Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch

A new unit for one of my favorite books! What could be more exciting?! Finished rules for one.  I don't quite know what GW's deal is with this Burning Chariot kit, but they seem to always miss the mark with the rules on this kit. Specifically, both the Chariot and the Exalted Flamer on foot (tentacle?) need the relentless rule to really function. The other major missing point is not allowing this guy to buy any of the Locus abilities to buff a unit of Pink Horrors. If I could get one of these deepstriking with a blob of horrors and the Locus of Conjuration, I would do it all day long. Who decided that just because this guy is a bit more on the chubby side he can't be jump infantry like the rest of his flamer brothers?

As lackluster and unrefined rules are, I can't help but be excited about the fact someone in GW saw that this model didn't have rules outside of proxying for another model and they decided to toss some rules for it in the White Dwarf weekly. Kudos on that. Check out the rules for yourself.

No comment from me on the fantasy section, but what do you guys think of the new rules? Hell what do you think about rules going up in the WD weekly?  Let us know in the comments section.

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Necrons: My Current 1850

It feels like it was only days ago and not almost a year ago that Necrons were the kings of short ranged fire power. Tau have usurped our prestigious role with their amazing ability to put out just an absurd amount of shots at medium range. This forces us Necron players to become a tad more creative than we used to have to be, its no longer move-shoot-move-shoot...

Here's the list I've been taking as of late that is what I would call a bit more on the creative side of things. Basic idea is simple, my silver skeletons are going no where any time soon.

Necrons:
HQs
Nemesor Zahndrehk
Destroyer Lord w/ weave, res orb, warscythe and mindshackle scarabs
Royal Court consisting of a Harbringer of Despair w/ Veil of Darkness

Troops
20x Necron Warriors
19x Necron Warriors
10x Necron Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines in a Night Scythe

Elites
10x Deathmarks in a Night Scythe

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

Fortification
Aegis Defense Line w/ Comms Relay
+++++++++++++++++

The overall strategy of the list is to place the Aegis Line up about at the half way point so that when my Warriors advance they still have some very reliable and powerful cover. While on the move to my trusty comms relay I like to use adaptive tactics to give the entire twenty man blob stealth to help mitigate even more damage. Doing this makes most anti infantry weaponry do very little and forces my opponent to pour what ever they have into my barges. Being an AV 13 skimmer, they tend to survive a few volleys. If I'm able to use terrain to deny my opponent the ability to shoot all but one of my barges I will toss Stealth on the lone barge to help tank the anti tank shots I'm going to have to weather.

I do my best to have the Zahndrehk blob draw the majority of the fire while going for the comms relay. While Z's squad is slowly, and I mean slowly, getting whittled down, I have the Destroyer Lord and his good friends from my other Warrior blob advance as far up as possible. Perhaps the biggest reason I want the Destroyer Lord so far up is because he is not only a good force multiplier for the unit he occupies, but he is one hell of a beatstick. Destroyer Lords excel at popping vehicles open and engaging Monstrous Creatures because of the Warscythe and Mindshackle Scarabs. Almost consistently I will advance this unit while pouring tons of Gauss shots into anything I can with my added Preferred Enemy thanks to the Destroyer Lord. In reality, all I'm doing is waiting to launch my Destroyer Lord out of the unit and have him beat up a high point, high priority target.

Annihilation Barges unfortunately suffer from a pretty short range that plagues the Necron army as a whole. This crippling flaw can be mitigated by either turbo boosting turn one or moving 12 inches to help close the gap a bit quicker. Reducing the distance between you and the opponent is extremely important for the simple fact that nimble armies such as Eldar and Tau can have a pretty easy time dancing around you if you are not careful. Luckily, we have Night Scythes to even further close this gap. Obviously, I take a comms relay to help make sure my Scythes show up as soon as possible.

When the Scythes arrive I do it in one of two ways. I either bring in both the Deathmarks and Immortals or I start the Deathmarks on the table to really take full advantage of the Veil of Darkness. Deathmarks really excel at being able to remove other pesky scoring units that are going to be tough to dislodge. When deep striking I always go for the high risk high reward route. I never scatter so it's pretty easy for me. (I'm not joking. I've been playing this game for about nine years and JUST found out that scatter dies have only two direct hit sides. Blew my mind). Using Deathmarks this way really allows me to throw a wrench in my opponents plans. This also gives my opponent something new to focus on as the rest of my army advances. Unfortunately, unless your target is extremely isolated, the Deathmarks are not long for this world after they let loose on their marks.

Scythe number two has a simple job. Drop off the Immortals on or near an objective. Immortals need to either claim an objective or shoot someone off of one. That's really all that they do in the army and I am more than fine with it.

Zahndrehk spends most of the game at the front of his blob tanking wounds like some sort of unkillable monster and while he does he picks on a unit in the enemy army that he can take their rules away. This is extremely helpful in making your opponent feel likes they wasted a bit of points on something that Zahndrehk just decided they don't have anymore. Rolling on the Personal Table for his warlord trait can be even more entertaining. Seriously, making him either scoring or having him and his entire blob have FNP while claiming an objective is amazing.

So far the list has lead to some super close games and been a ton of fun to play. I'm starting to theorycraft some changes to it, but I'm not quite sure where I want to take it without just spamming Scythes. Perhaps dropping the comms relay and picking up another cryptek of some variety. Let me know what you guys think down in the comment section.

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Flying Predator Battle Report 1850 Necrons vs. Dark Eldar.

Hey Guys! We were finally able to bring you guys another exciting battle report! This time we've got jwhite's Dark Eldar against Xinz's Necrons. The lists are both very strong, and it was a well fought match on both sides (despite some rather unfortunate dice rolls). For more information on my Dark Eldar list, you can read an in depth analysis here. Enjoy! And as always, remember to rate, subscribe, comment, and all that good stuff to keep us motivated!

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Dark Eldar: My Current 1850

Hey Guys! Miraculously I've actually been able to get in a few games recently in between my busy schedule and I wanted to share with all of you some of the results of my testing so far. Again, I apologize for being MIA for a while, but I'm graduating college this year so I've had to figure out my fair share of real life things the past couple months.

With that being said, I have still been engrossed in the community and keeping up to date on all the latest tech and now that I've finally had a chance to breath, it's about time I share with all of you what I've been brewing!

So, before I get into it, here's the list I've been testing:

Dark Eldar Primary, Eldar Secondary 1850pts

Dark Eldar
HQ:
Duke Sliscus the Serpent

Troops:
10x Warriors w/ splinter cannon in a raider w/ splinter racks and disintegrator
9x warriors in a raider w/ splinter racks and disintegrator

Elites:
3x Trueborn w/ 2x splinter cannons in a venom with dual splinter cannons
3x Trueborn w/ 2x splinter cannons in a venom with dual splinter cannons
3x Trueborn w/ 2x splinter cannons in a venom with dual splinter cannons

Heavy Support
Ravager w/ 3x Dark Lances
Ravager w/ 3x Dark Lances
Ravager w/ 3x Dark Lances

Eldar Allies
HQ:
Farseer on a jetbike

Troops:
5x Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with scatter lasers
5x Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with scatter lasers

Heavy Support
3x War Walkers with 2x Scatter Lasers each


And there you have it. As much pure firepower as I could possibly pack into 1850pts while still staying true to my play style and having a good time in the process. There are still many decisions to be made about this list that require further play testing, but let me go over some tactics before I get into all that.



First of all, I love the Duke. His background is completely badass and he actually provides a lot to my army. While most people are all aboard the Vect or Baron train, my goal is to stay innovative while still being competitive. Vect and Baron are both incredibly powerful HQ choices, don't get me wrong. They are beatsticks in combat, incredibly resilient and provide useful buffs to the army (especially increasing your odds to go first, which Dark Eldar desperately need). Now helping to ensure first turn alpha strikes against the myriad of death stars before they are allowed to set up is a key component to Dark Eldar victory. However, Asdrubal Vect is much to expensive for my taste, and Baron doesn't really do anything else in my army, seeing don't really have any hard-hitting close combat unit for him to join. Paying 105pts just for an increased chance to go first hardly seems worth it unless he's going to be tanking wounds for a fortuned death star as well. Duke, however, provides plenty of utility for the way my army wants to play. Giving his squad 3+ poisoned coupled with his ability to allow my warrior units to deepstrike can put down an insane amount of hurt. Not to mention he often gives one of the units feel no pain with his combat drug rolls and he's good enough in combat where I can split him off from the squad if the situation calls for it. I really feel that the nature of my army allows the Duke to thrive, giving both increased damage output, a strong close combat character, and the invaluable opportunity to deepstrike. His synergy with my army makes up for the power difference he may have compared to other characters in the book, and thus I will defend this choice to the grave.

While I'm a little light on troops, the Dire avengers are very well protected in their wave serpents and the warriors are often reserved first turn or don't have a high enough priority for my opponent to shoot at them. Again, I feel that being able to deepstrike my warrior squads, especially the Duke's squad let's me pick apart my opponent's backfield or single out isolated units (particularly monstrous creatures) and put something in my opponent's face that they just have to deal with. the disintegrator cannons on the raiders allow me even more anti-infantry firepower and help me push through the last few wounds to wipe out entire units. Plus, deep striking these squads also allows me much more liberty when placing objectives, as the speed capabilities of my army ensure I won't have any problems reaching far-off objectives. Granted, I won't always deep strike these units, particularly against highly aggressive lists that want to get in my deployment zone as quickly as possible, such as white scars of flying circus lists. In that case, it's not worth risking limited fire power or deep strike mishaps on turn two if my reserves fail me, and armies like that should be in range of my shooting relatively quickly.

The next unique units in the list are the triple trueborn venoms. For very little points these mobile firing platforms unload an incredible amount of firepower (24 shots each standing still, 20 on the move) at an almost untouchable range. Having this much poisoned firepower is invaluable against many popular targets in the game, including but not limited to riptides, wraithknights, broadsides, flying monstrous creatures, and bikes. The fact that I can disembark the guys inside to fire at different targets or increase my odds to force grounding checks should not be underestimated either. My biggest issue with this unit, however, is that they desperately want night shields (which I am currently not running). Night shields drastically increase their survivability as they can safely engage broadsides, fire warriors, flying Demon princes, and many other common threats. I've strongly considered getting the 30 points by swapping out one scatter laser for a shurkien cannon on each of my war walkers. This would obviously require extensive play testing, as it decreases the range and fire power of my war walkers (although battle focus helps mitigate this) but also does give my psuedo-rending in the form of bladestorm to help push through extra wounds (the range loss is really the biggest concern). Another option would be to drop the war walkers entirely and replace them with a squad of 10 warp spiders, freeing up the points for the much-needed night shields. I'm open to any suggestions anyone may have on this matter, as these sorts of small tweaks are really difficult to make!

Finally, I've tooled around with replacing a dark lance ravager with a disintegrator ravager. I've found that often times in the current gaming environment that the dark lance doesn't have any great targets. However, against certain matchups I really need the extra anti-tank firepower (particularly against wave serpents or imperial guard) and I do already have a tremendous amount of anti-infantry firepower on the table. However, the disentegrator ravager is often a much better target for guide from my farseer, and is invaluable against riptides. With that being said, the dark lances are still great against riptides and other monstrous creatures, so for right now I'm keeping all the dark lances. Please, let me know what you think and if you've had success either way!

Well that's just about it for this list, I think I've exhausted  just about every aspect of the army that I could, and I'm sure you're all sick of hearing me ramble on at this point. I would absolutely love some feedback on the army and suggestions/comments/questions keep me engaged, and it's just fun to talk about lists!

Once again, thanks for reading! I hope you've found this insightful and hopefully I've inspired some fellow archons out there to expirement and try out new things! Please remember to follow the blog, we have a battle report featuring this list coming out soon where you can see it in action. Until next time!

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Necron 6th Edition Tactica Part 3: Troops and Transports

Boy has it been awhile. Working on actually playing the game for once instead of just talking about it makes my blogging go down.

Anywho, now its time for the third installment in my less than comprehensive Necron tactica! Enjoy Troops and Transports!

Warriors
Whats better than a horde of shambling skeletons? Silver skeletons with gauss flayers of course! These guys do a wonderful job of forming a horde army, or at least as close as Necrons can come to it.There are three ways that I've found these guys to be effective. The first being blob squads. Blobs can put out a disgusting amount of firepower and no vehicle is safe from their gauss weaponry. Load the warriors around a Ghost Ark with a Lord with a res orb and they're going no where.

The second way I run the warriors is by loading them into a Night Scythe either as a suicide squad with a stormtek or in a small squad to grab late game objectives. Running warriors this way is one of the most cost effective ways, yet the easiest way to lose your friends. Lots of Scythes creates no fun for anyone.

Ghost Arks are the key to the final way I run my mighty warriors which leads us to ...

Ghost Ark

One of the few vehicles in standard 40k to reach the amazing level of four hull points! Ghost Arks are one hell of a tank. (Even though they may not actually be a tank...) Like most all Necron vehicles you're getting AV 13 on both the front and side armor that is also a skimmer. This means more resilience to those pesky autocannon equivalents that seem to be flooding the game now a days! Back that up with an almost constant jink save and you become a tough nut to crack.

Now we come to the third way I like to run warriors, in the stalwart Ghost Ark. Obviously this gives them a way to safely make it from point A to point B, but less obviously is the synergy with other units. Triarch Stalkers combo very well with the Ghost Ark filled up with warriors because twin-linking nine warriors, at least five more gauss flayers on the same target and a destructek as they unload on anything is just plain fun. Ghost Arks are great because not only do you get a resilient transport, but you also get a beacon for restoring your fallen necron warriors around the field. Expensive, but worth it.

Immortals
Immortals are the stronger, tougher older brothers of Warriors. The only difference for them is a bigger gun and a stronger armor save. (four points per model as well) They do not have many different options, but because of that it's pretty hard to make them ineffective. What you need to decide is as simple if you want to take a Night Scythe, how many cold soulless bodies you want in the squad and what gun you want to be mowing down infantry with. I typically run them in max sized squads of ten footslogging equipped with Guass Blasters, but as of late I've been rolling them with the Tesla Carbines more often.  I find that I often prefer to use smaller units of warriors in my Scythes and have my Immortals on the table launching their volleys at the enemy as soon as possible.

The biggest debate with Immortals comes from what weapon they should have. The Gauss Blaster is probably the more reliable of the two options for the fact it brings more guaranteed fire power at half range. Gauss Blasters also give you a bit of anti-armor capabilities when it comes to both infatry and vehicles for the simple fact you can always strip hull points on the roll of a 6 while still having that AP 4.  However, the Tesla Carbine is by far the more fun option. You do not get as many guranteeed shots at close range with the carbine, but when something charges the Immortals, you get to see the power of tesla. Every snap shot that hits generates a total of three shots. Think about that for a moment. Fun and effective. 

Night Scythe
The bread and butter of most Necron lists. Odds are if you've played against Necrons in 6th edition, you've had to deal with one (or five) of these monsters.  It's a cheap flyer that can transport nearly anything in the army in large numbers. It does this while be backed up by one my favorite guns in the army. The fearsome Twin-linked Tesla Destructor. Four shots with a potential for twelve hits? Yes please. Scythes don't take much skill to use at all. Just load up some small units of warriors in these to get as many as possible and watch as people refuse to play against you. One or two is the max amount I ever run. One for my Deathmarks and one for a squad of warriors that I either equip with a stormtek or to grab objectives.

That about wraps up my Troops and Transports. In most of my armies that I run at around 1500-1850 points totals I tend to run a full squad of Immortals with Tesla, five warriors in a scythe and the variable of nine warriors in a Ghost Ark or a blob squad of warriors on foot. Let me know what tends to work for you guys in the comments sections.  I'm always looking for more ideas that my stubborn brain has not been able to come up with quite yet. 

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Decisions, Decisions: Voidraven vs. Razorwing

Hey again readers! I'm doing my best to produce regular content for your viewing pleasure, so remember that comments and follows keep me motivated to keep churning out knowledge! If you have suggestion, or would simply like some advice, feel free to email us at any time!

This time I'm bringing you a debate that has long raged in my own head, and I'm sure many of my fellow Archons have experienced a similar dilemma. With the onset of 6th edition, flyers have obviously become an integral part of the game. Dark Eldar, aside from fortifications or allies, really has only two options for reliable anti-air: the Voidraven Bomber or the Razorwing Jetfighter. My hope by the end of the article is that you will come away with a common understanding of the pros and cons between the two, and I also hope to offer my recommendation based on the weight of the benefits each brings to your army, should you chose to include one! Now I have usually always included either one or the other in my army lists just as a fail safe, because Dark Eldar can find themselves at a significant disadvantage when facing down enemy flyers. Granted other armies will generally dominate the air when compared to us, but having at least one flyer can help mitigate that damage. So we've determined that taking a flyer along for the ride is good. So, with that established, how do you choose between the two?

The Razorwing Jetfighter
First off, let's look at what the cheaper, lighter variant of the Dark Eldar aircraft has to offer. At base 145 points, you're already looking at paying more than most other competitive flyers, but hey, we've got to work with what we've got, right? The Razorwing comes stock with 4 monoscythe missles (S6 AP5 large blast) free of charge, which is great, because paying for missiles is a pain. You also get two dark lances (which you can reasonably replace with disintegrator cannons for more anti infantry punch), and for some reason a splinter rifle, which you'll almost always want to upgrade to the splinter cannon for 10 more points. The splinter weapon is nice inclusion, as it gives you more anti-infantry capabilities beyond the missles, since you can only shoot two of those per turn. The biggest weakness of the Jetfighter is the AV10 on all sides, meaning that even concentrated bolter fire can bring the thing to the ground. I almost always recommend taking a flickerfield for ten points, as that means you don't have to worry about dodging to stay alive and thus sacrificing all of your offensive output. As far as the power level of the flyer goes, I would put it about on par with the storm talon. It is too overly costed to be taken in quantities similar to night scythes, and it just can't deal as much damage as a heldrake or other similarly costed flyer. The Razorwing, in my opinon, strikes a nice balance between cost and effectivness, and is much more of what I expected from flyers in 6th edition: Not game changing, but fun to play. Instead we find ourselves competing with flyer spam that enables virtually no interaction with your opponent making for games that just aren't fun. But I digress.

The Voidraven Bomber
The bomber variant of the Dark Eldar flyer plays very similarly, but has a few key differences that set it apart from the jetfighter. While the Voidraven also begins at 145 points base, it doesn't include any missles. Paying ten points per one shot weapon adds up quickly too, so you will find that the Voidraven will almost always be more expensive than the Razorwing when all is said and done. As far as the missles go, I have found that two shatterfield missles is the ideal loadout. while you can take up to 4, you can only fire two per turn. I often find that my first turn is spent targeting enemy fliers if there are any, the second is spent shooting the missles, and the third is usually when I fly off the board and drop its bomb. While the extra two missles are nice if you have the points, I definitely like to trim the fat on expensive units, and that is the most efficient way to keep the bomber cheap. Furthermore, the Voidraven comes in at AV11 on the front and sides. This extra point of armor is exponentially more important as it takes you across the threshold of bolter damage. This means that the Voidraven will hopefully be around much longer to cause havoc and be a general nuisance. Again the flickerfield is pretty much an auto-include here, since you don't ever want to be forced to dive to save your craft. Diving basically translates to a turn of doing nothing, which you can't afford on a 175pt model. In addition to the increased armor, the Voidraven comes equipped with the best anti armor weapon in our book - the mighty S9 AP2 void lance. Being a lance weapon, you are guaranteeing penetrating hits on a 4+, and against lower armor enemy flyers such as a night scythe or dakka jet, the void lances can tear them apart. In my opinion this is the greatest advantage over the Razorwing, as it vastly increases the likelihood that the flyer will make its points back every turn. Finally, the Voidraven also comes stock with a void mine (ironically the only "bomb" on the bomber) which definitely isn't game changing, but is nice to have. the S9 AP2 small blast is great for when you have to fly off the table, allowing you to get in some extra damage before you leave.

The Verdict
Overall, I rank the Voidraven slightly above the Razorwing. While it is the more expensive option, it brings along significantly more anti-flyer potential in the void lances and AV11, and that's why you're really bringing it along for the ride, right? That's not to say the Razorwing doesn't have its place, however. If I knew I was playing against a list that did not include flyers, I would choose the Razorwing every time. It is cheaper and carriers a significantly larger anti-infantry payload, making it ideal to use when it is alone in the sky. However, since most of us do  not have the luxury of knowing what our opponent is bringing to the table, the Voidraven ranks slightly higher because of it's increased reliability and resiliency against the enemy it is being brought to fight, namely other flyers. Furthermore, it still provides anti infantry support with its missles, making it the more versatile choice for a balanced meta where you find yourself playing a vast collection of different enemies.

Hopefully my thoughts have helped your internal dilemmas as well, but please comment with any thoughts or suggestions! And as always, make sure to follow so I can get myself motivated to produce more content for your viewing pleasure!

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Dark Eldar: My Current 1750

Hey guys!

So I've gotten the chance to get plenty of  battles in with my Dark Eldar, and I've been able to refine and perfect my 1750 point list to maximize efficiency. While I still have many experimental lists to test, I believe my current 1750 list provides the core of what Dark Eldar does best. This is as competitive as my list can get without bringing the multitude of variables of allies into play, and I feel like I've struck the perfect balance between speed, firepower, and assault capability. As always, that's not to say this list is perfect, and I'm always open to suggestions, comments, and critique. So have at it! Feel free to let me know what's worked and not worked for yourself as well!

HQ
Archon - Shadowfield, Huskblade, Soul Trap - 135
Succubus - Agonizer, Haywire grenades - 90

Troops
10x Kabalite Warriors - blaster, splinter cannon, raider w/ dark lance, splinter racks, nightshield - 195
10x Kabalite Warriors - blaster, splinter cannon, raider w/ dark lance, splinter racks, nightshield - 195
9x Wyches - Haywire grenades, Hekatrix w/ agonizer, raider w/ dark lance, nightshield - 208
9x Wyches - Haywire grenades, Hekatrix w/ agonizer, raider w/ dark lance, nightshield - 208

Elites
3x Trueborn - Blasters, venom w/ 2x splinter cannons, nightshield - 156
3x Trueborn - Blasters, venom w/ 2x splinter cannons, nightshield - 156

Heavy Support
Ravager - 3x Dark Lance, nightshield - 115
Ravager - 3x Dark Lance, nightshield - 115
Voidraven Bomber - Flickerfield, 2x Shatterfield missles - 175

Total - 1748

Big shoutout to Hero for the inspiration/suggestions!

Give me your thoughts and don't forget to follow!

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Fighting Daemons: First Impressions

Hey readers!

My apologies for the brief hiatus, but the life of a college student often makes for a chaotic schedule, and it certainly hasn't helped that my computer crashed along the way! Well I'm back on the internet now, and I wanted to give my first impressions of the new (not so new anymore) Daemons book not from the perspective of their general, but rather their opponent. Now I only recently played my first game against the warp fiends, and my good buddy Xinz was itching for the dramatic showdown, challenging my Grey Knights. Now I decided to use a little bit of an unconventional, non-competitive list just so we could see what the Daemons book had to offer. Xinz took a similar approach, with minimal spam as to maximize the testing of the different gods (except for Khorne. Xinz really doesn't like Khorne.). Now to preface, I was very impressed with the way the new book played, and I though it offered significant challenges to my Grey Knight army without being insurmountable. Remember, this is meant not as a review of the Daemons book, but rather as a general tactica against daemons as an army. Now, onto my thoughts!

First off, it is important to understand that I was playing an army literally designed to fight daemons (although I forgot preferred enemy more times than I can count!) and they still proved a formidable foe, which is a testament to the competitiveness of the book. Now granted I wasn't using an incredibly optimized list, but I did have plenty of terminators, psyker support with Coteaz and a Librarian, and even a Dreadnight to bring some torrent flamer hurt. Furthermore, I had just about the perfect storm of psychic powers of the divination table. My Librarian had prescience and misfortune (ouch, right?) while Coteaz received prescience and the 4+ Invulnerable buff for his unit, which was perfect for defending my foot-knights against his AP 3 templates from the Soul Grinders and Burning Chariot. All of these factors made the narrowness of the Grey Knight victory that much more surprising, as the Daemons were able to hold their own against formidable odds.

So, in my opinion, one of the best new units the codex has to offer is the Nurgle Soul Grinder. Xinz fielded two, and those mechanical monstrosities definitely did work. They put out enough fire power to the point where they can't be ignored (including skyfire) but their size allows them to almost always take advantage of their shrouded cover save. Coupled with AV13 and 4 hull points, they are nearly impossible to eliminate from a distance, making my psyflemen dreads basically useless. I would say that close combat is a much more cost-efficient way of eliminating them as a threat, but even that is a risky endeavor as the Nurgle Soul Grinder can put out plenty of AP2 S10 attacks (which made short work of my dreadknight). My best advice, if you don't have a clear shot or a powerful close combat unit, is unfortunately to just ignore them. They don't put out ENOUGH fire power to warrant pouring all your resources into destroying them, and you're much better off eliminating other threats or enemy troop choices. Continuing with the trend of nurgle-awesomeness plague-bearers are INCREDIBLY hard to move. Even though they are only T4 now, getting through shrouded and FNP (if a herald is taken) is tough enough, and the herald makes the unit actually pretty decent in CC. You can bet your opponent will be sitting them on objectives, and your best bet is to get your dedicated CC units on them or just pour enough shots into them. Luckily, however, they don't present much of a threat on the board and I found that the best way to deal with them is to not deal with them at all, until the end of the game when you need to capture objectives and the other main threats are eliminated. Don't get me wrong, it's not a perfect strategy, but the Plague-bearers won't be doing any damage just sitting there, and you are most likely doing more damage to yourself by pouring all of your firepower into them. Take them out when they are actually relevant, at the end of games!



So, Nurgle yeah? The Great Unclean One is an absolute beast, especially with the right powers. If he gets iron arm off biomancy, look out, because there isn't much in the game that can take him out easily. Iron arm also mitigates the one weakness of Daemon MC's, the loss of eternal warrior. I got extremely lucky when Iron Arm didn't go off and I was able to insta-kill the grotesque monstrosity with only one wound from a S10 hammer. Even still, the great unclean one took out 7 terminators in one round of combat before going down. My best tactical advice is to simply outmaneuver the beast. It is relatively slow moving and has no ranged attacks to speak of, so you should avoid CC at all costs, and hope to strip wounds with concentrated fire and take advantage of open opportunities.

One of the most important lessons I took away from my first encounter with the new 6th edition warp was the importance of psychic defense. Whether it is denying an entire turn of shooting for a unit of horrors or preventing Iron Arm on the great unclean one, Daemons rely so heavily on psychic powers that it can make or break the army if they don't get them off. Also, aside from Monstrous creatures and the new Burning Chariot, and to some extent Soul Grinders, Daemons don't have that much access to reliable long range Anti-Armor weaponry. I'm planning a battle with my Dark Eldar against the Daemons soon, and I'm hoping that my transport-heavy list and poison weapons will allow me to outmaneuver and out shoot any and all of the warp entities. Remember, these are just my first impressions, but hopefully my experiences can help you deal with the more troublesome (nurgle) units that your opponent is sure to field! My philosophy holds that tactics and strategy help you win more than the best list, so I believe sharing these tactics can be applied to any list or army that you choose to field.

That's it for now, but remember, you can always comment or email me with suggestions or for advice. I'm always happy to help!

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Dark Eldar 6th Edition Tactica Part 5: Elites

Welcome fellow Archon's to the final installment of my comprehensive 6th edition Dark Eldar Tactica! It's been a lot of work but just as much fun writing these, and I've even learned a lot more about the book just by taking a closer look at all the units. Hopefully you are all finding these just as useful! Now, without further ado, here we go!

Kabalite Trueborn:
To preface, I would have to say that trueborn are not only the most used elite choice in my army, but they are often some of the most effective units in my entire army. At 13 points a model, you don't get much more than a standard warrior stat-wise (+1 attack and +1 Leadership) but where there true value comes in is their access to special weapons. The way I see it, there are two main ways to equip your trueborn, as it is best to specialize the squads for specific roles. One of the most effective is to take 4 (or 3, depending on your points) all with blasters in a transport (either a raider or venom) giving you four/five S8 AP2 lance shots at 18", for an effective range of 24" of vehicle/heavy infantry hunting power. I usually prefer taking them in a venom because of the lower target profile of the model, and because of the versatility of the two splinter cannons when targeting heavy infantry with the squad. The Dark Lance of a raider will keep the unit specialized for heavy target hunting, but either way the squad equipped this way will be able to do some serious damage. While taking multiple small squads of Blaster trueborn can doom you in kill point game types, the target saturation of such high damage capable units can certainly overwhelm your opponent. The second way to equip your trueborn is to turn them into premier light infantry killers with an onslaught of poison. All your trueborn can be kitted out with shardcarbines, which provide 3 poisoned shots per model at 18". I've had tremendous success with 4 shardcarbine trueborn and 2 with splinter cannons in a venom. The amount of firepower that this unit can unleash will literally astound you upon first use. In total, this unit has 32 shots at 18" which will likely make a significant dent in MEQ or other infantry, and can be the bane of high toughness units or monstrous creatures, which will likely be eating a face-full of a dirt after a few concentrated volleys. Overall, I usually prefer the heavy-hitting capability of the blaster trueborn squads, but be aware that they can really hurt you in missions involving killpoints, as they are often a primary target for your opponent (they can dish out some hurt, so they should be!). Either way, I almost always try to find room for trueborn in my lists, and I can guarantee you won't be disappointed once your blasters tear through an enemy heavy tank or your torrent of poison brings an enemy monstrous creature to its knees.


Hekatrix Bloodbrides
Alright, so if you've been following my tacitcas up until this point, you know that I am a huge fan of wyches. However, I cannot in good conscience put my seal approval on bloodbrides. Given my love of wyches, that may seem strange at first, but lets take a second and examine what you get. For 4 more points a model, you get +1 attack, +1 leadership, the ability to dump more points into more special close combat gear, and that's it. Oh wait, there's more, you also LOSE the ability to capture objectives. While these mean gladiators are slightly more effective in close combat, it definitely does not warrant and increased point cost to lose a scoring unit. Furthermore, the elite slot is already heavily contested in the Dark Eldar book, and if you're looking for a powerful close combat unit then check out Incubi, who play much differently than wyches and are quite a force to be reckoned with. All in all, I can't recommend bloodbrides, unless you plan on filling your troops up with wyches and just can't get enough of these lovely ladies.



Incubi:
While granted I don't have much experience with these elite close combat fighters, I am a big fan. I oftentimes simply don't have the points to shell out for a squad after all of my necessary units have been filled, but I always feel myself longing to include a unit as a bodyguard for my HQ of choice. My biggest hesitation with incubi, however, is their complete lack of anti-armor capabilities. I like versatility in my close combat units, because you may often find yourself stranded after losing a transport and need to be able to engage targets of opportunity. When it comes to non-TEQ infantry, however, Incubi have few equals. Sporting the best armor save in the book, Incubi are definitely appealing on account of their increased survivability, which couples nicely with the speed of a transport and their incredible offensive output in close combat. WS 5, S4, I5 power weapons with two attacks base will make very short work of any light infantry unit, and any models that aren't killed in the initial assault will be swept away when you inevitably force your opponent to flee. I usually recommend the Klaivex upgrade, as you get an additional attack and a boost in stats with access to some pretty awesome wargear (the bloodstone and Demiklaives are my favorite, but can put a steep cost on this single upgrade model). Don't fret if you don't have the points however, the unit can still be a significant threat without the help of the Klaivex. It is important to note, however, that Incubi have one glaring weakness: they lack grenades. It blows my mind how a unit that is completely dedicated to the assault phase can be written without assault grenades, but hey, nothing I can do about that! Furthermore, this weakness is easily mitigated by taking a Phantasam Grenade Launcher on an Archon to travel with the squad. While the Archon can take challenges and adds even more destructive potential to the unit, the pricetag begins to get fairly hefty with the PGL attached, which is the main factor that tends to turn me off to using a valuable elite slot for this unit. Overall, I know many who swear by Incubi, and I tend to agree on their offensive output and survivability (which is rare in our codex), but I am often caught weighing them against cheaper units that can do a similar job. If you have the points, they will be well spent on Incubi, but just make sure you aren't sacrificing anything essential.

Harlequins:
While I am absolutely in love with their models, Harlequins are another unit that are very expensive for how fragile they are. With that being said, there are ways in which you can make up for this weakness, and harlequins are indeed a versatile, effective close combat unit. The first upgrade that is absolutely necessary in my opinion is the Shadowseer. To the unit, he grants both stealth and shrouded, for a 4+ cover save always, and a 2+ when in cover. Couple this with their ability to ignore difficult terrain, and your best bet is to hop from cover to cover until you can lock into assault with the enemy. While they bring a ton of attacks on the charge, I would recommend taking at least a few of the harlequins kiss in order to ensure that you are taking out armored targets. This is especially important because they only have a 5+ invuln so you want to make sure to do as much damage as possible to keep them safe. Another pretty big weakness with Harlequins is that they can't take a dedicated transport, which means you're stuck hoofing it across the board since webway portals are no longer an option. As far as the troupe master goes, I tend to think he's too overpriced and sort of detracts from the job that harlequins want to do, which is assaulting and not shooting. With that being said, however, I think a couple fusion pistols can go a long way by adding versatility to the unit in the form of anti-vehicle capabilities. While I think Harlequins have their place, it's tough to justify the cost when they are generally slower than the rest of your army and are extremely vulnerable to template weapons. Use with caution!

Grotesques:
Initially, I wasn't a huge fan of these hulking meat monsters. With the death of the webway, it became difficult to take large units if you wanted them to get into combat. Also, 35 points a model is a lot to shell out for a unit with only a 6+ armor save and FNP. Sure they're T5 and 3 wounds a piece, but that can end quickly with concentrated fire. Once in combat, however, the fury of flesh is truly unleashed, and since they will generally have furious charge (they will go berserk without a character, such a haemonculus, in the unit) they can do significant damage to both vehicles and infantry. In case you couldn't tell, assault versatility is very important to me, and grotesques definitely fit the bill. However, there is always the chance that they can go berserk if the character is killed, or that they can die to massed fire without cover. However, as of late, I have discovered an interesting use for them. I love using a challenge Archon with a shadowfield, huskblade, and soul trap to hunt down enemy characters. However, he suffers from his unit and the ease in which they are wounded. However, an Archon with a body guard of 4 Grotesques and a Haemonculus with a liquifier in a raider give the unit majority T5 with FNP and furious charge, which is a tough nut to crack! The grotesques basically serve as a shield to get the Archon into combat, where he does some serious damage. I love the abberition upgrade for look out sir advantages, and taking another liquifier gun gives you two in the squad which can be devastating with the right rolls. The raider, while you only can fit four models with the characters, provides reliable speed to rush these guys forward and have them start crushing vehicles and infantry alike. I genuinely believe that Grotesques can provide a unique role for the army and you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.


Mandrakes:
I'm sorry, but mandrakes are absolutely, without a doubt, the worst unit in our codex, and make a strong case for worst unit in the game. They are so weak (even with stealth) that infiltrating them will often just get them annihilated, feeding your opponent an easy first blood. They're only S4, and WS 4, meaning they don't put out much damage even if they do manage to stumble into combat, especially with no power weapons. Don't get me wrong, their models are some of my favorite, but please save yourself the time and trouble by finding a use for these pathetic half-daemon weaklings.

Well folks, that's it for the elites, and the entire Dark Eldar 6th Edition Tactica is now complete. I plan on continuously updating with new FAQ's and erratas, and as always I would love your feedback and suggestions! Don't forget to follow!

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Necron 6th Edition Tactica Part 2: HQs (Named Characters)

The tomb has been awakened. I've only just begun to tell you about how I like to utilize my Necron army in an effort to broaden your tactics, as well as mine. Hope you all enjoy!

Imotekh the Stormlord 
The Stormlord has more than enough potential to really ruin your opponents day. He's extremely resilient, has amazing abilities to cripple the enemy army, but he is just not very good in combat of any kind. From turn one he can strike any unit on the battlefield with his lightning that can instant kill most all units and he forces night fighting for a minimum of at least one turn. Couple him with a couple of crypteks with a chronometron and solar pulse and you can have night fighting in effect all game long. He even takes your chance of seizing up to a 50%. You're going to have a tough time killing him, but odds are he won't be killing you. In melee he's just a fairly high strength character that gets some re rolls. At range he only has a basic flamer and fairly random one shot weapon that can do some good damage. Not exactly a powerhouse, but has some amazing abilities that come close to warranting his price, but it's still a lot to swallow. Imotekh is a great choice, just don't expect him to get into combat and do some damage. He's a buffer.

Nemesor Zahndrekh
Another character of pure defense backed up by utility. Armed only with a Staff of Light, you won't be dealing much serious damage with Zahndrekh. Luckily he does have some extremely nice utility powers that can bolster your army in a multitude of ways, all while crippling your foes. You get a nifty list of universal special rules that you can add to one of your units per turn and take away from the enemy. This provides you a monkey wrench to toss in your opponent's spoke at just the worst times. The other major utility that Zahndrekh gets to bring to the battlefield is that on any turn your opponent brings in any unit(s) from reserve you can immediately bring in any number of your deep striking units on the opponent's turn without having to roll for reserves. A great force multiplier that can really do an excellent job of controlling the game.

Vargard Obyron
The Nemesor's sworn protector, Varagard Obyron is the reason that Zahndrekh doesn't have to lift a finger in combat, he does all the work necessary. Few targets can stand up to the fury that is Obyron's Warscythe. As long as they don't have an extremely high AP weapon that strikes at initiative 3 or higher, you will cleave through the unit like tissue paper. The best part? The more times they miss him before he gets to strike the more attacks he gets! He has a possibility of 10 attacks on the charge and at his massive strength, you can cut through just about anything. If the going gets tough, just Veil your way out of that combat. The double edged sword of Obyron comes from his duty to protect Zahndrekh. If at any time Zahndrekh is engaged in combat Obyron is forced to use his modified Veil of Darkness to pile in to that combat immediately. Using Zahndrekh as a beacon to pin point Obyron and his squad is more than a valid tactic, but has to be used carefully due to the fact you can not assault til the following turn after deep striking. He's a nice beat stick to have around.

Illuminor Szeras
With such a fantastic model, it's hard not to want to use Illuminor Szeras. Although once you look at his stats you may just want to field him as Harbinger of Destruction instead. He's basically just a Harbinger of Despair with an extra wound, 3+ save and for some reason 4 attacks! He brings an interesting buff to a squad of Warriors or Immortals that is random and can't be relied on because of that. (On a 5 or 6 you get to give them +1 to their strength! Wow!) You can probably find more use in any of the other choices, but the price is fairly nice.

Orikan the Diviner
Probably the most interesting character in the book. He controls your opponent's first movement phase, has an extremely powerful gun, can help your reserve rolls and when the stars line up just right, he "Hulks out". The Diviner is okay in combat until he decides to rampage and becomes an unstoppable beast. However, all good things must come to an end and as quickly as his new found power comes, it can fade. Pairing him with a Chronometron will drastically increase your ability to keep this amazing power going. Orikan is best paired with another Overlord of some variety to give him a royal court. Best used in higher points games, but still an excellent battlefield controller.

Anrakyr the Traveller 
One of my personal favorites, Anrakyr does a great job of chopping up high wound toughness 4 units because on the charge he strikes at strength 8! Mounting him on a Command Barge for extra mobility is an excellent way to get into range to control your opponent's vehicles. He's another one of those characters that is pure fun and poses a massive threat at all times. Attach him to a resilient squad of Lychguard or Wraiths and he won't go anywhere fast while absorbing a massive amount of fire. What do you do when you can't force your enemy to have his own vehicles shooting him? Well, Tacyon Arrows make short work of just about anything. If you decide to go with the Traveller, you should take at least a single squad of Immortals for the free upgrade to Pyrrhian Eternals. Giving them some added CC benefits isn't the best, but always nice to have.

Trazyn the Infinite
Following the theme of most of the characters, Trazyn is hard to remove from the board. This resiliency doesn't come from exceptional wargear like the others, but his ability that whenever he "dies" roll a die and on a 2+, he can possess another Lord, Cyptek, or Lychguard and continue to fight on. Trazyn brings his full might down on horde armies. All it takes is one kill to make approximately half of the remaining enemy squad with the same name be forced to take an armor save. On top of that he comes with Mindshackle Scarabs to make that same enemy that is dropping like flies attack themselves! Trazyn is an extremely fun character that isn't always the most effective, but does a great job of upseting your opponent at every turn. Also, he's scoring! Can't complain about that.

What characters do you guys like to include on a regular basis? My favorite is by far the Traveller, but I love hearing what kind of nasty strategies you have concocted. Let us know in the comments and be on the look out for part 3 of my Necron Tactica: Troops.

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Flying Under the Radar: Dark Eldar in 6th Edition

Welcome readers!

Frequent visitors who have seen my Dark Eldar Tacticas understand that I have tremendous confidence in the army and I truly believe that they are a competitive force in today's 6th Edition environment. In fact, I have had enormous success against a wide array of opponents, but I seem to still get strange looks when I line my fleet up on the table. My love of the game means I often frequent forums, watch battle reports, and otherwise scour the internet to see how the game, and how my preferred army, are changing. Too often, however, I find that feelings about Dark Eldar in 6th edition are ambivalent, at best. At worst, the army is a useless waste of time, effort, and plastic. All too many times I have read stories of complete and utter defeat, rampant frustration, and an overall feeling of disadvantage when compared to other 6th edition powerhouses (looking at you, Necrons). While many of these feelings are warranted, I argue that Dark Eldar are one of the most underrated armies in Warhammer 40k.

Playstyle:
If there's one point of consensus about this army, it's that Dark Eldar epitomize what it means to be a glass cannon. Dark Eldar are not a forgiving army; their fragility does not lend itself to mistakes like a 3+ armor save might, and the army requires an incredible amount of finesse to play. In my humble opinion, many armies out there seem to play themselves. Dark Eldar, on the other hand, require players to make extremely effective use of cover, understand and utilize speed, and be able to take advantage of targets of opportunity. Now to be clear, I'm not claiming that all other armies in 40k don't require similar tactics, but I am arguing that Dark Eldar will punish you for mistakes to a much higher degree than many other armies, and this can be very frustrating, especially for players new to the army. If you can take advantage of these tactics to keep your units safe, Dark Eldar can put out incredible amounts of damage. Warriors in raiders can pump out shots and their speed means they will always be in position. Similarly, wyches can get into the face of your opponent quickly and efficiently, and can then serve as a jack of all trades, excelling at not only killing infantry but also taking out armor with haywire grenades. Listbuilding is also very important, as you can supplement weakness with the pain tokens provided by Haemonculi and take plenty of S8 AP2 lance weaponry to eliminate vehicles. While your transports may not be sturdy by any stretch of the imagination, using cover, speed, and night shields can add so much to their survivability, and thus their effectiveness. What many players dislike about Dark Eldar, as I have discovered, is that they are so unforgiving that many players don't give them more than one chance to discover the nuances and details necessary when playing with the army.

The 6th Edition Environment:
While 6th edition is no longer new, there is still much to be said about the advantages and disadvantages that Dark Eldar have gained. The first, and biggest rule that this army takes tremendous advantage of over any other army is Night Fighting. Although this rule is random, you can augment your chances with the Warlord trait table, and it provides such a huge boost to Dark Eldar on the first turn, it is almost unfair. With jink saves on all of our vehicles, getting that first turn is more important than ever now, as you want to be able to move vehicles to get a cover save, take advantage of night fighting, and grab that ever important first blood. Night fighting can basically give you a free turn, which great Dark Eldar players will take advantage of to do some damage and get into position.

Flyers are another huge factor in the 6th Edition environment, and some armies have a clear advantage over others in the air (once again, looking at you Necrons). Night Scythes and Dakka Jets can definitely ruin our AV10 parties, and I have seen the tears flow all over the internet among Dark Eldar players, claiming that there is just nothing that they can do. While I do concede that flyers pose a unique problem to our army, we have many tools to (literally) get around them. The first of these, is our speed and maneuverability  While you likely cannot avoid all the damage from the skies, the biggest weakness of fliers is their lack of agility. Our vehicles, on the other hand, can maneuver into blind spots in order to avoid fire altogether. Many Dark Eldar players, however, often do not have the patience to make mistakes and learn from them in order to figure out the best way to take advantage of the weaknesses of enemy units. In fact, isn't that what Dark Eldar is all about, exploitation? In addition to speed, Dark Eldar also have access to (in my opinion) one of the best flyers  in the game: the voidraven bomber. While not as cheap or accessible as the Night Scythe may be, it is a versatile, offensive powerhouse with access to many defensive upgrades as well. Two S9 AP2 void lances can do a real number on enemy flyers, and it has some incredible anti-infantry missile options as well. The final option is always to use an Aegis defense line, which can end up being quite effective with some creative list building. While air superiority is a big factor in the 6th Edition environment, we have plenty of answers and are not at as big of a disadvantage as many would believe.

Overwatch is another point of contention among players, and many argue that those pesky fleshbags that shoot you while charging have "completely ruined" all Dark Eldar assault units due to their low toughness and lack of significant saves. While I definitely agree that overwatch fire hurts the Dark Eldar assault, I also argue that Dark Eldar have many ways to mitigate that damage, and we have even reaped several benefits from the rule as well. First of all, changes to defensive grenades means that when charging, Phantasam Grenade launchers will often give us stealth, meaning that in combination with fleet, Dark Eldar can safely charge through cover and actually benefit from the increased save. Secondly, assaulting with Dark Eldar is all about opportunity. With the changes to Haywire Grenades, wyches have become premier vehicle hunters, and increased their assault versatility exponentially. Overwatch, on the other hand,  provides a huge advantage to Kabalite Warriors. Many opponents like to assault our vehicles since they only need 3's to hit, but our Warriors can do a significant amount of overwatch damage from out of the open-topped vehicles in combination with splinter racks. This can be an absolute riot, as your opponent charges your gunboat, breaking down in tears as he loses 2 terminators in the process.

The biggest advantage Dark Eldar have in the 6th edition environment is their unexpectedness. Everyone and their mother gameplans for Necrons, Dark Angels, Grey Knights and the like. However, Dark Eldar can capitalize on the blindness of your opponents and exploit their lack of answers to many Dark Eldar staples. I can't tell you how many times I've faced opponents who never expected the speed and offensive capability of Dark Eldar, and lost because of their lack of knowledge and preparedness.

List Building
Finally, I want to make just one small note about a trend I've seen all across the web. Players have become slaves to the "latest and greatest" lists, and much of the creativity has been sapped from the game. I have read countless comments about how people refuse to use units because the almighty internet claims that they are bad. While some units are just god-awful (what's up mandrakes?), I encourage everyone to figure out what works and what doesn't for themselves. First of all, it is my philosophy that your tactics on the table make a much bigger impact on the outcome of a battle than the list you bring. That is not to say that the list doesn't matter, but I think that a great player can make many "bad" units work very effectively. I encourage all players to experiment, try things out, and don't be afraid to fall flat on your face. While you will often find units that are worthless, you may discover new ways to use some units that turn out to be fantastic. My current project involves a list with an Archon that travels with a Grotesque bodyguard. It could end up being terrible (the internet consensus is generally that Grotesques suck big time) but I have an interesting and creative theory that I personally feel will make them awesome. Another list I'm working out uses twenty footslogging warriors with an Aegis defense line (What!?). The great thing about the Dark Eldar book is that we have so many hidden gems and great units just waiting to be used in the perfect, unstoppable combination, including our craftworld allies. So go out and try it! And if you've always wanted to play a Dark Eldar army but have been turned off by the haters, I say go for it. I'm always here for advice if you need it, and once you learn the army, you won't be disappointed.


Thanks for reading, and don't forget to follow! Let me know your thoughts!

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Necron 6th Edition Tactica Part 1: HQ's (Non Characters)

Something about evil robots that spent sixty million years in a tomb just biding their time really strikes my fancy. That's why I place this wonderful army we call Necrons. I'm sure you all have similar reason for loving them and you can't wait to hear how I like to field these lovely silver killing machines. 

Necron Overlords

As far as non character HQs go in the Necron book you have two options, smash things in CC or be a jack of all trades. Overlords are your jack of all trades. You can kit these monsters out to do anything. They can soar across the battlefield on a Catacomb Command Barge popping vehicles and dealing some serious damage to heavy infantry or even MCs. You can have them do anything you want, but not everything at once.

The Overlord really needs to be broken up into a few different categories. The first of which is going to be your defensive capability. Deciding early on what kind of targets you want to engage with your Overlord really decides what kind of armor upgrade you want to take. Take the Sempiternal Weave when you want to slice through infantry, Phase Shifters for terminators and other heavy infantry that will make a mockery of a 2+ save and Command Barges for when you want to run this guy by himself. (Phase shifters with Command Barges are also worthwhile). Phylactery just ins't a great use of points. A lot will swear by this extremely situational piece of wargear but too often do you find yourself not standing back up after being killed or standing up with only one wound due to the only  66.6% chance this will be any use. (If you pass your reanimation protocols). 

Offensive capability is next up and you'll find the Necron lord is not lacking at all when it comes to this category. Being that Necrons are a very short ranged army and are by the majority terrible in CC most players will love to charge you. Fear not! That's where our Overlords shine. The Overlords love to get into combat with basic troops because we can either overwatch with a Gauntlet of Fire or let our Warscythe taste their sweet, sweet blood. Also, there is nothing more frustrating than getting into a challenge with an Overlord with Mindshackle scarabs. If you intend on seeing CC Mindshackle scarabs are mandatory, an average roll will make your opponent fail their leadership test and be forced to attack themselves while your Overlord prepares to thrust his Warscythe in them for the killing blow. Tesseract Labyrinths are pretty pricey, but can easily remove a pesky Swarmlord or similar threats. Tachyon Arrows are useful, but only if you have really  built a slow low ranged Necron army, even then, I wouldn't rely on this fluffy point sink. The only option for weapons that I find  really doesn't have a place with the Overlord is the Void Blade. The Warscythe can perform any job that the Void Blade does, only better and for the same price!

Necron Overlords don't bring as many utility powers as HQs from other books can, but they can still be extremely useful. Unfortunately we only have two, and they range from one of the more frustrating pieces of wargear in the game to useless. Resurrection Orbs are an extremely common thing to find on Lord and Overlords alike. They make your evil robots stand back up on a 4+ instead of a 5+. This makes your Overlord and his squad, much harder to move and gives you a sick sense of satisfaction when your opponent pours in as many shots as he can muster to finally end their miserable existence  The other option is Phaeron. 100% useless. 

Royal Courts

Royal courts can only be taken for every Overlord or Overlord character you have in your army. You can run them as an immovable deathstar or by attaching each member to different squads.

Necron Lord

A scaled down Overlord, but they still pack quite the punch. Give them a Warscythe for chopping and a Resurrection Orb for annoying. 

Vanilla Cryptek

Comes stock with a staff of light that can be a decent upgrade to a squad's shooting capabilities, but you should really look into a harbinger to bring a lot more utility to your squad.

Harbinger of Despair

Ever wish your Necron units could easily become the most mobile unit in the game? Well, that's what Veil of Darkness is for. Veil of Darkness gives you the ability to make your Deathmarks appear exactly where you need them once they've destroyed their marked target or even make it so your Lychguard can assault as soon as possible. Despairteks provide an excellent utility to your army and allow you to take control of the battlefield.

Harbinger of Destruction

One of the more common Crypteks people like to field for their "long" range Eldritch Lances. They really shine to give Warriors and Immortals a bit more of a punch against enemy armor. The major ability these guys can take is Solar Pulse, this allows you to control when night fighting rules are in effect. With our extremely short range, we often find that a bit of cover goes a long way in closing that gap. In the instance of fighting lots of units with night vision(I'm looking at you Tau and Dark Eldar), we can take away their advantage and allow for our long range guns to begin hammering them.

Harbinger of Eternity

Pure nastiness. Not because of a major damage output, not because of a massive amount of defense (although, the Timesplinter Cloak does make them a great deal survivable) it's the Chronometron. You need to know how to use this insane piece of wargear. It can be extended to any member of his unit once per phase, plan out your most important roll. Maybe you want to save it for that Overlord that you took a gamble on with Phylactery, maybe its saved for Imotekh's Lightning, or even Orikan's ability to Hulk out. Save it for when it's needed most and you will always be laughing manically at your poor opponents expense.   If you have a Royal Court, you need to have a Chronometron. 

Harbinger of the Storm

The Voltaic Staff provides more anti-tank weaponry to our army that is already filled to the brim with it, to top it off it even comes with an even shorter ranger than we're used to. The Ether Crystals are situational at best and the only time I really see them coming up is a really terrible scatter or a mishap that lets you place the enemy unit within 6" just to hit them with your wargear. Lightning Fields are nice as a shield to stop an enemy from wanting to assault you, but even then, it won't always stop them. Maybe I was a tad hash when it came to the ol' Stormtek. They take a gentle touch to use. The best way to have one of these guys destroying enemy armor is isolation. If you have them in a transport and can move them to a lone enemy vehicle, they are worth their weight in gold. Be wary of making those fast suicide runs. 

Harbinger of Transmogrification

There seems to be a theme with Crpteks that they either bring extremely short ranged firepower, or longer than average range for the Necrons. The Tremorstave is one of those longer range weapons. It also comes with a pretty interesting ability. Any unit(s) hit by the small blast are counted as being inside of difficult terrain the following turn. This gives you a great way to help slow down those assault units and even force some dangerous terrain tests on units like bikes and jump infantry. One of the most fun ways to use these is with a C'Tan Shard that has Writhing Worldscape. The Harp brings an even larger range (infinite) and  is a nice upgrade, but you'll find it doesn't always make it's points up. However, it is really nice to knock a point of armor off something before you rip it apart with your bigger guns. The Seismic Crucible is nothing more than a great idea, but a waste of points. 

Catacomb Command Barge

While not technically an HQ, it does belong in this section. For all intents and purposes this is an upgrade to your Overlords and Overlord characters. This allows them to move extremely fast and attack units they pass over while they do it. I really recommend using a Warscythe while you do this to just annihilate vehicles when you pass over them. This also gives you a fun ability that few units in the game can do. Blow up a transport and then attack the occupants. The other major merit this barge gives you is it makes you not have to take Sempiternal Weave because it improves your save to a 2+. Making this an excellent unit to charge even heavy infantry with and do some serious damage. Don't forget you hammer of wrath!

Destroyer Lords

Robots that have gone completely mad and are obsessed with slaughtering any and all life in the galaxy. What could be better? Well, he imparts his madness on his squad with Preferred Enemy (Everything!) so that's a start. Best way to run one of these maniacs is with a Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave, Mindshackle scarabs and big bodyguard of wraiths. Getting to re roll your ones when you already wound on 2+ pretty often is a lot of fun. The only weakness to a destroyer lord is also it's greatest strength, it doesn't do much of anything other than smash. (That and it can't have an invulnerable save)

Let us in our what has worked for you guys in the comments below. This is only round one of my Necron Tactica, next up we have named characters. Be on the look out for it real soon!

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Dark Eldar 6th Edition Tactica Part 4: Fast Attack

Hello once again readers! Today I bring you the second-to-last installment of my comprehensive Dark Eldar tactica for 6^th edition. This time I’ll be discussing probably the most under-utilized slot in the Dark Eldar force chart, fast attack choices. So if you have any experience with Dark Eldar, you have probably realized that “fast attack” is a bit redundant; nearly everything in the army fits that bill. However, the fast attack choices that Dark Eldar offer are varied and interesting, so without further ado, here we go!

Hellions-

So, where do these green-goblin-esque, surfboard-riding punk rockers fit in? Well at first glance you may think that they are designed for assaulting. With a 12” move they can get into combat quickly, and with a wych-like statline coupled with the hellglaives giving +1 S and attack they can definitely hit hard. However, avoid that trap. In the assault, hellions serve much more effectively as a clean-up unit, flying around the battlefield and targeting weakened squads for crucial kill points or getting pesky models off objectives. Hit and run is very useful for this, but their biggest weakness is the lack of the 4+ invulnerable save that the wyches get. This means that if they don’t finish off a unit first, the return attacks can do some serious damage, seeing as they only have a 5+ armor save. Therefore, it is best to target units that have already been weakened significantly, which can still provide a valuable asset to your army given the speed of these units. Where hellions really excel, however, is in the shooting phase. These guys pack assault 2 poisoned guns that fire at 18” which effectively gives them a 30” shooting range. A squad of ten hellions can pour out some serious firepower and are still fairly effective in the assault, making them a well-rounded, although pretty fragile, unit. What really makes hellions worth their 16 points a model is when you make them troop options by taking Baron. You can check out my full piece on how awesome Baron is in my HQ article, so you definitely don’t have to worry about wasting an HQ slot with him. He exponentially improves the survivability of your hellions by conferring stealth to the unit, and his combat power allows your hellions to be more reliable in the assault phase. I definitely recommend taking Baron along for the ride if you are planning on taking Hellions, because having such a mobile, versatile unit that can score really helps the army. Another weakness of hellions is their lack of assault grenades, but this is easily remedied by buying a phantasam grenade launcher for the helliarch (although if you're taking Baron, he comes with one already). Although it adds another expense on an already relatively expensive unit, I wouldn’t go without the launcher. Plus, with the bonuses to defensive grenades, it adds a little more to the survivability of the unit. My one drawback, however, is the points cost per model, and with lack of reliable protection, hellions are just a bit to fragile for their point cost. Don’t get me wrong, their offensive output is great, and survivability is not usually a term associated with Dark Eldar, but if I’m paying 16 points a model I want them to stick around and see a few turns.

Reaver Jetbikes:
There's fast, and then there's reaver jetbike fast. 6th edition gave these speed freaks a massive boost in the form of skilled rider. Now they always have a 4+ cover save when moving, which improves to 3+ when on the move, so this points-heavy unit got a great improvement to their survivability. Furthermore, skilled rider confers to any independent character that joins the unit, which the only option I can think of is an allied farseer on a jetbike. However, taking a farseer with fortune can make these guys nearly indestructible. Strangely enough, however, the most damage you'll deal with reavers will likely be in neither the assault or shooting phase, but rather during the movement phase. In addition to their 3+ cover save when moving flat out, reavers deal D3 S4 hits per jetbike to any unit they pass over. This is fantastic, because you could potentially line up several enemy units and deal a significant blow while you get into position to punch armor in the next turn with your blasters or heat lances (I usually take the heat lance, because it's never too difficult to get into melta range). If you add cluster caltrops to every three bikes, which I always like to find the points for, you get D6 S6 hits for that bike instead, which makes for some awesome moments when you insta-kill a farseer or other T3 HQ choice. I tend to steer clear of the grav-talon due to the points cost, and while the pinning could be potentially devastating, it's situational at best and generally not worth it. As far as weapon options go, I prefer the heat lance like I mentioned before, but the blaster isn't a bad choice either. The haywire blaster doesn't do much in such limited numbers so it's not usually worth it in my opinion. Unfortunately, there is no way to make reavers scoring, and I still feel like they are a bit overpriced for what they do, but they are still extremely effective in punching through enemy armor with their heat lances, dealing blows to enemy units while getting into position. As previously mentioned, I definitely recommend using an allied farseer on a jetbike with fortune, as the combo can be absolutely brutal. On a final note about reavers, be wary of getting them in assault range. I recommend using their eldar jetbike extra movement during the assault rather than charging unless you have a good opportunity to clean up a weakened unit. Otherwise, their lack of armor save and only being S3 means they will most likely get mopped up, even when attacking first and on the charge. Reavers are definitely meant to do most of their damage in the movement and shooting phase. While reavers are pretty expensive, they are a great unit that can hit hard and often, and their mobility fits right in with the Dark Eldar style.



Scourges:
To preface, Scourges are some of my favorite looking models in the book. With that being said, I don't have much experience using them because they are a serious point sink and are often outclassed by other units. While they do have a 4+ armor save (which is rare among Dark Eldar), they still aren't all that tough among Imperium standards, and often won't last long enough to be super useful. However, they still have significant offensive capabilities. They start out with shardcarbines base, which means that coupled with their 12" movement they have an effective 30" range with their assault 3 poisoned weapons. This can be incredibly pesky for anyone fielding high toughness units or monstrous creatures. Furthermore, they can take virtually every special weapon available, but only 2 for every 5 models. I would personally avoid taking the dark lances; they are too expensive and you're usually going to want to stay mobile with your scourges while firing anyways. The splinter cannons are a solid choice, as more poisoned shots is never a bad thing. I personally like to add versatility to the unit by including anti-armor weapons such as the blaster or the heat lance. Either is a perfectly viable choice, but you might find more opportunities to get into melta range with the heat lance given the extra movement range of scourges. Haywire blasters got exponentially better in 6th edition, but I recommend only taking them in sets of 4 with 10 man squads, because most vehicles have 3 hull points and two haywire shots is just a waste of fire, and you would be better off shooting infantry with your shardcarbines. Scourges were clearly designed with shooting in mind, so it's best to use their mobility to stay out of assault range and in cover. Deepstriking them is not a bad idea either, and they can bring torrents of splinter fire on the turn they come in. While I am usually turned off by their point cost, their offensive capabilities are certainly appealing, and can definitely find it's way into a fast-moving, versatile army.



Beastmasters:
Beastmasters are another unit that got a big boost with 6th edition. The improvments to "beasts" means they are significantly faster, and are now increasingly likely to get into close combat, where they are, pardon the pun, absolute beasts. The different models excel at different roles; the Clawed fiend is great for tanking and soaking up wounds as well as doing damage to vehicles at S5, while the razorwing flocks bring tons of rending attacks that are great at dealing with armored infantry (just be careful to protect them from instant death!). On the other hand, the khymera's are well rounded, bringing plenty of a high initiative attacks and helping to absorb damage with a 4+ invulnerable save. Agonizers are great to take with the beast master, as they further increase the unit's offensive output in the assault phase. The obvious weakness of beastmasters is their complete lack of ranged weapons and vulnerability outside of combat. Their speed helps mitigate this weakness by getting them into the assault as quickly as possible, and proper model placement can help to soak up high strength wounds. One of the silliest parts about taking a clawed fiend, however, is that the majority toughness of the unit remains 3, meaning the T5 of the clawed fiend doesn't actually make much of a difference. One cool trick that I've discovered to increase the survivability of the beastmasters while adding to their offensive output is to take Baron with them, as he confers stealth to the entire unit. Since they ignore difficult terrain, they can run from cover to cover in order to survive until they can get into assault and do serious damage with plenty of  high initiative attacks that will make short work of enemy infantry. They can still be successful when assaulting vehicles with rear-armor 10 as well, due to the S5 clawed fiend and the rending attacks of the razorwing flocks. Beastmasters are definitely a fun unit, and can be customized to fill gaps in your army at different point cost levels while still bringing a fierce melee unit to the battlefield.

Well that concludes the Fast Attack portion of the Dark Eldar Tactica, feel free to comment with your experiences or suggestions below, and stay tuned for the final installment - Elites!

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Adventures with Grey Knights: The "Wrecking Ball"

Merry Christmas Friends!

I hope you all had a great holiday, and that the Emperor saw fit to reward you fresh reinforcements for your armies. This winter break has allowed me to get a significant amount of painting and battling done, and today I want to share one of my favorite new lists that I've been playtesting - The Grey Knight Wrecking Ball.

Now I know that Grey Knights might not be the most well-liked force in the 40k universe, but hopefully this list will change some minds out there and bring some often unseen units into the fray. So without further ado, my Christmas gift to all of you:

Grey Knights 1500pts "Wrecking Ball"

HQ:
Grey Knight Grand Master - Rad Grenades, Nemesis Daemon Hammer - 195pts

Inquisitor Coteaz - 100pts

Troops:
Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband - 4x Crusaders, 6x Death Cult Assassin - 90pts

Grey Knight Strike Squad - 10x Grey Knights, 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo - 240pts

Grey Knight Terminator Squad - 6x Terminators (5x Halberds, 1x Hammer), 1x Psycannon, Psybolt Ammo - 285pts

Fast Attack:
Stormraven Gunship - Twin-linked Multi Melta, Twin Linked Lascannon - 205pts

Heavy Support
2x Dreadnoughts - 2x Twinlinked auto cannons each, Psybolt ammo - 270pts

Misc.
Chimera - 2x Heavy Flamers - 55pts

Total - 1500pts



So, let's start with what this list is trying to do. As implied by the title, the "Wrecking Ball" consists of the Grandmaster and his band of Merry henchmen riding along in the Storm Raven. So what's so great about Santa and his little helpers in their magical flying sleigh? Well let's look at the stats. First off, everything in that unit has an invulnerable save, a 5+ for the assassins, a 3+ for the crusaders, and a 4+ for the Grand Master himself. This means that the unit is very survivable, and in the unlikely event that their transport does get shot down while flying, there is still a good chance the occupants will live to fight another day. Furthermore, new wound allocation means that you can use the crusaders as a barrier to absorb incoming fire (including overwatch) that could hurt your squishier assassins. While the unit may be majority T3, that 3+ is still a tough shield to crack. This means that, when coupled with the speed of their Stormraven transport, they will survive long enough to get to the assault, where they dish out tremendous amounts of hurt.

On the charge, each assassin deals out 4 WS5 power attacks each, for a total of 24 attacks just for them. This on it's own will easily make short work of any MEQ unit, but it gets even better. Hammerhand from the Grandmaster means these guys will be striking at S5 (yes, even henchmen benefit from hammerhand) and the rad grenades reduces their targets toughness by 1. To put that in perspective, the assassin's, against a squad of standard space marines, will be striking first at I6, with 24 attacks (because the Storm Raven means you will almost always get the charge), hitting on 3's and wounding on 2's...and ignoring armor. NO MEQ squad in the game can survive that without some serious luck, and that's before the Grand Master and the Crusaders hit. Sure the Crusaders are slow (I3) and weak (S3) they still carry power weapons and benefit from hammerhand and rad grenades, so they can finish up if (somehow) the assassins don't. At this point, you might be thinking, "Well that's great, but what about that pesky 2+ save?" I respond with volume of attacks and the Grand Master's Daemon Hammer. The assassain's are dishing out so many attacks on the charge that I wouldn't be the least bit hesitant to throw them at some terminators. Your opponent can only make so many 2+ saves before they start failing, and you start grinning. On top of that, the Grand Master can (literally) bring down the hammer at AP2 to finish the job. This unit, in my opinion, is one of the best assault units I have crafted, and I am hard pressed to find anything else that can do that much damage on the charge. Even if such a unit exists, It most likely does not have the reliability of the Storm Raven to ensure that it will always see close combat, which brings me to my next point.



The Storm Raven brings the henchmen combo from "great assault unit" to "wrecking ball" status. Not only is this flyer a weapon in itself (you can kit it out with whatever you want, I just personally like the anti-armor capabilites of the multi-melta lascannon combo), but it gives the henchmen the capability to be anywhere on the battlefield and assault any target by turn 3. Turn 2 you zoom onto the board, and the next turn you drop into hover mode and unload its ferocious payload wherever you want. Being one of the few fliers that has AV12 all around, your opponent will have a tough time taking care of it before this happens, all the while the Storm Raven will be picking off high priority targets or dropping plasma blasts on infantry (depending on your loadout). Mindstrike missiles, while often situational, can be absolutely devastating against enemy psykers, now that 6th edition says they get absolutely no save against perils. Just make sure you don't accidentally hit your grey knights with a blast, because they all count as psykers (and yes this has happened to me, ouch!).

In combination with the speed of the Storm Raven and the hitting power of it's cargo, this "wrecking ball" hits fast and hard, but I do concede it is not without its weaknesses. First of all, that's a huge point chunk of your army sitting in a flying plastic deathtrap. If an opponent is dedicated to anti-air and your ride gets shot down, you might just be out of luck. However, the high armor of the Storm Raven helps mitigate this risk, and the invulnerable saves on the guys and gals inside means that they still have a good chance of surviving. Second of all, the usefulness of this unit is dependent on a good reserve rolls. If your wrecking ball doesn't come in until turn 3 or 4, it's basically too late to be of any use and the rest of your army may have already been destroyed. However, the divination table offers some options that Coteaz can take advantage of in order to ensure that your Storm Raven arrives in time to do the most damage. While I'm usually not a fan of death-star type armies, this list takes a different approach, adding speed and efficiency, especially when comparing the total point cost of the ''Wrecking Ball" when compared with other death stars out there.

So, where does the rest of the army fit in? Well first of, please avoid screaming "cheese!" at the psyflemen dreads, I tried to avoid spamming them by only taking 2, but let's face it, they're just so good. Furthermore, they fill so many gaps in the army, mainly high-strength long range fire. The reinforced aegis just puts them over the top against psykers, so it's hard to avoid taking some of these beasts along for the ride. You may also notice that the list is a little short on scoring units. However, the Grand Master's "Grand Strategy" ability is awesome to make the dreads scoring, so they can just sit in back on objectives and pick apart the enemy from 48" away. Even if you decide not to add more scoring units, Grand Strategy has many other buffs that serve your army well.



As far as Coteaz goes, he is, in my opinion, one of the best HQ's for his points in 6th edition. If you've seen my article on HQ choices, you'll see that the two powers Coteaz can take in divination provide great army-wide buffs, he makes your wrecking ball a scoring unit, his artificer armor lets him survive longer, and his Daemon hammer makes him effective enough in combat. The kicker? This guy is only 100pts. For what he does for your army, especially by making the wrecking ball a scoring unit, he is an absolute bargain, and I've been taking him in almost all my GK lists now that he can roll 3 times on divination, and is always guarenteed to get at least a better version of guide. A farseer with a Daemon Hammer and a 2+ save? Yeah, I'll take that. I usually like him to ride with the strike squad in the Chimera, but that brings me to a slightly awkward part about the army.

The Chimera with the dual heavy flamers (because why not?) is actually bought as a dedicated transport for the henchmen, but they're riding in the Storm Raven instead. Therefore, I like the strike squad to have the extra point of front armor and multitude of firing points that the Chimera offers, but it makes the first turn very  awkward, since the Grey Knights (and Coteaz) have to start outside of it and then board it on turn one. This usually isn't much of an inconvinience, but it does leave your strike squad open to some potential hurt at the beginning of the game. Just get them on board as soon as possible and start moving toward the center and you should be fine. The Chimera allows both psycannons to shoot out of the top, as well as 3 more S5 psybolt stormbolters, which is just so much better than the rhino in my opinion. Plus, the dual flamers can wreck some armies, and you'll be glad when those opportunities arise. As far as the Terminators go, they're just there to fill out points and act as a tough scoring unit. I prefer halberds, but I always include one hammer for TEQ's, and a psycannon on the Justicar so he can pick his shots. They are also pretty versatile in that they can teleport onto the battlefield, which allows them to get into better position, especially Coteaz gets the power that modifies reserve rolls from divination, because Grey Knights love that board center.




While I've done a good amount of testing, there is still definite room for improvement on this list. I've found that the terminators are easily replaced because with Grand Strategy you usually have around 4 tough scoring units. Sometimes for fun I like to throw in a dreadknight (because everyone hates them so much) and make him scoring. If you find that you really don't like the risk of the Storm Raven, you can always opt for a land raider. You just always want to make sure that your wrecking ball is getting the charge, and the Land Raider is a little too slow and cumbersome for my test (though I admit I haven't really tried it). If you're feeling extra cheesy, you can always throw in another psyfleman dread, but other than that just have fun! I find it's a very versatile list that can still be really cinematic - I like the idea of Coteaz and his boys scouting ahead and then calling in back up from the Grand Master circling overhead! In my opinion the death cult's are one of the most underrated unit in 40k, so you can certainly surprise your opponent who will most likely severely underestimate them. I also try to avoid doing what everyone and their mother on the internet does on the interwebs with their armies, because that's just not fun. That's why I encourage you all to come up with your own strategies, or change this list to fit your own style. This is just a pallet for you 40k generals to build on. Let me know what works, and what doesn't work, but until then, good hunting!

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