Tyranid FAQ Released!

Finally, FINALLY, the Tyranid FAQ has been released for Codex Tyranids and I have to say it is by far one of the best, most straight forward FAQs I have ever read from GW. ***Applause all around for doing something right*** No ambitious rulings, no shaky or contradicting findings, simple "If this happens does this happen Questions" with a solid Yes or No answers. Now while I might disagree with a few things in here, it at least answers almost all of those crazy questions that came up when this codex launch

Some of the High Points of this FAQ as I saw it:

1) Tyranids with multiple CC Weapons do get the benefit of both of them at the same time, so Yes, lash Whip and Bone Sword are used simultaneously and work together. Duh.

2) Multiple Hive Commander Abilities DO NOT Stack! So no 2+ to Reservers from running two stock tyrants. Also, no two more outflanking troop choices either. Thus, no real reason to run two basic Tyrants.

3) Yes, even though the Main Rulebook says so, and I have no idea why this was ever in question, having Wings do permit the unit to deepstrike. DUH for those how said it didn't!

4) And a big Surprise here, Hive Guard who fall into Instinctive Behavior can not fire at things they do not have LOS of, despite the fact their gun can. Ok, I can live with that.

5) Yes the Mawloc can choose to Deep Strike onto a point occupied by an enemy model and blow them all to hell. This makes the model just a bit cooler.

6) I do not get this one at all, of all of the rulings here, this one makes the least amount of sense to me. If a Tyranid unit takes a Mycetic Spore, can it choose
to deploy normally whilst the empty Mycetic Spore deep strikes on its own? The shocking answer... No? NO! Why not? But Drop Pods and Rhinos and every other dedicated transport can? Ok... whatever. Bad call... but I'll live with it.

and of course, how could I go without commenting on this one:

7) DOOM is nerfed!!! Or clarified if you will. Yes you do get a cover save from the woundd his life leech ability inflicts and No, it does not effect units in transports! Ok, two comments. Cover saves from a special ability that does not draw LOS or targets a specific unit??? I disagree but this is how I have been playing it so no big deal. Second, I never really bought into the idea that it effected units in transports. So really wishful thinking by some power gammers if you ask me. For starters, the main rulebook states that psychic powers do not effect units in transports so to me this is a no-brainer. Too many problems would come up if it did. Like does the unit have to take a moral check if they take 25% and if they flee, where to the flee to?

Does this lessen the unit... I don't think so. Most civilized players have been playing it this way anyway.

Overall... great FAQ! Good job GW!

Codex Overview: Tyranids - The Hive Tyrant

Tyranid Hive Tyrant

Overall: ******* 7/10
Assault: ***** 5/10
Shooting: ****** 6/10
Anti-Tank: ******* 7/10
Psychic: ******* 7/10

My how the mighty have fallen. Once the terror of the 4th Edition codex, you'd never see a Tyranid army without one. Normally, for me at least, a Dakka-Flyrant that would re-roll to hit and to-wound and dump an unreasonable amount of wounds into a unit. A terror on the battle field, now reduced to a secondary assault/support role if even fielded at all. If not for the Hive Commander ability, it is hard to argue one way or the other to have or not to bother with this unit.

PROS: Still a toughness 6 Monstrous Creature who, if you are willing to spend the points, can fly, bust up tanks, and rip through any troop unit without a power or force weapon in it, and make other Tyranid units around him stronger. It is a Synapse Creature and it's Psychic powers are a great asset to the army, Paroxysm being one of my personal favorites and Life Leech is much better then Regenerate. It has the ability to carry some of the strongest guns in the army, the Heavy Venom Cannon on a Flying Creature add some much needed range to this otherwise short ranged army. And, again, if your willing to spend the points, you can still have your Dakka-Flyrant spitting out 12 STR 6 shots that re-roll to hit, and that is nothing to sneeze at. It can help bring in reserve units faster, give other Tyranids Preferred Enemy, and allow you to outflank with a MC (the Troops choice Tervigon)if you choose.

CONS: This unit is extremely over pointed for what you get. Probably by about 40 Points or so. And for the point cost that you do pay, the damned thing should come with a 4+ Invulnerable save at least. Any of the good upgrades that you would want to put on it are equally over pointed and this unit can quickly become a giant point sink. Not to mention that you can not have a 2+ save and wings at the same time. The lack of an invulnerable save is by far one of the strongest weaknesses of this unit, forcing you to "be careful" when using it as opposed to jamming it down the enemy's throat. This unit is less "scary" then it was in the previous edition. Any unit that can fight its way out of a paper bag has a good chance of knocking off wounds or flat out killing this rather fragile unit. It forces you to either buy Tyrant Guard at an over pointed cost, or dedicate units to screening it, say Gargoyles or Hive Guard.

Suggested Upgrades:

Wings - Yeah, way too expensive but does gives the Tyrant much needed mobility. A walking Tyrant is a dead Tyrant IMHO

Hive Commander - If you intend to Deep Strike or Outflank Anything, take this!

Old Adversary - Short ranged but a good upgrade for hoard style armies

Suggested Weapons:

Two Sets of Scything Talons - Might as well make sure you can put as many hits on the unit you charge.

Two Sets of Twin-Linked Devourers - Good shooting for a modest cost. Short Ranged though, so be prepared to by the wings!

Heavy Venom Cannon - This army lacks good anti-tank, so adding this will help vs. heavy mech armies.

Suggested Build 1: Tyrant with 2 Sets of Talons, Paroxysm and Life Leech, and Wings - 260 Points Screen this guy with a 15 man kitted out Gargoyle Brood and he can drop the enemies WS and BS, have the Gargoyles Changes and mop them up. This is normally how I run him.

Thinking About: Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition

Someone please freaking stop me. I beg of you! With all of the hype of the new Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition coming out, and how much it had changed and balanced the game, my crazy brain and OCD keeps tempting me to at least buy that new box set when it comes out and try it out. Can you stop me from doing this? Please?

Let's go back a little into EvilEd209's past. I started my miniature war gaming career with WFB way back in 1997. I believe it was under the 3rd edition of the rule set back then. Me and a friend of mine got into the game mostly for the hobby aspect of it. I think we played a grand total of 35 to 40 games of it. At this time I was graduating high school and moving on to college. So my plan was to bring my models with me to college and find folks to play at the LGS. Well, when I got there I found out what everybody already knows, 40K is much, MUCH more popular then WFB and I found it damn near impossible to find a fantasy game.

So I dropped it. Sold off all of my models and picked up 40K. I played for a year and then 40K dropped deep into the background of my life as other things of life pushed it out of the way. Hell, 40K would have been a part of my distant past forever if it had not been for a buddy of mine who only stayed in the hobby for the models, customizing of those models and the painting. If it had not been for a fateful night near Christmas 2007 when he brought his Chaos Space Marines over to show me some of the modeling and painting he had been doing, I would have never come back.

But ever since I got back into 40K, and I am happy I did and will call it my primary hobby, I have often looked back to WFB with wonder. A very small part of me missing the genre and the idea of playing a fantasy war game still appeals to me. Plus, every once in awhile it is good to have a different game to play. But WFB SUCKS right now, I mean it really SUCKS. As I started to do my research on the game I found out what a joke it has become.

The game system as it stands now is so fundamentally broken that no TO worth their salt would consider hosting a WFB tournament without some form of COMP just to help balance a severally broken game. Some of the newer armies are so grossly overpowered that older armies do not stand a chance in an un-COMPed tournament. Some units are so broken that they are either limited in tournament use or banned altogether. The system is broken, the rules are broken, and I am sorry to say the game is broken. If not for the efforts of the WFB community itself and not the publisher of the game, the game would almost be unplayable in a competitive sense.

I think my favorite story I have ever heard of the current state of WFB was recanted on the Gamer's Lounge Podcast (a great little gaming podcast BTW). They told a tale of a recent large tournament held in England. And this gamming group brought a brand new player into WFB for this tournament. The guy had never seen nor touched Warhammer before. They gave him a Chaos Deamons army to play in this tournament, a notably broken army in the current edition of the game. They gave this player a weekend boot camp, told him the basic rules, and which units in his army charged and which units shoot. This greenhorn, brand new player to the game, had never been in any kind of tournament whatsoever, took 8th in a field of over 60 players. 8th! That is how broken the game is right now.

Now, think about that in terms of 40K. Do you genuinely believe that if you or your gaming group were to bring in a new player, give him a point-and-click hard as nails army, say leafblower for example, and throw him into Adepticon after only a weekend to teach him the game, do you think that this new player would come anywhere near the top 25 players there? Or top 50 for that matter. Hell no, those guys would eat him alive. And this is why I believe the game of 40K to be much more balanced then some claim. Is there codex creep? Yes, of course, why else are Space Wolves and Blood Angles so much better then their Codex Brothers? Are there weaker armies that suffer in 5th Edition? Of course, my beloved Necrons are screaming for a new Codex. But overall, I really feel that in any given game, where each general is of relatively equal skill, any army can beat any army.

So why in the hell would a competitive player like myself even consider such a gross lack of judgment as to even consider such a fundamentally broken game as WFB? Well, this week some of the preview copies of the new rule set have filtered down to the masses lucky enough to have a GW store near them. And all of the WFB experts who have had the chance to read over these rules are calling it AWESOME. This version of the game is not so much a fix and repair of 7th Edition, but a complete and total revamp of the entire WFB system.

This intrigues me. Form the early sounds of things, it fixes a lot of the broken holes in the game, helps to balance the game without updating the army books (a complete bizarre practice I might add) and is so fundamentally different from 7th, that old cheesey tactics simply will not work in 8th anymore.

I am sure it has its holes and flaws. But come time for the new box set to release, if all that we are being told is true. I think I might give Fantasy a shot.

Someone, anyone educated in WFB that can talk me out of this, please do. My wife will thank you!

40K Rants: Why Eldar?

So now that the effects of jet lag, that lovely stomach flu, and sick kids are beginning to subside and life is returning to some state of normal, I will be dedicating myself to the assembly, painting, learning and playing my new army, the Eldar. I am really looking forward to it, this being my now fourth 40K army. I can't help it, I just want to own them all some day, and to be honest, "it looks like it may actually happen" - Egon, Ghostbusters.

"But EvilEd209?" you ask, "if you are this super competitive, tournament player that you say you are, Why Eldar? Why not Space Wolves, or the new shinny Blood Angles, or the super duper tournament winning leafblower Imperial Guard. Or, why not wait a few months and go after those super scary Dark Eldar that are coming, really this time, we swear. Why Eldar?"

Well fine reader, I will answer that question. For starters, I am a competitive player, this is true. When it comes to tournament play or my gaming club, I often have a similar attitude to that clip of Herm Edwards when he coached the Jets saying, "You play to win the game". But I feel that not only do I compete with the guys at my FLGS and my Gaming club, but I compete with myself as well. I do not feel that to be competitive that you need to swap over to the newest, greatest army to smash face for a few months until people figure out how to deal with your army and then move on to the next best thing. That is not competitive to me, it is taking advantage of your opponent's lack of knowledge of your army to win. There is very little challenge in this tactics to me. The real challenge is to take your army and adapt to new armies and tactics out there. Or better yet, start and older army and try to win with it, this is what separates a good tournament player from a great one.

For example, do you remember when Nob Bikers were the scariest thing in the 40K Universe and they took advantage of that new fangled wound allocation thingy that 5th Edition introduced? I sure do, it was right when I first started playing 40K competitively. And I remember my first tournament and being crushed by those damned things and cursing them. However, I began to adapt my army to prepare for such thing. Playing Tyranids back then, the SniperFex with it's STR 8 Barbed Strangler Large Blast was more then enough to equalize that threat. Add in some Genestealers with Implant Attack and I was eating Nob Biker Lists alive. I adapted, I did not dump my bugs to go play Nob Biker Orks.

But this does not really answer the question, "Why Eldar?" Well for starters, as I was doing my research into the other 40K armies out there that were not Necrons, Tyranids, or Codex Space Marines, I was looking for something specific. I wanted start an army that was totally different then what I had been playing. At frist I was looking at the aforementioned Orks, but if I ran Orks, I would run them mob style, which is basically how I run my Tyranids now. So I moved on to Space Wolves, but these guys are only very slightly different from Marines and I did not want to cheese it up too much. I looked at Tau for a moment, but not only does the army not appeal to me at all, sorry Tau players, but I already had all shooty all the time army and it simply does not fit my play style.

So I then came across the Eldar. I know this will sound bad, but I have three sons who, gods willing, be playing 40K here in the near future. And I already have two "bad guy" armies and only one "good guy" army. So I started looking for another army who could be argued to be a "good guy". I started reading the Eldar Codex and I really started to get into the fluff. And I loved the story. That is what really made the decision for me. They were not bad guys, but god guys, from a certain point of non-Imperium view. The models look super cool, and this not being least of course, they can run Mech and are pretty good at it as well. They use a lot of Eldar Psychic powers and employ completely different tactics to play the army. It was perfect.

So keep your eyes pealed for pics of the new Eldar being built and painted with future army lists and battle reports to follow.

40K Radio to Rise From the Ashes!

So, in my standard catching up on all of the goings on in the 40K world after the long vacation, I came across the old 40K Radio website site. It has changed slightly, for those who haven't been paying attention, and it looks like the show will be staging a rise from the ashes after its rather sudden and instant death.

All that Spencer has posted on the site it the following:


"Interesting Things Ahead!
By Spencer · Comments (105)

Stay Tuned….."

Once you dig into the comments you'll find out that Romeo from Battle Foam, a fantastic product by the way, posts the following in the comments:

"Hello guys,

Romeo here from Battle Foam.

I noticed my name on here so I thought I would stop in and say hi. I can not comment on any inside information except to say that 40K Radio will be back!

It will be as exciting as ever and the new show format should make everyone very happy.

I would also like to say that Spencer has really put his heart and soul into the future of 40K Radio and will always be a part of it in some way.

I can also say that the new format will feature a great cast and amazing content. We hope to bring the community of pod casts and hosts back together in a new and exciting way.

Lastly the show will be a community friendly show promoting what we all love, 40k and the warhammer hobby.

I personally have a relationship with most hosts from various pod casts across the net. Because of that they will all be part of the new format in some fashion.

Please be patient with us during this transition period and look for the show to release its new episodes very shortly.

Long live 40K Radio, and long live wargaming pod casts!

Romeo
Battle Foam
Protecting Your Army (Shameless plug, lol)"


So these revelations raise many questions. Question number 1: who will be on this new 40K Radio show? Chances are Scott and Chipley will not be associated with the show whatsoever, and I am sorry to say that unless they each get their own projects, we will no longer hear from the boys. A damn shame I might add! Spencer, however, I suspect while he may not be an "on-air" personality, will have plenty to do with this new 40K Radio show. Hell, there's still money in it! If I had to guess, and I did state this in my prior 40K Radio post, George Miller would be a good guess as to who would be on this new show. As to the rest of the cast, I can not say. My hope is that they would learn from prior mistake and keep Jar Jar a silent member of the cast.

Question Number 2: What Great Cast and Content? Even the host of the former 40K Radio had admitted that the content of their show had dropped sharply over the last dying months. This new show promises new and exciting content. We will see about that.

Question 3: "We hope to bring the community of pod casts and hosts back together in a new and exciting way." This one intrigues me the most. As some of you know, 40K Radio did not have the best reputation when it came to other 40K Based podcasts. One , the War Banner hosted by the former 40K Radio host and co-creator Phil Johnson, who left the show with no formal explanation I find it hard to believe would ever work with 40K Radio again. I am curious as to how the 40K Radio Nation will reach out its arms to a community that feels most of them are elitists, money grubbing assholes who do not deserve their respect.

We will see where this new 40K Radio goes and how it is. I will keep you all posted!

I'm Baaaaacccckkkk!

Hello there 40K Fans! Well, after a nice long Southern California Vacation, the 'Ol EvilEd209 is back to blogging. The family and I had a great trip with some low points. Our type 1 Diabetic 2-year old had some really high blood glucose numbers early in the week but we go that all cleared up. Then he went and picked up a nasty cough by Thursday. But, we made a vacation out of it anyway! We went to Fisherman's Wharf, we got to ride the cable cars which my 2-year old still is calling the coo-coo's, went out into the bay on the Ducky Tour with Captain Fantastic who let my five year old drive the boat, I saw the Golden Gate Bridge, and we attended an awesome wedding at Stanford University. But I have to say, by Thursday and I was ready to come home.

So, I have about 1 Billion work related emails to deal with, catch up on two-week's worth of Blogs and Podcast, and I'll be back to writing.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

40K News: Stomach Flu Takes Outs Blogger!

Hey gang, I wanted to give you all an update and let you know that I am not slacking on the content here at the blog. We here at the EvilEd209 Garage have been hit with a nasty stomach flu which has just wiped me out. It started with my 2 year old and it finally spread to my 5 year old and the baby, 8 months old. Shortly there after the kids were kind enough to share this lovely virus with Mom and Dad. So we here at the garage have not been of the best of health lately.

We are also planing a family vacation to the San Fransisco Bay area starting next week. So my hope is that we are all healthy and ready for the plane trip from Pittsburgh, PA to San Fransisco, CA with three kids! Yea! I will do my best to keep the content coming but it might be thin for next week.

I have more 40K Tactics 101 articles coming, more army lists, more hobby stuff as the Eldar are still screaming my name.

So be patient and be ready for some fun stuff. Off to the bathroom, again!

Thanks guys!

40K Army Lists: The Sons of Saim-Hann

So a wonderful thing happened to me yesterday when I arrived home from work, aside from the normal pleasures of three smiling little faces all happy to see Mommy and Daddy come home. On the kitchen table was a box from Games Workshop, and within that box was my brand new Fire Prism/Night Spinner kit. A birthday gift from the great guys (and girl) that I work with, and it arrived a day early I might add! I also got my most recent eBay purchases of a box of Dire Avengers and a War Walker. All of these brand new modles are piling up with the Eldar Stuff I have hiding in the basement (A Wave Serpent, A Falcon, 5 Rangers, 6 Fire Dragons and the Special Order Farseer) and they are calling to me:

"Build US!" "Paint US!" "Play with US!" "Conquer with US!"

I hear these voices in my sleep now, that isn't bad is it?

So, I have deiced to put my paint project of my Tyranids on hold and will start my Eldar Army now, I do not think the voices are giving me any choice. I am adopting a new policy with this army though, one I have always told myself I would do but never did it. I will not play with a single unpainted model. So for me to unleash this new army on to my friends at the local game store, I am going to need to get to work.

The photo that is accompanying this article is an example of my new paint theme, it is sort of a reverse of the Saim-Hann paint scheme and I intend to have some similar fluff behind the army as well. I am calling them the Sons of Saim-Hann.

I do not know how everyone else builds their armies but I usually pick a point value, do a ton of home work and build a primary list, and then start buying. So here is the list I and point value I am building too initially:

1850 Points

1 Eldrad 210

1 Farseer with Spirit Stones, Guide and Doom 120

10 Dire Avengers with the Exarch Upgrade, Bladestorm Upgrade, 2 Avenger
Catapult in a Wave Serpent with T-L Eldar Missile Launcher and Spirit
Stones 282

10 Dire Avengers with the Exarch Upgrade, Bladestorm Upgrade, 2 Avenger
Catapult in a Wave Serpent with T-L Eldar Missile Launcher and Spirit
Stones 282

5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with T-L Eldar Missile Launcher and Spirit
Stones 190

3 Jet Bike Guardians 66

5 Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent with T-L Eldar Missile Launcher and Spirit
Stones 210

1 Fire Prism with Holo-Fields 150

1 Fire Prism with Holo-Fields 150

3 War Walkers Duel Scatter Lasers 180

So that is it, that is the first draft list. Let me know what guy guys think okay?