Able Was I, Ere I Saw Elba

REVISED INTRO:
This article was sitting in my drafts section, almost fully-formed, when I stumbled upon it.  I wrote the last two sections today, briefly, but the lion's share of the work was done, and it's a terrible shame I didn't post it back when it was relevant.  I can't even remember the linked articles, and haven't revisited them as it seems a lot less relevant now.  Just though I should finally publish it, since this may actually be one of my better articles, despite almost never seeing the light of day.  Enjoy, and please remember it's about 5th Edition.

ORIGINAL POST:
So, I recently posted a reply in a Comment thread on YTTH (here) listing a bunch of further reading as to why the game is so inherently competitive at points level of below 1500.

Obviously, when I say this, I'm referring to playing at 1k, primarily.  I know that occasionally some people try to play below that, I've seen "Rate my 750 point list!" on forums too many times to be ignorant of the phenomenon, but frankly, you aren't even playing 40k at that level.  You aren't.

Warhammer 40,000 is not a Skirmish game any more.  it's progressed to more of a mid-level engagement thing, with Apocalypse trying to push the boundaries and take it to the kind of scale GW used to be content to represent with the Space Marine/Titan Legions/Epic 40,000/Epic Armageddon games.

When you attempt to turn 40k back into a skirmish game, it simply doesn't function correctly - and I know some people, such as Frontline Gamer, are critical of the way this has meant that 40k has developed into something of a hybrid, a game that aspires to reflect sizable conflict whilst retaining many of the skirmish elements that are the legacy of Rogue Trader... I'm not interested in whether or not the game would be improved by dropping this approach, or simply rewriting it from the ground up  - not at this juncture, anyhow.

Blood Angels: Spess Mehreens +1? (Part One)

Some people on Twitter and I were having a rather engaging conversation the other week, regarding Blood Angels, with the prevailing belief being that they are simply better than Space Marines, as they get everything Marines do, and more besides.

Sadly, Twitter being Twitter, it's profoundly difficult to convey long and meaningful points, especially when directing said points to multiple personages - I think we were each naming 8 people by the end of the chat, and with only 140 characters to begin with...well, that's bad for trying to elaborate.

Since it was (largely) a consensus contrary to my own points, realistically the onus was no me to try and challenge the accepted version of things via a more practical medium, eg, my blog.

A Pathetic Amount of Pitiful Apathy

Well, we've all seen the video by now, we know that GW have FINALLY revealed to the world what everyone with internet access and the ability to read already knew, 6th Edition comes out this summer. They've pulled a little bit of a fast one, moving the date a week forward from the projected date, but given how long it takes them to get into gear I think this was more misdirection on their part to those providing us with rumours than actually plan-changing, the whole VI thing is the kind of thing they thrive on - 'subtle' hints and 'hilarious' "didn't you notice this in this WD photo 3 months back lololol" comments.

The upshot is, of course, that we get the game at the end of this month, and the fact that I have less than a full month of 5e left to enjoy makes it INCREDIBLY difficult to really give all that much of a fuck about the last ever 5th Edition tournament I'll get to play in, on no less than the 23rd/24th of this month.  That's right, Advance Order day will have the blogosphere all abuzz while I'm off playing games of what has suddenly become a stagnant and unthrilling system.

Oh, ok, I've now kinda hit a wall.

I have tons of modelling work to do to fully prepare my army for the tournament on the 19/20th of May at Arkham GC, and frankly I can't be bothered.  This is an inopportune time to be lackadaisical, but I am.

Since I missed Old Stuff Day, here's some belated Old Stuff - a Vyper Review from several years ago...

Before we begin... I haven't read this through thoroughly, it's a copy/paste job of an old piece of work destined for my Complete Guide to the Eldar.  There exists, therefore, the possibility that it makes the Vyper out to be better than it is, or that my opinion has changed somewhat regarding the utility of certain options.  Obviously - it's worse now than it even was then.

Laxity, oh laxity, how lovely are your branches aka Mini-rant 1 (As in, a miniature rant, not a rant about miniatures...)

Only in this Hobby would I need to make that distinction...

Anyway.

There is a terrible and ugly practise that continues unabated within our game, because people simply don't like to criticise it.  Perhaps because they've done it themselves once or twice.  Perhaps, because they can't all be me, and carry ludicrous amounts of stuff to Tournaments - I take enough Templates for both players, and a third and fourth large blast.  I usually take 2 tape measures and 6 dice cubes.  I take 3 or 4 Codexes to speed up checking if/when someone is wrong about their own stuff, or I think they're wrong and they're not.  I usually have my laptop, replete with all the FAQs, including the ones I've printed out and in my bag with other paraphernalia.

Eldar Codex Project: Playtesting, Wraithguard and Pathfinders

From WarhammerKorea

It's been a while since any major posts have been made with regards to this..... Behold! The Wait Is Over!

Grrr Comp

I've been recently invited to a comp-heavy 1K (yeah I know) game day organised by my local club.

Bury Wargames League - First few Games

Hey,

Just a quick post to cover my first few league 'games' if you can deign call them that.

Eldar Codex Project: Howling Banshees & Striking Scorpions

From Rajabersiong

*Gets poked by the 'Encouragement Cattle-prod'*

*TKE Snickers*

When I first started playing Eldar, and I had no clue as to what was good (before I found this place - thanks for that TKE btw) [You are very welcome. :) ] or frankly terrible, I came acropper on the old Scorpions vs Banshees debate. Which assault unit should my fledgling army take. [Of course, there is a debate to be had about whether a melee unit is required at ALL... ;-) ] I was so confused about it all before I saw the light.

Then came the realisation that Dragons are way cooler than either of them. The interest ended and I just ignored the entries in elites that weren't our melta-toting friendsies.

Eldar Codex Project: Fire Dragons

So,

I have defeated the beast that was my UCAS form and am fully focusing on the efforts of the ole ECP. However, I am concurrently helping out at a livery stables and a large vet surgery, so this'll only be a short post before I go off and brush some more horses flanks of mud and straw before I go off and see a piggy with a headcold...

I have had a request from someone to push ahead with one or two of the 'necessary' units to play with in the current mechdar army list. (Hopefully, if people actually use this then they won't be such an auto-choose...)

Fire Dragons it was.

Eldar Codex Project: Community Approved Troops and The Wave Serpent

Hey there,

I have been giving the stuff people have said about the troops some serious thought at the moment, and TKE and I have been discussing at great length behind the shifting curtain of the Interwebs what to improve, what to remove, what to change and how to make certain groups of people happy.

I have recently been bouncing ideas off my local forum, and my decisions have yet again made me unpopular, with my honest criticism of people's ideas dredging up endless criticisms. In particular, I was mathhammering the new Dire Avenger firing profiles and comparing to other weapons that I knew the figures of but clearly that was enough to enrage the guys on there. Nevermind, I'll just use this place for all the feedback and changes :).

Eldar Codex Project: Guardian Jetbikes & Rangers

Beautiful ain't it... (GD 2006)

Well,

Here are another couple of units from the codex rewrite Eldar Guardian Jetbikes (seemed the next logical progression after I had done Guardian garden varieties) and Eldar Rangers. - I hope you like them and agree with the changes that have been made. But first another speel about writing slowly ;).

With regards to changing the things that people have commented on (too many special weapons for Guardian Storms, them being I5 not being able to MSU guardians), I have noted your criticisms down and will be posting beta (ie. community and TKE approved) unit entries in a big bundle after I have reached the end of the Force Organisation Category, (will be doing per category to make it a tad easier to organise) linked together as a giant pdf with a proper title and everything(TM).

Eldar Codex Project: Guardian Defenders and Storm Guardians

So,

From DakkaDakka

Lets kick off this fandex with a look at the much maligned, or much favoured Eldar guardians (depending on who you are... :) ). These guys are fluffwise artisans, artists and craftsmen who have taken up arms against intruders or any other threats that would otherwise harm their Craftworld, Maiden world or the Eldar's intentions as a whole so they aren't crack soldiers, yet still okay at their job.

Basset Hounds, Flugdar and Sparks of Creativity

Hey there again,


It's been a while...

It won’t come as much of a shocker, but I love all things bright and beautiful of the spelfey flavour, their aesthetic, background, playstyle and the entire concept behind them sits with me happily. I say this even if one of the two spelfy codexes is severely lacking despite featuring some amazing models (I <3 The Wraithlord Kit. Wünderbar) and the concept behind individual specialised parts working together to completely dismember armies. 


I am, of course writing about the Craftworld Eldar codex, a book from which competitive players have coaxed some ‘effective’ army builds for 5th Edition allowing them to (dice abiding) happily play in games with more recent, shinier codexes and maybe win.

Missile Spam, Codex Creep, and False Comparisons; Part One - Who gets most toys?

First, let's define Codex Creep.

Codex Creep (noun)
A process by which successive releases of Codexes (40k) or Army Books (WFB) released by Games Workshop invalidate, through enhanced power level, not only their direct predecessor (ie, namesake) but by extension other similar Codexes - as defined by fluff, affiliation, playstyle, art design, or even sometimes just by the loose connection of being in the same game system (ie, the 'Most P0werful Book Eva'.) A good example would be a new version of Codex: Space Marines, which is inherently superior to Codex: Space Wolves, Codex: Black Templars, Codex: Dark Angels, Codex: Blood Angels, Codex: Chaos Space Marines and Codex: Grey Knights (admittedly a recent addition to the list proper...)

This new book would need to present most if not all of the unit and build options in the others, whilst being cheaper/better/more synergistic - and overall objectively more powerful.  Typically found in 2nd and 3rd Edition 40k to a limited extent, or 5e, 6e and 7e Warhammer Fantasy Battle to a great extent (and 4e 40k to a medium extent) it involves simply being better than previous books.  A prerequisite of this is, however, that every book (or nearly every) is superior.