Something To Think About: Where are the Medics?

Hi all! Hope you all had a good week! So what I want to talk about today is the big problem I see in 40k. There is a huge lack of medics in the 40k universe and I really don't see why... I mean, sure you have the apothecary for marines and the painboy for orkz, both of which confer FnP, but most of the other armies have  very little designed to act as a medic.

Now in my opinion, for a unit to act as a medic it simply has to keep a unit alive with special rules for regenerating wounds, through FnP or the regeneration rule for nids. So I really see no excuse for the armies that don't have specified medics. I imagine it could go something like this:

Chaos Daemons: Some kind of Elite unit, Nurgle maybe, that could have an aura making units have FnP in a 6" radius or something, or maybe some kind of lesser daemons that can help greaters recover their wounds. Not really a daemon fan, clearly...

Chaos Marines: Quite simply, a chaos apothecary. I can imagine that it would be a very cool model and it could be used as an upgrade character for units like a unique character or something. There could also be lesser daemons like I suggested for Chaos Daemons.

Eldar: I suppose the farseers could have psychic powers and warlocks of course.

Dark Eldar: Technically don't really need medics thanks to army wide FnP, but I suppose Haemonculi could be used to maintain talos and cronos like units.

Tau: Can't remember if there is a caste that would have lots of healers in it like the water caste or something. I can imagine a caste designed for healing personally.

Necrons: Harbinger of Healing. Nuff said.

Now I realise that this whole topic is a little shaky and the fluff might make some things tricky to justify. To be honest I may have overlooked (in fact, I probably have overlooked 90% of relevant info) but I thought it was just another thing I could throw into the ring. Well that's all I've got today folks, have a fantastic week and see you later!

Unit of the Week: Necron Immortals

Hello everyone! First things first, I would like to apologise for the delay in this weeks post. Unfortunately I succumbed to an evil stomach virus which did its best to kill me... But luckily, I survived! And now I'm back to talk about something completely different.
This week I'm introducing my Unit of the Week initiative. Now, this won't be every week, it will just be a unit that has caught my eye on that particular week. So lets get started.

This week I had a game with my good friend Bryss (Who will be writing up the Bat Rep once he has time available, so I won't spoil anything) and the game was my necrons versus his orks. Now, early on in the game, my immortals got locked into combat and I basically thought, "OK, that's one unit dead..."
But they didn't die! In fact, they survived the combat for half of the game and then successfully ran away!!! All of this, and they only lost one model!!!!!

Now I understand this isn't the most amazing story in the history of gaming, however, that one combat made me so proud of my immortals (and grateful for my amazingly lucky dice rolls). Even out of their comfort zone, the immortals seem to be able  to handle themselves quite well. Of course, the mission and the unit I was fighting may have had something to do with it, but that's beside the point.

I'm 'Scape, and my unit of the week is Necron Immortals, for surviving a looooooong combat with orks!

Top Ten: Most Annoying Enemies in Video Games!

http://steveonjava.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/javafx1.3-top-ten.jpg

Hello all! As You may remember, from my first post, I made a promise not to just talk about 40k but about other things as well. So here is the first of a new thing I'll be doing, top tens! Now, before I go any further, I will be using pics I find on the web in more of my posts now and, to avoid being told off by my English teacher, I will be sourcing all the pics with the links I found them in.

So, the first list I'm going to do will be on the most annoying enemies I have ever encountered in video games! The rules of this list are as follows:

• They will only be from games I've played. This means that Jasper Batt Jr. is off from the start. Though he does look (and sound) like he would annoy me.
• By enemy I mean they will be characters you have to fight, conflict with whatever. These characters can be your friends just trying to test you or that complete douche of a final boss. As long as you fight them in game, they are allowed to be on the list.
• One per franchise. This one I will try my best to do and it is pretty self explanatory. No 2 enemies from god of war, or zelda or any other series of games.
• SPOILERS! Some of the characters in this list are either final bosses or just REALLY important to the plot. You have been warned...

So without further ado, lets begin!

Number 10- Tiny Wario Boss (WarioWare: Smooth Moves)

Sorry folks, no pic for this one. This thing is at number 10 for a reason. 1- It "technically" isn't an enemy and 2- Its still annoying. This boss makes you dance like a complete numpty, and if you fail to follow the instructions it makes sure you know about it. How insulting...

Number 9- Dullahan (Golden Sun: The Lost Age)

http://guide4gamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/GSDD_dullahan.jpg

Well, this guy technically appears in Dark Dawn as well, but this was the first time we found him and it was far tougher. So why was the Dullahan so annoying? To start with you needed to find EVERY djinni in the game, requiring you to do the transfer data trick. Then you had to charge through the most difficult and confusing dungeon in the game. And once you finally reach him, you are in for one of the toughest boss battles of your life. So why is he so high on the list? If you spam Daedalus and Eclipse, he will go down like a drunk on Saturday night. Plus you get a pretty decent reward for beating him.

Number 8- Joey Wheeler (Nightmare Troubadour)

  http://ravegrl.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/153_joey_wheeler_tough_guy_chin_face.jpg?w=550

Yep, everyone's favourite  American/ Japanese schoolboy! Now what is annoying about him is not the fact that his face in this photo I chose resembles a pervert. No, what is annoying about him is the fact that he uses a gamble deck. What really irks me is the fact that he never fails ANY of his coin tosses/dice rolls. Seriously; EVERY SINGLE TIME I play against him his time wizard bitch slaps my side of the field! His redeeming quality is that he doesn't act like a complete dick towards you.

Number 7- Lazarevic (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)

http://images.wikia.com/uncharted/images/0/06/Lazarevic_render.jpg

This guy is just a pure nuisance. Throughout the game he sends millions of his own minions to do his dirty work (seriously, he even comments on this before he dies!), appearing only in cut-scenes, in which he usually kills one of your friends or at least threatens to kill them. Then, when you finally get a chance to kill him, he's made himself immortal!!! The actual boss fight isn't to bad on normal difficulty but it becomes damn near impossible on the hardest setting when he starts throwing 6 grenades at a time at you! On the upside, when you finally beat him he gets the living crap kicked out of him by some smurfs on steroids, so it all works out.

Number 6- The 3rd Krazoa Spirit (Starfox Adventures)

http://lparchive.org/Star-Fox-Adventures/Update%2003/34-31-TentacleKrazoa.jpg

Technically not a battle, but still really annoying. Now, I LOVE starfox adventures, I always enjoy myself when I play it and I get through it at a nice steady pace. That is until I reach, [breathes deeply], the test of fear. For those that have played this game, you'll know what I mean. You have to run the gauntlet in order to reach the spirit and then you have the test, which requires you to keep a red needle inside a green bar which moves randomly. The ONLY way to be able to pass this test is to have a naturally steady hand, which I lack.

Number 5- Hammer Bros. (Super Mario Bros.)

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSCVUEY54gMFEOyE6gsSmWP4MN1JN99bCooV0nI-xZoGHfUT6lIp0PbScnvQ

Do I even have to explain? These little pricks are the reason why I have never completed super mario bros! They are one of the few enemies that can jump around but they can also attack you in mid-jump with a flying hammer! The real thing about them that annoys me is the fact that they work in groups! F**k you hammer bros!

Number 4- Serris (Metroid Fusion)

http://images.wikia.com/metroid/images/c/c5/Serris.jpg

NO! JUST NO! If you want to find an enemy that is overpowered then look no further. I'm not joking! This boss caused me so much grief when fighting it. I only beat it through sheer luck! For those who have not played fusion, allow me to explain. The start of this fight consists of you getting onto some platforms above the pool of water. Then you hear a screech and before you know it, you've been rushed by a giant eel from one of several directions. The fight then consists of you trying to shoot this thing in the face, meaning you have to get in its way, whilst jumping out of the way because 1 second after it is hit, it's speed triples! What makes this boss so hard is that its attack patterns are just so random. And if you manage to kill the eel, you then have to kill the X-Parasite, without letting it kill you... yeah, it gets annoying.

Number 3- Mumkhar (Xenoblade Chronicles)

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110421220261/xenoblade/images/thumb/1/18/Mumca.png/250px-Mumca.png

Meet the dickhead of the decade folks! Where, to start... First of all, he's a coward, happy enough to save his own ass even if it means his friends get killed. He betrays your species to get a giant mecha suit. He pretends to kill your best friend. He taunts you throughout the story about how strong he is. Oh, and he is actually a difficult boss to beat. All this combined with his nails-on-a-chalkboard voice, makes him one annoying little prick!!!

Number 2- Moldorm (Link to the Past)

http://www.zeldawiki.org/images/d/d3/Moldorm.png

My goodness this boss is annoying! Moldorm follows the basic rule for most zelda bosses, hit his weak spot 3 times to kill him, the weak spot being his tail. This is made difficult due to the fact that he never stops moving and gets faster each time you successfully hit his tail. To make matters worse, if his head even brushes you you go flying off the platform into the room below and have to start the entire battle over again. But the main reason why the thought of this boss annoys me so much? My link to the past game quite literally fried when fighting this boss. I was just about to strike his tail, the game froze and the cartridge has never worked since...

YOU MOTHER FU-

Number 1- Orphan (Final Fantasy 13)

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100716154521/finalfantasy/images/thumb/e/e8/Orphan_true_form.png/743px-Orphan_true_form.png

Yup, the final boss of final fantasy 13. This guy pisses me off so much! The pic you see is of orphans "true" form. This is the easy form which doesn't make me want to rip my head off just so I have something to beat him with. The form that he takes when Barthandelus fuses with him is far more annoying. The start of the battle involves your entire party losing 95% of their health to a single blow. The battle then goes on to be one of the hardest battles in the game. But the thing that really annoys me? Orphan doesn't want to win. He wants you to kill him! So why? Why does he make it so F**KING DIFFICULT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So there you have it folks. My top ten annoying enemies in video games. Hope you enjoyed it and please, leave comments with your thoughts and views on characters you've faced that have annoyed the living daylights out of you. See you next week :D

Something To Think About: Deployment

Hello everyone, and welcome to another fun filled, and factual, document! This week I have discovered my new found love of Paint software and, as you can see, have started making little logos for my posts.
This week I want to talk about deployment. For many of you this will not be the first deployment article you have seen and its safe to say it won't be the last. Now I will start off by saying, I am not the best at deployment; in fact it is probably the one part of the gaming side of 40k that I utterly stink at.
Still, there are 1000 lessons in defeat so I'll give this whole "advice" thing a try.
Now 40k is a game of chance. You rely on dice for almost everything you do in the game. You want to move through cover? Dice required. You want to shoot that grot 2 feet away? Dice required. You want to hit someone with a stick? Yeah you can kind of see where I'm going.
These are all examples of 'random strategy'; points in the game were you can, at best, predict what will happen but in the end, have no control over the result.
Now deployment, that's a different story. In the deployment phase, you can decide exactly where you want your units to be! They can be put in cover, or in reserve, or in a transport. Whatever you want to do with you units, you can make them do it (within reason mind). This is an example of 'definite strategy' were you have full control over what happens; no dice. This can be made more random if you are deploying first and have to guess what you opponent is going to do but apart from this, and a few other examples, it is a nice definite point in the game.

Now to tackle the elephant hiding in the corner, the way to deploy. Well, I'm not going to give a general idea of how to deploy but am instead going to go over some points of consideration when deploying, with any army (except daemons, they're a WHOLE different kettle of mutated fish).

Fragility: Discussed this one a little with Bryss after our last game. The first thing to consider when deploying is how much damage your army can take. For the more fragile armies (DE, Eldar, Orkz etc.) you really don't want them to be shot up in the first turn of the game. To counter this you'll want to try things like cover to screen your units, transports to hide in and charge forward quickly or reserves. When using more durable armies (MEQ) you can afford to be a little bolder and deploy some units out of cover and with clearer LOS to the enemy, maybe to try and lure out the enemy?

First or Second: Now depending, on whether you go first or second, deployment tactics can change. If you're going first, you can act boldly and try getting as close to the enemy as you need to be. This means that, if you're feeling bold, you may deploy some units out of cover or without any screens. If you're going second, you may want to be a little more on the defensive side of things. To try and keep your opponent from getting at your units from the get-go, you'll want to castle up your units in cover and out of LOS from the enemy. You may even want to leave some of your bigger hitting units in reserve to come on, later in the game, and counter attack.

Size: By this I mean the size of the units deploying. It doesn't take a tactical genius to work out that smaller units will die quicker than larger units of the same type. So by this logic you'll want to try your best to keep small units out of the opponents way for as long as possible whereas you'll be able to afford to send larger squads into the front line.

Shooty or Assaulty: This is probably the most obvious one. If you're a shooty army, and have a long range, you can afford to deploy further away. In contrast, you'll want to deploy as far forward as possible with an assaulty based army.

Now these are only a few things to consider. There is much more to think about than what I've put above, I just don't know them unfortunately. So my final verdict? When deploying your units, consider the points made in this article, and any others you can think of. Remember, the deployment phase is meant to be a problem solving challenge; there is no one all-powerful answer when it comes to deploying your units; it's up to you now. Good luck!

Let the disqusions begin!

Just an update folks. After, quite literally, days of searching the tinternet, I have finally found a way to change my comment system to disqus. Apologies for comments that were posted dissapearing. I'll see what I can do to recover them. Till then, enjoy the new comment system :D

1250- Dark Eldar .V. Grey Knights

Here we go folks; my first ever bat rep. Since it's my first report Bryss has kindly (or cruelly depending on your point of view) given me full reign over this report :I So lets get started, shall we?
Bryss' Dark Eldar- 1220 points (Not to sure on exact points values)
Lelith Hespirax
10 Kabalites- Blaster, splinter cannon
Raider- Night Shield
10 Kabalites- Blaster, splinter cannon
Raider- Night Shield
9 Wyches- Hekatrix with agoniser, shardnet
Raider- Night shield, Flickerfield
5 Kabalites
Cronos- Spirit probe, spirit vortex
Ravager- Night shield, flickerfield
Razorwing- 2 disintegrators, splinter cannon, 2 shatterfield missiles, night shield, flickerfield

Scape's Grey Knights- 1249 points
Librarian- Daemon Hammer, Mastery level 3, Psybolt ammo, Might of titan, sanctuary, shrouding, quicksilver
5 Purifiers- 2 Incinerators, 2 halberds, falchions
Razorback- Twin linked assault cannon, psybolt ammo
5 Terminators- Justicar thawn, psycannon, 2 falchions, Psybolt ammo
10 man Strike Squad- Psilencer, Psycannon, 2 halberds, 2 falchions, warding stave, daemon hammer, psybolt ammo
Rhino- Psybolt ammo
Dreadnought- 2 Twin linked autocannons, Psybolt ammo

Now before I begin; first time doing this, taking photos with an ipod; apologies for the blurry photographs :P

So the game; Capture and Control mission, pitched battle with Grey Knights going first. Grey Knights throw everything into reserve with the librarian deep striking in with the termies. Dark Eldar deploy just a Chronos and put everything else in reserve with lelith chilling with the wyches.

Well time to report! Grey Knights kick it off!
Turn 1.0
Everything is in reserve; nothing happens.
Turn 1.5
Again, nothing happens

Turn 2.0
The termies deep strike in next to the cronos, sizing the near daemonic entity up. The rhino holding the Strike squad rolls 12" onto the board, near the GK objective. The termies then go to shoot the cronos, succesfully wounding it once!
Turn 2.5

Clearly the tricky hand of Tzeench was working against the Grey Knights, because just as the cronos let out a cry of pain, the ENTIRE Dark Eldar force came in from reserve!

This turn consisted of the cronos making the wall it was hiding behind explode into shrapnel, and the wyches jumping ship; just next to the terminators...

The 5 man kabalite squad ran into cover, claiming the first objective of the game, The shooting phase was mainly uneventful with the grey knights remaining stalwart. However, once the Razorwing let loose its guns, 3 terminators fell, including justicar thawn.

Loving to kick a marine while he's down, the wyches assaulted the termies. Doing his best to keep his allies alive, the librarian cast Might of titan, sanctuary and hammerhand, all of which worked! The power of the sanctuary felled 1 wych before reaching combat. Seeking revenge for her fallen comrade, lelith targeted the Mon-Keigh commander, killing him before he could raise his hammer in defence. The wyches, inspired by their mistress, slaughtered another 2 terminators whilst evading every attack they could throw at them. The squads Ld held though, so combat would resume next turn...

Turn 3.0

The dreadnought walked on this turn, just as the strike squad went cruising speed towards the DE objective before activating the smoke launchers. The dreadnought took aim at the razorwing and, despite the advanced carboard protection devices, blew it out of the sky! Combat however saw the brutal massacre of the terminator squad, and the wyches consolidating 5" towards their raider...

 Turn 3.5

Thw wyches leaped into their raider just as it went flat out towards the GK objective. The cronos followed suit. Angered by the arrival of this Razorwing killer, the raider shot at the dreadnought, failing to damage it.

Turn 4.0

The razorback holding the purifiers finally arrived on the board close to the DE objective. Undisturbed by the onslaught of dark lances the dreadnought moved toward the raiders, and the rhino went flat out. The dread took aim at the raider holding the wyches and blew off its dark lance, but otherwise no damage had been done.

Turn 4.5

The ravager saw an oppurtunity and moved round to face the rear of the rhino. Realising they were under attack, the wyches had their raider moved behind the building keeping it well out of site. The cronos proceeded to run towards the dread and the 2 kabalite raider moved flat out. The ravager managed to score to penetrating rounds form the ravager but only a stunned result ensued.

Turn 5.0
In case you forgot, thawn can't really die, so it was with great relief from myslef that he rose back to life on this turn. The rhino that had suffered a stun was able to shrug it off with the aid of fortitude, much to the disgust of the ravagers gunner. The razorback advanced slowly taking aim at the 5 man kabalite squad, whilst the rhino moved slowly toward the ravager, before letting out its cargo, thawn then proceed to run at the raider that had just whisked past him.
The razorback then let loose its cannon at the kabalites, but due to them going to ground, caused no wounds. The dreadnought then took aim at the ravager before annihalating it with its autocannons. The strike squad then managed to down 2 of the kabalites who held firm. Meanwhile thawn had both shot and assaulted one of the raiders, doing nothing...?!
Turn 5.5
The Dark Eldar lughed a menacing laugh as they unleashed their doomsday attack!(maybe a bit too dramatic...) The wyches moved out into the open once again, claiming the objective, and the cronos continued to move towards the Dreadnought. Then, in a tactical second, the 2 kabalite raider surrounded the strike squad and the kabalites disembarked. The kabalites and raiders then let loose all the power they had on the strike squad and succeeded in downing 4 of the emperors finest. A dice was rolled; turn 6 was about to start...

Turn 6.0

In a desperate struggle, the rhino attempted to ram into the raider and kill a few kabalites in the process, Sadly, the driver forgot that skimmers can float; and missed... The dread on the other hand managed to wreck the wych raider and pin the occupants! The Razorback managed to kill off another 2 of the kabalites holding the objective and the strike squad was able to successfully wipe out the squad. Thawn then started running very very fast towards the GK objective...

Turn 6.5

Needing to assure their victory, the DE were merciless. The raiders and kabalites worked together to both reclaim their objective and wipe out the strike squad and attempted to take out thawn, failing to hit him. But it was unnecessary. the dice roll concluded the game

DE-2 GK-0

So there you have it folks, I lost despite using a psyflman. Next time though, I won't be so stupid in deploying :) And besides, I'm a Grey Knight; if I lose, I can always just call down an exterminatus ;)

See you next time folks!