Pathfinder

How I play my Russian Tank in Flames of War

2013-07-05T13:15:00.003+01:00

When you need to absolutely positively kill every last motherfucker in the foxhole, accept no substitute.

How the Russians play - quantity has its own quality.

Russian Infantry has a lot of advantages, and Russian infantry is very reminscent of the Guard blob in 40k. They can take loads of damage, lose loads of guys and still stay in there thanks to the Commissar. They are also able to attach heavy machine gun elements. This gives them some of the best anti-infantry firepower in the game. The downside is that they are general 'trained' at best making them weaker in combat and easier to shoot (remember to hit is dictated by the shootee's competence, not the shooters), they can't carry much in the way of anti-tank (flour bombs and close combat generally, never stopped them!)

So the basic infantry is good, but where's the real strengths?

Heavy Mortars: The russians have some of the best mortars in the game. They combine the ability of accuracy (reroll to hit on the first roll), with the firepower (3+) that other mortars lack (normally 5+ or even 6). This means that they are the 'go to' unit for clearing enemy infantry out of cover.

Infantry Antitank: It doesn't do the biggest amount of damage, but for a flexible infantry gun unit you cannot get much better than the 57mm antitank gun. Its got enough penetration to put holes in a Tiger (maybe), but it'll certainly see off all standard tanks below that. They are equally good at killing machine gun nests and the like. The bullet shield automatically gives them bullet proof cover against anything in front, so walking up to less than 16" ain't no thing. Thanks to 'roll up the guns and volley fire), they move up like a light guns team and then let rip with 3 shots each, with a reroll to hit at less than 16". Good bye.

Assault Gun: The difference between an Assault gun, a tank killer and an vehicle artillery is no different to a russians, they all got SU on their name. But the best value for money in my opinion is the SU-122. It's got next to no armour and the gun doesn't penetrate armour, but if you want to massacre infantry, clear bunkers/buildings and dominate, then these slow vehicles are awesome. The 122 offers a reroll to hit a less than 16", 2 shots with a breakthrough gun with 2+ to kill. This means the weapon denies the enemy a saving throw of 3+ (breakthrough) and then give a 2+ to kill if they are in bulletproof cover. Nice. When you need to absolutely positively kill every last motherfucker in the foxhole, accept no substitute.

Tank Killer: The SU-100 or SU-85M are a toss up in value, price and effectiveness. Both have the same frontal armour which is the same as a tiger tank. From there its a question of adversary. The SU-100 is a single shot high penetration weapon (anti-tank 16!), but suffers from a combination of hens and chicks and ROF 1 weapon meaning a +3 (+1 for H&C, +1 ROF1, +1 over 16" range) which means this tank is near useless on the move. Stationary, and with a 40" range, this is a great tank killer. The 2+ firepower help pop tanks nicely. The SU-85M brings the strength of the T-34 85mm gun with a tiger armour. This tank doesn't suffer as much on the move, but also can't handle the worst types of opponents.

"...sweeping advances and flanking maneuvers are an 'on the table' reality, instead of being a series of crow barred rules which result in unintended surprises or failure on the capricity of dice. "

Tanks: The best tank in my opinion is the humble T-34. The T-35-85mm is a fantastic tank, but in return for much better penetration you lose both the wide tracks AND the 'fast tank' ability of this vehicle. Wide tracks gives the tank the ability to re-roll bogging down tests for cover cross, and you will cross a lot of cover. Fast tank gives this tank the ability to move 32" at the double. They normally move and fire at 12" per turn. This gives the tank the ability to swarm parts of the board and opponents that otherwise would easily pick off this underpowered tank at range. Once they've surrounded the opponent, shots into the side and rear armour will quickly subdue them. You sacrifice one point in armour (6 to 7) for immense speed and the assurance that you will probably get there. Hands down a game changer.

Example Game

In the following game I use all the elements above against a crack German tank unit comprising 4 panthers in two groups of two, 3 late Panzer 4's, a Jadg-panther and several infantry antitank option.

The two panthers on the right were charged by the SU-122's, they promptly get popped (but as they can't hurt anything this was my plan). The SU-85M's then drop in behind their carcasses and start exchanging fire with the panthers. Its attritional and not very effective, but they hold this unit in position. The 57mm antitank rolls up the middle and massacres the Panzer 4's facing them. The T-34's are my strike unit, as 11 tanks (2x5unit plus commander) rush 32" into the face of the two panther's on the left flank. The panthers get double shots each, but can only target one tank each as they are securely boxed in. The surviving T-34 fire into the rear and side (AV 5 instead of 10) easily massacring the outnumbered tanks. It's then rinse and repeat against the jadgpanther.

Conclusion

The beauty with these tactics of sacrifice and rush with overpowering numbers, is that this is exactly how the Russians approached the problem of technically superior German armour in WWII. The examples in Kursk of T-34s swarming and ramming Tiger tanks is testament enough.

Playing armour in this way just makes you realise how 'cramped' the 40k table is for armour. In 40k you can hide one tank behind a hill, in flames you can hide 11! This movement produced by the scale means that sweeping advances and flanking manuerves are an 'on the table' reality, instead of being a series of crow barred rules which result in unintended surprises or failure on the capricity of dice.

And I thinks that's the core of the difference, good tactics in Flames work. They can be undone by bad luck or poor dice, but you are not dependent on that 'must have' reserves roll for flanking (there are nearly always reserves in Flames, but it's clever, intelligent and mission relevant - another post methinks), or the chance they your opponent will simply overturn your tactical superiority with a 'HEROBOMB' or even imported herobomb.

So if you thought WW2 was boring (how could you), and that the lack of space monkeys with pew pew lasers meant it would be simple - think again, Flames is where tactics beats gimmicks.

M42 - something really interesting is occuring

2013-07-03T09:58:00.000+01:00

Sandwyrm and Eriochrome have

been doing something really interesting.

For those of you who work somewhere near technology, open source should be familiar. Crowd surfing is also a common thread. This is the idea that rather than ferreting away creations behind closed doors and with limited playtesters, you create your product in full view.

When this first started, I was intrigued and even offered myself up to help (I couldn't help, but I tried). The idea is to create a new set of rules which are based around original material, formented from the experience of Flames of War, 40k, Hordes, etc etc and trying to distil down a game that brings back the balance and dynamic to 40k.

The only thing you need is a series of 'proxy' models, luckily a company called games workshop sells those.

I'm AM SO IMPRESSED with what these guys have done. These guys were always stat hounds in playing 40k, and the thought processes into the game mechanics are stupendous. Even more impressive as they are right up there, in the open.

It's like watching the growing portfolio of the worlds greatest game designer.

IF it was just the mechanics it would be enough, but these guys have really grabbed the bull by the horns and got to grips with producing some very impressive narrative. In this their sensitivity is spot on, as it is the fluff that sells the concepts and 'sells' this version.

The level of detail is impressive.

It's like 40k and Flames had a lovechild and adopted it to hordes and Infinity. It's very very clever stuff indeed.

So head over to "The M42 Project" and bask in the glow of their collective creativity and awesomeness...

Are Allies in 40k a good thing?

2013-07-02T11:25:00.000+01:00

I haven't played a game in a while. In fact I've only played a single 6th Edition game, something keeps putting me off... I've got the models, the dice, the latest codeci, I should be all over it, shouldn't I?

It's Allies. I can't get my head around it, it just feels like cheating. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a player who brought a superheavy tank full of Tau Broadsides to an APOC game and murdered everything... I'm happy to WAAC with the best of them. But allies intimidates me.

It's so many options, so many flavours. I can see the logic behind it. After all, if everyone needs every codex and you can cherry pick cool units from other places.

Tau getting smacked - grab a Wolfpack of Terminators.

The problem is that (in line with my opinion on the meta of the 40k codex anyhow), complete freedom does not lead to a world of win... in fact it leads to predictable power play and only a handful of 'best builds'.

Necessity is the mother of invention, not complete freedom.

"Its like bringing a handgun to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors."

I find myself totally unspired to even start to begin to learn the new 'allies-meta'. I'm imagining a whole trope of 'auto-take' and must have unit combos that grace the least fluffy of WAAC armies. Necron add in's combined with Wolfpack gribblies and the occassional Ork Looter air defence. In short, I find the freedom depressing.

I've always played armies with mixed records. I own over 5000pts of Imperial Guard and don't own a single hydra, manticore or Vendetta/Valkyrie. I work hard to make Rough Riders and Mortar teams really work. I own Tyranids ... but the least said about that the better.

It strikes me that handy everyone access to those 'autowin' units that every codex has opened a pandora's box where any tactical acumen is sacrificed to the 'cool stuff' of the inspired codex.

40k has always fielded deathstar units, Mephistons etc aren't unusual. They are useful as the Doom, Mephiston or an Eldar deathball forces the tactics away from the table and into a new paradigm. Its like bringing a handgun to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Marneus is pulling down his trousers again, ready to shaft or shit on his own tactical codex.

So I'm uninspired. Maybe I'm old and over the hill, but if I want to play 'titan-battles' I'd rather get into Hordes... 40k should have some tactics to it... shouldn't it?

Three things in Flames of War that GW should learn from... but could never do.

2013-07-01T14:06:00.004+01:00

"...like watching Marneus Calgar dump a turd on the Codex Astartes."

World War 2, that's not really interesting ... is it? Well, yes it is. Its a conflict where technology advanced of a level we only now see in silicon valley. Put simply, the tactics, technologies and capabilities of war were refined, devised and created in this fulcrum of change.

So why the defence ... well compared to 15+ variant armies of space bugs, little blue men, alien elves, corrupted monstrosities and EPIC HEROES, world war two seems a little drab.

That is until you play a game like Flames of War. The devil is always in the detail, but flames do some things very very very cleverly.

The One to Watch

Well yes it is, despite GW being inhabited by a soulless horde of nefarious profiteers, laughing manically while ensuring that we all switch from autowin unit A to autowin unit Z, there are a few gamers still in there. GW had overwatch in second edition, during the hey day of Space Hulk and Advanced Space Crusade... but it took a little Kiwi firm to make them think how to use it properly.

The Snap Fire or Overwatch rules which now pepper the oncoming horde with 6's to hit is a core skill in Flames of War. As is the ability (say Tau) to combine fire and fire on charging units that are attacking troops near you. It makes charging Heavy Machine guns completely pointless.

Unlike 40k you fire your weapons at full rates of fire and normal to hit ratings ... which makes things very deadly. Also you only need five hits to deter a charge and send them skulking back.

Close Combat is VERY effective in FoW, but getting into combat is really risky. Solution - suppression. Putting 5 hits on an enemy unit means their RoF drops to (normally) 1 shot. This turns suicide into easy peasy, and forces you to play suppression and combined arms ... its like tactics stupid.

Option One: I hit you!

The first thing that Flames does better than 40k is that the 'to hit' roll is based on the shootee's competence, not the shooters. This is based on the assumption that despite an individuals ability, it is the ability to use cover, situational awareness and competence that dictates whether you are shot. In flames shooting recruits or conscripts is easy, shooting veterans is an almighty pain in the arse.

Despite there only being three variants - crap, average and stellar (actually conscript, trained and veteran) the ability feeds across all sections. This means that a veteran unit is as hard to shoot out of cover (and even impossible to hit, unlike 40k a 6 doesn't ALWAYS HIT) with a conscript unit as a veteran unit. This enduring durability gives you confidence in the unit, but also means you need a different set of tactics than the 'stone, scissors, paper' of 40k unit statistics.

Elite units are expensive and cannot afford losses, this actually limits their tactical freedom while increasing their capabilities, oooo balance - who'd have thought.

Option Two: No heroes.

Action Heroes are great, Action movies are awesome. Action movies are also the biggest pile of shite going. Rewatch 'Commando', 'Predator' or Rambo movies with a tactical head on and realise that the 'hero' is actually going to die within half a minute in the real world. The sort of monsters and heroes available in 40k is like watching Marneus Calgar dump a turd on the Codex Astartes. Super units, super tanks, super monsters, spaceships and wound sinks. How often do real dependable tactics get bent over and rogered by the 'half painted Mephiston in a hat' card. Nob biker hordes, Eldar Deathstar units etc etc. They all gather tricks and gizmo's into a single Avengers unit and then stomp all over the enemy.

Tactically its a bit shit. It's a one trick pony of autowin. It doesn't require any sopisticated tactics, it dictates the battlefield and the response of your opponent. It automatically puts them on the back foot. It's a really cruddy way to win and a shitty way to lose. I have exploited it tenaciously in the past. Most WAAC players would, and even those would admit its cheese. But when the whole gaming world doesn't take 2/3 of all codex entries - lay on the gorgonzola!

Flames snuffs that out. The closest thing to a super unit is the Tiger tank - and that's because it really really was. Suddenly, real tactics play a much bigger part and they are far more sophisticated. Try taking two GW matching armies - without OP units and then see the 40k tactics blossom.

If you are looking for a heroes game, get good at infinity or Warmachine/Hordes/Malifaux. These games better reflect to 'individual skirmish' aspect of the original Rogue Trader (infinity), or pumped up superpowers on a WAAC clash of micromanagement (t'others).

Option Three: Army lists with purpose.

Put simply, the codex is a broken format. There will always be good and bad units in any codex. WW2 has plenty of examples of broken units, and often you are looking at an outdated piece of technology. However, what they do is force particular 'formats' of army list on you. This means you can choose an armoured company, or a recon unit, or a infantry company, etc etc. Choosing one sacrifices another option. Some are over powered is some fashions (the russians can field a penal legion full of flamethrowers, it actually existed...), but the more specialised, the more vulnerable you are.

You rarely get first choice in any structure. And importantly, you sometimes are forced to field sub-par units as the 'best' option isn't available. You have to make sacrifices.

This means that unit spam, cloning and redundancy are all nice to haves but actually you have to make 'real' sacrifices (not just leave behind some commander toy that may have been useful, maybe).

The other advantage is that an infantry company automatically defends against a tank company (because the opposite is absurd)... which brings me to some final few thoughts.

Conclusion

There are some other incidental problems with 40k. For example:

Why are dug in troops so easy to kill? In Flames, dug in troops are harder to kill than tanks - which is kinda the point? You can charge them, or flamethrower them, use antitank weapons or assault them with tanks - but regardless of the infantry type - rifles and machineguns should be of marginal effectiveness (dirt equally fucks up laser, bolts, pulses or spines, its amazing, direct fire weaponry is completely shit at going around corners).
Why are tanks often slower than troops? This makes no sense at all. Even the best vehicles are a 'little bit' faster than running troops, unless they are driving at 30mph (turbo boost) and then they can't do anything else ... hang on a minute?
Why is there no downside to running? Moving at the double has a serious downside in Flames. If you are running about enemy units can roll DOUBLE their dice at you. This neatly demonstrates how FUCKING STUPID it is to run into the line of sight of the enemy. Moving at the double is something you only do in Flames if you REALLY need to be there, or can end the move behind something really solid. Genestealers running at me with abandon, really hard to shoot - not.

So that's my round up, to each their own and there are lots of positives in 40k. But some of the issues above continue to irritate me and positively disbalance the game, to the advantage of the share price and the WAAC player with deep pockets.

When are GW gonna get a grip? More thoughts on Tau.

2013-06-14T13:50:00.000+01:00

Great comment on the last post pointed out that GW had dropped the ball again. Only Broadsides can take Missile Drones. Which means a highly versatile mobile firing platform is tied into a unit that doesn't really want to move. Way to go GW, lets turn a win into a fail ... again!

This changes the dynamic quite a lot and balances the book better, as it quickly reduces the overpowering effectiveness of the "Commander+Drone Controller+Missile Drones" Blitzkrieg. No one in 40k should have that kind of spammed firepower at their fingertips, unless they are Space Marines, or Space Wolves, or Imperial Guard. Anyone non-human anyhow...

(Anyone from Nottingham may wanna skip the next paragraph, it's meant in jest, kinda.)

So is GW racist? Well, dah? Course they are, they're based in Nottinghamshire, (originally mistyped Nottinghamshite, oooo freudian) what do you expect? I grew up not 30 miles from HQ and I can categorically state that while the 'gamers' were the most thought provoking of all my classmates, I also lived in a region that won 'whitest' in the UK. Let's just say that if Morgan Freeman really had accompanied Kevin Costner to Nottingham Forest - he'd have been 'fuck this racist shit' in about four days. That's not to say that Nottingham does not have a black and asian culture, it certainly does. It also has one of the highest gun crimes rates in the UK, a big problem with gangs and drugs.

Anyhooo, my own childhood trauma aside... how does this effect the Tau list. What would work?

Crisis Suits, ok they can't take Missile Drones, but marker drones are only 1 pt more expensive than pathfinders. For one point they are toughness 4, gain a 4+ save over 5+ and most important are jetpack troops - allowing them to move-fire-move thanks to their relentless jetpacks. They are BS2, but the addition of a drone controller makes them BS3, a commander with said controller makes them BS5.

So the real question is how many markerlights are effective. This is a balancing act between several factors:

Enough Markerlight hits to refuse cover save and give BS5 to an engaging unit (4)
Having enough units to spread enough hits to 'spread the pain' around if needed.
Making the unit big enough to impact severely (remember that each unit that shoots at the target will require 3-4 markerlights to maximise impact)
Making the unit small enough that it can use cover effectively and minimise retaliation.

So lets see, the strongest contenders (ignoring Forgeworld loveliness) for 'markerlight' has to be the SkyRay, followed closely by the markerdrone (especially with a drone commander). The last contender has to be pathfinders.

4 drones at BS5 will score 3-4 hits, 8 drones score 6-7 hits. This thrashes pathfinders raw, as two to three hits of each 55 point team is dire, PS: Using markerlights to 'breed' markerlights also seems shortsighted. Yes, handing your team a 2+ to hit is nice, but it cost 2 markerlights.

There is another way...

Commander Shadowsun + Pathfinders

Commander Shadowsun and 10 pathfinders, including a command-link drone and an MV-52 drone costs 285pts. Here's the advantages. The MV52 'confers' a 3++ invulnerable save. It doesn't have this, it confers it. Let's share it around. Shadowsun also just made her unit Stealth and Shrouded, oh AND night vision. Your pathfinders now have a 2+ cover save and 3++ invulnerable save. Hmmm, you still need a couple of markerlight bonuses to get 2+ to hit for your targets, but your command link drone also give you a reroll on 1's.

Upside: That's pretty damn hardcore. That's like Thunder termie saving throws on a markerlight until almost guaranteed to score 9-10 markerlight hits a turn.

Downside: Static and very squishy on the charge. As upgrades go, she's pretty expensive and it ties her down to a low toughness unit. Shadowsun will keep vehicles at bay though. Although charging hordes aren't worried. It's also expensive, just like the Stealth team below, it offers marginal advantage over just spamming pathfinder teams (285 buys nearly 26 pathfinders) and its not like there's loads of competition in the fast attack slot.

Stealth Team Rethinking...

Ok, here's my thinking. A Group of Crisis Suits are hard to hide. A Group of Stealth dudes, less so. Combine the following:

Commander, 2 x Plasma Rifles, drone controller, ATS, 2 marker drones: 156pts
Stealth Team x 3, Shas'Vre with Markerlight and Target Lock, 3xATS, fusion blaster, 2 Marker Drones: 143pts

Total: 299pts

Now hear me out. The advantage of this is as follows. The unit is majority T4, it has 7 'disposable wounds'. It makes 4 BS5 Markerlight shots a turn. It's small, easily concealed and gets a 2+ cover save easily. It has enough antipersonnel firepower, anti MEQ and anti tank firepower to make any unit wary of approaching it, and it can still be tactically useful while 'holding' an area. Add in to this that the whole unit has ATS, and that means that the Shas'Vre can drop a markerlight precision shot on a specific model on a 5+. Follow that with a Seeker Missile (no cover save, S8 and AP3) That's something worth talking about. The rest of the team have enough firepower and precision shot ability (6's on 8 S5, AP5 shots, 5+ on the commanders 4 shots) to make terminators blush.

Is it better than a crisis team, or three large 9 man Pathfinder teams? Sadly no. But it's the most use I can make out of what GW have done to the Stealth team. They would be a pain in the arse, they would be a super mobile toolkit of doom, they would be arguably less effective than a huge hulking elite robot.

Fecking GW.

Kroot Sniper Horde.

7pt each 24" range sniper rifles. What's not to love. They have some stealth ability, are slightly less accurate than ratlings, but 2 x 20 infiltrating snipers for 280 is awfully tempting. Yes, they are prone to dying, but they will also throw a lot of firepower out before they do. As an ambush unit, this is their best use, lulling the enemy into thinking they are 'just a deployment screen' and then unloading 40 sniper shots at point blank. Add in enough markerlights against aggressive opponents (and try to save 4 for their charge and boost your snapshots to BS5) and watch the enemy drop. 40 shots should produce 5.55 rending hits with just 2 markerlights. Remember to deny them cover with an extra two. That's potent stuff. That's a whole unit of space marines dead, or nearly 4 terminators. Hmmmm.

Just watch out for Landraiders...

Tanks and Heavy weaponry

Speaking of which ... I can't see anything in the codex that beats the good'ole Hammerhead in tank destruction. When you really positively have to kill a landraider, that's your only option (beyond suicide suits with fusion missing risk). Even Broadsides with the Puretide engram commander only gets a reroll to penetrate, and that's expensive and also pretty shit. If you want a killer, choose Longstrike - the combination of BS5, tank hunter, black sun filter and defensive fire automatically means he actually only costs 34pts for BS5, reroll 1's against Imperial Guard and reroll failed and non-penetrating hits on tanks - that's like a no brainer. The downside is that Sensor Spines, Disruption Pod etc are essential - as this guy will attract Loads of heat.

Blocking with two sets of SkyRay's could do the job though. 4 markerlights, 12 seeker missile (for those precise Stealth team shots) Plus 2 Skyrays can block a charge, give cover to the real target and give you the option of 12 twin-linked Smart Missiles flying out every turn, as you retreat in the face of the charging enemy.

New Thoughts, New List - 1502 pts

Commander, 2 x Plasma Rifles, drone controller, ATS, 2 marker drones: 156pts
Commander, 2 Missile Pod's, drone controller, ATS, 2 marker Drones: 156pts
Stealth Team x 3, Shas'Vre with Markerlight and Target Lock, 3xATS, fusion blaster, 2 Marker Drones: 143pts
Crisis Suit Team x 3, 6 Missile Pods, ATS, 6 marker Drones: 237pts
Riptide - 180pts
Fire Warriors x 9, Shas'Ui: 91 pts
Devilfish, disruption pod, drones and sensor spines: 100pts
Fire Warriors x 9, Shas'Ui: 91pts
Kroot Sniper Unit, Shaper and 20 kroot, sniper bolts: 155pts
Hammerhead, Longstrike, Disruption Pod, Sensor Spines, TL Smart Missile System - 190pts
SkyRay, Sensor Spines, TL Smart Missile System - 120pts
SkyRay, Sensor Spines, TL Smart Missile System - 120pts

Tactics: consider this an army made of mobile sniper units.

The Kroot hold a flank, preferably in a bit of woodland for some extra cover. The Shaper hopefully keeps them together long enough to launch a sniper ambush on them. The on-foot firewarriors come on late for home defence, or take up a strong position. The Sky-Ray's escort the Hammerhead to LoS on targets of opportunity and run interference. Marker drones in both units attack targets of opportunity, with the riptide and kroot focusing fire.

Once vehicles are downed, it's on to the troops, which I believe this list will thrive at killing.

The danger is that the enemy get the drop on Longstrike... but then it's just a game of relocate for the win. The inclusion of Shadowsun or the Stealth team really hold the same impact. One has the ability to splatter a unit with so many markerlight it'll be taking every shot at its vulnerable bits. The other has the ability to be a swiss army knife of killing at medium range, complement the markerlight tally and get away from the bad guys.

First rule of shooting is target priority. If you have to drop a target you want the markerlight hits to make it hurt with everything you've got. 10 markerlight hits on a charging unit can give 2+ to hit for 3 units and still save 4 lights to give them a 2+ on the unit when it charges.

On that analogy, the static, high stealth unit is stronger - offering a big juicy, hard to kill unit which will kill a lot of the enemy.

The mobile list above offers 14 markerlights, the static version offers 22 per turn.

It's gunline versus mobile again. Does the static variant sacrifice too much firepower to enable markerlights?

Thoughts on a Tau list

2013-06-13T13:31:00.002+01:00

Commanders and Crisis Suits are the start and end of the Tau list. With the nerf to Broadsides, now only toting S8 weaponry, there's some real question marks over their 'requirement' for an army list. This, combined with the general meta moving away from tanks and I'm seeing the dominance of crisis suits coming through.

Here's my first thoughts on a Crisis Suit strong list:

1503 list

Commander, 2 x Missile Pod, Drone Controller,Advanced Targetting System, 2 Missile Drones - 156
Commander 2 x Plasma Rifles, Drone Controller, Advanced Targeting System, 2 Marker Drones - 156
XV8 x 3, 2 x Missile Pod, Flamers and 2 x Missile Drones each - 243
XV8 x 3, 2 x Plasma Rifles, Flamers and 2 x Marker Drones each - 243
Fire Warriors [9] x 4, with Shas'Ui and Bonding Knives - 400
2 x Devilfish, sensor spines - 170
Hammerhead, submunitions, Smart Missile System and Sensor Spines - 135

The tactics are quite straightforward. The 2 firewarrior groups form a gun line in supportive proximity. One group of Crisis Suits light up units with markerlights for the fire warriors and hammerheads to pummel. The other crisis suit unit pounds targets with missiles.

The Missile Team throws out 12 missiles at BS3 and 12 missiles at BS5
The Marker/Plasma team throw out 8 markerlights at BS5 plus 12 Plasma shots at BS3/5 at things that get too close. The Commanders both precision shot on a 5 or 6. Allowing you to pick off plasma/missile launchers and the like.

The plasma rifles are there just in case anything gets too close.

Assuming 2 markerlight hits on a longfang unit, they would be saving against 17 (rounded up) wounds with hopefully no target to return fire on.

Lament to the Stealth Team

2013-06-11T10:00:00.001+01:00

Loving the new codex ... but...

What's with GW's continuing insistence of making perfectly viable units redundant? The Tau codex now mirrors my Nid, CSM and Imperial Guard Codex. With a detritus of murdered models surrounding a last stand of 'must-have' units.

Arguably, only Imperial Guard (and Smurfs, of course) have a multifaceted approach nailed down.

It boggles my mind thatGW can be so bad (so good?) at not balancing their codici. When I compare my flames lists, it's laughable. In the russian armada, I have different tools for different goals. Infantry balance tanks, balance artillery, balance anti-tank, balance aircraft. You can strive for an specialist list, but advantages are automatically curtailed by your lack of tanks (for a scouting unit) etc etc.

The problem I find is this. Why include Kroot or Stealth Teams in the codex at all?

Stealth Teams

30 points for a stealth dude is an ok price. Stealth and shrouded combined with jetpacks give you a fantastic (almosted guaranteed) 2+ cover save unit. Add in the increase in firepower with 5 stealth dudes firing off a wicked 20 S5 shots, plus the fusion blaster and WOOP, infilitrating motherfucking scouting motherfuckers who can gun run the enemy. Nice.

Except, Crisis suits are 22pts. WTF? Crisis Suit with a burst Cannon, 32 points. You lose the great 4+ cover save, but you gain a wound, toughness 4 and a weapons platform that CAN ACTUALLY ENGAGE FROM RANGE!

Bong - death knell to the Stealth Suit.

Most importantly of all, ANY crisis suit (shas'ui or shas'vre) can take 2 drones each. 3 Crisis suits with 6 jumping out and marking marker drones - nice. 6 missile drones nice, 6 gundrones ... ummm why? But Stealth teams get a maximum of 2 gundrones and only if you upgrade a Shas'Ui. Shit.

And this despite having a backstory including 'markerdrones' pwning Ork horde. Argggghhhh! Fucking GW.

Anyone with half a brain can see that Stealth teams are high risk, as such they should be cheaper not more expensive than Crisis teams. If Space MArines at 3+, T4 are 15-18pts. Shouldn't T3 stealth teams be less. Even taking into consideration the gun at Assault 4 and the Stealth - they can be caught by any number of beasts, cavalry or bikes and they squish pretty quick in close combat and they have to engage at 18-24"... poor bastards.

20pts tops. Easily. Add in gundrones (2 each motherfucker) and you've got a viable, useful and high risk unit. You are still sacrificing a Elites slot for them, but at 100pts for 5, its worth a gamble.

Otherwise, why bother.

Kroot

Boohohohoho. I mean what did the kroot ever do to GW? They are a great nation with a fantastic backstory and they get a big chunk of the 'fluff' part of the book. But they've been nerfed to S3, instead of S4. Their weapons are now AP5 in close combat, but killing guard was easy anyhow. They get a mighty 6+ saving throw. Feck. They can't take any upgrades worth mentioning. And they are 3 points cheaper than a Tau. Even with Kroot Hounds, and don't get me started I own 12. They are 110 points for a 20 body unit. Which is ok. The guns are good... but they are now even squishier. It's like GW decided that the ONLY job kroot can do is as a disposable deployment inhibitor.

I am tempted to take 20 kroot and arm them with sniper rifles and then see how things go. 4 markerlight hits would make 20 kroot score 2.7 rending shots and 5.6 wounds. That would almost be worth it...

The good news is that they are troops and that they do get stealth in woods. But compared to 9 point each firewarrior, with one of the best rifle weapons in the game?

Why bother.

Wolfpack Tactica in World of Tanks

2013-04-05T23:57:00.001+01:00

Short video showing a crakcing game where our little platoon (3/15 players) chalked up 11/15 kills. It also gives some great example of platooning with medium and wolfpack tactics, using our greater speed and different skills and tank capabilities to overcome opponents.

I hope you enjoy it.

Patton - killing multiple heavy tanks and holding a flank.

2013-03-22T17:49:00.002+00:00

Just a quick post to highlight a cracking game taking a tank with no armour but a cracking gun up against opponents with all the armour and all the guns ... and how to win!

Pershing Tactics II - Agressive tactics and an awesome dogfight with an E75 (Supertiger)

2013-02-11T10:27:00.002+00:00

Check out wikipedia

My second Pershing posting. When you aren't spotting and sniping, mediums like the pershing have an even more important role - exploitation! The ability to rush a side of the board and get the drop on a weakened flank is important.

In WoT you are not playing against an all knowing general or computer, but against a disparate group of Europeans spread across 20 odd countries and age ranges. As such, ability, coordination, tactical awareness and stupidity will vary hugely.

The medium, although vulnerable, is perfectly place to exploit these gaps with it better speed it can make the breakthrough required.

It doesn't always work though, but a tier 7 tiger and a tier 8 medium have to work VERY hard to beat a tier 9 E-75 prototype next gen German post war tank.

VERY HARD! Enjoy!

World of Tanks Tactica

2013-02-06T10:12:00.000+00:00

Just a short World of Tanks Tactica on playing the Pershing. This tank is very much an experienced players tank, tactical awareness, reactions and planning are key. It's a great tank for exploiting opportunities, but requires careful play style.

Hope you enjoy!

The parasitic growth of underhand sales techniques

2013-01-31T10:03:00.003+00:00

You're smiling now ... but wait til the 'stealth bill' arrives!

Grrr ... slightly off topic, but this one angered me. I bought a product called PC Cleaner Pro last year. My PC was slow and needed cleaning out. £25 for a PC cleaner to do the job didn't seem that bad. It worked brilliantly - I thought, great job. Anyhow ... I checked my credit card randomly and saw a bill, a year later, for PC cleaner.

Hang on a minute, I already bought that. Apparently, it a stealth subscription product. Why? Is a few updates and some patches worth a whole payment. It's hardly World of Tanks or Warcraft, I haven't noticed any new 'worlds' turn up on the PC cleaner front. Maybe I don't play it enough, if I really put in the PC Cleaner hours perhaps I could level up and get access to a whole new vista of cleaning products, deep clean areas, eradication missions .... Oh wait ITS A FECKING SPAM CLEANER!

I contacted customer support - only to be met with this:

Your chat number is 10C-189CF2B3-050D

Chris: I got billed on 26/1/13 for a pc cleaner product I bought last year...

Gio: Hello! Welcome to PC Cleaner live chat! My name is Gio, I will be assisting you today.

Chris: Hi Gio

Gio: Hello! Welcome to PC Cleaner live chat! My name is Gio, I will be assisting you today.

Gio: You can also locate by SafeCart number found in the confirmation email sent to you by safecart following your purchase. The order number will begin with NWPC.

Chris: yes you said that

Gio: I'm sorry for that

Gio: You can check it with our online look-up. https://www.safecart.com/purchase-lookup

Chris: I have no email from you or safecart. I purchased this product last year.

Chris: Why am I being billed again?

Chris: There is no record of my credit card on safecart.

Gio: Please check your safecart if you are enrolled in automatic renewal.

Chris: Is this an annually renewed product?

Gio: Yes

Chris: Why?

Chris: That isn't made clear in the purchase process.

Gio: To disable auto renew please send your request to billing@pc-cleaners.com and they will assist you immediately.@@SPACER

Chris: I don't like this approach ... its underhand.

Chris: The products good, but it feeling like you're stealing money for a product I've already paid for. Do I get anything else for the renewal price?

Gio: It is stated in the terms and condition

Chris: Yeah, fineprint backside cover - real upstanding. You just got screwed because you didn't read every page of the EULA. Never saw that before. Doesn't improve how this feels, does it?

Chris: I like this product, I'd like to use it on multiple computers... that would make it worthwhile. Can I do that?

Chris: Round robin PC maintenance would make the £25 a year worth it.

Gio: One license key one computer policy.

Chris: You're not winning me over are you? You really don't give a damn about your customers do you?

Chris: This is it, take it or leave it. We'll stealth bill you and take your money... and the customer service amounts to 'told you so, hahaha' - cute

Chris: I would like my invoice sending to cd****@****.co.uk, as you are legally obliged to provide. Otherwise I cannot claim the payment and I'll have to bounce your payment as fraudulent and without my consent.

Chris: You have given no notification of an invoice, I have had no notification of your renewal from your 'payment handler' and the payment handler has no record of the charge. Please issue me the invoice.

Gio: Please send your request for refund to our billing department they will just notify you an email the status of your request.

Chris: Will they refund me?

Gio: Yes

Gio: Thank you for contacting PC Cleaner PRO Support, have a nice day!

This live chat session is no longer active

Now there's charm for you eh?

Professional Sales Hat Talk

So what's wrong with this picture? I like the product, I would have renewed but the company weren't interested in sales. They had spent so much money invested in product development, but have a mindset where 'product = auto sales'. By shying away from the price (a common problem and something to be learnt), they opted for underhand payment tactics, ass covering T&C's and poor sales approach. The 'customer service' (STOP SNIGGERING AT THE BACK) guy had an easy response for me, here it is:

"We're really sorry that the subscription came as a surprise, it is in the terms and conditions, but some of our customers have missed that. As a conciliatory gesture, would you be happy if we enabled your account to work on another computer?"

Cost to them - none. Value to me - I get to keep the product I like and feel I'm getting 'special treatment'. Value to reputation - priceless.

I may have been writing a better review.

The Clash of two of my greatest loves....

2013-01-15T14:47:00.002+00:00

No, before you ask, the Wife isn't rug-wrestling with Salma Hayek, slight detour to daydream....

Where was I, oh yes - check this out.

And for those who can't be bothered to click on the linkylink.

LEGO PANTHER TANK! .... Love.

Boxing up and Packing Away

2013-01-07T10:30:00.001+00:00

Conversion with my three and a half year old called Ptol:

Ptol: What you doing Daddy?
Daddy: I'm packing away my tanks.
Ptol: Why?
Daddy: We need to tidy up because we're trying to sell the house and I don't play with them anymore.
Ptol: [pause for thought] I like your tanks Daddy.
Daddy: I know Ptolemy, and when you're bigger we'll get them out and play them together, 'cause you're a little bit too little at the moment.
Ptol: Yeah ... I like playing with your tanks...
Daddy: Uh-huh.
Ptol: When I bigger we can play with your tanks.
Daddy: Uh-huh. When you get to eight?
Ptol: When I big, I play tanks.
Daddy: Yup.

EBAY - you lose.

Selling Up and Moving on?

2012-12-19T17:45:00.000+00:00

Dear Readers,

There's a moment when you can't help but feel that there is a slow and inexorable decline in your gaming desire. I think I'm (sadly) there with 40k. For me, it's codex creep that's finally put the nail in the coffin. I've stuck it out as codex after codex is released. I've stuck out the poor codeci and seen the rebirth of the Guard, Tyranid and the CSM codex - but really, nothing has changed.

I've a 'flavour of the month' army, oh great, how long will that last.

I'm not dropping it completely, but I have the desire to 'thin out' my enormous amount of models to a more manageable amount. I have 4 pretty huge armies in 40k and right now I'd quite like to ease up space for showcasing my Flames of War units and getting back into painting.

I stopped painting a while back as my eyesight had degraded and I hadn't realised. Glasses are in now, painting is back in - but no room.

So what do I do? Do I store up the models I have for the 10 years ahead when my boys and girl might be interested? Do I sell a selection, or a couple of armies? How do you go about selling armies on ebay, by unit, altogether? Do I sell them now (the Tyranids are ready), or do I wait until Nids are worth having again? Will the units even be relevant in 10 years time?

Life is moving on, and as a father of three with a business to run - thinning down on plastic tanks would ease space, clear the decks and also stop the bunch of stupid plastic models in the corner giving me a guilt trip about not playing with my toys (believe me, I have REAL things to feel guilty about without 40k plastic-crack wading in!)...

Advice please,

Suneokun

Chaos Space Marines are well ... chaotic?

2012-10-18T12:09:00.000+01:00

Just busy digesting the new codex for the last week. It's a cracking read I must say, and some of the notions within it are certainly exciting. The urge to take a Disc riding chaos lord with a sigil, mark of tzeentch (for a 3++) and give him a Black Mace to do the dirty to the backfield is almost overwhelming ... however, my impressions (in a Sean Connery voice):

Defilers: I always liked them, now they are shit hot. 4 hull points with a battlecannon, healing hull points on a 5+, and 5++ Deamon save, fleet - what's not to like? Seems odd that they bought out these new awesome models and made the defiler even better? Is it a landraider - nope, but it beats the crap out of the "new" dreadnought. Oh, and if 5 powerfist attacks on the charge aren't enough, it can also have a 'power scourge', you don't even have to hit 'with it', just any unit in base to base with a model with a power scourge automatically has D3 taken off their WS every phase . Oh and just checking the rules, a walker can move and fire ALL its weapons - so I'm thinking an reaper autocannon, Havoc launcher, combi-melta and battlecannon isn't overkill, is it?

Deamon Prince: Never bought one as I didn't like the model and THANK GOD FOR THAT. They just took the 'must have' HQ choice and turned him into a joke. He is an MC with 4 wounds, a 3+/5++ tops ... yeah, my trygons were tough like that too.

Revised HQ's: Ok so the new HQ's don't have eternal warrior spam like the smurf one's, but they have tactical options to make you pause. For my money the top three are: Abaddon, a 2+,4++ close combat monster of death with knobs on, Ahriman for all round spellcaster evil powerhouse. Finally Typhus is a hardcore model with solid stats and fantastic upgrade options (Deathguard plus Zombies, what's not to like?) Huron wins runner up as 'budget' option for his guaranteed 'infiltrate' roll, good stats, quality toolkit and 'random' magic.

Mutilators and Oblivitators - oh my: Oblits are even better, 2+, 5++ with a Tzeentch boost option (4++) makes them particularly sweet. Add in a 5 point discount on the last codex, the inclusion of ASSAULT CANNON on their slow and purposeful asses. Luckily S&P has become better (ish), it no longer requires 2D6 movement tests, but does mean you can't run or fire overwatch, which is a shame. You can move normally and pump peeps full of S6 AP4 rending shots - which makes any imperial guard player worry over a deepstriking oblit team mincing his heavy weapons teams. 3points extra for for a 2+,4++ 2W deep striking swiss army knife - bargain!

Terminators: Anyone else noticed that Terminators can now take EITHER a cool close combat weapon OR a cool combi weapon? Yeah, that sucks doesn't it. To add insult to injury, they are 5 points cheaper for 2 dudes and a chump, but you can only take 1 chump (you can't upgrade them all to champions, for obvious boon confusicrapness) and the chump has identical stats - ie: ONLY 2 attacks anyhow. This means the end of I5, 5 attacks on the charge lightning claw'd monsters - rubbish. Still useful, but this combo will make them second choice.

Chaos Space Marines: These guys are cheap, at 75pts for 5 including a champion. This is a brilliant drop from the 90pts in the previous codex. That said, just like normal tactical squads, you don't get the pistol and knife combo (really tactical squads can't have knives, how cash-strapped is the imperium?) but the good news is that you can upgrade your boys for 2pts per fella to get a knife and that 'essential' additional attack in close combat. At base level that's 140 versus 170 for 10 vanilla marines, although you will miss combat squads/tactics and ATSHNF rules. Unlike vanilla, you can choose to take 2 meltas in the same squad and 200pts for 10 marines in a dirging rhino ain't bad.

Chaos Cultists: Yep, they are what we've been waiting for. They're the grease beneath the wheels of Dawn of War and they're pitiful cries (whilst building/fighting/dying) are what makes the chaos player sing. The combo of hardcore marines and fodder is a tempting one. If you throw in MR T in green and make them all zombies (FOR FREE?!?), with fearless and FNP - Ummm suddenly those like me with huge Imperial Guard armies and a selection of zombies are laughing. 165pts for a 35 man 'blob' with 3 flamers? Errr ... yes please. My Alpha Legion styled army are licking their lips already.

Raptors: Looks like my 5 man raptor team is being decommissioned as they are now completely pointless. Even the Chaos Spawn (which is better value than a Deamon Prince), can potentially charge 30" - eeek! Raptors can move 12" and then charge. Less impressive. This is set against Chaos Bikers who get Jink (5+ cover save if moved), +1T, Hammer of Wrath and Relentless (making plasmaguns awesome). Warptalons are equally 'meh', as the price is more than a plague marine?!?

Heldrake: The other reason why Raptors are so last year, there's a bloody great dragon on board. It can vector strike (which means D3+1 automatic hits at S7, AP3 - on vehicle side armour) ... ignoring the hades autocannon (4 S8 AP4 pinning), this beasty should definitely have the torrent baleflamer. It an AP3 soul blaze template at strength 6 - specifically designed to turn tactical squads into glue. 170pts and it can regrow it's hull points... OMFG.

Havocs: If the previous explanation wasn't enough, Havocs can now kit out missile launcher, which have flakk skyfire rounds. Not quite the Heldrake, but for taking down those pesky flyers - essential.

So what would I take?

Huron BlackHeart - (160)
Plague Marines (7) - Powerfist, 2 plasmaguns, Mutation, Rhino, Dirge Caster (273)
Terminators (5) - 2 Lightning Claws, Chainfist and combi-bolter, Heavy flamer and powerfist, combi-melta and power weapon - (265)
Chaos Space Marines (10) - 2 x melta and powerfist, Rhino, dirge caster (225)
Chaos Space Marine (10) - 2 x melta and power weapon, Rhino, dirge caster (215)
Chaos Cultists (35) - 3 flamers (165)
Chaos Bikers (3) - 2 meltaguns and combi melta and a power weapon (115)
Obliterators (2) - Mark of Tzeentch (156)
Defiler - Power Scourge, Reaper Autocannon, Havoc launcher, dirge caster and combi-melta (252pts)
Havocs (5) - 4 Missile Launchers with Flakk (175)

Total: 2001 pts

The Heldrake would be interchangeable with the Havocs. I've only left out the heldrake as I already have the list above.

Infantry Guard Army: Snipers and Mortars and Allies, oh my!

2012-09-07T10:27:00.000+01:00

I was inspired by an excellent tactical review at "From the Fang" to dust off the codeci yesterday and have a new look at my Imperial Guard Army. I have to say, I haven't written an army list in over a year now (for 40k anyway) and thanks to 6th Edition, all my standard references are up the swanny! But that's the same for everyone.

Reading online, there seems a lot of heat about several key meta areas in 40k now!

Flyers as vehicles
Flying Monstrous Creatures
Infantry over tanks
Value of Snipers and Blasts
Characters are awesomesauce
The value of glancing

I'm very largely in favour of most of the changes in 6th Edition, lets face the facts, I'd stopped playing as 40k had become very stale compared to other games systems, and it wasn't just me. The majority of games at the local club were made up of Hordes, Warmachine, Flames of War and even Infinity!

Foot Guard - are they better?

So what are my thoughts, well this list is based around what I've already got, a a few 'wishlister' based on the meta. Overall I think my foot-centric guard force has really won out in 6th. Let's look at my 'staples' and chew the fat!

Ratling Snipers - These little guys are now awesome, they are still super squishy, but a BS4 camo'd sniper - wicked. Sniper doesn't just grant 'rending' on a 6 to wound, but on a 6 to hit you get to choose which model in the enemy unit you're shooting. Not so good against Characters (including powerfist Sergeants) thanks to the 'look out sir' generic rule, but awesome against those pesky models holding flamers, plasma, missile launchers and the like. I've got twelve, so 2x6 ratlings?

Vehicles - On the face of it, hull points have made vehicles more durable, but in reality they pop easier. Every glancing AND penetrating hit will take a hull point, which means that 4 autocannons with bring it down can guarantee a rhino stops dead (completely ignoring the penetration rolls). This is GREAT news for Guard! While the +1 for AP2 Lascannons and Plasma on the penetration chart is welcome, rate of fire seems the best guarantee of glancing a vehicle to death ... And between the Chimeras, the Hydra's and the Autocannons ... we got it!

Mortars - I've always been a huge fan of mortars in guard forces, I think they are a key force multiplier, hitting and hurting a little bit every turn. I have 15 mortar bases in total and love to field them. The new rules are really kind to mortars. Since pre-measuring is now in, there no more worries about being 'just' out of range. The key to this is that the wound allocation is now directional, with the direction dictated from the centre of the blast. Indirect fire and 48" range means that I only need to 'hit' with 6 hits to guarantee the death of that meltagunner, or 2 hits to start mincing those Ork dakkaguns (sounds a lot, I've got 15 shots!) ... I'm used to whittling down units to the powerfist and the special weapons expert ... looks like it'll be a boltgunner from now on!

Challenges - Now, this is less of a bonus, but still a very effective stalling tactic. You can (I think ) call a challenge in the charge, this means that the Rough Riders sergeant (With I5) can 'call out' the Space Marine hero at I6, thus guaranteeing that more of his disposable brethren get their pointy stick into the enemies pointy beaks! It also works well for the Imperial Guard blob, inhibiting the super ninja character from dishing the death mongering from YOUR player turn and allowing you to apply those power weapons (or sheer weight of numbers) onto his bodyguard. It'll probably do nothing more than slow them down ... but that's the point isn't it?

Flying Vehicles - I like the Vendetta, it's awesome. I just don't own one, 6th edition AND the snap fire rule makes Vendettas the 'must have' vehicle for delivering death to the enemy. 4 meltas in a vendetta is an evil combo and will attract a lot of heat, luckily that heat will need a 6 to hit and blast weapons can't snap fire. So their problems are largely over. Nice.

Flying Monstrous Creatures - Urkk, Tyranids that fly just got a huge bonus. Something tells me they want to sell stuff with wings?!? For my money the best bonus for a guard army is to have some Chaos Space Marine allies. A few deathguard are never a bad investment, and If I happen to bring along some nurgle bikers (true T6! and jink!), plus my Obliterators and a Deamon Prince with wings and a magic spell for 160pts - bargain!

Now, as you can see from above, none of this is actually that expensive. The Allies total 660, which still leaves me plenty for the following:

Company Command Sq: Autocannon, 3 sniper rifles (75)
6 Ratlings (60)
6 Ratlings (60)
Platoon Command Squad: 4 meltas (70)
Squad 1: Autocannon (60)
Squad 2: Autocannon (60)
Squad 3: Autocannon plus Commissar (95)
5 Heavy Weapons Teams, Mortars (300)
Veterans Squad, 3 melta (100)
2 x Vendetta (260)
Deamon Prince, Wings, Magic, Nurgle (160)
5 Plague Marines, Powerfist and 2 Plasmaguns (185)
3 Bikers, 2 melta (119)
2 Obliterators (150)

Total: 1754 pts.

Maybe a Hydra would be better than the Obliterators, but with three flying things, I should be troublesome enough?? What's your thoughts?

Twenty Questions

2012-08-23T13:42:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Drax for the heads up!

Posties' Rejects 20 Questions

Favourite Wargaming Period, and Why?

1990? Advanced Space Crusade, Confrontation and Rogue Trader saga's. They weren't wargames, took forever, but they were fun.

Next Period, money no object?

Money no problem, I hear that Duxford and Bovington have 1:1 scale WW2 wargaming materials, I'm sure Flames would scale up fairly effectively?

Favourite five films?

Blade Runner
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Die Hard
Moulin Rouge
Singing in the Rain

Favourite five TV series?

Band of Brothers
Dune (the SciFi version)
Firefly
True Blood (Season One)

Game of Thrones

Favourite book and author?
Top Five please...

China Mieville (City and the City)
Peter F. Hamilton (All of his books are awesome)
Joe Abercrombie (Best Served Cold)
Steven Erikson (Toll the Hounds)
Martin (Game of Thrones)

Greatest General? Can't count yourself!
Montgomery

Favourite Wargame rules?

Flames of War

Favourite Sport and Team?

Team GB In the fecking Olympics ... because that's a real sport!

If you had a one-use-only time machine, when and where would you go?

Back to Japan, and without the 18yo hang ups I'd have ruled.

Fantasy relationship and why?

Split between Jennifer Connelly (in Labyrinth) and Samantha Mathis (getting topless in Pump up the volume). Always liked my 'spunky' brunette girls.

If your life were a movie, who would play you?

Sean Bean ... as he would have a particularly tragic and yet meaningful/hilarious way to go at the end.

Last meal on Death Row?

Fish finger sandwich, mayo.

Favourite comic book superhero?

Batman, there no one cooler?

Favourite military quote?

"Truck, what truck?" (sorry couldn't resist)

Historical destination to visit?

Monte Cassino

Biggest Wargaming regret?

None yet...

Favourite fantasy job?

My job ... no really!

Favourite song top 5?
Son of a preacher man - Dusty Springfield
The One - U2
Yes to beer, no to booty -
Eastbound and Down - Smoky and the Bandit
Cosmic Girl - JK

Favourite Wargaming moment?
FIghting Mark's foot guard to a standstill, he fought like a trooper and nearly drew against hellhounds!

The Miserable Git Question: what upsets you?

Lying. Especially people who lie to themselves and then present it as 'the truth'.

Still playing World of Tanks? Hell yeah!

2012-08-22T15:07:00.003+01:00

 11 kills in World of tanks, in the old 6 shot batchat  .... scary

World of Tanks has gone through some serious 'meta-game' changes in the last six months. It's been an interesting ride, but here's a snap shot of what I'm driving now (and where I'm driving them).

Metagame Changes

WoT's is constantly rebalancing to cope with the meta-game. As one country becomes dominant, or one tank appears too high in the stats, it gets nerfed or the others get tweaked. Think of the Games Workshop 2 year release schedule, but released monthly.

So when the KV-3 became all dominant in tier 6 tank company games, it was upgraded to tier 7 and other 'lighter' versions were dropped in instead. The American's were weak ... until the a new tier 9 and tier 10 tank dropped a high armour armour, great sloping and an awesome gun in to upset the others. So what do people play and why ... let's see.

Russians

Best all round tanks. The best scout tanks (T-50 and T-50-2) in the game, plus arguably the best all-round heavies in both medium, champion and absolute(that's tier 6, tier 8 and tier 10 games) companies. A good stock of IS-7 and IS-4's are essential for Clan Wars. The su26 and T-28 are both fine additions at the lower tiers and junior tank companies, while the KV-1S is the king of the medium tank company. IS3 rules the Champion and the two above own the Absolute.

Germans

Best sniper tanks with great accuracy, great penetration and best armour. Not as maneuverable as the Russians and with slower firing guns than the Americans, these guys kill from range. Maus is the biggest Tier10 there is with 3000 hitpoints (most tier ten have 1800-2500), and armour that can bounced nearly anything (from the front). But germans aren't fast. The Tiger, KonigsTiger and Ferdinand are great tanks for random games. Their artillery is arguably the best - although I prefer the french.

Americans

Tinfoil armour ... mostly. The medium line is dire, except for the top, the Americans are all about rate of fire (unsurprisingly) although penetration and accuracy suffer accordingly. Some of the best Tank hunters and Heavy tanks in the game (at least from tier 7 upwards). American heavies are all about 'hull down' positions. They have guns that can penetrate anyone and out Rate of Fire most equivilent tanks at medium range. Russians want it close, Germans want it at range... Americans want it at arms length. Great guns though.

French

The real cat among the pidgeons. The French offer danger everywhere. They have next to no armour, blistering speed and movement (to challenge the T50!) and usually pack a devastating cartridge armed gun. These tanks have turned the Meta upside down, vastly expanding ambush tactics. A heavy tank will do 400-500 hp of damage at higher tiers, firing every 10-15 seconds. A french tier 6+ tank can fire 5-6 times in 12-15 seconds. As an ambush tank, they can wipe out heavies but rushing around the back of an engaged heavy and 'unloading' 6 shells into their rear weakened armour. Real killers are the AMX1390 and the tier 10 batchat. The Tank hunters have a similar approach and the penetration is devastating. The arty are low slung, accurate and capable of blistering speed when needed to relocate (50-65kph, most heavies are 35 kph). The batchat goes at 65kph and can do 5x390 average damage shots in 15-20 seconds. Very vulnerable to arty, but great fun.

So I'm currently running with:

ELC AMX (a tier 5 scout with an antitank gun) - quite like it.
AMX1390 (tier 8 scout with devastating 6 shot gun) - love it.
Batchat 25t (tier 10 medium) - would have its babies.
AMX13F3AM - don't get confused, its a solid tier 5 arty.
PzB2740 - My lovely tier 4 premium heavy, a lovely tank.
Grille - German Arty, don't love it but solid in medium tank companies.
T25AT - My lovely tier 7 American Tank hunter, I'll probably sell it when I've the money to buy the T29
Tetrarch - Awful tier 2 British tank which holds its own, a freebie from WoTs.
T-50 - still the best scout in the game.
KV-1s - The best Tier 6 Medium tank company tank.
IS-3 - the best Tier 8 Champion company tank.
SU-26 - Tier 3 russian arty, most kills ever - great fun tank.

Wanted:

I'm gonna grab a T29 and my eventual goal is to climb the heights of buying a Tier 8 French arty, which can go as fast as a batchat, has a turret like an SU26 and can mess up everything... lush.

Loving 6th Edition ... but there's something I don't get?

2012-08-20T17:33:00.002+01:00

What does 40k mean now to nids?

Hey guys, Sunny's back and intrigued by 6th Edition. I like a lot of what I reading ... but I have some early questions!

Allies ...Why can't Tyranids work with anyone? In second edition you had genestealer cults etc, Its all over the fluff. Genestealers are known to have infested Orks before, and I'm pretty sure they have a pop at Tau, Guard, Eldar, DEldar and most of the others, given a chance. The fluff's pretty easy to iron out, afterall, genestealers are the magnet to the hivemind. So bringing together the uprising with the invasion seems straightforward.

It's not like the Tyranid Army is so biblically overpowered that it cannot afford to get some allies? This seems pretty odd, well very odd actually... and seems to have put the kaibosh on any Nid player worth his salt as you can't just 'pick-up' a Artillery batalion.

Allies will seriously twist the meta of the game in new and challenging ways and being excluded from this option puts an already 'back-foot' codex out of the game.

Anyone got any light at the end of my Nid tunnel of death?

Dead and buried?

2012-05-16T09:02:00.001+01:00

Just a quick note to say ....

Pathfinder Blog isn't dead and buried. Rather, since early February I've been involved in one of the largest projects of my career so far. It's been 'demanding' and the surfeit of excess creativity and energy to deliver scintillating topics online has been somewhat bereft.

Or ... I've been fecking busier than a busier in biz.

World of Tank's has been a useful 'sanity check' based around my ability to 'not go out' at the moment, or the energy to drag my carcass out.

Added to this, my wife is due with our third child next month - so the options for being away from home will and are somewhat curtailed (I'm like some paranoid bullfrog in the mating pool at the moment!).

She's just finished up her PhD for (hopefully) the last time. So, all in all - we've been very very busy.

I even missed Salute 2012. Which is a shame.

Once baby is here, such considerations will be secondary and you'll hear more from me.

In the meantime, keep the faith, keep the hope. And I'll keep reading everyone's blog.

Work wise... Training, final installation and handover this week and next.

Peace out!

New -VIZ- Clan WOT logo.

2012-05-08T12:10:00.003+01:00

This is for the clan really, but anyone can please give feedback. It's to go on our tanks!

Follow the Flames: Round 2 - 800 pts

2012-02-27T14:12:00.001+00:00

INTRO

My USSR troops were in action again (again mascarading as Greeks). Unlike last time, both these games were tactically much more challenging and a good learning experience.

GAME 1 - Assaulting Hill 593

The battle was set in the mountains during the second battle of Monte Cassino, and the taking of Hill 593. The rules were challenging, as neither side had the option to 'dig in' due to the rocky ground, but would automatically gain bulletproof cover if they went to ground (didn't move or fire).

As the 'assaulting' force, this left me with a significant tactical disadvantage. The Germans would have fortifications, machine gun nests and mortars. If I 'walked in' on this firepower, I'd be annihilated. The Allies teams had taken considerable casulaties at this point. How could I turn the tide?

For this game, I was fighting Kurt. An excellent opponent, but Kurt scratched his list together with minutes to spare, would unfamiliarity breed mistakes - I hoped so.

GAME 2 - Fighting Encirclement in the Swamp

For this game I was going to be playing one of the most experienced players in the local area. Coops has played flames for years and years and amassed a huge number of armies including an epic tonne of Russians, Germans and American Vietnam Vets. He's played in national and regional flames tournaments. I was pretty certain I had a fight on my hands. Coops gripped my arm before the game, and whispered in an undertone. "PLEASE give me a tough game!" ... he'd wiped the board with everyone so far, could I beat him?

For the first time, I was defending! In this battle I had the option of splitting my forces over the bottom left and top right quadrants of the board. Coops then deployed in the bottom right, with his reserves coming in top left, and the objectives he had to take doing likewise.

ARMY LIST

USSR - Rifles Battalion (800pts)

Command Team (Commander, 2iC, Commissar) - 30pts
45mm Antitank guns (2 bases of guns as a Command Attachment) - 45pts
Strelkovy Company (8 bases, rifle and machineguns) - 130pts
Strelkovy Company (16 bases, 7 Submachineguns, 8 R/MG and a Maksim HMG) - 265pts
Scout Platoon (2 bases) - 100pts
Heavy Mortar Platoon (8 bases including 6 mortars and a spotter team) - 145pts
45mm Antitank guns (5 bases including 4 antitank guns) - 85pts

My main strengths are the awesome Heavy mortars, these guys can pin and produce casualties of even dug in opponents. My enlarged Strelkovy Batalon with 16 bases was also party to the "Quantity is quality" rule, meaning that they'd need double the number of hits (10 instead of 5) to get pinned, importantly, this meant that if they got in assault range, these boys were unstoppable. Finally, my 45mm were my 'funny' ace in the hole. I'd brought them along after my experience in round one of machinegun nests and they are VERY effective. However, they'd also become increasingly useful for shooting up enemy infantry in cover, and despite the comments of my peers - I was enjoying having them aboard.

GAME 1 AXIS - Grenadier Company (800pts)

Command Team
Grenadier Platoon (7 bases)
Grenadier Platoon (7 bases)
105mm Howitser Platoon (4 guns, spotter, command and staff)
Heavy Mortar Platoon (7 bases including 6 mortars)
2 HMG nests
3 sets of fortification trench lines

THE BOARD - HILL 593

Hilly terrain dotted the board. This was my core advantage. The downside was that due to the 'rocky terrain', I couldn't dig in and anything that moved was going to get a pounding. Kurt had learnt from his earlier games and had both a four gun artillery unit AND a six mortar platoon. These could shelter behind a double platoon of grenadiers, trenches and two HMG nests. While grenadiers are only Trained and Confident, ALL my troops are identical. These represent the low water mark of the german reich. Let's hope I can give them hell!


German Defensive Line

My forces (in blue) all started on the table, The heavy mortar platoon started in the top left hand corner - completely hidden behind a hill. This meant that they could fire without being fired upon - very useful indeed. The small platoon and Antitank guns started in the middle. The larger platoon started at the top of the board. Before starting the game I initiated an 'infiltration' move, using my 100pts of scouts to pull 16 bases of infantry 16" closer to the enemy.

The Germans didn't largely move all game.

Moving was risky in this game, so I went all out. By running, I could get 100% of the huge platoon behind a large hill on the top. This stopped them being spotted (for arty) or being shot at direct (direct fire rolls double dice against 'running' troops - ouch!) The smaller platoon in the middle did the same trick, hugging terrain.


Russian flood from behind the hill up the left flank

Now the smart thing for Kurt to do would is to readjust his lines to ensure dominating defensive fire faced my incoming infantry. He didn't however. His BIG mistake. I think he did this mainly because he was still working in "28mm mode" and thought that his infantry could see over the hill. At only 5mm in height - they couldn't! Realising that the only units with line of site were one shot artillery pieces and a couple of infantry, I ran like blazes at them. Hooking behind the front line of the HMG nests - I avoided them completely.


Antitank guns move up behind their bulletproof shields to kill the HMG nests

Now Kurt rushed to fill the gap, moving infantry across, reserves arrived that he rushed to the front lines ... but my mortars spotted them and blew them to pieces, wounding every one of them and Kurt failing 5/7 3+ cover saves! But Rifles and Machine Guns are Rate of Fire 1 if they move. My SMG units and most R/MG units rushed up under covering fire from my HMG and some rifle units. The Russian firepower was devastating, destroying the Artillery with Machinegun fire alone and killing multiple infantry units. The 'Mortered' reserve unit simply fled, many other units were pinned or engaged. The Germans attempted a counter attack, but the defensive fire was too intense and they all died on the way in. In one turn of assault I destroyed an HMG nest, 9 bases of infantry and a whole platoon of Artillery. The next turn, we mopped up the remaining infantry and the AT guns wiped out the last HMG nest.

4-2 win to the Russians.

GAME 2 - Encirclement in the swamp.

Rolling for the next game (and promising experienced player Coops a tough game), I opted for a defensive position. This would be my first defensive game and a beauty to start with. Against such an old hand, I'd need every advantage I could get. Coops list looked something like this:

Grenadier Company (Confident-Veteran)

Command HQ and 2iC
Veteran Rifles with 2 HMG
Veteran Rifles with 2 HMG
HMG Platoon (4 HMG and Command)
Mortar Platoon

In Coops opinion, Confident Veteran was the perfect mix. Fearless is uneccessary, and costs too much. Being Veteran means that over 16", you are almost impossible to hit. Only certain weapons, and at certain ranges, can have much of any chance against you.

That said, as a numerically inferior force - charging out of pre-prepared positions at my lines would be suicide. Even if they make it ... I would simply drown them in double the numbers.

The mass of heavy machine guns, while awesome in defense against an attacking army, would be handicapped by my dug in positions and bullet proof cover.

THE BOARD - SWAMP

A Complete lack of terrain combined with the fact that I was automatically 'dug in' as the defender meant that I was in a good position. The large hill on the top right formed the base of my defence. The Heavy mortars hid behind the hill as they could range in anything on the board and could then avoid being spotted themselves.

In front of them came the two AT guns and and both the infantry batalons. My original plan had be to 'infiltrate' the big infantry company over towards the objectives on the bridge, in order to muck up his plans, but without this, I dug in to weather the artillery.

My defensive position with the heavy mortars positioned behind the hill

And artillery Coops definitely had. On top of the mortars, Coops commander character had two levels of artillery to pull on. This meant that 'off the board' mortars and artillery would be raining down on my men. Nice! I also had taken this 'upgrade path', so I reciprocated as best I could (but lacked the two tiers he had).

On the other flank, 4 AT guns lined up. As long as they didn't move, they have bulletproof cover, the scouts in front of them gave them a stalling line. I was hoping that they (and the HMG nest adjacent) would be enough of a disincentive to approach in that direction.

The Germans attempt to dig in in the face of Soviet firepower

The game opened up with some blistering firepower. Coops failed to dig in his veteran HMG's and mortars the first turn, although they opened fire with everything they had. They killed a couple of bases and started to worry at the large platoons - but nothing to worry about too greatly. In return my HMG and heavy mortars targetted the HMG's in the open and pounded their lines, killing 3 out of 4 HMG's and effectively taking them out of the game.

Over the following 2 turns, the mortar teams exchanged fire, with his mortars forced to target my infantry whilst my mortars rained hell and brimstone down on his mortar teams. By turn 4 only 1 mortar remained, this is mainly because normal mortars are firepower 6, meaning that even if you hit and they fail their saving throw, you still need a 6 to kill! Heavy mortars are firepower 3+. Between the rerolls to hit (see below), the 5+ cover save for the mortar teams (unlike infantries 3+) and the 3+ to overcome their bulletproof cover ... they dropped like flies.

Artillery works in a unique way in that a 'hit' hits everything under a 4" square template. You then roll a skill check (4+ for me, 3+ for Coops vets) to hit them. Six or more arty pieces gets you a reroll to hit. 3-4 and it's straight, 1-2 and you have to reroll every hit. This meant the enemy mortars were completely useless.

The reserves arrive

The enemy flankers arrived on turn 3, and I turned all hell on them. The 'god of war' mortar barrage killed 1 and the Antitank guns got in range at 16". At sixteen inches and dug in, I needed a 5+ to hit. But the 'volley fire' rule meant I could pour on the firepower and hits. Giving me rerolls to hit. The 4+ firepower made a mockery of his cover save and then the Heavy mortar plowed in.

Killing half the team, his embedded and dug in unit pass their pinning test but fail their morale check (4+) and routed. Sometimes fearless is just what it takes.

Conclusion

The first battle was won through some intelligent movement and a mistake by my opponent. The second battle was an uphill struggle (for my opponent). If he'd moved, I'd have killed him. My heavy mortars came into their own and ate his for breakfast. Personally, I can't see how he could have won unless I'd made a serious mistake. I didn't, I gave him a tough game ... and with 2 more turns to turn on the pressure on those Grenadiers contesting - it couldn't really have gone any other way.

Sometimes Winning sucks - brief batrep

2012-02-10T16:07:00.001+00:00

Flames of War campaign week 2 this Wednesday gone...

Only got one game in because only half the crowd turned up. After reviewing the campaign mission here's the setup.

He deploys a platoon and his fortifications, inlcude two mahcine gun nests around the monestary at the top of the hill. I deploy randomly on board edges. I roll a 3, and deploy my 45mm A/T guns with 2nd in command facing his machine gun nests. I then roll a 5 for my rifle/machinegun platoon (with attached commissar) and deploy them in the enemy left flank.

All attackers have cautious movement. This means that if I move normally and don't shoot/assault, I'm +2 to hit (ie a 5+ rather than 3+). I advance on him, my AT guns move up. He fires and misses everything. I use volley fire @ 16" and destroy his machine gun nest. My troops move to point blank range and then assault without shooting.

They storm into the base and start handing out death. The A/T guns shoot up the german infantry gun. End of round three, opponent hands in the towel.

The problem with campaign games.

Real life is rarely fair, I had Russian Infantry. They were confident and trained, but nothing to write home about. I was facing German elite SS Totenkopf troops with MG teams. A single platoon for me is 8 bases (9 with Kommissar). My opponent didn't even have that at the top of the hill. His elites were nullified by the 5+ to hit that cautious movement gave me. My A/T gun didn't help either.

Outnumbered and outmanuevered, it was a tough fight, but could he have won?

Options.

Totenkopf have options. For example, by moving all his machinegun teams to the left flank of his hill, he could have delivered devastating firepower, making an assault highly difficult. His choice of the infantry gun also had limited usage. It's low powered and lacking range, useful on the assault, but useless in defence. The machine gun nests ARE good, but only really against rifle/MG troops. With the machine gun nests better placed he could have challenged my location. Bringing the infantry gun to bear on my A/T would also have helped. MG teams are good, but some Heavy machine guns with RoF 6 would have been better AND harder to kill.

I think he could have held me off and forced me off the hill with his machinegun teams. All he had to do was get 5 hits and any charge would fail. Shooting would get me nothing as it's harder to hit vets than trained troops. Using 'stormtrooper' move would have allowed him to get into position to meet the charge and still fired every turn at the full rate of fire.

On the game, I rused a total of 5 points, and my opponent just the 1, but he could have made me bleed for it. And it didn't really feel like a win.

In a nutshell, apart from my A/T guns, I had little advantage. Which gets me thinking on the options for round 2 and 3. Is dropping the antitank guns really the best idea. Or it more a better one?

Thoughts on a postcard please...

Comparing 15mm Infantry kits

2012-02-07T13:14:00.001+00:00

PRICE FIGHT - Katie Price with her cage fighting Ex

In the process of building up my army I've purchased kits from the following suppliers:

The Plastic Soldier Company - it needs a login, eh?
Zvezda
Peter Pig
Old Glory Miniatures
and Flames of War of course!

Here's a quick breakdown of their models and my opinions on their customer service, detail and design, mold and quality, and value.

The Plastic Soldier Company

Purchased: Russian Infantry, T-34 tanks.

They specialise in 15mm core tank and infantry for Germans, American (Brit) and Russians. Their tank box sets are growing all the time, and they cover the Panzer III, IV and V (Panther) currently. Their prices are concurrent to Zvezd, but their packs do offer multiple builds, the T-34 set includes both the 76mm and 85mm turrets. The Panther box set includes 3 variants.

Their infantry sets are some of the best value in the game. A Standard Russian summer infantry set will do three Platoons (2 Rifle machine gun and 1 SMG) plus a few scouts and company command teams. The infantry models are clean and closer to normal proportions than many of the pewter versions.

Customer Service: Quick and Efficient *****
Detail and Design: Very good for plastic, good quality ****
Mold and Quality: Very clean marginal mold lines on both tanks and infantry, only cutting points need cleaning, much better then GW *****
Value: The combination of variant turrets tips them over Zvezda and the horde of infantry make these a first choice buy *****

Overall 19/20 - the core army first choice.

Zvezda

Purchased: German Half-tracks, Katyushas, Opel Blitz Trucks, T-34 tank, Zis-3 trucks.

Russian company specialising in vehicles only. Zvezda sell their vehicles individually, making this company invaluable for 'stocking up' the units. They also sell unusual units like Katyusha, trucks and half tracks at very reasonable prices. A solid purchase.

Customer Service: Only purchased through third party, but I'm told more tardy ***
Detail and Design: Equal to The PSC ****

Mold and Quality: Very clean marginal mold lines but some designs aren't designed robustly, in scale truck undercarriages are weak and fiddly to build ****
Value: Excellent per unit value, but more 'box sets' would offer better value, very flexible *****

Overall 16/20 - filling up the edges.

Peter Pig

Purchased: Heavy Mortar Platoon (6) and HMGs (12).

Don't get put of by the amateurish website, PP offers some of the best, cheapest and highest quality miniatures on the market. In fact if I could offer some advice to the company it would be to speand some money on the website and get a good one. The variety of models is great, as is the prices. Shop carefully as cerain units are cheaper elsewhere (flame thrower troops are cheaper from FoW itself for example), but the quality of the molds and the quality of the pewter is excellent. The best quality pewter distributor.

Customer Service: Superb *****
Detail and Design: Excellent *****

Mold and Quality: Molding is excellent, a little cleaning required but marginal *****
Value: Shop carefully and you can pick up a bargain, but can't compete with plastic ****

Overall 19/20 - best 'unusual' unit supplier.

Old Glory Miniatures

Purchased: 57mm Zis-2 guns (6) and gun crews.

OGM have some great models in their listings, they also have a better website then PP. However, I found their feedback and delivery tardy and half the order was missing. Fail on the customer service. In addition the quality on the guns is way down on PP. They are very flimsy and required a fair amount of dosing in super glue to hold. Not the best value either as guns don't include crews, which is a faff.

Customer Service: Tardy and uncommunicative **
Detail and Design: Average quality ***

Mold and Quality: Not as clean as PP, pewter is very soft. ***
Value: What looks like a good buy at first quickly adds up, cheaper than FoW, but you lose the quality ***

Overall: 11/20 - A Backup choice for stuff unavailable elsewhere.

Flames of War

Purchased: 3 Shermans and 2 STuGs, a mortar platoon and flamethrowers.

The tanks are excellent quality, and after this experience I was thoroughly surprised by the lack of care and attention in the pewter infantry. These molds required the most cleaning of all. The molds themselves are excellent, but it took me over 40 minutes to clean back a mortar platoon for glueing.

Customer Service: Quick and Efficient *****
Detail and Design: Good detail, but design can be 'fiddly' ****

Mold and Quality: Resin great, but infantry quality very poor. Lots of mold lines and other chaff, a dissapointment considering its 'full price'.***
Value: Flames is generally very pricey, but for 'special' units such as SU122's, mortars or flamethrowers they offer good value for money, shop carefully ***

Overall 15/20 - Some good value, but surprisingly variable quality.

Conclusion

If the Plastic Company continue to expand their lines and Peter Pig could stop their website underselling their quality, they'd have it wrapped up. In my experience, the other suppliers are really second choice for units that aren't available in the core units or if you have money to burn on 'true' units.