Played my first 7th edition game. Pretty sure I'm the only one....

So we are all aware 7th dropped and the net largely reacted with unjustified rage. Fuck them anyone with enough time to surf forums and hate away, isn't playing I'm positive of that.

So my buddy Shawn came over and we played Maelstrom of War mission 4. It was the one where you keep your cards secret. It was Hammer and Anvil deployment. He is new to the game and has a smaller army, so we played at 1350. He showed up with 3 Leman Russ tanks, vendetta, chimera some troops and 2 primaris psychers.

I rolled in with 2 Wave Serpents, wraithlord w/2 brightlances, Wraithknight stock, some Dire Avengers, Wraithguard w/D-Scythes, Spiritseer and Farseer. Hello run on sentence. Fuck Mrs. Wetzel is losing her shit right now in hell (she was the hardest teacher I ever had, 8th grade English).
Shawn won deployment and drew cards.

I tragically couldn't take pics of the battle due to my low IQ and caveman like tendencies I do have this though....

 

Yeah that's it... Quit judging me I'm dumb...

 

So first turn was night fighting and its way dumbed down. Super easy. Only thing I didn't care for about night fighting is that for units that already have stealth they gain no benefit from it.

So the gist of the match was the following we shot at each others tanks.... a lot and could not kill those mofo's! At the end of the match he had a unscathed Leman Russ and Chimera. I lost both Serpents but my Wraithknight and Wraithlord were no worse for the wear.

Psychic phase. Funner then picking on rednecks! Easy to grasp and pretty well balanceded. He had 4 ML of psychers and I had 5. Pretty even. I noticed the most amount of powers I got off were 4... once... With the exception of turn 4 I got off 3. Turn 4 I shit all over the table with my dice.... 1 power out of 9 Warp Charges.... Embarrassing!!!! A cool thing though we both Denied the Witch on each others blessings once. Really kept hope alive you could do something about it. I loved it.

The cards.... For me it was awesome. I got great ones... Shawn didn't. Not so awesome for him. He still had a blast trying to figure out how to score and what card to dump each turn. He said he definitely wanted to try them again.

So new jink rule is awesome and terrible. My Serpents suck as gun boats now. They are however more un-killable without a "ignore cover" weapon. Couple that with "objective secured" just means I now play them different. I use them as wait for it.... wait.... wait... fucking transports!!! God damn it the humanity now my transport isn't the best vehicle in the game its only like well... tied for first.... Oh well. As a Eldar player I stand firm to this statement "We had it coming..."

Until next time

7th EDITION!!! WTF!!! ERMAGAWD!!!

Ok so now its out. I have my copy of it. Its beautiful. The three book set rocks, anyone who argues I'll have words with. So let me go through and tell you what I think.

Mines bitches!!!

First impression of the new rules. Its a lot of the same. That's cool though I think 6th is a fun edition. I wouldn't say its drastically more streamlined or smarter then 6th rather just slightly refined.
Everyone knows about the biggest changes which are to the psychic phase. Everyone and their monkey ass roommate was bitching about unbound but after reading the WHOLE FUCKING paragraph on unbound armies. I was kind of let down. Its just GW giving us permission to play truly unscaled narrative games. Honestly my last post was about narrative gaming. I am already doing this. So no biggie for me. Its also not going to break the tourney scene because I quote "players must agree how they are going to select their armies, and if any restrictions apply to the number and type of models they can use" (pg 116 second column 4 sentence now settle the fuck down). Lastly a new way to play missions and its pretty damn hip yo!

Psychic phase standouts

1. A "unit" can only attempt to manifest a power once. I love this. This make seer council and screamer star not so automatic. I'll explain in a second.
2. Deny, Deny, Deny... Everyone is denying everything now. Its easy to deny if you are targeted and have either wargear or psychers on your side. However you can deny blessings!!! Booo Yaaaa!!!! See item number one and do some math. Will you actually deny blessings a lot well likely... No... But you can try and that's awesome.
3. The new mechanics. I play Eldar and frankly failing a power with my Farseers was a fucking inconvenience. It was rare and I liked it that way. No longer the case gents. Now 1D6 plus all your psychers Mastery Levels. Now this will benefit Daemons and GK most. However if you take 1 psycher Lvl 2 and you are playing Tau. They aren't fucked in the psychic phase... Ok shitty example. Dark Eldar (pure not that Beast star velvetta dick stuff all over the place) have a chance to dispel. That rocks. Is it likely, hell no, but when it happens people will remember. It'll go like this "Hey remember when I denied fortune on your unit of jetbikes trying to claim that last objective for the win?" Response "Fuck you 7th edition is so fucked up I'm rage quitting to go play WarmaHordes!!"
4. New powers Sanctic and Malefic (Force to whatever...) cool powers do awesome things. Make Daemons legit and Grey Knights as well. If you live under a rock both powers cause perils check on doubles if you aren't the requite faction casting it. I love it. Yes CSM should have gotten Malefic but they did get divination and still have Heldrakes so shush.
5. Getting the Primaris for free. Thank you. Now I finally have variety. Now I will take Spiritseers en mass. My farseers now have a reason to use Runes of Fate. I will get at least 2 good powers. Yes I'm still going to get fucking death mission but what the hell.
6. Prescience got hijacked. I love it. Because fuck you Astra Militarum you are not the new Eldar. Guide rules over all. Its a warp charge 2 now which means you need two 4+ rolls to cast it. Which means you must use at least 3 dice for any reliability.
7. It comes after movement. Thank you GW for that.
8. Witchfire/Shooting powers have ZERO bearing on your shooting phase. See number 7!
9. You are now going to have to think about it. Much like WFB you will now be forced to use the Psychic phase strategically. God damn you Tom Kirby!!!! Actually I love it. I never had to think about it. I just pointed and clicked and banged out my powers. This is better.
10. I cant cast inside transports. Dick move GW.... I had it coming.... Actually all of us Wave Serpent spammers, Chimera milking, Rhino humping (ok no uses Rhinos) bastards had it coming. No more hiding and buffing.

I love the new phase I will be trying out 7th Monday night I think. After that I will throw up some updates to my non existent readers.
BTW Cath thanks for readingg this and giving me my only page view! Love you!!

Forging a Narrative

So my buddy Kyle and I have recently started playing a campaign between us. I have come up with a premise for a theme/story of why these battles are happening. Then I have started developing missions based on this story. I will come up with a mission premise and then forward it to Kyle to get his input.
I must tell you its by far the most fun I've had playing 40k. We have just finished our 3rd mission/battle of the campaign two nights ago. As it stands the campaign record is 1-1-1. The first match was a draw. I had almost tabled Kyle but he far surpassed me in VP. The 2nd game I handily won due to an error on my part. The third game he came roaring back and handed me a sound asswhipping. So here are some things I've picked up on since starting this.

Our most recent table layout. This mission focused on me fleeing the table and Kyle shooting me in the ass while I ran screaming like a 8 year old...

 

Mission 2 table layout. It was a city fight that rewarded assaulting the enemy. Wow how'd that empty beer get there. Kyle is a drunk.... Wait that was my side...

1. Do not feel contained. Make up your own rules and go with it. Adjust the FOC, make weird limitations, make the entire game night fighting, be creative with objectives and don't worry if it isn't always fair.... I mean that.

2. The story shapes the missions and the mission outcomes shape the story. I know this is basic stuff here right but maybe you don't have the RPG background I do. Maybe you are afraid to make the campaign "yours". Put your stamp on that bitch. Be creative. Make the narrative shine. I know for myself I got into this game for the fluff and creative outlet it offers me. I am taking full advantage of this.

We here so much about "Forge the Narrative" but how many of us are doing it? I know the 6 book missions are solid but terribly basic. They do not lend themselves to my imagination. They did not offer me enough. So we made it ours. We said "why not?" Conventional wisdom says campaigns need more then 2. Well no they are perfectly fine with just two. 
So go out and forge it. You thank yourself later.

Teaching a NEWB!!

So recently a guy who lives close to me hit me up on dakka when I was still active there. Yes I'm past that nonsense now. Anyways he messaged me and seemed like a nice guy. I figured why not? What's the harm in helping a guy? Well this has been going on for a few months and here are some lessons I have learned.

1. The internet community can be amazingly helpful or painfully nasty to NEWBS. Sadly a Bing search will often reveal the worst of internet forums when searching for a "40k forum/help". Places like dakka, warseer, BOLS the list goes on.

2. You are teaching them more then a rule set. You are teaching them etiquette as well. You never know where they will go off and play. Hopefully they will obey the "social contract" we all take. Its more then that though. Its not gloating or excessive shit talking. Its not teaching that its always a WAAC situation. There is a time and place for uber competitive.

 

This was me teaching him about WAAC. You can't see the 2 Hornets on the left...

He wanted to face a strong list after beating me 4 times in a row.

3. None of us "know everything" no matter how experienced we are. He often asked me questions that sometimes I thought "You're an idiot". Other times he'd ask me stuff, I'd stammer and think "I'm embarrassed I never thought of that before, its brilliant".

4. When they first start playing you have to be prepared to take some losses. You cannot beat the snot out of him/her repeatedly and expect them to love the game. They need to know victory and how awesome it can feel. It comes at your expense sometimes. That's ok though. Remember you are teaching more then a rule set.

5. Don't forget to teach tactics. Teach rules, show cool ways to paint, offer up great things to read but by god man show them HOW TO WIN. Show them when to claim objectives, when to defer the first turn, how to lock a great unit in combat rendering them worthless and how to build a list for all occasions.

6. Understand that what they love about it may not be what you love about it. The guy I teaching the game loves painting and playing. Could care less about the fluff. He isn't a reader. This is ok. Not everyone needs to read all 28 Horus Heresy novels to be allowed "permission" to play.

7. Don't rush them into buying too much to soon. Nothing is more discouraging then having 7000 points of Eldar to paint (I'd know). Let them go at their pace. We have been playing 750-1000 point games. I personally prefer 2250 and higher but this is what's right for him.

8. Encourage them to paint. I mean encourage! Show them cool paint jobs. Show them tricks. Whatever you do encourage them to not play with grey armies. I'm lucky the guy I am teaching really enjoys painting. Makes it easy for me.

9. Be flexible. Everything I just wrote may not apply to your NEWB/NEWBETTE. Have an open mind and understand they are looking at something that way be overwhelming to them. Maybe though they have an extensive gaming background so that isn't the case. It will all depend.

10. If you've seen Glengarry Glen Ross you will know ABC. Always Be Closing. Well for NEWBS you'll need to be ABP. Always Be Positive. This is a special thing we have. Don't be a fucking asshat and teach a new person that they should expect people in the hobby to all be jackasses. Don't be that guy!!

Lastly I love my girlfriend immensely Her patience and tolerance for my hobby is saintly. She really is special that she doesn't look down on me for my hobby or feel embarrassed by it. She's the best. Love you Cath!

My first post...

So I've been back in the hobby since last April. I started playing way back in the early 90's when I was in high school. Good ole' 2nd edition. 3 hours games with 23 models on the table. What a glorious time. I was 14-15 and Dorking it up hardcore!! D&D, Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, White Wolf. I played it all.
Well life happens I went off to the Marine Corps and wouldn't game for about 5 years.  In the early 2000's I would play a lot of White Wolf stuff, Rifts (which I always hated), In Nomine, D&D (until 4th dropped) and my absolute favorite L5R.
So that brings me to now. 3 kids, a dog, 2 cats, a iguana and a amazing, supportive girlfriend. Leaves for little time to get 5-6 guys together for Roleplaying time. So I decided that maybe 40k would be a good bet for me. Only takes two. I can paint in my own time. I can still create my own backstory (I always DM'd my Roleplaying sessions) and make my own Craftworld/Tribe with my twist on it.
So last April I started researching the game again. I liked what I saw. Reviews were generally good and the models looked amazing. I was in! So I started collecting the army I had back in the old days, my trusty Eldar.
I searched ebay, Bartertown and craigslist looking for a deal. It was hard to find the stuff as cheap as I wanted. I would spend hours looking for deals. HOURS... HOURS.... I hope my repetition is making my point. I'll revisit this later.
So I got a good start from ebay and craigslist. I had decided the type of Eldar army I wanted. Wraith warriors and aspects. I made up my own craftworld and color scheme.
I'll get into my fluff in later posts. Now though I'll show you some of my progress.
And later I'll talk about GW and the state of affairs with the game. Spoiler... I really like GW and do not understand why we hate "our" hobby...

 

My army about 6 months ago...

 

 

Craftworld Belac prepping for War....