Battle Report: Space Wolves vs. Thousand Sons

Hakr Varghoss and his crushing wave approached the castle ruins with a single battle tank across the valley covering the left flank. Scores of horribly stoic rubric marines were moving amidst the rubble now, driven onward by various mutated mystics and accompanied by a large contingent of tactical dreadnought marines, many of them bristling with heavy weapons. Hakr and his Sea Wolves had no real tactical mission on Kriegsmie save the outright extermination of the corrupted witches and their nightmarish charges. Death to the traitors! Death to the Thousand Sons, in the name of Russ!

As the Space Wolves rhinos approached the enemy line, the traitor terminators fired a volley of plasma beams, blowing apart their mounted storm bolters. In response, each rhino launched a series of smoke charges, obscuring their position as they shifted to the right in formation. The Land Speeders hovered over the wolves' battle group and opened fire with their multimeltas, one of them hitting their mark. To their left, the wolves battle tanks and attack bike squadron found targets amongst a far tower and began to fire on them.

As the wolves rhinos passed a section of ruined wall, they slowed to a halt, pulling up tight behind one another to give cover to their disembarking passengers. Grey Hunters and Blood Claws stepped onto the low grass behind their pack leaders. The rune priest's hunter pack emerged on the enemy side of their transport, opening fire on a nearby squad of rubric marines. A mixture of haste and animosity sent their deadliest shots astray, as only a single enemy marine fell from concentrated bolter fire. The rune priest himself emerged on the other side and began to chant, bringing an obscuring cloud of smoke from the ground to slowly enravel the his grey hunter squad. It was too late, however, as enchanted bolts from the rubric marines found every last grey hunter, each screaming impact a horrible reminder to the other wolves of the arcane power of their enemy. Corrupted terminators charged into the sides of their transports, pounding and cutting with assault weapons to no avail; the armor held, praise Russ! The rune priest sensed a disturbance nearby and quickly turned to his left to see a pair of mutated warp witches approach, one of them slithering unnaturally fast into a rubble heap next to Hakr Varghoss and his hunter pack. When the witch with wings raised his arms and prepared to curse Varghoss' squad, the rune priest fell to his knees into deep concentration, chanting even louder, the power of his wolf totem barely able to keep whatever magicks the traitor sorceror was using at bay. Before the battle leader could react, the multiple-breasted serpentine monstrosity pounced and felled Varghoss with one sweep of his demon weapon. Displaying little surprise at the sudden attack, the pack responded in trained unison, their power fists finding purchase and crushing the terrible thing into violet chunks.

On the other side of the battlefield, a space wolves drop pod descended to the planet's surface just behind the enemy line. Clouds of smoke obscured the enormous venerable dreadnought as he stepped from the rocket pod and prepared to fire. Heavy bolter fire from the battle tanks and bike pack dropped several rubric marines nearby as their attendant sorcerors turned their horrible magics on the shrouded dreadnought.

Despite the loss of their leader, the Sea Wolves prepared to counter-attack. They would need to close the distance between them and the enemy in order to avoid the deadly magical bolter fire now so thick in the air. As a land speeder flew overhead bathing the enemy in flame, the blood claws squad and the rune priest waded into the traitor terminators, destroying several of them and sending the enemy into disarray. In mere moments the confused survivors had been cut down and the victorious wolves stepped back behind their rhino to regroup. Meltagun fire from the surviving grey hunters and a second landspeeder cut down the last slaaneshi witch. In the distance, the venerable dreadnought smashed into a squad of rubric marines, killing several. An enormous warp construct slowly approached the melee, its arms already forming cutting torches and saws in anticipation, the dreadnought whirled and sent the beast flying with a single hit from its oversized claw. The tanks and bikes continued to fire into a squad of rubric marines that were now crossing the battlefield to assist in the fight against the grey hunters and blood claws. Suddenly a pack of wolf scouts emerged from cover behind a third unit of thousand sons and charged into them. Though their sorceror leader downed two of the scouts with his warp weapon, the scouts continued their ferocious assault and destroyed several rubric marines.

Most of the enemy witches had been destroyed, but the wolves continued their attack, desperate to destroy any trace of their ancient nemeses. The blood claws, grey hunters, and wolf scouts brought down the last rubric marine squad and sorceror, as the dreadnought continued to send enemies flying, including a unit of obliterators that teleported in nearby. The incursion on Kriegsmie had been stopped for now, and the Sea Wolves returned to their transports.

Thanks to Robert for bringing his beautiful army up to BFG for a fun 2k annihilation game Thursday night. He had some bad luck at several crucial moments, and the space wolves were able to grab and hold on as only they can, wiping out the thousand sons to the very last dusty zombie. I think they would have had a much harder time against his usual 'ard list, what with all the obliterators and lascannon havocs. Anyways, good game, it's always fun to send two fully painted armies against one another no matter the outcome.

Post-holiday roundup

I've played a home game or two against c2 using space wolves, who as usual have performed pretty hit-and-miss. The last game we played was very bloody, and c2 was ahead all the way up until the end, when her demon prince, bike sorcerer, and khorne bikers all charged into my drop pod terminator squad and somehow got their asses handed back to them. The wolf guard themselves were wiped out in the fray, but the battle leader with lightning claws survived to burst through cover and wipe out the last two survivors of her own big terminator squad, throwing enough points back my way to seal the solid victory. After being slaughtered by her army last week, it was good to see the wolves push back, if only a little bit.

Speaking of the chaos army, I finished painting the bike sorcerer and the 10th terminator. The black spray primer really screwed me on his bike's right side and clumped up good and nasty there. The other side looks ok, I guess, and at least his actual head and body had been fairly well painted before I ever cut him in half to mount him on the bike. Those terminators are a nasty unit - lots of power weapon and fist attacks, and not bad shooters to boot. Last match they wiped out 10 grey hunters with one round of firing. I was definitely a little stunned at that one. I'm going to try to use them at least a few times at tournaments this year; I just have to finish the thousand sons and their rhino and they'll be ready to go. I'm going to try to go to at least two tournaments this month. I want to give the Space Wolves a go, as they're the army I've played out with the least. Everything's overpriced, and their few numbers mean I have to be extra crafty and maintain concentration to have a chance against the more competitive builds.

I got a bunch of grey knights and gk terminators from a friend who was selling off his minis, so I'm going to try to get them painted (way down the line) to field a terminator squad and a fast attack knights squad as allies for my Imperial Guard army. Maybe much later I can work on an actual GK list, but I've got too much backlog as it is.

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Death Guard 12-6-07

I played a 2000 point cleanse mission against Bigred from BOLS last Thursday using my imperial guard army. He was trying out for the first time his updated 2k death guard list, featuring a nurgle bike lord, three squads of 10 plaguemarines, five squads of 6 lesser demons, and three vindicators. In other words, a tar pit and a half. I knew going in that the bike lord and all the demons he would be able to summon were going to be my main threat. And I was right. I was able to destroy the vindicators fairly easily in the first two turns, but just as I feared, the bike lord pulled up in right front of my gun line in the second turn and started pooping out demons, who in turn began assaulting my squads immediately, tying up their guns and clogging up valuable LOS lanes for everyone behind them. And in case you're wondering, yes, red's mix of nurglings and plaguebearer bases does indeed extend his potential summoning turn charge. I was eventually able to kill a bunch of them with tank shooting, but the wave of plaguemarines following them wiped out just about everything I had. In the end, we both held an adjacent quarter and each other's home quarter (I managed to land grab with some deep-striking vets and a sentinel), but he swamped me with victory points from all the inflicted casualties. A loss for the Tiefwalders, but nevertheless it was a fun game with a very agreeable opponent.

The game pretty well summed up the main issues I have with my guard army. It's great for putting out tons of fire, and has a few fun little tricks, but if a few infantry units get pulled into assault, it's pretty much over. Consolidation and massacre moves allow enemies to get deeper and deeper into my lines, until they're eventually close enough to melta my tanks. Any squads that try to move away from the frays lose their shooting and they can't ever move far enough away to escape assault themselves in subsequent turns. It's a good army in the first couple of turns but gets shitty late-game, especially against any assault-themed force with a decent amount of intervening terrain. Next game I'm going to try using an eversor (and the requisite cheap inquisitor) for counterassault. Maybe down the line I'll be able to make those piggy rough riders and be able to go back to a pure guard force again.

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Chaos

My blasted allergies kept me out of the first week of the assault on Terra on Thursday, so I made up for it today by meeting with Rob for a little 1500 point game up at BFG. A host of Thousand Sons marines under the sway of a slaanesh sorcerer searching for lost magicks has stumbled upon the outrunners of a tyranid invasion, and a crappy, decrepit old gryphon statue will soon become the nexus for a battle royale!

I had a winged warp field dakka tyrant, six squads of six genestealers, three zoanthropes with warp blast and psychic scream, and two carnifexes with venom cannons, barbed stranglers, and extra toughness. He had a slaanesh lash sorcerer, three squads of nine Thousand Sons (with sorcerers), and two squads of nine havocs with four lascannons each. Our random mission was Take and Hold alpha.

The cover was a mix of forest area terrain and 4+ ruins and walls. I started most of my shooters on my right behind a big forest with the genestealers lined up along my middle ready to sprint forward. I drew first turn and advanced all the stealers toward his position. Two of the squads hid in cover on my right. Due to some shite distance and line of sight estimates on my part, I wasn't able to get any good shooting in on the first turn. A barbed strangler kill failed to pin one of the havoc squads. He pressed the advantage and creamed three of my stealer squads with his havocs and thousand sons, sending a few survivors fleeing for the hive tyrant on my far right. Another of the squads he lashed backwards, though they passed their pinning test. On my second turn, the lashed squad sprinted back towards the chaos lines, mostly to draw fire away from the big bugs; I realized at this point that all the stealers were going to be AP3'd toast in the end and it was up to the big guys to secure the objective. My zopes moved up and put scream and warp blast pressure on one squad of havocs, while the tyrant and one of the fexes shot up one of the thousand sons squads. In spite of the tyrant inflicting 11 wounds, only of them one fell. However, the zoanthropes and my other gunfex inflicted enough casualties on the havocs to send them fleeing back towards their table edge, unable to regroup. The Thousand Sons barely winced at the casualties and proceeded to double-tap the surviving genestealer squads to death, leaving only two or three stragglers left on the board. His other havoc squad moved out of their terrain piece and moved forward to a better firing position. The tyrant and one of the fexes moved up some more and let fly on the thousand sons again, this time dropping seven of the dusty automatons, leaving only the sorcerer.

On his next turn, he lashed the hive tyrant towards his own position and charged in with one full squad of sons and the leftover sorcerer. Though the Hive Tyrant finished off the straggler, he was killed in the end by the other sorcerer's force weapon (he just barely passed the psychic test due to the psychic scream interference). Scree! Down goes the hive tyrant. His second havoc squad inflicted two wounds on one of my gunfexes and another thousand sons squad finishes off a few remaining genestealers. Mourning the tyrant, the fexes and zoanthropes brought down a few more thousand sons through combined fire. His havocs finished off the wounded carnifex but couldn't inflict any casualties on the other fex or the zoanthropes with his inferno bolts.

On the final turn, my second carnifex charged into the squad of thousand sons that were holding the center. It killed one marine, and a failed "fearless" armor save brought down a second, taking them below scoring capacity. In a last ditch bid for the win, his HQ sorcerer and the last scoring squad of thousand sons charged into the fray with the big beast, but their force weapons were unable to wound it. Instead, it raised up a mighty hoof and squashed one last thousand son taking the last squad below scoring. Victory Tyranids!

This was an awesome game, really a lucky finish for the bugs. I might have deployed everyone more centrally and had a greater number of genestealers survive to assault, but those lascannons would have eaten up my big creatures pretty easily, and the 4+ save on thousand sons makes rending mostly moot anyway. The Tyrant is still my favorite unit in the entire army, and I was once again convinced of the zoanthropes' merits (though they did shoot worse than average in this game). I could switch them out for a third gunfex but I like the variety of tricks.

Warhammer 30,000: Week 4

Well, as will sometimes happen when you’re playing a sprawling, ambitious multiplayer campaign, this week’s installment of Warhammer 30k didn’t turn out exactly as I expected. The Blood Angels player didn’t show up, so I went ahead and played a game against a walk-in, namely Nick with his chaos army. I suppose I could come up with an extremely creative narrative to explain why a mixed force of already heavily corrupted Death Guard and Tzeentch Raptors would be fucking about on Signus instead of the Blood Angels, but I’m just not up to it today. In any case, I was grateful for the opportunity to play with the LATD list (thanks again to Aventine for his glorious, livestock-toting mutant horde), and I’ll simply consider the game a warm-up for the real thing next week, if Brian shows up that is. Nick had a bunch of smallish squads in rhinos, mostly plaguemarines, with a couple squads of raptors flying around. The tar pits worked just like they were supposed to, but the new plaguemarines are very tough to beat without power weapons, and the mutants could usually only inflict one or two casualties a turn while taking four or five themselves. As a result, they would inevitably lose combat, fail leadership, and get run down by sweeping advances; this happened with both of the mutant squads as well as the big mutants. The greater demon arrived on my third turn, failed to kill a rhino, and was brought down by two flying sorcerers and their insipid force weapons (at least a mutant squad was able to kill one of them in return). I was able to occupy most of his force until the very last turn when he grabbed a third building to make the game a draw.

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Chaos 10-15-07

Me and the missus played an extremely fun 1500 point game the other night pitting bugs against new chaos. Incidentally, I think it will be fun to call it new chaos forever. The mission was cleanse. C2’s list included a bike lasher, 10 terminators, 10 berzerkers with a rhino, 10 thousand sons with a rhino, and 10 havocs with a lascannon, missile launcher, and 2 heavy bolters. I played bugs and used a psychic scream dakkarant, three squads of 12 genestealers, 3 squads of 12 gaunts with fleshborers, a sniperfex with a venom cannon and barbed strangler, and 3 zoanthropes with 2 psychic screamers and 1 synapse creature. I think the lists meshed well to create an interesting game but they probably both need a little tweaking (I’ll get to that).

The dakkarant is awesome, like a mobile heavy bolter squad re-rolling hits and wounds. At least three times I inflicted 10 armor saves on various chaos units with the big guy. The fex was hit or miss (hur hur) but when he landed those barbed strangler shots into massed troops it always did some pretty good damage. The infernal thousand sons can and did decimate genestealers at short range; I’ll have to remember to watch out for that. Probably the most interesting elements of the game were the bike lasher and the psychic scream choir. The sorcerer kept a large genestealer squad at bay for the entire game just by himself and it really weakened my whole approach on that particular side. On the last turn, after confirming that lash can indeed move monstrous creatures, she almost kept me out of one of the adjacent quarters by pushing the hive tyrant 8 inches back (a squad of genestealers was barely able to sneak in right at the end and keep it). The multiple approaching psychic screamers made powers and other important leadership tests (target priority, pinning) increasingly difficult, and that coupled with the fact that C2 was rolling pretty poorly for the entire game ensured the Tyranid win. I was able to wipe out the havocs and thousand sons entirely, plus half of the berzerkers, losing two gaunt and two genestealer squads in the process. If I remember correctly, I believe controlling the two adjacent quarters gave me a crushing victory rather than a solid or a draw.

While I was impressed with how new chaos held up to the bug advance, I don’t know how good of an all-comer list it really is. I might drop some squad sizes down a tad (havocs, berzerkers) and change the havocs gun loadout to try and fit in an obliterator or two just for more high strength, low AP weaponry. I’m changing up the tyranid list also, mainly to excise the pointless gaunts, but also take the 3 genestealer squads down to 10 (or maybe 5 squads of 6?), add a broodlord and retinue, and a second carnifex with talons, tusks, and carapace. Without the gaunts I really don’t see a reason to have a second synapse creature in the zoanthropes, since everyone’s Ld 10 and all but the genestealers will likely stay in range of his bubble, as he’ll be hiding behind carnifexes until he gets into shooting range anyway. Just one more scream to add to the choir!

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Chaos 9-03-07

Toggog's newly reorganized band of marauders conducted a surprise raid today, fighting the Tiefwalder Red Rifles for control of a power substation in the forested wilds of Tiefwald itself. The newest arrivals served their master well and their abilities complemented the force nicely. Toggog himself was downed early by heavy ordnance and ambushing veterans, but Sorcerer Aziz survived nearly the entire battle, seducing several units out of cover and wiping out two infantry squads by himself, normally by overrunning them after they broke and ran from close combat. The havocs killed some infantry but were unable to damage any vehicles; they were destroyed in the end. Two berzerkers survived an initial devastating earthshaker hit to help the obliterators teleport right next to the leman russ. Immediately they opened up with their multimeltas and destroyed it. The berzerkers were finally wiped out after that but the obliterators would survive to destroy a hellhound and contest their sector. On the other side of the battle, the Thousand Sons burst forward early and, for a short time, kept cover behind their rhino, opening up on one squad dragged into range by the dread Sorcerer Aziz. However, the emperor smiled on Tiefwald, and the biggest guns of the Big Green aimed straight and true, quickly reducing the Thousand Sons to ashes. Behind their smoldering remains, a huge Terminator squad hurried over to contest the adjacent sector. At the very climax of the battle, they fell under a mass of fire from infantry and armor and not enough survived fight off the nearby Imperial forces. The buildings and landscape were scorched and pockmarked by ordnance and small arms but the substation and the sector was back under control, at least for the time being. Imperial Guard wins, solid victory!

Overall I liked how the rumored Chaos played out, even if they didn't win their first game. I got first turn and was able to put a couple of early wounds on the demon prince, facilitating his early demise. He was on his way to surely wreak major havoc when I scored hits with both my deep-striking veteran squads, right next to him, mucho BS4 melta and plasma, adios. The big prince is cheaper now, true, but his old demon armor and feel no pain will be sorely missed under heavy fire like that. Gone before their time, the thousand sons were basically knocked out in one turn by the demolisher and basilisk's combined pieplates - I had some great luck with scattering this game. The Terminators were thick and it took my Guard-quantity guns to make a dent in them. They might have been better off deep-striking, maybe not, I can't really decide. It's a big risk to keep their expensive unit in limbo, but their early turns were mostly spent moving up - although to be fair, I did manage to pin them first turn on a freak leadership roll with the ratlings after only killing one! Cheesy. I'm seriously considering dropping their icon of tzeentch for a cheaper chaos glory version. I think the points will be better spent elsewhere, like getting two more havocs or a icon of khorne on the bikes (who honestly deserve it for their berzerker paint scheme and iconography). I really liked how the deep-striking obliterators turned out, coming in relatively late in the game and into a place where I couldn't put much fire into them. That accurate teleport is gold for them. And last but not least: lash! Well, what can I say? It worked just like it was supposed to, rolling 8's for the movement almost every time, really screwing up one end of my gun line by yanking fools out of cover and into shooting and assault range of the thousand sons and terminators. C2 kept him separate from the other assault units, and he definitely dealt his fair share of damage, but I think he might have been more effective working with them in concert. Still, it was the first game with the new configuration and next game I expect the list to be that much more deadly.

Project Updates...

I finished converting a bike for my half-a-sorcerer and applied some Citadel black spray primer. Unfortunately it came out wet as hell and gloppy. I had to do some emergency toothbrush action to get most of it out of the cracks before it set. It may not make too much of a difference in the end (at least I hope not), but annoying nonenetheless. Their white spray seems more powdery but the black one came out too wet and thick. It was difficult to get even coverage without applying it too thick and losing details. I'm undecided on how my Thousand Sons will end up but I think I'm going to give them a white base to be sure. Those models are too interesting to glop up with that shitty black.

In the rulebook, I can't find any reason that a biker wouldn't get +1 for 2 close combat weapons in assault. Maybe I'm crazy and that was a 3rd edition thing, and they just haven't equipped bikers with bolt pistols and close combat weapons before the upcoming chaos book. That means that my champion will get 5 power weapon attacks charging, one other biker will get 4, and the two with meltaguns will get 3 each. Not too bad for a screen/mobile teleport homer.

My Eversor is all painted up and just needs basing, and the last of my Inquisitor retinue is coming in soon. I also got a bird to serve as my Space Wolf Rune Priest's Chooser of the Slain. A great piece of wargear and it's a vulture to boot. Thanks to Aventine for helping me out with that.

Corporealisation and other nonsensical metaphysics

Many people are complaining about the new demon rules in the upcoming chaos codex. While I definitely sympathize and will personally miss my bloodletters, making the greater and lesser demons available to chaos marine forces more neutral and generic makes sense with the fluff they have set up in the past as well as in the new book. They spend a bit more time in the new book talking about the extreme effort involved in demons corporealising from the warp into realspace, and how taxing it is on the demons to maintain themselves in their psychic ectoplasmic manifestations, etcetera, etcetera. It would appear that it is this extreme effort that genericizes and weakens them mildly. Supposedly an all-demon force book will be coming out sometime next year, and will likely differentiate the greater and lesser demons between their various loyalties. I predict that they will try to explain a demon-oriented army by locating them on actual demon planets in the Eye, and/or by making the generals more pure and powerful demonic entities that are able to stabilize themselves and their underlings enough to demonstrate their full capabilities, i.e. demons of different factions being able to exhibit their own varying individual powers. Thus will bloodthirsters and lords of change be able to fly once more, plaguebearers will spread their associated filth, and so on. Another way to set up a more stable and thus more powerful and varied demon army could be through a large, expressly devoted cult of followers creating more suitable conditions for their messiahs through ritual and sacrifice. This could serve as another highlight of the split GW has created between the rogue/pirate marine groups and those more obsessed with the warp or devoted to a particular god. So it would make sense if this demon army book included cultists (and marine sorcerers or cult troops) and was similar to the previously defined demon world army in the EoT book. Overall I think it’s not a bad direction to go in, not to mention it gives the demon and witch hunters out there more to dig into with their own specializations, both in fluff and actual gameplay.

Toggog's Marauders Reorganized

From scuttlebutt and demonstration copies, I've put together a new list for Toggog and his buddies.

HQ

Demon Prince - wings, mark of khorne

Sorcerer - mark of slaanesh, bike, lash of submission, personal icon

ELITES

10 Terminators - champion with 2 lightning claws, 2 with reaper autocannons and chainfists, 1 with combiflamer and powerfist, 1 with combiplasma and power weapon, 5 with twin-linked bolters and power weapons, icon of tzeentch

TROOPS

10 Khorne Berzerkers - personal icon, 2 plasma pistols, skull champion with power fist
Rhino with extra armor

9 Thousand Sons - personal icon
1 Aspiring Sorcerer - warptime
Rhino with extra armor

FAST ATTACK

4 Bikers - champion with power weapon and meltabomb, 2 meltaguns

HEAVY SUPPORT

1 Obliterator

1 Obliterator

8 Havocs - 3 missile launchers, 1 lascannon, icon of chaos glory

I've read many many complaints about the new book but I think overall that change is good. Some units got screwed but most of the simplifications are quite refreshing. Of course you want that rhino with smokes and that vindicator with a dozer blade! Shit is like stock now. But not even out of the gate Lash of Submission is already making testes shrivel in fear all over ze world. Next year's GT winning armies are being scrounged together, double lash this, triple lash that, etc etc. Whatever. I'm still going to have one in my army, because it sounds like a very useful trick and the bike sorcerer is sick and slick regardless. Ideally the thousand sons and terminators are going to create a nice 24" no-man's land that I can lash folks into from time to time and shoot em up, assaulting the leftovers with the zerks. The oblits and havocs will rain down while the demon prince chases down tanks and bowls into static shooty squads. The new icon system makes deep striking such a large terminator squad a very viable tactic. That seems like it would be a lot to deal with at once... 10 terminators with a 4+ invulnerable and spiky/fisty as hell? Time will tell.

One thing I noticed - the new "assault vehicle" rule for the land raider says you can assault when dismounting from any exit point, including the side hatches. A very small detail but I can see how it might come in handy in some limited situations. This was probably already set up in the DA and BA codices but it was the first time I heard about it.

Battle Report: Witch Hunters vs. Chaos 8-11-07

Bully vs. c2 - 2000 points - Cleanse

I changed my 2000 point list from last weekend's Thor's tournament to switch out the armored fist squads' autocannons with lascannons, and removing the infantry command squad's lascannon to include two meltaguns and a plasma gun. I planned on driving them around in the back of the immolator to hop out and deliver some low AP fire. c2 ran her usual chaos army.

Turn 1

Witch Hunters: For the first time, my inquisitor's liber heresius failed to work and c2 was able to pick sides. I rolled to get first turn, however, and tried to get my money's worth working on the only squad I could see: the havocs. I used "word in your ear" to move the chaos heavy weapons out of cover and opened fire on them with the leman russ, sentinel, and infantry squads. Five of them went down. The seraphim, immolator, infantry command squad, and one of the chimeras moved up on the chaos flank.

Chaos: The berzerkers roll blood frenzy and go screaming through the ruined church toward the immolator. The demon prince moves into the ruins along with the obliterators. They try to shoot the seraphim with heavy bolters but fail to kill any. The havocs blow up the immolator's heavy flamer turret.

Turn 2

Witch Hunters: The berzerkers were exposed so I tried to pour fire into them while I could. The leman russ, the nearest chimera and several infantry squad lascannons shoot up the squad, killing five of eight. The exorcist pulls out around the other chimera and puts four blessed missiles into the obliterators, inflicting two instant deaths, wiping them out. The immolator moves further up the flank, staying in between the havocs and the seraphim. The callidus assassin arrives, kills two khorne bikers with the neural shredder, whiffs in close combat, but survives another turn.

Chaos: The demon prince jumps from the church ruins to a nearby wall. The terminators deep strike in and open fire on the seraphim, killing four. The havocs wreck the nearby chimera. The possessed jump in with the bikers and kill the callidus.

Turn 3

Witch Hunters: The seraphim jump into the terminators, flaming them up good, but they fail their divine guidance faith test and only one is killed in the shooting phase. The busted immolator moves up and the infantry command squad tries in vain to wound the demon prince. The sister and infantry squads move back to avoid being charged. The exorcist manages to pick off the berzerker aspiring champion with six rockets. In close combat, the seraphim use three different faith points to kill three terminators, only losing one of their own. The chaos terminators fail their leadership and are wiped out by a sweeping advance.

Chaos: The bloodletters arrive only to scatter off the table! The demon prince bounds over the immolator to take revenge on the seraphim. The surviving havocs and berzerkers pull back into the church ruins. Four of them are killed quite handily and the last breaks and retreats towards my table edge.

Turn 4

Witch Hunters: The command squad and sentinel try to shoot up the demon prince again but can't inflict any damage. The exorcist and leman russ burst forward to get close to the chaos-held quarters. The last seraphim continues her retreat towards my table edge.

Chaos: The demon prince lays waste to the command squad and regroups behind the wrecked chimera.

Turn 5

Witch Hunters: The last seraphim flies off the table. The exorcist and leman russ drive full bore into the chaos home quarter, and the immolator races away to avoid the demon prince. The rear-most infantry squad moves over into the adjacent quarter.

Chaos: The rhino drives out from behind the church to cover the possessed and bikes from the exorcist, shooting its smoke launchers. The demon prince moves closer to the retreating immolator.

Turn 6

Witch Hunters: The leman russ drives far into the chaos quarter to avoid the demon prince's charge. The immolator tries to turtle up, backing into a nearby wall and leaving its best armor to the outside. The exorcist destroys the rhino regardless of the smokescreen. The sentinel moves into the adjacent quarter.

Chaos: All the hiding chaos elements burn out into the open to secure quarters at the last minute. The demon prince brings down the immolator with several swings of his mighty axe of khorne. The havocs in the corner of the ruins destroys the sentinel.

Some good rolling on my part and bad rolling on c2's part left Witch Hunters with a solid victory - but just barely! She maneuvered well to overcome some early setbacks and severely reduce my margin of victory. I've found that boldness rarely pays off with the fragile witch hunters and tried to keep myself from getting too greedy.

Tournament: Battleforge Games 7-14-07

I joined in for another 2000 point tourney at Battleforge this past weekend. It was a good time, although I skipped out on the last game after being paired up against Mack. Basically I didn’t want to break his heart by slaughtering him in front of a bunch of strangers (OK, maybe we were both a little tired and hung over after staying up partying the night before). In any case, I think we were both bottom bracket and we play all the time so I’m sure we’ll duke the match out sometime soon. I brought chaos, with slightly larger than usual squad sizes for the berzerkers and havocs and a few less bloodletters and wargear. I also made the mistake of bringing c2’s chaos dice to use – apparently they hate me!

Game 1 – Imperial Guard (‘Nid Hunters)

The highlight of the tournament was drawing K. in the first round and getting a chance to play against his bug hunting guard army. He’s not completely finished with the paint job but they all look awesome so far; everyone’s got sculpted chem-inhalers and tyranid armor and trophies all over them, and he’s got a small deathwatch team running around in there, too. It’s not a gimmicky army by any means but he’s pretty vicious with it so far as I can tell. We were playing basic annihilation with some kind of sunset action that was a little annoying to figure out in the hustle of a tournament. In retrospect, though, it was a pretty interesting variation of nightfighting and I might be inclined to replay it now that I understand the tactical effect better. The game itself was an uphill battle the whole time; he was able to infiltrate first and forced my hand a little bit when placing my havocs. As such they ended up out of cover and easy pickings for various storm troopers and weapons teams. He also rolled for first turn. I had a nice khorne attack wing ready to make a strong flank but the berzerkers went crazy, ran out in the open, and got demolished and inferno’d in short order. The bloodletters and bikes had a few kills but were brought down by mass fire after being left stranded out of assault. The demon prince dropped the deathwatch’s librarian (a side objective) but completely whiffed on the next turn and was killed himself by a commissar (three failed invulnerables in one turn - nice). The obliterators and terminators deep-striked (deep-struck?) in and earned me some satisfying victory points by shooting up the backs of his two main battle tanks and destroying them both, but since I had already lost so many expensive units it was still not enough to eke out a draw. He won a solid victory.

Game 2 – Eldar

For the second match, I’d never met my opponent before and he didn’t seem eager to change that situation. I don’t think he was having that good of a time (except when he was winning) and he was pretty reluctant to meet me halfway on sketchy situations. Communication was stilted and he was always very reticent to declare what his units actually were until I specifically asked; I didn’t know his farseer was really Eldrad Ulthran until the last turn of the game (he kept calling him a spirit seer or something - he did use the actual Eldrad model but so has every other eldar player for the last ten fucking years). Whatever, people are different I guess, and his definitely wasn’t the worst personality I’d ever played against, but it was still a little stifling. Game-wise, I was making good progress until two things happened: I tried to attack the avatar with berzerkers (first encounter with one since the new rules - I6, WS10 and T6 is no fucking joke!), and also any luck I had left completely evaporated and I started rolling ones and twos at the end like nobody’s business, losing the rest of the terminators as well as the obliterators. The possessed were able to get some kills after being totally worthless during the previous game, and the 6 bloodletters somehow survived being hacked on by guardians, dire avengers, and the avatar for at least 4 phases of close combat. In the end I lost; he won a solid victory by some 10 or 15 points. Huzzah.

Chaos Postulatin'

More thinking about Toggog's Marauders transitioning in September...

The demon prince stats sound good, but I don't know if you can give him a demon weapon. That khorne demon weapon (blooddrinker?) sounds totally retarded! 2d6 extra attacks is ridiculous, but for a one third chance of catching a wound? Yeesh. At least he'll come with 4 wounds automatically now. Strength 7, possibility of 17 attacks charging (can that be right?), he'll still be rocking pretty hard (even with only a 3+ regular save).

I'm crossing my fingers that LCs will be available for terminator champions, in which case Gazak the Merciless (my former terminator champion with the old chaos termie skull face) will be able to rejoin his colleagues as a simple (cheap) terminator champion. Otherwise I'll have to pay to make him a lord, but I guess that wouldn't be the end of the world. I will have to scrounge up two of the (will be) old chaos terminators to make a squad of 10, as it will be necessary to keep my second reaper autocannon.

I'll get another box of berzerkers, which will provide me with enough extra models to have 2 squads of 8 berzerkers. I'll have to scour ebay for another old-model rhino for the second berzerker unit. Transporting them will be a breeze because they'll behave now without blood fury (plus plasma pistols will be "hot" again!). Then I'll use the berzerker leftovers to add 2 more "khorne" raptors to make 8 total, and get two more chaos bikes to make a squad of 6 "khorne" bikers. Sure, now those units just count as "having an icon" but there's no reason they couldn't be dressing the part.

Depending on how the points shake out, I might be able to fit the dreadnought back in (Old Man Ephaedrel). That would be nice. Also I'll probably expand the havocs to have a squad size of 10. The demons will be cheaper so I should be able to fit 2 more of those in for 10, no problem. I don't really get why they made them generic, given that they have such a varied model range, but oh well. 10 MEQs bouncing around in the killzone definitely won't hurt and it looks like they'll be almost 1/3 the price. Still, I'll no doubt long for the days of their S5 power weapons and 3+ save. I read that Jervis mentioned a demon army codex might come out in another year; maybe I'll go for that nurgle ork army I've been wanting to make ever since I saw the artwork in the Demonhunters codex.

So all in all, a box of berzerkers here, a couple of arms and jetpacks there, and I should be able to fix 'er up fairly easy to give everyone greater numbers, even if their powers will be somewhat diluted. Bah, who cares! Teleport homers for everyone!

Waldering

Me and c2 got in a game today, 2000 pts, loot, chaos vs. imperial guard, using the two armies I posted recently. We didn't calculate the margin of victory but it was a sure thing that I had won. The collapsible infantry line worked well, with my anchors of armor surviving to do pretty good damage to the chaos units. There were several close calls, however, and c2's terminators were poised to smash my army's core to pieces, but my command HQ junior officer survived just long enough to leave them stranded out of assault in my turn for heavy and special weapons to wipe them out. I might have inflicted a few assault kills myself if I had a hidden-pf commissar embedded in my line. I'm considering switching him in for sharpshooters. Bah, I'm so fickle about that damn doctrine! Both the basilisk and leman russ had to beat a hasty retreat in the face of the demon prince but he himself fell back to chase a hellhound threatening to take an objective. As regards the elements I had changed up in my guard list recently, the sentinel autocannons weren't particularly effective but I did like them in the fire support squad. The veterans performed brilliantly, with some good plasma rolls. I came close to discarding one of their shooting hits - almost forgot the BS4! They wiped out the 5 remaining possessed to a man, who was then finished off by indirect fire from the basilisk. Unfortunately they were soon charged by two berzerkers and they got mopped up pretty handily. A power weapon in this case wouldn't have made a difference but I'm thinking about giving the vet sergeant one with a bolt pistol instead of his bolter - only 5 points after all, and a bolt pistol might get one fewer shot but 4 buried power weapon attacks might help them earn even more points back. I might even work in hardened fighters for them somehow as well. All in all, a good, fun game.

I did look over a summary of chaos codex "rumors," and I'm not as enthusiastic as I was before about my army making the transition to the new edition. To make an effective conversion, it will probably involve more buying and painting, and that pisses me off.

Toggog's Marauders: Chaos 2000 pts

HQ:

Demon Prince - mark of khorne, demonic aura, demonic flight, demonic stature, demonic strength, demonic visage, demon armor, furious charge, feel no pain, frag grenades, axe of khorne, CCW

ELITES:

7 Chosen Terminators - furious charge, 4 with combi-bolter and power weapon, 2 with reaper autocannon and chainfist, 1 with combi-flamer and power fist
1 Chosen Champion - furious charge, demonic strength, kai gun, power weapon

5 Possessed - demonic flight, mark of khorne, khornate chainaxes, bolt pistols
1 Aspiring Champion - demonic flight, mark of khorne, khornate chainaxe, powerfist

2 Obliterators

TROOPS:

7 Khorne Berzerkers - mark of khorne, furious charge, frag grenades, khornate chainaxes
1 Aspiring Champion - mark of khorne, furious charge, demonic strength, frag grenades, axe of khorne
Rhino - extra armor, smoke launchers

8 Bloodletters

FAST ATTACK:

3 Chaos Bikers - mark of khorne, khornate chainaxes
1 Aspiring Champion - mark of khorne, furious charge, axe of khorne

HEAVY SUPPORT:

8 Havocs - tank hunters, infiltrate, 2 heavy bolters, 1 lascannon, 1 missile launcher

This army includes some of the oldest models in my collection, namely the possessed (old berzerkers) and the demon prince (bloodthirster). The terminator champion is a mix of an ahriman headpiece, a terminator champion body, an older terminator autocannon arm, Abaddon's left shoulder and trophy racks, and Jain Zar's glaive. The obliterators are the most recent addition. I never liked the heads that come with the models, so I switched those out with a couple of the plastic helmet-less berzerker heads. The demon prince has a rod going from his foot, through the prone space wolf, into the foam "rock" and the plastic base, where it's bent over and glued and taped. I heart pinning.

Against static turtles this force rocks pretty hard, but it has trouble with more mobile lists. It does have a low scoring unit and model count but in coordination they can start at one end and chew through quite a bit. Since c2 plays this as her main army, I've learned the most about their potential through 3rd party observation or by playing against them. The berzerkers and bikes run together toward concentrations of enemy infantry and hopefully away from vehicles. If they have an avenue of unmolested advance, the DP and possessed can really tear ass on vehicles or infantry, especially in combination with the bloodletters. Terminators, havocs, and obliterators are a stable, moderately charge-resistant firebase and usually do best overwatching the berzerkers and bikes as they make their assault runs.

I've heard almost all of the new codex rumors in bits and pieces but I haven't seen them collected in a meaningful way, so I'm not 100% on how these units will transition into the new list. My possessed will hopefully become khorne raptors, and the demon prince may have to switcho-chango a little bit... Can't wait to find out, in any case.

New Hotness

Cool pics of upcoming kits on this spanish website, La Posada del Friki Pisador, mostly chaos:
Color pics of chaos spawn, the codex front, lord in terminator armor, jumppack lord, khorne lord, and CSMs
Marine sprues, terminator sprues, champion sprues
Photos from the last WD
Color pic of the chaos terminator lord/champion

and most exciting, in my opinion, new guard stuff:
Ogryn and commissars

I take it that's a bonehead, seeing as how his hand appears to be gesturing others forward. This is definitely a good sign that the new plastic Ogs will be less cartooney. Hopefully they won't paint them with those horrible 5 o'clock shadows anymore. The chaos dex cover looks badass overall, but the central figure's pose does seem a bit awkward. Part of him looks like he's wearing terminator armor, part of him is kind of puny (his head and the plasma pistol arm). Is that a titan in the background? I definitely like the firey reds and yellows.

Chaos spawns, I never really used them much myself; perhaps the new list will make them more common. The terminator lord helmet makes him look really anonymous. I guess I just prefer unique helmets or faces. The jump pack lord appears to match raptors fairly well. The possessed sprues are intruiging but based on what I know so far, my old flying possessed will be able to segue into khornate raptors, hopefully for a more reasonable price. I just don't know about that khorne lord. The pose has the effect of making him look like he's bringing down that axe reaaaaalllyy slowwwwllyy. As for the regular marines, eh ok. They're more poseable and detailed than the old metals I guess.

Looks like most of the chaos stuff, including the new codex, hits September 19.

Stormrunners

As the mass of dark figures approached, their corrupted weapons snarling with increasing fury, Trefain the Elder spoke quietly to himself in the ancient tongue. In his mind he recalled once again the darkest storm he had ever seen – one of the six-year typhoons that had come to his old home at Caer Nyss, the one that had taken his entire family – and felt the sudden buildup and release of pressure in his skull that always followed the invocation. Wisps of fog issued from the earth, the atmosphere thickening and expressing depth with moisture, and the wind began to scream as it wove paths around his armored frame and those of his battle brothers. Just as the storm became distinctly visible, taking the form of a swirling gray column amongst them, it whipped and pulsed outwards, towards their oncoming foe. They would need whatever advantage they could take against hardened savages such as these – Trefain had encountered such berzerkers before, and he knew they could be quite persistent in their endless pursuit of skulls for their patron. Through the fog and rain came several small objects, and though Trefain and his Wolf Guard identified them immediately, it was too late to substantively react. The fragmentation grenades exploded, scattering shards of fire and metal into the group, giving them pause ever so slightly, negating the precious few moments they might have otherwise stolen before the cresting wave of deadly madness descended and drowned them all.

Battle Report: Chaos vs. Imperial Guard 6-16-07

Bully vs c2 - 2000 points - Secure and Control

For this game I switched out sharpshooters for a mortar squad. My other doctrines were light infantry, iron discipline, close order drill, and special weapons squads. C2 fielded her now classic khorne/black legion force: flying khorne demon prince, flying khorne possessed, big terminator squad, berzerkers, bloodletters, khorne bikes, obliterators, and havocs. We played a random standard mission, which turned out to be secure and control with 4 objectives.

Turn 1

Chaos: The bikes roar forward and gain an invulnerable save. The Terminators shoot up one of the infantry squads across the field and kill five of them. They hold their ground, encouraged by the nearby command squad. The Havocs destroy the chimera facing them down on the other side of the battle and the command squad inside tumbles out, entangled in the wreckage.

Imperial Guard: The basilisk fires indirectly across the battle and blows up the berzerkers' rhino, pinning the passengers. The hellhound and special weapons squad moves up to put their all into killing the approaching bikes. Somehow they survive numerous blasts of gunfire and different templates; at least the demo pack didn't fall back on the squad! The last chimera and the right side guard wing opens up on the terminators, killing 4. The tanks on the other side try to shoot up the havocs but only one or two are downed. Already by this point I'd already rolled plenty of ones that could have used a reroll.

Turn 2

Chaos: The demon prince decides to join the fight, heading towards the main infantry formation. The bikes charge the special weapons squad, wipe them out, and consolidate further into cover. The bloodletters arrive next to the berzerkers and they erupt from the forest, charging into the nearest infantry squad. Losing but one of their own number, they kill all of their opponents and consolidate into another 10-man squad. The terminators open fire on the members of a further infantry squad, killing everyone but the plasma gunner, who stands his ground!

Imperial Guard: The Leman Russ demolisher moves up to reach the havocs with his main gun; unfortunately his shot goes stray and misses the chaos heavy weapons completely. The command squad from the broken chimera climbs onto the wreckage to get cover and shoot at the havocs next turn. The sentinels, hellhound, and Leman Russ open up on the bikes, killing only two of them. Mass infantry shooting kills another terminator. The basilisk drops an ordnance round on the berzerkers and kills 6 of them. Lascannon teams and chimera shoot up the approaching demon prince but can't do any damage. However, the lone plasma gunner passes his last-man-standing test and fires his weapon, inflicting a single wound on the prince! The bloodletters wipe out another infantry squad in assault (my guys killed another one though - thanks, COD!). The demons position themselves to move into another squad in their own turn.

Turn 3

Chaos: The terminators move behind the hill and shoot up the infantry squad they can see, killing three more with reaper fire. The havocs and obliterators shoot up the front of the demolisher, destroying the main weapon and shaking the crew. The demon prince flies over a forest and lands behind the hellhound, exploding it with a swing of his enormous axe of khorne. The bikes and possessed again hold tight in forested cover near objectives. The bloodletters charge into the command HQ and lascannon squad, killing them all and consolidating into the second command squad just behind them. The last 2 berzerkers roll blood rage and charge out into the open.

Imperial Guard: The command squad rethinks their position and dismounts from the wrecked chimera. The demolisher rethinks its foolhardy charge and pulls its shaken ass back behind the forest. The last surviving infantry squads shoot the berzerkers, killing only one, with the plasma gunner barely surviving an overheat. Everyone else brings their weapons to bear on the demon prince and he is brought down in a hail of mass lascannon and heavy bolter fire from the sentinels, chimera, leman russ, and fire support squad.

Turn 4:

Chaos: The bikes retreat back behind their forest, passing their dangerous terrain tests (damn!), and the possessed further consolidate onto the nearby loot counter. The terminators kill off the infantry squad they've been firing at to a man, but the man in question fails leadership (the command squads were all dead too!) and falls back screaming with terror. The havocs and obliterators fire on the sentinel in the open, shaking it. The bloodletters finish off their last infantry squad but their consolidation roll isn't enough to take them into the heavy bolter teams nearby!

Imperial Guard: The stubborn plasma gunner passes another last-man-standing and shoots down the berzerker aspiring champion. The Leman Russ kills two havocs with ordnance. The mortars, chimera, fire support team and one sentinel wipe out the bloodletters. Couldn't have done it without those two close combat kills I got earlier thanks to COD!

Turn 5:

Chaos: The terminators climb aboard the rhino wreckage and into the forest. The havocs explode one sentinel on their side of the field, leaving only a crater behind. The obliterators destroy the main weapon on the leman russ.

Imperial Guard: The Chimera kills one more khorne biker, leaving only the aspiring champion. Shooting from the heavy bolter teams (just barely too far away!) and nearby sentinel can't bring down the terminator champion visible in the woods. The second sentinel on the far side climbs into the crater made by his dead colleague.

Turn 6:

Chaos: The biker champion zooms away back into his deployment zone to deny the kill. The havocs somehow pick out the basilisk's obscured side in the distance and wreck it. The other two terminators climb into the forest and open up on the close sentinel, destroying it as well.

Imperial Guard: The tanks move to grab the nearby loot counter, demolisher and sentinel manage to drop one of the obliterators.

The game ends with c2 controlling one more objective than me, and together with the victory points she earns a solid victory!

Gazak's Ruse

Captain Josias nervously thumbed the camera control stick as the grim scene unfolded on the vidscreen. He had already dismissed his orderlies; they didn’t need to see this. With rank came responsibility. Josias wasn’t himself eager to watch the inevitable massacre, but he had to follow SOP and collect as much information as possible about the invading forces. They had repulsed three such raids in the last month and Josias was confident that with good intel, they could withstand many more. The camera’s point of view looked out past their eastern perimeter, towards the dust-shrouded Ghogan desert. It didn’t hurt matters that they always came from the Ghogan, he thought with a smirk. It was the only place left on the planet where landers could descend without being detected – the old radiation storms still blew through the Ghogan and on any given day they created a blind spot 500 kilometers wide and twice as long. Good cover for an assault, but anything that made it to the outpost gates had been whittled down by the elements, not to mention their forward guns. And yet here they were again.

He panned the view downward, twisting the top of the stick to zoom. A Rhino-frame transport vehicle and several armored warriors on bikes had smashed through the outer gate just minutes earlier. Once inside, the Rhino had disgorged a full squad of traitor marines, and now they were running rampant inside the outer perimeter, taking his men apart for their own sadistic pleasure. As he watched, some of them could be clearly seen removing and collecting the heads of their victims. Only followers of Khorne were bloodthirsty enough to brave the Ghogan radstorms. While they were extremely dangerous up close, they were too small in number and could be quickly surrounded. A judicious application of fire supremacy and it would be over. It had been the same story three times already. With his eyes still glued to the horrific images on the monitor, his other hand calmly reached for the nearby commlink.

“Sergeant Gregory, Sergeant Tooms, prepare to counterattack on my signal.” The speakerbox crackled with static for a moment before he heard the two answer in affirmatives. “Captain Yueh, keep your armor on standby until my order.” He waited, and after thirty seconds with no response he repeated his message. Then, after thirty more seconds, “Yueh, pull your head out of your ass and come back already. What the hell is going on down there?”

Suddenly, the shielded port windows to his left side shattered inward, and a shockwave threw him out of his chair. Josias opened his eyes groggily and found himself on the floor. He blinked his eyes and shook his head to clear that familiar cotton-stuffing feeling he knew signaled a concussion. All sound had been reduced to a thin whine. Taking a deep breath, he willed himself to his feet. Looking in the direction from whence the explosion had come, he saw that the large armored company complex was bulging on all sides, with flame and smoke billowing from the bay doors, themselves blown open. Suddenly, his hearing was restored.

“Captain!” Someone was calling him on the comlink. Yueh? What was happening? He felt like he was moving through molasses. Some of it was dripping down his face, he noticed absently.

“Captain – saboteurs in the hangar and foundry – all units destroyed. I don’t know where my crews are, I don’t…”

The comlink connection was dropped and the speaker went silent. Josias could hear the pop and boom of boltgun fire from somewhere below his command tower. He limped over to the shattered window frame and peered down through the cracks of the viewshield. Space marines in black armor were crouching near the base of the tower, affixing something to the side. Stylized yellow eyes on their hulking shoulder pads stared back up at him. Black Legion! Where could they have come from? This sector wasn’t even a…

He watched, confused, as the infiltrators finished with their task and scattered backwards, away from the tower. “Oh hell,” Josias had time to mutter, before the meltacharge exploded and brought the command spindle down in a shower of fire and plascrete. It was going to be a long day for the Imperial forces stationed at Jaswin. A very long day.

Sherwood Forest Landed On Us

At the Battleforge tournament I heard a lot about the changes coming in the new chaos codex, to be released sometime later this year. This Bell of Lost Souls blog installment describes some of the major stuff. Tonight I was reading through the Eye of Terror codex, specifically the quote from Eldrad at the beginning, and I was thinking how much more entertaining it would be if they actually wrote the fluff and unit descriptions in the new chaos book from the point of view of a traitor marine. The classic story of the heresy has always maintained the good (emperor loyalists) vs. evil (chaos-warped traitors) framework; what if instead they emphasized the betrayal or weakness Horus and his disciples perceived leading up to the whole debacle?

As far as the structure, I still don't really know how I feel about the new codex layouts (Eldar, Dark Angels). This fellow Andy Hoare, who is apparently involved in development at GW, discussed in his interview here how the big plan behind the new codex structure intends to "rationalize all the lists," but honestly I really don't get what he means by rationalize. Does he mean rationalize, as in, to make rational? What was so irrational about the old lists, I mean, besides them being completely fantastical works of fiction that augment a complicated system for simulating battle between a multitude of factions represented by science-fiction miniatures using dice to determine the major sequence of events? I think all of the books since fourth edition have been just fine, outside of a few missteps where they could have (and sometimes did) fix things up with a note in a faq. How exactly does putting the unit/wargear descriptions and their cost/statistics in two separate places make the books more rational? I'll say this, it's rationally a pain in my ass to flip back and forth until I memorize all the shit, which depending on how much they've changed can take a while.