Games Workshop Digital era?

It look like that Games Workshop Digital division is leading the show for the current Christmas season, buffing up and supporting GW models offering with new downloadablecontent (DLC) available both for Apple iBooks and standard e-books readers

Joining force with The Black Library they have brought us the 2013 Digital Advent Calendar: not an original idea per se, but surely a serious effort to offer us new content and rules everyday

Personally, I bought the rules (or, as they call them, dataslates) for both Be'lakor (the 40K flavor, there is a Warhammer Fantasy Battle version) and the Tau Fireblade Support Cadre

I always loved the Be'lakor model and I bough him some times ago (you can find an unboxing here) and this new rules will allow me to field him, someday, along my other Chaos models. And from a gaming point of view, the rules are very good if not a bit pricey

The Firebase Support Cadre complement the box set by the same name that Games Workshop released in November, a box set for with you pay 6 Broadside Suits and get a Ripdite for free, something that it's quite astonishing by itself. And again, the rules are very good! If think we will see more of this guys on the table than before, if you could believe it

Today, on the 5th day of the Advent Calendar, they released the rules another box set they released in November: the Adeptus Astartes Storm Wing, a formation composed by a Storm Raven and two Storm Talons so it look like that they are really going to release rules for all the box sets and this if really making me exited about the Eldar one! :) I already own all the models included in that box set (a Wraithknight, two Wraithlords, fifteen Wraighguards / Wraithblades) so I can't wait to get some cool rules too and field the  Iyanden Ghost army I always wanted to play :D

But GW Digital efforts are not new. If you look up Games Workshop on the iBookstore you will find that there are already 169 digital product already available, ranging from Codices to Painting Guides, Rulebooks and expansions, both for Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Fantasy Battles, most of witch are available as an e-book or in the enhanced iBooks version

You can see the complete offering here:

So, is GW Digital era really begun?

We are getting more content, more frequently and keeping it all together is starting to get a bit complicated. I will not be surprised at all if in the near future they came out with an App to aggregate all the digital content, at least for the ones related to game rules and army composition. Add in an army list builder it will sell like candies

I'm hoping for too much?

First game with the new Eldar

Last night I played my first game with the new Eldar codex, a 1500 points game against Space Marines

My list was the following:

- Spiritseer
- 5x Wraithblades
- Wave Serpent, Scatter Laser, Shurinken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Holofields

- 5x Dire Avangers
- Falcon, Scatter Laser, Spirit Stones, Holofields

- 5x Dire Avangers

- Wave Serpent, Scatter Laser, Shurinken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Holofields

- 5x Rangers

- 8x Warp Spiders (in reserves)

- Fire Prism, Spirit Stones, Holofields

- Wraithknight, Suncannon

The mission was Purge the Alien with Dawn of War deployment. My opponent got first turn and played with two tactical squads (one in a ruin and one in a Rhino), Vulkan and 5 SS/TH Terminators in a Land Raider, a Master of the Forge, a Thunder Fire cannon and a Dreadnought (the one with AV13). He basically castled up in two ruins after he boosted their cover saves to 3+ with his Techmarine and Master of the Forge.

I deployed my Rangers in a ruin in the middle of my deployment area, the two Serpents behind a ruin on their left and the Falcon, Prism and Knight behind a ruin on the right. I failed to steal initiative.

In the first turn nothing major happened, he took a hull point from my Prism and one of the Serpent by glancing them. I took a wound from the Thunderfire cannon and the Master of the Forge and glanced his Dreadnought

He hid is Master of the Forge inside the ruin and then killed four of my Ranges with the Thunderfire in his second turn but the lone survivor passed his morale check. Also he put a glance on my Falcon but nothing else. Jink + Holofields is really really good! I focused on the Rhino and the Thunderfire while blasting the other tactical squad with the Serpent Shield from one of my transport killing a single Marine.

The real turning point of the game happened in turn three: he run the Rhino away and popped smokes and then fired the Cannon and the Dreadnought flamers against my Wraightknight but he could not wound him. He charged the Knight with the Dread but with I5 I went first and managed to put two pens on it and the AP2 bonus got me and explosion result.

My Spiders came in from reserves and I deep striked them near his Rhino. The Falcon finally exploded the Rhino and he rolled a 1" radius for the explosion blast. One of his marines died in the explosion and I finished the squad by firing at it first with the Wraightknight and then with the Spiders. I also moved my two Serpents flat-out toward the other ruins, planning to shoot everything at then in the next turn and then assault the survivors with the Wraithblades

We stopped the game there because he conceded at that point. His Land Raider was in my deployment zone and the whole of my force (except the lone Ranger) was in his so the final result was 5 to 1 victory points for me.

My impressions from this first game:

- Target Lock is awesome, don't leave home without a Scatter Laser

- Holofields are worth every penny (and they are cheaper now)

- The Suncannon is very good

- I never fired the Shuriken Cannons so maybe I could drop them

- The Falcon is not nearly as bad as we read on various forum

- The Lance shoot from the Prism look good on paper but you could not count on it at 100%

I'm basing this on a single game and my opponent played very defensively but.. so far Eldar looks good :)

The Chaos List

In the last few day I was reading the new Chaos Space Marines Codex to see if I could put together a fun army list to play with the Khornate army I started to build last month

The following list is what I came up with. I don't play tournaments, just for fun with my friends so keep this in mind when you judge it :)
Also, you will notice that I included a unit of Obliterators with the Mark of Nurgle: I really think that Mark will help the unit more than the one of Khorne.

THE CURRENT LIST

 Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Terminator armour, Axe of Blind Fury, Veteran of the Long War, combi-plasma @162

- 3x Chaos Terminators, Mark of Khorne, Icon of Wrath, Veterans of the Long War  1x combi-plasma + Power Fist, 1x dual Lightning Claws, Champion with Lightning Claw + Power Fist @184

- 8x Berzerkers of Khorne, Icon of Wrath, Veterans of the Long War, Champion with Power Sword @200
- Chaos Land Raider, Dirge Caster, Dozer Blade @240

- 6x Chaos Space Marines, Mark of Khorne, 5 CCW, Flamer @113
- Rhino, Dirge caster @40

- 5x Chaos Space Marines, Mark of Khorne, 5 CCW, Flamer @98
- Rhino, Dirge caster @40

- 20 Cultists @90

- 3x Obliterators, Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War @237

- 1x Forgefiend, 2x Hades auto-cannons @175

- 1x HelDrake, Baleflamer @170

== 1749

I will Deep Strike the Lord and his Terminators bodyguards near and  interesting target and the Berzerkers will drive the Land Rider toward the enemy lines while the 2 CSM units will hunt objective campers. The Obliterators will march up field while providing cover fire

After arriving from reserves, the cultist will go sit on an objective in my deployment zone with the protection of the Forgefiend and the Drake will hopefully Vector Strike and burn units all over the field

One possible future modification I see is to replace the Forgefiend with another HelDrake, but only if needed and when I get the second drake (I really like the model!)

What do you guys think? This is the first time I write a CSM list so all the comments and critique is very welcome!

The Archon's dilemma: Huskblade, Agonizer or Venom Blade ?

What is the most efficient way for my Archon to kill his foes?

What is the cheapest way to do it?

Those are the questions that are bothering me lately and so I finally decided to find out. Let's play a round of MathHammer!

THE BAD GUY

Uhm that must be the Archon I guess...

You may known the guy, very good Weapon Skill, low Strength and Resistance, awesome Initiative

I'm going to check out how statistically good he is against the, uhm, other guys, using the following weapons with or without Furious Charge:

• a plain Power Sword
• the Venom Blade
• an Agonizer
• the Huskblade
• the Huskblade with an active Soul Trap

THE OTHER GUYS

I will testing out the various Archon configurations against the following stereotypes:

MEQ: your standard Space Marine TEQ: a Terminator (no Storm Shield) ORK: Greenskins! GEQ: an Imperial Guardsmen ELD: the good ones

WS T As Inv Sv MEQ 4 4 3+ TEQ 4 4 2+ 5+ ORK 4 4 6+ GEQ 3 3 5+ ELD 4 3 4+

THE CHARGE OF THE ARCHON!

In this first scenario our Archon is charging his enemies without Furious Charge

With a whopping 6 attacks he SHOULD inflict the following unsaved wounds. I'm listing the weapons from the cheapest to the most expensive one

	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.11	0.56	2.78	2.59	1.94
Power Sword	1.33	0.22	1.33	2.00	2.00
Agonizer	2.00	0.33	2.00	2.00	2.00
Huskblade	1.33	0.89	1.33	2.00	2.00
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.33	2.22	3.33	3.33	3.33

I highlighted the best result against each enemy type, keeping the Huskblade / Soul Trap combo aside as this will probably be always the best performing one but we could not take the activation of the Soul Trap for granted

Against MEQ all the special weapons perform adequately: the 50/50 chance of wounding of the Agonizer out-perform the low strength of the Huskblade and the cheap Venom Blade is not too far behind the Power Sword or Huskblade

TEQ are a a hard nut to crack as expected and the awesome AP of the Huskblade give the best results here but the cheaper Venom Blade is a close second

A low armour save foe is the ideal playmate of the Venom  Blade and the higher his Toughness, the better the results. The Agonizer is doing well to against T4

Against your standard Eldar the Power Sword look like the best compromise between wounds and points

WHAT ABOUT FURIOUS CHARGE?

With two Pain Tokens under his belt, the Archon get a nice boost:

	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.30	0.65	3.24	2.59	1.94
Power Sword	2.00	0.33	2.00	2.67	2.67
Agonizer	2.00	0.33	2.00	2.00	2.00
Huskblade	2.00	1.33	2.00	2.67	2.67
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.33	2.22	3.33	3.33	3.33

The nice surprise here is the Power Sword that perform mostly as good as the more expensive Huskblade, TEQ being the only exception. But charging TEQ is not a good strategy in my opinion anyway...

If you plan to field your Archon with an Haemonculi and some big, ugly Grotesques and points are tight, you could take a Power Sword and the much needed Phantasm Grenade Launcher for around the same points of the Huskblade

Against high Toughness / low Save enemies the Venom Blade is still the best choice

THE DRUG LORD

Combat Drugs are one of the upgrades available to the Archon. They are not that expensive but I wonder if they are needed at all!

1) HYPEX

A boost to the Run move that will not help much our Archon for the following reasons:

• our Archon will probably ride in a Venom or a Rider most of the time
• if he Run, he can no longer charge thanks to the changes to Fleet in 6th edition
• his damage output is not modified in any way

2) SERPENTIN

+1 WS: the standard Archon is already hit back on a 5+ by WS3 enemies and this bonus is not enough to gave him the same benefit while fighting WS4 units so still not much help here

His damage output is not changed

3) GRAVE LOTUS

+1 S: we start to see some improvements but Agonizers are not effected

without Furious Charge	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.30	0.65	3.24	2.59	1.94
Power Sword	2.00	0.33	2.00	2.67	2.67
Agonizer	2.00	0.33	2.00	2.00	2.00
Huskblade	2.00	1.33	2.00	2.67	2.67
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.33	2.22	3.33	3.33	3.33

with Furious Charge	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.30	0.65	3.24	2.59	1.94
Power Sword	2.67	0.44	2.67	3.33	3.33
Agonizer	2.00	0.33	2.00	2.00	2.00
Huskblade	2.67	1.78	2.67	3.33	3.33
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.33	2.22	3.33	3.33	3.33

4) PAINBRINGER

Re-roll failed to-wound rolls: this is always a good thing especially when our Archon must relay only on his base strength to wound his enemies. Not so much if you fight with a Venom Blade

without Furious Charge	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.30	0.65	3.24	2.59	1.94
Power Sword	2.22	0.37	2.22	3.00	3.00
Agonizer	3.00	0.50	3.00	3.00	3.00
Huskblade	2.22	1.48	2.22	3.00	3.00
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.89	2.59	3.89	3.89	3.89

with Furious Charge	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.30	0.65	3.24	2.59	1.94
Power Sword	3.00	0.50	3.00	3.56	3.56
Agonizer	3.00	0.50	3.00	3.00	3.00
Huskblade	3.00	2.00	3.00	3.56	3.56
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.89	2.59	3.89	3.89	3.89

5) ADRENALIGHT

+1 A: a bonus attack is always welcome!

without Furious Charge	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.30	0.65	3.24	3.02	2.27
Power Sword	1.56	0.26	1.56	2.33	2.33
Agonizer	2.33	0.39	2.33	2.33	2.33
Huskblade	1.56	1.04	1.56	2.33	2.33
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.89	2.59	3.89	3.89	3.89

with Furious Charge	MEQ	TEQ	ORK	GEQ	ELD
Venom Blade	1.51	0.76	3.78	3.02	2.27
Power Sword	2.33	0.39	2.33	3.11	3.11
Agonizer	2.33	0.39	2.33	2.33	2.33
Huskblade	2.33	1.56	2.33	3.11	3.11
Huskblade + Soul Trap	3.89	2.59	3.89	3.89	3.89

6) SPLINTERMIND

A free Pain Token: an improvement of the defence capabilities for the Archon and his units (Fell No Pain) that could also help to gain Furious Charge faster if there is a Pain Token already in the unit (Haemonculi and/or Grotesques)

SO, ARE COMBAT DRUGS NEEDED?

Of the six drugs only three increase the damage output of the Archon and a forth could do that too in some particular unit configurations. The remaining two drugs are totally wasted on him however

In the end, I think I would take Combat Drugs only if I have some points to spare after I have secured all the other units in the army list or if I will ever field Grotesques with my Archon

WHAT IS THE DEADLIEST OF THEM ALL?

There is no overall winner: it all came down on the role you want your Archon to perform.

You want to go hunt Terminators? I won't do that but if you so wish than take the Huskblade and Combat Drugs

MEQ Killer? Power Sword or Agonizer. The Venom Blade is not much worse if points are tight

Hordes anyone? Venom Blade

Are you a Kin slayer? Then a Power Sword or a Venom Blade are your tools


And now it's up to you! What do you guys think on the various special weapons and how do you field your Archon?

Refined army list for my Dark Eldar Kabal

In the last few days I was thinking about my Dark Eldar army list and something was bothering me

The current 1500 points list I'm working on, building models and testing out colour schemes, is this one:


- Archon, Huskblade, Soul Trap, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Shadow Field @160pt
- 4x Incubi, Venom, 2x Splinter Cannons @153

- 10x Kabalite Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Raider, Dark Lance, Splinter Racks @170

- 10x Kabalite Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Raider, Dark Lance, Splinter Racks @170

- 5x Wyches, Haywire grenades, Venom, 2x Splinter Cannons @125

- 5x Wyches, Haywire grenades, Venom, 2x Splinter Cannons @125

- 8x Reavers Jetbikes, 2x Heat Lances, Arena Champion @210

- Ravager, 3x Dark Lances, Night Shields @115

- Ravager, 3x Dark Lances, Night Shields @115

- Razorwing Jetfighter, 2x Dark Lances, 4x Monoscythe missiles, Splinter Rifle, Flickerfield @155

== 1498 points

The anti-tank (AT) section consist in:

• 10 Dark Lances
• 2 Heat Lances
• 10 Haywire grenades

In the anti-infantry (AI) section I have:

• 8 Splinter Cannons
• 15 Splinter Rifles
• 4 Monoscythe missiles
• 8/24 Bladevanes attacks
• various Splinter Pistols

For close-combat (CC) the Archon/Incubi pack:

• 8/12 S4 AP2 attacks
• 5/6 S3 AP2 Istant-death attacks that could be improved to S6

The Wyches and Reavers units could also help the Archon and his unit if necessity arise

The things that do not convince me are two:

1. I'm not sure if the Huskblade / Soul Trap combo is worth the points, starting at S3 and in a unit full of AP2 power weapons
2. I added the Arena Champion to the Reavers to boost their LD value, but I think that a 9th members and an extra Heat Lance would improve the list

I came up with this revised list (changes in italic):

- Archon, Venom Blade, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Shadow Field @120pt

- 4x Incubi, Venom, 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies @158

- 10x Kabalite Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Raider, Dark Lance, Splinter Racks @170

- 10x Kabalite Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Raider, Dark Lance, Splinter Racks @170

- 5x Wyches, Haywire grenades, Venom, 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies @130

- 5x Wyches, Haywire grenades, Venom, 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies @130

- 9x Reavers Jetbikes, 3x Heat Lances @234

- Ravager, 3x Dark Lances, Night Shields @115

- Ravager, 3x Dark Lances, Night Shields @115

- Razorwing Jetfighter, 2x Dark Lances, 4x Monoscythe missiles, Splinter Rifle, Flickerfield @155

== 1497 points

The split-up is roughly the same:

AT:

• 10 Dark Lances
• 3 Heat Lances
• 10 Haywire grenades

AI:

• 8 Splinter Cannons
• 15 Splinter Rifles
• 4 Monoscythe missiles
• 9/27 Bladevanes attacks
• various Splinter Pistols

For close-combat (CC) the Archon/Incubi pack:

• 8/12 S4 AP2 attacks
• 5/6 AP6 attacks that always wounds on a 2+

I swapped out the Huskblade / Soul Trap for a very cheap Venom Blade that overcome the S3 problem. I lose the AP2 but gain more raw wounds

The Reavers are now at full strenght with 9 jet-bikers and 3 Heat Lances.

I used the left over points to add Grisly Trophies to the Venoms: this could potentially help Reavers, Wyches and the Archon unit in case of a bad LD test roll.

I'm also wondering if converting one of the Ravagers to Disintegrators Cannons could help in my meta-game. I play against Marines (Ultra, Wolves, Blood Angels), Necrons, Orks and Tyranids. I don't want to put them on the Razorwing because I need it's Lances for dealing with (or trying to deal with) other flyers

EDIT:

Maybe I should replace the Razorwing with a Voidraven Bomber with Flickerfield but without missiles (same points cost) to get more anti-flyer punch. And what about an Agonizer for the Archon instead of the Venom Blade (and the Grisly Trophies on the three Venoms) ?

What you guys think about this new list?