Boo-yah! I am a display base away from being ready to rock!

Inquisitor Venkman

Found on the interwebs.

Tactics are nice but it is violence that wins the day.

Okay, so this is what I taking to the GT, assuming there isn't some horrible paint related tragedy.

2x Bloodthirsters

2x5 Bloodcrushers

3x8 Bloodletters

2x Phlegmy Soul Grinders

Daemon prince of Khorne with Iron Hide

Real world rhino?

Oh yes, real world rhino...

http://www.thq-games.com/uk/features/show/4090

Fantasy Khorne lord on Jugger

Well, I will definitely be getting one of these to use as a herald...

also, just normal mortal chaos

Necron rumors

Slowly the 5th edition Necron rumors are starting to stir...

The following is shamelessly nicked from teh interwebs.

Earlier on I got a phonecall from my friend, who had just come off the phone from Games Workshop. He told me the conversation with the GW employee got around to Necrons when my friend mentioned that the C'Tan were totally missing from the 5th Edition rulebook.

Apparently, according to the GW Employee, they were left out because they intend to remove them from the next incarnation of the Necron codex and instead include them as an apocalypse datasheet, costing around 1500pts each. The rationale for this is probably obvious to a lot of people on warseer as its been said for as long as the Necron Codex has existed that the C'Tan shouldn't be represented on the TT or weren't represented appropriately considering that they are gods yet can be popped by a lucky force weapon or turned into a squig etc. Coincidentally, this ties up with the rumour posted by Sekhmet on the C'Tan Support Group forum that the C'Tan would be given the Forgeworld treatment not too long from now and would be the size of Eldar Revenant Titans.

The employee, being a Necron player himself, said that he was interested in the direction Necrons were going. He also mentioned that Necron Lords are much more important now and that there are special character Lords. There are even two of these special Lords in the Apocalypse Reloaded book; The Herald Of the Storm (from Medusa V) and The Herald Of Awakening. Finally, he also mentioned that there would be options or even models to represent the varying tiers of Lords, from Bronze up to Platinum, Platinum perhaps being near C'Tan in power or status.

Personally, If this turns out to be true I'll be quite annoyed because, for one thing, I wanted to see The Outsider and secondly, the C'Tan are very important to Necron army lists for dispelling tough characters and monstrous creatures. Hopefully we'll get something else to balance out the loss of the C'Tan.

Sons of Sek at the Vegas GT

Sweet, I hope I get to play this guy just for the awesomeness of the sons of sek (whose voice drowns out all others)

Sons of Sek

The above were grabbed from www.bolterandchainsword.com. The guy has additional pics in the Hall of Honor thread. The above in order are Eddie the Demon Prince, Rhino Tour Bus, Man O War Biker and Noise Marine Unit complete with oversized speaker.

Pretty amazing look for Chaos.

Let the red river flow!

The Warbringer - Bloodthirster, Death Strike
Ss'ar'tann - Bloodthirster, Death Strike

3x8 Bloodletters, Fury of Khorne

2x5 Bloodcrushers, Fury of Khorne

2 Soulgrinders, full tongue upgrades

GT list. Thoughts?

Doubles tourney on Friday at the GT

GW has released the schedule for the Vegas GT. Doubles registration is noon to 1 and the tourney starts at 1:00. Is there any interest in trying to make it?

GW Page

Schedule

Please Note: Treasure Island Hotel & Casino is referred to as TI

Friday, September 5, 2008

12:00 pm - 8:00 pm GT Registration is open in the TI Ballroom
12:00 pm - 10:00 pm TI Ballroom open for Open Gaming
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Warhammer and 40K Doubles Tournaments Registration

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Doubles Tournaments Game One
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm Doubles Tournaments Game Two
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Doubles Tournaments Game Three

8:30 pm Doubles Tournaments Awards

Saturday, September 6, 2008

8:00 am - 8:45 am GT Registration continues in the TI Ballroom
8:45 am - 9:00 am Welcome and Housekeeping announcements

9:00 am - 11:30 am Grand Tournaments Game One
11:30 am - 1:00 pm Buffet Lunch
1:00 pm - 3:30 pm Grand Tournaments Game Two
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Break
4:00 pm - 6:30 pm Grand Tournaments Game Three

6:30 pm - 10:00 pm TI Ballroom open for Open Gaming

Sunday, September 7, 2008

8:00 am TI Ballroom opens
8:45 am - 9:00 am Housekeeping announcements

9:00 am - 11:30 am Grand Tournaments Game Four
11:30 am - 1:00 pm Boxed Lunch
1:00 pm - 3:30 pm Grand Tournaments Game Five
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Break
4:00 pm - 4:30 pm New Product Presentation
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm Award Ceremony

5:00 pm The Las Vegas 2008 Grand Tournament Concludes

Couple of quick battle reports

A couple of really short Nurgle / Ork battle reports

Boccis rubbed at a new irritation forming in the fold of flesh under his chin. "This is a good one" he said with a chuckle as he pulled a flake of dry irritated skin. He stared at it noting how the tiny mold spores were having a necrotic effect on his otherworldly dermis. After a moment he tossed it to the capering nurgling at his feet. The little mite caught it mid air and gobbled it down. The nurgling ran around in circles, clutching his throat like a player in a melodrama. All too soon he fell over and started dissolving.

"Children, attend your papa. I have an experiment to conduct." With that the Great Unclean One led the march through one of the seven lesser rifts followed by his progeny - both greater and small.

I felt like taking a mono Nurgle list for a spin as I am considering taking them instead of Black Templars to the Las Vegas GT. Shep was up for a game and went over there and plague followed with me. I built up 2 new Nurgle Daemon princes to give a shot - I will try and get pics of them up soon - I am VERY happy with how they came out.

Boccis's Cavalcade
Boccis (Great Unclean One) - Cloud of Flies, Breath of Chaos, Aura of Decay, Instrument of Chaos
Epidemius
Herald of Nurgle - Palanquin, Aura, Cloud

Troops
14 Plaguebearers - Icon, Instrument
14 Plaguebearers - Icon, Instrument
7 Nurglings
7 Nurglings

Elite
4 Beasts of Nurgle

Heavy
Nurgle Daemon Prince - Wings, Breath, Aura, Iron Hide, Flies
Nurgle Daemon Prince - Wings, Breath, Aura, Iron Hide, Flies

I was expecting Shep to play IG, but wouldn't really have changed my list at all. Turned out that he felt like playing some orks - so we had some green on green action! Forgive me on Shep's list - it is from memory so I probably don't have it all right.

Da Klanky Waagh (not sure the name)
2x Big Meks with Kustom Force Fields

3x3 Killa Kans

3x30 Shoota Boyz with Nob with klaw and big shootas
2x15 Lootaz

I knew I was in trouble when I looked at his list and compared it to mine. We rolled up a Spearhead Annihilate mission, Daemons won choice and obviously chose to go second.

Ork Turn 1
Shep is wise in the ways of thwarting daemonic invasions and literally filled the entire deployment zone with bodies save about 8"x8" area near the extreme corner. The kans were out in front providing cover in case I had included some of the shootier models available to me. Everything moved out a bit more and that was that.

Daemon Turn 1
I split my list up with both daemon princes, the great unclean one and Epidemius with 14 plaguebearer escort in wave one and the rest in wave 2. Apparently Boccis couldn't quite get his fat bottom through the portal in time so the other wave came. I tried to weight the long flank and hopefully mitigate some of the damage. Realizing I was in trouble, I risked one of the nurgling units in the safe zone in the building occupied by the lootas (the aforementioned "open" space) and got a hit. None of the drifts were two tragic but I did lose 2 plaguebearers from the deepstriking unit going into a building. I spent the turn running to get better positioning and more distance from the Kans since I couldn't hurt them at all. The forward nurglings took up position between the nearest kan unit and the beasts and also the plaguebearers with herald.

Ork Turn 2
Loota shooting kills all but 2 of the bases in the backfield. The kans shoot at the up front nurglings with their grotzookas and every shot but one drifts on to the beasts 5" away. Seriously. I lose 2 beasts and then the nurglings get charged and locked into a fight that they cannot hope to win but fortunately the pain doesn't last and they are just wiped out completely. A unit of boyz shoots at and then charges the big unit of plaguebearers with the herald and the herald dies by failing everyone one of his feel no pain rolls. All but one of the rest of the plaguebearers are killed. I take a look at my watch, realize that I have time for another game if we just reset so I concede - I had killed maybe 4 models and half my army was gone - it was pretty clear what would happen if we continued.

Game 2

We just reset, regenerated mission and went with it. We got another Annihilate but this time had the Pitched Battle deployment. I lost the roll and had to go first. I split my list a little different - basically swapping the GUO for a unit of nurglings.

Daemon Turn 1
Finally, I got my preferred wave. I set the two daemon princes close to the extreme flank unit of boyz so both could hit with their breaths. Epidemius and his squad dropped into a building in my back field and I lost one and the nurglings were in that general area. The Breaths were both really inconsequential despite getting a high number of hits. I killed 4 models out of 12 touched. The nurglings ran into cover.

Ork Turn 1
The unit of kans that had been screening the boyz I blasted moved over to charge one of the daemon princes and the boyz themselves took aim at the other. The boyz shooting did 4 wounds and I only saved 2 with my iron hide. The kans did not shoot for fear of scattering onto the boyz. Both units charged. The daemon prince on the boyz did a couple of wounds and died as I failed 3 out of 3 normal armor saves. The one on the kans did slightly better, shaking one kan and knocking the dreadnought ccw off the other. He took a couple of wounds and failed his inulnerable saves, but he was still in the game. Combat ended up being a draw. The nurglings go to ground and lose a couple of bases.

Daemon Turn 2
Rolling for reserves I get 3 1s and a 2. Man, as if this matchup isn't hard enough... Aura does nothing to the nearby boyz, and we are straight into close combat. The daemon prince does fairly well, destroying one and ripping the CCW off the other. He wins combat and holds.

Ork Turn 2
Da Boyz pile in and charge the prince. He does okay again, but not well enough and ends up dying.

Daemon Turn 3
I fail 3 out of 4 reserves rolls getting only the GUO. He drops in near a unit of lootas, trying desperately to get at least one kill point or see if he can do anything. I get 8 hits and 1, yes 1 wound. I concede at this point.

After Action Review
I knew that taking an all Nurgle list would be rough - even with Epidemius. I also have to say that I got flustered realizing that I had very little that could affect his kans and forgot that nurglings are daemons and should not have been subject to instant death (I was removing the little guys like crazy between grotzookas and lootas and kan dreadnought ccws. I don't know that it would have mattered. Shep was rolling slightly above odds and I was rolling way below them. I honestly think even if that rolling had been reversed that I would have been completely owned.

So what went wrong? Well it all started at list construction. To say that I brought a knife to a gunfight is a huge understatement. More like I brought a radish to a gunfight. I broke my own cardinal rule and paid for it. I spent way too many points on upgrades and didn't really have a focus for each of my units. Plus, I was so worried about keeping Epidimius alive that I had my toughest units out of play. Shep played to his usual high standard and I just stank up the place. Appropriate for Nurgle I suppose. I knew going in that I was weak against mech and Shep had a lot of it. The worst part of the day was not really seeing what the Beasts would do either way as I have been curious what number is the sweet spot for them (or if they are just hopelessly useless - screamers I'm looking at you...)

Eternal Accolades
No one on my side really did anything worth mentioning.

Eternal Enmity
The kans. Awesome how Shep trained his scatter dice to allow him to shoot the hell out of one unit and charge the other ;-)

Plotting The Next Step
Okay after this game I reworked my list considerably. I evaluated the purpose that everything was serving and dropped most of the upgrades. I think that this list is a bit more mean and although the soulgrinder doesn't add to the Tally, it does add to the viability.

Epidemius
Kugath

Troops
14 Plaguebearers - Icon
7 Plaguebearers
7 Plaguebearers
7 Plaguebearers
3 Nurglings
3 Nurglings

Elite
4 Beasts of Nurgle

Heavy
Nurgle DP - Wings, Cloud of Flies
Nurgle DP - Wings, Cloud of Flies
Soul Grinder - Tongue, Phlegm

Dakka is comin around to 5th

The dakka gang is finally coming around... The internet gestalt is beginning to acknowledge the variations in 5th edition, and there are some good threads to be read.  

Concepts I think everyone should be aware of whether they agree with them or not.  The last link is a bit of a doozy, lots of replies, and a little bit argumentative, but all of these are worthy of a gander.

Here are some good ones...

Mathhammer bad!

Don't spam troops!

Are orks too good?

Las Vegas GT missions

Sorry, Ryan...

Hi guys

There has been a lot of discussion with different groups and individuals across the country regarding the missions for this year's 40K GTs here in the US.

We all know that 5th Edition has shaken things up in way that couldn't have been predicted a year ago. To that end we'll be running with the missions in the Rulebook, in a very similar ratio. I expect players will play two Seize Gound, two Annihilation, and one Capture and Control. This way everyone has to "be prepared" to face a variety of enemy forces, achieve a variety of mission parameters, and no single army build should prevail. It also keeps things straightforward as we are all settling in to the new edition.

We've done a bit of tweaking at the back end with the Battle Points breakdown and Battle Points Modifiers, and we expect to see a pretty good spread of results across the 5 games.

So, build your armies wisely, or just come along to throw down for five fun games of 40K ; )

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Dave Taylor
GW US Community Development Manager

UPDATE:

Hi guys

@ Lormax - we'll be using VPs as tiebreakers.

@ winterman - the Battle Point Modifiers introduce that kind of element (multiple objectives), but not to the same degree as the Primary/Secondary/Tertiary missions used in many 4th Ed tournaments. I think you'll be satisfied. On the flipside I'm keen to see the scenarios you used and hear your thoughts on what worked well or was well received by the players (and what didn't). Could you post up the basics and commentary?

Cheers
Dave

3 daemon princes

Just snapped a couple of shots of my daemon princes to start my daemon plog.

Eldar moving towards 5th edition

Like Patrick said, I'm starting an Eldar army.  If you don't know, I'm a big guard player.  Got tons of vostroyans and tons of tanks.  I also have a large necron army.  I'm not really enjoying the necrons in 5th edition, so although they are completely painted up, they remain in the cold deep freeze of stasis until their book arrives.

So my two main armies have 3rd edition codexes, and here we are in 5th edition.  It is time to pick a new army.  I dabbled with demons long enough to know they aren't for me.  And I know enough about myself that any form of space marine wasn't going to make it.  That left Tau and Eldar.  I like how both of those look, but I wanted at least some hope of close combat, so I went with eldar.

Enough with set-up and introductions.  I have pretty extensive experience with Eldar.  My main opponent for the last 4 years has about 16,000 points of eldar.  And I've likely played more games against eldar than the majority of eldar players have played games.  So of course, when planning the first purchases and projects with eldar, I had a very 4th edition centric outlook.  Here was my first list after a single revision.

Eldrad

bike autarch

10x scorpions with exarch infiltrate and move through cover

3x4 bikes with shuriken cannons and destructor spear locks

5x rangers

5x dire avengers

2x vypers with EMLs

2x fire prisms with holo-fields and spirit stones

falcon with stones and holo-fields

The concept was very sound.  In a world with limited light arms fire, facing expensive anti-marine and anti-tank upgrades that would be spoiled by fortune and turbo boosting cover saves, this list has the survivability to score, and the tanks to push people off of objectives.  And it has a little shooting too.

We're all fortunate to have Mark playing orks, because that army book really accelerates our list adjustments to 5th edition.

Saturation.  Spamming has always been a part of every 'strategy game' ever invented.  It's not a new concept.  But there are some deadly combinations of spamming in 5th edition.  When you boil down all of the big changes 5th edition brings, you end up with a couple new 'truths'  One of which is that infantry is faster and more survivable now than ever before.  Vehicles are also more survivable than before.  This is due to cover, which has the natural effect of making higher quality, lower rate of fire shooting over-costed.

The new "tech" in list writing is all using the saturation concept.  Overwhelming model count, or overwhelming numbers of shots.  Points not spent on a model or on a gun, don't seem to be all that well spent.  And as more and more of the uncreative 40k players out there see the trends, it will become even more important to keep up with this saturated environment.  Some saturation lists I'm going to focus on beating are.  180 orks, 9+ vehicle armies, 3+ land raider armies, 100 nids, 5+ monstrous creatures.  

I decided to spam vehicles and shoot for 80+ scatter laser shots.  This gives me a great answer for monstrous creatures (unless they spam strength 6 too), orks, and vehicle squadron spam.  Here is the mark II list.

Avatar

Maugan ra

4x10 guardians with scatter lasers

3x3 vypers with scatter lasers

1 fire prism with spirit stones, holo-field and star engines

1 fire prism with spirit stones

3x war walkers with scatter lasers

This hits the target 80 shots on the nose.  I have limited "go first" heavy vehicle kill, and solid fearless/counter-charge anti-assault tech for my guardians.  I will control where the fearless bubble extends, and according to circumstance, i will either let the guardians get steamrolled to pop open a big assault or I'll lock it down with the fearless bubble and add avatar and ra in to wipe out the assaulters.  I'm going to be deploying on the table and attempting to seize the initiative.  But thats enough theory.  I play 40k, so that's how I'll test.

But just for laughs.  Reply to this with how you think your favorite list will counter this.  maybe you'll catch a blind spot (yes i know i can't take on 4+ land raiders)

Daemons Eldar batrep

Ryan and I are both trying out new armies - I am going with Daemons (his old army, in fact) and he is doing Eldar. We got in our first game last night and it must have been painful for John to watch the two of us stumbling through.

I ended up basing my list more or less on what he was using:

Bloodthirster
Keeper of Secrets - Musk, Pavane

2x5 horros
8 plaguebearers with icon

2x Daemon Princes, MoTz, Bolt, Gaze
Daemon Prince, MoSl, wings, pavane, breath, musk

2x3 Flamers

The Eldar list was something like this:

Eldrad the Omnipresent
Bike Autarch the Neverpresent

3x4 bikes (shrieker cannon, destructo-lock)
6 rangers
5 dire avengers

10 scorpions with move through cover, power fist
2x Vypers with EMLs

Falcon with stones, holofield
2x fireprisms with stones and holofields

Khorishaya the Pleasurer gazed through the mirror of eternities and watched as the swift Eldar host scouted the newly rediscovered world. Maiden world, they called it though Khorishaya knew many of the secrets this world bore. The Keeper would collect their spirit stones and present them to her Dark Prince as an offering and, perhaps, regain his pleasure. It was time to recall some ancient debts...

We rolled up the mission to claim objectives in each other's deployment zone with a pitched battle deployment type.

I won the roll to choose side and allowed Ryan to pick and go first.

Eldar Turn 1:
The Eldar heed the ancient farseer's warning of an impending attack and take a defensive posture.

Daemons Turn 1:
Slaanesh was still peeved with Khorishaya and thus, in my first game ever, I end up with my B team - the horrors, the plaguebearers, The Eye (Daemon Prince of Tz), one flamer unit.

The Eye is pretty much on target as are the two units of Horrors. The plaguebearers drift a bit from my own objective but not too bad. The flamers try to occupy the same space as the rangers and go back into reserve. One unit of horrors fires up a unit of bikes, killing half. The other unit of horrors blow the missile launchers off of the vypers. The Eye finished off the wounded unit of vypers and the plaguebearers ran towards my objective seeking to surround it in pus filled love.

Eldar Turn 2:
Ryan forgot to roll for his reserves. Bikes and Vypers shoot a unit of horrors down to 2 and kill 1 off the others. The rangers take 2 wounds off The Eye.

Daemon Turn 2:
Everything but the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince shows up. That is probably because he is the only one without a cool name. One unit flamers lands near the rangers, both greater daemons take advantage of the icon and appear midtable, the other flamers appear on my left flank with a shot at both some bikes and the falcon but drift. Shooting this time around isn't quite as good, though I do manage to kill one other bike unit and knock the rangers down to a single model.

Eldar Turn 3:
The scorpions come on my right flank and try to move through some woods but just manage a 2 on 3 dice. One unit of flamers is doomed and wiped out. Eldar move about some. The doomed plaguebearers take some shooting but only lose one model. Those guys are pretty freaking tough, btw.

Daemon Turn 3:
Tzeentch DP number 2, henceforth referred to as The Brain, knocks a gun off a fire prism, the Slaaneshi DP shows up and there is a bit of question on if one can pavane a unit and then flame it - we decided no since shooting is simultaneous. I flamed and then moved them into the woods to try and force difficult terrain check. He made all of them, but it was still fun to try.

Eldar Turn 4:
The autarch still doesn't show up. The remaining bikes units charge into the flamers along with the old man himself. The bloodthirster took a couple of wounds from shooting. One flamer survives combat.

Daemon Turn 4:
Slaanesh daemon prince charges into the combat hoping to kill off the bikes and maybe chase Eldrad off the table. I kill the biker but the warlock makes his armor save and the flamer is cut down. The brain knocks the pulse laser off the falcon with his mind bullets. Khoroshaya and the Brain turn their attention toward toward the gunless fireprism, ripping it apart.

Eldar Turn 5:
The autarch shows up and charges that slaanesh prince. The falcon moves over to cover the objective in case the game ends. The Vypers move over to contest mine. And the both fire prisms line up to tank shock the plaguebearers off the objective. The DP takes a couple of wounds.

Daemon Turn 5:
The horrors blast the vypers, destroying one. The plaguebearers charge the other and drag the pilot and gunner out Blackhawk Down style. The Bloodthirster and the Eye head back towards the objective in my zone, realizing that if I don't claim that one, I lose. The daemon prince and the bikes stalemate, the daemon prince hit and runs off towards the falcon.

Eldar Turn 6:
The fire prism considers tank shocking the bloodthirster and the Eye, but then decides against it and just flies over, contesting my objective. The Scorpions set up a charge through the smoking remains of the vypers. At this point I realize that i screwed up and put my horrors frighteningly close to the plaguebearers. Anything above a 3 on 3 dice will see both units getting tied up and possibly destroyed since the horrors will be easy kills. Ryan curses the fates and says that he hates WH40k and just charges the plaguebearers. We screwed up and thought that plaguebearers had clouds of flies, but they don't so the plaguebearers just lose a couple and stick the charge. Eldrad mindwars the daemon prince and gets a 5 and I get a 1. It is enough to banish me and have me playing for a desperate tie.

The bloodthirster hops over and sets up a charge on the scorpions as does Khoroshaya. In an all or nothing blowout the greater daemons and plaguebearers make cut down the green armored specialists. It isn't pretty, but it isn't a loss either.

Results:
Draw as each army claims one objective.

After action review:
I was impressed with the horrors. They performed much better than I expected and that 4+ kept them around much longer. Plus, they were pretty low on the target priority list so were able to shoot mostly with impunity. I even forgot to use the Changeling and am considering adding the Bolt of Tzeenth (but not sure where to find the points). Tzeentch Daemon Princes are awesome as shooting platforms. They can take a lot of damage and not lose any of their shooting. I like the idea of Soul Grinders, but it is hard to compete with the Daemon Princes. The winged Daemon Prince of slaanesh, while good, was kind of out of place in this list - it is just too expensive. I might try something like using them as greater daemons and going with a bunch of heralds just to try the concept.

Eternal Accolades:
Has to be the Keeper of Secrets. She destroyed both fireprisms and embarassed the bloodthirster by killing more scorpions than he did.

Immortal Enmity:
Eldrad, undoubtedly, though the falcon camping on the objective and making it impossible for me to claim or even contest due to it being in a corner has earned a place in the great grimoire of grudges.

Khoroshaya let out a wail of anguish. It hadn't gone like it should have. Not at all. The Eldar still lived, most of them anyway. Rather than a mountain of spirit stones there was a mere handful taken from the green armored eldar. There had been a couple more from the pilots of those gun platforms but they were so slime covered that Khoroshaya decided just to let them sit. There would be vengeance on these Eldar. And this world. She would just have to be patient.

the eye of terror

Behold, the eye of terror!
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080804.html

Early morning BoLS C: SM rumors

From BoLS: http://belloflostsouls.blogspot.com/2008/08/rumors-codex-space-marines-odds-and.html

Honour Guard
Honour Guard (available to Chapter Master's only) have artificer armour, bolters, bolt pistols, grenades, and power weapons. They can replace their power weapons with relic blades (S:6, two-handed power weapons) and also have various other options such as storm shields (3+ invulnerable save against all attacks) and auxillary grenade launchers (a 12” grenade launcher that can be fired in addition to any other weapon each and every turn). Marneus Calgar allows the player to field three squads of Honour Guard instead than the standard one squad.

Tabletop Performance
Combat Tactics
Playing against this in an actual game was not bad as you can still attempt to sweep the marines (as with ATSKNF, they take wounds as if they are fearless if caught). Every time my marine opponent tried it my nasty and quick assault units caught them, and Combat Tactics only forced him to take more armour saves. If the marines had been successful more often I may have had a different opinion on Combat Tactics.

ATSKNF
This has changed a little. Marines automatically rally at the begining of their turn and can act normally (they do not count as moving, and don't get the 3" consolidate). They still can't rally if an enemy is within 6". Other than that, it's the exact same.

General Gameplay Thoughts
Overall, the game felt like I was playing a codex marine list. I'm not saying that simply because my opponent wasn't useing any of the new codex's flashy new units, but the army played like marines should. Perhaps if I get whacked by some of those new units I'll change my opinion.

FAQs
When the marine codex comes out, GW will release updated FAQs for the DA, BA and BT list making some of the changes carry over to them. ATSKNF is a good candidate for this as it is written much more cleanly in the new codex.

Ryan's Necrons

Ryan's Necrons:



Monolith, Warriors and Scarabs



Warriors and Immortals defend a ruined building.