Index Tyranids Overview: Troops

Hofstadter's Law states that everything takes longer than you expect it to, even after taking Hofstadter's Law into account. That said, here's my look at the Tyranid Troops options:

Tyranid Warriors
While still not restored to their glory days of 4th Ed, Warriors are better than they’ve been since then. Much of the reason for it is due to changes in the Core Rules, rather than any changes in the Warriors themselves. The removal of Instant Death isn’t actually as big of a deal as I might have thought. The real benefit is that Nid MCs are now solidly durable against the kind of mid-level firepower that used to cut them down quickly, and so both the MCs and Warriors need Anti-Tank type Heavy Weapons brought to bear on them to really do damage, making it easier to achieve target overload. The substantial improvement to the Venom Cannon, Barbed Strangler, and DeathSpitter also help significantly, as does their reduction in Points. I can see Warrior Broods once again forming a solid backbone to the Synapse net, probably with DeathSpitters and Rending Claws, plus a “heavy”.

My handwriting is terrible, but I liked the joke enough that I had to show it off

Genestealers
Another classic Unit that looks to be making a comeback thanks to changes in the Core Rules. This time, it’s the removal of Initiative, and the fact that Charging Units get to strike first. For a Unit as fast as Stealers are, that’s pretty doable, especially since Gargoyles are available as a super cheap Charge Screen if needed. Not much to say about them, really. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do, and now they can actually do it. Note that adding ScyTals is, for the moment, a purely aesthetic decision, as their Rending Claws are better in almost every circumstance. You get what you pay for, in this case.

Termagants
One of the foundation Units of the Swarm-style Nid list, Termagants remain pretty much the same as always. There are two main changes worth keeping in mind. The first is the change to the Tervigon, which can now replace casualties in Termagant Broods, as long as they were armed with Fleshborers. The second is that when a Termagant Brood has 20 or more Models, they can re-roll Wound rolls of 1 when shooting. This makes me lean toward big, very possibly full-size, Broods, with at least 10 armed with Fleshborers, and many (probably 15-ish) of the rest with Devourers. Unless your Opponent has some ridiculous volume of fire, that should take a while to chew through with a nearby Tervigon reinforcing, and they’ll dish out some pretty scary firepower of their own against anything they can get in range of. Remember that their Weapons are all Assault, so they can fire after Advancing. Makes that range a bit larger than it used to be.

Hormagaunts
The Termagants’ faster, pointier cousins. They’re definitely better than they have been, but with a higher base cost (and near-mandatory Adrenal Glands) and no access to buffs like those the Termies can get from Tervigons, they seem a bit harder to use as efficiently. At first glance, they also seem like a good candidate for Toxin Sacs, with a good price-to-Hits ratio and re-rolling 1s to Wound when in large numbers, but the need to close in and lack of replacements means that they’re rarely going to hit the enemy lines in sufficient numbers for the re-rolls, and it would probably work out better to just spend the Points on more Hormies. Still, they’re a fast, non-negligible Assault threat, and a prime target for Onslaught, to give them some truly scary speed.

Ripper Swarms
Like Warriors, Rippers benefit from the removal of Instant Death from the Game, and are one of the most Points-efficient Tarpit Units in the Game. They’re also one of the premier “sit out of sight on an Objective” Units in the Game, and can be Deployed underground to burrow up to distant ones. Oddly, they actually have some difficulty getting Cover, since they’re Swarms, not Infantry, but they’re usually pretty easy to hide completely, so that shouldn’t often be too much of an issue. I can definitely see including a minimum Brood or two in many lists to grab Objectives, since they’re so cheap.

I don't actually have any Stealers for my Hive Fleet Naeglaeria, so I borrowed one from my Behemoth Stealer Cult for these shots

Notes that Apply to Multiple Units:
- Gaunts and Rippers really want Synapse coverage if there is any chance that they will take casualties. With Ld5/4 respectively, even very light losses can start causing them to run very easily.
- Genestealers and Gaunts have buffs when above a certain size. In general, 8th seems to favour MSU, but for these (especially Termagants), larger Broods may well be the way to go.
- Rending Claws are almost always a better option than Scything Talons, even after taking into account the slight Points difference for Broods like Warriors. With only a single pair of either, the ScyTals are only the better choice against things with no Armour Save whatsoever. Mostly, that’s Units that rely entirely on an Invul, like Daemons. Two pairs of ScyTals perform a bit better due to the extra Attack, winning over a single pair of Rending Claws against 5+ or worse Saves, and breaking even against 4+, but that usually means giving up a gun.

Previous posts: Armywide Rules - HQ

Until next time, y'all have a good one now, y'hear!

Index Tyranids Overview: HQ

Really, it was overly optimistic of me to expect to be able to get a post up the day after the 4th. The city's fireworks display is very close to my apartment, and runs quite late into the night, so I never get much in the way of sleep that night. Anyhow, here we are, back with a look at the leaders of the ravenous swarms:

Hive Tyrant
The Hive Tyrant’s options have opened up quite a bit from the Dakka Flyrant-only of the last couple of editions. The Flyrant is probably still the best option for a shooty Tyrant, even tho it no longer gains any protection from flying, or nearly as much of a speed advantage, simply because the Fly Keyword will let it Fall Back and still shoot if someone tries to tie it up in Assault. Quad DeathSpitters is probably the way to go, but the StrangleThorn Cannon’s profile actually matches them quite well, trading shots for range, and possibly even making up the difference against large Units with its bonus to hit.

Pure Combat Tyrants get two pairs of ScyTals. There’s no other combination of CC Bio-Weapons that’s worth spending both slots on. Wings are probably still the way to go here, so people can’t hide from you on upper floors, and Adrenal Glands are a must.

Because the other CC Bio-Weapons don’t gain any benefits in pairs, Hybrid Tyrants are now an option again. The default CCW here is Monstrous Rending Claws, which I find a little disappointing on an aesthetic level, but they come out slightly better than the other two options, even before taking the substantial (so much so that I think it might be an error) price difference into account. All the gun options seem viable for the other pair of arms, tho Twin Devourers are of course the weakest option now, since they spent three editions as the default, and everyone’s converted them…Anyhow. Twin DeathSpitters are the strongest option, but the HVC and STC seem viable if you want more range. This is probably the way to go for the Walking Tyrant with Guard if you want to take that route. Gives the Tyrant something to do other than Advancing, so the Guard can keep up with it, and it’ll provide a pretty solid Synapse core along with some firepower and a later-game CC threat.

SwarmLord
At first glance, the SwarmLord is just an expensive walking CC Tyrant. It is much better in CC than a regular Tyrant, and its base move is enough faster that it is viable to hoof it across the table, but the real kicker that makes me want to try it is the Hive Commander ability. Each Turn, in your Shooting Phase, it can make one nearby Unit Move exactly as tho it were the Movement Phase instead of Shooting. Given how many already fast Units the Nids have, that seems like it should be incredibly useful even just from the starting line, let alone using it on things like Trygons or Raveners when they tunnel in so they can get a guaranteed Charge. Just be careful not to have them outrun your Synapse support, since almost all of those Units are also kind of fragile and have poor Ld.

Old One Eye
Similarly to the SwarmLord, Old One Eye is basically a 50% price increase over a similar regular Fex, for an improved profile and a couple of special abilities. It’s traded some hitting power for durability, which was needed, but I think it might still be too much of a fire magnet to make it across the table, especially since it can’t benefit from Tyrant Guard like Swarmy can. Time and trial will see, tho, and if it does make it across the table with some other Fexen nearby, they will wreck stuff. OOE’s buff aura gives nearby Fexen a bonus to hit in CC, making Crushing Claws much more viable, and dual ScyTals really scary to mid-level targets. The bonuses also apply to itself, since it has the Carnifex Keyword, so it’s hitting on a re-rollable 2+ with its ScyTals, and 3+ with its Crushing Claws.

BroodLord
The BroodLord, on the other hand, is a very different beast. It’s one of the HQ’s that are Characters with fewer than 10 Wounds, so they can’t usually be picked out as a target for Shooting Attacks. It’s also scary fast, with an 8” Move and the ability to Advance and Charge in the same Turn, and tho it’s less durable, it punches in the same weight class as a Combat Tyrant. Add in Synapse, a Psychic Power, and a buff aura for nearby Stealers, and there is definitely a lot of potential here. The only real downside I see is that there are no options whatsoever, not even Adrenal Glands or Toxin Sacs.

Tyranid Prime
The other HQ that can hide amongst Units, the Tyranid Prime does for Warriors and Shrikes more or less what the BroodLord does for Genestealers. Unfortunately, as with its previous incarnation, it’s pretty badly overpriced. When you include the effects of its buff on nearby Warrior Units, it’s basically 2 Warriors bolted together, but it costs almost as much as 4 of them. Pretty much anything I can think of that I’d want one for, now that I run the math, either a BroodLord or some regular Warriors would do more efficiently. The only real point I can see is that the Prime is the cheapest possible HQ for a Nid Army, so maybe useful at very low Points levels, but other than that, it’s just not worth it. I find this disappointing, because I like my Primes that I’ve converted, but they’re frankly just too expensive for what they do.

Tervigon
As with the other options, time on the tabletop will see for sure, but it certainly looks to me like the pendulum has swung back in favour of the Tervigon. While the other HQs got tweaks to their profiles, she received a massive buff with her T increasing to 8, previously unheard of except for Gargantuan Creatures! On top of that, she still fills her previous roles, being a Psyker and a Synapse Unit, and buffing nearby Termagants and spawning more. The spawning ability has changed up substantially. It’s now a fixed 10 Models, and if you use it to create a new Unit, you have to have set aside Reinforcement Points for them when writing your list. But they can also be used to replace casualties in preexisting Termagant Broods with no Reinforcement Points needed. She can only replace Models that were armed with Fleshborers, but the FAQ did confirm that they will come with Adrenal Glands and/or Toxin Sacs if the Brood they’re reinforcing had them! A Tervigon plus a full Brood of Termagants with 15 or so Devourers should be a pretty durable and dangerous blob of anti-infantry firepower.

I don't have pics for the others, unfortunately. Hopefully by the time I get done with the Troops Overview, I'll have a bit of time to do a photoshoot for at least most of the options there. That one will probably not be until sometime next week, since Castlevania drops on Netflix this weekend, and that's going to soak up a lot of my available time. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Index Tyranids Overview: Armywide Rules

I’ve had a chance to play with a few different Factions so far, and the one that has had the biggest improvement in how it feels to play so far is Tyranids, so I want to dig a bit further into their options in Index: Xenos 2. Just to cut down a bit on the possibility space, unless otherwise stated, I’m going to be considering these in the context of a Tournament environment, where a Player will have to take on multiple unknown Opponents with a single fixed list, built with Matched Play Points. Bear in mind that I do not yet have a huge amount of experience with 8th Ed yet, and don’t know how the Meta is going to shape up, so some of these judgements may well change as we find that the circumstances they need are more or less common.

To begin, let’s take a look at some of the overarching Rules and Options that will affect most of the Units in the Army. I was originally going to bundle in the HQs with this as well, but it ended up getting way longer than I expected, so they'll come along later.

Instinctive Behaviour
Definitely the best version we’ve seen of this in ages. Possibly ever. Reasonably fluffy, creates issues if Synapse coverage lapses, but it’s not crippling, and many of the options it cuts out are ones you probably wouldn’t often be using with such a short-ranged Army anyhow.

Synapse
The mechanics and wording have changed, but it still does basically what it always does: Lets us ignore the Morale section of the Rules, along with Instinctive Behaviour. Given the less harsh restrictions of Instinctive Behaviour, and the fact that many of our Units consist of single Models or have a very small Model Count with a reasonable Ld, it’s less important to maintain coverage for many things than in the past. Gaunts, Rippers, and Raveners (and to a lesser extent, Genestealers) want the Morale help, and our few long-range Units want coverage so they can pick their targets freely, but plenty of things can do just fine on their own.

Coverage has been reduced to 8” for everything other than Hive Tyrants, but given how much more viable Warriors are, how much more durable the Tervigon is, and how many things can operate on their own, it’s not as big of a deal as it might seem.

Shadow in the Warp
SitW actually returns to its roll of making it harder for nearby Psykers to manifest their Powers. Given that most Powers have target numbers somewhere near the middle of the bell curve, even a shift of just one point can have a pretty big effect, taking the odds of succeeding with a 6+ power from better than 72% to 58%, and a 7+ from 58% to 42%. You’re not going to be shutting down enemy Psykers completely, but you will definitely be making things harder for them.

Like Synapse, the range of SitW has also been reduced to 8” except for Tyrants. However, the expanded list of usable options helps keep it relevant, as does the generally shorter range of Psychic Powers in 8th compared to 7th.

 
Hive Mind Discipline
As with all the Psychic Disciplines, the Hive Mind Discipline got pruned back to 3 options from the former 7. There are no real duds here, tho Onslaught is a bit of a gamble, since you have to commit the Unit to Moving/Advancing before you know whether or not the Power will work. Probably a good candidate for a Command Point re-roll if you’re going to be using it in an important situation. Also, the restriction of only using a given Power once per Turn in Matched Play is unfortunate for Catalyst, which would be very handy to be able to spam. Because of this, and the aforementioned increased viability of non-Psyker Synapse options, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nid Armies featuring at most a couple of Psykers.

Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs
I’m covering these here, because so many Units can take them, and their effects don’t actually change at all across the various Units that can take them. Adrenal Glands give a Unit an extra inch of Movement when they Advance or Charge. Very handy for things that want to get into Assaults, and even more so for those that don’t have guns. I’d consider them essentially mandatory on Hormagaunts, CC Fexen/Tyrants, Trygons (including Primes), and CC Shrikes. They’re a particularly great buy on Shrikes since the price only depends on whether the Unit has the Monster Keyword or not, so Shrikes pay the same price as Gaunts. Still a little disappointed that Raveners can’t take them, as they’d be fantastic there, too.

Toxin Sacs are interesting to analyze now. They simply increase the Damage value of the Model’s Attack by 1 when you roll a 6+ to Wound. This actually ends u creating a fairly complex range of possibilities for how worthwhile they are. To determine how useful they are for various Units, there are three broad factors to look at: How likely are they to work, how likely is it to matter, and how likely are they to actually get to use them?

GW has sort of done the first, with most Units paying somewhere around 2 Points per expected CC Hit, ignoring any bonuses. The key point there, in many ways, is “ignoring any bonuses”. Units with multiple pairs of ScyTals will be gaining an extra Attack on top of re-rolling 1s to Hit, and can come out with significantly more Hits than expected. Units with a bonus or re-roll to Wound (Unless I’m missing something, this is large Units of Hormies and things with Rending Claws) can also come out ahead in this area.

The second depends on a couple of things, which aren’t really accounted for in the Points Cost since they vary so much between different Units and against different Targets. For Units with no AP, a substantial proportion of those 6+s to Wound are just going to bounce off the target’s Armour. Units with Rending Claws, on the other hand, get to double down on 6+s to Wound if you add Toxin Sacs, improving both their AP and Damage. It is also important here to consider the types of targets you plan to hit with this Unit. This does depend on what your Opponent brings, which will obviously vary, but if you mostly plan on sending a given Unit at things like most Troops, the extra Damage is just going to be wasted, since those generally only have a single Wound per Model.

The third factor again has two sub-categories. For Units of a single Model, it’s a simple binary. Is this Unit likely to make it into CC or not? For multi-Unit Models, it becomes necessary to compare the increased damage with the effects of just spending the Points for the Toxin Sacs on more Models, and seeing where the break-even point is.

Without actually going into a full analysis, the main Unit that really seems to me to suit all of these categories is a CC Hive Tyrant, tho a Trygon (regular or Prime) is also looking like a pretty good candidate. Most other things seem likely to fall short in at least one category.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have a post for the HQs (or at least some of them) up after the holiday tomorrow. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Bro! Hold My Beer and Watch This!

I've been looking forward to the DeathWatch getting some significant Rules since their first mention back in 3rd. I still haven't had a chance to play with them, but I'm gonna do a quick rundown of the things that really jumped out at me. This will not be complete, if you want a full Review, there are plenty of them out there. Much of it is just very minor variations on basic SM stuff anyhow.

Wargear: The basic "SternGuard" Squads can take a Special Weapon for everyone, and up to 4 of them can take "Heavy" Weapons. "Heavy" is in scare quotes there because you're never actually going to take the Heavy options. It's all about the Frag Cannon and the Infernus Heavy Bolter here.
- The Frag Cannon is one of the best guns in the Game as far as I can tell. It was already good on Furioso Dreads, and now it's spammable, and has a longer-ranged mode that's a Marine Killer out to 24", and turns into a two-shot Lascannon within 12". Just ridiculously good.
- The Infernus Heavy Bolter takes a Heavy Bolter and fixes one of the big problems with it by making it Assault. Then it bolts a Heavy Flamer on as well, for the same amount you'd normally shell out for one of each, with the Bolter still being Heavy. Not as ridiculous as the Frag Cannon, but still solid.
- They're also relatively easy to convert. You just need a Heavy Bolter and a Flamer (regular Flamer actually matches the size of the official bit better), and anyone who's been playing Marines for any length of time should have those around.
- Be careful not to load up too heavily on them, tho. Your basic dudes are already expensive, and if you don't watch out, it's easy to end up with an Army almost entirely consisting of 40+ Point Models that are just as fragile as 14 Point Tac Marines.
- Cool thing that Greysplinter pointed out to me: You have to swap your Bolter for one of the Special or Heavy Weapons. But you can also take options from the Ranged Weapons list, which lets you swap that useless CCW for another Bolter for free.

Terminators, Bikes, and Vanguard Vets: At first glance, I thought these were all pretty badly overpriced, but the more I dig into the Dex, the more I like them. The big thing they all have going for them is that their Unit Size goes down to a single Model. This lets you go MSU with them to a ludicrous degree, but it also makes them very easy to slot into the various Kill Team Formations, where they each add something cool to the whole Unit.
- Terminators: Since every single one of them can take a Heavy Weapon, these guys can add in some serious firepower, either as a bunch of scattered singletons or in Kill Teams. In addition, they're Fearless, and that's one of the USRs that affects the whole Unit, so adding just one to a Kill Team will make the whole group Fearless as well as giving the Terminator(s) some cheaper ablative Wounds around.
- Bikers: The Bikers have Skilled Rider, which lets them Tank for the Unit a bit in a Kill Team, and also lets them function as very mobile and durable Objective Grabbers. A bigger deal, tho, are the cheap Power Weapons they can pick up, and the Teleport Homers they get, which work not just for Terminators, but also for any Unit using the DW Detachment Benefits to Deep Strike. A few of them scattered around can give you a lot of options for any Deep Strikers you've got in Reserves. Once again, tho, they really come in to their own as part of a Kill Team. This gives them some protection for that Teleport Homer, and in return, they really help the Unit get into Assaults. They still have to maintain Coherency, but their Move+Base Size can easily take 4-5" off what you would need for a Charge, just by shifting them from one side of the Unit to another. On top of that, they provide Split Fire, letting you unload all those Frag Cannon or whatever into one Unit while you just pop off a Bolt Pistol into the guys you actually want to Charge.
- Vanguard aren't as big of a deal as the other two, but they're also significantly cheaper. I don't really see much point in running them on their own, as one of the other two options here will probably do whatever you want better, but as part of a Kill Team, they add their Heroic Intervention Special Rule, letting you Multi-Assault without penalty and giving you Pseudo-Fleet that doesn't work while Running, but helps your Charges just as much. One of these guys and a Biker in the same Kill Team should provide some serious flexibility for Assaulting, which may well catch a few people off guard.

Kill Teams: These are all built around the same basic formula: A Squad of Veterans, plus one or more of Librarian*, Terminators, Bikers, Vanguard, up to a max of 10 Models total. They all get combined into a single Unit, and even the IC(s) can't leave.
- Aquila Kill Team: The basic version is my favorite. It has the weakest, but broadest, benefit, and no restrictions other than listed above. Re-rolls 1s to Wound or Penetrate Armour against everything. Very hard to go wrong with that, and you can unlock it with a single Vanguard or Biker for just a few Points more than adding another Vet to the Squad.
- The other five each target a particular FOC slot. If your target Unit has any Models with the appropriate Battlefield Role, you get to re-roll all failed Wound and Penetration Rolls. They each also have extra restrictions. For instance, the Fast Attack one requires you to take at least 2 Bikers, and the Heavy Support one not only requires you to take Terminators, but also that at least two Models in the Unit have Thunder Hammers (Heavy or regular). Outside of Narrative Games, the only one I can see using regularly is the Furor Kill Team, which gets re-rolls against Troops (which show up in most Games), and only requires one Terminator and that at least one Model have a Frag Cannon or Infernus Bolter, either of which are pretty solid against most Troops.

Relics: There are two real standouts here for me.
- The Dominus Aegis provides a 4++ for the Bearer's entire Unit if the Bearer himself didn't move in that Movement Phase. This is great for protecting Kill Teams that are planning on mostly camping one area of the battlefield, and becomes fantastic while you're Locked in Combat, and thus automatically not Moving in the Movement Phase. It's also great to bring in as an Allied choice for something like Imperial Guard, where it can be a much cheaper way of getting a 4++ than Azrael, if somewhat more limited as well.
- The Beacon Angelis is a Locator Beacon (which is already cool to be able to get on an IC who's potentially starting on the Board), and in addition, once per Game, you can pull another one of your DW Units off the table (even if they're in CC) and Deep Strike them within 6" of the bearer with no Scatter. All kinds of shenanigans possible with that.

Tactical Objectives: Not particularly powerful or anything, but they've got a cool mechanic. Unlike the other Factions with their own sets of Tactical Objectives, the DeathWatch get three possible sets to replace the 11-16 in the deck, and get to select which at the start of each Game. The Secundus would probably be my default choice, but against someone with lots of Elites and Characters, the Primaris are cool, and the Tertius provide a couple of extra targeting FA and HS.

Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

*It's unclear whether or not you can take a single option from the list multiple times. If you can, you can get an absolute shitload of Librarians in Kill Teams.

If I Ran the Circus

I've been getting a lot done, but haven't had much luck getting myself to take pics or write about it. With the rumours of 8th Ed abounding, I figure I'll do something easy here to try and get some momentum going: Wishlisting! Note that I'm just going at the Core Rules here, and I would also do some big re-balancing of Codexes if I were actually in a position to implement any of this.

Overall Turn Structure: Add in "Start/End of Turn" Phases, and defined "Start/End of Phase" sub-steps.

Movement Phase: Pretty much the same, except that Running/Turbo-Boosting/Flat Out would get folded into the Movement Phase. No Models get moved in the Shooting Phase except to take them off the Board. Speeds things up, keeps the Phases more in line with their names.
- Add some Size Categories for Terrain. Mostly for LoS/Cover purposes, but might affect some Movement.

Psychic Phase: I think the basic mechanics are pretty sound.
- Change DtW so that each 6 rolled cancels one Harnessed Warp Charge, making it easier to Deny multi-Charge Powers.
- Make it possible to get bonuses to Deny Powers that don't target Enemy Units.
- Clean up the definition of "Psyker", since it's kind of a mess right now, with some counter-intuitive consequences.
- The rest of the fixes would come from changes to the Disciplines and Codexes.

Shooting: Snap Shots go away. Perhaps not 100%, I can't off the top of my head think of a better mechanic for dealing with Flyers, but other than that, any situation where you'd be firing Snap Shots in 6th/7th, you simply can't fire. Speeds things up.
- Wound Allocation completely changed. Defender simply removes the Models they want to, without regard to range or LoS. Simplifies and speeds things up.
-  Exception: When a single Attacking Unit generates Wounds equal to or greater than the number of Models in the Target Unit, in which case the Attacker may select one Model that must take one of the Saves on its own. They can do this multiple times if the Wounds from a single Unit are multiple times the number of Models in the Target Unit. For example, if an IG Platoon opens up and inflicts 12 Wounds on a SM Combat Squad, the IG Player may choose which Models take two of the Saves. You may choose the same Model more than once, but if it fails more Saves than it has Wounds, the excess are wasted. Balancing mechanism to cut down on MSU, still gives the Attacker some control.
- If a Unit contains multiple Armour Saves, Wounds must be divided among them as evenly as possible (after any the Attacker may get to assign) before rolling Saves. Simplification, also helps deal with "mixed" DeathStars like TWC/FenWolves.
- Cover Saves go back to a Unit-by-Unit basis. If half or more of the Target Unit is in Cover from the Firing Unit's PoV, the whole Unit gets Cover. If in mixed Cover, they get the Cover Save that the greatest number of Models would benefit from. Simplification. Also makes it easier for squishy Units like Stealers to get closer without losing Cover.
- Cover Saves for intervening Units are determined in part by the Swarm and various Bulky Rules. Basically, a Unit can only gain Cover from an intervening Unit if they're no more than 2 Size Categories larger than the intervening Unit. Add some categories for Vehicles and Terrain.
- Going to Ground and Jinking are declared after determining how many Hits are scored, but before Rolling to Wound/Penetrate. This leaves it as late as possible in the sequence without having to make exceptions for Vehicle Squadrons.

Assault Phase: Keep the Charge Sub-Phase the same, except Overwatch goes away, just like everything else involving Snap Shots.
- Units with Move Through Cover can choose to either ignore the 2" Charge Distance penalty for Charging into Cover OR ignore the Initiative Penalty for Charging into Cover. 
- Only one Pile-in Move per Model per Phase. Possibly go back to the 5th Ed Defender Reacts system where the Charging Unit doesn't get a Pile-In, and other than the Charge and that one Defender Reacts Move, Models only move after Combat Resolution. OR like AoS, where Units get to Pile-In as they Attack, but don't at the end of the Combat. Possibly mess with the distance of the Move as well, but the key point is that no Model in an ongoing Combat should Move more than once per Turn.
- Wound Allocation changed as per Shooting.
- Outnumbering factors into Combat Resolution. If one side has more Models than the other, they count as inflicting an extra Wound when determining Combat Res. If they have more than twice as many, they get +2, and so forth. Models with some version of the Bulky Rule count as the same number of Models they would for fitting in a Transport/Building. Walkers count as 5 Models if their Front AV is 11 or less, 10 Models if it's 12 or more.
- If an outnumbered Unit is Fearless or gets caught in a Sweeping Advance but not wiped out because of ATSKNF, it must make one Save for each extra point of Combat Res the Outnumbering side gained from their numerical advantage. Gives Hormies and Ork Boyz something to shore them up against DeathStars.
- EDIT: Add back in the ability to Charge on the Turn a Unit Disembarks from any Transport, as long as the Transport didn't Move first.

Morale: Morale Tests work pretty well. Haven't changed much in 5 Editions for a reason.
- Regrouping is really harsh on non-ATSKNF Units right now, tho. Change it so that a Unit that Regroups has their basic Move reduced to 3" for that Turn, counts as Moving for all purposes, regardless of whether they do or not, and suffers a 3" penalty to their Charges.
- ATSKNF just means that they auto-pass Regrouping tests and don't get wiped out by Sweeping Advances.

Unit Types: The biggest change I'd make here really is about ICs. ICs can only Join Units of the same Unit Type as them. Bikes/Jetbikes are counted as a single Unit Type for this purpose, as are Cavalry/Beasts. This takes out some of the DeathStar shenanigans.
- Bikes cannot gain a bonus Attack for 2 CCWs, nor can they use 2-handed Weapons or any CC Attack other than their basic profile if equipped with a Storm Shield or something else that keeps them from gaining that extra Attack. Basically, they need to keep one hand on the Bike at all times. Pushing Bikes more toward a firepower Unit.
- Jump Infantry can use their Packs in both Phases. And pushing Jump Packs up as Assault Units.
- Beasts/Cavalry only move 9", but can Run and Charge in the same Phase. Not as fast as Bikes/Vehicles, except when they kick it into high gear for the Charge.
- Add another tier between Monstrous and Gargantuan Creatures. The mid-level monsters wouldn't get the 12" Move or Stomp, and would only reduce Poison to 5+, but would otherwise gain all the benefits of GCs. There are enough MCs needing a boost that it's worth making a category for them.
- Gargantuan Creatures get AoS-style Statlines that degrade as they take Wounds.
- Some kind of buff for MCs against Vehicles in CC. A single Smash Attack is not enough.
- New Unit Type: Monstrous Beasts. MCs with 12" Movement, not slowed by Difficult Terrain. Things like Trygons, Haruspexes, and Giant Chaos Spawn need some help.

Vehicle Types: Heavy Vehicles ignore the penalties for firing Ordnance Weapons.
- Possibly bring back something like the Agile Vehicle Type, with less max speed than Fast Vehicles, but more ability to fire while moving slowly.
- Super-Heavy Vehicles modify the Damage Table instead of ignoring it. Each Shaken result stops a random weapon from firing this Turn. Each Stunned result does that and takes d6" off its Movement for the Turn. Weapon Destroyed: Certain Weapons are designated as "Main Weapons". It takes 2 Weapon Destroyed results to remove one of these. Immobilized becomes Drive Damaged, taking off d6" Movement permanently. Explodes still does an extra d3 HP.

Weapon Types: Change Salvo so that it gets the larger number of shots out to half Range, and the smaller number from their to max Range, regardless of the firing Model's Movement. Right now we basically only ever see Salvo Weapons on Relentless Units, and many of them (e.g. Grav) are badly overpowered on those.
- Grenades used in Combat by basic Models against MCs or Vehicles with a WS only hit on 6s. Grenades used by Characters hit based on their WS. Trying to find a balance that doesn't feel like an arbitrary limit, but still keeps Walkers from just getting Kraked to death. Also makes Characters a bit more Heroic.

Terrain: Just add a bit more detail back in. Include some guidelines on size values for Movement/LoS purposes.

Missions: Bring non-random Progressive Scoring into some of the basic Missions. Stuff like Border War from the AoS General's Handbook.

I think that would about do it for Main Rulebook changes. Again assuming that I had complete freedom here, it would also be a "hard" reboot, with completely new Army Lists for everyone (This is another point I'd take from AoS. Every Unit's Dataslate would be available as a free download.) I'd roughly double everything's cost to allow more granularity, benchmarking things against a 10 Point Guardsman and a 30 Point Tac Marine.

Hopefully I'll get around to taking some pics of my recent Modeling projects (Tauroxen with Blood and Skulls Industry wheels, DeathWatch, a bunch of Daemons), and talking about some of the Gaming I've been getting in (OFCC, the LoW Bash we did one Saturday, dipping my toes into AoS). Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

What Is "Competitive"? (part 1)

Not just "which Units/Tactics are best?", but what do we actually mean when we talk about a Game System or a given instance of it being more or less Competitive?

I've seen a number of arguments about Tournament 40K that pretty much boiled down to the fact that none of the parties involved had an explicit definition of "Competitive Play", and their implicit definitions were not only poorly defined, but clearly different from each other's, so everyone was arguing across each other without ever actually engaging on common ground.

I have also seen a number of attempts at explicitly defining this, not just for 40K, but for competitions in general. The one I like best is that a given contest is Competitive to the extent that Player Skill matters above any other factors. Even with that established, tho, we've still got a lot of uncovered ground. Which Skills do we want Players to be pitting against each other? What are potential "other factors"? How can we measure the ratio between the Skills we want to compete at and those other factors? And finally, the bit that generates all the controversy, how can we tell whether given modifications of a system (i.e. Tournament Comp/Rules Changes) make it more or less Competitive?

In 40K, the skills we're ideally trying to compete with are actually fairly simple to describe. They can be divided roughly into two categories, List Building (finding the most efficient Models, Synergies between Units, etc.), and Game Play (positioning and timing on the table, when and where to make the most effective use of the elements chosen during List Building).

One of the biggest other factors, and one that applies almost without regard to what skills we want to compare, is randomness. We can arrange Games on a scale from those that are so random that they don't even really qualify as Games, because the Player has no actual choices (Punto Blanco Baccarat, Craps when betting Pass/No Pass, Candyland, Snakes and Ladders, etc.), to those with essentially no randomness, beyond perhaps who goes first (Tic-Tac-Toe, Checkers, Chess, Go, etc.).

40K is complex enough that we don't have nearly enough data to quantify exactly where it falls, but it's clearly somewhere between the two extremes. We see the same Players consistently showing up near the top of the various Major Tournaments time and again, so it can't be purely random, but there certainly are random factors, and they can be game-deciding, either because someone hits the far end of the bell curve, one way or the other, or because the Players are so closely matched that it ends up coming down to one dice roll.

The role of randomness in games is actually pretty fascinating, and a very complex topic. I've got another post planned just digging in to that.

Even in those Games devoid of randomness, tho, there is variation in the level of skill involved. Tic-Tac-Toe is simple enough that even children can completely solve it, working out that in any given situation there is an optimal play, and whoever goes second can always force a draw. The others I mentioned become progressively more complex, with Checkers having been completely solved by computers, Chess not completely solved yet, but sufficiently understood that the best computers can always beat the best human players, and Go still at the point where top human players reliably beat the best computers.

I want to single out Go here, for a second. Not only is it so complex that computers aren't yet able to play it at top levels, but in a different way, it's so well understood, and so clearly skill-dependent, that  new players can be ranked fairly accurately after just a handful of games with players of known ranking, and modifications can be applied to allow players of quite widely varying skill to play a roughly even game.

There are other factors as well. Some are within the system itself. Most notably, a clear and unambiguous rules set like War Machine is more competitive than one like 40K where many points are poorly defined. I've seen people lose games at major Tournaments because of unclear rules that were interpreted one way in their usual environment, and another in the environment that the rules judge came from. Winning a game because of poor writing on the part of those who created the game says nothing about a Player's ability to compete. It is, at best, a random factor, and at worst, an opportunity for cheaters.

Then there are balance issues. No game so complex as the wargames we play can be 100% balanced, but there are degrees, and when the balance is so bad that some Factions/Units are obviously vastly better than others, the skill required for List-Writing goes way down, because the viable choices are so reduced, similar to how Tic-Tac-Toe requires less skill than Checkers, because there are so many fewer options.

Unlike traditional Games, wargames often feature a variety of Missions or Scenarios which can lead to further balance problems. 6th Ed 40K was dominated by gunline Armies because the Rules for the Scenarios had Players placing Objectives after knowing which side of the Board they'd be on, and allowed them to place the Objectives further back in their own territory than 5th had.

Balance is also an issue because a poorly balanced Game allows for fewer Playstyles, and thus there is less that a Player has to prepare to face. If you know that only gunlines are going to give you serious opposition, you optimize your own gunline to take on other gunlines, and just stomp all over everything else. If you're also getting viable opposition from Assault Armies, glass hammer Alpha Strikes, Null Deployment, and Armies that focus on high durability and Objective-claiming power, optimizing your list becomes a much more difficult affair.

It's also an issue because there's more to these Games than just the Rules. The term Metagame often gets simplified these days to "what lists am I likely to face?", but its original meaning is broader, and covers all factors outside the Rules of the Game that still have an impact on the Game itself.

For instance: we're all drawn to the Game by different things, and it sucks to see someone who has impeccable skills all but entirely shut out of competition because they can't stand playing Eldar, or can't afford a whole new Army every couple of years any more. New releases shaking things up is good, and it should be important to vary lists as the Game evolves, but Player vs. Wallet isn't a Skill we're ideally looking to test here.

The fact that we need to get through competitive events in a reasonable amount of time is another. There is some evidence that super-horde Armies with Model Counts in the 150-200 range can actually be really good in 7th Ed, but you don't see them gaining much success in Tournaments, because few Players are capable of finishing Games in a reasonable time limit with that many Models to deal with.

One more point to touch on in this overview: How do we measure how Competitive a given Game is? This is one of those things that illustrates that simple and easy are not the same. It's theoretically quite simple: run a boatload of repetitions, and see how regularly particular contestants show up in the top rankings, vs. how many people have a very wide spread of rankings. Repeat with variation in the assorted potential other factors. 40K, however, has far too many potential variables, and takes far too long per Game, to get a truly representative rating this way. By the time we got a large enough dataset, the Game would have changed so much that our data would be useless. There are, however, some analytical tricks we can look at to get some sort of estimate, particularly with regard to quantifiable things like Randomness.  This has already become ludicrously long, tho, so that will come another day.

Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!