The Magnificent Melta-bomb

  So here I am talking to one of my buddies the other night and we got on the subject of army lists.  And he dropped a bomb that made my head explode- a melta bomb!!!

  My buddy, being a very competitive gamer (even representing the US in an international tournament one year), has some pretty strong beliefs about how his armies should work.  I can't lie- I typically disagree with everything he believes.  It's awesome, because we are two sides of that 'gamer coin'- I'm the fluff-bunny and he's the WAAC guy (with manners).  I like my armies to represent the stories while he is literally going for points efficiency and damage output.  But sometimes, and this is a rare thing, he notes something that even I have to think about.

  So we all know that Fire Dragons are BAUSS!  My buddy always celebrates them when I decide to take them in my Eldar army.  But I didn't understand why until he mentioned the melta-bombs the other day.  You see, while I'm trying to outfit sergeants and characters with awesome close combat weaponry that will slowly destroy even the largest things, my buddy prefers to pay very little and 'hope'.  At least that's how I thought of it before...

  My Space Marine sergeant costs 14 points base, plus 10 if I want the extra attack and leadership, plus another 15 if I want my pistol to kill something (maybe even me), plus another 15 if I want a weapon that can penetrate armour, plus another 10 if I want that weapon to also be powerful enough to break open tanks.  So I have a sergeant in a 200 point squad that costs 64 points by himself!  But I can shoot a terminator and punch a tank to death...

  My buddy takes that same SM sergeant, which costs 14 points, and adds 5 points for the meltabomb.  That's right- if he faces a tank, then he's got this!  It's like an auto-hit blast from a melta-gun (of course, 'auto-hit' is always debatable in my hands)!  But I don't see how a melta-bomb is so much better that this 19 point guy even begins to compare to my 64 point guy.

  Now boys and girls, let me remind you that it is NEVER a good idea to get into a math-hammer conversation with a tournament gamer (I used to be that guy, but I wanted friends more).  Luckily, that's what my buddy is for.  He explained it very simply- 

First, your sergeant isn't going to survive when everyone is running around with either the same (but cheaper for some armies) or with anti-character effects (see also snipers and challenge monkies).  Second, your sergeant is taking away points that could be used for real weapons like plasma guns and lascannons (or grav-guns or heavy flamers or...).  And if you add up the number of sergeants that a typical force has (4-5), then you gain back enough points for a whole other unit!  Thirdly, and most importantly, there's a rule that allows that melta-bomb to be used against monsters.

LIES!!!  I don't believe you!  That's can't be!  I don't remember that!

  Warhammer 40,000 7th edition Main Rulebook (III), page 181:
  Unless used in assaults against vehicles, gun emplacements, or monstrous creatures, melta bombs have no effect.  When used in assaults against vehicles, buildings, gun emplacements, or monstrous creatures, melta bombs have the following profile:
Range  -                Strength  8      AP  1         Armourbane, Unwieldy

  I was totally floored.  I didn't realize.  I remember that melta-bombs were the only grenades that weren't usable in close combat.  As it turns out, I was wrong, and this is HUGE!

  Okay, so my Space Marine sergeant can take anything he wants, but do I expect him to actually turn the game?  Probably not, so why not just take what he needs and get more out of the rest of the army.  And then, when that sergeant does get into combat with that monster, he can still have an impact.  But he'll do exactly what he's expected to- little to nothing.

  On that note, there is a weakness to this strategy.  A smart Space Marine player takes advantage of the ATSKNF rule by keeping their squad useless in some instances.  A typical squad can't hurt a Wraithlord in close combat.  That means that it can fail its test using the "Our weapons are useless!" rule on pg 53, fall back, and regroup next turn to shoot that Wraithlord to death.  Unfortunately, that tactic won't work if that sergeant is rocking his melta-bomb.  He CAN hurt the monster, so now the rest of the guys are stuck...

  I hope this was as enlightening for you as it was for me!  I don't know if I'll follow this strategy, but it's nice to know that there's options other than 'completely worthless' and 'way too expensive'.  Let me know what you think!

Happy Gaming!

The Beginning of Infinity

  Yep, we played this game some more.  My buddy brought the set over and has been itching to play and master the rules, so we've gone to town on it.  In this mission, we got to use all the models in the starter set and most of the rules.  And boy was it fun.  

  For the other five missions, my PanO guys had beat the poor Nomads out of every one of their holdings.  My dice luck was unimpeachable and we saw crazy stuff.  During those battles, my ARO (reactions) killed more of his guys than his actual actions.  It was all too common that he would fail his roll against me and I would basically 'shock' a guy out of the game with my rolls.  But this final battle was different.

  For the first time, my buddy beat me.  It started with my Commando successfully dropping behind enemy forces, only to be peppered with firepower from every direction.  Then my sniper was killed by the other sniper, seeing my over the rooftops.  Funny enough, his sniper then went on to kill my Fusilier sent there to support him one command later...

  My Knight-Father and Orc both vaulted for the central objective, depending on their armour to keep them alive.  But that reactionary shooting by a well-deployed Nomad force and the lucky dice turnaround that was finally deserved meant that both my hardcore guys were eliminated quickly.

  The game ended with the Nomads clearly in charge of the R&D Facility and my forces unconsious all over the place.  The only non-casualty was 'Triggers', my beautiful female Fusilier intent on her nails.  She has been the MVP of so many of our battles and has never gone down, so she is obviously everything she thinks she is and more...  (how do you put the mac on a miniature again?)

  Now that we feel like we understand most of the rules and can now focus on understanding the game, we're going to paint these models up.  My buddy kept his Nomads and let me keep the PanO guys and we plan on painting them just like their pictures.  Obviously, Triggers is getting painted first.  That girl deserves the Moon, or at least some colour before everyone else...

  There will be posts on that and some good hobby stuff on fades, possibly NMMs, and probably flesh lessons.  When?  Hey, get off my sack over here!  Stay tuned and Happy Gaming!

Battlefield galore!

  In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war!!!  Apparently, there's so few trees and so little grass that those wars are being fought over that (which, funny enough, would be very counterproductive).  Most of the games that I've played have been over 'green fields with woods and hills'.  Soooo, my Ultramarines are fighting Chaos marines on the way to Grandma's house?  C'mon now...

  Having finally caught up on all my schoolwork and even crushing my new classes, I found myself with time to hobby.  As y'all saw, my Orks got slapped together, and I've even built more of that.  But that's a later post.  Because I didn't want to wet a paintbrush and begin that arduous process, I decided that building some more models would be in order.

  Better yet, I pulled my buddy and primary opponent into it.  Wanting to focus on another game right now (which may or may not be a little of my fault), I roped him into some kind of hobbying with this.  More than anything, we're excited to actually play somewhere other than the rolling plains of central Asia.

  Now, I do have to disclose that another of our gamer buddies had played a game at the workshop (that Space Wolf player that I mentioned before) and DEMANDED that we get all the city ruins built and play some City Fight games.  Having everything for so long and doing nothing with it, added to my frustration at 'not the future' battlefields, meant that I only had one response- 

Challenge Accepted!

  All credit to the building above.  This was my buddy's first ever experience with these models and he decided to go hog-wild with it.  I look up from my work and he's got jackhammers and rock-drills going and ridiculous amount of plastic bits and shavings flying all around the room at his attentive machinations.  And it all came down to a building that will be very useful and is downright exactly what these sets are for.  I've seen some GW staff members put these things together in ways that make Frank Lloyd Wright wonder.  I'm actually impressed that my buddy went so crazy on this...

  These two ruins are just typical ruins.  I built the second one just for the balcony.  Every other ruin I had was multi-level, but none had balconies.  And I really just wanted one.  But the building below, now that one is going to confound players for years...

  I build this one out of extra door panels (making double doors on either side AND a single door between the buttresses), and just wanted an excuse to build another LOS-blocking terrain piece.  There's a landing halfway up, but no door to get there.  There's a battlement up top, but no hatch to get there.  There's not enough room inside for this to be anything other than a 'small building' at best, but I think it'll just be an impassible terrain piece.  So how do I explain that insane design?  

  Um...  It's the broom closet for the janitors.  You know, the janitors that scrubbed that big SM statue in the plaza?  Yeah, that's it.  Broom closet, for really tall scrubbers!  Yeah...

  After building all the ruins, I can now say that I have enough to make a legitimate City Fight battlefield.  There are six ruins and two 'buildings' (although they're not really).  I even have a ton of bases that I can put them on.  I'm still deciding on that as those base-boards are strangely-shaped.  But we'll see when I start the 'finishing' on these things...

  Funny enough, the next day saw me putting together then Vengeance Weapons Batteries.  Why did I have those?  Well, one day I was at the shop and had some allowance money burning a hole in my pocket.  But GW hadn't put out anything that I wanted that day, so I figured I'd spend that money on these just to beef up my Planetstrike terrain kit.  After reading the rules, I think that decision was even better than I realized.  Vengeance Weapons Batteries are boss! 

  I must admit that I love me some GW terrain.  Not only is the game fun (so much disagreement on the interwebs these days) and the models are great, but their terrain stuff is awesome too!  I have had this lying around (and two boxes of materials for home-made terrain) for too long and I needed to use it.  Now that I have it and can play 40k on actual '40k' battlefields, I don't need my 'green' terrain anymore...

  This will be donated to the shop and give the guys up there a chance to play on 'good-looking' terrain rather than the old, busted stuff they currently have.  I've had plans to overhaul that collection for a while, but being employed prevented that.  No more of that employment business, so it begins!!!

  You know I'll post more as I get these painted and possibly based.  Until then, let me see some of the terrain stuff you've been working on and, as always, Happy Hobbying!

Chimerae, Dragons, and Bugbears, OH MY!

  A month ago, I did my really basic review of the PHB for the new 5th edition.  My verdict- I LOVED IT!  This edition very much reminds me of the old days when I used to enjoy the game much more than what Wizards did at the beginning of the century.  I know there are plenty of 3rd-lovers out there, but I know a ton of them love this edition as well (so far).  

  Well, the next most important book in the core set is the Monster Manual.  I've read, reread, and reread again this thing like any good, self-respecting DM would.  So how does it stack up with my expectations so far?

"I can SEE you!!!"

  Well, I have to say that I like it just fine.  Gone are the 4th edition blocks and the ridiculous concept of 'troop type' with monsters.  We're back to 'a monster is a monster', which is great.  We're gone from the days of the old 2nd edition 3-page-long stat block for each monster, detailing what climate they lived in, how many you would find, and what levels of villains would be in each group.  TMI much?  I grew up on that and those stats were almost completely ignored.  I wanted to know the basics- Ability Scores, HP/HD, equipment, AC, and saves.  This edition gives just that (and a little more).  It still keeps the 4th edition style of icons indicating 'actions' for each monster, but not the 'Press K on the keyboard to attack' mechanic that 4th edition really fell into.  

  There is one part that I especially enjoy- the NPCs appendix at the back of the book.  Instead of including Humans as a monster race, they are basically represented in all their professions and can be easily modified to represent any of the 'common' races.  I need bandits and thugs often in my campaigns, and there they are!  No longer do I have to take the Human monster type and modify it to fit my needs- it's already done!  That is probably the best part of the Monster Manual for this edition.

  There is one gripe that I have with this book- The background and detail of most of the monsters is sorely lacking.  I'm happy to know that the Goblinoid races worship Muglibuyet, but I want to know more about Duergar.  I simple column of three paragraphs is not enough to tell me anything about the race.  I know that, as the DM, it's my responsibility to flesh that out.  But sometimes a little  hint or two are rather nice.  

  

  Overall, I'd have to say that I love this Monster Manual in the same way that I love the PHB- it's back to the DnD that I used to know!  Most importantly, it serves its purpose beautifully, as it has for generations and multiple editions.  I am geeked to put this stuff into use!

  

  Let me know what you think and, as always, Happy Gaming!