The truth about WYSIWYG

I see a lot of people talking about WYSIWYG and wondering if it is ok to play at tournaments without being 100% WYSIWYG.



For example:

Is it ok to use spinegants for termagants?

Is it ok to use a power weapon for a powerfist?

It is ok to use X unit for Y unit?

Etc.



Here is the truth: Tournament organizers normally don't care, and most of the time neither will your opponent. The only time it will ever be an issue is if you get the wrong type of opponent and you start to beat them. Then all of a sudden WYSIWYG will be an issue because then he will start to complain about your models and might have the TO come over to do something about it.



As they say in boxing, 'you must protect yourself at all times', so just as a precaution, you should always be WSYWIG as much as you can, and when you can't, talk to the TO beforehand, and clearly explain to your opponent before the game begins what is, and what is not WYSIWYG.

Rise of the Swarm

Well after my last 2 outings I was disappointed with the results of my chaos army. While playing my chaos I went 3-1 at the Adepticon Gladiator, 1-0-2 at the Adepticon Championships and 1-1-3 at the Slaughter in Space. 

My 2 losses have been to Dark Eldar, but my ties have been mostly due to the missions. The TOs are writing missions that take a lot of Troops to achieve, and ones where you need to be able to move quickly. My chaos has a lot of foot slogging, and at both tournaments the lack of troops really hurt me. 

But you say that Chaos won the Slaughter in Space, well yes they did, but it was one of the only few builds that win now with chaos. He took a Mech Chaos list with Plague Marines being his troops. He has Mech for speed, and one of the most durable troops in the game. I own 0 nurgle units, and my army is based around Tzeentch which is one of the worst builds that you can do. Thousand Sons are gimped because everyone now gets a 4+ cover save which diminished both their AP 3 bolters, and their 4+ inv save. Add to this that all of the 5^th edition codexes now have anti-psycher wargear, and all of them have new psychic powers that chaos are unable to stop. I was playing against Eldar and my Aspiring Sorcerer lined up a Winds of Chaos template into a Pathfinders squad, and because of runes of warding I lost him to a perils of the warp. That is a ton of points just wasted in the dead sorcerer, and it lets the pathfinders survive, and it cripples my Thousand Sons squad. 

So I thought I would re-evaluate my prohibition on 5^th edition codexes. I looked around and I am seeing a lot of Space Marine players, Imperial Guard players, and a ton of Space Wolf and Blood Angels players. The odd thing is that I am not seeing to many Tyranid players. So I am thinking about un-retiring my 'Nids.

3^rd edition Tyranids

I started collecting my Tyranids back in 3^rd edition. I was playing Thousand Sons as my main army, and they were totally opposite to them. Instead of being slow, hard and small, they were fast, soft and a horde. I had a big jump start with the army because the GW store in Glendale had a special event each week where you bought a box of troops and each week they had a small tournament with them and at the end if you won the tournament you received a free box of models. So I won a lot and had most of my army paid for with my winnings.  

4th edition Tyranids

I did not go very far with the Tyranids in 3^rd edition, but when the 4^th edition army book came out, I built a Godzilla army and started to crush people in RTTs. I won so much in fact, that I retired that army. It got to the point where my opponents hated the army so much that I was getting killed on comp and sports that I was not winning even though I was going 3-0 with a well painted army. My Tyranids had a brief resurrection a few years ago at Adepticon. We put together a stealer-shock list and had some success with it. I liked it so much that I brought it to Games Day LA and was 2-0 and playing on the top table when I drew Greg Sparks in the last round and we fought to a tie and had Scott Simpson who was playing on table #2 leap over both of us. 

5^th Edition

Shortly after Gamesday LA 5^th edition came out, and I again retired my Tyranids. I wanted to stay away from my Tyranids and any other 5^th edition army, but with the missions that TOs are putting up, I need to play a new army. 

Tyranid play

Pros

I kind of like the Tyranids because with the demise of Orks, and the rise of Mech, people are moving away from anti-horde wargear. Now that the Space Wolves and Blood Angels are fighting it out with IG for army superiority, it seems like the Tyranids can slip in now that everyone is trying to stop MEQ/Mech armies. Tyranids also have a lot of good troop options, and specialty units that can fill a lot of rolls.  

Cons

One of my big concerns is that with the tournament points limits going up to 2000 points, in 2-2.5 hours, how difficult will it be to get full games in? The advantage that the 'Nids have is that they are an assault army for the most part. That means that shooting armies will be cowering in the back of their deployment zone. The problems I had with my Eldar is that they are a shooting army and I was lay back and then I have to move up at the end of the game, but if the game went short I could not get to any objectives. For once in my life it might be good if I slow-play ;) The other thing is that if I fight an assault army there will be a big scrum in the middle of the table and that should sort itself out in a short time. Another problem is that armies do better when they fit your play style, and I am a shooter, not an assaulter. I am not aggressive in my game play and I need to change if this army is going to work for me.

#1 40K player in the USA

After listening to 40K radio, I went on over to check out RankingsHQ to see what they have listed and to my surprise, who is listed as the #1, 40K player in the US of A?

ME!

I am just having some fun with it because I am only ranked because I played in all 3 of the 40k events that they have tracked so far. My record is:


Broadside Bash

4-1

Adepticon Gladiator

3-1

Adepticon Championships (Yellow)

1-0-2

So I have gone 8-2-2, not to impressive. That is why I think it is funny that I am #1 for now. 

I will start working on my speech for when I lose my title "Well, I had a good run at the top, but no one can stay at the top forever. I look forward rededicating myself to the game, and the hard work that it will take to get back to top…"

Codex: Blood Angels

With my winnings of last week's RTT I finally bought myself a Blood Angels codex. I got to read a little bit of it over the weekend and I really liked what I saw. It is too bad that I do not play Space Marines or Blood Angels because I like the new codex more than that of the Space Wolves that I do own.


 
I know a lot of people are talking about all of the land raiders that they can take, and that they are falling from the sky, but here are a few things that I really like at first glance:


 
Baal Predators in the FA slot: That means that you can really load up on the AV 13 Predators if you want to when you combine it with the heavy support slots.


 
Assault Marines as troops: A lot of people look at these and they just look at the assault ability of them, but I like that they are troops that can move 12". I like the ability to get to where you need to go in a hurry without a rhino is very good.


 
Librarian Dreadnoughts: What is not to like about 2 of my favorite things combined into one model? I mean it is a

Librarian and a dreadnought!!!!


 
Stormraven transports: See the last 2 entries. They make the Blood Angels act more like Eldar with a fast moving transport. Not only that, but it can shoot some respectable shots when it needs to. The downside is that they are a little like the vendettas and are easy to down, but with a range of 72" with their missiles, they can sit back for a while before closing.


 
I was a bit surprised by Mephiston. I thought he would be a psychic monstrosity, and although his stats were nice, I was underwhelmed by his psychic powers.


 
So I might do a Night Lords army as a "counts as" one day, but I am still rocking the 3rd and 4th edition codex's.

Tau!!!

I have never really liked Tau, and they never appealed to me.


 
Then 3 years ago we used them for the team tournament and I kind of found myself enjoying them. For the most part I play shooting armies, so the army would be a good fit with my play style.


 
In the past few days I have had a hankering to play them. When this feeling comes on, I make sure to lie down until it passes, but I am starting to get the urge. Maybe I will cross over to the darkside and embrace the greater good. Another thing that is drawing me to them like a moth to a flame is that everyone says that they can't win a tournament, and there is nothing I like better than a challenge.


 
On a side note, just what I need, anther army!

Top 10 signs you own too much Warhammer:

Top 10 signs you own too much Warhammer:

#10. Selling your spare stuff might be enough for a down payment for a home.


 
#9. You don't need to buy the latest army that they released a codex for because you already own it.


 
#8. You end up buying a rune priest because you can't find the one you thought you have, and then you find it and now have one too many.


 
#7. You are trying to get down to only 5 armies


 
#6. You are slow to work on armies, and you have a complete unbuilt pre-heresy Thousand Sons army, Noise marine army, and Night Lords armies, and that is just for chaos.


 
#5. You have 3 fantasy armies and you don't play fantasy.


 
#4. You go looking for your demonhunters army and you can't find half of it.


 
#3. While thinking about building a demonhunters army you wonder how much IG you have and find out that you have 2 platoons of mech guard including heavy weapons squads, and you never tried to build or wanted an IG army.


 
#2. When you go looking for your missing Yriel figure you find your missing demonhunters army.


 
#1. It takes you 3 hours to find your Yriel figure.

Rise of the Tyranids

I am thinking about selling my Tyranid army on e-bay for several months now, but I just have never gotten around to it. I have not played the army in about 3 years. The reason why I quit was that I was winning a lot of games with the Godzilla list including the KublaCon 5-game RTT up in San Francisco. I ended up winning so much that I was getting hammered on my soft scores like comp and sports, so I was winning all of my games, but I was not winning the tournaments. Also it was just a little too easy to win, and by that time the whole Godzilla craze was sweeping the nation and so I just hung it up.


 
With the new codex hitting the ground, I am thinking of blowing the dust off of them to play one last time before they get sold.


 
Here is my models that I have for my 4^th edition Tyranids:

2 Hive Tyrants with magnetized upgrades

3 Tyrant Guards

3 Zoanthropes

1 Lictor

32 Hormagants

16 Hormagants w/Toxin Sacks and Adrenal Gland

32 Termagants w/Spinefists

16 Termagants w/Devourerer

28 Genestealers

Ripper Swarms

16 Gargoyles

5 Tyranid Shrikes

3 Biovores

6 Carnifexes


 
So I have to make an army out of that. I was tempted to buy a Mawloc or some other pieces, but since they are going on e-bay, I see no point in buying anything more.

I made a few armies out of it, and I was not happy with them, so I still might bring my Eldar.

Back from the dead!

Howdy folks, long time no see!

I have been gone for the holidays and now I am back.

To show you how far I have gone into deep cover I have not read anything about the new Tyranid codex, or have purchased it. Since I am looking to sell my Tyranids because I want to get down to only 5 40k armies, this might be the time to do it, although maybe I will have second thoughts after reading the codex. It is a fully painted army after all.

I have also done something I thought I would never do, and that is sign up for a fantasy league. Even though I own 3 fantasy armies, I have played a total of maybe 10 games about 5 years ago. Don't worry, that is all I will have to say about that.

Next 40k event I have my sights on is the Broadside Bash in LA. I need to work on my list, and I still have a lot of Eldar I need to finish. I thought I would bring the Eldar for a few reasons. The first is that I know them well, they are my best chance at qualifying for Vegas, and it seems like we are getting back to 3^rd edition where it is the rise of the MEQs, and it makes since to bring a non-MEQ because you do not want to follow the crowd, but also when the meta-game shifts to killing MEQs, you don't want to be playing one.

Some more about comp

When I was writing about comp I forgot my favorite saying back when comp was all the rage several years ago:


 
A fluffy army is Space Marines.

A cheesy army is anything that can beat Space Marines.

What are the top tier armies?

There is an interesting post over on Dakka. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/266407.page

That asks the question what are the top lists?


 
In the past I would put them into 3 tiers (good, bad, and ugly) and listed the most competitive builds. But after some thought, I no longer do this, and the reasons why is that I think you can win with any codex. The codexes that I thought were in the bottom of the tiered system were Necrons and Demonhunters and I think that I can win with both of them.


 
I will make the argument that what everyone thinks are top tier lists are just easier to play, and not necessarily better than the other codexes. And don't get me wrong by thinking that what I am saying is that you can win with any units, and that any 1500 points is the same and any other 1500 points, but each codex has enough good units that can work together well enough to where you can build a successful winning army.


 
Take for example, what everyone thinks are a top tier chaos list. You have tough demon princes, plague marines that just sit around and take damage, and oblits. It is a pretty easy army to play. You can also look at what people think are top tier Eldar builds of Mech and Seer council. Mech Eldar armies work under the principle of if your opponent does not have enough anti-tank you win, if they do then you are in trouble. The seer council just has a very durable unit that just heads to the opponents, and assaults. Not much brain power required. Both those builds are super easy to play.


 
Necrons vs. Imperial Guard.

A lot of people think that Necrons are one of the worst armies and at the bottom if the tiers. If you look at the results of the UK GT heat #2 Necrons did well with one person coming in at 8^th place (higher than any Space Marine player). Why was that possible? Because you can win with Necrons. The army plays similar to my Eldar do because they are able to shoot a lot of strength 6 shooting, and they are quite durable. Here is the problem with them, they are bad in assault, so what players have to do with them is think 2-3 turns ahead and plan accordingly. This is the same as the 4^th edition IG codex. You had to plan your moves and think ahead several turns to win with this army. Now that the 5^th edition IG codex is here, there is a lot less thinking that you have to do with Vendettas, Valkyries, and all of the different HS choices that the army is now on "easy mode" and requires much less thought.


 

Comp Part II

In my comp article I wanted to say that I was talking about 40k. Fantasy is a mess right now, and they may need some kind of comp system because they have 3 army books that are overpowered compared to of all of the others. I know that GW wants a little bit of codex creep to sell new figures, but they are doing a very bad job of balancing Fantasy right now.


 
For the most part I think 40k is in good shape as far as balancing goes. To give an example of this here are the results of the Heat #2 of the UK GT that took place last weekend. Remember that this is a 1500 point, no comp, bring the hardest armies you can make:


 
1) Mark Burstall - Orks
2) Simone Di Tomaso - CSM
3) Kiam Reddy - Eldar
4) Felix Porras Munoz - CSM
5) Ricardo Bacelo Polo - Orks
6) Andrew Church - Blood Angels
7) Alexander Fennell - Imperial Guard
8) Manuel Andres Fernandez - Necrons
9) David Fairweather - Daemons
10) Gianni Vacca - Imperial Guard


 
We see that there are 7 different armies in the top ten. That is pretty good. Not only that but Necrons* who everyone says are a bad army had a good showing. Also I am glad that I sold my Heat 2 ticket to Alex so he could place 7^th. J


 
If I have to point a finger at the imbalances in 40k have more to do with certain units instead of armies in general. When 5^th edition rolled out, it made previously mediocre units very powerful. Nob Bikers, Seer Councils, Mech armies, etc. So I would say that if you were going to have comp, it would be to limit certain units, and not really punish armies.


 
*I like Necrons, they kind of play like my Eldar army. They can chuck a lot of strength 6 shooting down-range and they are fast and durable. At the Wild West Shootout I won a Necron army and I am tempted to play one, but I told myself that I need to cut my armies down to only 5.

The death of comp

Comp? I hate comp!
And this is coming from someone who is pretty much comp friendly. Chaos is my main army, and I only own 3 Obliterators, no Plague Marines, and I took 1 Lash for the first time at the Adepticon Gladiator last year.



To first talk about comp we have to figure out what is comp? Comp is a way of handicapping armies so that they are all equal. Since Games Workshop makes codexes that are not equal in power, comp is a way to try to make all of them equal. There would be no need for comp if GW balanced their codexes better, but they are either unable or unwilling to do it.



Balancing the codexs seems like a good idea, but it is impossible to achieve.

The first problem is that what codexes/units need balancing? If you ask 5 people you will get 5 different answers, so now one can even agree what needs to be fixed.

The second part is how do you even balance them?



I have played in many comp systems and they are all bad…very very bad.

Let's take a look at a few of the different comp systems:

Player judged comp:

Player judged comp is bad because everyone has prejudices that sometimes are not based on reality. At the Baltimore GT in 2008 I played SoB and my opponent did not like my army because I took 3 Exorcists. He did not like me spamming any one unit for all of my heavy support choices. Never mind that Exorcists are the Witchhunters only ranged anti-tank, and the only way they can deal with Mech armies, and lots of Oblits etc. The funny thing is that he had 2 Land Raiders, and there was no way that I could deal with them without the Exorcists.

Check lists:

I played in a 5 game GT style tournament in Sacramento a couple of years ago and they had a long laundry list of items that you get penalized for. They wanted you to take a lot of troops, no AP 2 weapons, etc. The problem, not all armies fit in to a check list. I brought a Thousand Sons armies that people think was pretty tame, and most people thought were one of the weakest armies, and I got the worst comp score. The Thousand Sons have very few but very expensive troops, so when you make everyone take more troops than other selections in the army, they are penalized. Same with armies like Tau. Why should I get penalized when I am playing a weak and fluffy army? Some armies are not meant to have a ton of troops, and not every army has access to weapons like missile launchers that can take the place of lascannons. When you make a list of what you can do and what you can't then all that happened is that some armies get penalized unfairly, and others get through that should have some limits placed on them. Here is that comp system that was changed for 5^th edition and it is not as bad as it was, but still hurts some armies;

http://www.greatescapegames.com/ContestofChampions/40K/COC%20Comp%20Scoring.htm



Here is a hybrid comp score from Da Boyz GT that combined 15 points of check list, and 25 points of player judged.

http://www.daboyzgt.com/gt09/Final%20Comp.htm

Judge Scoring:

This is an ok way to go, but you are still open to what the judge thinks is cheesy and what is not. Also when you travel around to RTTs, the locals always get much better scores than the out-of-towners, for a couple of reasons. One is that they are friends with the judges, the other is that the locals know what armies and units are cheesy in that area, and what are not (it is strange to see how much local variance to what is considered cheesy). To give an example of this I brought a Tyranid army down to an RTT at Game Empire in San Diego and my comp score was horrible. It seems that one of the best players down there played Tyranids, and they all hated the army because he was crushing people with it. It is funny how the local perception was so distorted from the national thoughts on the codex because a very good player played that army, so they thought that the army was cheesy, and everyone who used it was cheesy as well.



The ugly side of comp:

If you try to institute comp, and all comp does is shift what the cheesy armies are that work within the comp system. To use a Fantasy example, at The Tides of War 2 day tournament that was held in Mesa, AZ last month, they had a comp restriction. Fantasy arguably needs comp because their army books are way out of whack, so what they did was put restrictions in to make their games more comp friendly. So what everyone does is look to find what the most powerful builds that can fit into what ever comp system they are using. So what happened is that beastmen were the best army that got by the comp system and ended up with a good showing because of it.

Comp makes you soft. At the UK GT they were wondering why all of the Italians and the Spanish always do very well in their heats. Why is that? There are a couple of reasons, if you are flying to a major event you are there to compete and have a good showing. Also the UK for the most part (other than the UK GT) is very comp friendly and that has made the English soft when they go up against the other Europeans who do not play with comp.



Here is another thing that is awful about comp. Here you are being Mr. Nice Guy and bring a nice fluffy list, and here comes TFG who totally ignores the comp rules and takes the nastiest list that they can and crushes everyone. In that Sacramento GT there was a guy who brought an armored company and with all of the restrictions on bring heavy weapons for everyone else, he was crushing people. In round #1 he phased out a Necron player in turn #1 before he had a chance to move. Sounds like fun?

So when you go to a GT that does not have comp you will need to deal with it, and not complain about other armies that are taking advantage of it.


Let's us all understand that comp is dead, and that we all have to fight it out without it there to protect some armies.

ETC

Well, I was talking to some people about being part of the USA contingent to the 40k European Team Championships where teams of 8 players from different countries play for national pride, then I get this e-mail:

"You recently signed up for both the 40K Gladiator and 40K Championships at AdeptiCon 2010. Since you registered we have added some information regarding the European Team Championships. Participation in both the above mentioned events is required to qualify for ETC consideration. If you are interested in being considered a potential candidate for the ETC, simply respond to this email stating your participation and we will add you to the list.

Additional information regarding the ETC can be found here:
http://www.adepticon.org/10rules/etc.pdf "


 
I have been trying to get a team to go to the ETC for a while, but I was unable to get any traction.


 
What people don't understand is that you are talking about a 16 hour plane ride (not including the 3 layovers) at the cost of $1500 for a few games of 40k. And that is just to get you in the door. Then you are talking about lodging, food etc, not to mention that summer is the peak tourist season in Europe, and Germany is one of the most expensive countries, and the list goes on. People have trouble going to Adepticon, and you want them to travel across the world to play? I would think that it would be best to find 8 bodies that want to go rather than being too picky about who you have going.


 
To give you an example of this, they have been trying to get a second Dakka Dakka team to Adepticon and they always have people fall out, and things come up, etc. To get people to Germany not only do they have a huge logistical problem, but who of us can really say that we can do anything as far away as August? People get laid off, they get into relationships, they run into fanatical problems, lose interest in 40k etc. and that is with plenty of warning. Then they want to invite 2 people in April to see if they can go? Right now my work is bidding on vacation time for 2010, so I would need to know now if I was on the team, not in April.

IMO they are going about it wrong, and they just need some commitments from people, and not worry about everything else. England could not go because they could not get the people 2 years ago and for them it is a 2.5 hour flight at $250, and they are not the only team that has had these problems.


 
I don't know, I wanted to go and make a European vacation out of it, but the audition process has turned me off. I have a feeling that I could be at the bottom of the standings at Adepticon and get an invite since they can't get anyone else to go. The whole process makes the UK GT that much more appealing.

My next army project

Every year I start a new army to give myself something to do between the Baltimore GT and Adepticon while the tournament season slows down and it recharges my engines for the Warhammer 40K hobby. Of course there was no Baltimore GT this year, but this is still time to work on something new.


After reading this thread about Darth Diggler's 'Ard Boyz army:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/257828.page
It made me think of working on a chaos equivalent. This leads me to my Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons idea I have had kicking around for a few years. Not only that, but it seems that there is a renewed interest in them with the re-launch of the Space Wolves, and with the Black Library's Horus Heresy books focusing on them with the upcoming releases of Prospero Burns and Thousand Sons. So I think I will revisit my favorite army for next year's tournament season.



To build this army I cracked open the The Horus Heresy "Collected Vision" book for the look and feel of the army, and after going through it all I have to say is that it will be a ton of work to capture that look! Not only that but painting red is my personal kryptonite.

Blogwars!!!

The controversy

It looks like there is a lot a talk on the blogs about the list/army that won BoLScon.

The list was posted over at the BoLS blog for everyone to see and then everyone reacted to the list.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/08/40k-bolscon-overall-winners.html

To save you the trouble of clicking on the link, here is the list:



Super Winged Choppy Tyrant

Foot Tyrant, Dual Devourers and 2 Guards

3x 20 Improved (WS, Str, In) Hormagaunts

8 Spinegaunts, Without Number

Lictor

3 Zoanthropes

2x Carnifex – Barbed Strangler / Venom Cannon



A lot of people have different reaction to this list. Over at the YTTH blog the infamous Stelek berated the owner of the list, the whole BoLSCon because a list like that won. He went on in his usual style questioning the quality of the competition, and how the local armies would beat that list.

http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2009/08/re-lol-bolscon.html

The thing you have to know about Stelek is things are either black or white with him. There is no grey. Units and equipment either work or they don't and he dismisses it. There was a player that did well with Tau in his local 'Ard Boyz tournament and he dismissed his whole list and my association the player because he had flamers on some models. Stelek has made up his mind and flamers are bad, and nothing can change his mind. Stelek's narrow viewpoint is close-mindedness of different units and tactics are one of his weaknesses.

Then The_King _Elessor also went off on this list on The Mind War blog:

http://hobbyinfobythekingelessar.blogspot.com/2009/08/screw-it-ill-be-honest-and-say-what.html

He made Stelek seem calm and dispationate, that that is saying something!

Then of course The Blood of Kittens (Whom I am starting to enjoy) then jumped on The_King_Elessor, and there was a big argument about this army.

http://bloodofkittens.com/?p=1062

The_King _Elessor backed down a bit when engages by the BoLS crew here:

http://hobbyinfobythekingelessar.blogspot.com/2009/09/apology-to-mkerr-and-whole-load-of.html

But there is no doubt that a lot of people were underwhelmed by the winning Tyranid list.



My Thoughts

Do you know what I thought when I saw this army posted? I could win with this army.

The army has a lot of strengths. Let's look at the core: Hormagaunts.

He upgraded them to uber-gaunts by giving them the only upgrades that matter…WS, STR and INT. So want you have is a pack of 60 gaunts that can charge between 19"-24" and hit hard because of the upgrades. Let's look at the gaunts offence. On the charge you get 60 attacks per unit, which means against marines they will hit first, the gaunts will then hit 40 times doing 20 wounds and killing around 7 marines. Not to shabby at all and that is without the Lictor who I imagine is there for the most part to add his feeding tendrils, but I will leave him out.

Now let's look at killing them. Gaunts are fast. So fast and you will not have a chance to kill them without a great deal of trouble. The reason why is that you can't rapid fire them, or hit them with any real damage unless you have some big blasts.

The other units are things that you need to make the army work. You need synapse for the gaunts. You have 2 hive tyrants and 3 zoanthropes to give you good coverage. Hormagaunts do have the habit of running forward and out of synapse, and they have a winged hive tyrant to try to keep up with them, but with the 5^th edition morale rules, but once they launch there assault they should do a lot more damage in assault and do not have to worry about running.

Lictor? I barely knew her! Although a bit over priced, he has a lot of good rules that compliment the army. He has feeder tendrils to have the Gaunt re-roll failed rolls to wound, and he can tie up shooty units in that are hiding in the back of the board and kill those pesky vehicles that are giving you trouble. They have improved in this role in 5^th edition because most of the tanks in the rare are stationary, and you hit rear armor, they have gotten a big boost.

Carnifexs are always good. You shoot vehicles and although they can't kill them like they use to, they can keep them stunned which is all you have to do for some armies. Then they can also assault with strength 9 and 2d6 penetration.

The Zoanthropes are good for synapse because they are a lot harder to kill that you would think, and also they are good for shooting a few random shots down field. I think using them for the psychic choir has kind of died down in 5^th. As far as the synapse goes, there are a lot of people who go gaunt heavy and forget about synapse and so what I do is just go after synapse and if I can't kill it all, what is left starts to head for cover, and they can't do what they want to do.

So over all, I think the army works. I would not mind taking it to an RTT and seeing what would happen.

How I choose my army

To begin, I wanted to discuss how I go about choosing an army.



There are basically 3 steps:

Figure out what armies that I don't want to play.

Figure out want armies that I want to play

Figure out what army I think can win with.



Figure out what armies I do not want to play.

This is the easiest step. I do not want to play a tier one (the best) armies. So that means that I will not play Orks, Dual Lash Chaos, Seer Council Eldar, etc.

The second one is that I like the rare armies/builds and those attract me. So out goes Mech Armies, Vulcan SM, Plague Marines, or MEQs in general, etc. There are so many marine armies around, that I had to scrap my plans for one. The Space Wolves are my first army, and I was waiting a very long time for their codex to come out. Now that it is almost here everyone is jumping on that bandwagon. Also I look around at the armies I see playing in RTTs and in the local area and I see a lot of marine armies and I have to jump off the bandwagon. Maybe after the initial rush of SW players die down and they move on to other armies I might be able to return to my Sea Wolves.



Figure out want armies that I want to play

So then let's take a look at what interests me. There is two ways I go about picking an army. One way is that I like a unit or theme and then build around that. For example, I am not a big fan of Orks, but if I was to build an Ork army, I would build it around Flash Gits. I like how everyone thinks they are a bad unit, but I like how they work and their fluff. If I was going to build a Space Marine army, I would center it around Legion of the Damned. I like this theme so much that I almost built it, and I had to lie down for a while to stop myself from making it.

To give an example of picking units I like and building around them I will point to an army that I built just after the elder codex came out. There was a lot of discussion of which units were good, and which ones were bad. The consensus was that Guardians were very bad, so I started to build my army around them. They appealed to me because they were cheap and they were fast, and they are multi-purpose. I like units that can do many things and fill many roles. Guardians can move and shoot a heavy weapon, Fleet (back when fleet did something), and then they can close and shoot their small arms. So then I had to find units that worked with them. I choose the Avatar because he would make all of the guardians fearless, and negate there poor leadership. I also choose Eldrad (before Eldrad was in every army) because Guardians need a little bit of a boost to be more effective and Eldrad is a great force multiplier. He can cast 2 Guides, or 2 Dooms or 2 Fortunes etc. Whatever I need, he can supply it. And then I build an army around it to compliment it and it turned out every well. This is the list I went 4-0-1 at the LVGT and 5-0 at the Baltimore GT.



Figure out what army I think can win with.

This is the hardest one. I try to match an army up with the top tier armies to see if I have a chance. I compare them to what think I will find at the top tables and see if my army matches up. I look at things like every marine army will have at least one Land Raider, and often times more, so an army must have an answer for them. It must have a chance against horde Orks, Lash/Oblit spam and a Mech army.

Now I am not saying that I have to be able to have an overwhelming advantage against a top tier list (and the fact that they are top tier lists means that there is nothing that has an overwhelming advantage over them), but I want to have at least a chance against them. Hopefully my skill as a player will make up for whatever disadvantage my army has as far as the matchup goes, but I need to at least have a chance.

To give an example of what I am talking about, my SoB army that I played last year had a little bit of everything that could deal with the heavy hitters. I had some exorcists and melta for Land Raiders/Mech, some flamers and a lot of heavy bolters for orks, and I hope my Exorcists could win a gunnery duel with Obits and SoBs are very resilient to lash/psychic powers.