I Cheated On Purpose

One of the guys in our local group, IGJames, is getting ready for the Broadside Bash.  He's got a reputation for being our most hardcore tournament player.  You can hear an interview with him on the Life After The Cover Save podcast (strong language warning).  Anyway, as part of his preparation he's been playing against people with his 1850 tournament list with all kinds of handicaps.  Some of these handicaps include the opponent having extra points or getting to go first.  I challenged him to a game but I would be allowed to cheat.  He knew up front what I was doing and part of the game was him trying to catch me.

That's a cheetah, in case it's not obvious.

The first thing I did was make my list over points.  That's an easy one to get away with in a pickup game, but if the tournament organizers are on top of things it's harder to get away with it in a tournament setting.  For the rest of the game I found it really hard to cheat, but here's what I did.

I was playing Eldar.  I deployed about 16" in, instead of 12".  I fudged my movement with my vehicles, moving them from front to back, or bumping them forward a few inches after I moved them.  As I started taking casualties I would simply "forget" to take morale and pinning tests.  He reminded me on most of them but I got away with a few.  I accidentally forgot to allocate wounds, but he caught me on that one.  It never came up but with my Rangers I was planning on not rolling to wound if I rolled a 6 to hit, and just feign confusion over the rules.  I tried cheating with the dice, picking up failed wounds and calling them successes.  That one is only easy when the opponent isn't watching.  Another guy who didn't know the conditions of our game came up and watched our game which made things more difficult for me.  I still got away with quite a few things, but it didn't make a difference.  Every tank I had was gone by turn three.  My Farseer (with a fudged statline) survived until turn 5 but got destroyed finally in close combat.

From this I learned that it's really easy to get away with minor cheats like dice rolls and statlines in Xenos codices.  Please note I am not justifying cheating.  If you cheat you are a Scumbag Steve as pictured above.  It's very easy to say, "Oh yes, my Farseer is T4 and has base 2 attacks" when you know he doesn't.  Should your opponent question you, just feign ignorance and say you confused him with Eldrad.  Feigning ignorance is easy to get away with but it only works once.

I think where cheating is the most damaging is in a tournament setting.  Sometimes games hinge on a single dice roll, and having that little extra cheating edge can make you win when you shouldn't have.  When prizes are involved, people are more willing to bend the rules in their favor.

So what can you do if you suspect your opponent is cheating?  Do you review every statline and question every special rule?  If you do that you'll slow the game down too much.  What do you do?

In my opinion the best thing to do is be familiar with all codices.  Know what your opponents can and can't do.  Also, don't take your eyes off the table.  If he's rolling dice behind a big LoS blocking piece of terrain, just move over where you can see them.

How else can you deal with cheating in a tournament or a local pickup game?

Growing Your Gaming Group

When I moved to this area a few years ago, I much lamented the fact that there was no gaming store in the area. The nearest was in Glendale, about an hour and a half away, through L.A. traffic. The next nearest was the Battle Bunker, about two hours through L.A. traffic. So, it was just me and my friend who was stationed at the Air Force base. I have another friend who lives about two hours away as well, but for the longest time I'd only get to play one game per month.

Then one day I heard that a gaming store had opened up in town. I went by and though they mostly specialized in Magic and RPGs (they didn't sell Warhammer at all), the owner was setting up a list of Warhammer players. Later, one of them contacted me and we started playing small games. The game store (Battle Grounds) then moved to a larger store across the street and we then could play on full sized tables, though there were only three players. We then discovered more players through my friend at the Air Force base, though because of the distance they can't come regularly.

Tuesday night, we had seven players show up. Three of them are getting into the game, and one is getting back into the game after a long hiatus. We've gone from just two players to a growing group, and now the game store is going to start carrying Warhammer.

I attribute two factors to our growth, the first and most important being a supportive FLGS. They don't really have terrain (we have to supply our own) but they have tables and they let us play. This sounds pretty basic, but an unsupportive LGS can kill any Warhammer community. When I was younger, there was a store in the area that would kick players out if they didn't have painted models. Now they're an overpriced empty shell of a game store with absolutely no Warhammer patrons and a massive stock of ancient metal models that they will never sell (the good ones have all been picked clean). They only sell board games and kids toys now. Anyone from the Utah Valley area will know exactly which store I'm talking about.

The second factor is keeping a regular gaming night. With a few exceptions, we've had a game going once a week for the past year and a half. Knowing that there's a regular group helps attract new players, and keep the veterans coming.

What factors do you think help a gaming group grow, and what can hinder its growth?

Why Are There No Shooty Characters?

I suppose I had better rephrase this. Why are there hardly any shooty characters? I was pondering this as I thought about the state of my Eldar. 13 years ago, I saw a picture of Maugan Ra in a GW catalog and knew from that moment I would play Eldar. While in his current incarnation he can put out more shots than almost any other model, it's still not a lot of shots. Furthermore, he can't pick out single models, like Telion (one of the few shooty characters).

Image copyright Games Workshop

Most characters are fit for close combat. What's more heroic, a character who sits back and shoots or one who boldly charges the enemy? Also, close combat has the advantage of being able to attack during both yours and the enemy's turn. Shooting is only done on your turn. Maugan Ra shooting (provided you rolled perfectly) could potentially kill 5 models in one game turn, while in one game turn of close combat he could potentially kill 8, 9 if you charged. Plus if he broke the unit he could potentially wipe them out entirely.

In order to make a proper shooty character they need to be able to do one of two things: either be able to ignore cover and armor saves and remove whichever casualties you want with reliable wounding rolls, or put out an insane amount of shots. The Vindicare Assassin can pick his target, but he's still rolling on a 4+ to wound.

Now that I look at the new codices and the coolness of the characters, it makes the Phoenix Lords look even more underwhelming. I'd like there to be characters who are just as deadly in the shooting phase as others are in the close combat phase. Let's hope that when the Eldar are redone, the Phoenix Lords, especially the shooty ones get their proper due.

What do you guys think?

My Turn To Complain About The New Space Wolves

I have heavily debated even posting this, as I have often complained about the complainers, but I'm quite concerned about the new codex. I want to get my thoughts and concerns out. I've actually been totally fine with all the Wolf rumors I've heard, powerful characters, cheap Grey Hunters, insane Bloodclaws, etc, until I heard about their psychic powers. This is where things get ridiculous.

Eldar are supposed to be the most powerful psykers in the galaxy. Yet ever since Second Edition (with our extremely overpowered codex) we've only had mostly weak destructive psychic powers. Fortune is nice, and a guide/doom combo can be powerful, but those are powers that rely on the relative power of the unit they are cast on. I'm not saying that they're weak powers, they're the best we have, but the destructiveness depends on the unit. Mind War can pull the teeth out of a unit, but there's a lot of hoops to jump through before anything can happen, and it only inflicts one wound. Eldritch Storm is a joke. I have tried it, even with a Doom combo and it is ineffective. Destructor is our best "killy" psychic power, but it's just a heavy flamer. Our power is in synergy.

Now the Space Wolves have two of the most destructive psychic powers in the game, and furthermore can nullify any psychic power on a simple 4+! Njal can do it on a 3+. Everyone says that you can simply kill the guy with the power, but if he's in a unit it's going to take a lot of work. Especially if you can't get any valuable units within 24". Plus, the powers are carried by a 100 pt character, and 4 of them can be in the army.

What's worse about Jaws of the World Wolf is that there's not enough rolls! A simple psychic test on LD 10 and then bam, death to everything that can't roll under its initiative. No cover, armor, or inv saves. No wounds caused, simply removal. There goes your 200+ point character or MC, sniped right out a unit far more effectively than a Vindicaire assassin. At least he has to roll to hit and to wound, and you sometimes get a save against him. The only other ability I can think of that can simply remove models is the Teleport Barrage stratagem from Planetstrike, which is once again an extremely overpowered piece of schlock.

Eldar will likely not really be harmed by Jaws of the World Wolf. Almost every model will dodge it on anything but a 6, and they'll have to roll 3d6 to get their psychic powers off anyway. What I'm worried about is my Tyranids. Goodbye Carnifexes!

The other problem with the initiative test is that there's no point in having an initiative higher than 5 (except for CC of course). An initiative test should be like shooting if your BS is over 5. If you miss and your initiative is higher than 5, you can roll again (an Init. 6 would have to roll a 1 on the second test, a 7 would roll a 2, an 8 a 3, and so on).

If I played Space Wolves, I could not in good conscience take this power against my opponent in a friendly game.

I really hope the 'nid codex has that power in mind when they write it. I hope that Zoanthropes project a psychic null-zone where no enemy psychic powers can take effect within 12" or something like that. That would make them useful again.

Ok, I got that out of my system. I won't complain about it again until I play against it, we'll see how it is then.

(Sidenote: In some crazy Apoc battle or something, one player with Lash and one player with JotWW...shudder.)

Planetstrike Thoughts

Finally picked up my Planetstrike goodies. I got the book, the Imperial Strongpoint, and the Blastscape. I'll discuss each one of these.

The book/rules: This has been reviewed to death on every 40k blog in the world so I'll cover some things I haven't seen talked about too much. Basically, I'm excited to play a game. Once I get my terrain put together I'll put a couple of games in and see how that goes. Without playing a game, I think the defender has the harder job. It seems a bit too easy to crack a bunker these days with melta being everywhere. Of course not every army has that ability, so some will find attacker far more difficult. Don't forget that flame template weapons can hit the guys inside!

There was much ballyhoo over the strategic asset that gives 2D6 Firestorms being an "auto-win" button but I disagree. First off, only about 1/3 are going to land on target. Of those, only 1/6 are going to penetrate a Bastion's armor. Of those, only 1/3 stand a chance of destroying it. Off the top of my head that's about 18 Firestorms. Of course, a Firestorm is deadly against troops out in the open, and against that kind of deployment you will have an auto-win button. Of course if you deploy out in the open, you deserve exactly what you get.

I also really liked the fluff sections. They expand on the fluff in the Tyranid codex about the Orks vs. Tyranids, and how that war is going. That part always intrigued me and I am glad to see it going somewhere. There was also mention of the Hrud for all those who want to see them made a race, and mention of a race I'd never heard of before.

Finally, the one area I think they dropped the ball was in the race-specific stratagems. The ones they have are nice, but I think they could have come up with quite a few more. I even made some up myself they could have included (Eldar Holo-fields for an Eldar bastion). It seems they want people to do that, as I quote pg. 26, "...we want to encourage our players to be creative, not trammel them with restrictive rules."

The Strongpoint: This is a really big box. It's a pretty good deal and fairly easy to put together. There's plenty of customization options, though I wish they had more. Here's an awesome thing- they include support struts in case you want to stack multiple bastions together. I've put together the whole defense line and one Bastion so far. Just be careful of gaps in the joints, I'm going to have to go over it with Greenstuff.

The Blastscape: I was both impressed and disappointed. I was disappointed with the quality. They look like when someone blows up a picture too big with poor resolution; all pixelated and blurry. It looks like someone made a terrific small sculpt and had it blown up farther than it should have. However, most of that detail is going to be obscured by flock and basing, so I will refrain from final judgment until I have painted them.

On the positive side, the pieces are huge. I was expecting small 5" pieces but was very impressed by the size. The laserburn I thought was particularly nice. The meteor one is pretty inaccurate, as meteors that size would leave a far larger impact crater- but since when has 40k forsaken coolness for accuracy?

So was the blastscape worth it? Possibly. Let me get mine painted and ready before I say.

Ok, I won't say anymore about Planetstrike until I have played a few games. Now it's time to get my new terrain painted up.

Staying Motivated

This post is in response to Ron's collaborative post idea. Seeing as I teach high school, half of my job is keeping lazy kids motivated. So here's my thoughts on the subject.

With my students they can be motivated by many factors, the most pressing being grades. However, the best work that I receive is from students who are motivated to create a good project. I have students who will sometimes not move on to the next project because they are determined to make the best work they can on the previous project. Of course I generally let them; I think they learn more from completing a fine piece of work turned in late rather than turning in a half-finished project on time.

Anyway, with Warhammer your best work comes from being motivated. Whether your motivation is a sense of pride, money from a commission, or to outdo a rival, any of these goals will keep you working. If none of those apply to you, take motivation in having a completed army! That's generally motivation enough for most of my projects.

Every project of mine has a different motivation. For the Malanthrope, I'm working out of a sense of pride more than anything else. For the Deathwing, that was for money. With my Titan I was trying to outdo the other scratch builds I saw. For most everything else I have worked on, my motivation was having a finished product looking nice on the battlefield.

So here is my final advice: If you severely lack motivation, you need to experience (or re-experience) the fantastic feeling of seeing your own painted and based units on the field. Chain yourself to your painting table or whatever it takes to get a small unit or model painted. The next time you play, include that model/unit. You'll find yourself a little more motivated after seeing how nice things look finished and on the gaming table instead of the painting table.

Here are some general tips: Remove distractions. I tend to paint a color and then drift over to the TV and play some video games- next thing I know I've lost my free time and am behind. Although research suggests that background music is distracting for normal tasks, I feel that it actually enhances artistic projects. When I try to work in silence I am very easily distracted. Music helps me stay focused.

Don't look at your whole collection and think about what isn't painted. I suffer from "buy faster than you can paint" syndrome. As a youth, I had very little disposable income but lots of free time so when I bought something, I got it painted. Now I have more disposable income but much less free time, so my pile of unpainted models is growing faster than I can paint. Not to mention, I need to strip the paint off my old projects and get them up to my current standard. So instead of looking at the whole, look at the part. Pick a squad/model and focus on that to the exclusion of everything else. Take a little bit at a time and soon enough everything will be painted. This is working for me as I'm finally starting to catch up on my backlog.

Finally, I set "color" goals to get as much done as I can. When painting a squad, I do one color at a time. To set a color goal, I say to myself I can't get up from the chair until I have finished with the black. Once every model has everything needed picked out in black, I get up and get a glass of water and maybe a small bite, then set the next color goal, and so on.

So find yourself a goal or a reason to paint, and just do it. If you can't find a reason, make one yourself.

Editorial: Thoughts on the Price Increase

le sigh

While I much love Games Workshop's product, one of the downsides of the hobby is frequent price increases. As has been heavily reported, in June the prices are getting raised again. All metal models just had their prices raised in September, and some of those are getting raised even further.

What I don't get about it is some of the random increases. For example, the Biovore got raised up to almost $30. Of all the models, the Biovore? Don't get me wrong, I think the concept behind the Biovore is great. Even if you miss, you still get something. But at that price, I'll be looking towards Ebay when I get around to adding them to my army.

Also, very few Tyranid models were included in the increase. I take this as a hopeful sign that the new Tyranid codex is coming (relatively) soon. Of course, the requisite price increase for Nids will come then. While part of me wants to stock up on them now, I'm also worried that the Codex style will change, making part of my army obsolete. Everything I have is magnetic, so I'm ok if the new weapon du jour changes, but models aren't as forgiving if their performance or style drastically shifts.

Finally, as long as Games Workshop continues to put out a product with engaging fluff, fantastic miniatures and fun rules I will continue to buy from them. My purchasing will simply slow down. Of course, I need to paint my backlog before I start getting more stuff again. So honestly, while price rises suck, they are encouraging me to slow down my purchases so I can actually get my backlog up to speed. I mean, I finally painted my Fire Prism last year which I bought when I was 18. I'm 28 now. My poor Wraithguard still haven't been painted after all these years. But enough bloviating, time to get to painting!

Editorial: No Comment

40k Rumors: Plastic Thunderhawk Confirmed




Wow the news has been coming in fast on this one! Sources say that it will include over 80 different plastic doors, covering all the chapters that anyone has ever heard of! It will also include parts to make either the transport or gunship variants (including two Rhinos and a Landraider). From what we've heard it will be priced at $97.85 USD and is expected this summer as part of the eighth wave of Space Marines.

It's finally here! We've been waiting so long for this and to see it become reality puts a tear in my eye.

Showing 23 of 23 Comments


Warhamman 5 minutes ago
Still no word on Dark Eldar?

Flayedguy 5 minutes ago
Nothing about Necrons?

Anonymous 4 minutes ago
First post!

Digimonfan 4 minutes ago
HAY GUSY DO U TINK I SHUD GET A FROGWOLRD TUNDERHAK WIV MA BURFDAYS MONYS MY MUM SAIS I CAN USE HER CREDT CARD AN I WATN A FROGWLRORD THANDRHAWNK

Slippy 4 minutes ago
The Vulkan sculpt sucks.

Mr.Exciteable 4 minutes ago
OH YES OH YES OMG OH YES YES OMG YES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS OMG YES OOOMMMMMGGGG YESSSSSS YES OH YESSS OMMGGGG YES OMG YYYEEESS YSS YEEEEEEEYSSSS OMMMGGMO OGC YESSSSS OOOMMMMMGGGGG YSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Chuckles 4 minutes ago
I find that when I paint the hair, I prefer to do natural highlighting and layering, using a bit of Vidal Sassoon mixed into my paint.

Anon E Mouse 4 minutes ago
Overpriced. I could make one for a fifth of the cost out of stuff I steal from work. Anyone that pays this much is an idiot. If you can't make your own models you have no place in this hobby.

Hairyback 3 minutes ago
Well that does it. Another terrible decision by Games Workshop. A plastic Thunderhawk before a plastic Farseer? I'm switching to Warmachine.

Grumblecakes 3 minutes ago
Wow, amazing! While you're at it, check out my latest Ebay auction! This is not a shameless plug!

joe 3 minutes ago
I quit a long time ago and this is only forcing me to stay quitted for even longerer. More Space Marines? An overpriced Thunderhawk? As a reminder to you all, I have quit the game and have no idea why I bother posting comments for a game that I am have to be quitted from for many long times.

Byl'O Ry'leh 3 minutes ago
Plastic Manta plastic manta plastic manta plz?

Master Chef 2 minutes ago
hey i was wandering i lookd in teh spayce mahreens book an i cant find thunderhawlk? sum1 halp 2 find it? how much pionts?

Observant 2 minutes ago
That picture is of the Forgeworld one. I counted the bombs and they are the same as the Forgeworld one.

Sharpeyes 2 minutes ago
No it isn't. It's the plastic one. I counted the pilots and they are different than the Forgeworld one.

Observant 2 minutes ago
Well, I counted the wings and they are the same, therefore this is the Forgeworld one.

Sharpeyes 2 minutes ago
I just counted the rivets- this is definitely the plastic one.

Erudite 2 minutes ago
You're just now reporting this? Over at my shady website, we've known of this for far longer than you. In fact I'm putting together my kit right now. Anyone know how the wings are supposed to fit in?

Roswell 2 minutes ago
*yawn* Call me when you have some real news. This one is a fake. Games Workshop has never released a plastic model from a Forgeworld kit, and there is no spoon, or moon landing.

Cheech 1 minute ago
I spent one second clicking on this link, skimmed it for twenty seconds all for this? What a waste of my time. The quality of reporting on this website has really gone downhill. I am leaving this blog and never coming back until tomorrow.

Bring Back the Sqauts 1 minute ago
Great, just what we needed. All the tournements that I don't go to but have only read about now will have nothing but T-hawk builds. This website used to be so great, now they're just endorsing pure cheddar. This isn't just cheddar, this is gouda. No wait, this is gorgonzola. Actually, I say this is Casu Marzu.

Jack 1 minute ago
I still don't own a 5th edition rulebook but I think I read something somewhere about something I heard on the intramawebs about not being able to take these in a regular game? Why are they even making this then?

Naval Orange 1 minute ago
First post!