Warhammer 40k D weapons and Superheavies? Is the Sky REALLY Falling?

Of course it's not! But that doesn't mean things haven't been falling apart for the 40k community recently. In fact, all this anger on both sides of the conflict has finally prompted me to put my word in. Now first off I want to clear up a few things. I am not a competitive tournament player anymore. I lived that life years and years ago but I have not been much since late 5th-6th edition as it stands. But understand this: I am a VERY competitive player. I don't like to lose. I like to win but not at the expense of my opponents. To me now as I enter my older and (hopefully wiser) years in this hobby I am starting to the WHOLE picture. To me now, the game is at its peak hobby wise.We have gorgeous new models every month and new supplies and ssupplements to go with them. There is so much us players can utilize now, it is insane! Enter the recent SUPPLEMENT Escalation, which takes our game for a curve. Destroyer weapons and superheavies allowed in regular games? Yup. It finally happened.

And I love it.

You see there are two sides. There is the side who embraces GW open and creative thinking. These players are mostly in my experience like myself. Competitive,but not necessarily by tournament or big event standards. They see the game as a hobby and not only a game to be played.

The other side is made up of the more serious minority (but still just as important partof our community!) Of dedicated gamers who view these changes and as a ruiniation of the actual game itself. These players are very knowledgeable and strategic and usually k now what they are talking about, yet sometimes both sides end up in what I call Hypothetical Hyperspace.

The biggest culprit and topic of discussion right now is the Elder Revenant titan. At 900 points and putting out for 4 D blasts a turn this single unit has changed our game. As players scramble to find ways to counter the hypothetical scenario in which they could face one has taken the internet by storm
 But you see, the reality of it is, is the Revenant Titan should not have caused such an uproar but it has. And now a community is divided over what to do. To me the real threat is not the Revenant itself, but the attitude it has inspired. That it cannot be beat unless by some other extraoridnary means. That they will somehow be included in every list under the sun. And that they and any other thing deemed to much by a minority should be auto banned.

I can count the number of players I personally k ow with a Revenant with one hand. Sure this unit is awesome but let's face it. How many people do we know that have this guy? And of that  how many are not proxying and have dedicated Eldar armies to accompany them? You see those that own them are in 3 groups In my opinion. The first is the dedicated Elder player who wanted one for his collection. I have no problem with this and respect it immensely. The second group are the bandwagoners. Those that started Elder armies or recently added one with the sole purpose of crushing others. And the last group is the WAAC players who bought them to only win tournaments.

Those are the only 3 groups I can really see bringing one to the table.

Finally. I want to close by saying that the game is changing. It is SUPPOSED to change. This edition is meant for it. No longer can we be stuck and unwilling to adapt to the game in hopes that it will somehow adapt to us because it isn't. The game is moving. Those that refuse to move with it are being left frustrated and bitter and are poising the rest of us who are trying to enjoy the ride. Escalation and Stronghold assault are just new doors to new places. You don't have to open them yourself but don't stop someone else from deciding to open one. And for those that hate it before they have tried it, I Implore you you: Go at play a game with a Lord of War. Try it yourself. Don't sit on the computer looking at negative and fictionous posts about things. Go out and be the hobby. Play the game. Learn. Grow. Change.

-James

Kutlakh the World Killer and other Necron Forgeworld news!

Hello everyone! I have been terribly innactive. However i do have this one bit. Yesterday on 9/12/13 I sent FW an email regarding the status of the 2 missing Necron characters. Today they responded. Though the answer is sad I think this is some closure and I thank forgeowrld for the respons

Via forgeworld:

Hi there.

"We have no current plans to produce models for any of the Necron Characters from IA 12 unfortunately.  However, the intended look for these characters was designed so that they can be easily converted from the existing Necron Character range."


So there you go. That's a big disapointment but oh well!

Doomsday Arks: Worth taking?

Why yes, that IS one of my Doomsday Arks...

So this post isn't very related in terms of what I have been discussing recently but I felt the need to make this post anyways. As the the title says I will be taking about DoomN Arks and if they are worth it in most lists or should they just be continued to be skipped all together.

The Doomsday Ark was one of the new kits that came out in 2011 (hard to believe it was that long ago) I first thought the concept of this unit extremely Necron cool. The WD also had its unit entry and i liked what I saw....unfortunately many people didnt or still dont.

Now admittedly there are some problems, being a 175 points for a mega gun is pretty expensive especially on such a light skimmer. You will almost never regain the point value Of this unless you have some very good rolling.
The Doomsday Cannon itself is marvelous being a whopping Strength 9 and ap1 large blast at bs4. It also has a 72“ range. This gives your list a nice long range pie plate that often Necrons lack ironically. Yet even after many games this still feels underwhelming against vehicles. Would it be too much to ask for ordanance or Ignores cove? Apparently. But like i said, if you have good rolling, this thing will win you games.

My personal experience has been surprisingly positive though. Managed to fell a landraider, terminators, tau fire warriors and other things. They are incredibly powerful but you must build your list and strategy around them. A good rule of thumb is too treat these like they are going to die next turn. Therefore, one should prioitize aginst targets you know will be hurt a lot by this (which is almost anything not in cover)

So yes, i do like Doomsday Arks. Are they for everyone? Of course not, but i would like to see them more on the table besides just 3 Annihilation Barges. But i guess im down for anything that has the word Doomsday in it afterall...

So my fellow gamers, what do you think about these? Let me know.

40k Rumors: Introducing Warzone: Damnos

Hello everyone! So i have pretty much gotten all caught up on what I missed this week. One of the rumored lists of products being released in September had something i found very intriguing. A new Warzone called Damnos by Phil Kelly.

Now if you dont know what Damnos is it is basically a epic battle of the 2nd company of Ultramarines vs. The Necrons. Some of tje events are written in the novel Fall of Damnos which was a pretty good read itself. It would appear however this planet is being revisited and with an apocalyptic scale of battle.

Remeber to my post yesterday about the lack of rules for the Superheavy Gauss pylon in the core Apoc book? Well i highly suspect it will be included here! In Fall of Damnos about half of the Strike force is led by Tigurius to destroy theNecrons superheavy pylons, so i could see them in here easily. I am also going to expect the formation for 3+ pylons and maybe the one for the triangle of Monoliths. But just know that this is WISHLISTING. None of this is confirmed yet!

On the Ultramarine side i would expect rules for Sicarius and his 2nd company.

Overall i am really excited for this and i cant wait to hear more!

Necron Gauss Pylons: The Supreme Titan Killers

It never ceases to amaze me at the fact when one is gone out of the world of War hammer but for a week you can miss so so much. I've been trying all day to catch up on the news+rumors with the new Space Marine release which is shaping up to be MASSIVE.

But now that I am back it is time to catch up and get into routine. So I tthought I would continue an in depth look at various Necron units that are featured in IA 12 with this one being the Gauss Pylon.

Now the Gauss Pylon is by no means a new unit for it has long been the only Necron Super heavy. Interestingly enough the most *current* rules for this can be found in IA 12, yet it is absent from the core Apocalypse rulebook. However, rumor is there will be a Warzone Damnos which will VERY likely have the Pylon in it (more on this later)

The Gauss Pylon is clocking in at about 400 points. It is a fairly durable unit being av14 all around and having a 5++ which it confers to nearby units. The only weakness is only 6 hull points though we will have to see the official amount because it was never clarified in IA 12.

But the offensive capabilities of one of these is spectactular. Each one fires 3 Strength D shots. at a 120“ range. I ddon't know about you, but D weapons got a massive boost in my opinion and these pylons are capable of putting out some serious firepower. I usually run minimums of 3 in any apoc game. 9 D shots is terrifying at whatever you are trying to destroy. Oh, and aircraft are no safer because sky fire and interceptor. It also has the flux arc which was changed from d6 shots at EVERY target in range to 2d6 shots at just one unit now which is a bummer.

In conclusion: If you play Necrons and want to play some apoc games up with the big dogs, bring a few pylons next time. Even if you don't, they still make a great army center piece.

A Message from beyond: Site Update

Just a quick update I wanted to give. The good news is that the site has recently passed 10,000 page views which is incredible so THANK YOU! But I also have some bad news (for you at least) in that every year or so I like to take a camping vacation with the wife and kids. I'm usually gone for a week and there is no internet where we go. That means I am going to be completely out of the loop in terms of 40 k news. But it is a lot of fun catching up on the rumors and info. So thanks everyone and I will be back in about a week!

-JD

Necron Tomb Citadel: Introducing the first official WH40k xenos fortification!

Besides flyers, the 6th edition of WH40k brought us another new unit type, the fortification. While there are many options all things considered, they are all imperium terrain. Unless you do some awesome converting your xenos army will have to use human emplacements. But now 1 xeno army is freed from this, yep, IA 12 brought this beast and it is by FAR my favorite unit in the book!

The Tomb Citadel has a plethora of awesome rules. The easiest way to explain them all is by dividing the citadel into 2 parts, the Ziggurat and the power Crucible. But the entire tile offers plenty of bonuses as well. Like ALL Necron units get t o re roll All failed reanimation protocols of a 1. The next benefit is any unit that attempts to deep strike on here perils if they roll doubles.My favorite part is that the Ziggurat and Power Crucible are av 14 structures. But instead of rolling on some chart to calculate the damage after they are penetrated,  they are destroyed on a solid roll of a 5+. So even destroyer weapons need a 5+ to kill each structure!

The Tomb Ziggurat has a built in scarab hive (on a d6 roll of a 2+ you get to spawn 1 scarab base) and it has its own portal of exile. The interesting feature of the ziggurat is that you can either dock a Monolith or Sentry Pylon. The benefit is +1 to its weapons strength. This is pretty handy especially with a gauss pylon.

The Power Crucible is fantastic. Basically, it gives all units on the 2x2 board a 3+ invunerable save! Seriously, stick 20 warriors with a res orb in here and they will NEVER die!

Did i mention that this thing easily covers an entire square section of the realm of battle board? Because it does. So how much is this ultimate buff giver? 300 points! But it is the most awesome 300 points you can spend in non apoc games. Oh, i just realized that this thing can take 2 Gauss pylons for some AA defense for 100 points each or 50 points for a skyfiring tesla destructor! Seriously, dont fuck with this fortification.

Now there are some pproblems. Your opponent will likely not allow this for multiple reasons. It is a huge piece of terrain and it is extremely good. I know most casual gamers would be very hesitant to play against one of these. Even some tournaments might restrict this based of some reading I did. Nevertheless, don't let that interfere. This is a really great game unit and it adds tons of cinematic flavor. Seriously I've seen some awesome dioramas of these. SThe Tomb Citadel is the first xenos terrain and I firmly believe there won't be anything this good! My favorite unit by far.