CaulynDarr's Axioms of Miniature Gaming

This may end up being an abuse of the definition of axiom, but I felt a few things ought to be said while the blogging community is in the trows of resolving the cognitive dissonance that is 6th edition.  I've learned things about gaming in the time I've been gaming.  This is stuff we all probably know, but tend to conveniently forget when we go on cathartic diatribes.

Axiom 1: There is no such thing as a perfect game.  

Most games have problems.  Play them enough and you'll run into them face first.  Games are complex with hundreds or even thousands of variables, and you just can't account for all of them and meet publishing deadlines and budgets.  This should not be an excuse for bad quality, just an acceptance of the reality of game production.

Axiom 2: The quality of a game is secondary to the number of people you know playing it.

Hypothetically if you did find the perfect game, that wouldn't mean much if no one wanted to play it.  I got shelves of games I've bought because the rules looked very promising.  Games better and more fun than what I tend to play on a daily basis.  But games require x>1 person to play.  So if quality(Q) times players(P) equal fun(F) then Q(100)*P(0) < Q(50)*P(2).  So sometimes we play games that are not the greatest because we can actually find people to play them with.

Axiom 3: There is no such thing as the perfect game company

Game companies are businesses.  Often they have owners and employees with bills to pay and kids to put through school.  This requires them to make decisions based on profit margins over pure gaming culture ideals.  When a game company is something done by a few guys out their garage and it's done for the fun instead of the money, companies can do all kinds of idealistic things.  Unfortunately companies become the victims of their own success.  As they grow and people livelihoods depend on the company, sometimes ideals have to take a back seat to reality.  Even if a company where to hold on to the bulk of it's idealism, you can't make everyone happy all the time.  Sometimes a company that does everything right will eventually piss you off.

Axiom 4: Never ever sell off an army.

I break this one a lot.  I've never sold an army or bulk of models and not regretted it later.  If a new edition comes along and you're stuff sucks, it's cheaper in the long run to store it for later.  In two years the next edition will make it the new hotness, or It'll be the only thing your gaming group wants to play 6 months down the road.  Of course if you're getting out the hobby all together...yeah, like that's going to happen.

Finally a 6th edition list that doesn't make me throw up in my mouth

I had to accept that without native AA or even expanded AA in allies, I'm not going to be able to put together a decent list.  I think it really relegates Tau and Eldar to allies only status.  When GW announces flyers for those armies or a list of skyfire upgrade-able units, I'll break them out as primary detachments again.

 As you saw in my last post I picked up a pair of Storm Talons.  By internet standards right now that makes me a sucker.  I played right into GW's hand.  Well you know what? Any of us still playing GW's games with that company's track record are all suckers already.  It's just a matter of degrees.  2 Storm Talons was about the least I could spend to get what I think is a 6th compatible list.  Plus, I hadn't made a purchase for my SMs in a long time, so they where do for some love.

It's probably not the best list yet.  It needs some more efficiency hammered in, but I think it's a good starting point.

Space Marines 1850

• Librarian - Epistolary w/ Gate and Null Zone
• Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin-linked Autocannons
• Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin-linked Autocannons
• 10 Man Tactical Squad w/ Rhino, Combi-Melta Sarge, Meltagun, and Plasma Cannon
• 10 Man Tactical Squad w/ Rhino, Combi-Melta Sarge, Meltagun, and Plasma Cannon
• Storm Talon w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher
• Storm Talon w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher
• 2 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-Meltas

Tau Detachment(Brothers in Arms)

• Shas'el w/ Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker, and Hard Wired Blacksun Filter
• 2 XV8 Body Guards w/ Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, and Multi-Tracker
• 12 Fire Warriors w/ Emp Grenades and Shas'ui with Blacksun Filter, Drone Controller, and 2 Gun Drones
• 2 Broadsides w/ Blacksun Filter, Drone Controller, and 2 Shield Drones.

The Librarian attaches to the Fire Warrior blob  If facing demons he keeps his basic powers, otherwise he'll be rolling for Telepathy and Telekinesis.  I still may want to swap the combi sarges out for power fist sarges. 

La-sigh

I shall play marines for the time being. My xenos get to be allies.

Further 6th Edition Musings - or why I won't be playing much 6th for a month or two

I've been stewing a bit more on what to do with my armies.

I think that my Eldar are going to have to stay on the shelf.  I can't think of an all-comers list that will work with the models I own.  Anything I do come up with is too gimmicky to work in the long run.  I'm in a position that I've got to spend a few hundred dollars to get the army to maximum efficiency.  And at maximum efficiency, Eldar still aren't that great.

My Tau army is better off.  I can probably make it work with Marine or Ork Allies.  Even then though I've still got to spend some cash.  I need another squad of fire warriors, a dakka jet, some nobz, and an aegis line.  That's over a 100 bucks.

My space marines at least need to get some Storm Talons. Stupid flyers.

I'm stuck until GW expands on units with skyfire.  If and When Tau and Eldar AA and fliers drop, it makes things a lot different. I don't want to spend $100 now for some units that are only going to get a month or two of play.  I really hate GW's 1 week product announcement policy. All it does is keep me from spending money on their stuff.  

The other choice is I can play with sub-par lists for a few months.  It sucks to be a xenos player.  It really sucks to be a Xenos player with codexes 2 editions out of date.

The thing is: I kind of like 6th edition.  Except that the edition is forcing me down the path of having to buy fliers for all my armies.  Why can't I have units with g-d skyfire?

  

6th Edition Musings

I've mostly finished digesting the rules from a theoretical standpoint.  Most everything is acceptable, but flying stuff scares me.  It's going to be pretty constraining to my lists to get any kind of skyfire into my Eldar and Tau.  I think it really holds that if you had a solid codex going into 6th--you're good.  If you had a bad one, you didn't get many favors.

There are a few things that I want to call out that I haven't seen anyone else really mention.  You can't use psychic powers the turn you deep strike.  And double toughness instant death is calculated off of modified toughness now. I really think Attack Bikes>Land Speeders this edition.

While the 6th rulebook is not so bad, the Eldar FAQ was horrendous.  It had to be written by an intern.  They printed "sentences" instead of "paragraphs" in the update for Veil of Tears.  You can interpret the rule several ways now going from abjectly useless to game breakingly awesome.  You have to infer that spirit stones and Eldrad's staff give +1 mastery level.  Speaking of Eldrad's staff; it's a total mess.  Does it still allow you to use the same power twice?  It's listed as "ignores armor saves", but is not considered a power weapon, and is not in the master appendix with an AP.  So what is it?  My interpretation is RAW and that it ignores ALL armor saves.  Yriel's spear is similarly written and ambiguous.  

And can someone tell me why Tau had to loose their Target Locks?

Anyway, I think my Tau and Eldar where neither helped or hindered too much by the new edition.  Thanks to allies there are ways to counter some of the new stuff.  That said, Tau need some native anti-psyker and both armies need native anti-flyer to really be competitive.  

I tried running through the Eldar codex to see if anything became magically playable.  Eldar jetbikes went from "I need to get some of those" to "I REALLY need to get some of those".  Warp Spiders maybe a little more useful thanks to hull points.  A unit should be ably to glance most vehicles to death.  Rangers, Pathfinders, and Dark Reapers all got a slight boost thanks to cover changes and precision targeting, but still not enough to offset their already over-costed points.  All of them went from "no" to "maybe" in my list building process.  Poor banshees will remain on the DL until Eldar get another codex.  Harlies will remain in limbo until the faq is faq'ed. The new artillery rules would make the weapons platforms cool if their guns weren't so meh.  

Mech Eldar took a bit of a hit in this edition thanks to the changes to objective taking.  I can't fly around contesting like I used to.  I also can't just put min squads of Avengers inside because I'll have to eventually get them out.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my Eldar at this point.  I'm thinking all foot, or foot hybrid.  I'll need at least 3 squads of bikes whatever I do.   

Eldar need a new codex in a bad way.  90% of the codex is over-costed, and 60% is outright unusable.  It's a 3rd edition codex patched for 4th edition and we have to use it in 6th edition.  Tau aren't so bad off.  I can ally some orks or space marines; either with a flyer. Throw in an aegis defense line or bastion, and I'm 6th edition compatible.

Looking for some available Space Elves

My gut instinct given the new psychic power deck is that I'll be unshelving my Eldar and shelving my Tau.  If anyone has any miscellaneous Eldar they are looking to get rid of, I'd be willing to take them off your hands.

I've got a ton of Warmachine Cygnar stuff to trade, but I can do cash.

...and if anyone has any 15mm 8th Army Brits, I want them as well.

Can't wait to pay my $82 new edition tax

Really GW?  70 bucks for the rule book?  You're making Fantasy Flight books look like bargain bin prices.  Then there's the 12 bucks for the psycher cards.  I guess you don't technically need them, but still.  It's GW's way of tacking on some hidden costs to the new edition.

If I didn't already own three armies...

The Sunk Cost Fallacy - keeping people playing 40K for 25 years and counting.