Saving the Assault Phase?

In the Emperor's name, charge! I have always been a fan of assault based armies, from my first Blood Claw heavy Space Wolf list to my current quick striking Blood Angels, the unifying theme of each army has been connecting on the charge to win the day. It is safe to say  that close combat armies have been nerfed in 6th edition. New abilities such as snap fire, an abundance of weapons that ignore cover, and even the AP system for combat weapons has made it much more difficult for a charge to carry the field. This post may sound like a lot of wish listing but I think it will provide an interesting amendment of rules for a friendly game.

 

Arms Race Continues

Games Workshop's 2014 Warrior Code is going to change a lot of things in the gaming community. Just to be clear this code is meant only for events hosted at the Warhammer World in England, but make no mistake that most other venues take their lead from the folks at WW. I'll be providing a link to the code itself as well as talking about the big changes so that you are not blindsided next time you go to play a game.

 

Battle Brother Event; List 1.

I have always been a big fan of team games with Warhammer 40k. They just feel more complex, no matter what the points level is. You are required to work with your partner to form a list that compliments each other and execute a tactical battle plan to win the game. In almost every case someone does something they aren't supposed to, shooting at the wrong target, charging early, or any number of blunders that mess up a unified battle plan. I find these games to be incredibly narrative. Anyone that has read any book by Black Library that has two factions working together is familiar with all the bickering that can happen, but is also familiar with all the amazing things that can happen as well. I find myself, for the first time, in the position to attend a Battle Brothers event hosted at the World of Battle, Games Workshop, North American Headquarters in Memphis. This post is going to cover my portion of the list, at least the first one I have come up with, and my goals for the 5 game tournament.

 

1500 Point Battle Report; Imperial Guard Vs. Blood Angels A Battle of Faith

It had been a while since I got a game in so I contacted my friend and we agreed to do a modified Relic mission at 1500 points. To make things a little bit more interesting after turn one the relic would scatter 2d6 in whichever way the arrow pointed, if it was a bullseye then the relic would move where the little arrow pointed. We also allowed custom characters to be taken but would give up a victory point if they were killed. The last thing that made this game unique was that all infantry sized models gained the deepstrike special rule, we also made a special rule called, "shunting," that every unit had which would allow a unit to scatter d6 inches in a random direction during any phase in the players turn I can assure you that this battle report is very unique and at the very least worth a laugh. It was a bitter fight to the very end with heroes arising from the most unexpected places.

Forging Ahead

With the new supplements of Escalation and Stronghold Assault being 100% legal to use in regular games of Warhammer 40k there are going to be some growing pains ahead for the gaming community. I for one look forward to the changes that these supplements can bring, hell if you want to bring a Baneblade to my preferred 1500 point games I will be more than happy to let you put it on the table. There are negative Nancies all over the internet saying how these books are terrible, they will never be allowed in tournament play, and anything else that can be said to condemn these books. In this post I am going to look at the positives that these new rule sets bring to the table and why I am looking forward to the changes.