The new FaQs are up for three Fantasy armies and I’ll take a look at each of them to discuss the changes. Next we take a look at something that we all do, but each of us does it slightly differently: List building! Some tips and things to look out for when you design your list. Lastly, a small teaser video of something I came across this morning that you computer gamers might find interesting.
And away we go!
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| Shady McCoy (25) running |
I know it’s been ages, but I did mention I would skip the weeks the Eagles lost, didn’t I? Well, the Iggles have finally won a game again yesterday (woohoo!) and I’m wearing my #36 jersey all day today to show my support. So I’m starting this week’s MMG with some small notes from the weekend’s NFL’s games. (I know, not tabletop gaming, nor something everyone is interested in, but I’m a big Football fan and it’s my blog, so there)
>Not to pick on the Bears or anything, but if you want to see one player cost a team a game, you should watch Marion Barber in this game. Two big mistakes. He’s a pretty good running back actually, but for the life of me I don’t understand why he’d run so far to the right that the defense could push him out of bounds with 1:06 left in the 4th quarter, the Bronco’s down by 3 with no time out left. Running out of bounds automatically stops the clock. So the Bronco’s got the ball back with about a minute left and a chance to erase a 4th quarter deficit. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned this season, it’s to not give the Tebow-led Bronco’s a chance to erase a 4th quarter deficit. A few passes and a long field goal later and the score was tied. Overtime.
Bears have the ball and are in field goal range. You want to make it as easy as possible for your kicker in overtime, so the Bears ran the ball to get a few yards closer. Inside runs are probably the safest way to get a few extra yards without the risk of turning the ball over. Remember I said two mistakes? Barber fumbled, the Bronco’s recovered, and drove down the field for the game-winning field goal. Fumbling is the worst thing that can happen to a running back (I know I hated it more than anything) but when you lose the game because of it? Tough, man…> 3 sacks each for Ends Jason Babin and Trent Cole of the Eagles. Very nice job applying pressure. Also, the Eagles added a Safety. Seriously, is there anything more embarrassing for an Offense than allowing a Safety?
> Great quote by Michael Irvin “Quarterbacks now are starting to be Football players. They’re saying: no more.” He was talking about a run by Quarterback Jake Locker of the Titans. (Great TD run, btw, you should totally watch him barely manage to get the ball across the goal line as he was pushed out of bounds). Apparently Irvin likes QBs who can make something happen with their feet. But really, Michael, what were they before now?
> Also, enough with the State Farm ads already. I understand having to show ads on NFL.com, but do you have to show the same one all the time? Although the Cheesehead guy at the end is pretty funny.
Ok, enough with the football. Let’s get down to some real games, shall we?
FaQs are here!
It’s always the same when a new army book is release. Almost immediately questions start to pop up about certain areas of the book that are unclear, discussions ensue, and everyone tries to give you their opinion of how something should work. Then the FaQs are released, things become more clear and, usually, some people are upset that they failed to clarify an issue they thought so glaring GW must be idiots for forgetting to FaQ that.
Well, fortunately we haven’t reached that very last part yet, but I am happy to say that GW has released the Errata for the Ogre Kingdoms book, as well as updated the Errata for both the Skaven and the Tomb Kings books.
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| Grrrr! |
Ok, let’s start looking at the document. Firstly, in the Errata sections, a Slaughtermaster can now take a Great Weapon (10 pts) and the Rune Maw Banner only works on enemy spells. Hurrah. The SM can now take a weapon that was obviously missed out the first time round and the Rune Maw finally doesn’t cancel your own buffs anymore. No real surprises here.
There were a few glaring issues with the Ogres book preFaQ. For instance, does an Ironfist (providing all the bonuses of a shield, but technically not being a shield) allow the wearer to take magic armour? The answer is: Yes, he can. Good.
Another issue was about some of the Ogre “war machines”. I use parenthesis because the Scraplauncher, Ironblaster, and Thundertusk all weren’t technically War Machines, but all had shooting attacks that would make you think they were. Now, all three are Slow to Fire, and you can use the Ironcurse Icon to save against them. So, they’re still not War Machines, and I’m sure a lot of people will still think the Ironblaster is over the top (I don’t), but at least they have Slow to Fire now.
Speaking of the Thundertusk, it’s Numbing Chill special rule really does only affect the models that are within 6” of it, not all units within 6” of it. Nothing too spectacular, but nice to have that clarified.
Lastly, and this is probably my favourite part of the FaQ: ranged hits caused by a character wearing the Greedy Fist do strip an enemy wizard’s magic level. Awesome! Totally situational and nothing game winning, but I love the idea of a character shooting (or magically shooting) an enemy wizard and then stripping away his levels. Try hitting a grey seer on bell with a Bonecrusher next time and see how he likes that! Hilarious.
That’s it for the Ogre FaQ. There’s some additional minor stuff there, but nothing too important.
**Edit - Mere hours after posting the first OK FAQ document, GW have put out a V2.0. Nothing's changed, except there is a note by Jervis Johnson himself saying that it wasn't intended for Slaughthermasters and Butchers to be able to take Magic Armour because of the Ironfist - see Comments below - Edit**
Next up: Skaven.
Also, Crack’s Call is now a Template (and thus allows Look Out, Sir! saves), a Warp Lighting Cannon still hits every model it normally would even when the first is a multi-wound model and it doesn’t die, and Warpstone Tokens don’t allow you to roll more than 6 power dice. Minor stuff, but nice to have clarified. There’s some more, but nothing majorly important.
And finally: Tomb Kings.
There are some clarifications about how resurrecting Chariots affects a unit’s Impact hits strength (answer: resurrected models count) and the Thundercrush attack can also cause Killing Blow (which I can imagine being somewhat nasty if pulled off).
And then some stuff about special characters, but nothing too important.
All in all, some very nice and tidy FaQs. Have a read through them and let me know if you see any important stuff I may have missed!
List Building 101 – What you need to know
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| No! A Warhammer list! |
Everyone does it. List building. It’s actually an officially recognized skill in 40K, where top games can be won or lost in the notorious ‘List Building’ phase. Now, list building is also important in Fantasy and this bit right here will provide you with some pointers when you’re just starting out trying to make your own lists.
1) Keep in mind the point value of the game. Obviously the point value influences the amount of points you can use on the various sections of the book. It’s all too easy to go over the amount of points and for some players this is a valid list building technique. They make a list of what they ideally want to include, add up the costs and they cut units until they reach the desired points value. Others start off differently, starting with a core of units and then adding more and more stuff until they reach the point limit. Either is fine, as long as you make sure your point totals are correct. Nothing more frustrating to having finished a list you’ve worked on a while, only to find out you forgot to add 25 pts for the BSB upgrade, or missed adding that one unit of Gutter Runners.
2) Do not go overboard on characters. Rarely should you spend your Character allowance completely. It’s very tempting to take a lot of characters, or kit the characters you have out to the max, but always remember that characters are there to support your army. They will not win you the game by themselves.
3) Have a plan. I can tell you right now you will not be able to include everything you want. No matter what amount of points you’ll play, there’ll always be something you won’t be able to take. That’s ok. Just make sure you have a plan for your army when you draw up your list. It doesn’t matter if you want to build a fluffy list or a competitive list, you should have a plan. Know what your army can and can’t do and build off of that. All units in your army should have a function and shouldn’t be taken ‘just for the heck of it’. Trying out units is fine and including units just because they look cool is fine too, but you should always be conscious about why you take a certain unit over something else.
4) Cover your bases. This has to do with the previous points. Every list you make should have a counter to the following, at least: Magic, Hordes, War Machines. Do you have a way to neutralize the opposing player’s magic phase to such an extent that it won’t affect your battle plan too much? Can you deal with a Horde of combat troops (or two)? Do you have enough units that can take out enemy War Machines, or have you at least built your list in such a way war machines won’t hurt you much? These are the three most important items, and you should definitely have a counter for each of them, but there are others as well: Can you deal with multiple monsters? Can you counter your enemy’s War Machine hunters? As you play more games these things will become more obvious and you’ll include these counters automatically.
5) Provide choices. The way to win any game of Warhammer (apart from lucky dice) is to force your opponent to make mistakes. The way to do this, simply, is to force him to make choices. Give him more than one obvious target for his Cannon, provide more than one threat on his flanks, have more than one obvious combat unit that will pressure him at the same time. This way you force your opponent to make choices about which unit to deal with first and this will then, sooner or later, force your opponent into make the wrong choice. This error you can then exploit and victory will be yours. You know, simply put.
Well, those are the five most important points I think. Hopefully this will help any new player improve their list building skills. For Game Night! this Friday I’ll apply these points as I make an example list.
Confrontation News
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| Awesome model, right? |
As I mentioned here, one of my favourite model companies ever was Rackham. They made some great games and had some absolutely stunning models. Unfortunately the company went under, but fortunately their IP was bought up by another company to be used in the future.
I wasn’t sure what the plan was and I was always hoping they would simply bring back the Rackham models, but apparently they are going to do something else with it (too?):
I am not sure if this will be a solo game or a MMORPG and I’m not that much into video games to begin with, but at least it’s promising to see something done with the Rackham license. It’s done by the same company who’s brought us the Blood Bowl video games. So, what do you guys think?
And that’s it for this edition of Monday Morning Gamer. Hope you enjoyed it. What’s planned for the rest of the week? Well, I’ve got some modeling / painting updates for you this Wednesday, including some shots of what Shalen has been working on. And I’ll probably play a game or two vs Dark Elves this week (not sure which army I’ll take) and I’ll post some battle reviews on Friday! And of course I’ll have my example army list up by then as well!
That’s it for now. Have a great day!
Thalenchar
