Tau Tactica: The Sea Turtle (working post)

So - Warhammer 40k 6e has shaken things up a tad, and I seem to have stumbled upon a new tactic that we've decided to name the Sea Turtle.

There are two variants - one that allows for your fire warriors to advance while remaining well protected, and one that keeps them static.

As soon as I have access to Vassal 40k I'll try and do more detailed work on this.

The Basics

The main thing about the Sea Turtle tactic stems from the simple fact that, as a transport, there's little use for it once its deployed your fire warriors.  On top of that, if you're running a Pathfinder team then you have this giant hunk of plastic that you really don't need except to provide mobile cover.

The mobile cover tactic is where this comes in.

Effectively you can have a unit - most notably our squishy fire warriors - that starts deployed just behind the devilfish.  The fish moves at an angle to allow the fire warriors to advance forward and then fire, then move back into a position to provide them cover.  Alternatively you can simply move the devilfish behind the fire warriors then use your flat-out move to return it to its original position.

The Math

It's actually really simple when you break out your high-school geometry book (or google).

We want to open up 6" of space for our fire warriors to advance.  That means our move needs to be broken up across two moves that each open up 3".  In addition we want to open up as much space as we can for them, meaning that we move our devil fish as far as we can.

Finding the Right Triangle

The key here to figuring out your movement is thinking of it as along a right triangle in each phase.  You have one side that is 3", and the hypotenuse (long side) is the movement your vehicle makes.  That means you can also calculate how much space you're opening up.

It's as Easy as 3-4-5

If you really remember your Pythagorean Theorem (a² + b² = c²) and game with a calculator you can quickly figure out your movements.  However there is a quicker method.

Remember - we're wanting one of the two sides of the triangle to be 3".  If we do our movement at 5" that will put the center point of the devilfish 4" to one side of its starting position, giving the fire warriors a fair amount of space to move.

Repeat the same process and it returns to the same point relative to the fire warriors it begn its movement with.

Behold the handy-dandy diagram.

Now - of course there may be terrain to consider.  You can also actually do your movements in different angles to allow you to adjust course rather than advance in a straight line.  This is just a basic overview of how the system can work to allow you to provide basic cover to your fire warriors while they rapid fire their way up field.

Monsters: The Rulers Among the Beasts

While Monsters are generally autonomous, many do claim territory of a given size. Monsters who Claim a territory leave a mark around its perimeter that can be sensed by anyone Marked. This territory rarely extends past a few acres of wilderness or a small lot in a city for a single Monster.

A small group of Monsters, generically called a Troupe, together can have a larger parcel of land ranging to a small geographic region of wilderness or a few city blocks. Werewolf Troupes are called Packs and are always led by an Alpha. Vampire Troupes are called Syndicates, Sorcerers are called Circles, etc.

Various Troupes may ally together to form Counsels. Counsels themselves have no claim to any sort of territory - they are simply a coordination of various Troupes to help coordinate matters between Troupes when issues cross bounds of territories.

Most large geographic areas also have a Great Counsel of powerful Monsters that claim no territory, but ensure that the Laws are followed. North America, for example, is ruled by Thirteen different Counsels.

In times of dire need, a representative from several Great Counsels will meet in what is known as a Convention.

Monsters: The Laws of the First Covenant of Beasts

Most monsters generally are semi-autonomous but, because of the Dark Days, generally all follow some basic rules. These rules were penned down at the end of the Dark Days by the first Covenant of Beasts, and read as follows.

• Keep the flock placid and walk among them as a wolf in sheeps clothing less the days darken. In other words: when among Normals do your best to hide your Monsterous nature.
  
• Tread where you may with one you are not at war with, but keep in mind the Lord of the Land and respect him always. Many Monsters have a claim to a Territory and rule it. If you are in the Territory under the claim of another Monster you are not actively fighting with he must allow you to be there. However you must abide by his rules and wishes, and not disrespect his Territory.
• A wolf who eats all his food with no den to sleep in soon finds himself surrounded by hungry wolves. This is generally considered to be an edict on keeping the monster population in a given area low in order to keep both available prey plentiful as well as to keep Normals from discovering the Monsters.
• Put down the rabid Beast. It has forgotten what it like to be Normal, and threatens all around it. This is the edict to destroy any Monster who becomes a Nasty or greatly causes problems among the human flock.

Monsters: Brain dump thoughts

OK... drawing some inspiration on a lot of popular mythology, some role playing games, and my own twisted mind to come up with a new Gothic-Horror RPG called Monsters.

The central premise is that Monsters are real and human. The system will be largely free-form and flowing, but will have a few core templates that can be pulled from. They're all loosely bound and powered by a genetic and spiritual quirk known as the Mark.

Humans (Normals)
Normals are humans that have absolutely no trace of the Mark upon them. Normals have absolutely no psychic powers and barely any magical powers. Normals may be hunters, though they must be Resistant in order to sanely function around any Monsters.

Marked Humans (the Marked)
The Marked is a term Monsters use for any Human that has a degree of the Mark upon them. Marked Humans represent roughly 2% of the human population, give or take. The vast majority of the Marked seem no different from a Normal. A Marked may, however, have moderate access to some psychic or Magical powers or, when Afflicted, gain further power over their psychic or magical abilities. Marked humans are somewhat Resistant.

Monsters
Monsters are Marked Humans who, either through accident, encounter, magic, or advent of birth, become Afflicted and go through the Change to become a Monster. Monsters can be any sort of sub-species of Monster.

The Skin Walkers (aka the Walkers, aka Lycanthropes)
The Walkers are any sort of human-animal based Monster. They generally all share an ability to fully assume Human form and have some sort of connection to their Beast. Werewolves, for example, as humans are often harrier than normal humans, prone to greater size and strength, and often fierce and quick to anger. Some Walkers can even fully Change into the classic Wolf-Man. Some still can even assume the form of a wolf. The type of Werewolf seems to be mostly a trick of genetics than anything else.

The Vampires
Vampires are Monsters who must take sustenance form other living Humans to survive. This could be anything from psychic energy (fear, love, lust, greed), to blood or flesh. Some Vampires can survive - although not healthily - on animals. The type of Vampire a Marked human becomes when Afflicted is dependent upon the Vampire that changed them or their parent, if born to one or two Vampires.

Ghasts
Ghasts are Marked who died a traumatic death before they were Afflicted. They may be ghosts or even posess their own bodies as an animate Zombie. Some Ghasts are can even be Sorcerers who preserve their own bodies with magic. Some may manifest a physical form through their own will, while others are Shades of their former selves.

Sorcerers
Wizards, witches, and psychics of great power - these Afflicted wield the power of the Mark to change the very fabric of the universe.

Rabble
Rabble are monsters who really do not fit into any of the above categories and, because of their predilection to becoming Nasties, are often distrusted.

Nasties
Nasties are Monsters that have been Corrupted by their Darkness. While many of the Afflicted are prone to acts of both good and evil, Nasties have no vestige of their Souls left. They may pretend to be human, or they may simply give over and become Demons, Devils, and foul creatures of dark legend.

Monsters: Introduction

Here there be Monsters.

Scribed since ancient days on maps of parts unknown, and spoken of in myth and legend man has always known that there are monsters out there. What he rarely acknowledged is that the monsters lurk in him.

I myself am a Monster - a wolf wearing human skin. Mortal like man, though longer lived, I am not even the darkest beast that stalks the streets of the city. Witch and Wizard, Vampire and worse - they all exist in man, or just 'neath the surface.

We aren't exactly high in number - by best estimates there less than half a percent of the population isn't exactly human. While that number may seem small, that means over forty-thousand Monsters lurk in New York City alone.

So then what makes a man a Monster? An acquaintance of mine is a genetic researcher by trade, and a Monster himself, has found a few genetic markers that mark a predilection to being a Monster and even a few indicators as to what type of Monster you have the potential to be. But there are so many other variables that it is impossible to tell exactly how or why we become what we are.

For example - I was born to, as best I can tell, normal parents and to my knowledge was never exposed to another Werewolf until my first change. Others may have the same genetic markers I do but would not actually be a Werewolf until bitten and until I do so are normal humans - albeit a bit harrier than normal and with a shorter temper. If I bit a normal human without any prediliction to being a Monster they would maybe feel a bit angrier than normal until after a full moon, but that's it.

Vampires are another great example of the diversity of what makes us Monsters that you're familiar with. Vampires themselves are a broad category of Monster. There are various types and strains of vampires, mostly dependent upon genetic background and of the type of vampire that bit you to activate the latent genes. I've met mortal vampires, psychic vampires, vampires repelled by garlic and crosses, and vampires who are simply undead bloodsucking humans.

Then there are the Nasties. Nasties are Monsters that really cannot be allowed to live - the ones that are truly the stuff of Nightmare. A Werewolf in full Beast form is a terrible sight and will leave a normal human traumatized for ages. Nasties can give even the bravest Monster the shakes.

So kid... now that you know about Monsters, its time for me to let you know - you are one.

DIY Librarian

I saw this back when it was originally posted, but thought nothing of it. Then I started to work on my Marine army and, given that I plan on having a lot of Marines (and I DO have a lot of books) I thought about doing a Librarian conversion but wasn't quite sure how to do the psychic hood.

So special thanks to Heretic over at Rites of Battle for linking it today :)

Bikers vs. Foot Marines - worth it?

So - I've been toying around with what was a Raven Wing-based army and is now starting to look more like a White Scars-based army. S'all good. No matter what, one of the central quirks of my army will be the fact that my troops will always be on Space Marine Bikes.

Then I got to thinking - do I gain any real benefit from this? Let's do the math hammer.

Full Squads Comparison
For this scenario, we're going to assume three different units. First we have Tactical Squad Alpha (TSA), which is a full unit of Marines (Sargent, 9 Space Marines). All armed with bolters. Nothing special here so far. Next we have Tactical Squad Derp (TSD), which is exactly the same as TSA, and Bike Squad Derp (BSD) which is a Biker Sargent, 7 Bikers, and one Attack Bike.

When TSA opens fire on TSD beyond 12 inches, they're going to have roughly 6.67 hits and half of those will wound. Finally we apply the armor save, and we see that about 1.11 hits actually make it through. At this rate, it would take 9 turns of shooting (assuming no one moves, and the Derp player never shoots at the Alpha player) to kill every model.

If TSA would fire upon the slightly tougher BSD, we see the wounds inflicted would be about 2.22, and about .74 of those would be unsaved. Again, assuming lab condition shooting this means 13.5 turns to kill.

Moving into Rapid Fire range, the volume of fire increases (yay) and so does our killing spree: TSD takes 2.22 unsaved wounds per turn, and 4.5 turns to eradicate and BSD takes 1.48 unsaved wounds, taking 6.75 turns to wipe off the face of the game board.

This all sounds great so far. Assuming these ideal conditions (ha) and all things equal, the bikers should easily out-last a similar unit of Marines. There is, however, the fact that you're paying 85 points MORE for the bikers. Let's try this again a little more equally.

Max Marines vs. Reduced Bikers
For this Scenario, we see the TSA and TSD at the same numbers, but now we're shooting at Bike Squad Gimp (BSG) which consists of the Sarge and 5 bikers. While BSG is 5 points cheaper than the Marine units, it is also shorter by 4 wounds. Will they fair better than their foot-slogging brethren?

BSG's survivability is most definitely reduced. At long range they can expect to last 8.1 turns, and at short a mere 4.01.

So at first look, they're not worth the cost savings after all.

Plasma: The Gift that Keeps On Burning
Here's the proverbial rub: remember that bikers get to move flat out, giving them a 3+ cover save wherever they go. This, at the very least gives them an extra round of survivability against AP1, 2, or 3 fire. Meaning that our Gimped squad is still only going to take .74 unsaved wounds vs. 3 & 1/3 wounds when targeted by 10 shots. And 20 shots? You just lost over half your tact squad, derpy while the Gimp'd unit only lost two guys at most.

Other Factors
There are, as always, other factors to consider. Tac Marines are a little more versatile, are better suited to terrain heavy boards, aren't slowed down by non-biker ICs, can bring a long a nice Transport, etc. etc. Bikers on the other hand can bring a nice multi-melta, zip around at insane speeds, and simply look cool. Bikers are also prone to wreaking on terrain and require a good point sink on your HQ (135 or 205) to use as scoring units.

All told, I do feel they're worth the slots. So have at it boys - speed is fun!