Blood Bowl Tactica: Team Types

There are a huge variety of teams that all have different tactics in Blood Bowl.  However, it usually comes down to three general categories: Beaty Teams, Balanced Teams, and Finesse Teams.

Beaty Teams (Chaos, Lizardmen, etc.) Have high armor values and strength on their main linemen.  They tend not to have many skills standard.  Their journeymen have a gimmick that makes the team more than a bunch of walking beat sticks.  For example, Chaos Beastmen have Horns, making them great on a Blitz.  Beaty Teams need to hit the enemy hard and team up to get two or three die blocks.  Keep pressure on until you break armor.  Open up avenues for journeymen to score touchdowns.

Balanced teams tend to have average stats an armor, backed up with one major skill per player, such as the human lineman who has Block.  Balanced teams need to work together to set up passes and protect the ball carrier.  Occasionally they can team up and hit an enemy hard, but they usually can’t go toe-to-toe with a Beaty team.

Finesse teams have great Agility but low Armor and Strength.  They also tend to have specialists that fulfill roles.  Finesse teams need to end up at least one square away from the enemy so that they can only hit one of them a turn.  They also excel at running and passing, so they need to score points.   Don’t underestimate them; they can move fast and team up to smash an unwary opponent.

Essentially, each team has to play to its strengths.  My Konquata Monitors need to go to the pitch and beat up the enemy, while they make avenues for the skinks to run the ball.  They are fast for a beaty team, but lack of skills makes me rely on re-rolls to do anything more complex than smacking the enemy.

Imperial Navy Dauntless Light Cruisers

Three Dauntless Light Cruisers, Lance armament.  I don’t think I need torpedoes, as I have a bunch of ships that do that.

The Surprise is named after the ship in the made for T.V. scifi movie Star Command.  The plot was that Earth is fighting a group of seceding space colonies.  An enemy fleet of 5 battleships is on the way to Earth to destroy it, and only the D.R.E Surprise, a destroyer manned by cadets, can stop them.  It was a great little movie, though low budget.

The Roanoke is named after both the American colony and the colony in John Scalzi’s The Last Colony.

The Kestrel is named after the best non-military ship from Escape Velocity by Ambrosia Software.

Next: More cruisers and escorts, then Chaos, then Defences, then Done With Gothic!

Grey Knights: Final Thoughts and review

So, we come down to it: is the latest codex good?  Bad?  Broken?

Well, my impressions are that it’s not really BROKEN, but it’s not really good.  Let me define the two.

If the codex was BROKEN, I’d expect Grey Knights armies to dominate the tournament scene and be as widely touted as the Guard leafblower.  As it is, the Grey Knights look like they have a punch of powerful but expensive units.  Grey Knights armies will be smaller than comparable Space Marine armies, but have more neat tricks.  About 1 in 12 times their buffs won’t go off, and this increases if the enemy has a Farseer, Librarian, or Hive Tyrant nearby.  All in all they’re very competitive, even with thier own Deathstar: the Paladins.  But broken?  No.

The codex is BAD because there are a lot of design ideas that, to me, make this not an update to make Daemonhunters more playable but a book to sell Stormravens.  This book is geared toward the old Warmachine 1.0 style of thinking: it’s not overpowered if everyone has something overpowered.  I really dislike the fact that the Grey Knights NEED the Paladins to balance TH/SS Termies, Nob bikers, and all the other “deathstars” out there.  I mentioned in my previous post why I dislike the Stormraven as the ONLY Fast Attack choice, but I want to bring it up again because it’s still crap.

I’d also like to talk about the old book.  In the old Daemonhunters (and the Witch Hunters) codex, there were two “ideals.”  Puritan Inquisitors used Grey Knights because they needed muscle to fight daemons specifically.  Radicals used Daemonhosts and couldn’t use Grey Knights.  I always thought Radicals got the short straw, as Grey Knights were MUCH better than Daemonhosts, and the ‘hosts were random and didn’t do what you wanted.  What I would have liked to see is instead of the 3 inquisitors in the HQ choices would be two: Radical Inquisitors and Puritans.  Puritans would be able to take Nemesis weapons, certain psychic powers, and be able to be in the same army as Grey Knights.  Radicals would have access to Daemon Weapons, a much wider variety of psychic powers including the old MINOR psychic powers, and be in the same list as Daemonhosts.

Further, from the Eisenhorn novels, I’d like to see different LEVELS of Daemonhost.  Lower level Daemonhosts would be some kind of combat nightmare, the equivalent of an Assassin.  Medium level ‘hosts would be like powerful characters, with psychic powers.  High level ‘hosts would be horrifyingly powerful, BUT run the risk of breaking their wards!  There would be a constant struggle between the Inquisitor and the ‘host, possibly leading to the ‘host model switching sides!  Such is the price of gambling with power.

Now, let me say that I do like the 3 Inquisitor entries.  Each has a “flavor” that makes them whatever you want to be.  Plus, the addition of Ordo Xenos gives not only customization but storytelling options.  None of the generic Inquisitors are ultra powerful.

In the end, the Grey Knights codex keeps walking down the road that 5th ed has been going down: becoming even more and more broken.  Back in the day when the Dark Angels codex came out, I was JAZZED.  It looked like they had a codex design philosophy geared toward balance, ease, and matching the fluff.  The current Space Marine codex was similar, but started to diverge from that path.  Now with so many codexes with such design in mind, each army has become all about finding combos and exploits instead of making a fun list.  I guess I’d better get used to it as it’s not going to change any time soon.

…and the Dreadknight is still a stupid name.

Review of Grey Knight “rumors” part 3.

This will cover the rest of the units.  For those who have been wanting a more in-depth analysis, that comes after I finish the units in the book.

Troops

-Grey Knight Terminators: Not as bad as the paladins because they have only 1 wound and no FNP.  However, you can make each model equipped differently so there can be creative allocation.  Same price as normal Space Marine terminators but with more options.  One of these can get the upgrade character Thawn.  Thawn essentially has “We’ll be back” from the Necrons.  When he dies, you put a Dead Thawn counter on the board.  Next turn on a 4+ he may be placed back in play within 1″ of the counter with 1 wound as a separate unit.  I can see this being HELL of annoying, but he’s not that ridiculous.

-Grey Knight Strike Squad: Regular Grey Knights.  Two new things.  One: personal teleporters.  Once per game the unit can move 30″ ignoring terrain.  They cannot assault and count as moving, but can still shoot.  They can’t take these if they take a dedicated transport.  Two: the same new weapons the terminators can take, such as a Nemesis Hammer and a pair of Nemesis Falchions, and a Nemesis Stave.  What do these do?  I have no idea.  My “rumors” don’t have the wargear section.

Dedicated Transports

-Rhino: It’s a Rhino.  It can take some special upgrades and even some psychic powers.  Fortitude shakes off Shaken and Stunned results.

-Razorback: It’s a Razorback.  See above.

-Inquisitorial Chimera: It’s a chimera for the Henchmen.  A couple extra upgrades compared to the Guard one.

Fast Attack

-Stormraven Gunship: I have a problem with this.  Not the Stormraven, it’s the same as the Blood Angel one but with Grey Knight rules and upgrades.  My problem is IT’S THE ONLY FAST ATTACK SELECTION.  Play Grey Knights?  BUY THREE.  This seemed to be designed to sell Stormravens.  I would have made a 2nd Fast attack choice Grey Knights with the Personal Teleporters, and taken the option away from the Troops choice.  But now they will sell more Stormraven kits.  Boo-urns.

Heavy Support

-Purgation Squad: Grey Knights that can take 4 special/heavy weapons.  Other than the new options, the same as before.

-Dreadnought: As the Ven Dread, but without the Ven.  Basically a Space Marine Dread with Grey Knight rules and upgrades.  I would have liked to see the Psycannon and Incinerator as weapons for all Grey Knight Dreads, as I thing Forge World makes a Dread Psycannon bit.

-Nemesis Dreadknight: Dumb name.  It’s a Carnifex with better stats.  Worse, it can take a Personal Teleporter, so it can zoom 30″ and dare the enemy to kill it.  It’s toughness 7 so Meltaguns wound on a 3.  I think this is dumb.  If a Space Marine is injured, they can put it in a big armored case and it’s a vehicle.  If a Grey Knight (already in a suit of armor) steps into a BIGGER suit of armor, he’s a monstrous creature.  Come on.  The guy is right there.  It should have the special rule “Headshot” where models with the Sniper ability that roll a 6 to hit and successfully wound kill the Dreadknight outright.  From the blurry pictures on the internet, it’s 5-7″ tall, so it’s a bit shorter than the Defiler, and the Defiler is a vehicle!  Plus it has a 2+/4+ invul so on average you’d need 24 shots with Plasma Guns at BS 4 to kill it.  Grey Knights did not need this.

-Land Raider Variants: Same as SM Land Raiders, but with Grey Knight options and Fortitude Psychic Power.

Retribution Class Battleship: Nieman Lion

I’ve decided to take an “Imperials First” strategy to painting the rest of my Gothic forces.  After this Chaos and then Defences.

When Fluff and Reality collide: Retcons

New gamers find the worlds they explore full of stories.  Some are wonderful.  Some aren’t.  But there’s so much to read and enjoy that it all averages out to a good time.

However, the older gamers have a more intimate relationship with the fluff.  The problem with this is that these stories keep getting added to, and the new authors have their own ideas, some of which don’t mesh with the older established canon.

I ran into this in Warhammer 40K around the time the 4th edition Space Marine codex came out.  Some authors were writing about what no man should write about: The Horus Heresy.  In this fluff, the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter was changed.  They used to be the “space black people.”  While this was pretty racist, at least there WERE some black people in 40K.  Everyone else seemed like they were direct descendants of europeans.

The Horus Heresy novels and the 4th edition Space Marine codex changed that.  Now they weren’t african black, they were BLACK black.  Like Chaos black.  Like the darkest night that crushes your dreams.  Plus they had glowing red eyes.  Not only did this invalidate all the fluff previously written by GW or by fans, it also made people’s paint jobs not reflect the background anymore.  Plus black skin and red eyes looks stupid.

My Space Marine chapter, the Azure Flames, was a Vulkan successor.  So, I retconned my OWN fluff and altered the background so that they were mysteriously not jet black with red eyes.

Gene-Seed

The Azure Flames have the distinction of being the first official successor chapter to inherit Vulkan’s Gene-Seed.  This has led to some uncomfortable questions.  It is rumored that the Salamanders have jet black skin and glowing red eyes.  It is quite obvious that this is not the case with the Azure Flames, as they exhibit a remarkable range of skin, hair, and eye colors.  Perhaps the Azure Flames have a mutated Gene Seed which reacts to radiation differently, or perhaps the seeds for the appropriate organelles were taken from a different Primarch.  Whatever the reason, the Techpriests of Mars and the Apothecaries of the Azure Flames do not speak of it.

This is not limited to GW.  Privateer Press retconned several facts about the Cygnar character Allister Caine.  Sadly, no matter what you think, canon is canon.  You can’t make GW NOT have changed the official fluff.  So you either adapt to it, or you become a cranky old man who wakes up screaming at night that Ork blood is green.

Review of Grey Knight “rumors” part 2.

My previous installment dealt with HQ choices.  Time to move on to the Elites.

Techmarine – Pretty similar to Marine Techmarine.  Servo harness standard, lot of options.  Doesn’t look too ridiculous.

Purifiers – Power armor Grey Knights.  They can take a variety of weapons, and two special weapons per 5 models.  Expensive.  Can custom tailor to any foe with expensive weapons.

Venerable Dreadnought – Like the SM VenDread, but more expensive.  Has Aegis, and a few GK upgrades like psybolt ammo.  Nothing special.

Paladins – OK.  Here is a problem.  Upside they are expensive for what you get.  Downside what you get BREAKS THE GAME.  Two wound Terminators, can take an Apothecary for FNP, each can take different weapons so you can allocate however you want.  This is another Nob Bikers unit.  UGH.

Assassins – Similar to what they were before.

Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband – HENCHMEN!  Huge variety.  Arco Flagellants have FNP, good stats.  Banishers make Daemons within 6″ re-roll invuls.  Crusaders are combat oriented, several options.  Jokaero Weaponsmiths are AWESOME!  They give you neat bonuses, the least of which is ORANGUTANS IN YOUR ARMY.  Mystics are walking teleport homers.  Daemonhosts are still random, but at least ALL Daemonhosts in the unit now get the same power every turn, making an all-daemonhost unit pretty scary.  Death Cult Assassins are still combat nightmares.  Servitors are servitors, no change.  Psykers have a shooting psychic power.  Warrior acolytes are more combat guys.  This squad is 3-12 in size and can take a Chimera.  This might have hidden combos I’m not seeing that are ridiculous, but it looks fun for now.

Next: Troops!

Konquata Monitors Cheerleaders and finished team!

DONE!  Perhaps I’ll set up an image gallery in the Features section.

Cheerleader pom poms are from a craft store, superglued on after painting.

Now all I need is a pitch and a second team!

Ironclad Dreadnought

Modeling

I inserted magnets into teh top and front of the body.  I then put magnets in the Hunter Killer missiles.  To put the magnets in the Frag Assault Launchers, first I placed the magnets that go in the launchers on the body, stuck to the magnets they will be next to when the launchers are on.  Next, I dabbed a small amount of paint on each magnet, and placed the launcher on them while the paint was wet.  I then used my pin vise to drill into the painted spots.  Slowly.  I did it one turn at a time, and kept going until the magnet JUST fit.

For the arms, you can see I have not magnetized the arm guns.  I chose an appropriate kit-out for situations.  Chainfist Hammer Meltagun and Storm Bolter for MEQs and Fist, Hurricane Bolter, and Heavy Flamer for light armor enemies.

Painting was done in the Azure Flames style.

Review of Grey Knight “rumors.”

So there have been a lot of rumors about the upcoming Grey Knights codex.  I’m going to look at a “compilation” of “rumors” that is not a “scanned pdf” and I will review each entry over the next few days.  Today: HQ Choices.

Lord Draigo: Powerful against Daemons, but not so much against everyone else.  A bit expensive, but worth it against Eldar Seer Council, or Chaos Daemons.

Mordrak: Neat, lets you take stealth Terminators.

Stern: Better now that he doesn’t let your enemy take a free Greater Daemon of Tzeentch.  A nice beatstick.

Crowe: Great against Guard, good for a boost for a squad.  Nice points value.

Grand Master: Customizable, perfect for making your own character.  Brings back the old Master Crafting of anything you want.  For 5 pts, which is what they should have cost in 3rd ed.

Brother Captain: So, you didn’t want to pay 15 extra points for the Grandmaster, and you’re OK shooting hitting on a 2 instead of a 2 with a 6 re-roll.  That’s fair.  Good choice.

Brotherhood Champion: Cheap and good.  Weapons skill 7.  Suck it, Genestealers.  Not very customizable.  Perhaps too cheap?  Great for killing powerful models with Eternal Warrior (it says “removed” not “causes instant death.”)

Librarian: Similar to Space Marine Librarian, the Cherry Coke to their Original.

Coteaz: Still an idiotic name, but he’s very nice if you want to protect against deep strikers or outflankers.  Also, did you just seize the initiative?  Coteaz gives you the finger.

Karamazov: I HAVE A BIG CHAIR!  DOES ANYONE LIKE MY CHAIR?  Not bad, but a big target.  Blows up your own guys if you want to.  Charge your half-strength stormtroopers into Abbadon and then drop a pie plate on them.

Valeria: Bonus points for the best name in the codex (after the queen of lesbian glam pop, or so I imagine).  Erases an enemy character.  Neat weaponry.

Various Inquisitors: Good.  Each ordo has it’s own unique flavor.  EXCELLENT for storytelling.  Customizable in lots of ways.