Munkie

I sincerely hope DE get new advantages, but I don't have much confidence. Since GW reimagined the army in 2010, they seem to have put as little effort into updating them to the current edition as possible. The army has only gotten smaller since then. Thus far, 9th edition reveals seem to be giving the DE playstyle to other armies. So unless they re-imagine DE again, which I'm sure they have no interest in doing, it may turn out to be a pretty bland army. If they are cheap enough, they may still be "good". But I like the army because it's unique, not because it's cost effective. Trading uniqueness for efficiency doesn't particularly interest me.

I wouldn't describe myself as salty, but I'm fairly apprehensive thus far. I only play Dark Eldar and thus view the game through that lense. None of the reveals are good for my army: -no more stacking -1 to hit modifiers means our best defense no longer exists. -all vehicles being able to fire heavy weapons means DE vehicles no longer have a unique advantage. -the board getting smaller means our speed matters less. Never more fragile, never less effective at shooting on the move, less chance for speed to be a difference maker. The only hope we have is we don't get the rumored price hikes. Even then, I really don't want the character of DE to become: the [big bad swear word]ty yet cheap eldar. Craftworlders are HUGE winners based on the leaks, DE seem to be forgotten (as usual).

I wouldn't know the difference! I see black painted jump packers in an army of red painted jump packers, and my brain automatically thinks "death company". I'm guessing they have fewer helmets and more stuff stapled to their armor?

My point wasn't that CSM was one of the most powerful armies, but that double Lash was the most powerful way to run them. This change to the army makes it better. With cheaper noise marines and blast masters, why wouldn't you take a double lash/maximum blastmaster list?

The buggy looks like a miniature batmobile from the Christopher Nolan movies turned into a technical.

I would suggest that something has to be done with Lash of Submission. One of the very powerful ways to run CSM in 5th is beginning with with 2 Slaanesh demon princes, then pack as many template weapons as possible in the list. Obliterators, vindicators, blastmasters, doom sirens, and havoc launchers. It's both an incredible force multiplier and a negative play experience in-a-can (having your opponent pick up your squad, take them outside, and lay them down in the street twice a turn can be lame).

As Andy hints above, that distinction is becoming narrower. GW has, in fact, been moving towards a "If we don't sell it, you can't use it (officially)" business model for a few years. It's why Dark Eldar have fewer units now than they did in 5th. It began with getting rid of all the special characters they added but never made models for. This edition, they got rid of Trueborn and Bloodbrides (the elite versions of kabalite warriors and wyches) since they never made official models for those squads (though, for some reason, IG are still allowed to use conscripts, silly GW) At any rate, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see no mention of tactical marines in the 9th ed space marines codex. Maybe they'll handle them with a legends approach, as they have with things they want to phase out this edition. All that said, if someone had a space marine army, I'd have no problem proxying as primaris. It's not their fault the model line is getting replaced.

While that's true, there is no reason to believe they'd want to keep 2 parallel lines of space marines going, when one looks silly and dated next to the other. It would be fair to call it an educated guess.

That was 4th ed. The 5th ed one had special characters that dictated the chapter traits. That was the major downside to the 5th ed book. Very special character reliant.

Blasphemy! The 5th ed space marine book is probably my favorite they've ever written. Tons and tons of options, but none of them are overpowered. A friend and I tried to break that book, but it just can't be done.

While those squads couldn't shoot back effectively, it would be a gross mischaracterization to say that Blood Angels couldn't shoot well. Aside from not having a thunder fire cannon, they were better at shooting than other space marines. If someone went all in on a null deployment strategy, they opted to not have a firebase. For that reason, I agree, null deployment itself doesn't need to change. It isn't the most powerful way to play the army. The thing that makes that book tricky is there just aren't any weaknesses. Blood Angels were better at everything than vanilla marines. Better shooting, better combat, better psychers (aside from the one special charater), and a lot of force multiplying synergies.

ITC really doesn't do much in the way of house rules--mostly just with LoS and terrain these days and that's because the 8th ed terrain rules aren't great. I don't like ITC as the industry standard, and especially their accumulation of ITC points, and the effect that can have on players' psychology. What I do like are their missions--at least in concept. They're a little too sanitized into tournament friendliness for me to fully embrace, but the ability to score and win in a variety of ways is a far more interesting and realistic approach than GW's "do one thing to the exclusion of all else" approach to eternal war missions. The ability to focus on killing or board control, but never to the exclusion of the other, and the ability to change those tactics in-game if necessary just makes for a more dynamic scenario.

Not really. I just fail to see how the convenience of the printing size is mutually exclusive with them wanting to take advantage of that. They wouldn't have printed quick start Warcry mats either if they didn't do it for a financial reason. Plenty of standard size mats existed at the time, and GW had no presence in the area. So they created a new market. A market, conveniently enough, that was easy to create because they could print it in an economical way. Nobody ever told GW they had to make mats for any game system. The fact that the also have proprietary sizes for other game systems, doesn't dispute that. Rather, it makes perfect economical sense for them to expand their unique sizes to 40k, because they can arrange all of their terrain and potentially modular products on the same scale. It doesn't make them villainous, but it does fit with their history of consolidating control of their products and related copyright concerns. I don't personally care, I don't own a table so I'll just play on whatever the store offers. I'm just trying to be realistic about how companies think. They don't just start randomly making things, they do market research. I have to believe their market research was more in-depth than measuring a printer and exclaiming "Jolly good! We'll make mats!" It's not zebras and horses, it chicken or the egg.

Is there no middle ground? There's no chance that GW is trying to edge out battle mat makers and chose a logical size for the mat it wants to make? You seem to be operating with the assumption that GW had no choice but to make a mat, and they chose this size because it's easiest. Frankly, I find that explanation far less likely than "GW wants to establish a new line of products and chose a size that would be easy to produce". But maybe I'm dumb.

I read the recommended table sizes as a signal that they will be selling proprietary battle mats sometime in the near future. There isn't an otherwise good reason to so arbitrarily alter the dimensions of the battlefield.

Ooh! I love acting redundancies! David Denman plays an unlikable and bullish incumbent fiance, whose viability as a romantic interest is slammed shut when he punches the charming protagonist; and whose fiance leaves him for said protagonist in both: -Big Fish -The Office

Been breaking out the ol' Xbox 360 (though it is xbone compatible) and playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 online with old friends. Goddamn this game is great! Drown the free time in nostalgia!

Yeah, when I play again, I think I'll try that Supreme Command first. The plan with the Shadowseer would be to stick with Shield from Harm on the army list and use the stratagem on Veil of Illusion most games. Especially for its impact on over watching flame weapons. Safely charging from 3" away!

If I could figure out how to make links turn into pictures on this website, I'd post the rest of the content. The stratagems and relics have been leaked too and there is some NASTY stuff in there. The new relic shrieker cannon "Cegorach's Lament" renders poor Curtainfall (which was solid) largely obsolete. It's 36" range, AP -3 (both profiles) shrieker cannon, with a damage 3 wail mode! With the Harvester of Torment pivotal role, you can hit units with 3 damage 3, AP -3 (or 4 if you roll a 6 to wound) shots, which cause D3 mortal wounds per model killed! So you can potentially kill 3 models and inflict 3D3 mortal wounds, then lower their Ld by additional -2. So if you kill 3 models and roll average on the mortal wounds, that unit will be taking their Ld modified by -11! The other 2 pivotal roles for Death Jesters are amazing too, especially if you make them Dreaming Shadow. The DS unique stratagem allows you to count each hit as 2 hits (or 3 if you roll a 6 to hit). With Jest Inescapable, he becomes an excellent sniper. If firing shuriken mode, he'll usually hit 6 times with a strength 6 sniper rifle. Every 6 to wound does a mortal wound and another wound at AP-4. Humbling Cruelty is amazing too. No overwatch and -2 Mov on a unit as long as he hits with one of his 3 2+ shots. So good. The other big winner is the Troupe Master. My goodness. The new relic blade replaces his harlequin blade (or power sword) so you don't even have to pay for a weapon upgrade to replace! 60 points for an absolute monster in CC. The relic blade is basically all 3 harlequin weapons rolled into one, AND gives you extra attacks equal to the game turn. So, 6 attacks with str 5, AP-3, D2 on turn 1, but 12 attacks if you make it all the way to turn 7. Add to that Darkness' Touch pivotal role and he just deals 2 mortal wounds to somebody he fought, every time he fights. Again if you make him of the Dreaming Shadow masque, he can fight again with 1 attack, and deal another 2 mortal wounds on a 4+ (CP re-roll this if it makes the difference). So whatever character can survive between 6 and 12 multi-damage attacks and 2 guaranteed mortal wounds, and manages to kill a 60 point character, is probably not going to survive the additional attack and 2 more MW. If you're really desperate, or just want to go full auto, don't forget the 3CP Wardancer stratagem to swing again. Theoretically could deal 56 wounds in a single fight phase (provided he dies, a measly 52 if he lives) 😳 The only "loser" in this is the Solitaire. He's no longer better in combat than a Troupe master, not even close. He's also 38 points more than a much bigger threat. His only advantage is his speed, and trading out the speed and 2 additional attacks of Blitz for just different kinds of speed or a pointless defensive ability just doesn't seem worth it to me. A side-grade at best. As a Drukhari player, I look at harlequins as allies and there are a couple options that look tempting. Either a Dreaming Shadow Vanguard of: -Troupe Master w/ relic -DJ w/ relic -DJ -DJ -6 haywire bikes Or a Silent Shroud Supreme Command of: -Shadowseer -Troupe Master w/ relic -Troupe Master -DJ w/ relic The 2 troupe masters and Shadowseers would form a little combat cluster and brutalize sections of the battlefield at a time. Silent Shroud pair really nicely with Drukhari because they have stacking Ld drain rules to reliably put a unit at -4 or -5 Ld before wounds dealt and rolling 2 dice and picking the highest on combat shock tests. It's situational, but really opens it up as a dirt cheap utility detachment. Sorry about the wall of text, I'm just really excited about these rules. Hopefully some of the more coherent sentences will provide some food for thought!

I'm looking forward to... ever having something to look forward to again. 😞

It really cuts down on the time I spend deciding what to watch on Netflix.

I'm not confused that they're not playing Star Wars. Having 2 separate channels running the new Star Trek trilogy concurrently seems odd. What's the rationale? We'll cater to everyone who wants to watch Star Wars but can't for some reason? Or are there enough trekkies who'd want to spite watch Star Trek on May the 4th? Weirder still, the Sequel Trilogy was playing on TBS at the same time... ...but Jurassic Park was also on, so I put that on instead. I think I'm a bad star wars nerd.

The new Star Trek trilogy is being played on both SyFy and FX simultaneously today, May the 4th. The world has turned to madness.

-The choke 90% to death, then neck break kill. I'm not sure why this became a thing in movies but there are 2 reasonable explanations: 1) The director asked an expert how long it takes to strangle someone to death and responded, "Screw that! We don't have that kind of time! We'll shoot it in 15 seconds and add a crunch in post." 2) It was fully intended to be just a straight up strangle and was shot that way. But in editing they either decided it needs accompanying audio (the same reason guns click everytime they are touched or moved in movies), or they actually cut a longer shot down to make it less disturbing and end the slow death with a punctual crunch. Watch for it in the future, the vast majority of people in movies who begin by getting choked to death, actually end with a neck break. A quick neck break is reserved for action movies, and the extremely rare beginning-to-end asphyxiation is reserved for emotional moments in gritty dramas. For everyone else, it's the choke 'n break.

GoT has a character named Alliser Thorne. BSG has a character named Alastair Thorne. Coincidence? Probably. But if not, what does it all mean?!