2018 Big FAQ 2 Review video

Hi everyone, I've put together a review video of the Big FAQ 2 that was released on Friday. This features some expanded thoughts of my written review article that I posted yesterday. Hope you enjoy!

Big FAQ Sept 2018 Review

The September big FAQ dropped yesterday to the joy and lament of 40k players everywhere. Like many others all over the internet, I'm going to do an analysis of the changes to the game, and what it might mean for my own armies. 

The Big FAQ 2

Battle Brothers, Psychic Focus and the Character targeting rules are now official and no longer beta. I think most players could see this coming, so no big surprise there. 

Even with the change to Battle Brothers, Imperial armies are still incredibly strong, able to gain access to cheap brigades and battalions to rack up the command points. This still makes them incredibly strong in the current game. 

No real change for me here, as I don't really play Smite-heavy armies or run many mixed forces in my games. 

Tactical Reserves

The biggest change here is that no units may arrive from reserve on turn 1. This is quite a big change for many armies in the game. 

One thing that immediately sprung to mind was no more "hiding" Dark Reapers or Ravagers in reserve to stop them being shot at in turn 1. Your Aeldari opponent will now have to start them on the table from turn 1 (and potentially vulnerable), or wait to turn 2 to use them. With a fast moving army, you can potentially block off a lot of area of the board and restrict the reserves arrival of more powerful enemy units, even if you didn't get the first turn now.

The change also restricts you to half the number of units and up to half the points total in reserve now. I think the change from power level to points level was expected, and I'm surprised they didn't do it from the start. I may be wrong, but I don't think many players used power level regularly in games, so points make more sense. In addition, points are now being updated in Chapter Approved, whereas power levels seem to be staying as they are, so this makes it easier to adjust the army to cope with changes to the game.

My White Scars and Deathwatch may be affected by this change. I would sometimes bring my reserve units down on turn 1, depending on how aggressively my opponent was playing. It didn't happen too often, but it was a useful tactical choice to have. However, I used it so rarely that I don't think it will really have an effect on how I use these armies.

This change to the rule will probably hit my Genestealer Cults the hardest until the new codex comes out. No longer being able to arrive from reserve and assault on turn 1 is a big deal for the Genestealer Cults. This was one of the few things the Cult had going for them in terms of special rules. While this will probably be sorted in the codex, it will be a long few months of using the Cult in the mean time. They simply don't have a lot of durably infantry units that can start on the board and potentially survive 2 turns of the enemy shooting.

The Cult are one of the few armies that needs most of its strength in reserve to get into combat. Their transports are expensive and not too durable, and their infantry are basically Guardsmen when it comes to enemy guns and will melt away long before they get into combat.

The change from power level to points shouldn't have too much of an influence. In my recent video battle report, my units in reserve totalled around 950 pts, so I wouldn't have been able to put much more in reserve anyway.

Space Wolves Codex Review: Part 2- Warlord Traits, Relics and Psychic Powers

Part 2 of my Space Wolves codex review will take a look at the Warlord traits, Relics and Psychic Powers in the new codex. 

Warlord Traits

The Space Wolves warlord traits are different from most other warlord traits in the codexes. The ability is always active on the warlord. However, by completing special conditions, the warlord trait turns into a 6" bubble, granting the effect to all nearby Space Wolves units. This gives you the ability to provide further additional buffs from your warlord to boost nearby units. 

Saga of the Warrior Born

You can always choose to fight first in the Fight phase. If an enemy unit charged or has a similar ability, alternate which units can fight, staring with the player whose turn it is. To activate the Saga, your warlord must kill an enemy Character. 

This provides a powerful ability for your warlord, giving you a free interrupt essentially in a protracted combat. It is pretty easy to activate, given that most Space Wolves characters are likely to be buffed up for combat. It should also be reasonably easy to activate against most opponents if they have weaker buff characters that can be targeted. 

Once the saga is activated, this gives your nearby units a huge boost in protracted combats, essentially allowing you to strike before most enemy units and do a lot of damage before they can be chosen. 

Saga of the Wolfin

Add 1 to the attacks characteristic of units in the Fight phase if they charged, were charged or performed a heroic intervention in the same turn. To activate the saga, your warlord must kill 5 models in the Fight phase (keep a rolling total). 

Again, a nice boost for your warlord, who is likely to be armed for combat. The combination of +1 attacks and +1 to hit on charging or being charged is a great bonus, turning your warlord into a potent combat machine. When this activates, you are going to get a lot of bonus attacks for nearby units. Strong units such as Thunderwolf Cavalry and Wulfen are going to chew through enemy units with this activated. Should be pretty easy for your warlord to achieve after a couple of Fight phases against most enemy units. 

Space Wolves Codex Review: Part 1- Stratagems

Welcome to the first part of my Space Wolves codex review, looking at the new stratagems available to the army. 

For this codex, I am not planning to do a full codex review. I will simply be looking at the generic army special rules, such as stratagems, psychic powers, warlord traits, etc in the book. 

Stratagems

The Space Wolves have a whole host of new stratagems to boost their effectiveness on the tabletop, as well as some of the common Space Marine ones that other Chapters have access to. 

I'm only going to look at some of the Space Wolves specific stratagem, as I have covered most of the basic Marines stratagems in my Space Marine Codex review. 

Overwhelming Impetuosity (1CP)
Use at the start of the Fight phase on a Blood Claws unit that successfully charged this turn and is within 1" of an enemy unit with a higher power rating. You can re-roll all failed hits for the Blood Claws unit that targets that unit.

A decent stratagem for only 1CP. You get full re-rolls to hit against one specific enemy unit. With the +1 to hit from the Space Wolves' Chapter Tactic, this should give you a lot of hits in combat. You can only use it against enemy units with a higher power rating, so may be too powerful for the Blood Claws or difficult to get one if you have a big unit. It also might be difficult to remember which enemy units have a higher power level.

Cloaked by the Storm (3CP)
Use in the psychic phase. Select a Rune Priest that successfully manifest a psychic power. All units within 6" are at -1 to hit when targeted by enemy units with ranged weapons.

This is an expensive stratagem at 3CP, but could be very powerful in the right circumstances. Normally these types of stratagems cost 2CP and only affect a single unit. However, with a 6" bubble on the Rune Priest, this has the potential to affect several enemy units for a single turn and well be worth the 3CP cost to use it. It does rely on you successfully manifesting a psychic power, but you can wait to see if successful before using it, so as not to waste the command points.
This would suit a rune priest supporting a gun line to help keep them safer from enemy firepower and the range should allow him to protect a large number of units. At 3CP, you won't be able to use this for very long before running out of command points.

Video Battle Report- Genestealer Cults vs Night Lords

Today, I have another video battle report for you to enjoy. In this game, my Genestealer Cults army takes on Mike's force of Night Lords Chaos Space Marine army. 

This game was played at the weekend on my new cityfight mat and terrain. We were playing the maelstrom of war mission, Targets of Opportunity in a fun and casual game. 

I'm still trying to improve the video battle reports, so if you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know!

Hobby Update 21/09/18- Sector Imperialis ruins

Another hobby update this week, with the final set of ruins for my new cityfight board. For the final three pieces, I have a ruined tower, a large manufactorum building and a city fountain. 

New blog toys- Gaming mat and lighting

This week, I picked up a few more toys for my battle reports. The first is a gaming mat. This is an urban combat mat to match my cityfight ruins that I have been painting up in the last week. 

I also picked up a couple of photography lights to help with the lighting on my battle reports. These should hopefully provide much better video battle reports in the future. I've got a game arranged for the weekend, where my Genestealer Cults will be taking on the Night Lords. 

Hobby Update 17/09/18- More Sector Imperialis Ruins completed

Today's hobby update features some more Sector Imperialis ruins that I have made for a cityfight table. 

I have returned! My holiday in sunny Sicily is now over. I have returned very tanned, so much so that I almost look like a normal person now. 

I dove back into the hobby work quickly and managed to get a couple more ruins painted up. This is to add to the two recent buildings that I completed a few weeks ago.

Imperial Knight Valiant Competition Winner

Today, I did the draw for the winner of the Imperial Knight Valiant. 

I had a great 86 people enter the competition, the list of entrants is below:

1. Rory Priest

2. NafNaf

3. WestRider

4. Dave Mary

5. Petar Knevovic

6. Siph_Horridus

7. Joe M

8. Harry Scar

9. Markus Weber

10. Ammar Amjad Khan

11. Will Galloway

12. David MacLellan

13. Simon Campbell

14. James Chalmers

15. Rory Priest

16. Tom Kendrick

17. Kirsten Williams

18. Nathaniel Gibbs

19. Daniel Markfoged Frederikson

20. Joe Ward

21. Nick Thrower

22. Graham Sanders

23. Miles Gabby

24. Jessica Smart

25. Graham Guthrie

26. Marc Van Holst

27. Mick Miller

28. Iapedus Maximus

29. Alex Brown

30. Petar Knevovic

31. Rob Lane

32. Scott Resnick

33. Jessie Howling Wolf Simon

34. Alexander Greenwood

35. Tim Reuter

36. Philip Hargrave

37. Bryn Hill

38. Ed O’Malley

39. Dan Wellington

40. Tabletop Apocalypse

41. Lollo Dix

42. Tarin Almstedt

43. Victor Castillo Jr

44. Corey Croot

45. Joshua Lothar Keggereis

46. Austen M Hansen

47. Ian Connolly

48. Bui Chinh

49. Do Huu Bao Trung

50. HellHenni

51. Aurekta

52. Chinh Bui

53. Padman

54. SDFNet 40k

55. MrBadAndy86

56. Threat Level One

57. Steve Sdfnetfortyk

58. Marti Baker

59. Steven John Pennock

60. Dave Weston

61. Andrew Pelletier

62. Ryan Oestreich

63. Christopher Carmona

64. Skye Illyria Ryan

65. Ian Johnson

66. Spencer Miller

67. Andy Frost

68. Brain Rober

69. Bryan Groves

70. Neil Farley

71. Felix Uelsmann

72. Jonathon Woods

73. Ben David

74. Ed O’Malley

75. Simon Campbell

76. Matthew Coll

77. Ben Wolstenholme

78. Leo Midwinter

79. David Murray

80. Jon Arthur

81. Stu Wolf

82. Daniel Cave

83. Andrew MacTavish

84. Dustin Jones

85. Markus Weber

86. Absurd Sisyphus

The draw video is here:

Congratulations to David MacLellan, who won the Imperial Knight. This awesome Dominus Class will be winging its way to you in the near future. 

Hobby Update 06/09/18- Sector Imperialis Terrain Completed

Today's hobby update features a couple of the terrain pieces that I have been working on recently for a new Sector Imperialis board. 

These were assembled using the Games Workshop Sector Imperialis terrain kits that I had lying around and based on MDF. 

With the models based, I then glued sand to the base. I then coated the base with a mix of water, PVA and a little washing up liquid. This was on old tip that I got from an issue of White Dwarf. The washing up liquid helps the PVA to soak into the sand layer and gives it a good seal. 

Battle Report 165- Deathwatch/Astra Militarum vs Aeldari

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch and Astra Militarum force take on Doug's Aeldari in an Eternal War mission. 

This game was actually fought a couple of months ago when I was preparing for the Warhammer World GT. It sort of got lost in the shuffle between writing up the tournament battle reports and finishing the army for the event. 

We were playing the Retrieval Eternal War mission. This is the standard game with 4 objectives that are scored at the end of the game. 

My army consisted of: 

Battalion Detachment (Deathwatch)

Watch Master- Tome of Ectoclades, Guardian Spear

Watch Captain- Jump Pack, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

10 Veterans- 10 Storm Bolters, 2 Storm Shields, Chainswords

10 Intercessors Bolt Rifles, Bolt Pistols

5 Veterans- 2 Frag Cannons, 3 Bolters, 3 Chainswords

Rhino- 2 Storm Bolters

5 Veterans- 2 Frag Cannons, 3 Bolters, 3 Chainswords

Razorback- Twin Lascannon, Storm Bolter

4 Bikers and Vanguard Veteran- Twin Bolters, Chainswords, Storm Shield

Battalion Detachment (Astra Militarum, Cadian)

Company Commander- Laspistol, Chainsword, Kurov's Aquila, Grand Strategist Warlord Trait

Company Commander- Laspistol, Chainsword

Primaris Psyker- Force Stave, Psychic Barrier, Nightshroud

Infantry Squad- Lasguns, Lascannon

Infantry Squad- Lasguns, Lascannon

Infantry Squad- Lasguns, Lascannon

20 Conscripts

Wyvern- Quad Mortar Launcher, Heavy Bolter

This was a work in progress army before I changed it up for the tournament. As you can see, the core of the army was pretty much the same. The Deathwatch provide the mobile force and hard hitters, while the Guard provide a good firebase. I added the Wyvern to target units that were out of line of sight of most of my forces. 

I went for a couple of units with Frag Cannons in transports. These were to get close to the enemy army and cause some devastation with their firepower. 

Holiday Time!

I'm off! I'll be away on holiday for a couple of weeks. There will still be great content coming up on the blog while I am away, but I may be a bit sporadic in replying to comments in this time. 

I'll be posting the winner of the Imperial Knight Valiant competition when I return, so be sure to enter if you have not yet. 

Enjoy your time without me! 

Hobby Season 2018/2019- Hobby Goals for the Coming Year

Another hobby season is upon us! I had quite a productive year in 2017/2018 and hope to capitalise on this in the coming year to increase my hobby output for the coming year. 

I'll split up my goals into some broad categories to plan for the year ahead. 

Terrain

• Purchase a battle mat or two
• Finish my cityfight terrain

It's about time I got myself a proper gaming mat. I'm planning to purchase a couple of these to match my army bases. One will be a city mat, the other will be a brown earth mat to match most of my armies. 

I recently began work on finally getting my cityfight ruins built and based. I'm going to try and get these painted up to give myself a nice cityfight board to fight over. I'll also try and add some scatter terrain to the kit to create some more cover on the battlefield and break up the structures. 

Genestealer Cults

• Primus
• Magus
• Sentinel Crew
• Neophyte Hybrids
• Guard Allies
• Purestrain Genestealers

I have a number of units to finish up for my Cult. I've got a Magus and Primus that need to be finished off. I've also got the last couple of Sentinel crew to paint up to complete this, which I can paint along with a squad of Neophyte Hybrids. Finally, I have a unit of 16 Purestrain Genestealers I have assembled and just need to paint. 

I also plan to add to the force with some Guard allies painted up in a similar scheme. I've got a ton of spare Guardsmen I can assemble and paint, as well as a Leman Russ Punisher that could be added to the cause. 

These will probably be first up on the list to try and complete, hopefully for an upcoming codex release. I may even pick up the Tooth and Claw boxed set to add to my army.