My army's in the BOLS caption contest!
First round at Adepticon against Chaos Demons.
Showing posts with label Tau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tau. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
My First Adepticon
The Con
I've been to a couple of gaming cons. Gencon a few times, some conventions in St. Louis, and even ran a small convention for the Fantasy and Science Fiction Appreciation Club I was an officer for back at the University of Dayton. Adepticon is no where near as big as Gencon, but it's big for a convention with such a narrow focus.
The focus has broadened away from GW properties. Warhammer 40K still dominated about 50% of the floor space, but Privateer, Catalyst, Wyrd, and Battlefront are starting to eat up all the space left over. There's so much going on at Adepticon there's almost not enough room for it all. The vendor area was claustrophobic, and companies had to have their demo tables clear on the other side of the building.
The tastiness of the swag bag this year, with the inclusion of the Adepticonstruct, and a free Battle Foam Shield Bag for the first 500 attendees created a congested registration line that wrapped around the building and took hours to parse through.
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| The registration table is around that corner and 50 yards away. This was an hour and half before registration opened, and it took me an hour to get there once they started. |
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| This is the line wrapping into and through the grand ballroom. |
There is a need for some updated registration organization next year. They could do it the way Gencon does and mail out Badges. Preferably with a guaranteed ticket for your swag bag. But I can't complain too much since I got a free battle foam bag myself. If you plan on going next year, the ViG upgrade to your ticket is worth it if you can get it. That line only had 100 people and they all got to be registered first.
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| Of course there are other ways to cope with long lines. Yes that is a keg hidden in a BF bag. |
One thing missing that they should have had was a convention program with a map. For a first time attendee, it was hard to figure out where things where and what was going on. If they plan on adding more events beside the big 40K tournaments they really need to have one.
The Lombard was fairly nice hotel, but everything was on the expensive side. They are also pretty much out of room to grow there. There's no room to add another vender or another big tournament for a new game system. Hopefully they can secure a bigger location in the future. The restaurants in the hotel are nice, but a bit overpriced. I would not have gone there if I wasn't taking my wife out to a nice Birthday dinner.
I would like to go again next year. It was nice to have my wife along, but I felt like I missed out on a lot of the convention. Hopefully Adepticon doesn't fall on her birthday next year.
The Championships
The championships where a lot of fun. I didn't do as well as I hopped, but I wasn't expecting to take home the championships with Tau. People liked the colors on my Tau, and it got a little attention. Blue Table Painting did a little mini-interview with me 1:30 into one of their you tube videos from the convention.
I went 1-2-1 for the day. I beat a Demon Fatecrusher list in the first round. She was a too aggressive with her drops and lost 3 units to mishaps. My second game was against Wolves and I tied. The third game as against a Foodar list, on a table with too much LOS blocking terrain. He reserve denied his army and had plenty of terrain to completely block units(even wraith lords) from my shooting. I didn't try too hard in my last game, and I also had a pretty crappy run of dice.
The format was OK, but I think it needs to improve on a few points. Some of the mission objectives are still kind of cheesy. They would be OK, if every army in 40K had an equally stocked tool box, but we all know that's not the case. The objectives to get across the table and put an HQ within 3 inches of the table center are impractical for some armies, and almost a given for others. Table quarters needs to move to the nova style. Being able to contest with a single unit is a little lame. The marked target objective was the only one that was on its face stupid. Mostly because you could reserve the marked target and deny your opponent the objective. A better way to do it would be to chose the marked target at the end of the first or second turn amongst units on the table. Accounts for armies that have to enter the game from reserve, and makes sure someone actually has the ability to get the objective.
Terrain was OK. I prefer using radial symmetry and more smaller pieces, but the 6 piece setup Adepticon uses is good enough. The exception where a handful of tables in the corner that where made up of random pieces that where left over. I had the unfortunate experience of playing on one of these tables against Footdar. It had at least 10 large city fight ruins with very few window pieces. My opponent was able to effectively hide things like wraith lords and war walkers from my LOS. My opponent took every advantage of that board and the mission, and I was a pretty impossible fight for a static shooty army like my Tau.
Spag had some trouble with his opponents and some sportsmanship chipmunking, but in my experience all my opponents where fun and fair. Adepticon this year went along way towards reminding me about what I like about the game. Mostly it's the way you can express yourself and build great interesting armies. Flame of War and Warmachine might have tighter rules, but have you ever seen something like this in anything other than a 40K or Fantasy tournament?
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| And this person didn't win players choice! A crime I tell you! |
It's made me want to start on another army. Unfortunately this is where GW screws the pouch again. I can't seem to reconcile an army I want to build with an army capable of winning. 40K exists because of its passionate players despite GW. Adepticon is a shining example of that.
And Now for Something New
I picked up one of the last copies of Dust Warfare from the Fantasy Flight booth. It's a pretty solid rules system. It definitely reads like a potential 40K killer. It plays at a similar scale with tighter rules. It's also pretty cheap with units costing 15-25 dollars. You could build a decent army for $150 dollars. It lacks the flair of 40K that I was talking about earlier, and I'm pretty board of the weird war II genre. But it's got the one thing that every other 40K killer has failed to produce so far, cheap cool vehicle kits. Those heavy walker units are boss. The actual unit miniatures could look better, but that's a side effect of the way they are produced, and the price is right.
The rules system is a basic 2 action system where units can move, attack, double move, or double attack. You use the same roll for everything in the game. Essentially you need to roll a 5+ to hit or save; what varies is the number of dice you roll. The moral mechanic is also very interesting. Units gain suppression markers as they take wounds. They actually increase your cover, but too many causes the unit to break. Speaking of cover, it works much more intuitively and less abstract than 40K. You can only assign wounds to models you can see, and you have to assign wounds to models outside of cover first.
I'd like to give it a try. It would be cool if another Indy local would like to also buy in.
It would also be a pretty fun project to try and convert 40K armies to use the this rule system. There are enough special rules in the core rulebook that I think you could make it work without having to introduce new ones.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Skyray's the limit
My Tau list so far has included a Skyray. The clarifications on Seeker Missiles made them seem like a tempting include in my eventual Adepticon list. They bring along a pair of mobile marker lights which also seamed like a good enough reason to give them a go. Third, the Skyray box includes the parts to make a Hammerhead, so I could still equip the hull with a rail-gun if it didn't work out.
The first couple of games I used the Skyray it preformed fairly well. It provided more benefit than my Hammerhead or Broadsides. Having mobile marker-lights upgraded to hit on 3+ was a solid addition to the list, and it was devastating to most targets to launch a Marcross Missile Massacre from the Skyray. For most of these battles, I was facing lightly armored foes. Most of the available armored targets could be adequately handled by battle-suit missile pods. In those games my st 10 rail-guns where superfluous. Their low rate of fire meant that they didn't have quite the effect of markerlight boosted st 7 missile pods and st 8 seekers.
The shine wore off the Skyray when I played against Necrons in a Dawn of war game. The first issue that arose was that my Skyray was stuck in support mode while my Pathfinders moved into position early game. This meant that I never had the opportunity to fire any seekers. The second issue was that my missile pods where fantastically useless against Monoliths and only slightly less useless against Quantum Shielding.
This left the whole anti-armor duty for my army onto my two Boadsides and single Hammerhead. I was rolling pretty badly for my rail-guns, and only managed to immobilize one Monolith with them. I was wishing for a third rail-gun equipped unit the whole game.
This was only my 1500 point list. My full 1850 Adepticon list adds in two Piranhas to assist against heavy armor, but that may not be good enough. I'm coming around to the standard reasoning that-no matter how good the Skyray is-it's not as good as anything carrying a rail-gun.
Those two marker-lights the Skyray provides are hard to give up, but I think in the long run having at least one more rail-gun will be more useful. I would like to add in another squad of two Broadsides in place of the Skyray, but practical considerations will probably lead to using an additional Hammerhead instead. If I can get the army completed and painted ahead of schedule, I may convert two additional Broadsides. As it is, I'm not sure I'll have the time to do that.
The first couple of games I used the Skyray it preformed fairly well. It provided more benefit than my Hammerhead or Broadsides. Having mobile marker-lights upgraded to hit on 3+ was a solid addition to the list, and it was devastating to most targets to launch a Marcross Missile Massacre from the Skyray. For most of these battles, I was facing lightly armored foes. Most of the available armored targets could be adequately handled by battle-suit missile pods. In those games my st 10 rail-guns where superfluous. Their low rate of fire meant that they didn't have quite the effect of markerlight boosted st 7 missile pods and st 8 seekers.
The shine wore off the Skyray when I played against Necrons in a Dawn of war game. The first issue that arose was that my Skyray was stuck in support mode while my Pathfinders moved into position early game. This meant that I never had the opportunity to fire any seekers. The second issue was that my missile pods where fantastically useless against Monoliths and only slightly less useless against Quantum Shielding.
This left the whole anti-armor duty for my army onto my two Boadsides and single Hammerhead. I was rolling pretty badly for my rail-guns, and only managed to immobilize one Monolith with them. I was wishing for a third rail-gun equipped unit the whole game.
This was only my 1500 point list. My full 1850 Adepticon list adds in two Piranhas to assist against heavy armor, but that may not be good enough. I'm coming around to the standard reasoning that-no matter how good the Skyray is-it's not as good as anything carrying a rail-gun.
Those two marker-lights the Skyray provides are hard to give up, but I think in the long run having at least one more rail-gun will be more useful. I would like to add in another squad of two Broadsides in place of the Skyray, but practical considerations will probably lead to using an additional Hammerhead instead. If I can get the army completed and painted ahead of schedule, I may convert two additional Broadsides. As it is, I'm not sure I'll have the time to do that.
Monday, November 28, 2011
I hope Tau isn't the next Codex
After the amazing two games I've played with my Tau, I have to say that I like the army. The variability in their wargear options has allowed them to stay competitive despite the age of the codex. Tau very effectively matches my play style. I've always been a castle type player. I prefer to build a defensive line and make my opponents come to me. This works fairly well in lot of game systems for me, so long as I can find an army that can effectively fight that kind of battle.
When I played Flames or War I used German Grenadiers. They where a very effective defensive force. You couldn't effectively fight them from greater than 16" away, and they had some very good mobile reserve options in the form of Tigers and Stugs. My Cygnar in Warmachine was much the same. They weren't as tough, but they could outrage anything else they would fight. They had a lot of units that weren't good at leading a charge, but where more than adequate to clean up anything that survived a turn or two of trying to march though long gunner fire.
It may seem like a simple way to play the game; just sitting there and roll dice while your opponent marches across the table. It's much harder than you think to do it right. You have to build the defensive line just right so that you can absorb a charge and regroup. You need to build in bait to tempt the enemy to commit their forces where you want them to. You need to have a mobile reserve behind your lines to counter whatever tricks your opponent pulls off.
40K has given me some trouble because I could never build an army that worked that way. The way the armies are designed in 40K you can win games by aggressively driving your assault units into the opposing army. You can't quite do that in other games. In FoW you need to measure your movement out just right to make an assault work. The Defensive Fire mechanic and the deadliness of weapons fire under 16" in that game make miscalculations very painful. In Warmachine you have to protect your own warcaster, so if an all out attack fails, you're probably going to loose to the counterattack. In both games, needlessly sacrificing units can tend to hamper you chances of winning.
In 40K, assault units are relatively cheap, and losing one doesn't loose you the game in most cases. The good assault based units are generally so much better in assaults than ordinary units, that there is no likely chance of failure. In assault unit versus assault unit match ups, mutually assured destruction is usually good enough. It's acceptable to loose an assault terminator squad to take out a Thunderwolves unit.
I'm not a very aggressive player. I think this is a result of Eldar being my first army. I've never held much stock in relying on close-combat for victories since my games always featured my expensive exotic aspect warriors bouncing off of regular old tactical marines.
Tau is the first army that I've played where I think a defensive strategy will work. It has cheap units to absorb charges, and sturdy units that can stand up to ranged fire. Many of the units are also decently fast enough to go on the offensive when the situation calls for it. I can build an army that will force my opponent to think about how to attack it. Or better yet, one that my opponents don't know they have to think carefully about approaching.
Anyway that's my hope. Based on the enormity of my experience(2 games).
So how does this relate to not wanting Tau to be the next codex? I don't want to have to relearn the army for Adepticon. Especially with as late as a march release window for the next codex. I also don't want to have to do any marathon painting sessions to get a rebuilt army ready in time.
I've been rethinking my list a little in the meantime though. I was worried about the Necron solar pulses. A ranged army really doesn't need to loose 2+ turns of shooting, so I removed a few gun drones to fit in some black sun filters. I haven't read the Necron rules, so I would be grateful if someone would confirm if the standard anti-night-fight equipment works against solar pulse.
New list follows:
When I played Flames or War I used German Grenadiers. They where a very effective defensive force. You couldn't effectively fight them from greater than 16" away, and they had some very good mobile reserve options in the form of Tigers and Stugs. My Cygnar in Warmachine was much the same. They weren't as tough, but they could outrage anything else they would fight. They had a lot of units that weren't good at leading a charge, but where more than adequate to clean up anything that survived a turn or two of trying to march though long gunner fire.
It may seem like a simple way to play the game; just sitting there and roll dice while your opponent marches across the table. It's much harder than you think to do it right. You have to build the defensive line just right so that you can absorb a charge and regroup. You need to build in bait to tempt the enemy to commit their forces where you want them to. You need to have a mobile reserve behind your lines to counter whatever tricks your opponent pulls off.
40K has given me some trouble because I could never build an army that worked that way. The way the armies are designed in 40K you can win games by aggressively driving your assault units into the opposing army. You can't quite do that in other games. In FoW you need to measure your movement out just right to make an assault work. The Defensive Fire mechanic and the deadliness of weapons fire under 16" in that game make miscalculations very painful. In Warmachine you have to protect your own warcaster, so if an all out attack fails, you're probably going to loose to the counterattack. In both games, needlessly sacrificing units can tend to hamper you chances of winning.
In 40K, assault units are relatively cheap, and losing one doesn't loose you the game in most cases. The good assault based units are generally so much better in assaults than ordinary units, that there is no likely chance of failure. In assault unit versus assault unit match ups, mutually assured destruction is usually good enough. It's acceptable to loose an assault terminator squad to take out a Thunderwolves unit.
I'm not a very aggressive player. I think this is a result of Eldar being my first army. I've never held much stock in relying on close-combat for victories since my games always featured my expensive exotic aspect warriors bouncing off of regular old tactical marines.
Tau is the first army that I've played where I think a defensive strategy will work. It has cheap units to absorb charges, and sturdy units that can stand up to ranged fire. Many of the units are also decently fast enough to go on the offensive when the situation calls for it. I can build an army that will force my opponent to think about how to attack it. Or better yet, one that my opponents don't know they have to think carefully about approaching.
Anyway that's my hope. Based on the enormity of my experience(2 games).
So how does this relate to not wanting Tau to be the next codex? I don't want to have to relearn the army for Adepticon. Especially with as late as a march release window for the next codex. I also don't want to have to do any marathon painting sessions to get a rebuilt army ready in time.
I've been rethinking my list a little in the meantime though. I was worried about the Necron solar pulses. A ranged army really doesn't need to loose 2+ turns of shooting, so I removed a few gun drones to fit in some black sun filters. I haven't read the Necron rules, so I would be grateful if someone would confirm if the standard anti-night-fight equipment works against solar pulse.
New list follows:
| Unit Name | Upgrades | Qty |
| Shas'el (Commander) | ||
| Missile Pod | ||
| Plasma Rifle | ||
| Multi-tracker | ||
| Hard wired black sun filter | ||
| XV8 Team | 3 | |
| Missile Pod | 3 | |
| Plasma Rifle | 3 | |
| Multi-tracker | 3 | |
| XV8 Team | 3 | |
| Missile Pod | 3 | |
| Plasma Rifle | 3 | |
| Multi-tracker | 3 | |
| XV8 Team | 2 | |
| Twin linked Missle pod | 2 | |
| Black sun filter | 2 | |
| Fire Warriors | 6 | |
| Fire Warriors | 6 | |
| Devilfish | ||
| Seeker Missiles | 1 | |
| Disruption Pod | ||
| Kroot Squad | 10 | |
| Kroot Hounds | 7 | |
| Kroot Squad | 10 | |
| Kroot Hounds | 7 | |
| Pathfinder Squad | 8 | |
| Devilfish | ||
| Seeker Missiles | 1 | |
| Disruption Pod | ||
| Piranha | 1 | |
| Fusion Blaster | ||
| Targeting Array | ||
| Piranha | 1 | |
| Fusion Blaster | ||
| Targeting Array | ||
| XV88 Broadsides | 2 | |
| Team leader | ||
| Hard-wired black sun filter | ||
| Hard-wired target lock | ||
| Drone Controller | 1 | |
| Shield Drone | 2 | |
| Black sun filter | 1 | |
| Hammerhead | ||
| Rail Gun | ||
| Smart Missile System | ||
| Black sun filter | ||
| Disruption Pod | ||
| Multitracker | ||
| Sky Ray | ||
| Smart Missile System | ||
| Disruption Pod | ||
| Black sun filter | ||
| Multitracker | ||
| Targeting Array |
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