tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post7499121288082280938..comments2024-03-28T07:21:47.101+00:00Comments on Admiral Drax: 110 First Cut is the DeepestAdmiral Draxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07476823273954165890noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-27170489156827198242009-05-01T11:36:00.000+01:002009-05-01T11:36:00.000+01:00A good review, plenty of food for thought. Mt Code...A good review, plenty of food for thought. Mt Codex should be arriving at my home this morning - so I shall be picking it up from the sorting office tomorrow. I can't wait to actually have a look at the specifics.<br /><br />I think the new roles for special characters is a good one, personally. When I started in 40k, the codices had uber special characters in them and there was half a dozen alternative lists for each codex published in various documents. They then started pulling all those together to give you codices whose list you could change willy-nilly, and the special characters, in general, were good, but didn't serve any massive purpose other than being a bit more killy.<br /><br />Now they seem to have integrated both those functions into one, and I think it works rather well. I suppose people would have less of a problem with using renamed versions if they were given generic titles instead of specific character names, but hey, c'est la vie.<br /><br />What this does is allow the army list itself to remain relatively simple (with no doctrines/chapter traits pages to constantly flick to), while still allowing you to customise your army to a certain degree.<br /><br />Anyway, I've rambled enough, suffice to say, I like it.Itkovianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05232909071786636360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-6975952881109342052009-04-30T22:10:00.000+01:002009-04-30T22:10:00.000+01:00The special characters restriction thingy went the...The special characters restriction thingy went the way of the dodo a while ago. From what I hear tell from the Grognards of eld, the SCs used to be all powerful, ridiculous god-like beings who would absolutely cream any army that wasn't running them. Now they are less ridiculous and more like expensive demigods.Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12478821172146809894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-33824679629083809272009-04-30T15:55:00.000+01:002009-04-30T15:55:00.000+01:00Oh dear. It appears my pre-ordered Valks and codex...Oh dear. It appears my pre-ordered Valks and codex are on their way! *does a happy guard commander dance*Hal'jinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14022104070893577542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-18556549968373419602009-04-29T01:52:00.000+01:002009-04-29T01:52:00.000+01:00"for fluffiness: power-gaming and too many special..."for fluffiness: power-gaming and too many special characters can go hang, for now"<br /><br />Bless you, sir, for you seem to be in the minority in that regard.Wanderer787https://www.blogger.com/profile/04640144889176190282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-17570073410732003392009-04-28T18:40:00.000+01:002009-04-28T18:40:00.000+01:00Whoa! Loads of ripostes (weak 're-posts' pun, anyo...Whoa! Loads of ripostes (weak 're-posts' pun, anyone?) - thanks!<br /><br />Here are <I>some</I> reponses for you:<br /><br />@Dave D and Geek: very true in both cases, though in my experience those who buy FW models (as I believe these vehicles are/will be) are far more likely to play with them regardless of codex-published rules...<br /><br />@ Jennifer: Great comments and thanks. I forgot to mention my love of 'Iron Discipline' in my post, and that was most remiss - I'll really miss it.<br /><br />@ Max: Thanks, and again, I neglected to mention that we are - of course - simply falling in line with the new direction of codexes. So be it: that's what we've signed up for with GW plastic-crack. I'm not kicking the habit quite yet!<br /><br />@ Sovietspace: I think this codex will be HUGELY open to abuse by power-gamers - even from the few lists we've already seen online. Luckily for me, I've not yet played a power-gamer, and I'm in absolutely no rush to do so. <br /><br />@ bG: I'm sure I read somewhere that this usage of special characters is no longer verboten. I don't think it was 5th Ed rules, but I can't be sure. Surely somewhere official: I know I've read it. CAN ANYONE SHED ANY LIGHT?<br /><br />@ Suneokun: You do me a small injustice, mate: I don't hate characters! I agree with you that doctrines were limiting and could be abused and that the new system grants far, far more flexibility. The downside of it is that you can't give an army a holistic identity - only <I>individual units</I>. An example from my army being that (game impact aside) I'd love for my vets to be able to infiltrate. They can't now...but <I>one</I> squad can if you take character X. So my vets (or whoever, for that matter) will have to take different battlefield roles if any of them infiltrate. <br /><br />@ Haljin: Thanks for the ideas - and good point about the Cmsr Lord. Interesting...<br /><br />EVERYONE:<br /><br />Thanks again. I'm really not a lover of static gunlines and personally I try to take the firefight to the enemy, but I'm still not a great fan of using Guard as an effective assault force. <br /><br />Ineffective human waves? - great! <br /><br />Heroic last stands on a pile of traitorous marines? - splendid! <br /><br />But a tooled-up phalanx of twenty fearless and frothing bayonet-wielding guardsmen charging stark-bollock-naked at an Eldar warhost just because they've got Officer Bob with them on loan from the nearest deathworld doesn't quite scan. <br /><br />I'm here all week.Admiral Draxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07476823273954165890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-92122216618993645752009-04-28T16:35:00.000+01:002009-04-28T16:35:00.000+01:00There's still a horrible ammount of options withou...There's still a horrible ammount of options without the special characters, really.<br /><br />Too many options, all equally good. It just makes your head hurt as you can't decide which of the awesomness to take.<br /><br />Ld 8 with a re-roll as apposed to Ld 9 with a re-roll? Not much of a difference there, really. Sure, there are sergeant-less squads (SWS, HWS). If you like command bubbles, Commisar Lord still gives everyone Ld 10, which is even better than before. And he costs as much as old bare command squad.<br /><br />Triple-melta Vets are awesomely deadly. So are triple-plasma. I however have an idea of fielding two COs, one being quad-melta (ALWAYS in range of twin-linking order...)<br /><br />Punisher sucks, honestly. Heavy 20 sounds awesome, but S5 AP- makes it rather meh at BS 3. Not really going to field that one. Banewolf can sound awesome, but don't forget it's a template, not an inferno cannon - has to be attached to the turret. If it doesn't wipe out it's enemies it'll eat a power fist in the behind. And to be honest other codices have their awesomely powerful toys. Our turn!<br /><br />Manticore seems fun, but not quite set on it. It costs 190 pts with camo-netting and that's an awful lot for something that fragile. D3 templates are powerful, but the enemy won't let them live for long..<br /><br />As for special characters.. No, thanks. Maybe once or twice for the heck of it, but normally nobody plays with specials around here at all.<br />Though for Apocalypse, yep, sure! Creed, Al'rahem, Chenkov, Straken. All very characterful (love the flavour of Al'rahem's and Chenkov's orders) and strong. Pask is quite awesome too.<br />I just think it's nice to have characters that actually work and are useful to field, like the other armies do. The old codex didn't offer pretty much anything. (Well. Last Chancers, maybe).Hal'jinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14022104070893577542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-75768103918203458432009-04-28T13:19:00.000+01:002009-04-28T13:19:00.000+01:00It's really giong to be interesting to see how the...It's really giong to be interesting to see how these guys play. I've been getting pasted by orks for a while now--it'll be nice to see how the IG stand up to them now.Darkwinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15335933745375951322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-10138217446553931162009-04-28T10:53:00.000+01:002009-04-28T10:53:00.000+01:00Looks good for guard - a lot of toys to bring to t...Looks good for guard - a lot of toys to bring to the table now. plus quite a bit of outflanking as well. <br /><br />Be interesting to see how guard and orks match up - Green tide!Tdubs036https://www.blogger.com/profile/10755232516134526198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-84664935884455516802009-04-28T10:32:00.000+01:002009-04-28T10:32:00.000+01:00Why does everyone hate the characters so much ... ...Why does everyone hate the characters so much ... doctrines never worked as a method of 'personalising' your army, as in taking doctrines you had to sacrifice every interesting unit in your army - it was broken and just produced a bunch of identikit 'light infantry', 'deep strike spam' or mechanised armies... yawn.<br /><br />The new codex simply does away with that by offering us ALL the options ALL the time, with the only downside in deciding if a Valkyrie is really worth a slot for 3 more hellhounds?<br /><br />On the special character side, I kinda like that ... it offers us the option to 'buff up' a particular unit, company or hero. The combination of these and the 'orders' - which are a better direct equivilent to the game challenging aspects seen with Eldrad, Tau pathfinders and the like - give you a imperial guard army that is more variable and more capable of surprising the enemy.<br /><br />I like the concept of the orders. I doubt they'll be as brilliant as expected, but anything that offers a reroll to hit on three lascannons is ok in my book.<br /><br />The combination of indestructable heavy weapons teams and leadership bubbles lent the guard player toward castling up his gunline and weathering the fire power... all these new options are just far more interesting and varied...<br /><br />I'm hoping to get my codex tomorrow.<br /><br />Yippee!suneokunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08085094845127991965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-33354151400180514672009-04-28T09:59:00.000+01:002009-04-28T09:59:00.000+01:00Isn't there a rule that you aren't allowed special...Isn't there a rule that you aren't allowed special characters unless your opponent agrees? What about tournaments, from now on they are going to have to allow all special characters all the time otherwise both the SMs and the guard (and I assume all armies in future as GW are going down this route wholesale) will end up being generic only with no ability to customise.<br />Things'll have to change somewhere.<br /><br />Nice review as well, very inciteful.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15714018172674498741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-18281391907062152572009-04-28T09:53:00.000+01:002009-04-28T09:53:00.000+01:00Thanks for sharing the review! I haven't got the ...Thanks for sharing the review! I haven't got the codex yet, so these reviews are very valuable!jabberjabberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15314798958920326898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-91322439756328328742009-04-28T07:29:00.000+01:002009-04-28T07:29:00.000+01:00Thanks for the quick review Drax. I've got to ...Thanks for the quick review Drax. I've got to agree that I think they have moved the Guard in the right direction, toning down the infantry and allowing us more & then giving us more armoured options. <br /><br />However, as more and more battle reports come in, I am starting to worry the book has gone to far and the IG really are a level above. I know you don't intend to abuse the book like that but, what are your thoughts? Is this a power gamers dream?sovietspacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02615093181150684763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-57887472045105950582009-04-28T04:34:00.000+01:002009-04-28T04:34:00.000+01:00The new character driven lists are horrible in my ...The new character driven lists are horrible in my opinion. Why does a person change the tactical doctrines of the army, rather than the army doing it itself?Gothmoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06922420175418798099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-24909877125644526622009-04-28T02:31:00.000+01:002009-04-28T02:31:00.000+01:00Thanks for the shout out Admiral!
As for the Code...Thanks for the shout out Admiral!<br /><br />As for the Codex, I have no experience with the old Guard on either side of the battlefield (a shame I know, but that's what newbness does...) but most of it feels delightfully warm and fluffy. I mean, you get to yell at your troops and it has an effect on the game! Amazing! I think it was that rumor alone that got me to go Guard, and I'm glad that it panned out.<br /><br />It is pretty lame that you have to take special characters to use different army builds, but at least we aren't the anomaly, what with the other 5th eds getting the same treatment.<br /><br />Sure, there will be power builds, especially involving the psyker battle squads and vendettas and whatnot. But there are TONS of options out there for a budding guard general such as myself, and many will be viable builds that will win their share of games on the backs of good generals and brave men. And for me at least, that's what the Guard is about.<br /><br />That and laughing hysterically as I pick up several hundred dice and prepare to FRFSRF at point blank range. Can't forget that.Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12478821172146809894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-52241978212243124472009-04-28T02:14:00.000+01:002009-04-28T02:14:00.000+01:00I'm anxious to get my hands on the new codex, only...I'm anxious to get my hands on the new codex, only another week... damn and double damn.<br /><br />I think it's great that they put so many vehicles in the book. While I agree with both reasons Mordian7th mentioned, I'll add to them. With more vehicles people have more choices for making an unusual or unexpected force. I don't think you'll be facing the same old combo in every game... except with the hard core gamers who will decide the ultimate combo and that's all they'll play. I know I for one would like to get beat by a myriad of new and interesting guard armies!The Inner Geekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12794001001232191042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-34233700474642269372009-04-28T02:06:00.000+01:002009-04-28T02:06:00.000+01:00"A couple of months ago I had a heavy weapon squad..."A couple of months ago I had a heavy weapon squad sit through five rounds of being shot at by terminators and a dreadnought: taking cover saves, constantly re-rolling Ld9 and shrugging off the occasional wounds to loaders 'til they were down to only one man. Sure this is still possible, but - importantly - it's slightly less probable, and Guardsmen are cheaper as a result. Rightly so."<br /><br />Waitasec. You don't like this?<br /><br />While I love the "expendability" of Guard, there are times when I liked being able to stick around, especially with my heavy weapon squads. That's why I always took Iron Discipline. I could have a squad break like I wanted, but not have to sacrifice it. I like reliability (for fluff reasons) and the Veterans were great for that. <br /><br />I played with the new codex yesterday. Tanks are nice and powerful now, though I made the mistake of thinking they could move and fire everything. Oops. I liked the Griffon and the rerollable scatter die; I didn't miss with it all game, and my very first shot wiped out a Scout squad. Orders are useful but not game-breaking; I stopped a unit running off the board and used Move!Move!Move! to race a squad towards an objective.Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-83034978262113372222009-04-28T00:10:00.000+01:002009-04-28T00:10:00.000+01:00Cracking review, Drax - some very interesting obse...Cracking review, Drax - some very interesting observations! I'm interested to see how the vox network has been altered, knowing that it's no longer used for the Ld bonus bubbles.<br /><br />"for fluffiness: power-gaming and too many special characters can go hang, for now"<br /><br />Amen! I'm somewhat disappointed that there appears to be such a predominance of characters to give the army flavor. Granted one can always do the "remaned guy for my army who uses the Creed rules", but having to go that route just doesn't feel right to me.<br /><br />Still a week to go for my copy. Curses!Mordian7thhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04631987711681654113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898341582574934477.post-75471345919467348142009-04-27T23:55:00.000+01:002009-04-27T23:55:00.000+01:00Although I haven't gone through the new codex yet ...Although I haven't gone through the new codex yet I think the main reason for including things like the manticore are to mainly two-fold: give the people who already have those models a chance to use them outside of Apocalypse and also a reason to spur model sales for those who might want them.Dave D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16245085531922266590noreply@blogger.com