Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm very thankful for many things in my life.

To start with, I am thankful for my wife, my newborn son and my two wonderful daughters.

I'm thankful to be gainfully employed and to have a beautiful home to enjoy my time when not working in the salt mine.

I'm thankful for my hobbies, without which I think I would go insane.

I'm thankful for all my internet buds. Special shout-out to Chappy DBC - come home soon bro - and to SinSynn, my bestest internets frenemy.

Finally, I'm thankful that through a combination of tournament wins, sales, and haggling, I finally have the eight Razorbacks and three Dreadnoughts I need to build my Grey Knight army.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

My first Necron list (WIP)

Well,

Mike B put up some nice thoughts on the new Necrons dex yesterday. I think he's got a lot of good information in there - you should go read through it.

I like what he's saying here - Necrons don't need to be built like Space Marines. I dig it. I believe it.

Heck, I could probably play a "counts as" Necrons army using only Tyranid models. How many Ripper swarms (Scarabs!) could I assemble... a lot. Spyders... check. Warriors... Termagants with Devourers could work, lol.

Are Cryptek's "Cost Effective?"

Buemmschaf said:

- The 'court wizards' aren't that cheap to begin with. Compare it to a Long Fang (most points-effective Missile Launcher I can see), which cost 40 pts for 1 (cos you need to take a Pack Leader) and 25 for each past that. So at 2 ML, you are already more cost effective than the Cryptek.

They are actually pretty cost effective in my opinion. Comparing them to Longfangs is not necessarily the right comparison. Long Fangs don't have AP 2 missiles, cannot move and shoot, and don't get to hang out in an army that can reduce the armor value of enemy vehicles (at range, if you build for it).

I compare their cost most directly to a Cyclone-equipped Wolf Guard, which clocks in at 18 + 15 + 30 = 63 points for two shots, whereas the Cryptek is 35 for one. But the Wolf Guard terminator pays more for their ablative wounds, doesn't have AP 2, and a variety of other factors (and, in the Wolf Guard's favor, the Cryptek's don't get a blast option).

In the end, I think just looking at absolute points costs across codices is a fools errand. Points "efficiency" is only useful for comparing one unit to another unit within the same codice which are designed to do the same job. It's only this kind of "apples to apples" comparison that gives you anything meaningful. It's interesting to do it, but not really useful, and can obscure the truth about a unit by making you think it's "too expensive" without looking at it within the context of the entire army.

Can two Cryptek's join a single squad?

This seems to have come up in several places recently, such as this thread's comments where I asserted that attaching two Crypteks to a single unit (via the purchase of two royal courts) was too far "into the grey" for me.

Buemmshef said:

"Actually, as of right now this seems to be the case.

While it might not be RAI, we don't care about that; it is RAW until GK decides that this should not be.

The splitting off one Cryptek for each unit refers to the 'current' Court, not 'all' Courts (This is a rough translation from german, since I haven't gotten my hands on an english codex yet. If I do, I'll try to highlight the corresponding sections and confirm my interpretations)."

GW Produced Investor Video

This was linked as a comment on Faet 212. I thought this video was fascinating. A few things really jumped out at me.

One was the fact that every time they said "the hobbyist" or "the customer" they showed kids. Every time.

Do I live in the only part of the world where the majority of the player base is made up of adults?

Byron born 11/13/11 - 9 pounds 8 ounces

Another mini-me. My first son.

Born 8:50 pm local time, 21 and 3/4 inches, 9 pounds 8 ounces. Mom and son are doing great.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled nerdery.

Ghost Ark Gunboat?

So, still musing through the Necron dex.

I noted that there might be an opportunity for some "ride jacking."

The Ghost Ark struck me as a bit unimpressive on its own. It's AV 13, sure. But the high AV isn't that useful if nothing ever shoots at it. You have to at least be a target for 115 points. And really who would shoot at the Arks before killing everything else first?

My Perfected Grey Knights List

So, when "working" a codex, I often go through a process where I will build army lists from scratch, over and over again, pretty much as my whims take me. Writing an army list is to me what completing a Sudoko puzzle is for others. It's a relaxing and fun exercise in and of itself.

Seeing all the different ways that you can make a codex "flex" is really quite fun. Yes, I am a nerd among nerds. Mock away.

Lychguard - How I both love and loathe thee

I have been looking at the Lychguard hard.

I really really love this unit.

Aesthetically.

It hits all my buttons. I especially like the setup with the hyperphase swords and dispersion shields. They look... right. I even like the Warscythe setup. I think these guys were supposed to be the Ushabti equivalent in some ways.

They work. Visually.

Mechanically... not so much.

I mean, they are priced "fairly." Their survivability with Dispersion fields is exactly the same as a TH/SS Terminators against Bolter fire or high Strength AP 2 fire/fists/hammers/etc. And they cost the same.

So far so good.

Necrons - First Impression

Ok, so having read through the book a couple of times, I have a few thoughts.

First, the Doom Scythes combined with Imotekh are "obvious" and will cause much whining. The thing is, the two Doom Scythes will probably wreck a couple of Razorbacks each and then die promptly. Not a "bad" thing per se. But unless your opponent is terrible (possible) or you routinely roll triple sixes (suspicious), these aren't going to "wreck your shit." Still, they are neato-whizz-bang cool and have a neat mechanic. I like neat new mechanics. Makes me happy that the boys in Nottingham still have some creativity left.

Necron Codex in Hand... Now the Fun Begins

I hope this isn't too much of a teaser. I had my copy waiting for me yesterday but I couldn't get in to pick it up. My wife graciously grabbed it for me this afternoon, but I've been spending the evening watching Dexter Season 5 with her.

Anyways, I'm heading to bed now and I'm going to do a little reading. I would love to hear all of your thoughts as we begin to understand what this codex offers us. Stelek has already declared that "10 AV 13 vehicles, kthxbai" is a good way to go.

Anyone else dove in yet? Thoughts?

11:11 AM on 11/1/11...

...that is all.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programs.