Gaming Report
[Karma fronting]
Well, with the 5th Edition books in our hands, I played my first game of 40k in at least two years, and a second one.
It wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped it would be. A lot of reasons for this, but oh well.
The first game was against Tom, playing his Tyranids. Apparently, I'm going to have to accept that they don't play with truly representative models, and they pretty much said as much. It was turn two or three before I found out that the two broods of Termagaunts were being run as Hormagaunts, and that the Carnifexi were armed with weapons different than what the models were. Tom may have mentioned this and I zoned it out or soemthing. But, this practice bothers me a little. A.) I will do very different things if the brood approaching me is X as opposed to it being Y. B.) How do I know he didn't just change what those Carnifexi were armed with based upon what I was fielding? C.) HE HAD HORMAGAUNT MODELS IN THE CASE. True, I know they're some of the worst balanced models GW has produced, but still. If they're placed with their claws against the ground, I won't care.
Thoughts spurred by this game: I'm not sure how viable my Guard can even be in 5th Edition. With the possibility of now TWO ways for units to get in behind me, the only feasible option I can think of for how to deal with both claiming objectives and not getting slaughtered by Deep Strikers is to have nothing but expendable troop units.
Between games, Rob commented that I'm wasting points on giving my Guardsmen additional close-combat effectiveness. But, see, the problem with that way of thinking is that I'm assaulted in every goddamn game, with the possible exception of against Tau. I'd like to make it at least a little riskier for an enemy to assault me by being able to increase my chances of killing something in assault. Sure, Guard don't have the strength to wound often when armed with power weapons, but at the same time, I like the idea of not wasting those occasions when I *do* roll well enough to wound them.
I looked into Rob's way, and it would have saved my non-doctrined Guard army about 130 points if I removed things I generally consider part of assault effectiveness. That's two more Infantry Squads, but poorly equipped ones. I'm neither convinced to drop it all entirely, or to make no changes. I'm still thinking about it.
Also between games, I gave my Carapace Armored guard a look-over. 5th Edition requires so many more troops. I'm not sure what to do with this army. I may drop the heavy weapons from the Infantry Platoons and have them try and be a mobile but tough army for 5th Edition.
In hindsight, I shouldn't have played the second game. My back was hurting by this point, and I think I would have been better off just letting Rob and Tom duke it out. Maybe I'll stick to one game per night there or something.
Second game, also against Tom, was my same Guard Army, because I just didn't think I could remember all the proxies Rob was suggesting I do, against Tom's Grey Knights. I am too used to 4th Edition and being able to shoot through my own units. I need to relearn how to deploy. But, at the same time, I'm pretty sure that had I not deployed so thickly behind that building, Tom would have held those Terminators in reserve and dropped them in behind me. It was a lose-lose situation. In hindsight, I know how I would have done it differently, and I think I'm going to try to do so next time.
Thoughts on this game: I *must* learn to spread out more. I was hurting myself as much because of the number of shots I couldn't make as I was by putting so much of my force behind that building. When it's a killpoints game, I think I may try to leave as much of my force in reserve as I can.
In both games, the new rules for tanks have sucked the life out of them, and I wasn't even facing anything using meltabombs. Just having three or four attacks and the ability to glance or penetrate armor means you'll win against a tank, because you will at the very fucking least shake it or stun it every damn assault phase. Rob suggested that 5th will encourage people to surround their tanks with infantry. Gee, 20 Guardsmen against five genestealers. That'll take what? Two assault phases to go all the way through, probably including killing the tank. Oh, sure, tanks are tougher... when you're trying to trade ranged fire with these heavily armored behemoths that can throw ranged fire like nothing else... and only during those times. They're so much weaker in assault, the thought of taking them almost seems silly now.
I'm going to spend some time trying to figure out what my new tactics will be, because the old ones are failing 103% of the time.
Well, with the 5th Edition books in our hands, I played my first game of 40k in at least two years, and a second one.
It wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped it would be. A lot of reasons for this, but oh well.
The first game was against Tom, playing his Tyranids. Apparently, I'm going to have to accept that they don't play with truly representative models, and they pretty much said as much. It was turn two or three before I found out that the two broods of Termagaunts were being run as Hormagaunts, and that the Carnifexi were armed with weapons different than what the models were. Tom may have mentioned this and I zoned it out or soemthing. But, this practice bothers me a little. A.) I will do very different things if the brood approaching me is X as opposed to it being Y. B.) How do I know he didn't just change what those Carnifexi were armed with based upon what I was fielding? C.) HE HAD HORMAGAUNT MODELS IN THE CASE. True, I know they're some of the worst balanced models GW has produced, but still. If they're placed with their claws against the ground, I won't care.
Thoughts spurred by this game: I'm not sure how viable my Guard can even be in 5th Edition. With the possibility of now TWO ways for units to get in behind me, the only feasible option I can think of for how to deal with both claiming objectives and not getting slaughtered by Deep Strikers is to have nothing but expendable troop units.
Between games, Rob commented that I'm wasting points on giving my Guardsmen additional close-combat effectiveness. But, see, the problem with that way of thinking is that I'm assaulted in every goddamn game, with the possible exception of against Tau. I'd like to make it at least a little riskier for an enemy to assault me by being able to increase my chances of killing something in assault. Sure, Guard don't have the strength to wound often when armed with power weapons, but at the same time, I like the idea of not wasting those occasions when I *do* roll well enough to wound them.
I looked into Rob's way, and it would have saved my non-doctrined Guard army about 130 points if I removed things I generally consider part of assault effectiveness. That's two more Infantry Squads, but poorly equipped ones. I'm neither convinced to drop it all entirely, or to make no changes. I'm still thinking about it.
Also between games, I gave my Carapace Armored guard a look-over. 5th Edition requires so many more troops. I'm not sure what to do with this army. I may drop the heavy weapons from the Infantry Platoons and have them try and be a mobile but tough army for 5th Edition.
In hindsight, I shouldn't have played the second game. My back was hurting by this point, and I think I would have been better off just letting Rob and Tom duke it out. Maybe I'll stick to one game per night there or something.
Second game, also against Tom, was my same Guard Army, because I just didn't think I could remember all the proxies Rob was suggesting I do, against Tom's Grey Knights. I am too used to 4th Edition and being able to shoot through my own units. I need to relearn how to deploy. But, at the same time, I'm pretty sure that had I not deployed so thickly behind that building, Tom would have held those Terminators in reserve and dropped them in behind me. It was a lose-lose situation. In hindsight, I know how I would have done it differently, and I think I'm going to try to do so next time.
Thoughts on this game: I *must* learn to spread out more. I was hurting myself as much because of the number of shots I couldn't make as I was by putting so much of my force behind that building. When it's a killpoints game, I think I may try to leave as much of my force in reserve as I can.
In both games, the new rules for tanks have sucked the life out of them, and I wasn't even facing anything using meltabombs. Just having three or four attacks and the ability to glance or penetrate armor means you'll win against a tank, because you will at the very fucking least shake it or stun it every damn assault phase. Rob suggested that 5th will encourage people to surround their tanks with infantry. Gee, 20 Guardsmen against five genestealers. That'll take what? Two assault phases to go all the way through, probably including killing the tank. Oh, sure, tanks are tougher... when you're trying to trade ranged fire with these heavily armored behemoths that can throw ranged fire like nothing else... and only during those times. They're so much weaker in assault, the thought of taking them almost seems silly now.
I'm going to spend some time trying to figure out what my new tactics will be, because the old ones are failing 103% of the time.