Lord Hanaur

Yeah that game was a fun first test. The 7th Edition is really fun. Those Psyker powers were mean. But The Space Wolves hung on. Casey's army deserves to be played more. Just too awesome to sit on a shelf.

Yeah there's a lot of small things that changed and got tightened way up. Balance is returned to the force!

To be fair: Im pretty sure several people have already died as scapegoats for that one and it will continue to be a "go to" excuse to get someone executed. Its not like people keep track of these disciplinary actions and what they were about..

Kay that was funny. So I got my first taste of 7th Edition and will be putting some information on my blog very soon and a batrep is coming. But let me just share my few first impressions. 1. We played a Maelstrom Mission which uses the objective cards and it was FUN. Seems you can basically play normal missions like we're all used to OR choose to play Maelstrom Missions which use the cards/Mission objectives. It's cool to be scoring and raging across the battlefield to carry out the orders of High Command. As Matt put it "Take Hamburger Hill... No we dont need Hamburger Hill... Of wait...TAKE HAMBURGER HILL!". 2. the rules are very much cleaned up. I really like the clarity of the rules and the way they are laid out. Though I have not been able yet to read through it all, referencing things was easy as pie. And having the rules ONLY in the one much smaller to carry book? EXCELLENT. 3. The whole "Leadership test vs. snap fire" at end of phase when your vehicle gets a penetrating hit annoyed me a little. Its an extra roll that I thought didn't add much since that reaction was already covered by the vehicle damage chart in 6E, but now its its own little event. okay fine. But it seems odd to add that extra roll in there. Creates another bit of book keeping to do during the game as well. 4. Armies with more Psykers are simply GOING to get their powers off, barring bad luck on their part, much like you expected in other Editions of the game. The small chance of stoppingthem if you're not heavily Psyker oriented isn't great so after gettign kinda barraged by Psyker powers in this game, I would say the EFFECT of Psykers isn't hugely different unless you're in games where both sides are supremely active, psychically speaking. I think that the fact that you have to take LD checks for 25% casualties in yet another phase is really the only TRULY significant change. That part I don't know if I'm excited about it. I will read more on that and see, but I think the added possibility of additional LD checks is the only thing i dont like. I'd prefer if the Psyker phase didn't cause the added check. ALSO big was that Psykers cannot manifest ANYTHING from inside a vehicle EXCEPT Witchfire powers! Nothing. And since the Movement phase comes before the Psyker phase, Elkdar are going to have to get OUT in order to cast their voodoo on skimmers and themselves or their units. and once out, no guarantee that they will get their powers off. So thats pretty big and I like that change. Definitely makes Psyker powers a less cowardly kind of thing. 5. Night Fighting is now just Stealth for everyone. no distance or any of that muck. COOL! 6. Each weapon can only kill what IT is in range of. I like it. 7. No more 3D6 charge crap. YES! Just -2 to charge distances unless you're exempt as Cavalry and Beasts are. 8. Smash got nerfed. Meh. I didn't really see why that would be an important rule to change, but now Smash just allows one attack. 9. Barrage no longer pins. LAME. I think this was the standout as far as disappointments go. I pretty much loved everything about this game tonight and I had no barrages in my list. but just finding OUT that it no longer pinned was a serious bummer (I wanted to be pinned by Wyverns dang it!). My overall impression was extremely positive.

Another Enfilade is in the books, and once again I got to catch up with people, which is always cool. My first battle was against Zeke, by some bizarre twist of fate. His paint job was cool. the pics didn't do it justice. He chose sides and went first and his list had assault guns just like mine only softer armored and with more units because of the lower cost of Hetzers. His Nebelwerfer's and troops watched over one of three objectives and the fighting Withdrawal began. The key to the game was i identified that the clump of houses along the western side of the board made for ideal hiding spots and I zoomed at full tilt to them with the entirety of my force. Unable to see me on the approach, he prepared his tanks which were slowed by terrain to receive the charge so to speak. However I had the initiative and was able to clear the Hetzers away after furious assault battery fire from my StuG G's and Stuh42's, and though his remaining Hetzers made a valiant attempt to reform the battle line, they were simply too far away and the Stug G tide eventually smashed into the infantry as well with their tank escorts. Overall a bloody battle and 6-1 victory over the eventual Best Painted General. Against David Said, I won. But did I? We finished our game FAST, blinked at each other in disbeleif that we finished so quickly and packed up, readying for the next game. We wandered around and BS'd for a while and someone mentioned that the mission parameters were different than we thouight. UGH. We lost a good 40 minutes of gaming time. I went to track David down in the huge press of the Enfilade gaming areas and finally caught him coming out of a bathroom so that we could RESET up our battle from where we left off, killing another 15 minutes and finally resumed our game. Thank God our armies were both small. The time lost really came back to bite me though. We were given an extra 15 minutes by the TO (which we appreciated) but it couldn't make up for the time we lost and also in redeployment time. In the end, there wasn't time for a 7th round, and so my beautiful 6-1 win turned to a 4-3 loss for me when time was called because I couldn't kill his last nebelwerfer who was pretty much toast, being menaced by a bevy of guns that would make Navarone jealous. t am glad though that we got a chance to finish the game the right way. That was a first for me and a well fought comeback for David. And then he got me with the bunny ears on the group photo. Revenge complete. Oh and he was the Renaissance Man award winner for the tourney as well, so i didn't feel too bad losing to him. My last game was my StuG G Batterie against a 10 Tiger list played by Mikhail. Eh... Let's just say that I was a little intimidated and decided that cowardice was the better part of valor, skulking, stalking and striking only when he was close and exposed to the side and otherwise just sort of hiding. My only true hope of killing his cool guy Tiger, my Hornisse's, skulked as well, picking off stragglers. The strategy of patience did work out, and though it required me to take some risks, the risks paid off. I was pretty sure that if any of those risks went sideways at all, it was going to get brutal quick and rightly so but I was fortunate and managed a 6-1 victory in the end. Not a bad day of gaming. The Stug G Batterie force does not get a lot of love, I've noticed, in the comments that I've gotten. I think it's proven to be a fun list to play. Thanks to my opponents, and Steve for running the show so seemlessly.

It was one of your little catch phrases that I remembered, always. Oddly, a lot of my bias's about lists in general came from things you said, like having 33% of your stuff as troops to avoid being called a cheeze monkey. I remember you congratulating me on coming to the store with a tourney legal painted Tau army and always kind of thought you should at least paint it that far because of that. Obviously things have changed a lot in the game and some things have simply ceased to make as much sense as they did then. Nonetheless, Assault Cannons is not a theme was one of my favorite Gary quotes.

None of which was being suggested.

I mean...yeah of course...that's what I meant. Like totally that...only with Conan as a space Wolf.

See how he dehumanizes Americans? See? But seriously... who cares if it draws a smaller crowd? If we focus entirely on that we could lose sight of the mission. That being said, recounting the best tales via song is awesome. Can you imagine a big bonfire and having people do like "Dramatic story telling" in character of the battles they were in? HA! It conjures to mind that scene in Conan the Barbarian... You all know the quote: "What is best in Life". Hehehehe. That would totally be awesome to capture on video camera. It would be like the wise man of the tribe telling the story of the wind and the Buffalo or whatever.

and this is why you will win. Zeke. im callin it from Home plate. Here and now. This is the year of ZEKE. I can feel it.

Racist! I know people who are American!

Spacemarinejunkie, In pickup games, I'm guessing the vast majority and for good reasons, will be looking for Battle Forged games. If someone could write me a story or show me a story that depicts a certain battle and then wanted to try and play it out, I'd be down for it as long as its actually telling a story and not just an excuse for some guy to get his jollies off at my expense. I'm as interested in historical rematches, even fantasy ones, as anyone; but it is fairly obvious when someone is just testing the bounds of reality with a list. It's like the guy who comes to your D&D table with the custom Prestige Class who tells you his "Last DM allowed it". I've run those games since 1984 and can't even count the unbalanced disasters people try to sell you. In 10 years of 40K, Ive played like 5 games where we were ACTUALLY recreating book/story battles, underdog matches (and i invariably played the role of underdog). The rest have just been guys trying to beat me into the sand for a W. And that's okay. But call it what it is. This "forging the narrative" veil some guys like to claim is what they're doing makes me laugh. A Narrative about ASSAULT CANNONS? Lol. Show me the narrative you're talking about that you envisioned before we ever met, ever saw the terrain and ever saw the enemy army list at a tourney? Exactly. As Gary Washington used to say Assault Cannons is not a theme. Saying you are forging one is hollow self justification most of the time. It isn't that i don't think people legitimately want to do a fun story type battle because the Alter of War missions and the 5 or so "set battle" types I played were exactly that (and I do love those Alter of War missions from the Codex Supplements, especially the Faction specific ones). It isn't that I'd ever be opposed to it, because I do dig role-playing a lot. It's just that no one ever actually does it without a lot of pre planning. One thing i could see OFCC doing (and probably only OFCC doing) is having Captains pre-matched. And then the Captains could pick out story lines and work with their team on lists that would follow those story lines. It would require a side board for the various matchups to allow for it and it could get pretty complicated, but its an alternative to just matching up the armies. If the players know the actual story line they can kinda work together on the lists, and suggest changes to them. I know thats probably only really possible if its a 1500 point game just because of the added models you'd have to bring for five different stories, but I mean... It's kind of an interesting idea.

Or get super sneaky and pull jack moves from every which direction. straight forward is one of 360 directions you can choose from. =)

Ive never owned a small rule book. Just too impatient.

Im goin' super simple this year. Got my list turned in early (meaning 10 minutes before the deadline). I don't think Ive played Flames of War in like three months so a simpler army won't penalize me as much for forgetting things. Easier to transport my force, and it's more sure to be able to finish a game. All in all, an elegant solution. I'll be playing 1615 points, almost the same force I got Best General with two years ago. Now that everyone's Anti-tank ratings went nuts, especially British, I honestly dont think I'll be competing for that this time buuuut, who gives a rip. BTW, anyone whose interested in purchasing an IMPRESSIVE Soviet tank force may want to hit me up. I will hopefully bring it with me to show people. Depends on if I can even get free of work to pick it up (increasingly unlikely, but I'm going to try).

Must... have...Lysander... aaaaaaaaaaaaargh...

? I did wish, for numerous reasons, they had just put the darn Auxilliaries in the codex. I really liked the whole idea.

As one who ESSENTIALLY doesn't use allies... This chart made me happy. There is going to be a lot ot love in this Edition. I can just FEEL it.

Lysander is soooo good. He must needs be included, for he is awesome sauce.

Well the perfect solution to everything is smarts. That makes up for a lot when it comes to matchups that dont look super favorable. It's not ALL the list. Assuming dice don't screw you, which always has to be an assumption to talk about this stuff, Timing, not making mistakes and allowing the enemy TO make mistakes are all parts of the game. What I'd be interested to hear about is, GIVEN an unfavorable matchup, how then would you go about it. Lets assume a NOVA board (LOS blocker in the middle and generally 4ish peices of terrain that generally looks a lot like the "5" pips on a die. I really enjoy reading stuff like that. In fact I recommended the 11th Company (or any aspiring Podcast for that matter) use VASSAL or other software to set up game situations and ask for solutuions, which the responders cannot see. Then see how many different solutions were offered, sumarize it and show the results. It would be involved but someone with gumption could do it and I think it would be fun to watch.

There is now!

Removed for brevity.

grounding checks are going to be quite a bit less frequent soon. dont know yet if thats good buuut...

yeah the fortifications add to the difficulty of fitting things into a 24 x 24 square that must also then accomodate Gawd knows what sized vehicles. Its not an easy issue at all.

Or you just got unlucky, rolled really high for the amount of terrain and they are a bunch of 8" to 12" pieces in a 24 x 24 quadrant. My suggestion is that you could basically have people submit stories and then have the players discuss how to make it fit the story. Like 300 word battlefield descriptions, a writing contest perhaps. Now that's a bit much to ask of local tournaments unless you have a lot of really creative writers, but it would be a cool exercise. For 7E, which is the discussion at hand, my hope is that they do something like the +1 bonus. One dude sets it up, other dude gets a +1 for deployment. I think it could be gamed if you had the person set up always go second. I dunno. Its all coming so soon that the speculation is probably not worth the creative effort. But its fun to talk about.