

Legion Special Rules

• The Bitter End: Your opponent (not you) may force full 6 game turns rather than rolling for random length. Just like the Imperial Fists.
• Wrack and Ruin: Iron Warriors do not suffer morale tests from shooting attacks and may re-roll failed Pinning tests. All grenades and melta bombs gain Wrecker.

These rules are HUGE. The ability to ignore morale from shooting casualties and re-roll pinning makes the Iron Warriors formidable at holding objectives. Nothing short of their annihilation will move them off an objective. At Inferno III, one tactical squad suffered the sustained firepower of half a mechanicum force and endured for 3 turns on top of an objective in cover, scoring me precious Victory Points.

Legion Unique HQ

Warsmith: A free Praetor upgrade that forces him to be the Warlord if Perturabo isn't around and gives an extra VP if slain. In exchange, it gains Stubborn and gives up a Warlord trait for Shatter Defenses (lower a chosen terrain piece's cover save by 1). Can't use a Jump pack, Bike or Jetbike, but can be upgraded with Battlesmith + Servo-arm combo for 35 points.

Rite of War: The Hammer of Olympia - Masters of siege warfare and attrition tactics, the Iron Warriors favour the use of murderous firepower as their principal agency of war, and are renowned for their use of heavy armour and fortifications, spurning vainglorious ideals of personal combat and valour for the brutal determiation to achieve victory by any means necessary. this culminated in tactical formations such as that which became known as the Hammer of Olympia; designed to carry out an unyielding close range attack and shatter the strongest enemy defence line under a weight of armoured warriors and hurricane of fire.

• Hail Of Fire: After firing a Rapid Fire weapon, a unit with the Legiones Astartes (Iron Warriors) rule may declare an assault as long as they haven't used Fury of the Legion, counting as a Disorganized Charge. I love this tactic, you can shoot a unit, hitting them on 3's and wounding (generally) on 4+ whilst if you charged, you would only get 4's to hit. Also, 2 bolter shots is better than 1 bonus charging attack, and if you can wear your enemy down before charging them, you'll do better in the long run (especially against Raptors or Reavers who gain bonuses for outnumbering in assault). Bonus points if you rapid fire plasma guns from a tactical support squad and then charge...
• Sheathed in Steel: All Tanks and Walkers gain Extra Armor for free. Not only does this save points, but since some walkers can't take extra armour, it's even better. The best thing here is that you're getting an upgrade which is normally seen as "a good choice but maybe a waste of points", but since it's free it's excellent.
• Siege Engineers: Can take an additional Heavy Support choice, which is freaking fantastic. Seriously, 4 heavy support options? In a big game, that's a Basilisk/Medusa Squadron, a Deredeo and a pair of Sicarians, just waiting to fire ALL THE DAKKA.
  
  Restrictions:
  
• A Warsmith or Siege Breaker must be used as compulsory HQ choice - A Warsmith is awesome if the enemy is taking fortifications, and the option of a cortex controller opens up Castellax, Thallax, Vorax etc. as an optional Heavy Support option. Yes, you want to have a unit of darkfire cannon armed Castellax manning your Aegis line. Also, a Warsmith shattering enemy defences is always desireable.
  The Siege Breaker is a great option as he allows your Medusa Squadron to take phosphex shells, and he grants Wrecker and Tank Hunter to the ranged attacks of any unit he joins. I suggest attaching him to Siege Tyrants.
• Must take more Heavy Support units than Fast Attack units. As they say on 1D4Chan: "If you think this is a penalty then you shouldn't be playing Iron Warriors. Also, doesn't matter since you get 4 heavy slots. If you wanted lots of flyers remember Caestii, Fire Raptors and Kharybdii are HS too. If you took a normal Praetor, mount him in a jetbike along his Command squad (who use 0 slots), take Shrapnel Bolts and go make up for the lost Fast Attack choice."
• Must take an additional compulsory Troops choice. If you have Erasmus Golg in your force, this could be a Terminator squad, freeing up precious elite slots for more Siege Tyrants, Rapiers and Contemptors.
• Cannot take an allied SPACE MARINE LEGION detachment. Meh. You don't need them, worst case, take some Mechanicum allies, and laugh because you have cortex controllers, a Praevian and your army is now more machine than man, twisted and evil.

 

Macca's evil ideas:

So, you know you want to take an army big on firepower. Naturally, since you lack in melee, (except against buildings, seriously, melta bombs with wrecker is PLUS THREE to damage against fortifications!) you want to exploit your superior firepower to Tau like levels. I suggest using a unit of Siege Tyrants with a Siege Breaker attached, for maximum effectiveness, and two units of rapiers; one with graviton cannons and one with heavy bolters running shrapnel bolts. the idea here is simple, Grav Rapiers will screw any vehicle, and the leftover difficult/dangerous patch will bog down heavy infantry (especially Cataphractii type units who cannot run), the Tyrants will mince anything weaker than a Knight Titan, and the Heavy Bolters will fire 24 twin-linked S5 AP5 shots per turn with PINNING. You're a fool if you don't use that in an era with little pinning defence. (not good against Mechanicum or Death Guard, but, meh, chose your battles my young grasshopper, that's why you have Tyrants and 4 heavy choices...)

Which brings me to my next point... Heavy Support. I have suggestions, and they are:

-Predator Squadron with plasma exterminators, for killing heavy infantry,
-Sicarian Battle Tanks, for modest anti-air and excellent anti-skimmer and light armour destruction,
-Sicarian Venators, for when you really REALLY want to kill enemy armour (do note, don't use lascannon sponsons, since the main gun is ordnance, you're better off taking heavy bolters, which instead of two snap-fire lascannons will give you 3 separate heavy bolters if enemy infantry are too close. Bonus points for selecting Shrapnel Bolts for pinning),
-Deredeo, because there is NOTHING better for Anti-Air. (In a pinch, take one with an Atomantic Pavise and stick him with your Siege Tyrants giving them a 2+3++ invul save. Sure, you lose the missiles, which do wreck Rhinos and Fliers, but 2+3++ Tyrants is just pure evil);
-Legion Basilisk/Medusa Squadron. You only get one, so choose wisely.

I hear the voices in my head, "kill them all.."
Uh, no, not those voices, these ones: "Why no spartans for rushing Golg and Terminators up the table?"

Well, because our terminators aren't as strong as enemy terminators in many cases, and due to all the points you have spent on Heavy slots already, you won't be sending much up the battlefield. Instead, I suggest focusing on using your excellent firepower to get the job done. As for actually sending units up the table, Tactical Squads in Rhinos (with their free extra armour) are a great choice, and if the Primarch Perturabo is in the army, you can deep strike terminators anyway, and if your game is big enough, you can take the Tormentor, and you can add all that firepower plus the transport ability to the force.

Fortifications:

If you are taking Kyr Vhalen, you will WANT to take fortifications (he is also a Warsmith, so automatically fulfills two criteria for the Rite of War, as a Master of the Legion and a Warsmith). Kyr will give +1 ballistic skill to a unit of your choice and/or give you +1 to your cover save for one fortification. I suggest a Bastion, Bunker, Aegis Defence Line, or if you're a true bastard, a Plasma Obliterator or Void Shield array.

Really, fortifications are quite optional, but an Aegis line with +1 cover save in front of all your armour is going to make people weep, especially when they realise that they need to kill whole units off for them to no longer threaten objectives. Gotta love that 'no morale against shooting'.

In summary, this is how to use the Rite of War: BUCKETS OF BULLETS!!!

If you want more information on the Iron Warriors in general, check out the episode I guest appeared on of the Eye of Horus Podcast here.

~Macca

Macca on Tactica: Characters and Challenges 101

Hello, and welcome to the first true Macca on Tactica in a little while. Today I wanted to take the time to look at the assault phase in 30k, specifically where our Legion Praetors and the like, as well as where a few special characters fit in. This is a cut-down and basic look at the HQ's a rock-paper-scissors look at what each is best used for.

Auxillia/Militia, Archmagos, Praetors & Centurions

There are a LOT of HQ options in the Horus Heresy, but a few really stick out. Lets look at them now.

For the Solar Auxillia, your HQ's are really more of an arm-wide buffing unit. You cannot expect to go toe-to-toe with an Astartes, unless you are willing to pay through the teeth for the wargear. Whilst it is possible to equip a Paragon Blade, Artificer Armour and a 3++ invul save, it's still not in your best interests to fight this fight, especially against the more martial of Legions.

With the Imperial Militia, your commander fights like a sponge, but unlike a sponge, he won't absorb much. It's probably best to stay away from combat with this guy and to instead drown your enemies in the corpses of your own men. Yes, this even applies to a cultist HQ with a tainted weapon, yes, you'll kill on a 6 to wound, but you'll probably be turned to a smear or pink mist long before this happens.

Ah, the Mechanicum Archmagos. Now here is a fish out of water. The Archmagos is a force multiplier like the previous HQ's, however, he is also quite a tough combatant, with good armour, higher than average toughness, and access to excellent wargear. Whilst unlikely to be instantly killed in a combat, save to a deadly strike of some kind, I wouldn't feel confident pitting this guy against anything more solid than a Legion Centurion, even with Liquifiers or other crazy weapons.

Legion Praetors. These guys are badass. Paragon Blade, Digital Lasers, maybe even a relic from their Legion, the Praetor fears nothing less than a Special Character or a Lord of War, AND even then, a well equipped Praetor can give a special character a run for their money. If you are using these guys, feel confident when throwing them into most enemies, as you are more than likely to win.

Legion Centurions. Ok, a stock Centurion is no good for challenges, so if that's the route you want to take, go for the Champion Consul option, Forge Lord with Servo Arm, Cataphractii plate, Rad Grenades and a Cyber Familiar (for sheer badassery) or, a Librarian Consul (force axe being a must-take). Pretty much any other kind of Centurion is simply too brittle to be trusted in challenges against most enemies. As a rule of thumb, use your Consuls to buff your troops or even a better HQ, a well placed Primus Medicae can buff a Praetor into the stratosphere with Feel No Pain.

Special Characters.

If you see any of these guys set up opposite you, and you have nothing better than a Centurion, AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. Seriously, they will light a fire under your ass so fast, it's not funny. These characters are strong, but many only get stronger in challenges. Especially Sigismund. Seriously, even if you have a Primarch, avoid Sigismund, he will actually cause a lot of damage to the weaker Primarchs, with Kurze, Corax, Lorgar (minus powers), Dorn and Alpharius all likely to win but only walk away with a wound or two left.

Kharn is a human hand grenade, if he is thrown into a unit which outnumbers him, he can get up to 9 attacks. On his own. He is a one-man army, and he will wreck most units he touches. Bonus points if you can tell me what the fuck happened to his Artificer armour and Iron Halo in 40k.

Sevetar, on the other hand, is a surprisingly weak fighter, who ONLY excels once he is in a challenge and fighting dirty. In a regular assault, his chainglaive is not as strong as many weapons, and any clown with a power fist will end him. Keep the Master of the Atramentar away from Terminators at all costs.

Eidolon is a funny character. He is quite strong on the assault with his Thunder Hammer, however, if he isn't on the assault, you won't be striking with his superior initiative, and just like with Sevetar, any clown with a Power Fist will end him. Bonus Points here if you can tell me how Skrillex's cloak isn't burned by his jump pack.

Abaddon. Powerful, but overall, not much stronger than a Centurion. Best used as a buffing unit. I thought it would be interesting to note that the most powerful character in 40k is really a mid-level special character in 30k.

Primarchs.

I will say it once, and once alone. Primarchs will kill anything less than a Primarch. They won't however kill Primarchs, at least not without half a dozen player turns elapsing. If you play a game of 30k, and you and your adversary send your Primarchs into each other at a hundred miles an hour, you've effectively removed both Primarchs from contributing to the game.

Primarchs are best used for two roles: to either buff their army into the stratosphere (Dorn, Alpharius, Guilliman), or to kill enemy heroes and Death Star units, especially if said Primarch is named Angron.

Conclusion.

In the end, everyone will use their characters however they feel, but it is good to know that you have limitations. None of the characters listed should be thrown into Terminators of any kind, nor should they be thrown into specialist units like Templars, Invictus etc. because you'll likely lose 150-200 points of character for probably 70-100 points of slain enemies (which is bad on any planet).

Try to keep your characters set on the path they were designed for, buff your army if that's your job, hunt weaker heroes if that's your job. But don't try and take on Sigismund. EVER.

~Macca

Is Games Workshop out of touch? Um, I guess this is part 3?

So I stumbled across an article on BOLS last week, find it here. Jervis has a bit of a gentleman's rant, which I'm all for, however I find his view incredibly one-sided for someone who wields so much power over the system. Anyway, long story short, I think the contents and discussion within merits a deeper thought than what was presented.

The key points I want to address (lifted from the article) are as follows:

"Here is a summation of the points he makes against tournament players in case you didn’t read it all:
— Tournament gamers only “play to win” and are WAAC
— Tournament gaming and tournaments “destroy what the hobby is really all about”
— Tournament gaming is directly opposed to painting (LOL)
— Tournament style gaming is unimaginative
Here’s how Jervis thinks the game should be played:
— Scenario based games and campaigns are the pinnacle of the hobby
— Scenario and campaign games have no need for point values or pre-set win conditions
— Points and even match-ups are the cause and death of “casual play” and scenario and campaign based gaming for the wider community"

Jervis... why?

(I will add a note here, the piece written by Jervis is a decade old. It's not a current document, however it's the best peek into the mind of their key developer. His attitude may have changed over time, but given the direction the game has taken, and how little communication we actually get out of GW, this is the best representation of their attitude I can find.)
— Tournament gamers only “play to win” and are WAAC

No, not in Australia. No, that's not true, it's less WAAC here but I would say it really just applies to certain people as opposed to the whole scene. There are a lot of players who are running narrative lists and who win Tournaments. They don't have to be mutually exclusive. Spraggy, Keepy even myself, have all won tournaments with lists that were as fluffy as they were tough.


— Tournament gaming and tournaments “destroy what the hobby is really all about”

Um.... no? I love nothing more at a tournament than spending as much time as possible discussing models, rules, fluff etc with other hobbyists, all whilst looking at well painted armies. I know in 30K especially that we area community that thrives on 'rule of cool'. You see forces all the time with converted units EVERYWHERE. People like to go above and beyond, I find.


— Tournament gaming is directly opposed to painting (LOL)

As above, I find that most armies are excellently built and painted. There are holdouts, but, honestly, the majority take a lot of pride in their armies. Even players who aren't great painters at least jump in and give it a go. Good on them too, it's the only way to improve!


— Tournament style gaming is unimaginative

Try playing a Horus Heresy mission sometime, when you start in a city full of objectives and the buildings start collapsing onto your units as they try and capture them. True story. Book I will tell you all you need to know on that...

— Scenario based games and campaigns are the pinnacle of the hobbySounds like forcing his style onto others. I agree with it, mostly, I myself like to play narrative games, but the narrative should stem from interesting and well developed missions available in the game, or even missions that the players themselves come up with. That said, it is not the pinnacle, some people honestly do enjoy a simple 'kill them all' approach. We call them World Eaters players.


— Scenario and campaign games have no need for point values or pre-set win conditions

What did I just read? Ok, so, you're playing a campaign and, I dunno, Horus decides to start a Heresy of some kind and he is fighting across the stars. He is a valuable asset should you chose to field him in your campaign, but the counter is, if you use him, and he dies, you lose, so you have to be selective.

According to Jervis, that's just silly. Apparently I'm not forging a narrative with that...

Not only that, lets just go full on GW, Lord of War limits? Nah, lets rock up with half a dozen super heavies, that's a waaaaaay better approach to forging the narrative.


— Points and even match-ups are the cause and death of “casual play” and scenario and campaign based gaming for the wider community"

Why can't even match ups occur? I hate a lack of balance, because when I play, I want to test my generalship against the other player. If he or I rocks up with a list that is far superior, it kinda takes the fun out of it for me. You're either clubbing a baby seal, or you yourself is getting clubbed. It can be fun, but usually it only works with some kind of balancing mechanic. Problem is, you need a rough starting point to make the lists from, and you cannot do that (with any level of ease) without points. Without some guiding force, you end up with silly combinations, it's that simple.

Why does this worry me, and why should YOU be worried?

Well, in simple terms, Jervis heads up the department writing rules and codexes. This guy can turn around at the near-drop of a hat and re-engineer 40k into Age of Sigmar. If this happens, 30k as we know it will cease to exist. What we need is honestly an injection of sanity or player feedback into GW headquarters. I'd put my hand up, but I have good ideas (mostly), and I know I'd never make it through the doors at Nottingham. (Ok, I'd probably stumble into a bar somewhere near the airport and that would be my trip over) Jervis' record of writing codexes is also something I would like to point out, as the man single handedly destroyed the 3.5 Chaos Dex, not just toning it down, but removing all the flavour from it and turning Chaos Space Marines ever since into Codex: Red Corsairs. For a person who believes in narrative play and fluff, he took a big dump on one of the most beloved dexes of all time in both the crunch and fluff.

Jervis, please, if you're reading this (ok, I know you're not, I pay out on GW waaaaay to much to have many, if any, readers who work there) just keep the game as it is, try to tone a few things down, change a few existing rules and let the players play the game how they deem fit.

Yes, we can always take a person out of context. We can overhype and exaggerate a certain comment to the extremes. We can misinterpret the intent and dwell on the wrong words. Yet somehow, I really believe this is the mindset at GW, because nothing they have done in the last 15 years suggests otherwise to me. What do you think?

~Macca

Getting To Know Your Graviton

Macca here, and today we are talking tactics. I recently took a battery of 3 graviton rapiers to the 2500 point Inferno III tournament. I was rolling a solid 6/10 list, as follows:

HQ
Siegebreaker
Praevian Narik Dreygur with 5 Vorax

Elite
10 Siege Tyrants
2 Contemptors with chainfist and graviton guns
3 Graviton Rapier Batteries

Troop
2x 10 man tactical squads

Heavy
Deredeo
5 Iron Havocs with Autocannons and an Augery Scanner

The list is on foot. It's slow. It has no real close combat muscle. It has no meltaguns, no plasmaguns, not a single fast attack unit. Yet for game after game the list held its own. Why?

Gravitons. (ok, and siege tyrants, but the tyrants rarely got their points back, the rapiers however killed 2 Sicarians, a Cerberus with Castraman Orth and a Spartan in one game alone.)

The trick with Graviton Rapiers is to place them in a position where they can dominate the enemy in the first 2-3 turns. The units you want to take out are their armoured assets, and damn are these good at that. I also had Gravitons on the dreadnoughts, but they are more situational, so I will be focussing on the rapiers.

The Graviton Rapier mounts a Graviton Cannon, a 36" ranged, S- AP4 Large Blast. It is haywire, always wounds a target if they fail their toughness test. Sound a bit boring? Well, it leaves an area of difficult AND dangerous terrain in play in the turn after it has fired, and this is the gold dust.

When fired at a group of tanks, it tends to scatter. Poor Nate had a carpark with 2 Sicarians and a Predator in our game in a single confined area, and the rapiers, with scatter, managed to kill both Sicarians and to punish the Predator. This is the average performance of these fearsome weapons. The best part is, if a vehicle does survive, it has to make a dangerous terrain move next turn, potentially damaging it, and this is fantastic for killing transports.

I can hear you all now, "what about flare shielded Spartans rolling a squad of Red Butchers and Angron?"

What about them? Flare shields don't affect haywire, the Spartan still has to go through the terrain patch left after firing and generally they never survive more than 2 salvos from the Gravitons, if they are lucky. What do you do however once the squad disembarks? You have no armour left to kill, and AP4 toughness test graviton won't kill terminators?

Why, little Billy, you shoot them anyway. Make their slow Cataphractii 'cannot run' asses wade through difficult terrain for 3 turns to get to you. Angron leaves the unit and runs at you solo? Even better, you can focus on just him now.

That's how you use graviton. You use it strategically.

Got trouble with the Mechanicum? Well, if they are rolling constructs, the haywire attacks cause a subsequent wound on any cortex units on a roll of a 6. It's not much, but it's a potential extra wound. You fighting Imperial Militia? Who cares, Large blast, AP 4, going to wound on 4's and leave them in dangerous terrain, what's not to love?

Against Superheavies like knights, these guns also rock. The poor player I faced in round 1 copped 3 of these and had to divert his shield to that arc. As soon as he did that, he had now opened up the other 3 arcs on the knight to my remaining firepower (which was quite considerable). When Nate took a run at these guys with his Castraman Orth pimped Cerberus Super Heavy, he found that even the Neutron laser and Lascannons combined were having trouble killing these Toughness 7 platforms in cover. Two turns was all it took for these guns to turn the pride of his army into a massive explosion. 

In summary: WHY AREN'T YOU USING GRAVITON RAPIERS? YOU ARE HERE TO TALK HOBBY AND WIN GAMES, AND RIGHT NOW YOU ARE DONE TALKING HOBBY!

Seriously, if you're Iron Hands, you're immune to bolter fire. If you're Alpha Legion... who the hell knows what you can do, something shadey that's for sure. If you're rocking these things, you can do a LOT of damage. Even if you don't take them with Grav, take them with Heavy Bolters for insane Imperial Fists accuracy, or Iron Warriors with a crapton of pinning. (Seriously tho, take grav)

~Macca

Knowing Your Rites of War.

I wrote a couple of articles a while back, on the actual units you may consider taking in a Horus Heresy list. The first two-parts can be found here:

Part 1.

Part 2.

Ok, so onto the crux of it, Rites of War. As most HH gamers should know, you should never let the Force Org Chart get in the way of a good, fun list. Rites of War are there to spice it up a little, they allow you to change how your army implements the FoC, as well as giving (and taking) rules from you. There are 4 main Rites of War listed in the HH book. These are unlocked by taking a Master of the Legion, typically a Praetor, Primarch (obviously) or some special characters.

Basic Rites of War:

Orbital Assault: This RoW basically lets you take drop pods and dreadclaws as dedicated transports instead of rhinos. The down side is, any unit that can't deep strike, or ride in a vehicle that can, can't be taken. Also, no fortification for you.

Armoured Spearhead: Rhinos become Land Raiders (for the right points..), if you tank-shock an enemy, their Ld is at -1. All infantry must be embarked on a vehicle at the start of the game. If you buy 12 marines and only brought them a rhino, I have bad news for you. If all tanks in your force are destroyed, your opponent gets a free VP. Oh, and no fortifications. Again.

Angels Wrath: All jump pack models gain hit and run. Rhinos now become Storm Eagles. Only jump units, fliers, skimmers and vehicles embarked on fliers may be taken. Oh, and a trivial side matter... no tanks at all, and no fortifications. Again.

Pride of the Legion: Veteran Marines and Terminators are troops choices, not only that, they MUST be selected to fill your compulsory troops slots. Command squads can take Land Raiders as dedicated Transports. Of course, the ever wonderful down side is if you lose all your veterans and terminators, your opponent gets an extra VP. You also can't take allies. Period.

As said in the past, RoW give you buffs, but they also take away options that can be quite hard. That's the penalty for fluff, and it's a fair one too.

Legion Specific Rites of War:

Here is where it gets interesting. I am not going to go into any great detail here, as they are varied, some haven't come out yet (we do only have 13 legions of 18 at the moment after all). The main thing to keep in mind when it comes to Rites of War for your specific Legion is that it's forcing you to play in a specific way.

The first example I will use in detail is my very own and beloved Raven Guard.

The long short of the Raven Guard Rite of War "Decapitation Strike" is that:

-all the models with the Legiones Astartes (Raven Guard) special rule get preferred enemies 'independent characters'.
-If this force is my Primary detachment, I may reroll for deployment and to see who goes first.
-Drop pods become dedicated transports for all the main foot-slogging units, i.e Tac Squads, Terminators etc. Deathstorm Drop Pods may also be taken as Elites, not just heavy. This probably has something to do with the limitations..

-You may only take a single Heavy Support choice.
-You may only take a single Consul as part of your HQ choice.
No Fortifications or allied Space Marines allowed. (but Mechanicum, Knights, Imperial Army etc. are A-OK)

So, what does this mean game play wise?

As you are limited in the HQ department, thanks to your single consul, and since you need a Master of the Legion to even run the Rite of War, my choice goes to Alvarex Maun. With the ability to have no-scatter deep strike and re-rolls for reserves in a force specialising in Drop Pod assaults, he comes in very handy.

Force wise, you are aiming to go for a lot of drop-pods, fliers etc. These can negate the loss of your heavy support elements by bolstering your firepower with their aerial prowess (Storm Eagles with melta/las are awesome for anti-armour whilst you machine spirit fire your missiles into infantry blobs). The key with Decap. Strike is to use it to take on characters and gain the bonuses of killing the enemy HQ. Against Mechanicum and Solar Auxillia armies, the loss of their general can be devastating, and I highly advise using a squad or two of dedicated character killers to 'off' them. A suggestion in this area might be to use Mor Dethyan snipers, and declare the marked target, for a turn of 2's to hit, 5's to REND preferred enemy sniping....

Characters and Rites.

Certain characters can have a massive influence on your Rites of War. Some restrict them, others can practically make the Rites of War redundant or allow you to essentially take two. Erasmus Golg of the Iron Warriors, for example, opens up Terminators as troops, making Pride of the Legion slightly pointless. Perturabo gives all of your Terminators deep strike without needing to take Orbital Assault as a Rite of War. It's good to know where these rules can stack, and combine. Michael from over at the Eye of Horus podcast uses the Stone Gauntlet Rite of War, which allows him to field toughness 5 breachers. Suddenly they are worthit, as opposed to being a 100 point more expensive and less effective tactical squad. By combining un-named characters into these units, he ends up with a list stronger than the sum of its parts. Keep this in the back of your mind.

Alternate Force Organisation Charts and Rites

So, you like the idea of running a Pride of the Legion force combined with an Alternate Force Org. Chart? Guess what? You cannot. Pride of the Legion only applies to lists built using the standard Force Org. Chart. I'm not going to tell you where it is written, but my challenge to you is to find it out for yourself, that way when somebody rocks up with a POTL list with 4 heavy choices you can shoot em' down.

Final Thoughts

Having a Rite of War is a great thing, it allows you a lot of options and gives you the ability to run really fluffy (and even competitive fluffy) lists, without having to proxy or make awful allied detachments. I recommend you play around with them and see what you can come up with, because there are some fantastic options.

All the photos in this post are from Inferno III, the full album is located on our Facebook page here.

~Macca

Games Workshop is out of touch? No way!

A week or so back, I gave you all my opinion on where the Games Workshop plastic Horus Heresy kits were headed. (find that article here). Well, I recently took the time to read through their end of financial year fiscal report. Needless to say, I found a few lines hilarious, and I thought I'd share a few of them here. You can read through the PDF yourself here.

WARNING: EXTREME LANGUAGE

Yes, I'm cynical. Yes, a little butthurt, but as always I will use my business mind to interpret their report and turn it from shareholder wank into actual English. This opinion is, as always, wholly my own, I'm making no accusations, threats or defaming them, I'm just saying how I personally read it, and if it happens to defame or accuse the writers, well, they should have made more of an effort not to confuse me...

So, on with the show!

On why they are losing money:

"One bit of the GMP remains stubbornly unrealised– sales growth. We knew that the huge infrastructure changes we have been making these last few years (and are still making, we have just signed off on a new ERP system) would be disruptive, so we are not surprised that many trade accounts across Europe no longer trade with us. Nor are we surprised at the amount of work we have to do to get great managers in all our stores following the move to one-man operation. Our efforts, unfortunately, have coincided with truly dreadful trading conditions and, for the first time in our history, a year when the pound was strong against the euro and the dollar simultaneously. Our natural hedge hasn’t been one this year. You can see the effects of our lack of sales growth in our gross margin, cost-savings in the maintenance of our net margin, and currency everywhere."

Read this as: "We lost money, we think it's because of the economy, and because we keep making our stores smaller."

What I see: We don't realise that we have competition such as Privateer Press, Fantasy Flight games, Mantic etc. Not only this, but we don't seem to understand that small stores located down dark side streets in the cities of the world don't draw in new blood to the hobby, in fact, the only people hanging around some of our stores are wearing suspicious trench coats.

On their market:

"Our customers tend to be teenage boys and male adults with some spare money to spend and time to enjoy hobbies. I'd like to think our Hobby- modelling, painting, collecting, gaming -is for any one. Our customers are found everywhere. Our job is to, on a day to day basis, find them, commercially, wherever they are."

Read this as: "We think teenagers are the crux of our hobby. We also think that these people are everywhere despite our incredibly high buy-in cost."

What I see: GW honestly thinks that teenagers are their heart and soul. Yes, whilst some hobby centers would see a lot of teen activity, this is more likely due to adults mostly hanging around their FLGS and trying to stay away from the GW stores as they feel uncomfortable there. This isn't a dig at the staff I will add, but to be the only other adult in a store full of teenagers with nothing but hobby in common isn't an inviting atmosphere. Also, I want to know how many fucking teenagers are buying Titans, I'm willing to bet not a single Warlord was picked up by a teenager at the last Open Day. If you're a teenage nerd, you can get 2 brand new Xbox or PS games for the cost of a starter set, and that's before glue, tools, paints etc. They're going to get 5-10 years out of their console, so what looks like value to them?

On price structuring:

"Secondly  I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding product and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a broader range of price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not promising when you will see a change. We have already started the brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early days,but I can already foresee some busy times ahead."

Read this as: "We aren't sure what is selling or why. We want to see if we can change our prices and make more profit."

What I see: We are changing prices. Well, paint me blue and call me a smurf, but if they won't go down, well, what other direction do they go? Also, reviewing the product range means 'don't need those armies because they don't sell'. This I believe is because GW thinks miniatures only sell based on their aesthetics (I can prove that point next) so when they see Bretonians don't sell it cannot be because they haven't had any rules in a decade.

On quality control:

"Product quality

This is an indicator of the effectiveness of our design studio and our continuous improvement in design to manufacture. We measure this by looking at sell through. If the product is great we sell a lot, if not we sell very few."

Read this as: "We think people only buy good quality kits. Thus, if they sell, they must be good quality."

What I see: People buy kits for their looks. These would probably be in the minority, but lets just call them half anyway. Did it occur to nobody working at head office that maybe, just MAYBE, if a kit has really good rules, it will sell, but if it sucks, it can look good but hardly sell? Let's see, how many Wave Serpents do I think sold in 6th ed compared to in the past? How many Vypers sold in 6th ed? Personally, I think the Vyper is a sexy miniature, but its rules have been a bit so-so since the craftworld dex of 3rd ed. I'm pretty sure they weren't a big seller. To me, quality control is how many unsatisfied customers you have. This goes hand in hand with feedback, GW is not a fan of hearing from the people, the standard response to an email is more or less 'fuck off' unless you're a share holder. For those who brave the process however, if you're not happy with something, they will replace it (re: all of finecast).

On why Australia gets charged so much more for the hobby:

"He also manages our three main distribution hubs in Nottingham (UK), Memphis (USA) and Sydney (Australia). A personnel manager and our Academy personal development and skills training ensure we take our people  recruitment and development seriously."

Read this as: "There are 3 warehouses that hold almost all of our stock in the world, we MUST ship to them before other countries."

What I see: We (GW) have no excuse for ripping off Australia, we just charge what we feel like, based on a favourable exchange rate we picked when their economy sucked. Shipping has nothing I repeat NOTHING to do with it, otherwise prices would only rise from having to further ship the models to more countries outside of Oz. (Wait, if you're a Kiwi, nevermind, they do go up. Fuck You, sincerely, GW) Also, I am aware of taxes, and how much they must sell for to make a profit, blah-di-blah. End of the day, these sprues cost like 12c to make each, they sell for around $70 on average, and only cost about $200 per ton to ship.

Warhammer branding:

"Warhammer branding

We have taken the decision in the year to rebrand our stores ‘Warhammer’ . It is what our customers call us. This will be rolled out progressively, as and when we open new or refurbish our existing  stores. At the year end we had 13 Warhammer branded stores."

Read this as: "We think we can get more brand recognition."

What I see: Actually, I totally agree, but what I find hilarious is that at a time when they are pushing the name "Age of Sigmar" with Warhammer as more of a background term, it's like naming your child "John" then telling everyone he is called "Bob", people are gonna refer to the kid as Bob! Maybe this one is just me. Or Bob.

The Wrap Up:

I could go on and on and on, just picking through the dribble and looking at GW as a company, but that's not what I was going for here. I wanted to show why I am a bit cynical about GW handling things like the Horus Heresy, because clearly, the people running the company aren't focused on the right things. They just want money, and the first places they look are raising prices and removing stores/staff.

Here's a fucking thought, make your game affordable so you SELL MORE. You tell me, what's better, sell 24c of sprues for $72, or sell 48c of sprues for $40 each ($80)? Sure, if you drop the cost of a sprue and only sell the same amount, you're going to lose money, but when people want a big shiny army, they will not be buying just one sprue, they will want to buy the extra sprues! They might even catch their eye on some new paints and buy those too. Business 101 people, you think China sells their recasts at GW costs to make a profit? Hell no! They make a profit by selling more, for a tad less, honestly, it's the simplest approach on Earth!

In the end, to summarise, GW thinks that we all:

a) buy models just for looks
b) will keep buying no matter how much they raise their prices
c) are all teenagers and the occasional neckbeard
d) all have heaps of time to play, so fuck our kids, screw the spouse it's hobby time at GW!
e) can justify the cost of their hobby against others
f) buy their products regardless of the rules

Now, honestly, do you have to ask why I have a hard time trusting these people?

~Macca

A Galaxy In Flames Battle Report: Inferno III Round 3 Iron Hands vs Iron Warriors

So, as promised, here is the second battle report from Inferno III, this time between the Iron Warriors, and Age of Darkness' Nate. This was the 3rd and final game, and despite having known each other for years, it was the first game we ever played against one another.

The setup was simple, Dawn of War deployment, kill points, 2VP per infantry unit, 1VP per vehicle, with the standard secondaries, as well as bonus VP's for the player with the most units left alive at the end of the game. Nate won the deployment, however, his Force Org chart forced him to take second turn, so no seize roll was required.

Due to a lack of enclosed tables, we played on a relatively open table. With the Iron Warriors on the offensive, poor Nate proceeded to be violated, repeatedly, and without lube. The Graviton Cannon Rapier battery proved throughout the tournament to be an ungodly powerful AT platform. Once combined with the Tyrants and the Deredeo, well, turn one saw the loss of 2 Sicarians and 2 hull points from a Predator before Nate even could retaliate.

Nate's turn one consisted of moving his remaining armour into positions where he could draw a good LOS to my RAPEier batteries (no political correctness here, these guns were committing a crime), as well as crying into a small cup as half of his firepower was already dead.

He fired his Cerberus Super Heavy (crewed by Castramen Orth!) into the Contemptors, and where possible, any spare shots were channeled into the Rapiers.

Turn 2 for the Iron Warriors saw a full 5-model Vorax unit led by a praevian, all with tank hunter, move on from the right flank. The Gravitons finished off almost all of the armour on the left flank before proceeding to swivel towards the right flank as the Tyrants advanced (spewing an ungodly amount of frag missiles all the while).

Turn 2 for Nate saw him trying to kill the Graviton cannon rapiers, as well as targeting the Vorax with whatever shooting he had, backed by a Gorgon Terminator charge.

Sadly, as turn 2 was ending, the Gorgons charged the Vorax, and despite having to make only 5 invuls, Nate managed to fail all 5 in an excellent display of dice rolling (Danny and I have begged him to burn those dice numerous times), meaning that the Gorgons died without causing any damage.

Turn 3 saw the Vorax take out the Spartan, and the Gravitons destroyed Orth's superheavy, which ironically blew up and killed 7 out of 10 members of one of the Iron Warriors tac squads and netting Nate more kills in that explosion than in the whole match thus far... For Nate's turn 3, he tried to shoot down the Vorax and repositioned his Sicarian Venator to shoot the Tyrants, as well as castling up with his surviving armour.

By turn 4, the Iron Warrior Siege Tyrants had reached the back lines, and it was all but over. The rest of turn 4 and 5 was spent mopping up the remaining Iron Hands and taking the last hull points off the Sicarian Venator.

Nate, I'm so sorry. So very, very sorry.

We joked at the time that I would have to censor every photo of the game as the images were 'too graphic' to be shown. This was the unfortunate result of matching up a defensive anti-tank force (Iron Warriors) against a mechanised armoured company. I for one blame the Loyalist General for the match up, Tim from the Eye of Horus!

All of this aside, Nate and I had a good laugh, and it was a really relaxed game, we basically knew after turn one that it was over so we weren't playing for sheep stations. It was one of those games where we just let the other player tally up the wounds on their own units from blast templates, and overall we mostly just sat around all game talking smack. It's a shame that we couldn't play on a table which had a far more dense terrain setup, however being assigned our game late in the round meant all the tables were taken which we wanted. On the bright side, this has lead to four days of the traitors making jokes about loyalist tears, with Danny managing to make loyalist after loyalist cry for 3 tournaments (ask him about his "Toughness zero list", go on, I dare you). Also, I got a lift to the event with Nate, so needless to say, I wasn't offered a lift home :P

Thanks for the game Nate, next time out, we'll make it a balanced one.

~Macca

A Galaxy In Flames Battle Report: Inferno III Round 2 Imperial Fists vs Iron Warriors

G'day folks, boy what a weekend! I have been 1500KM North, spent some time with some great mates, and made my way back home all to bring you some photos and talk Heresy. So where to begin?

I played my mate Michael from over at the Eye of Horus Podcast in round 2, so I thought I would make a battle report out of it. Needless to say, with two powerful armies, and two good generals, we were set to have a great game.

A little history leading into this, Michael and I had last played more than two years ago, where my Death Guard in 40k beat his 40K Salamanders, so Michael had some pride to restore today.

The mission we rolled up, depressingly, was the Relic. This is one of those missions I groan at, especially made worse because I didn't take note of the revised 7th edition rules for it (having hidden under a rock when it comes to 40k missions for over a year lol) which only came back to bite me repeatedly! Deployment was diagonally.

Michael being the cheesey yellow bastard that he is, set up a nice little gun line, with a bunker on the left (manned by a BS5 twin-linked, tank hunter lascannon dev squad... argue that cheese Michael!) and a sweet Vindicator on the right flank.

The Iron Warriors were definitely on the worse side of the table, so I had to do what I could to limit the carnage. His lascannons could see everywhere due to Michaels excellent placement, so I had to use cover in the few places I had it, or, in the case of my Tyrants, deploy a single inch outside of his lascannons range, lest they die on turn 1.

The Relic itself was some Imperial Fists geneseed. Our armies were just dudes looking for dudes 'seed'. Sadly, I had incredibly limited Line of Sight to the relic, whilst Michael had the only open side. Again, the bastard sure picked the right side of the table!

Turn 1 saw a general advance from the Imperial Fists, our Contemptors (being almost identically armed and used) sticking to opposite sides of the relic terrain. The Vindicator was out of range, however the Lascannon devs in the bunker all but shredded the IW Deredeo.

The IW turn one was a pathetic whimper, with my entire army queefing, merely taking 3 of the 4 hull points off the bunker (despite 3 graviton cannons and 20 krak missiles) and a single hull point off the Spartan, and leaving haywire blasts in a lot of places.

Turn 2 for the Imperial Fists saw the Spartan dump a ton of dudes onto the relic. The unit was buffed by a pimped Praetor and a Primus Medicae, both in Cataphractii armour, making them as tough as nails. The IF promptly killed one dreadnought, and left the last Contemptor on a single hullpoint, but able to move and charge next round. The only solace was the Vindicator imobilising itself in the haywire patch safely away from the rest of my army.

The 2nd turn for the IW saw some interesting moments. The Bunker was knocked out, and the tyrants elected to use frag missiles on the devestator unit, causing 24 wounds on the Devs and 33 wounds on a squad of breachers. Michael frustratingly failed very few saves on his breachers, however the dev squad was almost crippled (corpses may be seen on the far left top corner). My contemptor was a lazy 5" from Michaels Spartan, but I rolled a 1 for dangerous terrain and sent it to the graveyard, ending my turn. (I should point out, hilariously, that I had failed every single invul save on both the Contemptors and Deredeo as well as 1 of 2 saves on the Tyrants. I was shedding manly tears.)

At this point, the Imperial Fists got into their Spartan and proceeded to drive away. I promptly realised that 7th ed had changed the relic mission. From this point, the game really slowed down, with weapon range and a lot of LOS blocking limiting the casualties on both sides to a mere handful for the next few turns.

The stalemate broke when on turn 4 the Praevian and his Vorax entered play. The Vorax unleased lightning guns and rotor cannons into the visible breacher unit, but due to their Primus medicae and their toughness of 5, they laughed and lost only 3 men out of 13, not even enough to force morale.

As the game ran out of time, Michael wisely assaulted my Vorax from the Spartan, and with a 'killing blow' armed commander managed to cut down 3 of my valiant praying mantis automata. The game ended with said squad in assault, holding the relic on his turn 5. I got a single VP for linebreaker, and he got 3 for the relic and 1 for first blood. A win to the Imperial Fists!

Aftermath

Wow, what a game. If a few things had gone differently, it would have been a very different game. The LOS blocking terrain between my units and the relic hurt me to no end, and the Contemptor dying to dangerous terrain was a game changer (his 5 chainfist attacks on the charge against his already down to 4 HP Spartan would have changed things dramatically). Michael has his vengeance, we are now at one game each and I'm happy about it. Yes I lost, but material wise, I came off better. My defensive gunline was poorly equipped for a mission of this nature, whilst his multi-tasking army got the job done spectacularly.

By the way Michael, you're still a jerk for going all GTA in your Spartan.

~Macca