11th edition rules - armies

 There have been a number of changes made for 11th and I'm not going to cover all of them, just the ones that I think are most interesting to me. So in that vain, I'm going to have a look at the changes to army composition. 

In 10th you picked a single detachment and built for that, but now it looks like you be able to pick multiple detachments to form your army, albeit all from the same faction, so still no guard and with marine allies. 

However, this does mean that we should be able to tailer our detachments to best suit our various forces. Detachments will be pointed, between 1 and 3 now, with the strongest being 3's and weaker or more specific ones being 1's. Now we don't know quite how this is going to work exactly but we know the basics. 

So, at 2000 points we'll have 3 points to spend and the standard rule of three still exists as well, but not just for each detachment but across the army. This means no fielding 9 units of something, with 3 in each detachment. If you field two in one detachment you can only field one in another. 

We also know we're getting a whole load of new detachments, which I guess will be a mix but mostly smaller, more specific detachments to fill out the one point detachments. But how will this affect the guard? Well based on the detachments we have, hopefully in a good way. We currently have nine detachments, that cover everything from Scions to super heavies and my guess is that a most will be 3 points detachments and some will be 2's but very few will be 1's

Based of basically nothing, mainly my own understand and also sites like Stat Check, these are my predictions;

3 points detachments;

Combined arms - because it effects basically every guard unit

Recon force - based off how well it's doing in the meta right now. Low player count but high win rate. 

Grizzeled company - again based of it's place in the meta. Lower win rate but greater player base. Also, it's an army wide detachment rule. 

2 point detachments;

Siege regiment - while not a powerful detachment, it has an army wide effect. 

Hammer of the emperor - partly due to the meta data, as it's one of the more played but also it affects a number of very good units.

Armoured infantry - a new detachments, so it's hard to guess but I think this will be pretty good and effects quite a few units across the army. 

Bridgehead strike force - despite the nerfs this received, i still think this will be pretty strong when combined with an artillery or supporting detachment. 

1 point detachments;

Steel hammer - it's new so not any data but it only really effects super heavies, so fairly limited application. 

Mechanised assault - this relies on units getting out of transports for any meaningful bonuses, so is fairly restricted, will be useful supporting something like Hammer of the Emperor though. 

So there are my random guesses, we'll see how correct I am when 11th comes out, I suspect not very accurate but some will be right by sheer luck though!

I am really excited by this change as I think it opens up a lot more options and possibilities, including the ability to make proper fluffy lists. I would love to be able to make a 3 detachment list with armour getting one bonus, infantry another and Scions dropping in with a third. Not likely but you never know, maybe Combined arms will be a 2 point detachments and Bridgehead a single point one!

New guard - rules

 Following on from the previous posts, here are the rules and points for the new units.

We'll start with the main man, Commissar Yarrick. Now we've seen the rules before and I did run through them but I've had a little think and I have watched a few videos about the rules and while I still think that the Counter strategist ability is going to be difficult to pull off properly, players with the skills and ability to use it properly will find this very powerful. I think that Decisive command will still be my go to ability. 

I also think that at 150 points, your going to need to make the most of this unit, either sings the orders trick or counter strategist every turn and probably having him sit near a super heavy to give out the order to you Baneblade. I still would like this model but I really don't think he will find his way to the table very often, only when my Hellhammer get fielded as well. 

Commissar Graves is another matter entirely. On foot she is 65 points and 110 points mounted. On foot i don't think she is very good. I don't think she really has anything over the regular commissar at half the price. Yes she can give fall back and shoot or charge but so do other characters, mainly the Cadians Castellan, and out of the units that she can join, only a few of them will benefit from falling back and shooting. I would just bring a regular commissar rather than Graves on foot. 

In her vehicle she is a different prospect. The extra range on the Brutal Discipline is useful, and means you can cover a large area of the board. Being able to issue orders to units disembarking is also very useful. You'll have to keep her close to transports, but that shouldn't be an issue with a 12 inch move and T8 and 12 wounds with a 4 plus invulnerable save. Granted she isn't invincible but she will be very resilient. 

She also has some punch with the Gatling cannon and stubber. You won't be taking down whole squads of marines but you can pick of a few stragglers. I think we will see Graves in transport more than on foot, as she offers more for not many more points. 

Next we have the two new guard vehicles and here things get a bit strange for me. The Hippogryph is a fast light vehicle with a similar profile to the Taurox Prime except less wounds. It still strikes me as basically a Prime without transport but it's role will be very different. It's going to fall more inline with the Armoured Sentinel, as a mobile gun platform and given that all the guns have assault, it's going to be getting around the place, even more so with the Convoy Escort Vehicle rule. 

This thing is going to be moving between 14 and 24 inches a turn (19 on average), significantly further than the Armoured Sentinel or Prime. At 70 points, it's also on par with the Armoured Sentinel but cheaper than the Prime, although without the transport, so it's pretty comparable. As I mentioned in previously, I can see this being used mostly with the Vigilator cannon or Gatling cannon rather than the lascannon or melta. This is because the lascannon is only a single shot and the melta is short ranged and single shots are unreliable and short range just invites a counter charge, which it is unlikely to survive. Move fast, strike and retreat is going to be the way to use this I think. Standing and fighting is Leman Russ territory. 

The Centaur RSV is also a little odd but I do see it's use. I thought that this would be a cheap and fast transport, a throw away vehicle but it's not. It's 85 points, the same as a chimera and 10 more than the Taurox (standard, not prime). There are some differences between the vehicles, with a cascading toughness (Chimera - 9, Taurox - 8, RSV - 7) but they are all similar wounds wise (Chimera - 11, Taurox and RSV - 10). 

The main difference between them though is the role they will play. None will be cheap disposable units but each has a distinct role. The Chimera being the slow but powerful transport, able to take some punishment and dish it out as well. The Taurox is the fast one, being able to advance and disembark, meaning you can get your troops up the field and in place quickly. The Centaur RSV is the mobile fire base with it's firing deck 12. Maybe load up with Kasrkin and their special weapons, or some heavy weapons squads for 6 lascannon or missile shots. I would suggest Krieg heavy weapons squads and their flamers but you can only get one unit in due to the fire coordinator. If you could get rid of a couple of fire coordinators, 6 krieg heavy flamers in the back of one of these things would be very nasty indeed! 

The Centaur RSV is about loading up and parking on an objective or fire position and dominating it with whatever is in the back. This is about creating a mobile fire base rather than as a pure transport like the Chimera or Taurox, both of which are about getting guys where they need to go and dumping them out. This is about getting them where they need to go and keeping them save inside. It's not what I would have liked, I would have liked something along the lines of the old Centaur light carrier, small, fast, 6 man transport for running small teams of Krieg Engineers, Scions or Command Squads, but I will take the new version nonetheless. 

New guard - vehicles

 We have two new vehicles for the guard, and as before, I'm significantly behind on posts and so we know more about these vehicles now but I will give my first impressions here and talk more about the rules in a future post. 

First up is the Centaur RSV, a light half track style transport. 

I really like these, much more than the taurox, which it has a passing resemblance to on the front end. When this was released it looked like we were going to get the final link in a triad of transports, with chimera as the heavy powerful transport, the Taurox as the fast mobile transport and this forming the cheap and light transport. Given the additional information we now have, this doesn't quite work out. 

Even so, I really like this and would like to have a couple of these in my collection. 

The second new vehicle is the Hippogryph AFV. To me this initially looked like a non-transport Taurox prime, or a wheeled armoured sentinel, although it does have some bigger weapons than the sentinel. 

Again, I do like this vehicle. It reminds me of the old British army Saladin's and Fox's. I think that it's not going to be a heavy hitting or resilient vehicles, more of a fast scout vehicle, and I think the melta and lascannon options will be the weakest options. The Gatling cannon and battle cannon will be the go to options I think. 

Lastly, we have the battle force box. I really want this, especially if I can grab an additional Centaur at the same time. I want a Dorn as a tank commander and two Hippogryphs and two Centaurs would give me everything I would want. The Cadians are a little surplus to requirements but I think my boys would be happy to take them off my hands for his Tau. 

New guard - commissar's

 So I'm quite a bit behind the curve on this, as there have been a whole bunch of 11th edition previews and new model releases over the last couple of weeks and I haven't written a single word for the blog in nearly two months! With work, kids and holidays, there just hasn't been the time to write, plus a small obsession with Football Manager Handheld 2011 on the PSP has also contributed to a lack of posts! (Took Hereford from Blue Square Premier to Premiership in 5 seasons! Now I'm floundering in the lower mid premiership table though)

Anyway, new 40k models! And what a model!

The old man of Hades Hive returns, with slightly wonky backstory but we'll overlook that for the moment. 

All the elements of the classic Yarrick are there, although not quite the same as the original, it is a very nice resculpt of the last version. 

The details on the new model looks amazing and I definitely want to get my hands on this model at some point, even if he just lives in the display cabinet. 

Just to show how far behind I am with posting, they have not only released the model previews but also the rules!

Yarricks rules are pretty good really, keeping his Iron Will (or Will of Iron) ability, although it is now even better going from a 50\50 chance to a about an 85% chance of coming back and on 3 wounds rather than 1. The Hero of Hades Hive abilities are also very useful, with Decisive Command being the stand out one for me, especially early game, when units are close to each other. Inspiring Hero is good but not as good as Decisive command and may be better late game but there are other ways of dealing with battle shock and leadership tests, although with the release of 11th battle shock may become a lot more important! counter strategist is probably the worse of the three and seems very situational. The ability to shoot is good, and as it stands you can use this and then overwatch! But your still relying on a unit moving in to range. 

It's good to see old bale eye back bit it could have done with the pistol keyword to let you do this in combat as well!

Next we have a new named commissar, Commissar Graves, and while the model is a very nicely detailed model, it's not for me. I like the new transport and plan on getting a couple (to add to the taurox's I haven't brought yet!), this is not for me. 

It's also nice that it's a two pack, one vehicle born and one on foot but even the foot slogging version just doesn't do it for me. Don't ask me why I don't like them but there is just something about them that I don't like, especially the vehicle model, maybe it just took over the top for me, another, different paint job my be better. 

I'm really excited for this wave of guard releases, although still no sign of updated Catachans, which is still concerning! Next up we'll look at the other guard vehicles.