Playing Dark Angels: Adjusting to the new environment.

Everyone has had the opportunity to look over the new FAQs by now, and there is a lot of hubbub about the changes to Dark Angels and Black Templars. While you won't see sweeping changes in what exactly works for each of those armies, a few outliers on the realm of competitive gaming have just stepped up for each list and are ready to swing against the forces of 5th Edition.

These two armies have lost their greatest asset (old smoke launcher rules) which will make mechanized forces a good bit weaker, especially those based around Land Raiders. Trying to compare BA or BT mech vs SM or SW will have you coming up wanting. Things may change when the Storm Raven rolls across all the SM armies in a couple of months, but for now things are a little to expensive for BT and DA.

It's not that their mech is necessarily more expensive (though for BT they are), but also that the component elements of the army are still overcosted. The extra mech durability these old armies had helped make up for the lack of units due to point costing.

What these armies have gained, however is rules parity for almost all the wargear available to them (DAs still have full table Psychic hoods, probably because all librarians short of Zeke only have a Leadership 9).

What these changes really do is bring a few unit options back into the competitive mix. For DA, these are still the same units that were being used competitively before, bu there is now some greater variety in loadouts. Basically what you will be seeing is a lot of cyclone missile launchers, typhoon missile launchers, and storm shields. Cheaper Land Raider Crusaders (free multi-melta and cheaper storm bolter upgrade) might see some more use with the new Machine Spirit, but the loss of old smoke will make that army not as durable in the mid field.

I'm currently piecing together a few sample army lists that I expect to pop up and actually work well for almost any mission. I've got a list based on my Loganwing List that I am expecting to perform superbly. Dark Angels have received about a 60-80% firepower boost and a 100% durability boost in close combat. Combining those two tools will allow them to make up for their shortcomings much more reliably, even though they are outnumbered. Expect some news tomorrow.

New List for a New Year

So I have been having some great success running the Space Wolves codex using the Loganwing Missile Spam. Through playing and learning I've found something that works super well for me, and is my mostly likely candidate for Nova at this point. I've ordered 3 Cyclone Missile Launchers to add to the army to replace the 3 assault cannons I was running which will bring my total number of missile shots up to 20 (with 4 lascannon shots to help against heavier armor), and it will allow the entire firebase to operate at a much greater range. Good thing my terminators are magnetized. Setting up these 3 cyclones will require some slight repainting on 3 models to cover up the new magnet locations, but it should be a quick and painless procedure.

But that's not the big news. After reading over some lists and strategy discussion on Bolter & Chainsword, I developed a new Dark Angels list that I think could be truly competitive and it takes advantage of DA's nuances without using terminators or Bikes. Imagine that!

General Updates: Tournament Results, Podcasts, and more!

It has been a bit longer than I expected to get an update in. I wanted to do this on Monday, but work has been extremely busy, and I've been pounding through some modeling stuff at home. Here's what I've been up to recently:

Being Gamist: How and Why of Counts As

I've been sitting on this article a little bit, as it's taken me some time to get it all written out. Let's see how this goes and if I've managed to present everything as clearly as I originally intended.

When someone normally mentions the words “Counts As”, what image pops into your head? Do you see a wonderfully converted army of kit-bashed miniatures wonderfully painted and modeled to represent the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus? Do you envision Space Marines in robes and Dark Green armor being used with a 5th Edition codex, being led by Pedro Kantor, Logan Grimnar, or Mephiston? Do you envision a swarm of tyranid creatures and monsters deep striking onto the planet below coming in waves using the rules from Codex: Chaos Daemons (or vice versa: using Chaos Daemons with Codex: Tyranids)?

This post is going to discuss the various opinions I have seen on the topic as well as give you my opinion on the subject. I’ll tell you straight up that most of you will absolutely disagree with me, and I can’t fault you for doing so. As with all articles in this series just realize that these ideas are coming from someone whose greatest enjoyment of Warhammer 40k comes from playing the game and mastering the system. I don’t want to deny you what makes the game fun for you, I just ask you give me the same courtesy.

I am gamist. Some would even say I play to win at all costs. In a competitive setting they are entirely correct. I will use the rules in every legal way possible to defeat my opponent. I will be gentlemanly and courteous. I abhor bullying (and conflict), but I thrive on competition. You see, being WAAC doesn’t make you rude or a cheater. Being rude and cheating do, and I personally don’t like much of either of them.

Keep that in mind as you read this post. What I am going to say will rub some people the wrong way, but it needs to be heard. For too long has this voice been silent, and with the sweeping changes to tournament formats the world over, this idea may just be able to gain some public acceptance.

Being Gamist: I'm WAAC and proud of it!

I figure this title would get me some spotlight time, and to be honest, it's mostly true. If you have followed my discussion here on Struggling With Counts As or my email in to Mike Brandt, you're probably up to speed on my current mindset. For some more analysis, Bill and jay at the Gamers Lounge covered my email to Mike in their most recent podcast. I remember one of my points being misrepresented, but overall they were very fair and it was great to listen to it, even if they disagree with me. Mike also spawned a few discussion posts based on some of the same concepts I'll be going over, though he had a slightly different focus.

Struggling with "Counts As"

Most of you have probably seen the basic Dark Eldar list I posted a little over a week ago. As stated previously, I intend to run my Craftworld Eldar army to "Count As" their darker brethren. I've tweaked the list since then, but the units are pretty much the same.

In my playtesting so far (just a few quick games to get used to the units) some of my opponents have been irked by the presence of Wave Serpents representing Raiders. The two arguments I've heard are fairly reasonable, and I expect many others like myself will face similar arguments. Let's take a look at what my opponents had to say:

Works In Progress: Wave Serpent

As promised, I have an image of the first Wave Serpent with the base coat completed. I have some very minor edge highlights on some of the black areas that will be refined and then extreme highlighted on top of that.

There is a lot of work left to do on this, and I am going to get it completely finished before moving on to painting the Fire Prisms/Ravagers. This is one of two wave serpents to get this light color that I will be working on, though with the amount of time it took to get that base coat ready, I think the other one will be the last serpent to get painted.

The rest of my wave serpents will follow the prisms and falcons and will be primarily black with the white supplementary, as is the standard for Ulthwé. The two white ones are going to be perfect for the seer council/wyches in the upcoming DE list.