Thursday, September 19, 2013

Monster Hunting Bikes and Space Hulk

Allow me to start off saying that I really like the Space Marine codex, there are a ton of options which is only a good thing. Just like any release there are part that someone won't like, for me that is most of the new options. I really like the anti air tanks but the Centurions of both flavors don't really do it for me. Grav guns have been on my negative view roster until the other day when I was thinking about using them on bikes. I will go into that later on in the post. In my free time I have been watching a few videos on the Spce Hulk video game and while they are entertaining to watch the comments section bugs me due to people's over zealous nature in attacking the game and trying to poke holes in the logic of terminators in spcae hulks. Instead of getting into arguments all over YouTube that won't do anything I am going to address it all in this post. If you follow this link it will take you to GW's website and you can view an army by a gentleman named Teemu Valve who has a BEAUTIFUL Carcharodons space marines army. It is well worth a look. http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wnt/blog.jsp?pid=11000026


Working on my 1750 point list I realized that I have nothing except terminators to take on big scary monsters like carnifexes or wraith knights. Terminators should be enough for this role but having two units that can do he same task is always nice to have especially since that can allow the terminators to hit other targets. At first I was thinking of using Centurions for this role but with how expensive they are, both points and cash wise, took them out of consideration. 250 points for three grav cannons does not seem worth it to me since they don't have an invulnerable save and the short range of the cannons makes me very worried about their survivability.

For a while I was at a loss as to what to bring that worked with my current 1500 point army build until I stumbled on some comments about bikes with grav guns. I don't patrol the forums or anything like that looking for ideas on how to build my army. Part of that is my own pride since it makes me happy when I can build a solid list without the internet assisting me. I thought about just placing plasma guns on bikers instead of grav guns since plasma is a bit more reliable against every kind of unit even with the potential of killing your own guys with get's hot. Looking back at the grav guns they are a salvo 2/3 ap 2 weapon with 18 inch range. With bikes, because they are relentless, I will be getting 3 shots a turn so long as I am in that range which I am sure I will be on turn 2 after turbo-boosting. It did make me a bit worried thinking about what would happen if I was playing orks or Imperial Guard who have bad armor saves. It would make me a little bit sad that I would not be able to use my fancy 15 point weapons but I still can use my twin-linked bolters and do a fair amount of damage. Right now I have decided on a 150 point bike unit consisting of 5 bikers with two grav guns and a plasma gun. I just have to decide on which weapon I want to give my sergeant. I think I will give him the plasma gun so that I can allocate those wounds better with precision shots.


If I do add this unit it will throw me off a bit on how my army works since that would then be three troop choices in my allied detachment (2 bikes which Khan makes troops, and a scout squad.) The simplest way would be to drop one biker in one of the squads so they go down to 4 guys so they wouldn't be eligible to be a troop choice. I will have to see what I am able to do in my points constraint since I also want to add a thunderfire which is a flat 100 points which fills up my needed 250 points to go from 1500 to 1750. We will see!

Space Hulk!

(Note: This part of the post may very well lead to a bit of rage...you have been warned :D)

Space Hulk the video game is not a game that I actually own or have even played. I have only watched people on YouTube play it such as Matthew from Mini War Gaming who has been doing his own play through and is on mission 5 or 6 by the time I have posted this. Even with its bugs and multitude of issues it does look like a fun game, surely not worth the $30 price tag but I would gladly pick it up if it goes down to $10-15. For those that have issues with how the game playes and all that I have no issue with because the game has plenty of issues. It is those that complain about the terminators slow movements, or why regular marines don't go into the space hulk. I am going to go through every question I can remember reading and answer them to the best of my knowledge. 


1. Why do terminators move so slow? Tactical Dreadnought armor is huge, bulky, and heavy! This armor is supposed to protect the wearer from las cannons, main tank rounds, and all sorts of weaponry that would turn a power armored battle brother to paste. The other reason is that space hulks are cramped environments that are naturally tough to move around in. If you are a bigger person, in height or girth, and you have been in a plane which means you have been in an air port you should know that it is a bit difficult to move in between the aisles and all the people. Add in a massive cumbersome suit of armor and you will then get an idea of what it is like to move around in a space hulk.

2. Why don't power armored marines go in the hulks? They can and they do. This game is based off the old board game and it was terminators versus tyranids so they kept that classic match up. Since I am going to delve further into it, the reason that terminators lead the charge into the hulks is because terminators can; teleport, bring heavier weapons, are all veterans of countless battles, can survive in much more hostile environments that power armored marines can't, have the wargear to break open doors. All of these factors lead up to why terminators lead the assault on space hulks compared to the limited agility bonus power armored marines get. 

3. Why are terminators terrible in close combat? First of all that assessment is based off of a dice roll and a game that is designed for the terminator player to keep the Nids' away with storm bolters and other ranged weapons so it is a balance issue since it would not be any fun to be getting shot all game and then still not have a chance in combat. Sill it is not that terminators suck in combat it is that the genestealer excels in combat. When the terminator player gets the close combat equipped model in guard mode they can slap around the genestealers pretty regularly. Once again it comes down to the terminators lack of speed. Power fists are slow weapons that should they connect with an opponent will kill it, but it takes some time to swing it. 


4. Why don't they just bomb it? Thanks Flash Gitz. Bombing the space hulk will lead to the collapse of the hulk's structural integrity which compromises future recovery options of any relics that are likely in the hulk. 

I am going to leave it at that. I highly recommend reading Death of Integrity if you are interested in space hulks. That book should answer all your questions about how combat in hulks actually happens in the 40k universe. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. As always feel free to leave comments about anything from this post or even things you would like to see in the future. Have a day blessed by the Emperor!

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