Archive for the ‘CMO news’ Category
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Weep, ye misguided slaves, for the Eye of Terror has opened—and Abaddon has come to butcher worlds.
As the biggest, baddest, most ruthless and destructive unit in the Chaos Marine codex, Abaddon therefore becomes a series contender for the title of the biggest, baddest, and most destructive unit in the game. He wades through any army. Slays any hero. Wins any battle.
 "He will come to drench the stars in blood." Abaddon Basics:
- Abaddon has a stat line that dominates. No other character in any codex compares, at least in a fair fight. If you field Abaddon, count on him almost always hitting first, and being very challenging for your opponent to kill (assuming they even survive Abaddon’s attacks).
- Unfortunately– this is about all he’s got going for him. He doesn’t provide any army or unit buffs, so be sure to weigh the pros and cons of fielding him. A daemon prince is probably as good in the long run, but watching Abaddon murder anything in his way is too fun to ignore.
- Abaddon is a huge point sink. He alone costs more than a unit of terminators, so don’t add him to your list on a whim. The forces of chaos can take down most foes even without his help, so bring him along only if you really need to ensure close combat dominance.
- Abaddon works best against marine, or other heavily armored foes. His abundance of attacks and high strength ensures that you can cleave through power armor reliably.
Advanced Tactics:
- The standard tactic is to mount Abaddon in a land raider partnered with terminators, marines, or berserkers. It’s hard to argue with this tactics effectiveness. Your opponent will be forced to either shoot it with everything they’ve got, or let it crash right into their lines.
- Either way you’ll be in a good place. If all of your enemy’s melta-weaponry is going for the landraider then that means that your other vehicles will be able to approach.
- If the land raider is destroyed then you’ll be ready for a counter attack.
- Pairing Abaddon with a unit of infantry is useful to prevent him from being locked up with hordes, but don’t be afraid to separate him during the fight; he can go toe to toe solo against individual targets with no problem.
- Make sure that the unit he is joined to is fearless.
- Another tactic would be to pair Abaddon with a group of deep striking obliterators, giving you both a powerful ranged and melee presence behind enemy lines. This tactic can become risky though, because you won’t know for sure when Abaddon will come into play.
- Be prepared for Abaddon to completely fail during one round of fighting due to his daemon sword. However, that means you should also prepare for him to completely dominate one turn.
Finecast
For as awesome as Abaddon is, he has what is probably the lamest model for a special character in the entire line. He’s underwhelming and undynamic—but that’s OK. It just means that you’ll have the perfect incentive to make a unique and suitably evil-looking conversion to represent him.
 Get a hair cut, hippie. That standard Chaos Lord kit offers a good starting place, but I would recommend looking to some of the fantasy line’s Chaos product to dress it up. Fantasy chaos have more spikey parts, unique weapons, and awesome helmets to represent the universe’s greatest killer.
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Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
With my various dalliances into photography, I quickly caught on to certain concepts that were muddling my 40k photos. Things like exposure, white balance, and focus can be tuned in almost any modern camera. Whether you have a point-and-shoot or a D-SLR, a few missteps can really ruin the photos of your precious minis. You spend hours on painting and assembling your models, the least you can do is spend a few minutes taking a proper photo to show them off to the world! I’m going to use this article to post some photos and give examples of the mistakes I’m talking about. I won’t be talking about specific cameras or lenses or anything, but if you flip through your user manual you’ll find tips on how to adjust these settings.
White Balance
White balance is a simple concept — the image sensors need to know what white is in order to know what all the other colors are. The complicated thing is that pure white will look different in various situations. Certain lighting (sunlight, fluorescent, incandescent) or environmental factors (paint on the walls, surrounding furniture, lampshades) will make white appear to have a different hue or lightness. Most cameras use presets to change white balance. There’s the ubiquitous “auto” mode, but they’ll likely include options for various lighting. More expensive cameras will have a calibration option, which usually asks you to take a picture of a white sheet of paper in order to capture “pure white.”
Improper white balance can ruin pictures of your minis, because your colors will look wrong! If you spend a lot of time shading and highlighting and picking a proper color palette, you don’t want your camera to make greens look blue. Here’s an example of pictures with improper and proper white balance. Note how “yellow” the first picture looks:
 
Focusing
Focusing is a concept in all optics. Your eyes will blur out something far away to make something nearby more clear, or vice versa. The same is true with cameras. Your camera needs to know that you’re trying to focus on a 2″ miniature that’s inches away from its lens. It has no way of knowing whether you want the miniature, the pattern of the paper towel it’s sitting on, or the beautiful woman behind it. Most cameras rely on an auto-focus mechanism, based on what the center of the viewfinder is pointed at. It’s common for cameras to have a two-stage process: press the shutter button down slightly to gain (and lock) the focus on a particular element, then press it completely down to take the photo. This allows you to frame a shot and focus on something that’s not in the middle of the photo. More expensive cameras will offer a manual focus ring so you can get the right focus yourself.
Having a picture out of focus will make your miniature appear blurry, plain and simple. This is one of the most common problems you’ll see on websites. Not only will pictures look blurry, but as a result the colors will be crushed together. By nature of being out of focus, lighting detail is lost, so you’ll lose some of the precious highlights and shading you’ve done. One way to improve the focusing is to use “macro” mode, which is usually denoted by a flower icon. Macro mode tells your camera that you’ll be looking to get up-close-and-personal with objects right in front of the lens. We all know what blurry photos look like, so instead here’s an example of how your camera can focus on different things in the same shot:
 
Exposure, Flash, and You
Exposure is the technical term for the way your camera’s aperture opens. It’s useful in making light areas appear lighter, or dark areas look darker. Most cameras these days will allow you to change your exposure to be positive or negative, taking brighter or darker pictures respectively. It should be noted that opening the aperture longer makes the picture brighter, but also requires the lens to move faster. This results in pictures taking a relatively long time to snap. If you’ve got proper lighting, you won’t need to raise your exposure drastically and it won’t be an issue. Exposure can often be adjusted on your computer afterwards, in programs like Photoshop or iPhoto.
Too low of an exposure will make your darks too dark. Too high of an exposure will make your lights too light. Most often you see photos where a model’s colors look washed out, and this is due to overexposure. When the exposure is too high, the camera makes some light into too much light, and thus you’ll end up with pale colors. We’ve all seen this, and the best solution is better lighting. You don’t need a lighting studio — use light at a soft angle, turn off the flash, and up the exposure a little. Tweak those variables until you start seeing the differences you want to. Here’s a photo underexposed/overexposed/properly-exposed:
  
Keep these settings in mind whenever you start taking pictures to show off your work! By no means do I claim to be a photography or painting expert, but no matter what camera you have, you should be able to tweak these 3 things and your photos will be better off as a result.
Tags: painting, photography
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Thursday, October 6th, 2011
It’s hard to argue that battle between the Imperium and the forces of Chaos is the iconic struggle in the 40K universe. Each force has some of the toughest troops in the game, each zealous in their own way. The two types of marines share a common origin, and therefore a common style of play on the field, but during a recent game events led me to wonder if one force truly had an advantage over the other, or whether they were evenly matched. Let’s find out.
PROFILE: Both types of marines have the same states, so lets instead take a look at what you get for your investment.
Loyalist Marines require you to have a 5-man team, including a sergeant, for about 90 points. A 10-man squad will cost you about 170 points.
Chaos Marines also require a 5-man minimum, but don’t require an aspiring champion. Moreover, they’re cheaper, coming out at around 75 points for 5. This also means that a 10-man squad will save you about 40 points over the loyalists. Another excellent feature about chaos is that you can create massive squads, up to 20 members! While crazy expensive, such a force—properly equipped—is nearly unkillable.
This point difference may sound like a small benefit in the grand scheme of things, but enough to give the chaos marines a small advantage, letting you customize your unit size to specific missions. Additionally, it serves as a great “points dump” for left-over points that won’t fit anywhere, something codex marines don’t have the option of doing.
 WINNER: CHAOS!
SPECIAL RULES: This is an easy one to evaluate, since the chaos marines don’t have any special rules!
The loyalists own here. “They Shall Know No Fear” is one of the best rules in the game for keeping troops in the fight, while “Combat Tactics” gives you interesting options for synergy based on your HQs. “Combat Squads” is very cool as well, since you can adapt to the mission once you’ve seen how the opposition looks.
 WINNER: SPACE MARINES!
WARGEAR: The versatility of marines are one of their greatest assets, since their basic gear lets them accomplish most anything reasonably well. Let’s take a look:
Space Marines: Bolt pistol, bolt gun, krak/frag grenades, power amour.
Chaos Marines: Bolt pistol, bolt gun, krak/frag grenades, power amour, CLOSE COMBAT WEAPON.
See that. Chaos’ combat weapon increases their melee output by about 50%, which is huge. This definitely gives chaos the advantage.
WINNER: CHAOS!
OPTIONS: Kitting out your marines is essential to winning games, and while there is overlap between the two lists, each one’s options become huge for determining which the better marine is.
Weapons
- Each marine type can be equipped with same special weapons: melta, flamer, plasma, etc.
- Chaos has the advantage of being able to take a special weapon even if only a 5-man team, whereas the loyalists need 10; however, loyalist marines have options for getting these weapons for free, which is definitely not the case for chaos.
- More importantly, space marines can take heavier guns, such as the multi-melta and missile launcher, which greatly increases their threat range.
- Winner: Space Marines.
Champion and Sergeant
- Balanced across the board, though the champion gives a leadership bump up to 10.
- Winner: Chaos!
Transports
- Space marines get a robust choice of options here. Razorbacks and especially drop pods give them an edge in numerous situations.
- Chaos marines only get a rhino, and while it can be equipped with better weapons, isn’t enough to make it competitive against the marine options.
- Winner: Space Marines.
Special
- Space marines don’t have anything unique here.
- Chaos, on the other hand, dominates. The five different icons of chaos provide a giant advantage. With them, the chaos marine gain boosts to their statistics making them superior to the loyalists. While pricey, they can make a huge difference.
- Winner: Chaos!
This one is tough to call. The advantage gained by the space marine’s transports is good, as are the chaos marks. Each becomes an asset in the proper situation, though I think that the marks hedge out transports because they boost more things, and give you longer lasting results.
WINNER: CHAOS!
EFFECIENCY: Finally, lets take a look at the cost of each of these two units, comparably equipped for their role.
My typical Space Marine unit contains a power fist as well as a meltagun and a combi-melta. This runs at about 210 points.
An identically equipped Chaos Marine unit costs the same.
While this begs the question of why create much of a distinction between the two, remember what’s going on behind the scenes. The Space Marines will never flee be caught in a sweeping advance, can break up into combat squads, and can choose to flee if necessary.
Chaos is getting an extra CC attack and has a higher leadership. Chaos can be made fearless for a very cheap upgrade, basically giving them the same staying power. Giving them the mark of Slaanesh or Khorne greatly increases their killing power, while giving them the mark of Nurgle or Tzeentch can allow them to survive combat with nearly any foe.
With that in mind, the loyalist Space Marines are versatile without any upgrades thanks to their combination of special rules and wargear, making this one close to call.
WINNER: TIE!
FINAL RESULTS: Space Marines are awesome. They can accomplish nearly anything with their versatile weapons and special rules… but they’ll loose in a one-on-one fight with chaos almost every time. While their similarities run very deep, chaos marines simply hit harder, and can last longer in more situations. Space marines will be better at claiming objectives, but chaos won’t have much difficulty clearing them out.
OVERALL WINNER: CHAOS!
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Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Having talked about starting WHFB, and the similarities and differences with 40k, I’ve omitted a pretty important part of the hobby: painting. Painting up a Fantasy army is going to be very different from painting a 40k army. Sure, you’ve got plastic models, acrylic paints, and brushes. As I’ve started to build up my Warriors of Chaos though, I’m realizing that there’s some additional factors to consider when deciding on a paint scheme. As usual, most of these differences stem from the fact that the games focus on two different styles of squad combat. Even with my horde of 40k Imperial Guardsmen, the unit coherency rules allow them to be spaced 2″ apart. Consistency in color palette really ties the unit together.
In Fantasy, you’re dealing with large blocks of units. It’s pretty common to have 20-40 units strewn together in rank and file, in comparison to 40k’s units of 5-15. This means that having similar colors can work against you, because rather than visually tying the models together they begin to bleed together. You need to find a way to delineate where one model ends and another begins, yet they still need to look like they’re part of the same squad (and the same army!).
I want to take this opportunity to show some of the ideas I considered with my Warriors of Chaos, and point out some of the issues I think people can run into. First up is a pretty vanilla metallic paint scheme:
This is hardly an adventurous scheme. It’s remarkably easy to paint, and certainly doesn’t look awful, but you can tell that it needs some highlighting and edging. A wash or two of Badab Black wouldn’t hurt either. The problem with schemes like this, which I’m seeing a lot, is that you end up with a sea of silver models. This doesn’t do your army or the models themselves any justice. You need color to break up the pieces of the model itself. This also helps to make one model appear distinct enough from another model.
Let’s look at another idea. The new Warrior sports a dark red armor, highlighted and edged up with blood red and blazing orange. Due to the poses of these models, the shields will always be butting against another Warrior’s red armor, helping to break it up. The edging on the armor clearly defines where some plates start and other plates end. You can use a similar palette to paint up troops that correspond to your favorite god, using greens and yellows for Nurgle, for instance. The work doesn’t end here though. You need to consider how you’ll be seeing your models on the table, i.e. from the back:
I went with more red here, which seems at first blush that it would be too much red. For other armies, that may be true. The Chaos Warriors are unique in that they have pretty much no overlap between their front and rear profiles. The surface area of the cape is pretty vast, yet almost impossible to see from the front. This means that you don’t have to worry about repeating colors from one side to the other. This is a boon to us Fantasy painters, because it seems that lots of armies have rank and file troopers with capes and cloaks. I’m a big fan of using a bit of contrast, as I’ve done here with the Dheneb Stone fur, as it breaks up the model a bit. Remember that your basing can give you some contrast as well. Consider using something vertical, such as the long side edges of the cape, to highlight and provide another edge to break up one file from another.
 
Don’t be afraid to try a few different schemes! With the snap-together models that GW has available for many races, it’s easy to pick up some troopers on the cheap and try a new scheme. Best of luck, and remember to always rank them up before you call it a day!
Tags: games workshop, painting, warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy
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Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
You may remember my 40k article on choosing an army. It focused on how you, as a new or returning 40k player, can decide on an army that will suit your style both on and off the table. The thought process is basically the same for WHFB: you need to consider things such as model count, fluff and aesthetics, and overall playstyle. This basic rubric may not cut it though when you start looking at the WHFB options, so I wanted to break down my thought process for picking a WHFB army.
One of the big distinctions between WHFB and 40k is the fact that you have big blocks of infantry, rather than small squads. This means that the notion of model count is different between the two systems, resulting in drastically different experiences with playing and building a “large” army in either system. The other ramification of the large infantry blocks is that it affects playstyle in a different way. Close combat is the focus of WHFB, as evidenced by the complexity of the rules and the wide array of close combat goodies available to you. This, combined with the lack of proper “vehicles,” means that you’ll need to reconsider what your playstyle in WHFB really is.
I opted to look at the problem as one of phases. As it was explained to me, most armies are pretty good in 2 of the 4 phases of WHFB (Movement, Magic, Shooting, and Assault). You can pick an army that really shines in one of those phases, but it will be pretty weak in another. Here’s an overview of what it means to be “good” in each of these phases:
- Movement. Armies good in the movement phase are characterized as “fast.” This could be a high base movement value on infantry (hint: Dwarfs are not fast). It could be a proliferation of mounted units, such as the Bretonnians. It could be due to magical items or spells that grant movement bonuses or ignore movement penalties. Some armies, like Tomb Kings, can be played fast or slow depending on whether you bring a lot of mounted units. Other armies, such as Wood Elves, need to keep on the move in order to maintain a positional advantage.
- Magic. Some armies can bring a huge number of wizards or really powerful spells. They tend to rely on the magic phase to compensate for their weaknesses in the other phases. When they can pull it off, it makes them a much stronger army all around. Playing with magic is (sometimes literally) playing with fire though, so it’s possible that these armies will fall flat on their faces. These armies may raise more troops, like the Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings. They may buff friendly troops, or de-buff enemies, depending on the Lore available. Don’t discount straight damage spells, which can be dangerous in the hands of Chaos or Lizardmen.
- Shooting. This one is pretty self-explanatory. Some armies have lots of guns, bows, or war machines. These inflict pain from afar. This can stack with the two earlier phases pretty well: Tomb Kings can move and shoot without penalty, for example. Magic can also improve shooting in a number of the available Lores. The thing to look for if you want to focus on the shooting phase is high BS and war machines. In the land of no cover saves, negative modifiers reign supreme. This means that you’ll rarely be rolling straight against your BS. Some armies, like Dwarfs, have both…and their shooting is reviled for it.
- Combat. Armies can excel in close combat by a variety of means. Some, such as Orcs and Goblins, will use sheer weight of numbers. Other armies such as Warriors of Chaos rely on relatively few troops with elite statlines to get the job done. Furthermore, some armies such as Ogres will use even fewer and scarier monsters to leverage Fear and Terror. Armies such as the Dark Elves can use surprise Assassins where you least expect them. Many armies have a variety of magical weapons, armor, and talismans to make close combat a nightmare for the opponent. In general, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the special/rare choices in your army. Some offer increased damage output, others increased survivability…the scariest have both.
I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that picking a WHFB army is drastically different than picking a 40k army. The rule of thumb still is, and always will be, go with what grabs you. There are no more “terrible” armies out there, and at worst you’ll get an older one that may not have the latest cool rules and models. This article has hopefully explained what’s entailed in determining an army’s playstyle though, so you’ll have a better idea of what you’re getting into!
Tags: games workshop, gaming, Getting Started, warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy
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Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Things are getting intense in the “Jailbreak at Khasak Prime”. We’ve reached the final mission, with the elder and orks battling to a perfect tie. This mission will decide the outcome of our story, but first let’s see how the orks came back!
Going into this battle the elder were ahead 11 CP to 3 CP.
The eldar farseer Nolrandir has penetrated the ork prison, thanks to clever diversionary tactics performed in mission two. Though the elder locate the cellblock containing Eldrad, ork sentries have sounded the alarm! Nolrandir wastes no time. He and several of his troops storm Eldrad’s cell while the banshees hold of the flanks from the mobs of ork boyz arriving from all sides. Zagstruk, the prison’s ruthless warden, comes in from the rear with his storm boyz to rip apart both of Nolrandir’s escape vehicles. Meanwhile, Skazzgut and his bikers drive the elder into a desperate defense of their farseer as he frees Eldrad. With his master safe, Noldrandir sounds the retreat. His guardians and avengers fallback with all speed, heroically sacrificing themselves as Skazzgut’s bikers run them down on them. Just as escape seemed within reach, Eldrad was cut off by the arriving huey hog and swarming mob of orks.
Yet all isn’t lost of the eldar, for outside the prison the avatar manifests itself alongside the valiant exarches that ambushed the ork convoy from mission two. With these reinforcements bombarding the gates, Nolrandir is given a final chance to escape. Meanwhile, Wazdaaka revs up his warbike of the aporkalypse to see what all the noise is about.
The orks rolled ahead in this game, shutting out the elder in CPs.
This will make the stakes on the final game very high, since it is a perfect tie in both CPs and KPs! The totals are:
- Orks CP: 11 (15kp)
- Eldar CP: 11 (15kp)
This final battle will not only feature our named characters, but also all of our veteran units as well.
Eldar:
- Howling banshees (feel no pain)
- Dire avengers (hit and run and feel no pain): These crafty warriors returned from the ambush site in mission 2 to single handedly defended the elder flanks.
- Guardians (furious charge): These guardians distinguished themselves by valiantly defending Eldrad’s escape.
- Striking Scorpions: Slain by Skazzgut’s unstoppable biker charge.
Orks:
- Big Gunz, Kannons (tank hunters): Still picking their noses, waiting for a mission that can make use of their aim.
- Warbikers (feel no pain, infiltrate): Skazzgut’s biker gang are getting crafty, learning a few tricks to get ahead of the elder skimmers.
- Trukk Boyz (counter attack): These boyz swept into the undefended elder flank, engaging the pansies so Skazzgut had an open path to victory.
Mission 5: Eldar Extraction
2,000 points
The ork prison is a riot of destruction as Noldandir makes a desperate escape. With Eldrad roused, the elder call in their evacuation vehicles for an emergency extraction before the orks stomp them into the dirt.
 Eldrad must flee Wazdakka's entire mob! Deployment: Dawn of War
Set up terrain.
Create a wall along one longboard edge to represent the exterior wall of the ork prison. This is the ork deployment zone. Ork’s appearing from this long board edge do so in front of the terrain to simulate them emerging from the prison. The other long board edge is the elder deployment zone.
Take turns placing 3 objectives in the elder deployment zone. These objectives represent the elder landing zone.
Roll-off to determine deployment and turn order.
Reserves come from the owning player’s long board edge.
Primary Objective—Secure the Landing Zone (5 CP)
The player that controls the most objectives wins.
Secondary Objective—REVENGE! (3 CP)
The two armies’ leaders have developed a series grudge against each other. You gain 3 CP if your HQ unit destroys an enemy HQ unit.
Bonus Ork Objektive—“Kill ‘em all!” (3 CP)
Count up each unit in the elder army. If you gain KP greater than this number, you gain 3 CP.
Bonus Eldar Objective—“None will be left behind.”(3 CP)
Count up each unit in your army. If, at the end of the mission, you have a number of surviving units equal to or greater than this number, you gain 3 CP.
Special Rules:
Infiltrate. Deep strike. Nightfight (turn 1). Random game length.
Aerial Battle: Eldar skimmers and ork fighta-bombas engage in a violent dogfight directly overhead. Place a marker in the center of each table quarter. At the beginning of each player’s movement phase, roll off. The winner of the roll off chooses which of these four markers a destructive plane crash, bombing, or strafing run occurs in. That player rolls scatter dice and places a large blast template, inflicting a S7 AP4 hit on any model beneath the template.
NEXT WEEK: We announce the winner of the campaign, and give our thoughts on how what we learned can help you create your own!
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Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
Note: This article is not meant to be a competitive comparison between the two systems. If you’re a 40k player that is curious or just starting fantasy, this article is meant to highlight some of the distinctions to look out for.
Finally, we get to the end of the line: the combat phase. Again, I’d like to point out that the basic mechanics of the two games are the same. Models have weapon skill, strength, toughness, and saves. There’s a leadership test if you lose combat. There’s a chance that your squad will run away, either escaping or getting cut down as they flee. That being said, combat can be considered one of the focal points of WHFB. With waves of troops crashing against massive blocks of infantry, there’s a lot to look forward to! That being said, there are a few important things that make WHFB different from 40k. Keep these in mind if you’re considering picking up one of the two systems, because they’re real game-changers:
- Ranks. This is the name of the game in 8th Edition WHFB. If you have more ranks (rows) of troops than your opponent, you benefit from the “Stubborn” rule, making you immune to negative leadership modifiers. The notion of ranks is important when attacking, because depending on your armament, only a certain number of ranks can attack. Rank bonuses can be canceled by charging from outside the front arc. Regardless of the outcome of combat, you’re fighting an uphill battle if outranked by your opponent. This is in part due to…
- Modifiers and combat resolution (CR). Oh, the modifiers! At the end of combat, each side receives a point for the wounds they inflicted. This score is compared, and the loser takes a leadership test with a penalty of the difference. This means that if I won combat by inflicting 10 wounds to your 5, you would have to pass a leadership test at -5 or break. This of course, gets complicated. The main reason is that unlike 40k, a lot of bonuses are given out for different circumstances: whether you charged, whether you hit a flank or rear field on the target, whether you have a standard in the fight, etc. Don’t forget that depending on army positioning, units may be taking their tests on the leadership of a nearby general (within 12″). If there’s a Battle-Standard Bearer nearby, it can be re-rolled. And it wouldn’t be Fantasy if there weren’t spells in play to modify unit’s leadership values!
- Domino effect. The issue with morale in WHFB compared to that of 40k is that it can quickly cause a chain reaction. The round can start with Fear or Terror checks, which if failed, can seriously diminish the offensive output of your unit for the turn. If your unit fails to strike effectively against the horrifying monsters that just charged them, then they’ll likely take substantial damage and fail their leadership test. If they do, nearby units can panic. This includes both units near the original fleeing unit, and any unit that it runs through. The end result is that a small loss can snowball into a big one. Again, this can be amplified or mitigated by spells and magical equipment.
- Endless weaponry. In 40k, there’s rules to learn. You have to learn about Lightning Claws, Powerfists, Force Weapons, and other horrifying sci-fi weaponry. The WHFB rulebook, and supporting army books, are filled with a mix of mundane and mystical weapons that will make your head spin. Ordinary weapons, such as spears and bows, often have a special rule to provide some flavor. Some rules may provide offensive or defensive bonuses, some may only apply to the first round of combat. It’s important to have a plan for a unit when you equip it. The other end of the spectrum, magical weapons, is equally daunting. Most characters can choose from the standard fare of frightening enchanted axes, swords, and daggers. Their respective army books will often offer more exotic weapons with effects that can synergize with other entries in the book. The important thing to remember is that neither you nor your opponent are expected to reveal any magical items until you use them. This means that while you can bring some nasty surprises to catch your opponent off guard, you’re certain to run into a few unpleasantries of your own.
This wraps up my comparison of the two gaming systems by phase. As I start to get some real game experience in, I’ll be able to make some broader comments about the options and trends with each. Of course, a lot of this is subject to your local meta, or what you and your friends are looking to get out of a game. In any case, both games offer an exciting array of options, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be playing at least one of them!
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Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Our 40K campaign, “Jailbreak at Khasak Prime”, is off and running. Let’s recap the story so far, this will give you an idea of how the actions of a game can create an interesting narrative:
The eldar farseer Eldrad Uthlan is the captive of the cunning ork big mek Wazhdakka Gutsmek, locked in a prison-fortress on Wazdakka’s junkyard world. A group of elite eldar led by one of Eldard’s apprentices—Nolrandir—is inserted behind enemy lines to infiltrate the prison and rescue Eldrar. However, they must first make their way through the junkyard wastelands and evade Wazdakka’s warbiker gangs. Led by the ambitious war boss Skazzgut, these boyz are eager to stomp some heads to prove themselves worthy of leading their own waaaagh!!!
The eldar first needed to knock out the ork’s defensive perimeter, which consists of several searchlights scanning the wastes. Though the ork artillery did a good job of crippling the eldar fire-base, Nolrandir played a cunning offensive. He kept his forces safe behind terrain, allowing his banshees and avengers to easily take the first tower. This baited the overzealous Skazzgut into a fight he had no way of winning, as he and his bikers charged. Though they overran any eldar in their way, Skazzgut’s gang was shot to pieces by scatter lasers, and then finished off by a countercharge of avengers. Nolrandir then went on the offensive, sending in his wave serpents and howling banshees to assail the other towers. Too scattered to mount a counterattack, the orks were powerless as the eldar slipped right through their lines, further into their territory and ever closer to the prison.
Results. Though the mission was technically a tie, with each army holding one objective, the eldar cleaned house in Campaign Points.
We decided that this should count as an eldar victory for the purposes of determining which branch of the ladder to progress down.
We also got to select several of our units to award veteran abilities based on their performance. This can also give you an idea of how actions in the game help develop character and story!
Eldar:
- Howling banshees (feel no pain): This five-woman team single-handedly slaughtered an entire mob of boyz, though almost died in the process. The exarch tends to her bloodied sister’s wounds, as they swear that they shall endure any pain until Eldrad is free.
- Dire avengers (hit and run): These heroic warriors kept up with Skazzgut and his warbiker gang in melee, proving their speed and ferocity in combat.
Orks:
- Big Gunz, Kannons (tank hunters): It’s not often that gretchin do anything to distinguish themselves, but this group of screaming cannoneers did an excellent job crippling the eldar’s offense from the moment they came into their sights. Without them, the pansies’ warwalkers and wave serpents could have easily swept into the field, claiming all of the watchtowers.
Mission 2: Desert Ambush
1,000 points
The eldar have penetrated the ork defensive line. With a group of ork reinforcements in hot pursuit, the eldar commander splits his team into two forces. He leads one group to infiltrate the prison, while his second-in-command must delay Skazzgut from launching a counter-attack.
 Skazzgut's convoy is about to fall into Nolrandir's trap! Deployment
Set up terrain.
The ork player chooses one of the short table edges to be his escape route. From the escape route board’s edge, measure 36” back down the center of the table, then create a 6” wide rectangle that stretches lengthwise to the other short table edge. This is the ork deployment zone.
The eldar deployment zone is everywhere else on the board, but no model may be placed within 18” of the ork deployment zone (except infiltrators).
Roll-off to determine deployment and turn order.
Reserves come from the owning player’s long board edge.
Primary Objective—Ambush Victory (5 CP)
The player with the most kill points at the end of the game wins.
Secondary Objective—Battlefield Interrogation (3CP)
Intelligence on your foe’s combat capability could prove vital in future missions. If you defeat an enemy HQ unit in close-combat then you gain 3 CP.
Bonus Ork Objektive—“Smash through, boyz!” (variable)
You gain 1 CP for each unit you move off the board via your escape route. Dedicated transports do not count towards this total.
Bonus Eldar Objective—“Slow them down at any cost.”(2 CP)
If you immobilize or destroy every ork vehicle with a transport capacity, you gain 2 CP
Special Rules:
Infiltrate. Deep strike. Random game length.
Junkyard dangers: The ork world is brimming with ancient debris and hazardous waste. Before deployment, players take turns transforming 2 pieces of terrain each into piles of sharp junk or pools of toxic waste. These areas have a 6”x6” footprint and count as area, difficult, and dangerous terrain.
Tags: 40k, games workshop, gaming, Warhammer 40k
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Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Note: This article is not meant to be a competitive comparison between the two systems. If you’re a 40k player that is curious or just starting fantasy, this article is meant to highlight some of the distinctions to look out for.
So far, we’ve covered 2 phases in Fantasy, and only one in 40k. Now I’d like to compare the 3rd WHFB phase, which I believe to have the most in common with 40k — the shooting phase. Naturally, since the games borrow from the same basic set of mechanics, there’s quite a bit of overlap. Models have ballistic skills, there’s hit/wound/save rolls, and you can expect to see the same quality vs. quantity in unit profiles.
There are, however, some important distinctions. A lot of these keep in step with other trends I’ve pointed out so far in WHFB:
- More modifiers, no cover saves. For the most part, there’s no such thing as a cover save in WHFB. If you have no armor, and you get wounded, it’s tough luck. Whereas the ubiquitous cover save gives obscured models in 40k a chance to simply ignore a wound, WHFB uses such considerations as to-hit penalties. Shooting a model in cover might give you a -1 to all to-hit rolls, for example. You can similarly expect penalties for things like moving and shooting, or shooting at longer ranges. Of course, magic or equipment may give you a bonus instead, making special equipment very flavorful in WHFB.
- Randomized targeting. Without vehicles, WHFB resorts to “war machines” with crew. The crew are usually distinct models, and there are rules that dictate whether a shot hits a war machine or its crew. This can also apply to some special units and their mounts — i.e. a scary Lord on an even scarier Dragon. This has a few implications that 40k doesn’t cover. Destroying a dragon’s handler, for example, can make it an unpredictable monster that will ravage both friend and foe alike. In 40k, you bring a meltagun to bear on a tank and expect to shoot at, and kill, a tank. In WHFB, it’s possible that your high-damage single-shot weapon will just obliterate a single Dwarf!
- Daunting numbers. As a 40k-player, you may look at some underwhelming Fantasy weapon profiles and wonder how anyone manages to die in the shooting phase. It’s important to remember the context of WHFB; S4 is way less common than it is in 40k. Same with models that are T4. A S4 weapon also carries with it the -1 penalty to armor saves, which naturally, are a lot less impressive than in 40k. Of course, this increased lethality brings with it a series of to-hit modifiers as mentioned above. Above all else, you can’t forget that you’re not dealing with 5-10 man squads, you’re dealing with 20-40 man regiments.
- Ranks and blocks. With a few exceptions, you’re not dealing with unit coherency. You’re dealing with blocks of infantry. This means that your unit has a front field of view in which it can fire, unlike 40k where units can shoot 360 degrees around them. Be prepared to move, exposing a flank or incurring a penalty, if you want to bring your shots to bear on a target that’s outside of your field of view. Also consider that only a certain number of ranks can fire, depending on your missile weapons. You can organize your unit to contain more file/less rank (widening your frontage), but that makes you a juicier target for assault units.
Altogether, WHFB and 40k share many of the same mechanics. Any 40k player will be familiar with the basics when switching to 40k, or vice versa. There are certainly nuances, the biggest ones outlined above, that must be taken into consideration. Of course, remember that there is a certain climate of each game to take into consideration. You can face a 40k army bristling with S9 weaponry, but such a feat is far less common in WHFB!
Tags: games workshop, gaming, Getting Started, warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy
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Thursday, September 1st, 2011
40K Campaigning: Mission 1
It’s time to kick off my sample 40K campaign, the Jailbreak at Khasak Prime! This plot will pit a group of valiant eldar (or dastardly eldar, depending on your viewpoint) as they venture deep behind enemy lines to recover their captured farseer from the clutches of the torturous orks (or handsome and heroic orks, depending on your viewpoint). If the eldar don’t free the farseer, then the orks will exploit the information they get from him to launch a devastating counter attack.
The flow of this mission will center on the activities of the eldar, but won’t always present them as the “attacker” and the orks as the “defender”. Rather, the nature of the missions will change to reflect the success or failures of the campaign. This may mean that the eldar easily push past the ork defenses, gaining direct access to the prison; it may also mean that the orks thwart their plans, putting them on a desperate chase to infiltrate the prison in what may be a suicide mission. Half the fun will be telling the story, so let’s get started!
Set-Up:
The first thing I did was create the branching ladder of missions for the campaign, based on what actions I felt the eldar and orks would be forced to take depending on the results of an introductory mission to set the stage.
The victor will be the player that gets the most Campaign Points (CP) at the end of the campaign. The missions grow in size throughout the campaign, as each force commits more forces to the cause. This will ensure that the climax of the campaign is dramatic and full of action:
Ground Rules:
- Each player chooses a named character from their codex, this character will be used only in the final missions of the game. Until that time, they are assumed to be at the ork prison either initiating or suffering “coercive interrogation techniques”.
- Each player chooses an HQ choice for their army; this HQ will become the “character” for the duration of the campaign. This unit should be named and given some pizzazz for fun. In effect, this unit will be the protagonist of the story.
- The ork character will be a rowdy warboss who leads a gang of war bikers in the desert of Khasak Prime.
- The elder character will be the cunning Nolrandir, talented farseer and pupil to Eldrad.
- Players are not required to use the same lists from mission to mission, but are encouraged to carry over many units to develop a personality for their force and take advantage of veteran abilities. Also, using the same units gives us the chance for grudge matches and bragging rights!
Opening Mission: Eldar Infiltration
1,000 points
The Eldar taskforce is stealthily inserted behind ork lines and must eliminate the ork sentries which guard their way to the prison.
Deployment
The eldar player marks the center of his long board edge, then measures a 12” radius from that point—this hemisphere is his deployment zone.
 The eldar strike force must incapacitate the desert perimeter! The ork deployment zone is everywhere else on the board. Players take turns placing 3 objectives in the ork deployment zone at least 12” from the eldar deployment zone and any board edge or other objective. The ork player then deploys his units within 12” of any of these objectives, but may not be within 12” of an eldar unit. The elder player deploys second.
Reserves come from the owning player’s long board edge.
Primary Objective—Watchtower Control (5 CP)
The player who controls the most objectives at the end of the game receives 5 CP.
Secondary Objective—Hamper Mobility (2 CP)
If a player destroys or immobilizes all of the opposing player’s vehicles that have a transport capacity, that player gains 2 CP. If a player has no vehicles, the opposing player automatically gains this objective.
Bonus Ork Objektive—“He’s Wanted!” (3 CP)
After deployment but before the game begins, the eldar player nominates one of his exarchs or HQ models to be an individual associated with the captured special character, thus having an ork bounty on his head. If the nominated model is destroyed, the ork player gains 3 CP.
Bonus Eldar Objective—“Fast and silent, brothers.”(variable CP)
You receive 1 CP for every ork unit destroyed in close combat.
Turn Order:
Roll off to choose to go first or second.
Game Length:
Random turn end.
Special Rules:
Infiltrate. Night fight.
The objectives count as area terrain.
Each objective is mounted with a searchlight. At the beginning of a controlling players shooting phase, the searchlight negates the night fight rule for one turn of shooting against a single enemy unit within 48”.
NEXT WEEK: The results and rules for MISSION 2
Tags: campaign, games workshop, gaming, Warhammer 40k
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