See Evil Dice’s display below. You might even recognize a piece or two!

We recently held our first Apocalypse mega battle, which was run by Paul Thresher and was a great success!

So at Evil Dice we have always had problems with doing traditional events. Namely, the store doesn’t afford us the time frame to actually realistically complete a traditional 3-round tournament at any significant points level. We’ve coped with this by having unique events themed around specialized gameplay styles (namely our “Recon” events, which use Kill Team rules). We have had many more event ideas which haven’t yet come to fruition, however. Some of these ideas are pretty out there, so I thought I’d share them with the greater 40k community, and maybe inspire some creativity in other events by extension.

The Long Winter

The Long Winter is an interesting idea that we’ve toyed with for over a year now. Currently slated for sometime in January, the Long Winter would be a 4-round “Mega Tournament” which takes place over the course of an entire month. Each player commands a massive force of 3000 points, playing one massive themed game each Sunday — all against the backdrop of fighting on a frozen forgeworld.

We were considering two formats for the Long Winter. One had players face the same opponent in four different missions, and charged $10 per week. Each pairing would essentially be fighting a miniature campaign against one another. In the end the winners of each respective pairing would get a prize equal to the total of both players’ entry fees (so half the participants would go home with $80 each).

We realize that this is an expensive event, and that players might not be interested in the expenditure. So we have gone ahead and planned a second variation that is free to play in and is story-driven, where players have story events that occur during their battles. The end result is for players to get rewarded with a detailed fluff packet describing the circumstances of their exploits during the event.

Legacy of War

Legacy of War is a simple 1500 point tournament with the fairly common 3-round format. The main difference is in your HQ choices. Players do not take an HQ in their lists, and instead submit a 250- to 400-word backstory of a special character, along with a legal HQ choice to represent this character and a photo of the model in question (this counts as a player’s entry fee, so entry is actually free).

The day of the event, players will be handed a full write up of their character’s backstory. We at Evil Dice will have turned the basic HQ character into a Special Character, which players will then use for the duration of the event in addition to their 1500-point force. The special rules and stats for each character will be based directly on the fluff submitted by the players beforehand.

The missions at Legacy of War will focus on the characters themselves mostly. The reward for this free-to-play event? An article on the Evil Dice website detailing your character, along with a PDF datasheet of the character for download.

Enemy of My Enemy

Our club lies in the midst of several other groups. One thing that we have always toyed with to improve inter-club relations is an event where we all face off. There are two possible formats:

The first idea is a tournament where players are given special rules and objectives based on their club affiliation. These would be a clever play against our clubs’ respective atmospheres, reputations, and  gamers (Evil Dice would probably have dice-related rules and objectives, for example). Clubs would have equal teams and would be playing such that the player group with the highest scores would win prizes equal to their counterparts’ entrance fees (so if we have three teams of 4 players each, all of whom pay $20 each, the winning team would receive $60 per player). The proceeds could, of course, go to the club in question instead of it’s players.

The other idea is a doubles tournament in which players must partner with someone from a different organization. Each club has different rules for gaining points in their battles (one club may be able to get kill points, another club may be able to capture objectives, etc.). By mixing teams  together players may come up with creative combinations which help them gain more points in their battles.

These are just some of the ideas we’ve had over the years. What do you think? Have you got any unique event ideas of your own? Chime in here or on our forums and let us know!

What is comp?

Well, comp – short for composition – is a practice of scoring players based on the methodology behind their army list. A lot of times, comp tries to be synonymous with fluff, like comp scoring that deems a list “compy” when it is weaker but  more similar to armies in stories.

The fact is, comp comes in a lot of flavors. A lot of times, comp scores give you bonuses for taking unpopular or underpowered units. Other times, comp takes the form of a penalty for spamming popular or effective units. Comp may be judged by your opponents, the tournament organizers acting as judges, or even a council of people. It may be judged by opinion or by rubric; sometimes it affects your overall score for a tournament, while other times it is used as a screen to prevent you from entering at all in the first place.

So long story short, comp rules are very non-standardized, though their intent is usually the same – to purportedly balance out the gameplay for players who choose weaker – or fluffier – choices.

The Good Side of Comp

There is an undeniable meta game being exploited by competitive armies. There are some builds that just are at an inherent disadvantage sometimes, and though this is more due to the meta game than anything else, some tournament organizers feel the need to do what GW has not and force the meta gaming out of the equation.

Competitive 5th edition 40k can get pretty dull. This is an era of mathhammer cell phone apps and internet blogs devoted to finding the most mathematically optimal lists. The fact is, there are only so many units that fit into that maximum-effect-for-minimum-cost mold, and so, a lot of lists tend to have similarities. Most lists will mechanize their troops, for example, and most will have many duplicate units for redundancy’s sake. Because of this, some in the pro-comp camp feel they are encouraging creativity and nurturing list-building.

Unpopular or sub-par units would often not be seen at all in a tournament, but comp scores give players a bonus for dealing with this self-inflicted handicap. So some comp advocates feel that they are helping to balance the day’s games out as things go on.

The Bad Side of Comp

Comp scoring is a limitation. No matter how you look at it, it is we the player base manipulating the game to make it more palatable for our tastes. For this reason, comp can be restrictive – hey, that’s what it is by design, right?

The two schools of comp are bonus points for compy stuff, and negative points for non-compy stuff, but ultimately either one is some singular person’s idea of the very subjective concept of fairness, imposed on the players.

For some players, this concept is abhorrent on a competitive stage. Why, they ask, would you try to hamstring the tougher lists and builds? Isn’t a part of the competition the building of a potent list? Why should someone with a very poor or non-competitive list deserve an equal chance to win as someone who worked on their list to perfection weeks before the event?

Then there is the exclusion factor to consider. I don’t play in comp’ed tournaments, for example, mostly because I have a Space Wolves army and it automatically gets graded pretty poorly on comp. I don’t even use half of the things in the book that people dislike, but I have seen comp rubrics that cut the score as much as 40% just for having my three Grey Hunter squads. And I don’t even use Wolf Guard leaders OR Razorbacks for them, either. There are countless other people like me out there, people whose armies have been painted as unfair or brutal and who the comp world will always feel they need to hamstring to level the playing field.

If you've got a few squads of these guys, you might as well stay home.

Do we need this?

Whether you favor comp or not is a wildly divergent issue, and most of the time that is going to have to do with a given player’s own personal perspectives. If you play a Guardian-heavy Eldar list with all footslogging units, you would get gunned to pieces in most games, let alone tournaments.  But the inherent question is, if you are going to compete in a tournament, who is responsible for the fairness level afforded to your particular build?

It’s an unanswerable question, because the fact is we have thousands of possible builds in any of the game’s given armies and point levels. How can anyone be expected to police all that? As a result, comp systems tend to be pretty imperfect on the whole. Some are too harsh, some are too loose, and many do not have a clear goal.

On the other hand, let’s think of it from the other side: what if you are trying to create a story-driven event? A campaign or mega battle, perhaps? Suddenly the need to allow every competitive build under the sun becomes a secondary objective to having fun. And that’s where the real problem lies.

Comp scores are the kind of thing we need to make sure people play the game for the game itself, instead of just for the win.

Where does Evil Dice stand?

At Evil Dice we haven’t done any large-scale events where we needed to be too concerned with composition, but what we have done, we have made sure that we let the players decide. Why would we put the ability to score comp for players into the hands of their opponents? Well, in my opinion, their opponents are really the only players qualified to make that call.

My Space Wolves is a tough army that can hold it’s own against most anything. I am not going to consider a tough army as much of a roadblock as other books or builds might. Similarly, the council deciding comp at Da Boyz GT may feel my list is unfluffy, but someone else might find it completely in character.

This style of comp judging means the results are tailored to the players. Is it a perfect solution? Far from it. But I would rather the people facing an army judge it, rather than some armchair general (or council of them) who is just going against a rubric made from anecdotal evidence from the internet. At Evil Dice we expect tough lists and we have no complaints when someone takes to the table in full force, and I don’t see why any less should be expected at a purely competitive tournament.

The general overview is that we have a much more tactical game. The design ethos behind 6th edition is reportedly “strategy before chance” – a big change from the usual in the 40k world on the development side. Here are some of my favorite bits in the leaked ruleset.

I'm using a similar approach to the layout of my next campaign.

Clean Rules Layout

Right off the bat, the rumored 6th ed rules are said to have a new layout. Previously, the actual rule text was within the same areas of text that the basic explanations were in. The 6th edition rules are said to be laid out with the specific rules text on one page, and the general explanative text on the opposite page. The result? Presumably, veterans can refer simply to the basic boxed-off rules, while those less versed can peruse the more verbose and colorful text opposite.

Why It’s a Good Thing: Having to look up rules for the various parts of the game will be a lot easier for everyone involved, and players who just want to know the rules can see them all without having to sift through the “color” text.

New Phase Order

It’s being said that the biggest change in the rumored rules is the shift of the longstanding 40k turn order. In 6th edition the rumors are that you will handle all movement, then all assaults, and then shooting. This changes everything and it isn’t hard to see why. The turn order has been the same for years; why change it now?

Why It’s a Good Thing: In other editions, players didn’t have to make a choice between shooting and assault; often units could have both at their disposal in some form or another. Now, this will change; units will have to work as a team to be successful. Do you want to shoot and suppress a dangerous unit, or tie it up in CC before your shooting phase, making it unable to be shot at? This change to the Assault and Shooting order now means assault armies will be able to do what the game depicts them as doing — storming the enemy fortifications and stopping their fire against their allies.

New Victory Point Rules

The 6th edition rumor postings indicate that all missions will now share a point format for calculating victory, appropriately called victory points (not to be confused with the longstanding VP concept of earning points equal to what you’ve killed). Players can earn points by laying claim to objectives they control during a turn, or by claiming a confirmed kill. Every destroyed tank (not vehicle), walker, monstrous creature or independent character is a kill, as is every squad leader that is killed, all worth 1 VP each. Claiming objectives involves a separate preparation phase in which, if you hold or control a marker, you will earn some more points. You control a marker, if there is one of your scoring units in 3” of the marker and no enemy scoring unit. If you control a marker you get 3 victory points. You hold a marker if you don’t control it, and there is one of your non-scoring non-vehicle units in 3” and no enemy unit. If you hold a marker you get 2 victory points.

Why It’s a Good Thing: No more last-minute objective grabs or bizarre kill point scenarios should arise in the new edition. You now win games by fulfilling multiple objectives, each of which are worth their own points – holding a location and killing enemies are now part of the same game, making list-building more streamlined and less about being good at only one kind of mission while suffering heavily in another. This will also add a lot of depth to the game, as players will have to use objectives and cap them during gameplay for points rather than as a blind rush on the final turn. As an added bonus, these changes make the random game length much less necessary, which means tournaments will be easier to plan!

Tiered Rules

Maybe the new tiered rules will actually make this guy tough again!

Many USRs and other rules now have a number in parentheses after them that changes their effects. This is a big change, as rules can now have differing effects on differing models (no more Plague Marines with the same Feel No Pain roll as a Guardsman, for example). The depth this adds to the game is pretty impressive – for example, three levels of eternal warrior and instant death mean that the different weapons of the game will find new balance, and multi-wound units might find new viability. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Why It’s a Good Thing: A lot of players have requested this change, and now it has finally arrived. The depth this adds to the game is impressive to say the least; units that previously were bizarrely similar now finally have some modicum of difference to stand out from one another.

New Unit Reactions

The Run and Go To Ground rules were both big hits and a great move on GW’s part. They gave the player tactical options beyond just trying to make the situations favor them with MOAR DICE. Taking the hint, GW is adding several other really cool and cinematic reaction options, and a formal reaction mechanic. Jump infantry can now shoot up to the skies to avoid attacks, large models can brace to get double saves, various models can evade tank shocks, there is is even a return fire reaction where good old Overwatch makes a return to the game!

Why It’s a Good Thing: Going to ground changed the game, but now there are several other things you can do in many other situations. This adds some much needed depth to the game, and actually allows you to do something during the opponent’s turn other than sit around and put your dead models away when you fail some saves.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Team Recon returns July 30th! Click the image to download the rules!

Team Recon is a Warhammer 40,000 competitive event, hosted by the Evil Dice gaming group. This is 40k on a skirmish scale, as players team up in a doubles event using their own 200-point Kill Teams as an allied force. The rules for this style of play are based heavily on Games Workshop’s Kill Team rules, found in the Battle Missions expansion book.

• Where: The Hobby Bunker, 33 Exchange Street, Malden
• When: Saturday, July 30th Saturday, August 13 @ 10AM (dice roll at 11)
• Cost: $15 per player

The rules in full for this modified game format can be found at the below link in PDF format. Please read through them before registering for the event, as copies on hand during play will be limited.

• Team Recon: Rules and FAQ v2 – Updated June 16, 2011

Pre-Registration

If you will be attending the event, please pre-register using the form below. Pre-registration helps us to have a head-count for the event, and it is an immense help for our planning needs. You may also register the day of the event, but only during the first 45 minutes after the store opens. Dice roll no later than 11AM.

Requirements for Entry

In order to participate in Team Recon you will need the following:

• A single 200-point army list in typed format for each player. This list must include all aspects of your Kill Team, including the Specialist rules you’ve selected. An individual player’s Kill Teams may not change in any way once play begins for the day.
• All models in your army MUST be fully assembled, WYSIWYG-compliant.
• Fully painted models are required.
• Each player should bring 3 Objective models, the size of a Terminator or larger. These objectives cannot be just flat bases; they must have a shape.
• All fees will need to be paid in cash just prior to the first round of play. The default fee is $15.
• We prefer that you pre-register so that we have an accurate headcount beforehand and don’t use up precious gametime on tedious registration activities.

Raffles

We plan to hold raffles at this event. Players will purchase Red or Blue raffle tickets in sets of 5. Red tickets are $1 each, Blue tickets are $2 each. Players may divide up their tickets and place them in a series of possible raffle draws however they wish (including placing all of their tickets into one draw to increase their chances, or splitting them up in hopes of multiple prizes). Larger items require blue tickets, while smaller items require red ones. There will be at least one mystery giveaway among the raffles!

This time around, teams may choose a Team Role, which will allow them unique bonuses throughout the day.

Scoring Information

Recon Points

You will face three separate opposing teams in a series of quick-paced battles, the winners of which will be determined via Recon Points (RP).

In a real combat situation, the day is not truly won until the enemy is in retreat; whole armies do not simply cede victory to opponents when they have held one more objective than their opponents have. As such, in Team Recon, individual battles are not won. Instead, players earn Recon Points by how well they play to each round’s stated objectives.

Each round, more and more Recon Points will be available, and at the close of the event, the team with the highest amount is the victor.

Each battle will have a time limit of 1.5 hours. At the end of each battle, a player’s total Recon Points earned will be recorded on your scorecards at the end of your battles. The player at the end of the third round with the most Recon Points is the victor of the event.

Comp/Sportsmanship: Honor System

Similarly, you will also be asked to evaluate your opponent’s Honor on a separate sheet. These confidential questions are answered on a scale. At the end of the event, a player who received poor Honor ratings may have Recon Points docked from his final score; similarly, players who do well on their Honor ratings may have Recon Points added to their final score.

Honor consists of 4 categories:

• Generalship: A measure of how well your opponents played during your battle
• Appearance: Your opinion of the enemy team’s basing, conversion, and painting work
• Composition: A measure of the other team’s army lists’ quality
• Sportsmanship: A measure of honorable player behavior

This process is mathematical, not arbitrary, but for the sake of avoiding exploits we have elected to keep the numerical process behind the Honor system from being public knowledge. Please note: This event will place an emphasis on sportsmanship and fun; as such, your scores WILL be affected by the opinions of those you play about you and your army. Keep this in mind when you are designing your killer lists that exploit this style of gameplay: you could hurt your own score if you take a Win-At-All-Costs approach!

In the case of a tie of any kind, Honor ratings will be used as the tie-breaker.

Sponsorship & Prize Support

This event is sponsored by Evil Dice, the Hobby Bunker, and Paintingminis.com, and prize support will be drawn from all three. Actual prize values are dependent upon the outcome of the event’s attendance.

At minimum, prizes will be given for the following:

• Best General: Awarded to the overall winner of the tournament, i.e. player with the highest final total Recon Points.
• Most Honorable: Awarded to the player with the highest Honor ratings throughout the event.
• Best Army: Awarded to the player who receives the highest Pride ratings throughout the event (painting, basing, army theme, etc.).

The last tourney I attended, a doubles at Battleground in Plainville. Good etiquette can go a long way in a tourney with 15 tables' worth of players!

The ‘Arvard ‘Ardboyz are planning their Spring singles tournament this May (see arvardardboyz.com for details). The ‘Ardboyz are another local gaming group and are Evil Dice’s closest neighbors, so anything they do is usually pretty high on our radar (especially since we have a lot of membership overlap). This got me to thinking about what makes a good tournament experience, and honestly it really is all about the players and their motives. Here are a few quick tips to make sure your tournament experience isn’t bad (or the reason someone else’s is).

1.) Punctuality is Key

Tournaments are pretty much always timed in some way shape or form. It’s important that you be on time for the event, but it’s even more important that you be courteous with the time afforded to you and your opponent. A lot of players use time-wasting as a deliberate dirty tactic so it’s generally frowned upon anyhow, but you should be trying to game to the best of your ability. If you find yourself constantly debating your moves for a long time, or using up a great deal of time due to a casual place, a hardcore environment like a tournament probably isn’t for you.

2.) Be Prepared.

This goes to a lot of different levels, but I have encountered folks at tourneys who seem to be just barely into 40k. The fact is the game has an immense number of nuances to how it is played and going into a tournament setting without a lot of experience is a pretty huge handicap to start with. But if you don’t know what you’re doing it is really going to ruin the other person’s experience. Try to know your army and be well-versed in your codex before setting foot in the tournament environment.

3.) Sideboards Are Your Friend

Having an extra surface to carry around your army from table to table quickly and effectively will go a long way toward not wasting time for you and your opponent’s battle. Deploying forces to and from your carrying case each round can eat up a decent chunk of time, not to mention table space. If you can, I highly recommend what I do – bring an inexpensive folding TV tray table. This is a very useful place for both your undeployed forces and your “dead pile” and makes less clutter on the actual table surface while you play.

Rumor has it that the 6th edition starter set will not feature the Boys in Blue, and instead will host something a bit more...chaotic. ...

The rumor, as I last heard, was that 6th edition was in the pipe and well underway, set for a release at some point in the middle of next year. This means a few different things for us as 40k players. The first and foremost thing is that the current codex releases being produced are likely being written with the rules of the next edition in mind. As powerful weaponry, cheap transports, and invulnerable saves are  being handed out like candy we have to assume that these “unnoticed issues” of our current meta game are simply on deck for a big shift in the coming new edition.

GW isn’t as ignorant as it may seem. The issues the playerbase has with the game will be dealt with one way or the other. Here are a few things I would expect to see in the coming editions:

Flyers as a New Unit Type

The first of many.

Big, expensive models are something GW likes. Flyers are currently pretty good vehicles in terms of their rules, but ultimately they are just a humongous “skimmer” vehicle as it stands right now. Expect this to change come 6th edition, with their own rules for things like movement and assault that differentiate them from tanks.

This wonky insertion into the game happened mid-edition with the introduction of the Valkyrie. An expensive kit that was priced very conservatively in its codex, it is the prototype of flyers we will see in the future: fast, able to carry and drop passengers, armed to the teeth, but lightly armored and hard to hide. GW seems to be trying to balance these vehicles by giving them vast speed, unrivaled firepower, and strong transport utility — forcing the player to choose between the three tactical options.

My Best Guess:

Flyers will likely function as they do in Apocalypse, having minimum distances while flying high but acting as skimmers when they are low to the ground. Assault and shooting will likely work differently against these vehicles while they fly high. I expect GW to go this route only because these are big expensive kits that they will want to be mainstays in any army, so I expect them to pad the fragility of the vehicles with such rules in order to make them even more “must-have” for most forces.

Modified Force Organization Chart Rules

Planetstrike's FOC could be the blueprint for 6th, much how Apocalypse's vehicle damage chart was the blueprint for 5th.

For a long time now, the codex releases have seemed really crowded, particularly in the Elites sections. Some folks will argue this is because most codex releases have some method of fielding some Elites as Troops, but I think this might be an early tip-off to some later shifts planned by GW.

Think about it for a second. GW’s main aim, as stated countless times by the company itself, is to sell models. Most armies have some really potent choices in the Elites section, and the ones that are most potent usually are pretty expensive. This would also make certain armies which are inexplicably weak suddenly become horrific.

My Best Guess:

Now, I’m not saying the whole thing is going to go to 0-6 Elite choices. But it is more than obvious that GW is willing to extend the game in ways that will generate revenue, and it is also more than obvious that creating an endless chain of more and more powerful models is not in their best interests, either (unless “irate mobs of angry gamers going to play Warmachine” is part of their business plan). The recent alterations to Warhammer Fantasy’s Force Org rules are fairly successful, so I would expect that at the very lest, GW will be exploring this as an option. After all, it is a great way to get us to buy more of the models we already own, which are also the same models they have sitting in their warehouses collecting dust.

Generic HQs, Special Rules

It’s no secret that GW’s adopted idea of having a special character modify an entire army in some way has been a runaway success. Almost every popular build out there has some big ~$20 metal-modeled super HQ attached to it nowadays, right from day one of 5th Edition with Vulkan “The Big Green Bullshit Machine” Hestan. A lot of people assume GW makes these successful decisions by accident, essentially throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I give them a lot more credit. I see it more like they are branching out with several strategies, and in virtually every case the most successful ones become par for the course as the game develops. A lot of players don’t want to use the characters and don’t want to use the ol’ “Just change his name but use his rules” bit.

My Best Guess:

I would expect to see a strategy for generic HQs that is similar to the setup of the Space Wolves’ Saga mechanic. In this book you may buy characterful upgrades for your character called “Sagas.” Many of the special characters in the book possess these sagas by default, and are instead more defined by noteworthy one-off special rules. To add some sales of other miniatures, I am going to go out on a limb and take a guess that GW will make special army-wide rules similarly available  to purchase for generic HQs. It is a quick and easy way to once again sell a load of older miniatures without having to update them, and a good way to suddenly make one book capable of many builds – something that is in GW’s interest if it wants to sell models.

Invulnerable and Cover Save Modifiers

As the rules currently stand, this barbed wire can bring down a Thunderhawk if it should roll a one while hovering over it.

It’s not etched in stone by any stretch of the imagination that we will continue to see common 3+ invuls and 2+ cover saves, but it stands to reason that if we do, some way of tweaking these saves to be less powerful will likely be included in the next edition. The fact that few changes have been made to the ubiquitous Storm Shield Terminators or the massive horde armies which suddenly have easy 4+ cover from their own low-cost sacrificial squads means that if GW is planning to do anything about powerful and abundant saves, they will be doing so in the core rulebook and not in the individual codex releases themselves.

My Best Guess:

A big complaint in the game right now is that special weapons are too special and that basic troops aren’t really useful enough for you to care about them. I wouldn’t be surprised if some kind of torrential number of attacks could be utilized to reduce enemy saves, but more likely they are simply going to change the very unpopular (but much more easy to use) true line of sight rules to incur cover less. As for the Storm Shields and other powerful invuls, only time will tell, but I find it hard to imagine GW not doing something about it. After all, if they become worse, we will need 10-15 instead of 5 to make our death star lists…

New Vehicle Damage Rules

Want one of these? GW would rather you want 9 of them.

Vehicles are the meta game mainstay this edition. Tougher vehicles was something the game really needed, but now we face the problem that most average troops can’t even realistically harm a light tank until it is within arms’ reach. Even then, the nature of transport rules means that detonating a vehicle only forces a slight early disembarkation of its troops; unless you detonated their tank at the beginning of your shooting phase the squad inside is likely to remain at fighting strength regardless.

My Best Guess:

GW doesn’t want to make vehicles worse. The kits are expensive and cost less and less points as time goes on. Expect GW to instead make vehicles slightly more vulnerable, which will in turn justify cheapening their points costs, which will in turn force you to have to buy more of them if you want to make a fully mechanized force. I’d even expect a similar bone to be thrown to monstrous creatures in order to further sell some more big kits.

Mass Plasma Weapon Buffs

The game currently has a lot of weapons that aren’t very popular, and a handful that are considered so essential that they are default kit. Namely, the dichotomy would work best if all weapons had equal up sides and down sides to their use, but this isn’t the case always (especially in shooting!). GW deals with this by massively shifting the meta game to another weapon. In 4th edition the terror of the table was the plasma gun, and if you can believe it there was a time when people vehemently protested a unit being able to have the very same plasma gun and lascannon most tactical squad variants have access to today. Melta guns and their ilk (weapons with the melta rule) are king in the anti-mech department, and so they have become the de facto “best weaponry” for 5th ed battles. GW is almost certain to nerf melta, but what about the other weapons? I would expect to see buffs across the board to all the “undesirable” weaponry in 5th edition (along with a subsequent shortage of them in kits). Most likely to get the biggest buff here would be the plasma gun.

My Best Guess:

The plasma gun is most likely going to get beefed up. As it becomes less and less used in favor of the safer and more anti-armor melta across all the armies (at least those with analogous options), it is very strange that GW has not lowered its cost. This buff might be indirect (the Gets Hot rule changing to be less dangerous, for example) or it might be direct (I wouldn’t be surprised to see a “Plasma” weapon trait… in fact, that sounds like a good way to do that whole “weakening the powerful saves” thing I mentioned earlier.

An Inevitable Melta Nerf?

Melta - because one dead tank is more valuable than any single soldier's life.

The melta gun is king in 5th, like I already mentioned. If you have a unit that can have a melta gun of any kind and you don’t take it, it is almost looked upon with certainty that this decision is due solely to incompetence as a general. That is a severe balance problem for a game. There are a lot of potential ways this could be dealt with, but I think with the above buff to plasma that I am guessing at, it would make a lot of sense to see GW nerf melta. That’s why I am making the bold assumption that they won’t nerf it at all. After all, let’s face it – if you make melta weaker, you make tanks stronger, and I’ve already said I’m fairly sure if anything we will see more ways to destroy vehicles next edition, not less.

My Best Guess:

Honestly, the melta gun is what keeps the tanks honest. It’s tough to justify nerfing it because doing so would affect so many armies’ predominant means of how they deal with vehicles. The real shocker is that GW has gone out of their way to keep the melta gun part fairly scarce. It is literally the only weapon option not included on the Space Wolves sprues, for example. GW will want these pieces to remain buried in kits as anchor points; I wouldn’t be surprised if the 6th edition tactical marine box had a slew of these things in it just to ensure sales, for example.

Conclusions

These are just some of my relatively blind guesses at what the company might try going forward. I know it’s basically a wishlist, but it’s meant to be more like a prediction than anything else. I know GW will want to keep revenue flowing, but judging by the relatively consistent pricings and loadouts in many of the books, not much is going to change on the codex front. Everything I’ve suggested here would be designed to expand the game and revenue but also to address issues within it; hopefully GW are under the same motivations as all of us would-be wishlisters out there.

Sound off – what do YOU think is going to happen in 6th Edition?

Mechanized

This is an 'Ard Boyz Chimera spam list that, sadly, isn't the most Chimeras I've seen in a list!

Mechanized armies (or mech for short) are the most prominent army style in modern day 40k. Virtually every army you face will have a huge compliment of vehicles, and any unit that can have a transport usually will have one. The reason is fairly simple: in 5th edition, vehicles are harder to disrupt or destroy, and most units in the game will have to make a concerted effort to destroy even the most basic vehicles. As a result, these lists dominate the landscape, and the ones that do best against them are the ones that often take the same approach.

Light vehicles are often scoffed at as easily stoppable but the fact is even an AV10 vehicle is virtually immune to most of any enemy force’s offense, which will largely be in the strength 3-4 range. For this reason, mech armies (and their regular opponents, which is pretty much everyone) will pack as much effective anti-tank as possible into their lists. Chief among these options is the vaunted melta gun, which will be taken almost every single time a unit is able to have it. The reason is simple: a melta gun is virtually certain to destroy the target, whereas other options (such as the expensive long-range lascannon, or the dangerous plasma gun) are significantly less likely to work out in your favor (and, oddly, both cost more points).

The melta gun’s downside is that you have to get close in to use it, but most weapons in the game favor this situation, so odds are your army is going to attempt this anyway – rendering this balancing factor a moot point.

“MSU” (Minimum Scoring Unit/Minimum Sized Unit) Spam

The 5-man Razorback unit is the epitome of MSU - cheap and plentiful.

Mech is king in 5th Edition, and some players have taken this to an extreme by taking minimum-sized units (a.k.a. MSU’s), in order to gain access to their transports. In practice, a few Chimeras or Razorbacks are not terribly potent, but in an MSU list it is not uncommon for there to be several (oftentimes, 10 or more) such vehicles on the board. Boasting long-range weapons, these vehicles will remain miles from the enemy, forcing attackers without a similar build to have to take the long walk across the board. This in turn gives the MSU player the great benefit of some turns without almost any offense against him, while he can casually pick off incoming vehicles or units.

MSU armies are not offensively potent if you can close the gap quickly. Their entire strategy is to weaken your army so that their under-strength, under-manned, and under-geared units only have to mop up weakened targets. Speed is your ally here – giving them more than one turn of “free shooting” at you is bound to incur some troublesome handicaps on your end!

Deathstars

"That's no moon...it looks an awful lot like a squad of Thunder Hammer Terminators, though."

Last but not least is the potent and horrifying units known as “Deathstars.” Named for the planet-destroying moon-sized space station from Star Wars, Deathstars are more a single unit within a list, rather than a direct list-building philosophy. A Deathstar is simply an expensive, powerful unit made up of your books toughest possible combinations. These units usually total up at around 1/3 of your list’s cost and are almost impossible to deal with directly. Units which benefit from wound allocation or powerful invulnerable saves are usually chosen for the task, as they are virtually impossible to kill in a single turn, and are typically accompanied by one or more attached characters who grant some sort of high-end combat or army buffs.

The most popular Deathstar seen in the game lately has been the potent Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminator squad in a Land Raider. This unit alone is already a tough unit to shift, but you can add some pretty powerful buddies to it that make it even scarier. In the Blood Angels codex, such units are often accompanied by a Sanguinary Priest and a Librarian, both giving enormous buffs to the unit; in the standard Marine codex, Vulkan will ride along and Master-Craft the Thunder Hammers of the squad for maximum bloodshed.

So basically you get the gist. A Deathstar unit is your ultimate squad, designed to withstand attack while putting out disproportionately massive damage potential. Other examples include critically-geared Thunderwolf Cavalry, Ork Nob Bikers, and the new Grey Knight Paladins. These units are damaging and dangerous but their usage in a list is meant more as a fire magnet. The more dangerous the unit and the harder it is to neutralize, the more fire the enemy is going to pour into it – allowing the rest of your army an unfettered advance.

Of course most Deathstars cost in excess of 500-700 points, which could be seen as a handicap. The fact is, this is a very effective technique, as almost any of the famous Deathstar units in the game right now can single-handedly crush much of an unprepared enemy force!

If HE can make time for it, so can you!

It’s a harsh reality, but there really isn’t much pride in attaining a “complete” army these days. It’s a pretty far cry from the days when I first came into the game, where it was almost more important to improve your army than to win games. The Internet’s heavy-handed involvement in our game these days has led to a lot of changes from those simpler times, however.

So why should you work on your army? The game can technically be played with nothing but a sock full of coins and some cups and books for terrain, if you find a willing opponent. Well, there are a lot of reasons, even if they aren’t all readily apparent, so we’re going to talk about them here.

Reason #1: It Looks Good

The way your army looks might not seem like it would affect your enjoyment of the game, but believe it or not it actually makes a rather significant impact. The game paints cinematic imagery in your mind as you play, and this is just so much more intense and vivid when the armies in question have their own visuals. Two fully painted armies on a table with lots of great, completed terrain ends up yielding some of the best 40k you will ever play.

Reason #2: Pride

If you spent hours building and painting your forces, you will be much more emotionally invested in their exploits on the battlefield. This isn’t an opinion, really; it’s more of a fact. When your army achieves victory it will be a lot more exciting, and when the game gets tense you will be much more invested in the outcomes.

I find that players with incomplete armies are quick to dismiss their own failings and they are much less enamored with their victories. Having pride in your force greatly enhances your enjoyment of the game, and also makes you become viewed as a star player to others.

Reason #3: Courtesy

Incomplete or unpainted models make things tougher on your opponent. The problem is that it simultaneously grants you a pretty good advantage at the same time. Why glue a particular weapon arm onto a model? Just leave him with no arms and let the other guy worry about what weapon he has each game. Why buy another tank chassis when you can just use your already-existing tank chassis as a proxy, and just pretend it has whatever sponsons or turret you need? Why build a special Terminator Captain model when you can just say “this Terminator is my captain today” and have a legal model with the same loadout? The 40k rulebook, contrary to popular belief, does not have a rule enforcing WYSIWYG. It’s more a strong suggestion than anything else. So you don’t have to finish a blessed thing, really.

The fact is, not finishing your models confers you some slight unfair advantages over those who work hard on their models and play strictly WYSIWYG. While your army can transform it’s wargear or models, a fully WYSIWYG player must use what he has, and must spend much more money and time to keep up with your “transforming” army. Similarly, unpainted models make them harder to pick out visually, and I have seen plenty of times when a unit was ignored altogether because it was practically invisible in some grey rubble or ruins. Similarly, a unit of Guardsmen that count as a squad of Terminators for this game are not visually equivalent to their threat, and even an informed opponent will mistake these models on occasion for what they look like rather than what they are.

So there it is. Some food for thought about why you should work toward finishing your army. Next time you face off against a fully painted army, give its owner a little bit of extra credit; these days he is fighting an (slight) uphill battle!

GW's limited edition mega paint set.

Most new players have to endure a pretty arduous process of pretty much ruining their expensive models before either stripping them or buying new ones and trying again. Through a very tedious process of research you will learn some basic conventions of painting, but I thought it would be a good idea to give out some info that would have saved me a lot of trouble at first.

5.) No, you don’t have to paint them like in the books.

A lot of new players think that you pretty much have to use the color schemes that are represented in the books. My original army was even accused of being “illegal” once by a young kid who said that I had broken the rules by my marines not being blue.

When you paint it is important to do so to your own preferences. 40k is a big mythos and there is room for just about anything imaginable in the painting department. If you like one of the schemes in the book, that is of course great, but there is nothing saying there is no such thing as a red Ultramarine successor or anything like that. Don’t feel constrained by the imagery presented to you in the books!

4.) A fully-painted army is greater than the sum of its parts.

Paul Moore likes to say “quantity has a quality all its own,” and he is very right. The term applies to painting as well as gaming. Your first basecoated model might not look like anything spectacular, and it can be discouraging. But once he is in a squad with 5 matching friends and a matching tank, you are going to start to really find yourself enamored with the idea of painting. It’s sort of like exercise – it’s tough to get the ball rolling but once it does start and you begin to see results it can be very exciting, and you will find yourself painting more and more.

An army is seen by most people from 3 feet away. While it looks great to highlight, etc., don’t lose sight of the fact that even the worst paintjobs look great across a whole army!

3.) Brushes demystified.

There are innumerable brushes to use for the job of painting miniatures, and their quality has an immense difference on how easy or hard it is to paint with them. Expensive brushes tend to flow more evenly over the model or keep their tips very precise for a longer period of time, making them ideal. Cheaper brushes will quickly flay and will not hold has much paint, needing some extra work to be effective in coverage.

One of the biggest and most confusing points new painters encounter is the brush size fiasco. Every company’s brush sizes are different, usually numeric in nature, and of course GW and other game companies do not bother to name their brushes except for their “jobs” – drybrush, wash brush, etc. Because of this most people will know little about the different types of brushes out there. I could do a whole article just on paintbrushes alone, but for the purposes of this quick piece I am just going to let you in on the most important bits that I’ve noticed.

Brushes with a “round” bristle type work best for our models, typically (and are what most brushes geared toward miniature painting by big-wigs like GW are). Brush sizes are in numbers, and numbers below zero are used for fractional sizes. For most 40k models can be effectively painted with a size 2 or 1 brush if you are careful. A 0/2 or 0/3 will work well for detail work if you should need a smaller size for certain things. Tanks are best painted with an airbrush of some kind, but I have also seen large round brushes (sizes 4-8) used to great effect as well.

Taking care of your brushes is critical. Always use a cup of luke warm water to rinse them, and don’t be afraid to do it often. Never leave them in the cup and never rub their bristles on the bottom of it. There are also many great and inexpensive paint soap products worth checking out as well; they will help get the paint off when you rinse your brushes and ensure that no pigment is up inside the inner area of your bristles (which is what causes most of the bad things that happen to brushes!).

"Yeah...but I paint with this one."

2.) Steady hands are overrated.

There are a number of techniques to steady your hand while painting that don’t require you to actually have a very steady hand. Some players brace their pinky finger on their brush hand against the model’s base as they paint it, allowing them to keep from shaking; I know other players who put the insides of their wrists together for leverage. Lastly, some people mount their models temporarily on things like pins or corkscrews on the underside of their bases, allowing them to be elevated but avoid having to deal with the unsteadiness of their own hand holding the model. There are lots of ways to overcome this issue so don’t get discouraged if your painting hand is not steady at first!

1.) Thin your paints!

Most new players will be starting off with GW paints, and they are more than decent (if a little expensive). But no matter what paint you use, learning to thin your paint is a huge help. For one, it will massively extend the life of your paints in a variety of ways.

• Not having to leave the pots open as much will keep the paint from drying out
• You will at least double the amount of paint usage you get out of a pot, if not more
• Thinner paint means easier cleaning of brushes and easier mixing
• Your models will be much less likely to show brush strokes on their flat surfaces, and you will preserve their details better

Thinning your paints can get pretty advanced. When I first started to do it, I had a very simple technique, however: I simply tapped out a drop of GW paint onto my handy 99-cent palette from Michael’s Crafts, and then added a single drop of water to it. All GW paints are acrylic and are thus water based, so this meshes well. This is considered a 1:1, or 50/50, ratio – so if you ever see a paint tutorial that says “1:2 Skull White Fortress Grey” for example, it means to mix 1 part Skull White with two parts Fortress Grey.

Once you add the water and mix it around a bit (use an old shitty brush!), you will notice that you effectively doubled the amount of paint in the tray. You will also similarly notice that your brush will hold much more of this paint, allowing you to cover more of the model (and to more cleanly cover the details). Don’t dip your brush in deep enough that the paint touches the part where the bristles meet the stem; getting paint in there is very bad for the brush even when it’s thinned. Instead, dip your brush in a bit, and notice that the thinner the paint, the more it naturally will wanted to soak up into the bristles at a touch. Have a paper towel handy to wipe off the excess – simply paint onto the paper towel until you can clearly see the hairs of your brush in the paint on the tip. Then you are ready to go!

We have some very successful painters who add the water directly to their new pots of paint to thin the whole bucket, but I don’t recommend this for beginners. The reason is simple: too much water and the paint will become too thin, and it will then be virtually useless and have to be thrown out. And who can afford that at four bucks a pot, anyway?

Experiment with thinning. Some colors need more than others, while some don’t need it at all. Also, you can get a more translucent coat by adding more water. I used 1:1 paint to water ratios for basecoats, but I went with 1:5 paint to water ratios for highlights, to let a tiny bit of the basecoat shine through. Don’t forget about the Citadel washes either – a quick splash of these can add a lot of great shading to your model if you are just a beginner, looking for a quick way to give your color some depth!