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!

CP 2020: Orbital Crystal Cybernetics

Note: Originally inspired by the Orbital Crystal Cyberarms in Chromebook 2

Want something a little more chill and than just an off the shelf arm? Sure it's chrome - but it's not crystal.

New from Dyanamic Corp is our line of Orbital Crystal Cybernetics. All cyberware is painstakingly designed and enhanced with mono-molecular crystals during the manufacturing process, orbital crystals give you a more durable product that is genuinely cutting edge.

This feature can be applied to standard arms, legs, and Alpha full body Conversions. Cost is doubled + 1000 euro. All SDP (damaged & irreparable) are doubled. In addition the users is given a +2 to Wardrobe and Style. This becomes a -5 if paired with any visible non-Orbital Crystal limb. All Orbital Crystal cybernetics come with a "clear" plastic protective overcoat at no charge, and cannot be replaced with any other option.

Misconceptions and Weapon Choices for Tau

I keep seeing a lot of... well let's just say bad advice for potential Tauists out there. The largest of them seem to be in the form of weapon choices, and all seem to stem from a few major misconceptions. Let me key them up here:

1. Tau should never be "in assault range" for an opponent. We die quickly
2. 5th Edition is heavily focused on both Troops and Mech. That means Transports
3. You're going to be fighting a lot of MEQs. Marines are just the most popular army out there, deal with it.

So then - if I'm facing a lot of mechanized marines, but need to stay at least... oh let's say 13" (assuming they roll a 1 on their run roll) from my enemies at all times what are my options? Well we need to evaluate them on four different prongs of points of criteria. The more we acheieve, the better the weapon

• Range
• MEQ Killing
• Rhino Killing
• Land Raider Killing

So I'll be revisiting my earlier attempts at evaluating each weapon, plus discussion potential synergies along the way. This will be a fun ride.

All my mathhammer is caculated on a spreadsheet that allows me to take a given combat situation (BS, Weapon stats, # shots, #target models in unit, save of target, and toughness of target) to calculate the number of shots landed, # wounds dealt, and number of unsaved wounds. For vehicles it will calculate the percentage change of glancing and penetrating hits.

Forgeworld Daedalus (Fluff)

Magos Explorator ship The Seeker of the Ways, led by Magos Dellan Nayan departed from Mars in 571.M41 to follow up on a ruin found in the Western end of the galaxy. In the warp, they where caught by a violent warp storm. The navigator steered them as best he could and the managed to emerge from the storm safely. They emerged far off course, and found their way back cut by further warp storms. An ancient signal beacon began to signal that they were near an ancient Forgeworld. Forgeworld Daedalus.

Nayan ordered the ship into orbit and began to scan the planet. There where no traces of life on the planet below. The landing party was able to quickly acertain that Daedalus was abandoned sometime in M25 for reasons unknown. The inhabitants fled so quickly that while they brought much of the equipment that would truely be prized by Adeptus Mechanicus - Standard Template Constructors and their databases they where forced to leave behind bulkier machinery and military goods. The most notable: A fully constructed Titan legion.

In all, the explorators found six Emperor-class titans, twelve Warlord-class titans, twenty-one Reaver-class titans, and thirty Warhound-class titans. Nayan set his most skilled adepts to tend to the great army, while the rest of his team began working on restoring power generators and food production on the planet.

After five years the planet was easily supporting its small population of castaways, and production was beginning anew on the planet. After another three years, the warp storms surrounding their solar system abated, and contact made with the Imerpium again. First they established their location – near the Galactic South , East of the Perseus Arm. They also discovered the current year: 945.M41. They had spent nearly four hundred years in the Warp.

Contact was then sent to the Fabricator General on Mars, describing what has been found on the planet. Nayan was officially granted temporary rulership of Daedalus until reinforcements arrived. Adeptus Mechanicus sent recruits from around the Imperium to Daedalus, as well as a significant number of Collegia Titanicus. The Magos assigned rule to Daedalus, Magos Elax, took command when he arrived in 954.M41 and Nayan gratefully handed over the administrative duties of the planet and began to personally lead the exploration of the system.

To ensure the system thrived, Imperial colony ships were sent to Daedalus and the other inhabitable planets in the system. Defenses from the Imperial Guard, Imperial Fleet, and Imperial Navy where all sent and established bases as well.

The High Lords of Terra also ordered a Founding of Space Marines drawn from a classified gene seed to be established on the moon Danus, a planet chosen for the fact that it is cold but inhabitable planet, populated by numerous creatures to test the mettle of the planet's colonists and provide future recruits. A company of Iron Hands where sent with the newly created scouts to assist in the establishment of their chapter until sometime in 981.M41. The new Chapter Master known only as Ellerus, named the chapter the Lost Angels.

By 015.M42 Daedalus was in full production, and had just produced its first fleet of ships capable of carrying the Titans to other worlds. The Lost Angles have reached their full contingent of one-thousand brothers and have begun assisting in actions through out the Imperium. The newly re-colonized planets where doing well, and trade between the planets to the Forgeworld was proceeding smoothly.

In 052.M42 the defense forces saw their first full-fledged military operation as a fleet of Dark Eldar pirates raided the system. Both the Guard and the Lost Angels where forced to quickly adapt to ship-to-ship and rapid response attacks. The Guard began to focus on quick drops using grav-chutes, while the Angels focused on fast maneuvering bikes, land speeders, and teleportation via Terminator Armour. After a series of battles spanning the system, the invaders where successfully repelled by the end of 054.M42 though smaller raids continue.

Heavy Guns: Marines 1500

Thinking around today on a Heavy Guns list, at 1500. Heavy Guns, because of their reliance on a Land Raider, almost requires Marines over DA. Granted I can bring Raiders in on DA in Heavy, but I want the MM and the option to dedicate the transport on the fly.

HQ: Captain with Plasma Pistol & Chainsword on Bike

Troops 1,2, 3:
3 bikes, 2x w/flamers

Troops 4,5,6:
3 bikes, 2x w/Plamsa

Elite 1:
Terminator Squad (or assault squad, player's choice) in Dedicated Land Raider with Multi-Melta

Heavy 1:
Land Raider with Multi-Melta.

That gives me two big AV14 targets to draw fire and clog fire lanes for my bikes. In the interim I've got lots of plasma and template weapons floating around to deal with MEQ and Horde.

Fast 1000 & 500

The fast 1500 got me thinking... what would my list look like at 1000?

Master
3 bikers, 2x w/Plasma, Attack Biker w/MM
3 bikers, 2x w/Flamers Attack Biker w/MM
2x 3 bikers, 2x w/Flamers
1x 3 bikers, 2x w/Plasma

At the lower score I expect MM & plasma to be less important but hey, I'm new.

How low can I go & still like the list? 500 Points baby:

Master, this time in land speeder
3 bikers + Attack Bike w/Auto Cannon
3 bikers, 1 w/Flamer

And it still holds true to my Turn 3 rule :D

Fast 1500

Master of the Ravenwing on Jetbike

3 Troop units of 3 Jetbikes, 2 of each unit is upgraded with Plasma Guns, each unit as an attack bike
3 Troop units of 3 Jetbikes, 2 of each unit is upgraded with Flamer each unit as an attack bike

1 Fast Attack unit of 3 Jetbikes, Two upgraded with Plasma Guns

That would give me 12 scoring units. Not too shabby.

And yes, this is rather ripped off from Stalek at YTTH.

First Strikes: The Dark Angels Battleforce

OK - since I plan on using a great number of Bikes and Attack Bikes, it only makes good sense to invest in the Dark Angles Battle Force. But before I go there, let me digress a bit...

As I began looking towards this army, I did my research a little backwards... I went out through various other websites with army lists and made an effort to find an army list (and thus army) that matched what I wanted:

1. Marines
2. Fast
3. Lots of Bikes
4. Semi-Competitive

And from there that lead me to the Ravenwing. That all said - I was lost. Confused. I had no idea how I could do things looking at the model, such as add on flamers and plasma guns. Keep in mind I've never played any sort of Marine before, so my confusion was enhanced.

So I went to a few other Marine players I know, and their advice all centered around the same confusion I had: that the twin-linked bolter on the front of the bike was where the upgrades went. Finally, as I was speaking to an... acquaintance he began steering me away from Dark Angels and towards Codex Marines. It was there I got my answer and saw that the upgrade weapon was indeed equipped on the Marine, not the bike.

Moving on, the Dark Angles box set is surprisingly incomplete. Do not misunderstand - the models are complete, including the gorgeous upgrade sprues. But I thus far have not been able to find the bolt pistols, much less the weapons upgrades for the Bike Sergant or Bikers. Granted I've not looked the hardest, but it is an issue.

OK. Now onto modeling the bike and lessons learned:

First, assemble and paint things separately as much as you can. In my mind this should be the order:

1. Assemble and paint the wheels.
2. Prime the main body. This is the two halves and the undercarriage (where the foot pedals are).
   
3. Assemble the two halves of the main body of the bike. Roll the bike around while the glue sets to ensure you wheels spin after the glue dries :D
4. Add the undercarriage (foot pedals bit)
5. Paint the bike
6. Prime the front armor plate and the twin-lined bolters
   
7. Paint the bike and the front armor plate.
8. Glue the front armor plate and guns to the bike.
9. Prime and assemble the rider
10. Glue the bike to the base*

*Or magnetize it to the base, so when you're not playing you can zoom it around like a really expensive Hot Wheel :-D

My only other thought concerns the autocannon v. meltagun options on the landspeeder and attack bike: Looks like these things just snap on, making it very easy to change options as I want.

The Unforgiven Angels

Yeah I seem to open more blogs up than is neccessary. Today I'm starting a blog for my Ravenwing army for Warhammer 40k, which more often than not I may just model/paint Ravenwing and play as Codex Marines.

About my angels:

I'm going to be playing fairly heavy Ravenwing style: mostly bikers, play it fast and play it hard. If I'm not wiped off the board or I haven't won by turn 3, then I'm doing something wrong. I plan to run a few different vairants on the same army them, as I buy the models:

Fast
This variant will emphasisze speed over everything else. In my mind it's going to be an HQ slot plus 6 slots of three bikers and 3 fast attack slots of attack bikes for SM or for DA just do 6-9 slots of Bikes + 1 attack bike. Six bikers with Plasma, Six with Plasma. Attack bikes with Multi-Melta.

Hard, Fast, Kinda reckless. As I move up in points in this army style I'll likely end up playing DA over SM, so I can bolster each unit up to six bikes, then add on a Landspeeder which for DA would count as a scoring unit. Mech on an objective baby.

Fast & Hard
As above but this time I'm looking at scaling down some of my bikes and adding in a unit of Terminators. The bikes engage quickly and violently, but when the Termiantors come on the teleport to a hot zone around the bikers and wreak havoc.

Heavy Guns
Ahh.. this is where it can get fun. Adding in two land raiders with multi-meltas gives me three major benefits:

1. I give my opponent some big & scary AV 14 to waste time shooting at.
2. I can close off traffic lanes to enemy movement
3. I can give my bikes some nice cover.

The plan in this scenario is to park the tanks in the middle of the battle field near an objective, preferably with the objective behind the tanks! If I'm playing Codex SM two taking one of each of the terminator squads will still allow my teleport backup (as above) and still give me flexibility. As I go into the game, I simply ask if they have anything to screw up deep strike and if they do, the termies deploy in their dedicated transport. If not, then they teleport in with the transports starting on the board Turn 1, along with everything else but the terminators.

Fast, hard, and relentless. Like I said I expect no game to last beyond Turn 3.

List Building: Re-Thinking the Goal List

OK I need to sit down and really think about how I need to build my list.

Jobs: Lures, Armor Killers, MEQ Killers, Crowd Killers, Speed Bumps

Lures: A lure's job is to sit somewhere and draw enemy fire. So far these fire magnets have typically been things like my Broadsides and Pathfinders. And while I'm not fond of losing those units I can deal with it when I have to.

Armor Killers: Shadowsun, anything that can be equipped with a fusion blaster, Railguns on Broadsides and a Railhead.

MEQ Killers: Anything that's AP3. Mostly just Crisis suits with Pulse Rifles, but an Ion Head will do in a pinch. Rail Rifles on Pathfinders will also work here.

Crowd Killers: Lots of shots, preferably AP 4 or 5, the higher strength the better. That means the Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, the Cyclic Ion Blaster, Burst Cannons, Flamers, Ion Cannon (again), Submunition Shots, SMS Shots and to a lesser degree the Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, and a lot of Pulse Rifles at 12".

Speed Bumps: Yeah... that's the Kroot. Maybe the Stealth Suits.

OK so now we need to think of how we want to position these units:

Lures: Pathfinders for certain. Maybe deep-strike Shadowsun early if that can work in my favor. Other potential lures would be a small band of Firewarriors or a gun-drone squad.

Armor Killers: Shadowsun would be one dedicated armor killer, even if she's a lure. I don't fancy using my Crisis Suits for dedicated anti-armor, with the exception of forward armor (stuff that runs into my lines). My Piranhas, while traditionally used for objective contesting, are going to be pushed more to anti-armor. Naturally Raiheads and Broadsides will fit in here too.

MEQ Killers: This is going to be at least three Crisis Suits. If I want to go dedicated then a standard team of three with Pulse Rifles, Targeting Arrays, and... something? I could toss a fusion blaster on the suit but without the multi-trackers I'm forced to choose. By moving this to an HQ slot I can put the trackers as hardwired. If I wasn't using Shadowsun I could make two identical HQ units like this. If I wanted to invest in Farsight (I don't) I could theoretically move this up to seven bodyguards PLUS another three for the second HQ slot PLUS Farsight himself for a whopping ELEVEN dedicated MEQ/Vehicle killers. Tempting but honestly that's a bit out of my budget right now. Also in the MEQ slot I really think I want to field an Ion head, and I'll likely have a few Rail Rifles. I have no aspirations of the Rail Rifles living long enough to Kill a MEQ but hey - it's a threat. Theoretically I could also run some Vespids here but... meh...

Crowd Killers: Burst cannons, and lots of them. Where I can't fit a burst cannon I'm going to put in an SMS or a Missile Pod. Whatever I put in here must be able to make it up to the forward lines and quickly. I could start another unit of Piranhas with burst cannons (three would give me 12 Str 5 AP 5 shots, 3 twin linked... hmm). On the other hand I can put SMS on the Ion Head. This would give me a 24" range that I can pump seven shots into, or I can fall back to a safer distance and pump just three. On a Railhead I'd probably load up Burst Cannons to offset the cost and give it something better to do after I've removed most armor.

Tau vs. Witchhunters - 1500

Farmpunk has the photo bat-rep up here

All things aside - I think my biggest flaw here is that I was playing a strategy that I wasn't equipped for. The strategy I was playing was supposed to be a careful influx of units followed by a turn-5 onslaught of objective-grabbers, but I neglected to bring my second Pirhana and I neglected to equip a Positional Replay.

I should have been playing a lot more agressive than my normal style and remembered to advance on objectives a lot more.

All that aside this game really helped me get more of a feel for Commander Shadowsun. A lot of people rightfully feel she should be a back-end castle. I personally think that she has a good showing in a more forward attack role and can support a few Crisis and/or Stealth Teams with her leadership bubble.

Shadowsun pops the armor the suits shoots the troops.

Scatter: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Deepstrike

Deep strike is scary, that's for sure. You bring a unit in but there's a chance of the unit being deployed, placed somewhere completely useless, or not arriving for another turn. Granted some armies make Deep Strike even worse but if you're fortunate enough to not have to deal with those issues, Deep Strike can make a glorious entrance.

The Odds: To Hit or Not to Hit
There is, roughly, a one in three chance of landing spot on to your target and a two-thirds chance of "scattering" in one of 360 degrees worth of drift. This means that - by the numbers - you're most likely to drift some distance away.

While this is fairly random, you do have the ability to guess just how far you'll drift. We'll come back to this latter.

The Odds: So Close...
We've established that we're likely to NOT land where we want we have to figure out just how far we're going to drift.

% Chance of Results on 2D6

Dice Result	Exact Roll	Less Than or Equal To	Greater Than or Equal To
2	2.77%	2.77%	100%
3	5.55%	8.33%	97.22%
4	8.33%	16.66%	91.66%
5	11.11%	27.77%	83.33%
6	13.88%	41.66%	72.22%
7	16.66%	58.33%	58.33%
8	13.88%	72.22%	41.66%
9	11.11%	83.33%	27.77%
10	8.33%	91.66%	16.66%
11	5.55%	97.22%	8.33%
12	2.77%	100%	2.77%

What this essentially means to us in terms of Deep Striking is that we have the highest odds of drifting 7" away from our intended landing zone and a little over a 41% chance of drifting over 8" away.

The Landing
This is how I've begun to calculate my drift: First I calculate the "fire" range of my deep-striking unit: I subtract 8 from the range of the weapons on the unit I want to fire and call this my "effective range" for the deep strike. Then I look for the Landing Zone. A Landing Zone will be approximately 12-14" of mostly clear or at the very least just has no models or impassible terrain. Models, impassible, and/or table edges reduce my odds of a good landing.

Landing Zones are then evaluated by the following criteria:

• Targets of Opportunity: How many critical targets are there within the effective range of that unit"? How many targets that I can hit - period - are there near that landing zone?
  
• Targets of Reach: On the next turn, are there any units I can reach once I can move?
• Safety of Landing Zone: How safe is that zone as I drift from it? Will I come under heavy fire? Do I run into a chance for a mishap or a Dangerous Terrain test?

The way I factor this is by a Safety Estimate. Simply draw an imaginary line between your preferred target and extending directly back from your model, then reduce the line to approximately 7" in both directions from your model. This is your forward/rear axis. Bisect that line across your model with another 7" line to create a left/right axis. Since you have only a 2/3 chance of drifting at all and a 25% chance of drifting into any of these quadrants you then have only a 16% chance of drifting into any given quadrant. That means that if your left-rear quadrant is filled with enemies you - in reality - have roughly only a 16.6% chance of landing in them. If you're deep striking right by the table edge you have roughly a 33% chance of drifting off that edge. Not as bad of odds, now is it?

Tripping the Drift
Now we've drifted and, with luck, no more than 7" away from my original target. If you drifted towards your opponent you're likely in a better range. Drifts that are covered by the front half of your axis are still likely to leave you in a decent range of your opponent. If you drift away you may still have a chance, but at the very least you will have to move and shoot next turn.

The Shadowsun Files - The Shadow Bomber

There are in my mind three key roles that commander Shadowsun can fill:

• A deep-striking sure-shot killer (the Shadow Bomber)
  
• A key-unit protector (Castle Shadow)
• A morale booster (Shadow Leader)

These three roles all can interact, but in my mind you're often going to be best served not relying on that: pick one and expect that to be her role. Today we focus on my favorite role: the Shadow Bomber

The Shadow Bomber
Deep in the back field behind some sort of cover it sits... cocky and confidant. Or perhaps it's some piece of armor or a gunner that just took out your rail gun platform. Maybe it's just some niggly little Tech Priest that is just on your nerves.

It must die.

This is where the Shadow Bomber comes in. The Shadow Bomber tactic gives you at least one good solid attempt at taking out some key unit and making sure it or at least hurts. Think about it: two strength 8 AP 1 hits, not a lot gonna live through that.

How it Works
Keep Shadowsun in reserve and declare her as a deep-striking unit. Most armies I've played against so far like to deploy a fair chunk of their army in one go, which makes this process easier. By the end of Turn 1 you'll have a fair idea of what needs to be targeted.

When Shadowsun rolls up for deployment from reserve you need to pick your landing zone. I personally like to deploy her about 3" away from a vehicle or 6" away from non-vehicle units. The reason, of course, is scatter -

The Downside
The downside to the Shadow Bomber is that if that she doesn't succeed at ending her target, she's left fairly open. Granted she has three drones she can drop wounds on but that's only a stop-gap measure. Another problem is if said target is also surrounded by other nasties such as a Space Marine squad and you don't have any difficult or blocking terrain you can jump in, on, or behind to protect yourself. Granted you can easily take out two Marines a round on her own, but that's just two.

So then when is your best opportunity to use the bomb? On a big, beefy two-wound target or on an isolated bit of armor. Transports are risky, but if you can melta blast and get away the go for it. Stay about 5" out and you're solid.

The other downfall is the Deep Strike itself. If you're not landing in plenty of clear terrain then you run the risk of mishap. You also run the risk of drifting out of her effective range: remember on the turn you deep strike you don't get a move phase movement. I like to eye-ball a spot about 6" out. if I drift, there's a good chance I'll still be within the 12" of the fusion blasters. If I'm really lucky I'll be in Melta range.

After the Bomb
Once she's done her job, your opponent should have a dead critical model and, if you're lucky, you'll still have the good commander and a few drones left over. But odds are she's stranded near your opponent's deployment zone and possibly penned in by a lot of nasty things between her and the safety of numbers.

This, surprisingly, is a good thing.

No matter where she is, she is a big shiny unique sitting largely by herself and that makes her a juicy target. People will be gunning for her. On top of that if she's close to the enemy lines a lot of deployments will be happening in her vicinity. If she's closer to your side of the board, jump her towards the deployment zone especially if you're lucky enough to be able to JSJ at a larger squad of... well... ANYTHING. Again she has a good chance of instant-killing two MEQs a round.

If she does die this honestly doesn't bother me. Since she comes in from reserves it's not a guarantee when the bomb will drop, and by then she provides a good lure - one or two turns devoted to taking her out after she's done her job gives another unit one or two turns to kill things off.

Synergies
While on the surface she works alone, there are a few great areas where she would work and play well with others.

Horde Killers: Any unit loaded with Burst Cannons, Missile Pods, and/or Flamers work well here. They can deep strike in behind her and take care of any other sort of units.

Pathfinders/Broadsides/Railheads: Let's face it: these things tend to be priority targets for our opponents and for good reason. So when they load up a unit specifically to deal with these key units, let Shadowsun take care of them.

The Shadowsun Files: Overview

Of all Tau units, Shadowsun sticks out to me. She's barely used on any list - especially a "competitive" list and it's fairly obvious why: she has an effective 18" strike range with her two guns but her stealth field generator really only protects up to about 21," and she cannot join another unit as an IC nor can you (reasonably) have an IC such as an Etherial or monot Crisis Commander join her unit because then the commander becomes visible to the free world.

So then... is she any good? I think she is. In fact my last few games she's proved to be a very critical portion of my army. Over the next few weeks I hope (hope) to post a few articles writing about her, her abilities, and where the Pin Up Girl of the Third Sphere fits in with our armies.

Tau'va!

I swear! That's not happened to me before!

Was priming last night using my stock Color Safe Green and just as I neared done... "pfft" nothing.

ARGH

And to add insult to injury as I primed the only models I black-prime (my stealth suits) I realized I had left the antenna off of three of them.

On the upside I did prime the good commander Shadowsun a nice white. I'm going to paint her a little closer to the prescribed color scheme in the codex for her model, but will be adding in a silvery wash or something then I'm going to do a gloss clearcoat. I think it'll work out well.

Bat Rep Dumps

I really do not have the time or focus to sit down and write batreps the way many people will (but I hope to have a link to my second game as soon as farmpunk has it up) so instead I thought I'd do a bit of a summary of my first three games.

Game 1: SM/Tau vs. Tyranids (about 1500 points) Dawn of War / Capture & Control
My first game could have gone far better. I showed up with a 1000 point army at LGS hoping for a pickup game. As I chilled Colin, the owner introduced me to a veteran 'Nids player who only had 1500 points. However a college kid with about 530ish points of Space Marines (from Black Reach) showed up, and we partnered.

Now we lost - naturally. SM kid was more interested in list building his Guard army than the game. But I did learn a few things. Most notably is that you need a speed bump: I had no Kroot but the Marines got nicely in the way. I managed to kill off a significant number of nids but when the game ended we lost one objective to 0.

Game 2: Tau vs. Witchhunters (1500 Points) - Dawn of War / Seize Ground
This game came out a lot nicer than I expected. First I had a nice mountain butted right up against a my deployment edge that I was able to park my Broadside on the apex of. Commander Shadowsun snuck behind a mountain and everything else stayed in reserve. The 'Hunters rolled in. Shadowsun proved to do quite well - dropping two (three?) land raiders on her own. The Broadside never got to do anything fun as a fracking assassin dropped right in next to him. The irony? She had 14" of mountain to cross.

My big lesson? While I held too much in reserve my biggest flaw was I had no way to ensure things coming in a more metered fashion - such as the Positional Relay.

Game 3: Tau vs. Space Wolves - 1750 point - Pitched Battle / Annihilation
Yeah... see... I wasn't holding nearly any hope. This game happened today, so it's a little fresher.

He was fielding Canis, a single Land Raider, a drop pod full of Termies, and a whole bunch of... footsloggers?!?! OK - Wolf mistake of the day.

I deployed my HQ slot (equipped with a Pos. Relay that I had already decided to write off with the Annihilation scenario) and dropped my Broadside on top of another giant mountain. My kroot lined up outside a forest until I was reminded by someone outside the game that the could have infiltrated. Ah well - coulda woulda shoulda.

He lined up... well.. everything except the drop pod. WOOHOO Targets.

I infiltrated my path finders behind a mountain with three of them peeking around the corner with their Rail Rifles.

The game went poorly up until the end of turn 5. My pathfinders dropped in turn 2 to Canis inflicting only one wound in return. Shadowsun deep stuck in and finished him off. The Kroot died (horribly), and a Pirhana went BOOM and left a crater. Biggest upshot was the massive irradication of the drop-podded terminators by Shadowsun, the Pirhanas, and a Devilfish.

Turn 6 things turned around as the 3-turn assault my HQ was tied up in ended in victory. My Devilfish fired a submunition round that took out a third of a massive collection of Wolves (including a termie). While two Devilfish, the remaining Pirhana, and a unit of Stealth Suits whittled the unit down to two, Shadowsun killed off half of a VERY annoying unit that had a damn missile launcher that had been pegging at key units all game.

Turn 7 saw Shadowsun finishing off the annoying unit, the railhead killing off the damn Land Raider, and the Crisis HQ and the two Devilfish killing off the vast majority of one entire Troop unit. In the end? He was left with two Space Wolves (not units... Models). That... didn't last through the end of Turn 8.

My first win!

Neglect

Hey - I've been busy on WH40k stuff, but I've been neglectful of this blog.

Quick link to show you some of what I've done

Video: Creating Flechette Dischargers

Little Lumps of Gray Plastic: What I've Learned about Painting

OK - I apparently have a mental block against the correct spelling of the word gray (I tend to spell it grey). Forgive the spelling mistakes if I don't catch them as I go.

I stopped by Louisville Game Shop the other day on the off chance I could impulse buy (I LOVE impulse shopping - so much more fun some days) for my army and happened upon a friendly (non-tourney) game of 40k. On one side I found a beautifully painted Tyranid army fighting little lumps of gray space marines. Where the two armies melded together in assault looked like someone hand vomited gray across the board and littered with green and purple.

And this got me thinking about painting my own army, which I am sadly far behind on.

First there are these two articles: Paint to Play and Paint by Mistake which talk about at least getting a non-lump-of-gray-plastic army on the field. I'm trying to move to this philosophy of painting for the vast majority of my armies.

The bit about basing the army got me thinking then of a way to mark my units more visibly than unit markings: painting their bases . The top of the base will be green, but then most of the units that gets a base (mostly fire warriors, pathfinders, XV-8s, and kroot) will have a ring around their base with a color signifying their unit and/or stripes on that ring.

Following that I will begin designating certain models as "extra-care projects." These will all be carefully hand painted then assembled and are models that I especially care about. Mostly they will be unique models, etherials of any sort, or Forgeworld models but occasionally I may just simply want to paint a standard unit of fire warriors really well.

However I will never have any models that has at least not been moderately painted. I think in the end it'll look better than just lumps of solid color plastic - especially unpainted gray.

Modding on the Cheap: Shield Drones and Vehicle Upgrade Bitz at little or no cost to you!

OK - as I was working on adding some bitz to my vehicles to represent my favorite upgrades (disruption pod, multi-tracker, and flechette dischargers) I began to look at various bits and went on a small spree of ordering to buy what I needed.

In the course of this spending spree I ended up looking a lot closer at some other kits I bought (such as Shadowsun) and did a proverbial facepalm: I could have saved so much time and money. Here's how:

What you will need:

• Any model that includes a shield drone or
• A Gun Drone Squad (four gun drones)
• A Shield Drone bit pack (four shield drones)

How this works:
First you make your shield drones. This is a simple process. You take the disc from the Gun Drone and then add the shield generator to the bottom of the drone and the metal aerials to the top of the drone. Repeat as needed. You will now be left with the following bits on the sprues:

• Two Pulse Carbines (with holes on the side)
• One aerial
• One connector bit

The pulse carbines can be cut in the groove between the "gun" and "grenade launcher" parts, and again flush behind the grenade launcher part, leaving you a small mostly rectangular piece with a small round nub on top. The two of these together can be attached to your vehicle to represent your flechette dischargers.

The aerial is a simple glue on top to represent the multi-tracker.

The connector bit gets the two side nubs nipped off as flush as you can. On the underside of the vehicles (where the flight stands go) is a hole just big enough for the nub to fit in. The flight stand for the vehicle then can slot in easily.

Granted the mods will not win you any prizes, but they're a cheap and effective way to get yourself WYSISYG compliant.

Building Blocks: Vehicles

I've been thinking a bit about army construction. The Tau are definitely an army that relies on synergy but there has to almost be a strong mnemonic method of army construction. So I've started looking at what I call "standard builds" I've seen in many army lists.

Vehicles very much lend themselves to this aspect.

Take for example the Devilfish as an objective grabber. Stock it's 80 points + 60 points of troops for 140. However I have seen very few army lists that leave it stock. Most commonly I see the disruption pod, multi-tracker, and quite potentially the flechette discharger. So then this "standard package" becomes about 165 points.

The same plan can be applied to other vehicles. My standard Piranha build is the fusion blaster upgrade, disruption pod, and flechette dischargers so about 80 points. That means a team will run me between 80 and 400 points.

So then how does this apply to you, the army list builder?

Simple: Sit down and look at your common vehicle configurations and make a nice sheet that you can reference. Give each configuration a name as we do with Crisis suits, their point values, and maybe notes on how they can work within your army. Then try and estimate how many points you want to devote to each core area. If, for example, you decide you want to devote 300 points to heavy support, you may find that your preferred Hammerhead configuration will fit in with two of your standard Broadside suits. That will tell you then if you want to up the point block there to fit an extra suit or 'head and if so, what other "block" will you have to pull from.

Shadowsun Thoughts

I've been thinking a bit about the pinup-girl of the tau, Commander Shadowsun. I - in theory - like her rule set but I see where she can be a big turnoff to most players. Her sculpt is cool and while my plan is to use the model as my own custom commander (gotta love magnets) I was wondering just how well can she play in 5e?

Comparisons to a Shas'o:
I guess the first stop on any thought train like this has to be a numbers crunch. Weapon and Ballistic Skills as well as her number of Attacks match the Shas'o, with her Strength, Toughness, and Wounds are lower though - technically from the command drone - she does somewhat match on wounds (more later). She does have a higher Initiative though. Both have leadership 10.

When we move to the suit though she starts to shine a bit more. She for one has some equipment that is not normally seen on the other suits: her command link drone which let's her share her leadership (and adding an extra wound that can be distributed) and her stealth features make her a lot more formidable. In all the points even out with her coming in slightly behind - though I do worry that she will fall behind without the ability to join other units or have body guards.

Update on my last post

OK I'm a bit of an idiot some days, but I was sleep deprived when I put that last post together. Here's my new bitz plan:

• Multi-Tracker - the big antenna that's included with the models :D
  
• Flechette Dischargers: Still the grenades
• Disruption Pod: Shield drone metal bit, hole filled in with green stuff.

Bitz for Vehicles

I've been thinking about just... well... HOW I'm going to represent all these accessories that I'm going to be slapping onto my vehicles and in all honesty: I'm NOT that creative.

So OK here's everything I plan on putting on my vehicles and the planned bitz for them:

• Multi-Tracker: Antenna from a Gun Drone
• Flechette Discharger: Grenades from Fire Warriors
• Disruption Pod: XV-8 Shield Generator?
  

The Holidays

Oh how the holidays were good to me. I netted:

1. One pack of pathfinders with rail rifles
2. One pack of standard pathfinders
   
3. One pathfinder shas'ui
4. The Codex (finally)
5. Citadel hand drill
6. Citadel files
7. A few paints & inks
8. many brushes
9. An XV-8 Crisis suit
10. And Commander Shadowsun :)
    

Update: Painting

I've recently made a change in my painting style (again). The process now looks a bit like this:

1. Separate all parts for a given model (or collection of models that all have the same parts)
2. Base coat with White or Black primer
3. Coat with ColorSafe Green or Black
4. Detail & Highlight
5. Assemble
   
6. Clear Coat
7. Base

Here's hoping this will make my life easier