Numenera Part 2

Some more griping. Sorry but this setting is just bad and bothers me a lot. I feel like I should be letting other people know about it and at the same time cathartically putting my gripes down. Eventually I'll read the rules and see how good they are.

Numenera

I've gotten a pdf of the core rules of Numenera and want to get my thoughts about it out here. I'm not so much interested in the rules because the people I game with tend to break them so it's a competition between DM and god-like beings so not worried about imbalance. What bothers me really is the story. It falls for a lot of the 'errors' I see in other settings. Let me explain:

Eldar Review: Part 1, The Eldar Warhost

This should be short and sweet. There aren't a ton of rules that the Eldar have for army-wide and the rules aren't that complicated. Which I wish I could say about Daemons but nonetheless here we are. Let's get started:

Been disappointed lately

Been spending a lot of time on modelling and trying to learn how to sculpt green stuff. I've been putting off reading the Eldar codex because of one thing and one thing only:

$115

That's the price in USD for the Eldar Wraithknight. The advertising campaign for it had the line, "And you thought the Riptide was big". For some reason reading that just shocked my system. It made my shake my head in...disgust. Really. I've spent a lot of money on this hobby. As a lot of the readers and other members of the hobby have. This number though bothers me. It made me realize that first and foremost GW is a company but more than that it's a company that actively ignores and dislikes its fans. I stress that last part: GW actively dislikes fans. Why? Well a few reason, fans like the books and like the fluff but they don't like blowing tons of money on new minis. So instead of making cheaper minis (as if their shit-tier quality is something that we should pay for) they've instead decided to make utterly OP models and charge you a ransom for them. Want to win tourneys? $115. Want to play the best unit? $115. Want to play 3? $345.

What I'm getting at is that GW has completely lost touch with new and old players alike. We like new things. We like new toys and we can all figure out how much they actually cost to make and how much you're marking things up. So, in essence, the fans know how much they are being robbed. In turn, GW has decided to see how much they can rob us and how quickly they can do it before we realize. Well, $115 made me realize. I feel like an idiot but that's what did it. I understand this hobby can be expensive. I understand that paints, bases, extra bits, dozens of models etc. can be expensive. But when I can look at a competitor like Flames of War or even after-market specialists like Scribor and see them making better products for less. You can get a whole army for less than $500. Name a GW army you can do that with without getting used. That kind of entry price is deterring new users and old users from starting into the hobby.

I think what I really want my readers to take away from this rant is this: GW is doing something wrong to it's fans. I understand it costs money to run a business, I'm no idiot, but markups at this level with a quality this low and growth and change in the game almost non-existent (other than to make new books automatically better) does not a hobby make. I'm done buying GW for a long time. I will only buy used from Ebay if that. I haven't bought a single new model or bit in over a year and I don't plan on changing that until GW changes it's absolutely stupendous price-gouging. We can wait GW out. GW can't wait out its fans.

And with that...I'll review the Eldar codex.

Games Workshop and US Copyright

I've been reading about copyright recently and wondering if it's okay to be posting some rules from various codexes and the main rulebook online.

Apparently it is. But! I cannot (or you cannot if you're going to do it too) post the rules verbatim you can say, "Furious Charge gives you +1S when you charge" but you can't use the exact wording as it appears in the core rulebook. This is known as expression of game rules and is registerable for trademark. Whether or not GW has registered this stuff, I don't know. I do know that I, or anyone else for that matter, can post their rules online as long as they don't use the exact wording as it appears in the rule book. That's why certain games have very similar knock-off versions that use the same rules; they're just worded differently. If you look at Dog-opoly, for example, it's almost an exact replica of Monopoly but each use different wording of the rules (and different square names) to create what the copyright office considers a unique enough game to avoid infringement. That's why you can have Dog Place and Dog Walk replace Park Place and Board Walk without infringement because even though they are essentially the exact same thing it's the wording that counts.

So, just to wrap it all up: You can post rules, just not with GW's wording. Neat!


For those interested in the documentation:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html

High Elves Conversion Idea

For those of you into Warhammer Fantasy there's a simple conversion you can do to save yourself a ton of money and still have mounted flying elves.

1. Get and Elf (and kind of elf mini works)
2. Get a balancing bird toy (example: Birds, same size for $4)
3. Glue them together.
4. Laugh about saving ~$50

And there you have it. Balancing birds are also pretty cool because you can glue them by the beak to a base and they won't fall over! :O

He should be using his middle finger

GW's War on Customers

As a paying Warhammer customer I'm pretty amazed by all the recent moves GW has been making with regards to 40k and their properties. I'd like to discuss it here. It seems to me that the company, although they are doing 'well', is on the path of self-destruction.

Counter-Necron

9 of the top 16 lists at Adepticon included this:

Lord,
3x Warriors + Night Scythe
3x Annihilation Barge

and 8 included at least 2 6-man squads of Canoptek Wraiths w/whip coils. These are purely to tie up and live through dedicated CC and heavy weapons units. They are also good at popping AV10 vehicles. They're a really good jump infantry unit because they ignore everything but impassable terrain so they can fly in a straight line towards whomever they wish to engage. They also have 3+/3++ and are thus very hard to kill even with just T4 and 2 Wounds. Thankfully they don't have power weapons. It'd be grounds to ban Necrons from tournies that is, combined with Night Scythes and Annihilation Barges. People think Heldrake is under-costed. Look at Annihilation Barge! 90 points! Heldrake should be 80 at that point-scale.

Anyways, ranting about poorly costed units aside how do you counter units like this? Because, to be honest, these guys can ally with damn near anyone, cost nothing and are going to be Top 16 of every competitive tournament so building lists purely to counter these will probably get you far. 

Necrons, Necrons Everywhere

Kept thinking about the ridiculous lists from Adepticon (and how some of them had to have won purely by dice flukes and by being matched against even worse crafted lists). The Dark Eldar/Eldar lists sticks out particularly to me as the main fighting capabilities are a 300 point unit of Warriors and a 275 point unit of Wyches (albeit 55 of each are venoms, which are known to be extremely powerful when you only take 2). And a 240 point beast unit. Very scary with an average toughness of 3 and no armor saves against bolters. Oh and 665 points worth of unique HQs. Oh and 9 Necron armies. They were all roughly this:

Lord
Warriors, Night Scythe
Warriors, Night Scythe
Warriors, Night Scythe
Canoptek Wraiths x a few
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

Garnish as you'd like, win accordingly.

Adepticon 2013 Second Place list

I looked over the Top 16 finishers at Adepticon and I would love to post the second list because it is just the ticket for what might be good against the winning list. The list is SM/IG with 2 blobs, 3 flyers and Thunderfire Cannons. Which is really funny to me because I've seen Thunderfire Cannons get laughed at continually on the internet for being a waste of points and this guy took 3. List is below:

Adepticon 2013 1st Place List

Today I want to do an analysis of the winning list from Adepticon 2013. It's pretty easy to grasp list and can be seen below. I'm going to do an analysis of the army's capabilities and maybe show how tactically it's a really good, albeit cheesy-as-hell, army.

Review of the slew of FAQ Updates

In case you didn't see GW released a ton of new FAQs including one for Daemons and an update to the main rulebook. I'll review the changes here. First up the main rulebook:

Flyer Fix? Maybe.

Took a road-trip today so I had some time to think about 40k and what small fixes could be made to improve unit balance and I came up with a simple one: Shots at Zooming Flyers are resolved at BS2 instead of BS1.

I think this might be enough to really take flyers down a peg and bring them in line with other units. I got this idea thinking about Axis and Allies. In that game, any unit has a chance of shooting down a plane except for subs (deck guns can't do it). This includes infantry, tanks and other planes. In 40k this sort of real-world balanced units is not assumed nor enforced (hence blob armies) but it supposed to be mandated by the rules ie: not enforced but you have to. In this new edition instead of mandating varied unit composition with a semi-mechanized army they instead enforce buying Flyers. Literally that's all they do: buy Flyers. They aren't an instant win card, however, and still aren't that devastating to an enemy army except for the Heldrake and Necron Air armies. They will ruin opponent's armies without anti-air. You need anti-air just for those units. That's stupid. 

To correct for this just add "Snap Shots at Flyers are resolved at BS 2 instead of the usual BS 1". I think this will go a long way towards evening out that part of the problem.

Now about blobs...

Unleash the Hounds! (A dream army)

This army that I'm going to write up cannot exist in the rules. I just want it to. But! If you are doing a 2v2 game I would suggest 1 side uses Daemons and Space Wolves. Each army will completely fill their Fast Attack slot with hounds. The rest I don't really care about so feel free to fill in (also I only have like 10 minutes to write this). Check 'em out:

In case you haven't seen them

Pictures of the new High Elves minis are out. I actually laughed out loud at their chariot.

Nope, I'm not moving. (A list you can't kill)

So I've decided to keep doing cheesy fun lists until I think of something else. Today I wanted to make a list that can take a blistering amount of fire and laugh. To do this I'm going back to CSM+Daemons only this time it's reversed as Daemons are primary and CSM are ally. Check it out:

I can fly! Time to get the most FMC's in a list

I haven't come up with many ideas of what to talk about today so I'm going to show you a list I thought up that attempts to cram in as many flying Monstrous creatures into a list possible. CSM+Daemons list obviously.

Too many Dreads (Blood Angels)

Came up with this list earlier when looking at 2250 point tourney lists. You're allowed double force org. Check it out:

Tau as Allies

Pretty simple idea: how to make Tau into an Ally force?

It's actually harder than it looks. Unless you're using 1999+1 you're going to be in trouble. Their troops are bad enough that no matter what you do with them you'll be wasting points. And, if you want to buff them, you have to get an Ethereal or a Fireblade which hurts the Ally slot because you can't take Signature Systems like a Commander can. The rest of the army has a lot of trouble standing on it's own so now you've got a much harder question than at the beginning.

Rolltide (Riptide builds)

The Riptide is seen as the new black by some now that the Tau codex is out. As game changing as the Heldrake/Dreadknight. These monsters pack a wallop with the Ion Accelerator's template. The Riptide works best in 3's and I'm going to put together two lists that should help emphasize their prowess.

Tau Codex Review: TL;DR version

Troops slot is bereft of threats and poor in camping power.
Elites is a fight between mobile and sneaky and big and scary.
Fast Attack has Pathfinders that you must take.
HQ's got a big buff but can all be one-shotted rather easily at T3 and no invuln for everyone but Commander.
Broadsides got a massive nerf and now have to take missile fists and velocity tracker to be useful making them nerf again because they'll cost 15 points more than last codex.
Hammerheads are gonna be needed for Ion Cannon or Railgun even though they are bad.

The army as a whole has a lot of synergy and you'll be able to keep your models without much change. The new style is going to be Markerlights + Pie plates. If you can effectively handle Dreadknights or MEQs your list should wipe Tau.

Objective missions are impossible for Tau and Kroot Troops should be taken because they can stay off the board and Infiltrate thus not getting wiped out early.

They're less viable as an Ally (Broadside nerf, can only take 1 Hammerhead and/or Riptide) than before and equally viable as a main army.

That just about covers it.

TL;DR of the TL;DR

Troops Bad
Broadside nerfed
Tau get fucked in most missions in the game
Riptide plates only saving grace

Riptide or Markerlights plus nukes = ?

I may have underestimated the Riptide previously. In most of my thinking I took the unit a s it was: a BS3 monster that has good options but isn't killy enough. Now, I also stated, correctly, that you will have Pathfinders in each army because. You need them to make your army killy and my dumb mind looked back at the Riptide and said, "Aww, too and he's BS3" and then moved on. Mistakes were made.

Tau Empire: Part 9, Concluding Comments and Sample Builds

Tau have become a bit better at what they used to do. A lot of misplaced nerfs and a lot of samey guns. I believe Tau now boil down to an Ally only army, as before, and cannot hold their own as a stand-alone army. Analysis continues after the break.

Tau Empire: Part 8, Heavy Support

The heavy support section used to be just Broadsides. Now it's just Broadsides but you're more depressed about it. The Broadside nerft to their Railgun is completely unwarranted and further hampers Tau ability to put the hurt on tougher units that they always had trouble dealing with. They now have almost nothing to stop the Land Raider and now have only 1 weapon that can Instant Death T5 models. The Hammerhead as good as it was before, it's just not as expensive. Still not impressed. Skyrays are pretty good at taking out flyers and possibly vehicles but you'll need some Markerlight help in my opinion. Sniper teams are not heavy support by any means and having a 50/50 chance to wound someone and a 1/6 chance of Rending a vehicle makes this unit exceptionally luck-based. I mean, sure, you'll hit a lot, but killing it is a total crap-shoot. So overall, another point at which Tau kinda flops but still useful when combined with other units in the army. Let's take a look.

Tau Empire: Part 7, Fast Attack

The army really flops here. Think about the CSM codex, you have a few units that can be taken. Obviously everyone wants to take the Heldrake because it's ridiculously powerful but Bikers are fine (Nurgle bikers), Raptors and Warp Talons are pretty good too. Spawn, in my opinion, are bad and supposed to be so that you aren't happy when you roll them on the Boon Table. But look at the slot as a whole: good units, each of them changes the way the army plays and most importantly can be taken individually and not diminish the rest of the army. What I mean by that is, if you take Nurgle Bikers, your unit of Havocs is not worse off for it. If you take 3 units of Warp Talons, your cultist blobs do no lose effectiveness. If you have Heldrakes galore, your basic troops are not now weaker than if you had taken another unit.

Now look at the Tau Fast Attack slot. They need Pathfinders. The rest of the army relies on shooting and Pathfinders are an army-wide buff to that. If you don't take them you are severely diminishing every unit. But Tau are one of the armies that can't do blobs or semi-mech (tanks are wickedly expensive in this codex and they suck. What.) so they need flyers to support them. How are you supposed to do that with just one?

Another thing you'll notice is Piranhas and Vespids. Vespid Stingwings are nowhere near as good as Chaos Raptors but cost a point more each. They have no options other than a near mandatory upgrade and they have weirdly specific stealth too. To get both Kroot and Vespid stealth you'll have to fight in Machu Picchu apparently. Regardless aren't Vespids insects that live on a gas giant? What the hell in that cultural upbringing gave them Stealth (Ruins)? The fluff in this book is almost completely moot in the army rules it seems. Regardless Vespids are bad and expensive which segues perfectly into Piranhas  40 points to start off? A Rhino has 1 more BS 1 more side AV and 1 more HP and it's 35 points. Does fast and skimmer really count for that much? Is the burst cannon that much better than the combi-bolter? What about gun drones? Are they what tip this unit over the charts on points? Clearly not as those drones are just wound sinks that aren't able to perform that job for the vehicle. What can this unit do outside 18''? Nothing. Unless you want to dump more points into it but then you'll need Pathfinders for the smart missiles you just bought. Oh woe is thee.

Well, I should do a proper analysis of these units anyways but suffice it to say: you need two pathfinder units and you'll want a Sun Shark Bomber even though you'll need 2-3 of those too. Too bad you can't split units like MEQ or, you know, take support systems like some units. Like, I donno, Target Lock? Velocity Tracker? Drone Controller? But ah, whatever, Pathphinders are so good anyways it's not like they set up your whole army right? Let's take a look at Tau Fast Attack.

Tau Empire: Part 6, Elites

Here is where you'll be spending the majority of your points. It's realllly unfortunate how much your troop size is limited (3 Crisis for a slot or 1 Riptide). Oh and 6 stealth suits but who cares. Not really impressed by the burst cannon. It's just two pulse carbines. On Firewarrior that has stealth and shrouded. I'm mind-blown. Anyways before I rant I'll show you how the Elites are the only thing that makes Tau a good Primary but also, at the same time, are hurt by their unit limit when taken as allies. Let's begin.

Tau Empire: Part 5, Troops (They're still bad :/)

Sadly, the troops section of the army remains poor and the maximum limits of these units are strange and seemingly haphazard. They aren't much changed from last edition where they were never a threat and aren't changed by much from the last codex where they weren't effective.

Tau Empire: Part 4, HQ's (They're actually good now!)

Seeing the new Tau HQ's

The new Tau HQ's are awesome. They have awesome 12'' auras, cool gunline properties, extra equipment that can buff a large unit, they're good. Which is totally different from before where you wanted to limit your point exposure to the HQ's and you're no longer forced to take a battlesuit in each army (no more 1+ rules!).  Now you might even be interested to know that battlesuits can be more than just a few gun placements with a bodyguard: they can buff things (Helloooo Puretide Engram Neurochip)! Now, to be fair, they aren't necessarily amazing choices like you'd get in other armies (GK and Space Wolves come to mind) but they are definitely great to have and you wouldn't be a total doofus taking two Ethereals. So let's take a look at the changes.

Tau Empire: Part 3, Unique HQ's

The Unique HQ's in this codex have always been a point of contention. Hardcore Tau players have always loved their heroes regardless of how much actual tabletop use they have. Aun'va was always a running joke as undoubtedly the worst Unique HQ in the game. He actually loses the title, in my opinion, of worst unit in any codex (the title could probably be split between Norc Deddog and Parasite of Mortex). You know you screwed the pooch when you have to add new rules to a unit and reduce its cost by half to make him good. Honestly, if you haven't read the old codex I suggest you do. Aun'va had the amazing power to get 1 shotted by anything bigger than a plasma gun and once he died he had a second astonishing power: he caused his entire army to take a leadership test or flee. Also he was 205 freakin' points. But you got Preferred Enemy and Furious charge if you succeeded which means you get smoked to high heavens in close combat by everybody. Unlike before where you all died with no kills back you get like 2 kills back now. Wow.

Anyways, just like the Catholic Church the Tau have a new Pope and he's waaaaaay better. Not sure if I would take him but he's no longer a straight awful option now. So..yay? Let's check out the 'new and improved' Tau HQs.

Tau Empire: Part 2, Ranged Weapons (aka too much dakka)

The Tau love guns. It's a fact. They may even love guns too much.

Example of Tau pornography

But they use that love as a catalyst for their expansion. The Greater Good is actually just a ploy to spread across the galaxy to find new Dakka to fire. It's an addiction, and one they battle with constantly. I'm going to go over their repertoire of weaponry and show you which weapons you might want to take.

Since a good chunk of these weapons are only available on one or two units and their specific BS's may differ I'll do the math for both to show which is more useful or more worth the points. Let's begin.

Tau Empire: Part 1, Melee Weapons

I'm seriously doing this.

There are 3(!) melee weapons in the codex that can be taken by a total of 2(!!!) units. For some reason you have to spend points to take two of them even though neither of them are power weapons or good. Honestly why would you spend points on them?

Tau Codex Review: Part 0, Army Rules

Time to grab another beer and read-up the new Tau codex. I've been gone for a few days so I apologize for not updating the blog. We now get to the newest in a line of $50 codexes. GW has apparently decided to release a codex every 15 seconds for 6th edition without proofreading or playtesting to see what the author has done so it's up to us players to run the gamut, question the decision making and generally tear apart every new 'Dex. Here goes!

March Madness Challenger Edition: Finale (Loser's Finals and Winner's Finals)

Skarbrand 2/1!/Dead

Draigo 0!/2!/Moves on (Ahhhh! So close! Draigo rolled 4 3’s in the first round which means he missed every attack. In the second round he just barely passed his force weapon check. Poor Skarbrand, no Eternal Warrior.)

Moving on to the Grand Finals is Draigo. One can only hope that someone can last two rounds against him and kill his stupid face.

Drazhar 1/3/Moves on

Ghazghkull 2/Dead (Ghazghkull never had a chance without his Super Waaagh! Unfortunately I only let people activate powers in initiative order so he never got to it.

Typhus 0/Dead

Swarmlord 1/Moves on (No Eternal Warrior, fail harder Typhus.

Grimnar 2/3/Moves on

Asurmen 1/0/Dead (Even with the changes to Frost Axe making it just a power fist now Grimnar doesn’t seem to care and swings for the fences. In case you haven’t seen the FAQ Frost Axes go instead from S6 AP2 at init or S8 AP2 at init 1 to both at init one. Why this change was made is beyond me.)

Mephiston 0/0/1/Moves on

Asdrubael 0/2/0/Dead (Mephiston blitzed himself with a Perils but got double 1 success anyways. Vect needed to fail 1 invuln to die and voila, he’s dead. Unfortunate that he’s lived for millennia (I believe) and doesn’t have Eternal Warrior yet.)

Next round of Loser’s:

Drazhar 2/0/Dead

Swarmlord 2/3/Moves on (Drazhar has no invuln :’( too bad.)

Grimnar 2/Dead

Mephiston 2/3/Moves on (And thus fall the Space Wolves. Does anyone think it’s weird that Mephiston has no invuln? He’s 250 points!)

Now the losers from the last round of Winners get bumped down to face the last two losers finalists. This will then determine the final two and from that the last one who’ll face off against Skarbrand for the right to take on Draigo.

Swarmlord 1/Moves on

Bloodthirster 0/Dead (Instant-death is hilariously effective against every HQ. It’s pretty ridiculous. Swarmlord only hit half his attacks and just got 1 wound off but re-rolling 5++ spelled the end for our errant Bloodthirster.)

Lucius 0/Dead

Mephiston 0/1/Moves on (Ahhh the ol’ lack of Eternal Warrior. It’s really the difference between who’s left and who is dead. That and the ability to cause instant death which is very related.)

Swarmlord 2/Moves on

Mephiston 0/Dead (What’re you supposed to do without invulns or Eternal Warrior. Mephiston pretty much killed everyone who was like him in the game.)

This whole contest is coming down to Instant Death and Eternal Warrior, also bad luck in the case of Lysander. Looking like Swarmlord might be brought low by the Sultan of Smack Skarbrand.

Swarmlord 0/Dead

Skarbrand 3/Moves on (No chance, no chance whatsoever. Now we get to watch Skarbrand lose to Draigo again. It’s too bad Draigo never got to fight someone like Drazhar. Maybe next year.)

Round 2

Skarbrand 4!/Moves on!

Draigo 0/Dead! (Holy crap! 1 round of combat and Draigo failed 4/5 3++ saves. Here’s what’s unfortunate though: Draigo gets a Round 3 since everyone gets 1 loss)

Round 3

Skarbrand 2/1/Dead

Draigo 2!/2/Moves on (Damn! What a close fight. Draigo failed his Force Weapon check and perils’d himself giving Skarbrand an extra wound. On 6 wounds Draigo managed to make 5 saves though, securing his victory. If he had failed but one more the winner would be Skarbrand)

Your winner for the March Madness Challenger Edition is Draigo. Congratulations you OP bastard. 

March Madness Challenger Edition: Part 7, Round 4 to Losers and Winners finals

Winners

Bloodthirster 0/Dead

Skarbrand 3/Moves on (Did anyone expect otherwise?)

Lucius 0/2/0/Dead!

Draigo 0/0/1/Moves on (Ahhh so close! Lucius had to make an invuln every turn and  if he failed that was it. He made a good showing in round 2 but sadly the performance was not repeated)

The new winners bracket is thus:

Skarbrand

Draigo

Oh snap! We’ll see if Draigo manages to survive Skarbrand’s attacks but it honestly doesn’t look good for Skarbrand. He’ll need to kill Draigo round one of be insta-killed due to lack of Eternal Warrior. We’ll see!

Losers

Drazhar 3/Moves on

Imotekh 0/Dead (I really hope to see Drazhar get farther but without invuln ugh! What can he do?)

Typhus 3/4/Moves on
Marneus 1/1/Dead (Typhus used his Destroyer Hive during the first round but it didn’t matter much as his Daemon weapon is baller. Also Typhus’ T5 saved him from Marneus’s powerfists. On the Boon Table Typhus got 35 or Mechanoid which ups his armor save by 1 but unfortunately his is already 2+ so no effect. )

Grimnar 0/3/1/Moves on

Avatar 1/0/0/Dead (The wolves survive! He has pretty much everything you need to win except unwieldy [frost axe changes blow].)

St. Celestine 0/2/1/0/0/Dead

Mephiston 0/0/0/0/2/Moves on (Mephiston Perils himself and failed to wound with 7 attacks in one round due to power sword fail. She almost won but Mephiston only needed to hit her once to win.

New losers bracket:

Resurrection

Drazhar

Ghazghkull

Typhus

Swarmlord

Grimnar

Asurmen

Mephiston

Asdrubael

March Madness Challenger Edition: Part 6, End of Round 3

Ghazghkull  1/1/1/Dead

Bloodthirster 1/1/0/2/Moves on (Wow! Really close fight! If Bloodthirster hadn’t done as well last round Ghazghkull was almost guaranteed to win by attrition. He used his super Waaaaaagh round 3 but Bloodthirster missed two and failed to wound with ¾ of the remaining attacks so it didn’t really matter)

Skarbrand 3/Moves on!

Swarmlord 0/Dead (Whoops! Forgot Swarmlord didn’t have Eternal Warrior. He stood no chance.)

Asurmen 0/1/0/0/Dead

Lucius 0/1/0/2/Moves on! (Man what a close fight! It looked like Asurmen was going to get a wound every turn but Lucius kept making the save. What did he roll on the chaos boon table? 56 which gives him +1WS bringing his total to 8. He retains his instant killing ability from before.

Asdrubael 0/Dead

Draigo 1/Moves on! (Amazing, was waiting for a Draigo 1-shot. Hammerhand gave him S6 which puts his attacks into the instant death territory for FX. Unfortunately Vect does not have eternal warrior and thus dies the instant he fails and save and the only wound he had to save he failed.)

Winners round is showing how much Eternal Warrior is needed on expensive killer heroes. Without it they are exceptionally vulnerable to other heroes. Except for Skarbrand because he always goes first and kills the first round. Ahh well, maybe Draigo will finish him off 2 rounds from now. New winners bracket:

Winners

Bloodthirster

Skarbrand

Lucius

Draigo

We no go down to the resurrection bracket :

Drazhar 1/Moves on

Sliscus 0/Dead (Drazhar makes quick work of Sliscus. He used the bonus strength mode of his blade to cause instant death on Sliscus who does not have Eternal Warrior. He hit with every attack and wounded with every attack and Sliscus had to save everything or die. He failed.)

Azreal 0/0/0/1/0/Dead

Imotekh 0/1/0/0/1/Moves on (Neither of these guys can fight. Especially against models with a 2+ armor save.)

Typhus 3/Moves on

Eldrad 1/Dead (Eldrad failed ¾ 3++ saves which immediately killed him. A bit unexpected rolls for him. Typhus now gets a roll on the Boon Table! He got 26 or +1BS. Super useful. Hey who knows, he may win next round and become a Daemon Prince.

Marneus 0/1/2/1/Moves on

Lysander 0/0/1/0/Dead (Marneus made freaking almost every save possible. At a 5++! He must have talked to Vulkan in between rounds. These Space Marines just have tons of luck on their side.)

Grimnar 3/Moves on

Sanguinor 1/Dead (The rematch went even worse than the first round for Sanguinor. He was destined to lose to a wolf apparently.)

Avatar 2/1/Moves on

Vulkan He'stan 0/Dead (Soooo apparently Vulkan took off his cloak because he failed every save. Nice turn-around, too bad it didn’t happen for Kharn. Single tear.)

Ragnar 1/0/0/Dead

St. Celestine 1/0/1/2/Moves on (Whaaat? Celestine managed to win a stand-up knockdown fight? Badass, guess the Emperor is on her side.)

Sammael 1/0/Dead

Mephiston 1/4/Moves on (How does a 250 point HQ have no invuln save? Riddle me that Mephiston, he’s a monster in CC but once you get past his 2+ he’s done for. I believe this fight also means Dark Angels are eliminated.)

So the resurrection bracket had a few surprises again. The new bracket is:

Resurrection

Drazhar

Imotekh

Typhus
Marneus

Grimnar

Avatar

St. Celestine

Mephiston

And next round they will be joined by:

Ghazghkull

Swarmlord

Asurmen

Asdrubael

That's it for today. I'm very interested in seeing who wins this in the end. Skarbrand and Draigo are getting closer together and things have turned south for Lucius as he's now against a 2++ Eternal Warrior. Things that could ruin his chances.

March Madness Challenger Edition: Part 5, End of Round 2

Now I realized that Typhus would get an extra 2 rolls on the Boon Table for his participation in the mini-bracket. To make it fair I've given him one (his and Lucius's first round were both 'no reward', too bad). He recieved the reward Stubborn, so nothing changed in his combat. Here's the fights!

March Madness Challenger Edtion: Part 4, Mini-brackets

To fix the discrepancy of the number of champions not being a power of 2 it became necessary to devise a way to bring the number of champions down to 32 at one point. To do that I'm making 2 new mini-brackets that randomly select 4 champions from both the Winners and the Resurrection bracket to compete against each other. They are as follows:

March Madness Challenger Edition: Part 3, Round 1 over!

Some gruesome combat occurred! Lucky rolls by some contestants helped them move on and even luckier rolls helped others survive a certain death. Also, Crowe makes the most boring combats ever. Read up on the winners and losers after the jump:

March Madness Challenger Edition: Part 2, Brackets and Rules

So it came to my attention that a few of the Challengers can resurrect themselves and that some others may not die within average game length 1v1 so to counteract this we have the following rules:

• 5 Rounds
• No charges, we are assuming that both Challengers stepped up to fight simultaneously
• Most wounds after 5 rounds wins
• If there is a tie, there is a sudden death round, whomever does the most wounds in that round wins, in the even there is still a tie it's a roll-off.
• If both contenders die, the one who did more wounds moves on (Instant death only counts as 1 wounds for this purpose)
• Resurrection Bracket: After the winners are determined there is a loser's bracket where the loser's have a second chance at final victory.
• During the second round there will be 2 mini-brackets. 4 random Challengers will fight in each of the brackets with 1 winner coming out and rejoining each bracket. This is due to the odd number of contenders.

And that's that. Now the Bracket. I apologize for not having proper bracket format but I'm a Blogger newbie so bear with me. To make the bracket I put every name into a computer program that then randomly paired the names off. Here we go:

March Madness Challenger Edition: Part 1, The Contenders

This is an article all about how Aba-Aba-Abaddon wins. Not really. I wanna know: Who is the wins a unique HQ fight Bracket style. For this I'm going to be using real rolls and not math calculations so place your bets! Anyone could win! 

Now obviously this is a vast undertaking so I've decided to limit the contenders (alphabetically):

Khorne Hounds + Karanak: A love story

I don't like Karanak or Hounds. So, I lied about the love story part. I just want to do a bunch of comparisons to make you not like them or at least take something else. Here we go:

MEQ Blob

What's more dangerous than an IG blob? The same blob consisting of Space Marines obviously. Mission: fit as many MEQ as you can into one list. Second Mission: cut some of the fat.

Mission 1
Dark Angels Primary, Space Marines Ally (this is because DA MEQs are all cheaper)

HQ
Librarian, (Divination, Standard of Devastation, Force Sword), 130

Troops
10 Spess Marines, (Flamer), 145
10 Spess Marines, (Flamer), 145
10 Spess Marines, (Flamer), 145
10 Spess Marines, (Flamer), 145
10 Spess Marines, (Flamer), 145
10 Spess Marines, (Flamer), 145

Ally

HQ
Librarian, (Biomancy, Telepathy, Force Axe), 100

Troops
10 Space Marines, (Flamer, Multi-Melta), 170
10 Space Marines, (Flamer), 170

Total: 1440

You can add some upgrades for the squads but really at 1500 points this is what you can get. 60 Marines and 2 Librarians helping buff them. The Standard of Devastation/Divination Librarian gives everyone Salvo 2/4 Bolters and takes Prescience for re-roll to hit on a squad. Since you're only at 1440 I'd take another Divination Librarian and remove 1 flamer.

Now for a full 1999+1 list I'd change it to this:


HQ
Librarian, (Divination, Standard of Devastation, Force Sword), 130
Librarian, (Divination, Storm Bolter, Force Axe), 70

Troops
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165

Fast Attack
10 Assault Marines, (Melta Bomb, Flamer x2), 185
10 Assault Marines, (Melta Bomb, Flamer x2), 185

2000 on the nose. The second divination Librarian got a Storm Bolter because I had 5 extra points. The full list is now:

HQ
Librarian, (Divination, Standard of Devastation, Force Sword), 130
Librarian, (Divination, Storm Bolter, Force Axe), 70

Troops
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165
10 Spess Marines, (Plasma Gun, Multi-Melta), 165

Fast Attack
10 Assault Marines, (Melta Bomb, Flamer x2), 185
10 Assault Marines, (Melta Bomb, Flamer x2), 185

Ally
HQ
Librarian, (Biomancy, Telepathy, Force Axe), 100

Troops
10 Space Marines, (Flamer, Multi-Melta), 170
10 Space Marines, (Flamer, Multi-Melta), 170

Now you have a total of 103 MEQ which makes me laugh. The Multi-meltas can be switched for Flakk missile launchers if you drop the Plasma Gun. I'm not too worried about Flyers in my local meta (not many people can/want to afford them) so I just take MMs for blowing up lots of vehicles. You have two Divination Librarians giving you 2 10 man units with 32 re-roll to hit bolter shots each. This will get about 10 MEQ per turn or 19 FX per turn. And then everyone else gets to shoot. So with this list you can take out blobs and vechicle parks but you'll have some trouble with flyers. It's not that bad except for transporting this monstrosity.

Chaos Land Raider List

Just a fun list to try out. You have almost no troops and very little of anything else. You might not win with the list but it'll be fun to put down on the board:

HQ
Warpsmith
Warpsmith
(to repair vehicles)

Troops
Cultists (minimum)
Cultists

Elites
Terminators w/Land Raider
Terminators w/Land Raider
Terminators w/Land Raider

Heavy Support
Land Raider w/Dozer Blade
Land Raider w/Dozer Blade
Land Raider w/Dozer Blade


This list is fun to me because not a lot of local people bring Melta anymore and only Dark Eldar can spam lances. I mean a power fist needs a 6 just to glance. The idea is you break down the enemy tanks and such until nothing is left. Almost everything in your army is twin-linked which is nice. You won't be able to take down a blob with this but you might not lose any units the whole game (as long as every stays buttoned up)

Again not a winning list but 6 Land Raiders is a little hilarious to put down.

Quickie: Is that Psyker gonna work?

Just wanted to throw out some quick maths on the failure rate of Psykers.

1/6 deny the witch and 3/36 fail to cast with Ld 10. With Ld 9 it's an additional 1/6.

So in total those powers cast on enemies have a 25% failure rate with Ld 10 and a 33% rate with Ld 9.

Now how about that gun you've got? Storm bolter? BS 4 means you have 33% chance of hitting. Against MEQ with your 2 shots you cause .11 wound per shot or .22 wounds total. Meaning you have a very low (less than 60%) chance of killing someone.

I include the storm bolter comparison to validate Psychic powers. It was much easier to get one off last edition but in this edition they're the best shooting attacks outside of BS 5 and still pretty good besides. In a 5 turn game you have a 65% chance of passing every power. That's good odds. If it's against other units you have a 23% chance in a 5 turn game of hurting someone every time. Still pretty good odds for a unit wide shooting attack.

Honestly, enemy specific psychic powers get a bad rap with Deny the Witch but the odds are as in your favor as they can get in this game.

Bloodthirster will eat your face.

Your whole face in fact.

I'm enthralled with the Bloodthirster but I was at a loss on how to deck him out. I keep looking back at the previous codex with a forlorn look and a hopeless attitude. No S8 titan slapping plebs in face anymore. But then I got thinking, you're getting Deathstrike, you're getting Greater rewards and potentially awesome Exalted rewards. I'm also looking at Lesser Rewards with a small smile and it makes me think that there's hope for the Bloodthirster still.

But how to equip him? That's what I'll be looking into today.

Artifacts and Daemon Princes: The (OP?) Black Mace

I've seen countless builds with DP Warlords carrying around thuggish Black Maces bludgeoning troops to death. But is it that good? Let's take a look.

The most powerful weapon of the far future: Clubs

Quickie: Do Flakk Missles work?

No. Well, not really. Let's take a look:

It's S7 AP4 Skyfire. This allows you to fire it at your normal BS at Flyers. Now we'll look at how they function against Flying MCs and Flyers vs. an Autocannon (S7 AP4 Heavy 2).

Math Rules
MEQs are the ones to get these so BS is 4 always.
FMC's have toughness 6
Pretty much every flyer is 12/12/10 or 12/12/12 (Necrons are 11/11/11 but whatever)so we'll use AV12 (I'm doubting your heavy unit manages to get behind a flyer often)
They won't be evading or diving (ie no Jink)

Monster Mash!

Double post day! I wanted to post a list I found interesting that combines Daemons and CSM and MONSTERS!

Your opponents after you set down your army

I want a Daemon Prince! How to get Dark Apotheosis with Dark Apostles

The Chaos Boon table is a thing of beauty. The two Glaring Possiblities are Dark Apotheosis and Spawnhood. With a Dark Apostle or the re-roll boon Warlord trait you have a much better possibility of getting something good. How much better though?

Shadow of the Warp: How effective?

I've had the math done on Shadow of the Warp for awhile. This rule is crazy nice against psykers and you really get your bang for the buck with it being always active within 12'' of certain monsters. Since Flyrants and Tervigons are staples of current Tyranid armies you'll likely have several units with this rule.

GK HQ's: What do they give you?

Now Grey Knights have a very unique codex as far as HQ's go. Several of their HQ's unlock certain units as troops choices and thus completely alter the composition of the army. While some of those HQ's are pretty bad units themselves (Crowe comes to mind) the units each of them unlock can drastically change the composition of your army for the better even if the HQ itself is lackluster.

The HQ's who give access to new units are: Draigo, Crowe and Coteaz. They each unlock an Elite slot unit for selection as Troops. They are (in order): Paladins, Purifiers and Inquisitorial Henchmen. Each HQ is a very different unit so I'll review them each to show how they function and postulate as to how you can use them in the game.

You came to the wrong neighborhood

MAGIC! (CSM Sorcerers)

Today I wanna talk about the sleeker, sexier, sorcerer(ier) HQ in the CSM codex: The Sorcerer. A very good, cheap HQ that really requires no upgrades to still be effective. 60 points for a mandatory HQ in a Space Marine equivalent codex is really good. You can spend the extra points on your troops and vehicles and such. Honestly a Captain costs 40 points more, meaning you can take a Rhino and a Sorcerer for the cost of a basic MEQ HQ. And have 5 points left over (get something nice for your mother).  Let's analyze each mark first and how they benefit the sorcerer and then mathhammer the powers.

Oh 'Lord'y!

Time to talk CSM. The next most recent codex...or whatever. The penultimate Codex. Chaos Space Marines. So far, their codex is doing awesome, what with cheap meat in the form of Cultists and excellent flyers, the Heldrake, as well as the ability to field cheap sorcerers, monster HQs and tons of heavy weapons in the form of Havocs they have become a force to reckon with. The army is excellent as primary or allied but today, I'm here to talk about Lords. Oh yes.

Pretty much every Chaos Lord's dream outfit

Specific Questions:
How do I make the most Killy Lord?
What CC weapons does he get? (Hint: He always gets CC weapons. Always)
Should he take a mount?
What about Marks?

Chaos Daemons: Part 12, Concluding Comments

So how does this Codex stack up?

Chaos Daemons: Part 11, Heavy Support

Here are the 'good' units of Chaos. This is what you need to compete against flyers and semi-mech now so expect to bring some of these or get boned. I'm including Daemon Princes here because the Flying Circus build (5 flying MCs) is really the only good way to take DPs.

Note: Since the current Burning Chariot of Tzeentch is completely broken (if it moves it's BS 1 and can't fire one of it's weapons) I'm not going to review it. It's completely un-takeable without an FAQ or houserule. It most literally does not work as written. (Also sidenote: why can't Flamers get an Exalted Flamer? That'd be awesome. Instead you get a Pyrocaster who gets? Random Rewards. Grand.)

Chaos Daemons: Part 10, Fast Attack

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Never a strong point for Daemons, until the White Dwarf update made Screamers great anti-vehicle units, fast attack has not been change in any good ways. They now have a fast unit for Nurgle...but the units rules are not described anywhere in the book (Jet Pack Calvary) so are we to assume they can function like either whenever it suits the unit best? Another thing that needs an FAQ. Furies are now somewhat choosable and their fluff has been entirely rewritten to their benefit. They now have Ld 2 though which to me seems insane but there you have it. Let's get into it.

Chaos Daemons: Part 9, Elites

At least it sounds good

This article is about the Daemons Elite section. A very sad amalgamation of old units and Fantasy rules. Apparently Phil Kelly thinks 6+ is the best armor you can get in 40k (It's the highest number after all!). Apparently some of the previous Elites section (coughFlamerscough) were in need of a rewrite because they were 'too strong' because having something, anything, useful in a codex is a big fat no-no and needs to be dealt with. Luckily the two good anti-vehicle units from the last codex, Flamers and Screamers post-update, have been replaced by a BS 3 crap-shoot that sits in your back-lines because he'll get smoked by basic MEQ and a flying cavalcade of bad rules design known as flying monstrous creatures.

At least Bloodcrushers still look bad-ass as hell and they didn't revert to the old model:

Yeesh

Welp, here we go.

Chaos Daemons: Part 8, Addendum

Forgot Nurglings, you should too.

Chaos Daemons: Part 8, Troops

With a brief review a the troops you can see that some are improved. There are more options (random options) for your characters, everyone has pretty reduced stat-lines and are cheaper. But as in last edition, they blow. They honestly suck against MEQ and FX but at least they're cheaper. Which does make them somewhat good. The problem is that in order to make Plaguebearers and Pink Horrors cheaper they decided to nerf them pretty hard. Why? It's not like we were slaughtering units left and right with absurdly priced troops before. Now they're fairly priced but they get nerfs? That's like going to a dealership and the guy says, "Listen, I'll drop the price on the car by half, but I'll take out the engine and the back wheels." just because it's cheaper doesn't make it a deal. Anywho let's see how they stack up to previous incarnations.

Chaos Daemons: Part 7, Unique HQ's

Don't take them.

Whoops, I should introduce this section first. This is about the Daemon's unique HQ's (Changleing, Skulltaker, The Masque, Epidemius, The Blue Scribes and Karanak). Due to poor writing you can't take The Masque or The Blue Scribes as part of your 4 HQ limit. Most of these HQ's are cheaper (or the same price) except Karanak, who is no longer an upgrade for Hounds of Khorne? No idea why. He went from 50 (15 for Hound, 35 for Upgrade) points to 120. He's got a little more of everything though but is just not worth it in a shooting game. Let's get into why you should never take any of these guys (other than for cheesy cheese or fluffy armies)

Chaos Daemons: Part 6, Heralds

Winner takes all. It's the thrill of one more kill...

Cheap, deadly, unit-buffing HQs. Sergeants on steriods is a better term for the Heralds. You now get to take 4 of them for each HQ slot so Daemons get buffed as Allies and as Primary. They each get access to Daemonic Loci (some are better than others, admittedly) which have a unit buff effect making them and their entourage even better. Honestly, if I could choose my rewards I'd almost say these guys are overpowered. But I can't so I won't. Let's begin.

Battle Report: GK Termies v. Bloodthirster

Battle Scenario: How likely is it for a 5-man group of GK termies to kill a Bloodthirster in CC? I'll go over one scenario: GK's get assaulted

Chaos Daemons, Part 5, (D)MC's

Yes.
Now we are at the good part. Completely customizable wrecking balls. Flying wrecking balls. With axes and swords. Goddamn I love me some MC's. Let's get started. First, as usual, is Khornnnnnneeeeee.

Chaos Daemons: Part 4, Unique HQ's

If this is set up across from you, concede. 

Today we'll go over the Unique HQ's. For a good comparison we'll look back at the previous codex's version of each of the unique HQ's. We'll go in the order they appear, first up:

Chaos Daemons: Part 3, Marks

Marks

Not this kind

The marks will be pretty easy math-wise. Let's get to it.

Chaos Daemons: Part 2, Ranged Weapons

Daemons are SOL for shooting

Going to divide this section up into the Ranged Weapons list and the Psychic Powers/Rewards. There are very few ranged weapons that can be taken on anyone but Soul Grinders. How few? None on troops. None. Unless you randomly roll for one on rewards or take a psychic power. Meaning your troops who want to shoot will have to watch as your opponents get Deny The Witch rolls every time.

Chaos Daemons: Part 1, Addendum (Eternal Blade)

I forgot to do the Eternal Blade in the last one! Why would I forget such a sweet exalted reward? Because no AP. Goddamnit it's 30 points for an AP - weapon?? Whyyyyyyyyy???

Let't do a side-by-side comparison with the same MC wielding this or any Etherblade and Unarmed. He'll be fighting a MEQ Chapter Master. It's a swag challenge between two HQ's. Only changes between MEQ and MEQ Chapter Master are WS 6 W 3 I 5 (doesn't matter with any MC in this book besides the goddawful Kairos) and A 3. S, T, Ld are all pretty much the same (ATSKNF means Fear doesn't do diddley against them womp womp).

So, which MC? We can do Bloodthirster but that's kinda overkill, let's do the closest points cost MC we can get: Keeper of Secrets

Unarmed
WS 9 v. 6
S 6 v. T 4
AP 2 so Iron Halo 4++ save
6 attacks

We get, on average, 1.67 wounds. Not factoring in Hammer of Wrath or Charging and rending doesn't matter since all attacks are AP 2 'cause MC. So, unarmed the chance of any attack causing a wound is ~27%. With this number we can calculate that you have a ~20% chance of causing 3 or more wounds unarmed.

[Math for that: (20*(.27)^3*(.73)^3) + (15*(.27)^4*(.73)^2) + (6*(.27)^5*(.73)^1) + ((.27)^6*(.73)^0), the integers are the number of combos of that number of wounds and misses. Ex: three attacks wound, 3 do not. The attacks that wound are 1st, 2nd and 4th and 3rd, 5th and 6th do not. That's 1 combo for 3 wounds 3 do not. That's why in the last one you see only .27^6. There's only 1 combo where all 6 wound. A .03% chance for that]

Etherblade
WS 9 v. 6
S 6 v. T 4
AP 2
6 Attacks, Master-crafted

You can now expect 1.75 wounds. Better but not by much. It'd be a little too complicated to try and factor master-crafted in to figure out your chance of killing but suffice it to say it'll be better than 20%.

Greater Etherblade

WS 9 v. 6
S 7 v. T 4
AP 2
6 Attacks, Master-crafted

Same as above. The only difference is the strength bonus which won't matter against this unit.


Eternal Blade
D3 averages to +2 so we'll add two to all relevant numbers:

WS 10 v. 6
S 7 v. T 4
AP 2, (Smash) <- on MC's only does the AP of a weapon not matter, if you took Eternal Blade on a Herald prepare to be disappointed with how many of your attacks are saved
8 Attacks

You can now expect ~2.2 wounds. This nets you about the same result as Etherblade and Greater Etherblade. You have a 37% chance to kill outright.

So, in the end, you've doubled your chances of an outright kill in 1 round for 30 points on a MEQ HQ. Your average wounds go from 1.67 to 2.2 meaning you're going from 51% likely to score 2+ wounds to being 68% likely to score 2+ wounds. For 30 points it just doesn't seem worth it to me. On a Herald, who does not have smash, it is not worth it. Period. Take all the wound totals above and reduce them by ~20% and that's Herald with Eternal Blade. On a Bloodthirster you do get a bonus attack from having two specialist weapons but your WS and I are already unapproachable by all but a select few units (roughly a baker's dozen between all other codexes) so the D3 bonus there is meaningless. Same with other MC's, your WS and I are so high that very little in the game will surpass you. Go with the cheaper options. You're not getting enough bang for the buck.

Chaos Daemons: Part 1, Melee Weapons

This post is going to be analysis of weapons. Standalone, the weapons are meaningless: you must have something to compare to. Therefore I'll use two comparisons; Marine Equivalent, MEQ, which is the stat-line of an individual space marine and Filthy Xeno. Filthy Xeno is a made up unit that is supposed to be representative of Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, Orks and Imperial Guard. Therefore the Filthy Xeno or FX stat-line is:

WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	5+

Now obviously this stat-line is different from all of the above races but it's meant to be the average of the above. A way of letting us factor how our weapons will work against each army's troops without having to do 5 separate calculations. Remember: FX & MEQ, save some time. I might also add Termie which is just marine stat-line except the saves are 2+/5++ but then I'd have to add in Storm Shield termies who have a 3++ save and things get complicated. For now FX & MEQ are the standard by which we judge these weapons. Let's start.

One of my favorite 40k pics

Chaos Daemons: Part 0

Why Part 0? Because this will be an analysis of the rules before the army list: Daemonic Instability, Warlord traits and Warpstorm...and maybe a little of the Daemon rules themselves (though it'll be opinion and not math until we get to the specific units).

My name is Dallas. This blog is going to be dedicated to the best hobby: Warhammer 40k and the best part of the hobby: Math. Mostly. I'll throw in strategy and analyze non-math based items and abilities and try to develop a cost-benefit analysis for them. Hopefully this will be as entertaining for you the reader as it is for me.