What did you do today.

[Primarch]

A dark millenium box, 2 index books, a sigmarite mausoleum, a large SF mdf building, 2 4ground ruined buildings, assorted mdf small, fantasy, scattery things, a scuurg heavy bomber, half a dozen paintbrushes, 4 packs of Open War cards, 1 pack of Tac Obj cards, 1 pack of Command Cards, a blister of UCM corvettes, Forgotten Pacts, Ulterior Motives, a Primaris Libby, a pot of S75 black paint, some hedgerow, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Your suitcase must have been full to the brim coming home. Nice haul!

Despite recently complaining about having too many games, I splurged a bit on the Osprey sale (https://ospreypublishing.com/store/osprey-games) and picked up a bunch of new rule books for reading/perusing and for staring at the eye-candy. I bought Dragon Rampant, (which will get used at some point as I have an army for it), Chosen Men, Poseidon's Warriors and Horizon Wars (which will probably sit next to some of my other Osprey rulebooks gathering dust).

[The Other Dave]

Jus was kind enough to host a game of 40K between me and kojibear last night - my Scythes versus his Exodites-counts-as-Craftworld Eldar. Good fun!







I managed a win, but at game end we were both down to just a handful of models. The takehome lessons were:

-Friends don't let friends (i.e., me!) abuse Stratagems. Each stratagem once per phase, people! (Honestly, I think my chain of armor save rerolls for the Captain would only have cost me a couple wounds, what with the Honor Guard in play, but still.)
-Reivers will mess up your day if you let them focus on non-CC-oriented units. My squad of 5 wiped out 2 units of rangers and 1 of guardians, only taking a single wound. Shock grenades are a very nice piece of kit!
-Just the fear of Auspex Scan (the Marine stratagem that lets you shoot at deep strikers) was enough to put a big kink in kojibear's plans. I'll feel a bit better when more armies start getting their whole range of stratagems, frankly.
-Shining Spears will also mess up your day - they did the same thing to my left flank as I did on my right to kojibear, only stopping when they hit the wall of pain that was my Captain and his Honor Guard.
-The Ironclad is frightening and tough as nails. Probably less frightening against high-toughness troops, but I'm a fan. Dreadnoughts are good, finally! (Now to get me a Venerable...)

[Primarch]

Dreadnoughts are good, finally! (Now to get me a Venerable...)

We should talk.

[kojibear]

Thanks for having us Jus and thanks for the 1st game of 8th edition. It is nice to have a chance to use the Exodites every now and then. Though the battlefield was littered with a lot of dead dinosaur corpses by the end of the game.

It is faster game, I'll give it that. Everything has a chance to kill everything, and there seems to be a lot less restrictions on what you can do - though there are still some penalties that add some tactical element to your decisions. However, I was not keen on the fall back out of combat (retreat) without any penalty. Some 'attack of opportunity' like feature would give the retreat more risk which I think is needed. Also, vehicles cannot be exploded with one well placed shot, so you have to pour a lot of fire into them, which means prioritizing your shooting is very important.

The game is still somewhat point and click. Not that other games we play don't have an element of that, but I would have liked the d6 system to have changed and added more variety. Also I would like to have more random action than just I go, you go.

Just a first game mind you, so just some observations. Would I want to try another game? Yes, I guess so, but as of now, not because of the 'new' game system - well, except that the game plays a whole lot faster, so it is not a ridiculous amount of investment of time - but mostly because I enjoyed the company, the laughs, and the fluff and the story. Also I like dinosaurs!

Thanks again Jus and Dave.

[The Other Dave]

Thanks for having us Jus and thanks for the 1st game of 8th edition. It is nice to have a chance to use the Exodites every now and then. Though the battlefield was littered with a lot of dead dinosaur corpses by the end of the game.

It is faster game, I'll give it that. Everything has a chance to kill everything, and there seems to be a lot less restrictions on what you can do - though there are still some penalties that add some tactical element to your decisions. However, I was not keen on the fall back out of combat (retreat) without any penalty. Some 'attack of opportunity' like feature would give the retreat more risk which I think is needed. Also, vehicles cannot be exploded with one well placed shot, so you have to pour a lot of fire into them, which means prioritizing your shooting is very important.

The game is still somewhat point and click. Not that other games we play don't have an element of that, but I would have liked the d6 system to have changed and added more variety. Also I would like to have more random action than just I go, you go.

Just a first game mind you, so just some observations. Would I want to try another game? Yes, I guess so, but as of now, not because of the 'new' game system - well, except that the game plays a whole lot faster, so it is not a ridiculous amount of investment of time - but mostly because I enjoyed the company, the laughs, and the fluff and the story. Also I like dinosaurs!

Thanks again Jus and Dave.

Yeah, it's definitely still 40K, that's for sure - the game is fundamentally pretty clunky and old-fashioned in terms of being an actual game. To turn a bit back into the Dave everyone knows and loves, for me 8th edition is less a "great game system" per se and more a game system that has crossed back over the line to "good enough" to invest time and money into, to get into the (as you say) fluff, friends and cool models that are its draw.

As for falling back, the main drawback is that the unit that fell back a) can't do anything useful that turn, and b) is just going to get charged again unless some other unit can shoot up the enemy you fell back from.

[kojibear]

As for falling back, the main drawback is that the unit that fell back a) can't do anything useful that turn, and b) is just going to get charged again unless some other unit can shoot up the enemy you fell back from.

True, but B is quite an attractive proposition!

You know, if I had had these guys on my team, I'd have given that dreadnaught a run for its money!!

[Primarch]

I spent today at Pikey's Lair playing Saga. We managed to get two games in, in which my Anglo-Danish pulled out a pair of victories against Pikey's Vikings.
In the first game, the Danes took and held all of the objectives long enough to win on points, despite losing several rounds of combat to the vicious Vikings. In the second game, the Anglo-Danish hearthguard were able to hack the Viking jarl to pieces, thereby winning the scenario. It cost most of the hearthguard their lives to do so, but it was worth it.

The Battle-Board system is really good once you get used to it. I was very impressed with allhe Anglo-Danish ability to slow down (and in some cases, prevent altogether) the Viking movement. Once the Vikings actually made it into contact, their own abilities came into play and they were suitably choppy.

All in all, a fun day of gaming.

[me_in_japan]

I was wondering why everybody is gaming mid-week, and then it struck me that it's obon In my defence, I'm still jetlagged all to hell, (as are , unfortunately, my kids, so as soon as I start to drift off, say, 2 am, one or t'other of them pipes up "daaaaAAAaad. I can't sleep."

Yeah, thanks for that.

of course, as soon as child A drops off, child B then wakes up. I've been getting to sleep at 6am these past two nights. At least today we made it out of bed by 11, so hopefully they'll pass out this evening at something approaching a normal hour )

Anyway, back on topic, it is most excellent to see those exodites on the table. Not to disparage ToD's marines, which are very nice themselves, of course. It's just that exodites as a playable army has been a dream of mine for years, and seeing Kbear's lovely work brings a wee tear to my eye. Also good to hear that 40k is being enjoyed again - I'm looking forward to getting a game in once things have settled down here.

[The Other Dave]

Anyway, back on topic, it is most excellent to see those exodites on the table. Not to disparage ToD's marines, which are very nice themselves, of course. It's just that exodites as a playable army has been a dream of mine for years, and seeing Kbear's lovely work brings a wee tear to my eye. Also good to hear that 40k is being enjoyed again - I'm looking forward to getting a game in once things have settled down here.

Not at all - I'm very comfortable calling my painting "workmanlike," heh. Kojibear's army was a joy to see on the field.

[kojibear]

I spent today at Pikey's Lair playing Saga.

All in all, a fun day of gaming.

I certainly enjoyed my intro game at Nagoya Hammer this year, enough to make me invest in a few Vikings myself. Glad you guys had a good time and that the armies both had a chance to prove their individual strengths.