Finally....A Way Forward

The Necrons are now confirmed and I must say that I do like the new models. However my biggest hope is that the Codex continues at the same power level of the recent books. Given that it is going to be around for at least 5-6 years it is important that it is competitive through to at least 7th edition.


The word is that post Necrons the next Codex is Tau Empire. The rumours are that the fluff story has progressed and that the Tau are now looked in a major conflict with the forces of Chaos. Their greatest strength in this conflict is that they have not embraced the Warp and act as a null zone to the whispers of the Chaos Gds. In this I expect they are a little like “gingas” in that they have no soul! However this is all in keeping with their role over the past 3-4 years as GW’s red-headed stepchild getting no love. A least they will now have a “jobbing” role for the rediscovered poster boys “Chaos Legions”.

Now you are probably all unaware of this but I have been a little bit disappointed by GW’s treatment of Chaos over the past five years. To say that I think that Gav Thorpe’s Codex: Chaos Space Marines is a soulless piece of crap, seriously undervalues my hatred for that particular document. All the life, character and development work Pete Haines did was largely obliterated in Thorpe’s “work”. Suddenly the Legions ceased to exist and we were relegated to playing Codex: Liquorice Allsorts. I decried it at the time and I stand by every derogatory comment I’ve ever made about it. Chaos Space marines went from being characterful and diverse to Lash Prince(s) + Plague Marines + obliterators.

So how did that work out GW? I’m guessing not very well. You release the Horus Heresy books and then rip the heart out of Chaos.

This Ginger is Pretty Happy Gav Thorpe Will Be Nowhere Near Chaos Legions

CSM went from one of the two biggest sellers to a complete also-ran (based on tournament attendance). Some will put this down to performance but I believe that the largest part was mindnumbing boredom. Seriously who could get excited by Gav Thorpe’s “vision”.

Spot quiz – How many Red Corsair armies have you seen?

I pretty much gave up playing 40k when that codex was released. Therefore I pretty excited by the news solidifying around June 2012 when we will see the return of the Legions. The word is this will be the last 5th Ed Codex but written with 6th Ed in mind. Can’t wait! I’m hoping that either Phil Kelly or Jeremy Vetock get the gig because then at least it will have a soul.

Conquest This Weekend

Good luck to everyone playing at Conquest in Christchurch this weekend.

This is the last tournament of the New Zealand ranking "season" and has attracted strong competitions in both Fantasy and 40k.

Without seeing the full field, I'm aware Mal Patel and Locky Reid who finished 1st and 2nd at Guardcon are there and I expect both to place in the Top 5. Expect also to see some real tight results as another 6 South Island players are in the current Top 20 - Basil Moskovis, Raymond Wallace, Damon Quaid, Darren Urquhart and Tim Joss.

This competition is going to have areal impact on the make up of the Masters field as people try to force their way into the Top 10.

Here's my take on the situation (I believe 200 points from 3 events is need to qualify Top 10):

Mal Patel (Lizards) - Safely ensconced as #1 and nothing here can change it.

Locky Reid (Skaven) - Protecting 46 points. Needs to finish in the Top 12 here to hold his place for Masters qualification.

Basil Moskovis (Vamps) - Protecting 1.5 points. Safe as houses for the Masters.

Raymond Wallace (Skaven) - Not protecting points but depending on other players needs to finish at least 8th or 9th to cement a Masters place.

Damon Quaid (WoC) - Again not defending points but needs to finish no lower than 7th to guarantee a place at the Masters table.

Darren Urquhart (Dark Elves) - Protecting 59 points. A near podium finish is required to muscle him into the Masters.

Tim Joss (O&G) - The man with the bullet. A finish in the top half of the field will likely see him qualify for the Masters. to date only has two results so all the points he scores are gravy.

Cheers

Yesterday the site broke the 1000 daily hits threshold for the first time.


Thanks to all the regular and new readers of “Fields of Blood”.

I’m busy raicking up Charlie and Jack to post more but currently Charlie is working 80 hour weeks and Jack as Uni exams. In the meantime you’ll just have to make do with me.

Promise to get some photos up this weekend of my recent Skaven and Tomb King painting.

Urban Myth - Chessex Dice

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away……an urban myth was born.
On Dakka Dakka the US-based wargames forum this myth has persisted and is treated as fact.
The myth is that if you use Chessex dice or any round cornered pip indented then you will roll “1” 29% of the time. You can read all about it here.

Twenty-nine percent…..when the expectation is 16.6%. Determined after thousands and thousands of rolls. Any idea how improbable that is. Well statistically it starting to get into the realms of “A Room Full of Monkeys Typing Shakespeare”!

I’m willing to say that you could look at the dice and clearly see the imperfections.

Dice are never perfect. However the chance of picking up a block of Chessex dice and rolling them 28 times then coming up with 29% “1”s or indeed any single number is about as likely as finding intelligent life in Newcastle.

I call “Bullshit”.

Vermintide III

Just a reminder to all that Vermintide III, the last NZ Fantasy tournament of 2011, is coming up soon.


Here are the details:

Tournament Officials: Neil Williamson (Umpire), Hagen Kerr (Registrar) hagen.kerr@xtra.co.nz

When: Sunday 11 December

Where: Cashmere Primary School, Khandallah, Wellington

Start Time: 8.15am for 8.30 start

Finish Time: 6.00pm (latest)

Army lists due: 3 December to nwsw@xtra.co.nz

Cost: $20.00



General Format

Army Size: 1200 points

Table Size: 5 ft x 4 ft

Rounds: 5 scenarios (no Battle of the pass)

Game length: 1 ½ hours each game

Composition: Light hardcaps


The Players' Pack is available from Neil Williamson (nwsw@xtra.co.nz).

The event promises to be enormous fun for both new and experienced players.

Necrons Confirmed for November

Overnight GW posted on their Voxcaster blog a thinly veiled reference to the upcoming release of Necrons.


The 40 second Youtube video contains no pictures but largely confirms November as release month. More information to be released on October 29.

You can click on our previous post here to see the new Necrons and info on where further pictures can be found.

The Role of the Stubborn Character

One character that has become more prevalent recently is the fast moving character (typically a flyer) with the Crown of Command (making him Stubborn). The premise here is that the character has a good armour save plus a passable ward and he can go into the enemy and kill them or at worst hold them there.


There are numerous variations depending on Army Book and access to the Stubborn ability. One popular variation is the Bret with Heroic Killing Blow on a Pegasus, the Dreadlord with the Pendant of Khaleth or the Chaos Character on a Disk.
Personally I think that while they can be very useful they are not without potential pitfalls. The most obvious of these is that you choose the wrong target for his charge. For me the most profitable targets are small units of skirmishers, lone characters, warmachines and possibly monsters – basically anything that lacks ranks.

On this basis I prefer Hero level rather than Lord level characters in the role?

Why? Well a number of reasons.

Firstly, a Lord level character is likely to be your Army General and you run a greater risk of him getting killed or at best being drawn away from where his Leadership bubble is most needed.

Secondly, the whole strategy is surrounded by an assumption that you will lose combat (otherwise why the need for the Stubborn crown) and are going to be testing Leadership at some stage.

If you test often enough you will eventually fail the Stubborn test and therefore I believe it is good practice to minimise this risk. For me this means picking your fights rather than chucking the character into any unit. I advocate “clubbing baby seals” (i.e. being a bully by picking unfair fights) and therefore only having to rely on the Stubborn crutch if something untoward happens. Personally I’d avoid engaging units with high static Combat Resolution unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

Stubborn “9” means a 1/6 chance of failing – reduced to 1/36 if the BSB is always there. Now a canny opponent will lure you away from or look to assassinate your BSB. If he’s very clever he’ll look to wait until you are looked in combat before doing it. Suddenly that Stubborn “9” doesn’t look so good.

Far better to my mind to get in and out of combats where you don’t start at a major disadvantage, killing the vulnerable and moving on. The Stubborn trait is your backstop not a weapon.

As always after your thoughts.

GW's New Terrain Piece

How great is this?

I want one!!!!!

This is so going to be Seerlord Morskitta's Lair!!!!

The Golden Age of the Wireless

So this week is the first of Charlie's regular spots on 40kUK podcast. It can be downloaded on iTunes or from here

New From Across the Pond – Charles St Clair (a new addition to the podcast) reports from New Zealand and the tournament scene there – 02:11:37.

You can click on Charlie at 2 hours 11 minutes into the show where he goes through his Ork army. given his success with them it's worth a listen.....especially those of you who are 0-7 against them!

#Brushtime

A few of the guys I follow on Twitter have come up with a way of boosting painting output. They have labelled it #Brushtime and effectively it is a weekly target of ten hours painting.


They tweet their progress against the target through the week and it acts as an incentive/prompt to those participating. Coupled with attached pictures of their models it seems to be working for them.

I’m one of those people who likes to have targets and find that they do work as an incentive. Having no deadline means I’m likely to just let painting drift and suddenly a month or two has gone by with little or no output. The target of ten hours a week isn’t too onerous either – less than 1.5 hours a day average. In reality it means three evenings a week.

I’ll let you know my progress.