I’ve been thinking a lot about playing skirmish games with 40K lately.

This is, I think, entirely the fault of Battle Missions.  I’ve yet to get in a game of Kill Team myself (in fact, I won’t be able to pick up my copy of the book until this evening), but I’m very excited about giving it a spin.  I expect I’ll be able to play a few games at Madicon, for sure.

Sons of Taurus has a pair of KT battle reports that are worth checking out.  (They’re also a great example of why I much prefer that format to video battle reports.)

It’s also stirred up a lot of interest on RPG.net’s Other Games Open forum, my primary gaming forum.  A number of alternative options for playing with skirmish games with 40K figures have come up, and I thought I’d share them here.

• Brutal Conflict – 118 pages, last updated 12/29/09
• Death Squads – 215 pages, last updated 12/29/09
• Thunderhawk Down – 75 pages, last updated 6/19/09

I haven’t played (or really read all the way through) any of these, but I’ve flipped through them all.

Thunderhawk Down requires the 5th Ed rules, but Brutal Conflict and Death Squads appear to be stand-alone.  Thunderhawk Down and Brutal Conflict appear to have pretty complete sets of armies, while Death Squads is a little light (with several listed as “Coming Soon!”).

For the heck of it, I threw together a chart comparing armies each game supports:

Someone on the IFL Forum made a comment about “the fact that [Daemonhunters] have anti-demon stuff that doesn’t affect the new demons is just a bit stupid.”

This appears to be a pretty common, yet significantly inaccurate belief, and it bugs the snot out of me.

So, to set the record straight, I decided to run through the codex and pick out the items that specifically refer to Daemons, as well as the things that people would think would work against Daemons (read: things that relate to Pskyers and psychic powers).

Now, I’m hardly claiming that Daemonhunters are a power army or anything, and they definitely have some things that, while still broadly useful (in a world with the new Space Wolves and new Tyranids, they’re increasingly useful), aren’t as useful against Daemons specifically.   But it’s not as dire or “stupid” as people claim.

The List

Still Useful:

• Annointed Weapon (Wargear) – Unchanged, still works except vs. Soul Grinders by RAW
• Daemonhammer (Wargear)- Unchanged, still works
• Destroy Daemon (Psychic Power) – Unchanged, still works
• Grimoire of True Names – Unchanged, still works
• Hierophant (Henchman) – Unchanged, still works
• Mystic (Henchman) – Unchanged, still works
• Incinerator (Wargear) – Unchanged, still works
• Psycannon / Psycannon Bolts (Wargear) – See Incinerator
• Rites of Exorcism (Special Rule) – See Hierophant
• Sacred Hull (Vehicle Wargear) – See Hierophant
• Sacred Incense (Wargear) – Unchanged, still works
• Sanctuary (Psychic Power) – See Incinerator
• Scourging (Psychic Power)- See Incinerator

No longer Useful:

• The Aegis (Special Rule) – Daemons don’t take psychic tests
• Banishment (Psychic Powers) – Instability is gone
• Blessed (Vehicle Wargear)- Daemons don’t have vehicles that have the listed attributes.
• Culexus Assassin (Elite) – See The Aegis
• Daemonic Infestation (Special Rule) – Simply not relevant, but this was hardly an “anti-demon” rule.
• Null Rod (Wargear) – See The Aegis
• Psychic Hood (Wargear) – See The Aegis
• Ungents of Warding (Wargear) – See The Aegis

So, in other words, all of the Daemonhunters’ “anti-demon stuff” still works just fine against Daemons except:

• Things that affect psykers and psychic powers
• Banishment, because Daemons no longer have Daemonic Instability
• Blessed, at least by RAW

The psychic thing is something of a legit complaint, I think.  The things that one would want to classify as “psychic powers” in the Daemons army, though, really aren’t in the same league as other armies’ psychic powers.

Pavane of Slaanesh is kind of a lot like Lash of Submission, but it’s not nearly as strong.

You’ve kinda got me on things like Bolt of Change (being the same between the Daemonic Gift and the Chaos Marine Psychic Power) and Daemonic Gaze/Doombolt (which is actually better for Daemons), but at the same time would it really be reasonable to classify 100% of an army’s shooting as psychic powers?

Blessed isn’t, by RAW, useful against Soul Grinders.  I’d feel a little dirty making that claim at the table, but at the same time… ‘Grinders are affected by all of the rules that work against Daemons.  That makes it a bit more of a wash.

So, even with the nerf to psychic defense (nothing to defend against), items that still kick daemonic butt outnumber items that are no longer useful in fighting daemons nearly 2:1.  That psychic defense stuff, while not useful against Daemons, is more important than ever against other armies.

I’ve been strenuously avoiding the Doom of Malantai debate because I’ve yet to get through the new codex.  As far as I can tell, it’s a tough question.  Someone linked to this video, though, and it got a good laugh out of me.

The Second Annual Rapid Fire tournament went down on Saturday at Game Vault.

Turnout was shockingly low.  We’d had nearly 20 people signed up for it and had 6 at the start of the tournament (with 2 more showing up through the day).  Some folks gave a heads-up (which is fine), but many didn’t (which is less so).  You always expect a little of that (because life happens), but the scale (> 50% of signups) of it was pretty disheartening.

Regardless, it really seemed like everyone who showed up had a good time, which means the event was a success.

Results were:
Most Battle Points: John S (Space Wolves)
Best Army: Doug McN (World Eaters)
Longest Streak: (tie) Jay P (Space Marines), Matt M (Orks)

Because we had so few people, Matt H and I played a number of ringer games to ensure that 1) everyone who’d signed up was playing and 2) that people got to play different people.  This unfortunately undercut the point of the format a bit, but nobody seemed to mind.  The person “on deck” would have had to have waited around a very unreasonable amount of time.  (To offset this, we decided that losses to the ringers wouldn’t break winning streaks, but it never came up.)

That meant I finally got to use the ringer list I built for last year’s Rapid Fire:

Tau Empire

• Ethereal
• Fire Warrior Honor Guard x12
• Crisis Suit x1 – Flamer, Fusion Blaster, Multi-tracker
• Fire Warrior Team x12
• Kroot Carnivore Squad x20

It put up a better fight than I thought it would.

I was very excited and interested to see how the opposing scenarios would work out.

In short (because it’s detailed in the RF post), each player rolls for scenario.  Each player works towards their scenario and tries to prevent their opponent from succeeding in their scenario.  So, Player 1 could roll Seize Ground and Player 2 could roll Annihilation: Player 1 would try to hold the objectives and lose fewer KP/VP than Player 2, while Player 2 tries to kill more KP/VP than Player 1 while trying to deny them objectives.

Frustratingly, in the vast majority of games, both players rolled the same scenario.  So, there weren’t many cases of opposing scenarios… certainly not enough for me to get a feel for how good/bad an idea it is.

Similarly, the change to Annihilation (VP on a per-model basis vs. KP on a per-unit basis) didn’t come up often enough for me to get a feel for it.  I’m quite sure that it’s wildly impractical in a larger game, but at 500 points, it didn’t seem very hard to work out at all.  It also has some odd impacts on rules, like Combat Squadding or blobbing IG squads together, but I’m not sure that’s a big deal in the small, small points levels.

Despite the turnout, I had a good time and it looked like everyone else did.  It’s always a treat to get down to Game Vault, which is simply a great store.  (I wish it were closer to Manassas.)  We’ll be doing it again in 2011 (though likely with preregistration).

A reminder that Rapid Fire is this Saturday at the most excellent Game Vault in Fredericksburg, VA.

If you’re in the area, you should come!  It’ll be fun!

In March, Matt Hoell and I pulled off a 40K tournament idea I’d had bouncing around in my head for the better part of the year.  It was very, very successful: everyone had a good time (which is all that truly matters).

Not only that, the IFL went on to adapt it to Fantasy and run both the 40K and Fantasy version at Games Day Baltimore (where it was very well received) and the GW Sugarland store ran their own version just last month.

Well, we’re going to run it again, in January.  I’m really hoping to make it an annual thing.  So, if you’re within driving distance of The Game Vault in Fredericksburg, VA, you should come!  It’ll be fun!   (You can sign up here.)

Rapid Fire 40k Tournament

When: 1/23/10
Where: The Game Vault, Fredericksburg, VA

Schedule:
Set up and registration: 10am-11am
Start time session 1: 11am
Lunch break: 1:30pm
Start time session 2: 2:30pm
All games end at 6pm
Awards: 6:30pm

Entry fee: $10 (100% of entry fees will go for awards.)

35 spots available.

Format:

The goal is to try to play quickly.

There will be an odd number of players for this tournament. Players pair off, in order of sign-in, for the first game, with the extra, last-to-sign-in player “on deck.”

As soon as a game finishes, the player on deck challenges the Defender and the loser goes on deck.  If the Defender’s won three games in a row, the Challenger remains on the table, and the Defender goes on deck.  In case of a tie, the Challenger remains on the table.

Fully painted armies will receive one re-roll on any single die roll per game(this includes everything from the roll for mission, who deploys first all the way to extra turns).  Any single die roll.

Army Composition:

• 500 points
• 1+ Troops Slots
• 0-1 HQ Slot
• 0-1 Elite, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support Slot
• No model with 3+ wounds
• No 2+ Saves
• No vehicles with a total Front + Side + Rear > 33
• No ordnance
• No Imperial Assassins
• No more than 2 vehicles

No unit is mandatory, save the single Troops choice. This means, for example, Kroot Mercs do not have to take shapers.  If it says “1+” ignore it!

Game Structure:

1. Both players roll for their mission
2. Defender rolls for deployment
3. Play the game!
4. Loser reports game, Winner waits for new Challenger

Games are played on a 4″x4″ mat.

Missions:

Each player rolls once on the following table.

Deployment:

Roll for Deployment as per 40K Rulebook.

Results:

If one player has succeeded, and the other has failed, that player has won the game.
If both players have succeeded or failed in their mission, the game is a draw.

The person who plays the most games will be given 15 bonus battle points.

Winning streaks are calculated based on the players succeeding in their mission, not games at the table.

Awards:

• Most Battle Points
• Longest Winning Streak
• Best Painted Army
• Best conversion or Best Themed 

Ties will broken by Number of Games, then Winning Streak length.  If ties cannot be broken, the prize will be split.