|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 17, 2013 1:57:35 GMT
Speaking as a Dark Eldar player, it doesn't count as LOS blocking if I can't hide a Raider behind it, ie a 6" long ship on a large flying base! I would consider the following to meet the description "significant": 1) a GW ruin kit, 9" square, with a ground floor(covered in debris), enough 1st floor to get ten models on, and enough 2nd floor to get 3 on. 2) A gas container complex made from 2-4 tin cans, crisps tubes etc, with ladders and gantries for snipers etc. 3) A blob of forest, on a comma shaped bit of wood 8-12" across, with enough trees to block, not obscure LOS.
Ideas for super-cheap scenery: 1) Art shops, packs of non-firing clay. Once open, workable for half an hour, use water to knead/work it. Create mud banks, forest floors, sand-dune ridges etc, push in scenic trees or old twigs whilst soft...instant natural terrain, it even looks good unpainted. 2) Hardware store, beg for broken bits of 9mm plasterboard(they can't sell it to anyone!); cut it into high walls, glue to bases; it already looks lie blasted masonry, you can even write on it for ruined city with graffiti! 3) Some electrical appliances come packed with moulded recycled card instead of polystyrene; I have a few sand dune pieces that are nothing more than packaging! 4) Search for PDFs of papercraft buildings; print on card, fold and glue...ta-daa!
Scenery is important for game balance, vital for low-armoured armies, and a great part of turning a game of dice into an epic narrative battle!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 16, 2013 20:16:38 GMT
A very interesting point of view, Greyseer, and one that I wholly agree with for my Marines (Led by Commander Sasha, a female gladiatrix augmented by her Dark Eldar kidnappers), and my Dark Eldar (featuring a younger Sasha as a Wych Hekatrix).
I even agree with it for my Skaven counts-as-Tyranids, which is still a "conventional" army, ie troops led by famous leaders.
One of the things that appealed to me about Tyranids, however, was that they ARE a nameless, faceless force of nature. History, future, fame and pride are abstract irrelevances to them (as you may guess, I think Tyranids should be immune/excluded from challenges).
If the Hive Mind thinks that flying impregnating semi-monstrous creatures are the best tool for the job, it would produce multiples of them (like it does with walking birthing fully-monstrous creatures!).
Maybe they should be 0-1, for game balance(although that probably demonstrates poor costing by the writer), but in Apoc, a formation of Dooms would have been fun, with area effects between them!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 16, 2013 19:55:21 GMT
A friend of mine who does a fair bit of model trading just sold a dozen well painted Space Wolf ships (Barge, cruisers etc), and was very happy with what he was paid. He also shifted a pile of badly or un-painted BFG stuff, and didn't feel cheated. Definitely a market for old game models, especially with the way GW are wrecking the current game!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 16, 2013 19:43:42 GMT
Harpy. I thought it looked good on paper, built myself a lovely Dark Elf Black Dragon, converted a great Ratty rider for my Skavenids...then watched it get stomped several games in a row.
Shame: good Tyranid, good Skaven-equivalent concept, good model...sucky game piece!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 15, 2013 17:36:26 GMT
Yes Las-cannons. Hes using Landraider and Predator with las-cannons, also dreadnoughts with lazzies. We're generally playing 1500 point lists, and there is minimal cover on the battlefield they've made.And yes although my bigger units don't have to suffer ID, I generally lose 1-2 each turn. He basically lines his vehicles and dreads up just in range and concentrates fire on one unit so I have no chance to regen. There it is, right there. He is wearing armour, and turning the table into a rifle range! The rulebook system for placing cover means you should average 12 bits of cover, and this should be a mix of Blocks-Line-Of-Sight (intact buildings, hills etc) which totally deny shooting; Heavy cover (ruins, trees, barricades, which gives visual cover saves and mitigates high-powered long-ranged guns, and Area Terrain which helps limit movement (and gives Ymgarls places to hide). Anyone who tries to make you play on planet bowling ball is borderline cheating, and may as well be quietly bringing a few hundred extra points' worth. Knock up some easy cheap scenery: download and print card barricades, use broken plasterboard to make ruined walls, Pringles tubes for refinery towers, heck, even just a pile of books and a shoebox, but DO NOT PLAY A BARE TABLE!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 14, 2013 10:19:00 GMT
Best series of the year for me was Orphan Black: gritty contemporary Sci-Fi series about cloning. Lead actress plays multiple roles, and she was absolutely amazing at it. Great humour, clashes between sub-culture anti-heroes, soccer mums and evil corporations, and proper pulls-rug-from-under-your-feet moments in every episode. An absolute Must-See.
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 14, 2013 10:13:00 GMT
Personally, I didn't like the Doom for fluff reasons (Nids shouldn't have unique named units, Mr C!), but I loved it in game, as a random hit-or-miss bomb. For my Skavenids, I took my Zoeanthrope idea, and ran with it, as most 'Nid players did, and the result is one of my proudest models; as such I hope for a Zoeanthrope Prime, or a Sergeant character in the new codex (I don't follow rumour threads, the release day answers all!) I think ALL Nids should have an alpha animal in each brood, as most animals do. This is what we would all use our Doom, Deathleaper, Old One Eye etc models for.
I can see my gaming group allowing a podded Doom to enter our hall of legends, which are defunct models that we still allow into our Apocalypse games.
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 14, 2013 10:02:53 GMT
Allowing D-weapons into 40K is like allowing Hungry Hippos into chess.
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 13, 2013 21:18:51 GMT
... Expansion modules are a great idea, but they should be exactly that: optional extra rules for people that have got bored with the core rules. Of course being a game you and you friends doing house rules are free to ignore a whole aspect of the game. Enjoy it as it appeals to you all. I just view this as a game of war, wars have giant guns and zooming flyers, and rapidly shifting technologies and conditions, that is how I prefer it. Sounds like you would really enjoy kill teams? I don't want to play other games, I want to continue playing the tactical infantry game that I have been investing in for 7 years, to the tune of £1,000s, balanced at the 1,000-2,000 point mark, across all codecii, which display strengths and weaknesses according to their playstyle. It is a game, and having gotten quite good at it, thanks to practice, thought, and a lot of input from forums. To have my tactical experience invalidated by a D weapon, a Heldrake or a Farsight Ally is not fun. By all means have them available as bolt-ons, but to roll them into the core game was wrong. You play cricket? Someone brings a 150mph ball shooting machine. By all means, play with it, but allowing everyone to bring it to the Ashes would spoil the game!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 13, 2013 19:30:20 GMT
Absurd development. Expansion modules are a great idea, but they should be exactly that: optional extra rules for people that have got bored with the core rules.
I have had some great days playing Apoc: 4-10 of us, a round of shots before each turn, silly hats, and an inhuman amount of snacks. A totally different experience, however, from the earnest, tactical game that I enjoy one-on-one with like-minded players.
I have specified that when playing me, we use no fliers(they should have been an expansion, with multiple rule variants for every model), no allies, and no double FOC.
Since introducing these rules, my buddies and I have found that it's gone back to being all about the troops, as it should be.
BTW, for those who are willing to Proxy, Gauss Pylons give great rules for developed capillary towers: huge immobile things with area effects, bolts of lightning etc. I don't know how it works in Escalation, but it was great in Apoc. For my Skavenids I used a siege tower from a Russian scenery company, crawling with rats, and topped with a Grey Seer casting from a cauldron!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Dec 6, 2013 2:08:31 GMT
I'm not playing 'Nids much, but my DEldar shot him down in one turn of shooting...
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Nov 10, 2013 10:34:24 GMT
He is all infantry, with mixed saves, plus a walker: why not match that? Gaunts, Genies, and an MC. No wings, no Spore, no Psyker powers. That way the game will go quickly, he will get the hang of the basic mechanics, and not get over loaded.
I introduced loads of my young son's friends to 40K: I recommend making cheat cards for each unit: each card has stats, movement (Inc diff Terrain rules), Shooting options, assault stuff. If you use a card for each unit, the card can stay on the table near the unit, helps memory connections.
Once the first game has gone well, THEN you can start adding wings, powers, vehicles etc.
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Nov 5, 2013 11:04:16 GMT
I think it is great fun, and would love to meet it on the table. Kill! Maim! Bake! Crumbs for the crumb god! Marshmallows for the marshmallow cushion!
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Nov 2, 2013 10:42:05 GMT
More ideas: 1) Assassin model A viable assassin would be nice: I hate named Tyranid characters, but a Deathleaper type lone Lictor variant perhaps, who can assault on arrival, turn up either part-planned like Ymgarls, or totally free like Marbo and Kheradruakh; whose challenges can NOT be refused, and whose hits cannot be diverted by "Look Out Sir".
High Initiative, and either plenty of rending attacks, or fewer, but with Instant Death. This model is designed to take out an enemy HQ, and assuming they have T4,3W,3+/4++, should have about a 50/50 chance of succeeding. For balance, I'm happy to be T4 2W 4+, if it fails to kill its mark in one round, it should be easily cut down.
In fact, now I think about it...
2) Lictor brood ...how about alternate Lictor styles, like Inquisition assassins: one Elite slot, 1-3 models, each an Independent Character, taken from a list of styles: HQ assassin, infantry hunter, tank destroyer, Psyker slayer, Objective stalker (arrives turn 4, like Ymgarls, but you specify an objective not a terrain piece!) All should have a reasonable chance of succeeding at their task on arrival, but be flimsy enough to get wiped if they fail, or on completion. If my Tank Destroyer Lictor gets killed in his own explosion, that seems fair, as does the HQ Assassin getting slaughtered by a horrified Retinue.
3) "You're dead, you just don't know it yet" Poison upgrade; if a multiwound enemy model takes a wound from this unit, it is poisoned, and takes a wound on a 4+ at the beginning of its subsequent movement phases, no saves allowed (the poison is already in them)
|
|
|
Post by commandersasha on Oct 31, 2013 23:30:46 GMT
Sorry to hear you're having a tough time X, I've missed your contributions recently. Though I think a few people have given answers that have come across as a bit harsh, I think I'd have to endorse them: You are in a rough place at the moment, and that is when exploring yourself, finding out what you can do and what you can't, will really come to the surface. I can't possibly advise a forum buddy, as Tyranids don't expose your personality much, but I'd welcome a FB friend if you'd like to PM me. As an idea for other distractions, I recommend spoken word comedy and drama: I download a lot of (British) Radio comedy from radioarchive.cc/torrents-search.php, a site for legal torrents from broadcast radio. I know you've done a bit of stand-up, I have no idea of your comedy tastes though! Big hugs, hope your circumstances, or your ability to overcome them, improve xxx
|
|