Balance data slate and MFM

So the latest balance data slate and Munitorum Field Manual (MFM) have arrived, and there are some highs and lows as far as the guard are concerned. Overall I think this is more of a side move than either a buff or a nerf, it is however, forcing us in a certain direction whether you like it or not but I'll say more about that later. Firstly let look at all the bits that I think will affect the guard.

In the balance data slate, we got quite a few changes to our core rules and stratagems. One of the biggest changes (outside the detachment rule) is that the Reinforcements stratagem is no a one use only stratagem. This will have quite an impact on many player and I for one will feel this as I generally bring back 2 to 3 units a game. This will limit my willingness to throw a unit forward early game on a suicidal point scoring mission or blocking action, as I now won't be able to just bring them back. A minor change to note is to 0cp stratagem abilities. These are now just -1cp and don't give you the ability to double use a stratagem. It's not a big deal, as only Kreed had this ability and while she was a popular take for many people, she is still only one model, unlike space marine captains.

 As I said earlier the real change here is to Born Soldiers. Gone are the old rules in their entirety and now we have a new version. The new version give Regiment units lethal hits against all non-monster and vehicles and Squadron units lethal hits against vehicles and monsters. However there is a small caveat, the target has to be visible. This impacts all indirect weapons and along with the changes I'll discuss later, may well kill artillery parks for guard. There are some quirks to this new rule though. Sentinels are both regiment and squadron so get everything, yet things like rough riders only get regiment, so those melta Lance's are not nearly as useful. Another quirk is that Tank commanders don't get any benefit as they are not squadron vehicle yet the normal Russ is. In addition, something like the LR Punisher, an anti-infantry vehicle are going to be quite good at taking out monsters, just because of the number of shots they can push out. In total over half of the guard units can't take advantage of this ability, someone worked it out to be something like 45 out of 81 units. That's a lot of units that can't use the army doctrine, granted attaching some of these units to squads get around this issue but still, when half your units, including things like the super heavies, tank commanders and most characters, cant take advantage of the detachment rule something's not quite right. 

The Munitorum Field Manual also dropped and gave us a few points drops, not surprisingly most of these were to artillery units, such as basilisks and Manticores, but Royal Dorns, armoured sentinels and Kasrkin also saw points drops. Are these points drops enough to balance out the other changes, I don't know. 

There were also some core rules that changed that will impact on the guard. One I’ve mention above, is the change to the indirect fire rules, now along side the modifiers to hit and save, there is also a flat rules that 1 to 3 always miss, so no more artillery hitting on 2’s re-rolling. The best we can ever get now is hitting on 4’s re-rolling 1’s. This is going to make a huge difference to many players, but wont do massive to my armies, although along side the changes to Born Soldiers it will relegate my wyverns even further. So are trying to argue that the scout sentinels abilities remove both the -1 to hit and 1-3 always misses but it only say to remove the penalty, which I read as the -1 to hit.

Another change is to movement, with new rules for pivoting vehicles. This is designed to make movement easier and no doubt will. It means less messing around with measurements and simpler movement, hopefully meaning less arguments and quicker game. However, it will also mean a lot of models moving in very funny ways, as the model only has to move in straight lines and not forward, so moving sideways or diagonally is a thing. With no facings or weapon arcs there is no need to rotate a vehicle if you don’t want to, so if you just move it sideways you can and not pay for the pivot. 

Another change sort of affects two different rules, both Devastating wounds and Hazardous rolls are now mortal wounds. Devastating wounds is now back to being mortal wounds, but specifically states that the wounds do not spill over, so no more wiping out infantry squads with a single Devastating wound shot. The Hazardous roll also now inflicts mortal wounds rather than just removing models. It now inflicts a straight 3 mortal wound. The result of both of these rules is that any rules that enable you to take saves against mortal wounds, either abilities or FNP saves, can be taken against these. For most models this wont make much difference, a guardsman failing a hazardous roll is still going to die but a terminator or similar might well survive, anything bigger could survive several failed hazardous rolls. The changes to both of these rules means that many units are going to be far more resilient. In terms of guard, it means that we still don’t have to worry about whole units being removed by devastation wounds. The changes to Hazardous mean that we might have a chance to keep characters alive, a platoon commander may not kill himself outright, like mine did recently, when he fails his hazardous roll. The is also a change to the order in which you have to apply the hazardous wounds, non-characters before character is the basic gist of the rule. 

There were also a couple of bits on the rules commentary that were interesting and I’m honestly not sure if the ruling on base to base is new or just a clarification. This states that for models that don’t have bases or overhand their bases, if you move as close as possible you are counted as being in base to base, even though you might not actually be touching the base. One other point of this that was new to me is that you can be underneath the model. I have also ways assumed that you could not be places underneath the hull of a vehicle, such as under the overhand of the LRBT track or under the hull of a Tau Devilfish but apparently this is fine. The other rule clarification, that upon looking at the actual ruler, was obvious. Big Guns Never Tire specifically states that it happens in your shooting phase, I had just applies it to every time the unit fires, so in over watch or even on the tank commanders ability. This is why reading the actual rule in its entirety is always a good idea!

One final note is that there has been a subtle change to orders. Each officers data sheet states the number of orders they can issue, previously it was just the number they could issue in the command phase but now it is per battle round, so if you want to use inspired command, you have to either save an order on the off chance you'll need it or use it and loose an order in you command phase. This reduces the usefulness of this stratagem quite a bit. In addition there is lots of talk about changes to Kasrkin to stop doubling up on orders, say Take aim to get +2BS. I can't find this anywhere but as so many people seem to be mentioning it, I guess it's a think, just buried somewhere in all the documentation GW just dumped on us.

I’m sure there are many other rules changes that will impact the guard but these are the ones that I spotted on my read through or I have seen picked up in many of the videos that I have watched on YouTube 

2024 League Guard Vs Space Marines

 My latest game was against a White Scars list, with some fast mobile units and some very choppy units backed up by some high power shooting, oh and a very scary Knight. The actual list contained a Captain, Lieutenant combo, a Judiciar and a Chaplain on bike. There were also two 10 and squads of Assault intercessors, a blade guard squad, two eradicator squads and two Hellblaster squads, with two Outrider squads and a Gladiator Reaper for some mobility. All of these were supported (or supporting) a Cerastus Knight Lancer. 

It was going to be important who got the first charge between the Knights, as who ever did was more than likely to be the one left standing at the end of it all. 

Deployment was as expected, we were both a bit conservative with our Knights, both of them hiding away so as not to be targeted early on. 

I had first turn and was very slow to start, just shuffling around a bit to get my cards and some shots down on whatever I could manage. My opponent was far more aggressive, pushing up multiple units including the knight. 

This aggressive approach seemed to pay off, as by the end of turn 1 he was in command of no man's land and had wiped out my unit of rough riders, which had disappeared back in to reinforcements thankfully. This did now leave me with a couple of issues, with the assault marines on the right flank, the knight in the middle and the remains of another assault marine unit on the left.

Some of my decisions were made for me when I got my first surprise of the day, with the marines redeployment stratagem, allowing the assault.marines to.move out of sight on the right flank. That meant that all the firepower I had went in to the knight. With all the shooting i managed to take to knight down to just 8 wounds, which was key as it was just one hit from the thunderstrike gauntlet, although I still had to make the charge! In addition, both units of scions dropped in behind the marines and went to work on the Eradicators, removing the other main threat to my Knight and tanks.

Whilst I made the change, fluffed the rolls and only managed to get two wounds through, which with the 50\50 4++ save, proved just enough with one going through, killing the knight. 

Retribution however was swift and deadly, with the marines swinging around both flanks and pushing deep in to my deployment zone.

The resulting massacre was not unexpected. I lost nearly all my command squad and infantry platoon, nearly all my Cadians and a few Death Korps. The bikes also appeared on my left ready to charge down the line. 

At this point the game could really have gone either way, yes I had taken out the knight and eradicators but now I was severely lacking in troops and in danger of having the rest of my units rolled up in combat. 

However, with some dedicated shooting by what remained of the guard I was able to whittle down the marines and hold my lines. I was unable to completely wipe out all the assault squad and the characters, which proved troublesome. 

In addition my rough riders proved how fragile they can be. After charging the enemy tank, a prefect target for their melta lances, they managed to take just 5 wounds, two from a Goad lance and two from the Horses and only ONE from the melta.

By turn 5 the game was well and truly over, I had managed to take care of the bikes and chaplain in my deployment zone with the knight and the rough riders had done enough to allow the leman Russ to finish the enemy tank. By the end of turn 5 all that remained of the space marines was a solitary marine in the far corner. 

Lone marine just on the right hand side.

The final score doesn't reflect quite how close the game started off. At the end of turn 2 the score was 19 to 18 to the guard and by turn 3 it was only 39 to 26, but after this point the sheer number of guard came in to play. My opponent also had some bad luck with his cards, especially in the last two rounds where his cards were just impossible to achieve. 

For myself, I feel that this was a game where everything went just right, granted there were a few moment where the dice let me down but overall everything went as well as I could have hoped for. I made a couple of errors, namely with my Scion command squads and forgetting that the Prime has multiple wounds and kept trying to remove him as a casualty alongside normal scions. 

I think my opponent made a couple of key errors that would have changed the game quite dramatically. Firstly pushing the knight forward early. I was anticipating a manoeuvre game, with each of us trying to get the drop on the other, as it was clear that the first to hit would likely walk away. Grantees when I did hit, I only managed to get one hit through, so probably would have died if it hadn't been wounded! Secondly, pushing forward on mass turn 1 left a lot of space for my scions to drop in and do some damage, taking out 190 points of Eradicators, making half their points back in one go. If you opponent had been a little less gung ho with the knight and not pushed as much turn 1, the game could have been very different. Who would have won is an unanswerable question but the game would have been different.

Here are some more shots of the game, taken by my opponent.

I'm not sure when the next game will be, but I'll put it up here when I do play.

2024 league Guard Vs Space wolves

 My second game in the 2024 league was against a dread heavy Space Wolves list. The list itself consisted of 4 dreads, with a Ballistus and Redemptor dread supporting two Wolves dreadnoughts. These were in turn supported by a Stormfang Gunship, a terminator squad and a Wolf Guard terminator squad, an eliminator squad, Aggressor Squad and two intercessor squads. The force was lead by a Captain and Librarian, both in terminator armour with Arjac Rockfist and finally an Iron Priest to round out the list. There was nothing that I was overly worried about going in to the game, but there was a lot of tough units that could cause me some problems. I decided that the best way to deal with them all was to try and focus on just a couple or even just one at a time and to hope that this was enough.

The mission.

At this point I would like to say, I hate “Deploy Servo Skull” as a mission. This is the first time i have actually played it and if I had known what it would be like, I would have re-rolled the mission selection! However, this was the combination that came up, so that what we played.

The Board, the extra objective makes the board very busy.

Deployment

My opponent deployed pretty much as I expected, although the aggressors in the Stormfang was unexpected. I had thought he would put one of the intercessors in there and push them up early on to an objective. The terminators are in reserve. 

At the end of turn one, things were pretty even, the storm fang was down as were the aggressors, but the knight was down to just a couple of wounds, 8 if i remember correctly. One of his wolfen dreads was damaged, but the other escaped thanks to a stratagem enabling him to pull back. I did however have some good board conrtrol over the midfield objectives. 

Turn 2 was equally exciting, with the knight finally going do to a hail of overwatch fire from the redemptor dread, thanks to oath of moment and a command point re-roll chipping of the last two wounds. Also, my rough riders were respawned after the wolfen dread chopper them to bits, coming on to take out the newly arrived wolf guard terminators. By this point I was comfortably in control of the two objectives on my right hand side of the board, the ones on the left were still contested, meaning I could start clocking up primary points. 

Turn 3 and I was running out of punch but not troops. My tank commander went down this turn but not before dishing out some punishment to the receptor. The space wolves were starting to run out of assets at this point, having lost almost all their infantry units. 

Turn 4 was pretty quiet as by this point the Wolves were starting to run out of units. They still had some punch with the Captain and Rockfist causing some problems for the scions on the left flank. The terminators that came in in my deployment zone finally got in to combat with the Leman Russ Exterminator and bounced. I spent most of my time just shuffling units up on the right flank and scoring the primary. 

Turn 5 was very quick, the wolves pulled some bad cards and so really didn’t do much, just moved to grab what objectives that they could. My turn was even quicker, as I didn’t bother shooting, just grabbing objectives and scoring points. There was little point in doing anything else as the cards I pulled were about grabbing objectives, as is the primary. 

Overall, I think this was a good game, partly as I won, which i as always nice but mostly because I feel that the game went well with few mistakes on my part. Most of the mistakes were around me being a bit to hasty and not thinking things though in my excitement to be winning! 

Score card

As I said, I don’t think I made many mistakes here. The main mistakes I think were pretty minor, such as charging my Tech-Priest in to combat, which didn’t go well but apart from that there is nothing that springs to mind as a mistake. There are certainly somethings that I could have done better but really none of them would have changed the game. The key to this game was managing to gain momentum at the beginning and then maintain it through out the game. Making better use of the reinforcements stratagem this time around certainly helped.

Next up are more space marines of the White Scars variety. 

2024 league Gurad vs World Eaters

 This was my first game for the league and was the one game I really wasn't looking forward to. I really don't like going against World Eaters but I was determined to improve on my last performance (Here) and also the time before (Here).

The list i was facing was fairly compact, with Lord Invocatus, Master of Execution, Jackels, Khorne Berserkers, two Eightbound and two Exalted Eightbound, three Helbrutes and a Rhino, all topped off with Angron. Although it was compact, it was still very potent.

Guard deployment

World Eaters Deployment

I deployed quite forward but making sure to screen out any chance of deep strike drops behind me. Unfortunately I got first turn, which wasn’t what i really wanted as I wanted them to move in to a position I could shoot at them.

Turn 1 was very slow, with both of us only pushing forward slightly, turn two and we met in the middle, with me getting a charge off on one of his helbrutes with. My knight but failing with my Rough Riders. After smashing one of his helbrutes, i made the mistake of consolidating in to another, not realising it had a hellbrute hammer and not just fists it was modelled with. I had been told this at the beginning but had forgotten, one of my big issues with non-WYSIWYG models, it’s easy to forget detail in the middle of a game. Anyway, it smashed my knight down to just a handful of wounds with ease. 

In return, his Lord Invocatus minced my entire 20 man DKoK squad almost on his own, although the Eightbound with him certainly helped. 

It was at this point that things really started to go down hill, as I was really struggling to hold any objectives. The world eaters were getting right up in ot my pines and starting to chew through my units and while.i was managing to whittle them down, I just wasn't able to do it and score points.

At the end of the game, there was very little left on the board, I had a few troops hanging around a squad of scions with command squad attached and another Scion squad but not much else, my opponent had a rhino, Angron and a couple of eightbound. There was very little left on the table, which is what the disciples of Khorne are really after!

The games ended in the inevitable defeat but one I am happy with, as I did do better that previously and kept it to a minor defeat for the league, plus my opponent didn't score 100, which is nice. 

While some of the cards didn't help, I think there are a couple of mistakes that really cost me. 

I think the main mistake I made was with the Knight. I should not have consolidated in to the helbrute with the hammer. I know that if I hadn't it would have charged me and then o would have been in just as much trouble but I might have been able to interrupt and take it out before it could hit me.

Secondly I think I should have played the rough riders differently, not quite sure exactly how but not making the charge turn 2 was a big deal. Maybe I should have kept them back a bit more or chosen a different target for their charge. 

The next mistake is a bit more clear cut, I should have dropped the second Scion squad in turn 2 with the first squad. This would have meant that my opponent would have had to have sent units back to deal with them, rather than being able to press forward still. I was worried about the berserkers in the rhino, which went on to smash the rough riders. Maybe if I had dropped at the back they would have stayed back and the rough riders could have survived long enough to do some more damage elsewhere.

The last "mistake" might not be a mistake but may have been a bit of a missed opportunity. I did not use the reinforcements stratagem very much, twice in fact. I do wonder if I should have used it more and not spent the points elsewhere. I think that I did miss a few chances to get CP from Vox Casters, as I more often than not forget about that ability. This might have given me the ability to recycle a nother unit or two and maybe given me an advantage. However, to recycle more units I would have had to not use other stratagems, ones that did some work for me, such as the interrupt stratagem. At the end of the day though it's very hard to know which would have been better. 

One last thing to note is the fact that my opponent made a rules mistake with his initial scout moves from the Lord Invacartus. He used the scout move to push up his helbrutes but you can only use it to move infantry units. I don't think that made any real difference to the game and certainly would not have changed the outcome. 

At the end of the day, despite the loss, I had a really good game and it was good to get on to the table and roll some dice. Hopefully my next game will be just as good.