Why Are People Still Liking Fex Stars?

I've been wrong before. In my mind, it goes without saying that when I say something, anything really, it's prefaced by an imaginary "in my opinion."

It's hard to argue about maths, because you can be either absolutely right, or absolutely wrong. Sometimes I've made mistakes, and in those instances I'm absolutely wrong. More often than not, I get the maths right, and then I'm right.

But saying that something has X probability of Y occurring, is not the same as saying that X is best. There is no magical "mathematical formula" for creating lists. Math can inform decisionmaking, but it cannot make decisions. Never has, never will. You can try and incorporate as many different variables in as many different ways as you can, but you will never capture the subtleties of threat ranges, movement options, hell, base sizes, footprints, etc. It's almost impossible.

But sometimes you can find a truly "apples to apples" comparison.

The Fex Star versus the Tyrant Star.

So... this is a debate that went on and on between SinSynn and I back in the day. One of my favorite ever internet debates.

And at the end of the day, we left neither of us having convinced the other. But now it's a new edition, and a new debate.

So, let's clearly define our terms:

Contender A, the Tyrant Star:

Hive Tyrant, Devourers x 2, Tyrant Guard, 260 points.

Contender B, the Fex Star:

Carnifex, Devourers x 2, Tyranid Prime, LW/BS, 285 points.

As I understand it, Kirby has used the Fex Stars, and seems to think that the Fex Stars transfer well to 6th. I, too, have suggested that Fexes with Devourers make a great tool, once your HQ slot is used up.

But I would offer that if you are going to be using your HQ slots for Primes and attaching them to Fexes, that the Hive Tyrant with a Tyrant Guard is a superior option.

Firepower: Identical.
Combat Ability: Fex Star is the winner.
Durability: On its face, the Fex Star is the winner (one extra wound).
Heavy Armor Killing: When smashing, identical. If Smashing is not needed, the Fex wins. Usually. (See below).
Psyker support: Ohhhh wait. Guess the Tyrant wins this one.
Army support: I keep looking in the dex, I don't see any options for Preferred Enemy Bubbles on the Carnifex. Heh.
Vulnerability to Jaws: Tyrant wins hands down.

So for 25 points cheaper, I'm thinking I will be sticking with the Tyrants. The addition of the psyker abilities is huge. If I want to, I can splurge and grab a 2+ save, or get a Preferred Enemy bubble. *shrug* I like those options.

NOVA Open DRAFT FAQ's Released

Here is the link.

A few things that affect Tyranids directly.

A Flying Monstrous Creature which fails a Grounded test must still be hit only by snap fire, and can be Grounded again that same turn (thus suffering an additional hit). As is mentioned in the FAQ, I think GW will ultimately change this, but for now NOVA is going with the RAW which helps FMC quite a bit.

Multiple applications of Enfeeble from different sources are "different" and thus stack. This is a big one.

I would encourage you to give them a thorough read-through, and if after reading Mike's post on the topic you have further questions or challenges to the rulings, post them up in the appropriate place (detailed in the FAQ).

Thanks again to Mike and his crew for all their hard work under such short time constraints.

Here's to You, Nikephoros - Making Sense of the New Hull Points Maths

Ok, so Nike has made a rather interesting tool and posted it up on his website. He essentially is performing what is called a "Monte Carlo" or resampling approach to attempting to determine what the odds of killing a vehicle target are. It's a fine approach, and in fact Monte Carlo methods are the cutting edge in statistics right now, and allow you to do lots of things without having to make messy assumptions about the data you are working with.

But it's not my preferred method for Warhammer, for the simple reason that I feel like I 'own' the data more if I actually calculate these probabilities myself. To be clear, I'm not saying that you 'need' to know any of these things to be good at Warhammer. At all. But I enjoy working with numbers, and find that it actually makes me a smarter person to go through what are essentially uber cool word problems.

I mean imagine if you were sitting in 5th grade math class and your teacher reads you the following problem:

Quick And Dirty Batrep Nids vs Necrons

Got a game in today against a foot-heavy Necron army. Just a friendly game, he doesn't have many vehicles for his army yet. He did have one Command Barge which was a pain in the butt for exactly one turn.

Lessons learned: Stay out of close combat with Lords with Mindshackle Scarabs. Those things are stupid. Lol. It doesn't help that I can't seem to roll ten or lower on 3D6 to save my life. It does result in nice spawning rolls though!

The army list functioned exactly as intended. At the end of the game I had a Tervigon, a Dakkafex and a Hive Tyrant and would have tabled him the next turn but we called it. He had 20 Immortals, a Lord, three units of Scarabs, and the rest were Warriors. And the Overlord on Barge of Obnoxiousness.

I eliminated all three units of Scarabs on the first two turns, by debuffing them to Toughness two and shooting them with lots and lots of devourer shots. He grounded my Hive Tyrant and managed to assault it with a Mindshackle Lord and killed it in one round. I hit myself three times, wounded myself three times, and he finished me off with a Warscythe. Ridiculous!

But after that it was just a matter of shooting and assaulting down his hordes of foot sloggers.

This game proved nothing in terms of the effectiveness of the army as a whole, but it did show the validity of some of the individual tools in the toolbag, and gave me more experiencing with the Psyker powers, maneuvering the Flyers, debuffing things, etc.

So a nice little game, and now I'm home for more painting. I want the Nids to be FINISHED before Dark Angels come out, because they are one of my main armies (I play Guardians of the Covenant, a successor chapter) and I'm sure I'm going to go bananas when they drop).

Bugz For a New Age

Well... I've got about a hundred different ways I could throw this together but I think my basic build so far is going to be twin Flyrants, twin Tervigons for midfield holding, twin Devilgaunts for dakka, two units of Hive Guard, one unit of Zoanthropes, plus... X.

I can run the Hive guard in two's or threes. I can take Gargoyles or no, and have played around a bit with Genestealers (once on the board, but mostly just thinking about them).

Here seems to be a fairly solid configuration which I will hope to test soon:

Hive Tyrant, Wings, Devourers x 2
Hive Tyrant, Wings, Devourers x 2

Hive Guard x 2
Hive Guard x 2
Zoanthrope x 2 (Almost always will swap powers for Biomancy for support)

Tervigon, Catalyst, Onslaught, Adrenals, Toxins, Crushing Claws
Tervigon, Catalyst, Onslaught, Adrenals, Toxins, Crushing Claws
Termagants x 10, Devourers
Termagants x 10, Devourers
Termagants x 11
Termagants x 11

Carnifex, Devourers x 2
Carnifex, Devourers x 2

So there's really nothing super radically different from several 5th edition lists I had posted, but what I feel has changed is that the Hive Tyrants now add a new dynamic to the army, helping with Jaws, buffing/debuffing, and absorbing shots that otherwise would take down the Tervigons/Carnifexes too early.

I see this army trading shots with the enemy, losing the Tyrants, the Fexes, and possibly even the Hive Guard, but ultimately dominating the midfield and winning the game with both Tervigons alive (which can bat cleanup much more effectively in this edition).

Unlike in 5th, I am not overly concerned with light armor spam, nor am I greatly concerned about Land Raiders. What I WILL struggle greatly against will be flyers, but I have six units in the army that, with some luck, can at least try and address them, and possibly more depending upon what psychic discipline I decide on pre-game.


The most obvious switch up for this list would be dropping the Crushing Claws and Scything Talons off the Tervigons and changing the naked Termagants into Gargoyles with Adrenals and Toxins. Both have their advantages.

Thoughts?

Quick and Dirty Batrep - Nids Versus Chaos Daemons (Plague Flavored!)

So I had the great pleasure of getting an abbreviated game in with my buddy ChappyDBC last night when I arrived. He was already embroiled in a game against Necrons, so I was forced, kicking and screaming, against my will, to go grab a beer with some Warhammer nerds after being at school and work for 12 hours on a Saturday.

Ok, so the beer was actually a really nice break. Heh.

But the unfortunate consequence was that we started our game with about an hour left till the store closed, which didn’t bode well.

I was playing the following, typed up based on the models I had grabbed from the house:

Hive Tyrant, Wings, Devourers x 2
Hive Tyrant, Wings, Devourers x 2

Hive Guard x 3
Hive Guard x 3
Zoanthrope x 2

Tervigon, Catalyst, Onslaught, Adrenals, Toxins, Crushing Claws
Tervigon, Catalyst, Onslaught, Adrenals, Toxins, Crushing Claws
Termagants x 10, Devourers
Termagants x 10, Devourers
Genestealers x 13, Broodlord w/Scything Talons, Toxins for Everybody!

Gargoyles x 15, Adrenals, Toxins

1999 Points

So, just shy of the dreaded “DOUBLE FORCE ORGOMGPANIC!!” lol.

He was playing an Epidemius Plague Daemons army. Let me see if I can recall the general elements:

Epidemius
The big shit Daemon (Kugach or something?)
Herald of Nurgle

A bunch of units of Plaguebearers

3 Spawn of Nurgle

3 Daemon Princes
Everything that could take Breath had it. Icons were sprinkled throughout.
So, my setup took a while, as I have not yet had the chance to make myself lots of sets of Psychic Power cards, so I was reduced to rolling dice and typing up my powers on my laptop. Needless to say, if I take a Nids army to a tournament, I will need to have some system for quickly and easily keeping track of my powers and probably some tokens for keeping track of buffs/debuffs.

So now we have like 45 minutes to go, and we roll into the Daemon player’s drop (skipping me standing around staring).

Princes came in and killed a few Genestealers with templates. Some Plaguebearers run around.

I start my turn, and Enfeeble Kugach I think.

So, since I decided I didn’t want to just swoop around with my Hive Tyrants, I decided to glide with one of them and aim him at Kugach. The Genestealers also moved in towards Kugach.

I shot the Daemon Prince to death after Enfeebling him, and then shot about half of one of the Plaguebearer units away.

The big mistake play on my part was in accepting when Kugach issued a challenge. I should have declined, and allowed him to send my Hive Tyrant to the back. This would have allowed my Broodlord and Genestealers to beat the piss out of him with their Toxin Sacs. I was pretty confident that the Tyrant, which had gotten Warp Speed off for plus two attacks, (7 attacks hitting on 3’s) would take him down. But unfortunately I just totally blew the attack roll, only hitting twice. Even with my ten dudes cheering on the Hive Tyrant (or... something? Hissing in support? Whatever), he only hit three times. A few good saves later, and Kugach stood there chuckling. Now, on the other hand, he hit and wounded me three times, and I my Hive Tyrant was... no more.

Ah well, lessons learned.

So the next turn, Chappy’s reserves arrived (most of them). He flamed some of my Devilgaunts that I have foolishly clustered into a ruin (silly really, no reason to be in cover against his army... ever really).

His Plaguebearers charged my Genestealers, and he got another two Daemon Princes in, and some more Plaguebearers, and two Plague Spawn. I was suddenly nervous as I had not managed to eliminate his first elements and his second wave was almost fully in my face. During the assault phase, I finished killing off Kugach, and several of the Plaguebearers who had charged me. Meanwhile, his tally was steadily climbing as he chewed apart gants and genestealers.

Now, in a tournament, I almost certainly would have backed off, screened, and just shot shot shot until I could assault and wipe him.

But that sounded pretty boring.

So I moved my Tervigons forward, spawned gaunts, and prepared to get “stuck in.”

I shot apart one of his princes, took down a few Plaguebearers, etc.

Charge!!

And then the game ended. Lol.

It would have been a pretty epic combat as we all dumped into each other. Neither of my Tervigons had spawned out yet, but he was also about to get “wounds on 2+” power weapons, so that would have been a bitch.

It would have been hilarious.

In general, it was a stupidly funny matchup. High toughness with poison versus high toughness with poison... Hurrah!

Anyways, it was good to see my buddy, and just getting the models on the table keeps me motivated to keep modeling and painting. Plus he makes fun of my when I have to proxy winged hive tyrants, etc. Harrassment: the best kind of motivation. And it also helped me to get my head around exactly how I want to create my game aids for tournament play

Wings... Glorious Wings!!

So I got two sets of Balrog wings and one set of Dragon wings into my FLGS today (direct order). I have a few of the large oval bases coming in next week for my Tervigons.

Hurray! 6th Edition army in progress!

SO after looking at the wings, I think I'm going to need to actually replace the top arms with the wings, and then make each of the lower arms into a separate twin linked Devourer. This seems to be the way others have done it, and I can see why. It's just hard to squeeze wings and two arms into that tiny mounting space... plus Tyranids are only ever supposed to have six limbs. *shrug*

I'm fucking around with my unpainted Hive Tyrant first, for obvious reasons. Once I figure out how I want everything mounted, I will do the same to my painted Hive Tyrant, trying to avoid damaging the paint job as best I can.

I have shitloads of reading to do for class tonight and tomorrow, but hopefully after this weekend I can dive back into working on the army and maybe take some WIP pictures.

Till next time... stay classy, Warham nerds.

Bug Factory

SO I have assembled 20 Devourer Gants, several Gargoyles (I have ten to go) and finally got around to chopping apart a 40mm base and putting my Space Hulk Broodlord into it with Epoxy.

I also assembled one of my Hive Tyrants with Devourers, and my wings should be in later this week. I'm experimenting with the unpainted Tyrant first so that I can figure out how I want to attach the wings without risking fucking up my paint scheme.

I think I'm going to try this out next game, just because I want to see whether a unit of infiltrating Genestealers can put some more pressure on my opponent, combined with the Tyrants and the Gargoyles coming upfield.

Hive Tyrant, Devourers, Wings
Hive Tyrant, Devourers, Wings

Hive Guard x 3
Hive Guard x 3
Zoanthrope x 2

Tervigon, Catalyst, Onslaught, Adrenals, Toxins, Crushing Claws
Tervigon, Catalyst, Onslaught, Adrenals, Toxins, Crushing Claws
Termagants x 10, Devourers
Termagants x 10, Devourers
Genestealers x 5, Broodlord, Scything Talons
Genestealers x 5, Broodlord, Scything Talons

Gargoyles x 19, Adrenals, Toxins

We'll see how this plays. 8 Psykers should be a kick.

Ta ta for now!

Tyranids Tactics in 6th... This is Going to Be Fun

So as I'm sure any of my long time readers know, I am a Tyranids fanatic. One of the main reasons I was excited for the edition change was to see whether my beloved bugs could benefit from the new ruleset to breath some new life into them.

Well, first impressions: the answer is yes.

I now have four full 2000 point games of 6th Edition under my belt, and the learning process is ongoing. Every game there is an "aha!" moment or two, and the new rules are gradually getting cemented into place. Games have been on the long side, but I think that will change as everyone gets the hang of the new rules, especially wound allocation.

Tonight I had the pleasure of playing my first game with my Bugs. I had to do a bit of "counts as" because my wings for my Hive Tyrants haven't come in yet, and I don't have 30 Devourer Termagants built (yet), but for the most part I was able to throw together the following:

Best Overall Proudly Supports Stiffneck Studio

Hey, as some of you may be aware, I had a debacle regarding my AdSense account last year. A few of you well meaning chaps decided to go a bit click happy for my birthday, and turns out it was a violation of the terms of service. Well, about $500 in lost ad revenue later, I was without ads and didn't intend for that to change.

Well, I recently decided that I would place a few links on my blog. These are not ads in the traditional sense, in that I am not getting any revenue from them. Instead, they are a way for me to show my support for businesses or endeavors which I believe in, run by people I trust and support.

You will notice a new banner up near the top of my page, for Stiffneck Studio. This is a commission painting outfit that is run by a good friend of mine, and for whom another of my good friends paints. This is a really top quality group of guys that do outstanding work. I heartily recommend and endorse them for anyone that has any interest in getting a commission done, small or large.

If nothing else, click on the banner and check out their gallery, there is some amazing stuff there. I especially enjoy the Necrons.

Why Allies Are Good for the Hobby

I’m going to go ahead and say, that Allies are by far my favorite element of 6^th Edition. When this was confirmed, I just about went bananas. Allies tickle my awesome bone for a few reasons, mostly having to do with the exponentially expanded possibilities for list construction which comes along with them. I am a list-building fanatic. I actually enjoy writing armies, JUST for the sake of writing armies. Some people have actually chided me for posting up lists for discussion about armies I don’t own nor intend to own. Really? Come on, talking about army lists is fun! Not for everyone, but for me, I really do enjoy it.
 

So that’s a great, great aspect of allies, for those of us who can’t get enough of theoryhammer/listhammer.

But I’m not here to talk about why *I* like allies, but instead why allies are good for The Hobby, and bring it closer to the vision that I think Games Workshop has always desired, without ruining it for those of us that actually enjoy going to tournaments (competitive, well-designed tournaments).

So allies are good for competitive players, I will argue. I believe they are a poor-man’s fix to codex creep and balance issues, with a nod to fluff thrown in. Armies can shore up weaknesses in their own unit selection by borrowing from other’s repertoire’s. Tau seem to me to be the stand-out winners here. With the ability to work with anyone, and firepower units but a paucity of good troops and screening, they have gained a LOT. Personally, I would be looking at Orks if I was playing Tau as a kick-ass supplement, but that’s just me.

But I also indicated that allies are good for less competitive gamers, and help to realize the vision for The Hobby that Games Workshop has always had (I think).

When you are a competitive player, you build armies. You don’t collect armies, you build them. There may be some exceptions to this rule, but I think they are few and far between. You start with theory, you come up with a concept, you probably proxy and playtest, you discuss with fellow gamers, then you buy the units you need and, if you are also a painter, you build and paint them to a tournament standard. You may have some flexibility within that army. Maybe you have some Wolf Scouts and Lone Wolves and swap them out interchangeably. But probably for the most part your army is your army.

When we talk about building an army, we are talking hundreds of dollars. We are talking 2000 points. We are talking hours and hours of invested time.

Games Workshop wants you to collect units, not armies.

I distinctly remember reading old White Dwarfs, and I’m sure it hasn’t changed too much. The basic premise is: Buy a unit. Build the unit. Paint the unit. Throw it into your army and try it out.

For casual gamers and collectors, this works quite well I imagine. Say you are an Ultramarine player. The new honour guard models come out. Oh neat, I think I’m going to go buy that box. You buy the models, build them, paint them. For your next game, in they go!

Bully for them.

But this tends to lead to mono-army-itis. 10000 points of boyz in blue.

Allies allow for a blending of these two approaches, opening the door for both casual and competitive gamers to become collectors.

Now, if you find Necrons or Dark Eldar interesting, but aren’t sure you want to dump 600-700 bucks into an army, you can still play them. Buy your HQ, and a unit of troops, and you are off to the races. Add a unit of Fast Attack, and into your army they go.

This will also alleviate, to some extent, the “Lots O’ Marines” epidemic. I think most people start playing the latest Marine codex because they already have a bunch of the models they need, and it gives them a chance to try something new. If you already have 12 Rhino hulls you can use them in any Marine army you want. There is relatively little incentive to try a Xenos army, because Xenos armies require a totally new investment in a complete, new army.

Now, if a Xenos codex releases, you don’t have to buy a full 2000 point army. Again, HQ and a Troop, and you are ready to integrate into your existing forces. Tau are positioned to sell like hotcakes to… EVERYBODY once their new codex drops. Anyone can use them, and you don’t have to dump the better portion of a grand to do it.

I will say, army paint judging may have to flex a bit. I can imagine it will be hard to have a visually “cohesive” force if you are running Ultramarines and Necrons together… 

At the end of the day, I think this is a really good thing for everyone, including Games Workshops. They will more easily sell models, we will more easily try out different things... it's a win win. 

Three Games In... Still Loving 6th

Allies: Love 'em. Mix and match, baby!


2 x FoC at 2k: Not sure yet how I feel, I have yet to actually try this. My... gut sense is that this isn't that big of a deal, that it will help weaker codices more than the stronger codices, and that if you've ever played at a doubles tournament with 2 x 1000 point allied armies... you've already played with this.


Hull Points: Makes us change our game, but I love em (makes heavy armor more meaningful, which is a good thing).

Flyers: Very cool concept, very solid rules... NO DAMNED WAY TO KILL THEM! I mean, you CAN kill a couple of them, with weight of fire. But facing 6 of them... no fucking way without flyers of your own. I have downed Vendettas with twin linked Psycannons and Twin Linked Psyflemen, but it takes the entire army focussing to take down one per turn. Simply not a good balance of ways to take them down other than other flyers BUT if they go too far and give everything Skyfire it makes them worthless. A tough thing to balance. My sense is to give purchasable Skyfire upgrades for things like vehicles and Missiles but for a significant cost... The FAQs were dissapointing in this regard.

Close Combat: Two biggest changes are challenges and the wide disparity between AP2 and AP3. Lots of AP2 weapons that strike at I1, and lots of AP3 weapons that strike at initiative. This creates a very, very interesting dynamic. Challenges are a mini-game that is very interesting to play. 2+ armor feels very powerful now, appropriately so. In general close combat seems much more satisfying and fun.

Highlight of the last game:

Mephiston charged my biker squad which had my Biker Captain with a Relic Blade and Artificer armor. The Biker Captain accepted Meph's challenge and tanked him with his 2+ save. This held Meph in place while I moved up my Land Raider and the next turn charged him with my five Thunder Hammer Storm Shield terminators. Meph challenged, I declined and he sent my Terminator Sargeant to the rear, but my Powerfist bike Sarge and the other four Terminators beat on him (but did not kill him after he made a few 5+ Feel No Pain saves). Next turn he challenged again, I declined, he sent my Termie Sarge to the rear again. He caused multiple wounds on the bike squad, I took them on the Captain again. One got through, he activated his force weapon, and fried my captain. In revenge, Mephiston got beat to a pulp with Thunderhammers.

Epic.

Armies I'm Going to Run:

I'm thinking of the various army/ally combinations that I would like to run. I think my Loganwing is going to get some Deathwing allies, because TH/SS Terminators with a few more cyclone launchers - that score - would make a STRONG addition to a Footslogging Loganwing. Oh and they can deep strike. Nothing but net. Unfortunately that combo might not last too long as the Dark Angel codex is coming out soonish, but that's fine.

And I have been enjoying the heck out of allying vanilla biker marines with my Grey Knights. Gives them TH/SS Terminators, and fast troops with melta and plasma, which they kind of like.

Tyranids... well double flying Tyrants is a must. The flying Hive Tyrant is my all time favorite 40k model, and one of the reasons I like Tyranids to begin with. It was a shitty choice before, but a better one now. How to support an army around them though... still thinking about it.

6th Edition Lone Wolf Tactic: "Sick Em Boy!"

So, I have been right there with all of you reading through the 6th Edition rulebook. I have to admit that the twilight of 5th had me really bummed out, for several reasons. But all of that is behind us now, it's a brave new world, and the fun of exploring and discovering a new edition has me excited along with the rest of you.

Now, I have had the opportunity to get in two games so far. I played a mixed Vanilla Marines/Grey Knights force using a variety of my model collection including my Space Marine bikes. I have to say, I absolutely LOVE the ally rules. They add so many options, and honestly resolve so many of the dilemmas faced by a competitive hobbyist like myself. I enjoy exploring multiple codices, but I also enjoy having my shit painted. Unless I paint every single unit in the same scheme (not a bad route, really), I have to make tough decisions about which armies my models go into.

Now, I can use my Space Wolves with my Grey Knights. My Grey Knights with my Biker Marines. The sky is the limit.

If you an Imperial, that is.

Even in 6th Edition, the Imperial bias is pretty obvious. The range of options available to the Boyz in Blue in terms of alliances, psyker options, Flyers and anti-Flyers is pretty obvious. I was dissapointed in the FAQs, to be frank, didn't provide the level of modification to the codices that I expected.

But, we adjust. I'm still thinking about how I want to run my Nids, but in the meanwhile I have been giving some thought to my Loganwing.

Now, Lone Wolves were always one of my favorite units. They are a unit who's rules fit their fluff and character in a truly elegant and awesome way. They are, in a word, badass.

Their main weaknesses have ALWAYS been their difficulty in hitting fast-moving vehicles, and their slow speed/low threat range.

Well, boys and girls (heh, did anyone else notice the unicorn on page ix... who does GW think we are, chumps? Unicorns aren't real!), 6th edition has brought us some changes that I think we are going to like.

One: Feel No Pain is a little lower, but probably better for Lone Wolves. Yes, you are slightly more vulnerable to small arms fire. But you have Eternal Warrior and as I read it will get to make a 3++ followed by a 5+++ all day long. That should inconvenience Power Fists, Dreadnoughts and the like.

You hit vehicles now. Easily.

No more hoping your shooting gets an immobilized result so your Lone Wolves can get the kill. Now that we're hitting moving vehicles on a 3+, anything should be afraid to get close.

But how close should they be afraid to get, anyways?

This is where we get a bit tricky. I'm PRETTY sure that Fenrisien Wolves will dramatically extend the Lone Wolves threat range and make them generally a devastating mid-field controller.

So, the new Movement rules have changed since 5th edition. Now, instead of moving at the speed of the slowest model in the unit, each model can move up to their full movement so long as they remain in unit coherency. This is a BIG change. I was chatting with Stelek about this earlier today, and he mistakenly believed it was still "slowest model in the unit," so I went home and double checked (Page 10) and it's not. He should be very excited about exploring this method for slingshotting IC's using Jump Pack Marines, or vice versa. Interesting stuff.

So, the Lone Wolf buys his two Fenrisien Wolf pets. He runs directly towards the enemy (duh). His wolves stay tucked in closely behind him, to avoid their getting shot up by small arms fire. Beefcake takes the hits for the team (this is a situation specific thing, ofc. If you think it's better for your wolves to suck up some Lascannon shots... let them lead the way, but just know that anyone with a brain will just gun them down with bolters first).

So there you are, running forward with your wolves behind you. You identify a target, let's say a vehicle. You move your Terminator directly towards the target, then move the next wolf up, 2 inches in front of the Terminator, directly towards the target. Now, I was going to say to move the NEXT wolf up 2" in front of that, citing the codex rule that the 2" from characters only apply to characters... but I thought to check the rule book and indeed in 6th Lone Wolves are characters, so we can't stretch that Conga line out TOO far...

Anyways, that also means you can still shrug off Lascannons onto your wolves even if they are behind you on a LoS roll. The more you know...

Anyways, declare your charge, roll your distance, and go! You are within 2" of your Fenrisien Wolves, so you can swing as long as they don't die. But the good news is, even if they die, you still get your 3" pile in move which will likely bring you into contact (because the enemy has probably counter-attacked towards you at initiative... higher than 1). And now you are stuck in, because... you are awesome and probably won't die.

Against vehicles, you aren't going to lose the wolf. So you basically get a free 4" of charge range, with no risk, giving you 6 plus 4 plus 2d6 = 12 - 22 inches charge threat (edited: I double counted the movement before).

Conceptually, I think of this as your Lone Wolf having his wolves "sick" the target, slowing it down while he comes up to beat its ass. Pretty awesome.

If I've missed something basic, feel free to point it out. But this seems legit, and adding extra range is a very good thing.

This can also be used to ensure that you can charge into terrain without having to roll for it. By leaving your Terminator JUST outside of 6" from the target, and letting the dogs lead the way (they ignore terrain, so the unit will not have to roll for it). 

Yeah. Welcome to the new edition baby.