My Big Issue with Warhammer 40,000 Xth Edition
So I know my last post was about the hyperbole and negativity surrounding 10th edition. But there is one problem that I think will kneecap 10th edition if it isn’t addressed. Granularity. Army building is a mess because you just pay for the units. This is mostly fine for units with simple, similar options. Terminators for example have relatively few expensive options and even those are broadly similar. Other units have far more uneven options. The Wraithknight has been the standout poster child for this so far. The Wraithknight is 475 points no matter what you equip it with. Ghostglaive and Scattershield? 475 points. 2 Heavy Wraithcannons? 475 points. 2 Heavy Wraithcannons and 2 Starcannons? 475 points. This is… not great. The first one has no ranged weapons and good if not spectacular melee as well as some defensive boosts. The second has amazing ranged fire (2d6 wound shots with Devastating Wounds) and the 3rd is literally just an upgrade from that.
This loss of granularity isn’t just a problem here, it’s also a problem with unit sizes. A 5 man squad of Intercessors costs 95 points. A 10 man squad costs 190. Pretty straightforward right? 19 points / Intercessor. Well guess what a 6 man squad costs. 190 points. Between this and the loss of weapon options, army building has gotten FUNKY. You might be building a 2000 point army and be at 1970 and unless there’s an Enhancement for a character that really works… you have to remove whole units rather than shuffle options around. For someone like me with a MASSIVE collection of models spanning decades (God I’m old) this isn’t that much of a problem, I can shuffle around units and get to 2k using other unit combinations but it has meant tearing some army ideas completely apart and rebuilding whole groups of units.
I’m a fan of interesting decisions in gaming. I like granularity and I like making choices with impact. Picking the most optimal weapon for every situation because it’s an obvious choice and all other factors are the same isn’t an interesting decision. It’s pretty profoundly flawed, in fact. Certain choices will just never be used. By the same token reducing army building choices in other categories just reduces the number of decisions you can make while at the same time making some of them more difficult, especially for people without the resources I have. This is the opposite of what GW should be doing.
So why did they do it?
The app. GW has invested… some… time and money into an app for army building. While I’ll be the first to admit it’s MUCH better than their last attempt, that bar is so low you need a metal detector and shovel to find it. But I think it’s a lot easier to do an app fast and cheap if you want it to do the bare minimum. And if you change what it has to do you can really make that bare minimum a lot more minimal. Now this might be because they just announced that they are linking it to their much-maligned Warhammer+ subscription service, but it really just seems like a business decision made without regard to the effect it has on the game. I hope they revert to more granular army building, that they give us back flexibility and meaningful choices in army building, but for now this is definitely the rotten apple in the barrel for me.
So Much, So Suddenly
Well GW kicked off the week with a BANG.
I was getting ready for work and saw that GW had announced another round of Space Marines going Last Chance to Buy.
That’s a LOT. A truly surprising amount. I recall GW saying that they would be removing models based on sales, which doesn’t make a lot of sense here, so I think there’s two things going on in this case.
There’s two kinds of models in this purge, and it is a purge. Uncommon to downright rare models that have been unpopular for a long time, and extremely popular and even meta choices. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hunter/Stalker on the table in my local meta, Assault Squads have been hot garbage for a LONG time, Thunderfire Cannons and Techmarines with Servitors just don’t come up unless some weird buff puts them in the spotlight. Scouts probably haven’t sold in a while, especially since they lost Battleline in 10th. Land Speeder Storms and Librarians you’ll see occasionally but again they just don’t come up very often. Ironclad Dreadnoughts are practically invisible with practically every other chassis outpacing them.
But some of the others? Land Speeders and Attack Bikes find their way into a LOT of lists. Bike Squads and Scout Bikes are clutch for several armies. Scouts with Sniper Rifles have been great sellers for a LONG time, although 10th did them no favors and I have a huge soft spot in my heart (or head) for the Company Command box (seriously, pick one up if you don’t have it.) BUT I also suspect that several of these are out of stock or very low stock at the moment because they are quite good.
And a lot of people are MAD. I get it. I have RTB-01 beakies in my army that I bought when they were new. But I’m not mad as a Space Marine Player. This has been inevitable since Primaris started coming out as a line. Space Marines even absent Firstborn choice have more choices than any other army. It’s disappointing that many choices are gonna be relegated to proxies for Primaris or Legends. It’s unfortunate and some very iconic units are going away forever. I can’t really blame GW though even if this is a BIG change. At this point I don’t know if any Firstborn units will be left by the end of next year and I really doubt any will be left by 11th edition.
I do think some units will stick around. Land Raiders (to carry Terminators) and maybe the variant LRs. Specialty units (GW has already commented that Ravenwing will continue to be sold) Flyers unless they release a Primaris Flyer. And that’s about it.
Armies like the Grey Knights will need a complete overhaul and it would really behoove GW to do something for White Scars especially but really all the non-blueberry chapters.
The people that should be mad though, are the Xenos players. I predict within 48 hours we’ll start seeing news of the next round of Space Marine releases. GW wouldn’t drop a bomb like this unless they were ready to clean up the mess. We’ll see the new Terminator kit, we’ll see other new kits, and we’ll get a feeling for how big the 10th edition releases will be. But here’s the thing, the other Xenos, the Orks, the Eldar, the Tau, will be lucky to get half the boxes Marines will get. So yeah I get Marine players are feeling disappointed, but it’s not something I can feel myself.
10th Edition Plans and Goals
So I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to do gameplay wise in 40k in the much more enjoyable 10th edition, as well as what I’d like to do Hobby Wise and how I’m going to manage this website and other, related social media.
Last year I started a job that was much more amenable to doing… everything I enjoy really, and while it took a while, I’m now in a place both hobby wise and work wise where I can really do things I enjoy.
So. I’ve looked at a lot of things and among the side projects that distracted me was a BA Horus Heresy army painted with a VERY different technique from my Dark Angels. While my Dark Angels are painted with an Edge Highlighting technique that looks very striking at a distance, I’ve never been too thrilled with how they look up close.
But I came up with a technique that’s MUCH more striking.
But there’s a problem. My army is ENORMOUS. Absolutely ridiculously large.
So at a minimum this means (after a test on a squad I haven’t painted yet) Priming black, airbrushing a metallic over it (probably Leadbelcher or something similar) and then carefully airbrushing Caliban Contrast over it to get a good metallic “Dark Candy Apple Green” look. Then you paint the equipment and details as normal and hopefully get a really beautiful, striking look. My Ravenwing / Deathwing aren’t painted with edge highlights and I’m not sure what I’d do there. I’ll have to do some testing to figure it out.
So that’s going to be a HUGE hobby project. Game wise I have some good friends I’ll try to play casual games with at least once or twice a month. Back in finance the hours are definitely not terrible and it should be workable.
Now for the big one. This blog, and social media. I have a YouTube channel, (actually 2) Twitter and now Threads, and even a TikTok. I’ve got just about everything but an OnlyFans and I don’t think Dark Angels Feet Pics will go over well. I plan on cross posting stuff between the text options, but also doing at least short videos on TikTok has some appeal, and I’d love to do longer videos digging into the game, the history of the game, lore, and community, and the hobby side, but that’s a big time investment so we’ll see.
10th Edition the Most Hyperbole Ever!
40k 10th Edition is out and there’s a lot to like about it. Lethality is down, vehicles especially are a lot harder to destroy. Weapons are less versatile, especially melee weapons and in general melee feels a lot weaker.
I was really hoping Invulnerable saves would be reduced but ohhhhh that did not happen in the slightest. On the surface there’s fewer mortal wounds but when you get into the mechanics (dice manipulation + devastating wounds) it can be trivial for some armies to force mortal wounds onto targets. There’s already been one nerf in this regard and I’m still expecting more.
So here’s how weapons got less versatile. Here’s the melee options for the Deathwing Terminators. I know, it’s awful to be me. Everything is wounding MEQ on 2 or 3, however some weapons get more attacks, some have worse accuracy. Against infantry you have definite preferences, GEQ you want lightning claws and power weapons, MEQ you want power fists for the 2+ to wounds and 1 shot kills, vehicles… well vehicles have gotten tougher.
T 12 with a 2+ save. So you really want that chainfist so you’re wounding on a 3+, really handy against things like Knights especially. The Thunder Hammer is kind of a downgrade, however it comes with a Storm Shield (extra wound for the model) and on a 6 to wound it does 2 mortal wounds which can be handy. I like that there’s no longer a best choice (and I like that my Deathwing have basically infinite choices outside the friggin sergeant with his power weapon).
Armor (as in armor save) matters MUCH more than in past editions. Very few weapons have an AP better than -2 and many of those that do (Plasma and Melta) are still at S8 or 9. Only dedicated anti-tank weapons like Lascannons combine high S and high AP, and many (but not all) of those got nerfed. Predator and Razorback lascannons are one shot only for example, although the new Ballistus Dreadnought gets two shots and the venerable Land Raider gets 2 shots from each of its arrays. However that same Land Raider facing conventional infantry isn’t going to be feeling nearly as good. It does still have a twin-linked heavy bolter and storm bolter backed up by a multi-melta but 11 shots into infantry, even if most of them are pretty high quality, doesn’t have as much oomph when most of them are low AP.
The change to Melta weapons is particularly interesting. They lost a bit of range, and pretty much stayed the same. Multi-Meltas are 2 shot S9 AP-4 D6(+2 at close range). If they get through the high toughness of tanks they’ll do a ton of damage. But only a few armies can reliably get them through that T. Multi-Meltas are as good as anything at killing heavy and super-heavy infantry but making them very erratic vs tanks is an interesting choice.
I do like that there’s something of a rock-paper-scissors meta with having to match equipment choices to a units mission and versatile weapons frequently having a premium attached. I also like that it’s not a STRICT rock-paper-scissors matchup. I think it’s a very good design choice and not an easy one to pull off.
Now, about that hyperbole. Good. Fucking. Lord. The competitive community wants to burn down GW and smash their armies under a steamroller to hear them talk about 10th. There’s problems. It’s a whole new ruleset and some of the problems are pretty grievous. Wraithknights w/ a Farseer nearby are a problem, and I don’t like how a number of things are worded. For example a battleshocked Titanic unit RAW has a 1 in 3 chance of being deleted falling back from a unit of grots. That… doesn’t seem right.
The real problem isn’t issues with the rules. FAQs will come out. Errata will come out. GW has gotten orders of magnitude better about updating the rules. The rules will improve. It’s frustrating to find issues in a ruleset they’ve spent time on but it’s NOT THE END OF THE WORLD nor has GW FAILED AS A COMPANY.
I’ll admit I have a great deal of antipathy towards the competitive “community”. There exists a tendancy to be toxic as individuals and as a group. There are welcoming individuals and welcoming subsets of the community but it’s just not enjoyable to invest a lot of time in an army and just get dumpstered by a meta chaser that was up all night building the latest grey horde. This edition even has a huge boost to the competitive community because skew lists are so easy to build with no “troops tax” required. A limit of 3 of any datasheet does prevent the worst offenses, however there’s still plenty of options in plenty of armies to skew in a competitive meta.
I for one am thrilled at the new opportunities. I love tank lists and 10th seems to have a definite place for them in the new meta. Tanks can be countered, Predator/Gladiator tanks have T10 vs the T12 of Repulsor/Land Raiders so they don’t just get removed in 1 turn of shooting, but dedicated AT can deal with dedicated tank lists. The Lion is FULLY back, not the badly conceived rules of 9th but a more considered profile in 10th. While some armies lack for choices (Votann for example) more armies are feeling fleshed out. Necrons, Tyranids, Sisters, all have pretty much all the boxes at least checked.
I’m considering ways to express my feelings about the game going forward, and chart my progress, here, youtube, TikTok, whatever. We’ll see but I’m looking forward to the journey!
Warhammer 40k: 10th Edition
So 10th Edition is imminent. As in the rules themselves, army lists and points are all released. I haven’t been able to play a game (looking forward to playing July 3). I actually played a few games at the end of 9th as a good friend returned to the game and GW did something that I honestly didn’t expect them to ever do.
The Lion is Back. In 9th he hit pretty hard, although not really what we were hoping for and his defense was abysmal. He’s carrying the Emperor’s Shield but it was… not great. In 10th he found the On switch and between that and some slight stat adjustments and a rule change that favors him greatly… he’s a brick and hits like a truck. Both the lore and the model line for Dark Angels is moving in a way I haven’t seen in over a decade and I’m absolutely thrilled at the prospects. Even if we just get upgrade sprues for whatever terminators come out, and maybe some bikers I’ll be happy. The Lion is back!
Rules wise melee seems to be in a worse place, which is interesting in a game where melee is traditionally as important as it has been. GW seems to have finally found a solution to the MSU problem that has plagued the game for several editions. I think bigger units will see the table in a way that hasn’t happened in a long, long time. One loss I’ll miss in unit sizes is granularity. Units are either min or max size, assuming there’s variety at all. Tactical Squads are especially hard hit, as 10 Firstborn Marines are the only squad size you can take.
Obviously, I’ll have to redo some core units I’ve used for a long time but Terminators, and Primaris units continue to be strong, so I still have options. Surprisingly the previously 100% useless Assault Squads might even make a return in a game with reduced lethality and that seems to place a premium on fast moving units.
So far objective-based missions are what we’re expecting to see on Saturday when the big box drops. I plan on trying to bring fluffy lists, organized around what I think a half-company of Marines would look like, rather than stompy death blobs. But at the same time there’s another huge change to consider. I mentioned things got a lot tougher. You know what got tougher-est?
Tanks might be back in a BIG way. Both possessing staying power far greater than in past editions, as well as retaining some of the best killing power in the game, the age of armor might be back. Maybe we’ll get really lucky and the Lion will bring back the rest of the Hexagrammaton and we’ll get the Iron Wing with their tank heavy spearheads. I doubt it, but I don’t doubt we’ll get to see a lot more tanks on the battlefield. And I’m a guy that loves his tanks. I have several Predators, a couple Land Raiders, a couple Repulsors and an Executioner to go with the Razorbacks and Rhinos in my list. Remember, I’m going for a ‘mech company so vehicles are not something I’m short of.
I will try some bikes at some point. I’m not hugely enthusiastic about them like I am other things. I expect the actual codex next year will give us a true Ravenwing formation but currently they look solid, but not amazing. One big change that I think will affect them is that Characters now join units. They aren’t independently wandering around; they lead a unit and buff that unit directly. Sammael for example looks like he’d be brutal leading his Black Knights, which is where you’d expect him to be. Not that the Knights need too much help.
The 5 things I’m most excited about are
- More durable tanks (and other units, but mostly tanks)
- Characters leading units again
- Larger battles: Points seem slightly down again
- Simplified rules: USRs are back. each army doesn’t get subtly different versions of the exact same rules
- New Missions: Battlefields seems smaller, armies seem a bit larger, things are going to happen fast.
Things I’m perhaps more anxious about
- Power Creep, Marines have hundreds of datasheets, some armies barely have 30 or 40. Balancing this can’t have been easy.
- Melee: The one place the rules seem awkward is melee with lots of weird things happening.
- Wombo Combos: Leaders being directly attached to units has led to some having really powerful buffs and some units have pretty high native strength. I’ve only seen a few that look crazy but…
- Lack of Maneuver: How do we manage the field with more units on a smaller battlefield. Managing battlespace is fine in a Napoleonic game or the old WHFB but I don’t think it should be as big in a skirmish game, but we’ll see.
- What will the game turn on? Will infantry dominate? Tanks? We doing Herohammer? I guess we’ll find out.
For the Lion and the Emperor!
A Simple Scribe
“Remembrancer, this way!” barked a nasal voice over the din of the embarkation deck.
“Yes… sir” guessed Danse clutching his tote tight and weaving inexpertly through the bustle of servitors, crew, crates, vehicles and hoses choking the deck. The grated steel deck, larger than a football field and freckled with robust pads for the Stormbirds, Thunderhawks, and cargo lighters thronged with hundreds of people, and thousands of pieces of equipment and machinery all moving in a chaotic, atonal ballet. Danse crossed the short gap to a crewmember, a scarecrow of a woman tall and lean, her face pocked with scars from some manner of wound. She wore the crimson trimmed grey robe of a legion thrall. Danse himself wore a traveler’s outfit, soft, sturdy trousers, boots, loose fitting shirt, and a light robe over it, belted at the waist. His hood was down in the hot, dry heat of the deck and sweat beaded every bit of skin.
“Follow me, High Captain Beattie will speak with you, then I will direct you to your quarters” she said over her shoulder, already walking stiffly away.
Danse stumbled, recovering and struggling to keep pace. “Did you see High Captain Beattie?”
The crewmember didn’t respond, her shock of hair, so black it nearly shone blue, bobbing away from him as he struggled free of the press of flesh and steel on the deck. Trotting to catch up, panting from the heat, exertion, and confusion of the new environment it took Danse a moment to take things in. The deck below him was steel, somewhat blue to his eye, repeated along the walls, with the ceiling being a blood red with gold trim. Lights in ornate niches and hatches were all perfectly worked into murals and frescoes adorning the walls and rugs and screens broke up the sounds that normally echoed down the halls.
“Your quarters will be forward of the embarkation deck, they’ve set aside a number of petty officers and junior officer’s quarters for you lot to use.” She spat. The sides of her head were shaved to the skin, and a pair of augmetic ports gaped from raw wounds in her skull. “As soon as your interview is over I will take you down there and return to my duties. You will find a list of important rules and directions to key locations in your room. Please make an effort to not break any of the rules or get lost.”
“Of course ma’am… miss… I’m sorry I don’t know your name?” Danse knew he was whining a little but he could barely catch his breath. And a meeting with the High Captain himself? His cousin had heard from a friend that many remembrancers didn’t meet with an astartes for weeks and he was to meet a High Captain his first hour on board?
“Lieutenant Avorla.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant Avorla.” Danse said, she slowed fractionally, turning into a corridor much broader and taller than the one they’d been in.
“We’re close. Don’t waste his time he has much to do to prepare Misericorde for her next battle.”
“Of course, Lieutenant Avorla.”
“Just Lieutenant will do.” She bit off. He’d come even with her, finally and saw ahead of them a large arched doorway, its wooden door completely at odds with everything else on the ship. The ornate tasseled rug they walked on felt impossibly thick under his boots and he felt an odd desire to remove his boots as they crossed it.
Avorla walked right up to the door, pounding it twice then turning off to stand beside it resting on a small seat jutting out from the wall. “ENTER” barked a deep voice from within.
“He doesn’t mean me” Avorla said, seeing Danse hesitate. Danse took a breath and pushed the massively heavy door open. It moved easily once started and got away from him to slam awkwardly against the wall. Danse stood awkwardly for a moment the loud noise and sight before him stunning him momentarily.
Astartes had to be seen to be believed. Danse was used to looking up at people, not even 155cm tall he looked up to almost everyone even with the lifts artfully concealed in his boots. In his bare feet Beattie towered over him. The back of Danse’s brain told him Beattie might well double his height in full warplate. The astartes was wearing a bodyglove with a crimson robe over it, trimmed in gold. The simplicity of the trim seemed to emphasize its luxurious fabric and perfect craft and the artfully made chair, sized perfectly for him seemed both incredibly rustic and perfectly complementary to the holo table next to it. Beattie looked directly at Danse “Well, come in, let me look at you.”
Danse breathed deeply, straightened up and walked to the table, letting his tote fall on its strap to his side. His father had told him, when it’s time to face the music stand straight and walk tall. Come to think of it he could hear music, soft, deep chants echoed into the room. He forced himself to continue his determined pace across the 10 meters or so to the table. Slowing down he glanced at the table to see a map covered in odd symbols and arrows on it before darting his eyes back to Beattie.
Like all the IXth legion, Beattie shared facial features with Sanguinius, his eyes betrayed passion and intelligence, and there the similarities ended. Beattie was broad, powerfully built with hands like hams, and dark skin. His soft smile gave away… something. Danse wasn’t sure what. “Tell me about yourself Remembrancer” he said, his voice deep and somehow harmonized with the chants.
“Well my lord, I’m a remembrancer, just out from Terra…”
“Tell me about YOURSELF, Remembrancer. Don’t make me repeat myself again”
“Ah, well, I was born in Albion and did my schooling there, me Uncle wrote for one of the broadsheets there and took me under his wing, er as it were” he trailed off a moment, looking up at the fresco of Sanguinius, with his wings spread hovering over them. “I would bring him news and he’d jot it down, maybe liven it up, or bring in other details to put it in context, you know? After a while he had me doing it meself. Some of my stories caught some attention, and I thought I’d be in trouble. Apparently, I’d noticed some recruiting efforts by some of the legions or something. Anyway, I was brought before a couple folks who said they worked for the Sigilite, They said if I was so good at finding out the truth that I should be where illumination was needed and next thing you know, I’m on a ship here.”
Beattie looked at him, no, through him for a moment, his mouth moving. “Thames river trader, eh? A block down from the theater right out from the pumphouse?”
Danse froze a moment, how could he know?
“The recruiters found me hawking papers there. I’d been jumped by… well… that’s a story for another day for sure. How Malcador knew…” His eyes widened as another voice spoke
“He might have, but I chose Danse for this duty my son.”
Danse fell prostrate. No mortal surprised by the Angel could possibly be expected to stay standing and Danse was certainly no tougher than any other man. “I became aware of your connection and, well, there’s no coincidences as my Father says. Added to that he’s a clever investigator and an insightful writer. I look forward to his chronicles on your battles with great interest, Beattie.”
“Yes my lord.” Beattie said
“Leave us brave Danse, I must impart some instructions on Beattie. I am glad to have met you. Please be careful closing the door, I’m told it gets away from people.” Sanguinius said with the hint of a grin on his impossibly flawless face. Danse scrambled to his feet, forcing himself to walk normally from the room as he carefully, gently, closed the door. Avorla stepped out to ensure it closed silently her eyes more than a little wild from her own encounter with the Angel. She looked down at Danse.
“Let’s go. Let’s get you to your quarters.” She stalked away, somewhat slower than before. “Did he really pick you himself?” She asked, clearly thinking about each word.
“It’s what he said. I can’t imagine taking the time to think about me.”
“The Primarchs don’t waste time. If he picked you, if he spent time on you there was reason for it. Don’t you worry about that.
Star Wars Legion: Ignominious Defeat
Played another game tonight. Didn’t take pictures. Brought an Iden gunline with the intent to use Tactical Strike to get an early lead then grind down my opponent.
I was pretty happy with this list, at least until I saw what I was up against.
I deployed to try to get pressure forward early, but I couldn’t infiltrate very far as I deployed the ISF late so I was barely out of my deployment zone with them. We ended up playing Key Positions, Danger Close and Limited Visibility. I was hoping for Fortified positions but with it in the last position I had no chance without my opponent helping me out. So no extra bunkers for cover and to prevent his vehicles from having freedom of the field.
Turn 1 wasn’t terrible, I got some chip damage out and he took out a single ISF trooper. Turn 2 started well with me playing Tactical Strike and my opponent, John playing Covering Fire. I won the roll off and got a good chunk of damage on 1 of his T-47s. Then he moved up with an AT-RT and used Fire Support to dump 9 dice with Surge to Crit into an unactivated ISF, which took them down to just the leader, getting rid of the heavy weapon with the critical Critical 2 keyword. I drew from my order stack and got Krennic who handed out an aim and then dodged himself, then my opponent landed 6 hits on the other unactivated ISF unit and I rolled… 2 saves. Again leaving them without their heavy weapon. This pulled the teeth on 2 of my most important units on a critical turn. I was able to get both Speeders to half health but John was able to set up more Fire Support attacks with the AT-RT / each of which virtually deleted a unit.
By the end of turn 3 I didn’t hold a single objective and was only contesting 1 with a severely depleted shoretrooper unit. At this point I just went for blood, swatting a Veteran unit, both Airspeeders, 1 going down to Iden, the other to my E-Web before it ate another fire-support shot deleting it. Iden then took down an AT-RT before the battle ended.
I only think I made a few mistakes. The list I faced was a poor match for me, I didn’t have enough crit/impact, and had way less mobility after failing to take advantage of my infiltrators.
I should have absolutely used both of my ISF units once I realized they were more exposed than I thought, but I really think the only way I win this matchup is with near-perfect tactics and above average dice, and I had a couple bad rolls early that snowballed through the game.
I learned some, especially about activation priority and a bit more on targeting but it wasn’t *AS* great an experience as I might have wanted. No shame on John at all. He was a good opponent, patient with my pace and desire to learn, friendly and even made some suggestions as well as insisting on calling the game rather than finishing me off despite my being game for it as he’d definitely earned the win.
Star Wars Legion: Boots on the Ground
Ok, so I played a game of Star Wars Legion today. This is the first game I’ve played since the Big Bang despite preordering a copy for release day. I have loved how the models looked since day 1 and built up a decent collection of which I’ve also largely painted the Imperial side. I played at Game Kastle in Ankeny, a somewhat unpleasant 20 minute drive since I could just WALK to Mayhem in 5 minutes but I had Today off so it could have been worse.
For my opponent I matched up with a gent named Tim who is a regular there and who brought his 3 kids. His kids also designed the list for them and I probably owe them a drink or something because they did me right. Near as I can reconstruct it was this (missing some upgrades as he had next to no bid.
I on the other hand got some excellent advice from a friend who knows his stuff and coaxed me from 8 activations to 9 which ended up being pretty decisive.
My original list had one fewer stormtrooper unit and a BUNCH more upgrades, especially filling every training slot.
For the mission it was Key Positions, Battle Lines, and Rapid Deployment with him putting his naked clones in reserve and me putting a DLT Storms in the bag.
Deployment I put my objective as close to the middle as I could and Tim put his way out. On reflection we should have reversed that, he probably would have been better served with a deathball to share tokens while I wanted to spread him out to prevent that. Either way we ended up with the token placement we kinda wanted just not the efficient way. He deployed his 2 Phase 1 squads and Rex well out on the flank with his objective, with the Phase 2s supporting somewhat towards the middle, ready to flex either way. Yoda was in cover closer to the middle and the Arcs were just past the midline of the board. I deployed Shores with their mortars from the center line to the left, with Iden backing them up, then Vader, with Storms to his right, and the Special Forces in front of him.
Turn 1 was mostly us shuffling around. I played Darkness Descends, giving Vader his much-needed Surge tokens, Tim played Air Strike which he used to throw some damage around. With some long-range speculative shots, he picked off one of my ISF troopers and put a couple wounds on Iden I took down an ARC trooper, a couple clones, and laid out a bunch of suppression. For those not familiar, suppression is the way the game represents friction and it’s a neat mechanic, below a unit’s courage, there’s no effect, from 1x to 2x a units courage, they lose one of their 2 actions, which makes everyone less effective, above 2x they panic. Units lose suppression at the end of their turn and can shed some (1/3 chance) at the start of their move. I tried to focus on getting multiple suppression on a couple units to ensure that the effects persisted. Also he dropped his naked clones WAY out on my right, his left, and I countered by putting mine flanking them, pincering him between the two Stormtrooper squads (either of which had more firepower than him to begin with.)
Turn 2 was nasty for him. I played Pulse Scan and he played Size Matters Not. He blitzed out with Yoda, putting 3 wounds on Vader and double Force Pushing my ISF well out of cover. He moved Rex out ahead of his troops but forgot Rex’s jetpack (until the end of the game in fact) leaving him exposed while the two clone squads behind him milled about in cover. He put some shots on my ISF but a lucky token pull got them in cover and landed more wounds on his ARCs leaving Fives on 1 wound. More fire on Rex left him with a couple wounds. Throughout the turn I focused my fire on unactivated units early, landing a lot of hits and, more importantly, suppression, on units that still needed to go, forcing him to give up several actions from his army due to higher levels of suppression. Iden activated late in the round and moved up to the exposed Rex, putting a bolt through him, leaving the brave Clone Commander dead in the dirt. When Vader went he managed to completely fail to wound the Jedi Master, but Force Pushed him away, triggering Iden’s standby which… whiffed. She needs aims. However the shore troopers behind her put 2 wounds on Yoda, losing one of their own to a deflected blaster shot.
By this point the game was really leaning in my favor. I had 2 squads ganging up on one of his out on one flank, with 1 of mine camping an objective. My dice had been blistering hot (my ISF had rolled 4 black 4 white and landed 7 hits, my shores fired 6 black and 2 white and landed 8 with 3 crits… just absolutely unreal amounts of luck) while my opponent was probably under 33% saves with red dice and a bunch of surge tokens.
Going into turn 3 Yoda was wounded in the center of the board with a wounded Fives in cover behind him. Tim played There is no Try. I played Implacable. Yoda and 1 other trooper squad (his Phase 2s) got orders, as well as a dodge, Outmaneuver and Relentless. I got an order for Vader, as well as a Dodge. By playing a 1 pip I ensured I went first. I activated Vader and the Dark Lord of the Sith took an Aim token, Walked up to Yoda and hit him for 6. Burning his dodge he rolled 5 saves, needing to make 3… and made 2. Yoda fell under the crimson blade, Vader then threw Fives out of cover and into the open. Tim then activated his Phase 2s and moved them up. He wanted to attack Vader, who had taken a wound to shuffle his token back in the stack, but they were his 1 basically undamaged unit, and he didn’t want to eat a bunch of deflected shots so he blasted away and the out of cover ISF unit. His dice totally betrayed him and only 2 of the ISF troopers fell, leaving the squad leader and the heavy weapon. My mortars threw out more suppression, my shores did more damage, and Iden picked off 5s with a disrespectful shot.
At this point Tim’s sons had finished their games, and it was getting close to closing time. We called it and shook hands with 2 objectives firmly under Imperial control and the 3rd about to fall. It was a crushing victory but it really came down to the top half of turn 2. I felt that there were a couple things that really hurt Time and really helped me. First: My luck was absolutely unreal early, and his was awful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game of any type where my dice were THIS hot and my opponents were THIS bad. Red dice are 1/2 in defense 2/3 on surges, which he had tokens for, and they just refused to cooperate. I doubt he’d have won even without his mistakes the way the dice were rolling.
But he also had some things he did wrong, he didn’t know his list, which, I get, your kids come up with a list, you play it, suboptimal or not. 7 activations wasn’t great, and it meant he had to get the most out of them and I *FEEL* in my inexperienced state, he didn’t always do that. He put too many shots into units that had already activated and spread his suppression out, so I rarely had to worry about it. In fact, I think I lost only 2 or 3 actions over the course of the game, and I feel like he lost far more due to suppression each turn after the first. Second, he didn’t focus fire, which was harder to do with fewer units and widely spread out both physically and by the terrain. He couldn’t bring his army together which from what I’ve heard the clones REALLY want to do so they can form a token-sharing deathball. I feel like if he’d grouped up more and focused his firepower on my troops to eliminate units before they could activate, or at least suppress them, he could have done much more to slow me down.
On my side, I did a better job utilizing suppression and I am looking for ways to maximize that going forward. I did deploy my mortars poorly and, while I used them to some effect, had they been better located they’d have contributed more, and they were SUPREMELY lucky to not get vaporized. I’m talking one finished the game without a single wound token despite having to roll 9 saves. I need to really think more about objectives and how to take advantage, Tim did me a big favor not putting all 3 on top of each other (to the extent he could) which would have forced me to face a big death ball of token sharing clones. Not ideal.
But it was a great learning experience. I am going to tweak my list, I’m sure he’s going to come up with something spicy and hopefully next week we will both do better! Also I will take pictures, not video as the free WordPress DOESN’T LET YOU INSERT VIDEO/GIFS GRAAAAAAH!
Why Napoleonic Wargaming?
Ok, I saw a post on r/wargaming with a prompt that was just too juicy. There’s others in the post I’ll be stealing but this one should really be the lead for the series so here we go!
Can you discuss what makes the strategy, tactics, and feel of the Napoleonic battles different to those of other popular black powder era was such as ACW, AWI, French & Indian etc.
dboeren on Reddit
Great question. The answer to this question is: Yes.
What?
FINE.
First, the feel of the Napoleonics. The awesome and terrible pageantry of 19th century warfare peaked early, and it peaked here. A well-painted Napoleonic army is an absolute joy on the table, and something that has to be seen to be believed. Regiments wore a bewildering array of brightly colored uniforms that contrasts sharply with later wars as uniforms became more drab.
These armies also featured very professional officers. Despite some of the reputations that came from the war, from Battalion command on up, there were few truly awful officers, and while some armies struggled to comprehend Napoleon’s way of war (Sorry Mack) there weren’t many mistakes due to poor soldiering. At the same time, command and control was basically writing a note and sending it with a rider to whoever was carrying it out. Many games model this quite well, with General d’Armee / GdB doing it particularly well.
Strategically and Tactically the Napoleonic wars come at a very interesting time. Infantry combat featured both fire and shock tactics, requiring different formations, changing formations and maneuvering under fire, intricate marching, timing, communication under the most dire circumstances, and situational awareness in a field covered by noise and black powder smoke.
Cavalry formed the apex of military strength, with the Heavy Cavalry of the Cuirassier, Carabiniers, and Heavy Dragoons being nearly unstoppable, with infantry forced into densely packed squares simply to defend themselves. Artillery could be devastating, being able to roll up and unlimber within canister range and unleash withering fire, especially in the tightly packed columns and squares of the more shock-oriented infantry formations. Infantry remained the bulk of most armies, and could deliver its own devastating attacks in close formation, or spread out in long lines to deliver impressive short-ranged firepower of its own, and with a good ruleset all of this is modeled quite well.
There are varieties among troop types. Line infantry differs from Light or Grenadier infantry, Guard troops often have their own rules, setting them apart. Conscripts often represent the most and least enthusiastic troops. Some are willing to die en masse leading the charge and some aren’t willing to even smell powder lest it affect their delicate constitution. Light cavalry darts around the edges, often struggling to make much impact, but presenting a real threat to exposed units, and forcing their enemies to account for them, battle cavalry presents more of a threat but lacks the fleetness of foot of their light brethren, or the strength to face heavy cavalry, which are the true monsters of the field. Artillery forms the last of the major components, dealing long range fire, in attack and defense, to support the line or create breakthroughs against vulnerable elements of the enemy army. Additionally, it comes in several varieties, foot artillery comes in regular and heavy batteries, you also have horse or light artillery which moves faster without sacrificing much in striking power, and Austrians get the Wurst artillery.
Which neatly brings me to national character. The armies of this era each has their own national flair, which I’ll go deeper into later but to give you an idea, in 1805 alone you have: A French army that consists of a mix of new, but well-trained and drilled soldiers, veterans from Italy, the elite Imperial Guard, and massive artillery. The Austrians have a much more ponderous army, with far less in the way of light troops and skirmishers to screen their movements and keep the enemy at arm’s length, but their units are large and their morale tends to be quite good. The Russians have equally large battalions, but their training is awful. This is mitigated somewhat by excellent morale and massive artillery batteries. Finally you have the Prussians who are slow, poorly led, and not that well supplied in support troops, but they do have high morale… until Jena…
So, I hope I’ve adequately answered the question presented by dboeren. I know I didn’t really compare the Napoleonic wars directly to the others, and perhaps that would be a good article for later on, but for now I think I’ve adequately covered what I wanted to.
Why do you?
A good friend asked me why I study the Civil War. I’m going to expand on her question a little, because I don’t just study the Civil War, I study almost every major 19th Century War. I’ve read about the American War of Independence (which is really REALLY an 18th Century War) the Napoleonic Wars, the Mexican American War, the Civil War, of course, the Franco Prussian War, all the wonderful Wars of _________ Unification, Crimea, Spanish American, and even WWI, which is the true End of the Long 19th Century. A lot of my focus is on the Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars, and WWI.
Part of the reason I study the Civil War so much is that I always have had a fascination for it. Ever since first learning about it I studied it. Of course, growing up in Florida you learn to worship at the Church of Bobby Lee, something I’ve managed to break from rather conclusively. I’ve been to Gettysburg twice, and believe me I can help you plan a trip! I’ve visited Stone’s River and have plans to visit the Peninsula next year to retrace the 7 days. I consider myself very well studied in the militaries of the American Civil War. This doesn’t make me a master of the Civil War, there is a lot that goes into it. I’m familiar with a lot of the industrial changes that enabled the war, the system of private contractors and government foundries that armed the armies, the railroads and the sordid deals that kept tracks being laid during the war, the changes to the agricultural system that fed the North (and provided food to export to Europe during crop failures there) and the centralized decision making of Jefferson Davis that hurt the Southern economy so much.
I study it because I love learning more and there’s so much more to learn. Let me give you an example. Name 5 US Army generals from the Civil War. Most of my readers (those that are left anyway) can probably manage that. How about 5 more? Get as many as you can. Now start naming rebel leaders. I bet most of you can name more rebel leaders than US Generals. And the US Generals won!
I study it because it lies at a completely fascinating intersection of technology and strategy. Railroads and Telegraphs changed strategic planning, troop movements, and supply. Industrialization made arming and equipping troops possible on a grand scale. Improvements in metallurgy and innovations in weapons design changed battlefield tactics, but command and control in the field hadn’t caught up, leading to some of the worst trench warfare the world would see for another 50 years.
It’s a war that was written about. A lot. Some of these guys wrote letters like they didn’t have jobs. Henry Jackson Hunt, chief of artillery for the Army of the Potomac filled a Banker’s Box with letters just in 1863 (and UGH why didn’t they invent the damn typewriter a few years earlier…) His file at the Library of Congress is 4,500 items, in 14 boxes filling 5.6 Linear Feet. Just imagine that! And he’s only one player, and probably not one you’ve heard a lot about unless you follow me on twitter.
I study it because, for all that, it’s poorly understood. The Lost Cause movement has sadly done immeasurable damage to our understanding of the war, it’s causes, and turned it into a rallying point against the very people freed by the sacrifice of so many in the war.
I’m going to go off topic a bit and state some simple truths about the war. The southern states seceded over the issue of slavery. Their articles of secession, their constitution, their speeches, their letters, and their behavior on campaign all clearly state this. They tried to change the history books after the war and were very successful, but the only rebels fighting for States Rights were under the command of States Rights Gist. One of the armies in the war was the United States Army, and army that still exists, and in which I served SOMEWHAT more recently. The other killed the men serving in the United States Army.
While not every US soldier enlisted and fought to free the slaves, in fact the majority did not, from 1863 on Emancipation was a stated War Goal for the United States. Even before then the United States Army engaged in local liberation of slaves under the Contraband policy. The rebel leaders screamed bloody murder over this attack on their property.
I study the Civil War to learn more to more convincingly amplify these truths, and to better arm mysefl to fight back against people defending the indefensible.
At the same time, I study to learn more about the United States, and how the leaders worked, though, and fought during the war. Even as we find today, the military is a conservative (though far less politically connected) instrument, and its leaders didn’t want change, or wanted to minimize it. Look at the difference between McLellan’s stance on slavery, and even the contraband policy vs. that of the Shaws or even actual Conservative politicians-cum-generals like Ben Butler or Dan Sickles. Interestingly Butler was most definitely NOT an Abolitionist until he recognized that the slaves were incredibly useful to the rebels in a military sense, at which point he very quickly changed his stance on the basis of expediency. Something many more professional officers missed. Butler was WILD.
I study to learn about people like MG Gordon Granger of Juneteenth fame who… wasn’t actually that great on the issue of slavery, and wasn’t great on the issue of emancipation as it turned out, and it’s important to learn about this and talk about this because even though emancipation became the law of the land, it was hastily done, poorly handled, and did a LOT of damage to the black communities even as they were supposed to be lifted to the status of equals, as in “All men are created equal”.
And finally, I learn about these wars as a whole because they are fun to read about. Because the big red and blue lines and arrows on the map make sense in a way, I doubt the movements on the ground ever made sense (or even aligned that well with the actual movements of the troops but that’s a story for another day).
Mad Haberdashers 