GW's brainwashing!

   I had an epiphany the other day.  This realization was a brutal one that left me with a smile of annoyance.  After all, I realized that I've been brainwashed and it was so subtle that I didn't even notice.  My favorite company (with huge bias) has effectively used behavior modification techniques to train me.  Let me explain.

  You see, the new Eldar have been released and I just happen to be a collector of the pointy-ears.  Like almost all the armies, I feel compelled to 'keep up' by buying at least the new rules (codex and cards) every time GW pulls an update.  Every once-in-a-while, I might even buy some new models!  But there's a limit- the price.

  I used to be able to buy a space marine Tactical Squad for $24.99 back when I put on the power armor.  I watched the prices go up and up and up until 7th edition, where that same Tactical Squad (now with new groin-towels!) now cost $42.99.  And then came Primaris.  And then the other armies.

  Since I own almost every army, I have to buy stuff almost every month.  But that price limit tends to keep me generally in check.  When I look at the price of things now, it's easy for me to talk myself out of buying it, especially if I already own the older (smaller) version of whatever it is.  This applies especially to my Eldar army, where I own three of everything produced for that army since 1992.  And one of my favorite models in that collection is the Avatar of Khaine.  

  Have you seen that new model!  Wow!!!  Even the Forgewold version of the model isn't as cool as the new one.  But I don't want to buy it.  My self-imposed limit is wholly based on the price.  For a model that large and detailed, it was going to cost between $140 and 175.  I don't have that kind of money anymore and I can't justify buying a single plastic model that I already own a version of for that kind of money.  

  But wait!  The price for the new Avatar isn't $140?!  It's only $100!?!  Wait now...

  This is how well GW has brainwashed me- the price was too high at my assumption.  Who would pay that much for a single model that might see the tabletop three total times?  On the other hand, with the typical prices for GW's products, this suddenly seems cheap by the real price!  GW taught me that a c-note is reasonable and affordable... for a toy.

  There was a point in time that I would buy everything that GW produced.  Then I became more responsible and stopped spending so much.  When it costs almost $1000 just to start a good army, the prices became unjustified.  But that Avatar only being $100?  Why do I feel like that's a good price?  GW has normalized their prestige-pricing strategy so much that now I can be tricked into thinking that a nickel's worth of plastic is a great deal for only entire two days' work.

  Has GW gotten you too?  Have you been tricked by GW into thinking the prices aren't that bad?  Are there units that you wish would get the Avatar treatment?  Let me know in the comments below.

Happy Gaming!  

Welcome back, Eldar!

   It's finally happened- I got my wife to play something other than her Sisters!  For years I've tried to convince her to try a different army as this provides perspective that can help with her normal force.  After all, it's hard to consider the uniqueness and power of a single army when you never experience another.

  She chose the Necrons... of course she did!  We planned for an Incursion game (1,000 points) so that she only had to learn the stats and rules for a couple of units.  And we know that I'm a fan of the smaller games, even if I never get to play them.  After a quick review, she built her army list and I was proud.  Just based off the 'what looks cool' rule, her choices were rather good.  Tons of choppy-choppy on a small board?  How did she know!?!

  I decided that the War in Heaven had to get its due, plus the new Eldar codex came out.  With the retirement of my T'au due to overperforming, it was time to give the next xenos in line their go at battle.  I chose my old theme of Iyanden-style with a little support from Reapers.  Tons of guns versus blades for days!   

  I don't remember the name of the mission as I don't have practice with the Incursion scenarios, but I do remember that there were six objective markers.  The shocking part, to me, was the size of the board.  At half the size of a standard 2,000 point game, there seemed to be very little room to maneuver on this board size.  This made terrain even more important as one good round of shooting could result in an army being wiped out.  Block that line-of-sight to have a game.

  The game started with the Necrons clanking forward and the Eldar shuffling up or taking shots downrange.  Unfortunately, it resulted in the Immortals suffering and little in trade from the space elves...

  Round 2 was absolutely brutal as these two ancient enemies unleashed their powers.  The Necrons had long forgotten how adept the Eldar are at reading their movements and committed just to see their enemies respond perfectly.  With pinpoint accuracy, Immortals and Destroyers were immediately annihilated from shuriken and wraithcannon.  After the fusillade, the ghosts charged in and chopped down the survivors.  Even the Necron warlord found himself facing a massive Wraithlord!

  While the Eldar were ruthlessly effective with their shooting, the Necrons weren't going to be defeated by their foe so easily.  Trading robot for pointy-ear, Immortals and Scarabs swarmed Guardians and eventually pushed through to steal the objective.  The Necrons paid dearly on that side, but objective points matter.

  Meanwhile, the Destroyer Lord laughed mechanically as the Wraithlord struggled to get through his phase-shifting shield, only to gleefully dice up the construct and begin to move toward the Guardians standing on the other objective.  Shuriken storm from those Guardians ended the warlord, but it was still sweet to chop down the big baddie in front of them.

  In a last-ditch effort, the surviving Necrons camped their characters on their objective points and sent the Wraiths forward.  Their last protocol was to hunt down the glowing leaders of the Eldar and so they stalked the ruins until they found and killed the Spiritseer leading the ghosts.  With the loss of most of the ghost units and now their commander, the Eldar decided to quit the battlefield and minimize losses...

  The game ended with an Eldar victory by points, but it was just great putting the new Eldar on the tabletop AND seeing my wife try out a new army.  She noted that it wasn't as difficult as she thought it would be and she found it easy to remember the rules and stats.  The entire game just became more accessible to her, and that perspective change is something I was hoping for.  While she didn't get to really take advantage of the Necrons' abilities, she enjoyed playing a different army and actually likes the cute robot guys.  Of course.

  I found the Eldar to be awesome!  While an Incursion game isn't exactly scaled properly, it was still really cool to feel those new abilities.  Battle Focus is pretty strong, especially on those Guardians that spent 2 command points every round to shoot and dance around.  But the real surprise to me was the Wraithguard.  Their longer range and devastating guns make their offensive output ridiculous, and then you add the 3 wounds, toughness 6, and 2+ armor save (with Protect from the Spiritseer) and a FnP (with Fortune from the Farseer).  Add some Battle Focus from the warlord and those units can be oppressive.  They may be dead, but they aren't useless!

Happy Gaming!

More Gold!

  While the T'au continue to tear their way across the sector, other armies are mustering to stop them.  In other words- I did some work on other stuff!  This is mostly because I don't have the primer color needed to continue painting the xenos AND GW released new points updates that affected a few of my forces.  This includes the Adeptus Custodes.

  My army was 2,000 points until the most recent update.  Since I don't have a lot of stuff painted for that army (which doesn't have a lot of options in the book), that meant that I suddenly needed to add some units.  Luckily, the new points worked in a way that I needed a fourth small unit of Custodian Guard and an ancient Contemptor Dreadnought.  That brings my Custodes list to exactly 2,000 points- dangerous!

  If you've kept up with my blog at all, you'll already know the paint scheme that I used.  For a little reminder, visit this link.  Here's the rundown of this new effort after applying the gold spray:

  Now here is where I got so excited that I forgot to take pictures.  I followed that old post with every step and color (except Gorthor Brown and Macragge Blue, which were out and had to be replaced with Baneblade and Kantor, respectively) and this is the result:

  And with that (and a little work on the bases), the army was finished and back to 2,000 points!  For those that are interested, here's the army list:

Adeptus Custodes 2000pts

HQ- Trajann Valoris

HQ- Allarus Shield-Captain w/axe

HQ- Shield-Captain w/axe

Elites- Vexila Praetor w/spear

Elites- 3 Allarus Custodes w/axes

Elites- 3 Wardens w/axes

Troops- 3 Guard w/spears

Troops- 3 Guard w/spears

Troops- 3 Guard w/spears

Troops- 3 Guard w/spears

Fast Attack- 3 Vertus Praetors w/1 salvo launcher

Fast Attack- 3 Vertus Praetors w/1 salvo launcher

Heavy Support- Contemptor Dreadnought w/multi-melta

  And that's it!  Now the Emprah's Bodyguard can get back out there and be the second-cheeziest force in the galaxy again.  There's more work to do on other armies and I'll be posting about them in between battles.  Until then, Happy Hobbying!

Over the top with T'au

   My last post was about the fear that I feel every time my son threatens to pull out his Death Guard.  The terror that strikes into my tactical heart is disconcerting (obviously) and I have to build armies that specifically consider the opponent.  For someone who builds "take on all comers (TAAC)" lists, this is a pain.  

  But the laws of the pendulum apply and I have the opposite feeling with one of my armies- the T'au!  These upstart aliens seem to be DOMINATING the battlefields right now both in the tournie scene and casual corners.  If you look at the BCP app or follow the results-tracking blogsites, you'll know that this new codex popped up only a few weeks ago and has already generated more trophies and musings than any codex I can remember.  

  Here's the crazy part- this army was TERRIBLE in the last edition!  I've mentioned it before, but it's insane the flip in this case.  I was reminded of this in two ways recently.  The first is when I played a game against my son's Dark Angels.  It was only my third game with this new book and he built a list that was more focused on infantry and big guns to take down my big robots.  I got the first turn and annihilated his force immediately.  The second is a video that was posted illustrating how good a particular T'au unit is.  Let's discuss.

  In the game, the T'au were lucky enough to take the first turn.  The Dark Angels had a ton of bolters and happened to include Eradicators, Hellblasters, Devastators, some Inceptors, Suppressors, a couple of lascannon squads, a Venerable Dreadnought and a Strike Speeder all full of big guns.  This was a list that could alpha strike just as well as mine could.  But I aimed my Hammerhead at the Dreadnought at one-shotted it.  I aimed my Broadsides at the speeder and one-shotted it.  I aimed my Pathfinders and a unit of Fire Warriors at the Eradicators and destroyed them.  My Fireblade focused a couple of Fire Warrior squads at some Intercessors and destroyed them.  By the end of the first turn, more than half the Dark Angels had been removed from the board.  It wasn't fun, it was oppressive.

  I tend to build my armies to the fluff and always include 'a little of this and a little of that'.  I have this 'display cabinet' mentality from my days in the service of the Emprah.  This tends to hamstring my armies and force some of my friends to balk at the ridiculous choices that I make.  The T'au are no different in army build, but they wildly outperform my typical outcomes.  This edition seems to be set on 11 in a power scale to 10.  

  This morning, a video was posted by a very prolific creator that illustrated how powerful the Broadsides are.  This matters to me because I was, for a very long time, the only T'au player that used Broadsides with their rail rifles.  I always liked the Macross-themed robots with shoulder-mounted cannons, but they were never anywhere near as effective as the missile-spam bot.  This is still true when firing against basic Space Marines, but everything else now explodes when the rail weapons smack them.  Everthing.  The ability to add mortal wounds to everything, plus playing the T'au sept to get the reroll, Mont'ka to move-and-shoot without penalty, and Pathfinders nearby improving their ability to hit...  oppressive.  

  This video triggered me to write this post because I'm benefitting greatly while my opponents aren't.  After the recent performances, I think I need to retire this army until GW comes out the nerf bat and hits some home runs on this codex.  Have you had the same experience, from one side or the other?  Let me know in the comments below.

Happy Gaming!