What Is A Close Combat Unit?

From this post on 3++.  We get it, TH/SS termies and Genestealers eat Grey Knights, so even Purifiers cannot be considered a "close combat unit."  This is a problem because half the lists you'll face at any tournament are Stealer Shock and TH/SS spam.

...

A dedicated close combat unit

Oh right, chances are at any tournament you attend you won't face a single Genestealer during the course.  You are more likely to be matched up against some TH/SS termies, but not 30 of them.  On the the off chance that you do face those armies with your GK Purifier list I have some advice: sit 24" away and shoot the piss out of them.  

For anyone else, Purifiers rape them in close combat.  OK, not totally true, Incubi and Daemonettes are still mean to Purifiers, but those are even more rare than Genestealers.  But take a look at the army lists at Adepticon.  You'll see that there are not many units in many armies that Purifiers wouldn't want to be mixing it up with.  From a Tactical Marine's and Guardsman's perspectives (the most common perspective one could have) they are close combat nightmares.  Best yet for GK, they have duality out the ass.  OK, so we can't charge a particular dedicated CC unit, GK are more than capable of shooting them to death.  Who Is The Gunline?  Once you realize you're the gunline, be the gunline.  Just because someone on the internet says that Purifiers or Interceptors aren't close combat squads doesn't mean you should always be the gunline.  Sometimes you have to be the beatdown.

I suggested that just because something can't beat TH/SS termies or Genestealers doesn't eliminate it from being dismissed as incapable in close combat.  CommisarJalil suggest tiers.  I agree with this.  A quick ranking of CC unit tiers will help you quickly decide who is the beatdown and who is the gunline.  

Just off the top of my head, I came up with...

1.  TH/SS Terminators, Genestealers

     1a.  Nobz, Bloodcrushers, Incubi, Beastmasters, Daemonettes

2.  Purifiers, Death Company, Berserkers, Howling Banshees, Tyranid Warriors

3.  Assaulty marines (Templars with ACC, BA with a Priest, Grey Hunters), Ork Boyz, Gaunts with FC and FNP

4.  Tactical marines, Blob Guardsmen

4a.  Dudes that should never been in an assault (Non-blob Guardsman, Guardians, Necrons, Firewarriors etc)

So...

Tier 1: units that are afraid of nobody in close combat.  They should seek to get into CC as quickly and as often as possible with anyone they can reach.

Tier 1a: units that are the same as above, except don't want to face any of the Tier 1 units.  These units are also more situational.  Daemonettes will rape power armored armies, but they die to Orks.  Generally though, these are a safe bet to get into combat with anyone.

Tier 2: these are units that are capable of close combat success, but have survivability issues, or cannot defeat one or more of the true monsters above them.  They can still be used as hammers, but you have to think carefully about what answers your opponent will have before you commit them, whereas the top tier units you don't have to be nearly as concerned.

Tier 3: These are units that are geared towards an assault role, will beat non-assault units hands down.  But they can't beat a real close combat unit either due to a lack of power weapons, low initiative, or poor survivability.

Tier 4:  There is a time and a place for these units to be in close combat, in fact it will happen fairly often.  But you cannot count on them to beat anyone, since they aren't designed for the role.  They have some edge over the sissies below them like high toughness, decent armor, or enough bodies to attrition you.

Tier 4a: Kinda explanatory.  These are units that shouldn't be in close combat at all except in some kind of emergency because they are the worst of the worst.

Thoughts? 

How Fantasy Baseball Made Me a Better 40k Player

Q: What Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees Captain and a Space Marine Captain have in common?

A: They are both average in their respective games.

In the 2010 season, I had the misfortune to have Derek Jeter on my fantasy team.  The average batting average in my league was .264.  Jeter hit .267.  His other statistics were decidedly average, too.  This wouldn't be so bad, had he been a middle to late round draft pick.  Unfortunately, Jeter was highly overrated and I used an early round draft pick on him.  Jeter in the 8th round would have been an excellent draft pick.  Jeter in the 2nd round is a tremendous bust, since your second round draft pick should be someone with tremendous production who is going to be among the league leaders in several statistical categories.  The mistake, however, is that Jeter is the most popular baseball player in America.  His name value greatly exceeds his on field performance, and thus people will draft him as a .267 shortstop earlier than they will draft a lesser known shortstop from another team who actually has better stats.

This is a lesson that directly applies to 40k: don't overrate your HQ choices, and thus overspend on them.  Most veterans instinctively know this, but it does need repeating after the release of a new codex from time to time.  A Space Marine Captain is the Derek Jeter of Warhammer 40k.  He is considered awesome, but really isn't that impressive in actual gameplay.  As a close combat monster, he is a bit of a failure since he dies like a chump to every Power Klaw on the scene.  You can give him a 2+/3++ save, but that just costs more points and makes the inevitable failure hurt all the more.  Much like Jeter, part of what makes him good is being a good team leader, and in the case of the SM Captain, he makes his bike units much better team players.

So generally, unless your HQ has a 2++ save, or is an eternal warrior with at least a 4++ chances are it is never going to be a combat monster.  So don't pay hundreds of points for it.  This is a very basic lesson, but we all were newbies at one point and back then we loaded our HQs (probably a SM Captai with every wargear option available.  That is the equivalent of drafting Derek Jeter in the 2nd round.

And yet, I still see it happening all over the internet currently in the form of Grey Knight Grandmasters.  So many GK lists are packing these guys at the same points cost as a land raider, for marginal benefit.  2+/3++ save with a relentless psycannon and grand strategy and Rad Grenades!  OMG!  I agree, that is all good stuff.  But it well over 200 points, and the guy is one Power Fist/Klaw away from circling the drain.  Like Jeter, he has great name value, and he is a generally great ball player who can add a lot to your team.  But you have to look at the value in total.  An Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, for less than half the points can take Terminator Armor and a Psycannon and provide the same relentless firepower.  No, he isn't nearly as bad ass in close combat, but thanks to hidden power fists and claws, neither of them really should be in close combat.  You can't fire a Psycannon in close combat.  Plus, the ability to bring an Inquisitorial Warband isn't nearly as potentially gamebreaking as Grand Strategy, but unless your list is built around breaking Grand Strategy, chances are you aren't maximizing your value for the points you are spending on it.  It's much easier to maximize the value of a IWB in a standard list.

So before you spend a gang of points on your Grand Master, ask yourself, "am I really buying him for a relentless pyscannon, or am I buying him for grand strategy?"  If the answer is the former, get an inquisitor instead.  If it's the latter, ask yourself if that grand strategy upgrade is going to be a game changer, or simply "useful."  Most lists with Grand Masters I've seen don't really need Grand Strategy to win, and they would be much better off with a Librarian, and pocketing the extra points.  Stay humble when buying HQs!

So in 2011, I somehow ended up with Jeter on my team again.  This time, I drafted him in the 6th round.  Some would say that is still rather high, but I expect he will bounce back a bit from last year and 6th round isn't a bad place to pick up a decently productive shortstop.  Also in 2011, I would still buy a Space Marine Captain, but the most important upgrade is the bike, not the Storm Shield or Relic Blade.

2011 NOVA Open

I just registered for the 40k event for the NOVA this year.  I should get there early enough on Thursday to play some games that evening if there is open gaming going on for anyone that wants to make me look bad.

That is all, continue on with your day.

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff: Adepticon Edition

I'd like to talk a bit today about the Adepticon 40k Championships and my thoughts on a couple things.  Tastytaste posted the army lists for the top 16 with a brief analysis of each.  If you haven't yet, take a couple minutes to take a look at the lists, and feel free to ignore any analysis for now.

So what jumped out at me first and foremost about these lists?  Almost none of them are "optimized" to the rigorous standards of the 40k blogosphere.  Many of the lists seem to lack focus, mixing and matching concepts.  For instance, Gagan Thable's Blood Angels list is neither MSU mech, nor pure Jumper.  Had this list been submitting to Stelek or Kirby for review, I'm guessing it would have been drastically revamped, if not eviscerated.  This isn't a knock against Stelek or Kirby (or Gagan), but I think we have to conclude that perhaps the list optimization isn't that important.  

While not optimized, these lists do have something in common: they all are good at killing tanks, killing infantry, and they have reliable scoring units.  If your list has those spots covered, you're 90% of the way there in terms of building your list.  Don't sweat it if your list is slightly quirky or has "out of place" units (like Njal) or has a mixed theme (a la jumpers and mech mixed together).  What matters is the ability to kill tanks, kill infantry, and have reliable scoring units.  That's really all that matters, in terms of list building.

What else?  This isn't the first rodeo these players have with these armies.  You think Brent made top 16 because his Daemon list was overwhelmingly powerful?  No, Brent made top 16 because he has a metric fuck ton of experience with his Daemons, and knows how to make the army win in situations that someone randomly picking up the list would lose in.  While I'm not 100% sure that counts for all the other players, I'd wager that they are all very experienced with those armies.

I'm as guilty as anybody over endless hand-wringing when I write lists.  I spend hours going over my lists and quibbling over increasingly trivial details and levels of optimization.  When the truth is, it doesn't really matter.  If the list kills tanks, kills infantry, and has reliable scoring units I don't need to continue to spend hours more tweaking it.  What matters is playing the army in enough games that I know it inside and out, and can pull out wins that other people would lose.  Don't sweat the small stuff in list building, save your sweat for playtesting. 

Unit Analysis: Grey Knight Techmarine

After doing a lot of traveling over the weekend with a copy of the GK dex in hand, I had time to pour over it's contents and start making semi-educated decisions about relative unit strengths and weaknesses.  Before I get to list ideas and dilemmas (the GK dex is so balanced that nearly every list choice you make is a give or take) I'd like to get deeper into a unit that jumped out at me as extremely useful, the Techmarine.

This is a great unit from a game design perspective.  It's relatively cheap, has tons of good options, but since it's only a single wound, it isn't overpowering.  I just love it.

Its base wargear is a servo-harness, boltgun, power weapon, and grenades.  He comes with artificer armor.  He has the following abilities...

Blessing of Omnissiah: On a 4+ (thanks to the servo-harness) the techmarine can repair a Weapon Destroyed or Immobilized result on a vehicle he is in base to base with during the shooting phase.  This is very strong, especially in combination with Venerable Dreadnoughts.  The most likely result any Ven Dread will suffer is WD or Immobilized, and this nullifies those pretty well.  Venerable Dreads are already annoying, and this makes them significantly more annoying.  And it works for more than just Dreadnoughts.  If you are playing a Razorback heavy list, it is also very strong.  Repairing a weapon destroyed on a Razorback is very demoralizing for your opponent, and Razorbacks give the Techmarine a nice bunker to sit in.  Since games between properly built lists often come down to battles of attrition (which GK are bad at due to higher point costs) the repair ability can help even that out.

Bolster Defenses: Nominate a Ruin in your deployment zone, for the remainder of the game this ruin grants a 3++ cover save.  Speaking of annoying.  Put those hard to kill, easy to repair Venerable Dreads in a ruin with 3+ cover saves.  Wow.  That is a Dreadnought who would take a metric ton of firepower to kill.  This power is VERY situational.  If you don't have a ruin in your deployment zone, it does nothing for you, but when it does work out for you, it can be insanely powerful.

Psychic Powers: Hammerhand and Reconstruction.  Reconstruction allows you to re-roll failed Blessing of Omnissiah rolls.  Reconstruction makes Blessing reliable.  The drawback is he is only LD8, so the psychic power itself isn't that reliable. 

This package comes in at a base cost of 90 points.  Not too shabby.  Let's see what upgrades are available.

Replace Boltgun with Stormbolter, 3pts.  No thanks.  Generally speaking, your Techmarine should spend his shooting phase repairing something, or else be too far away to shoot things.  If he can shoot stuff, he can be shot back, and that is rarely a good thing.  I don't see much need to pay for this upgrade.

Replace Servo-harness with Conversion Beamer, 20pts.  This is interesting.  He sacrifices reliability in his repairing rolls for the ability to inflict long range shooting.  The ability to fire Str 10 AP 1 shots in an army that doesn't have much long range firepower is very useful and bears consideration.  If your list doesn't need the repair abilities for some reason, and doesn't have Dreadnoughts or Henchmen for long range firepower, these can be a good alternative.  330 points for 3 of them is a cheap way to fill up your Elites slots, and add significant firepower to your list.  Plus they can fire these out of the top hatch of a Rhino sitting waaaay back in cover (hopefully a 3+ Ruin).  

Replace Power Weapon with a Nemesis Force Weapon of varying points costs.  I'd pass on these.  Regardless of your build, you don't want your Techmarine in close combat.  And if he somehow finds himself in close combat, a NFW isn't going to save his bacon.

May take up to 3 Servo-skulls, 3pts each.  Ummm yes?  This combos extremely well with Bolster Defenses.  You went through the trouble of creating a tremendous shooting bunker, so make sure you get to use it by preventing infiltrators and scouts from getting an early charge against it.  Incidentally, this is a rare place to get Skulls outside of the HQ section.  If you cannot take Skulls on your HQ for some reason, here is a cheap place to get them in.

Grenades, varying points.  Again, his job isn't to be in close combat, so don't spend points on close combat upgrades if you can avoid it.

Orbital Strike Relay, 50pts.  This doesn't combo very well with Conversion Beamer, since they fulfill the same roll.  It costs more than a Beamer, and I am hard pressed to suggest buying a 50 point shooting weapon for a BS4 character.  Believe me, you will feel an intense sting with every miss.

________________

So basically, the best two builds are a naked Techmarine with Skulls (Repairman), and a Techmarine with Beamer and Skulls (Zapper).  99 and 119 points, respectively.  Which you opt to run depends heavily on what you plan to do with your Elites section.  If you run two Venerable Dreadnoughts with TLAC x2, I would say the synergy with the Repairman is too good to pass up.  He make fills out the third choice in the Elites section and makes the first two choices significantly better.  Alternatively, if you plan on having two or more Razorbacks plinking away in your deployment zone for the whole game, this is a natural choice.  He will keep them plinking which is a nightmare for your opponent.  This guy is most useful at point levels 2k and above where you can spend 100 points for utility and not worry that he doesn't directly add firepower to your list.

The Zapper comes into his own when you don't take Venerable Dreads.  3x Zappers sitting in Rhinos or Chimeras in your backfield is a cheap way to add 3 Str 10 AP 1 guns to your list.  In an expensive codex, this is a great way to shave points and add firepower without compromising much.  I think these shine especially well at 1500 or less points, where the dichotomy between the firepower they bring and the low points cost makes them even more attractive.

So clearly, these guys have a place in bunches of types of lists and the Techmarine is the type of unit that competitive players should like: they are overlooked by an opponent, and they reward the user's play skills.  Your opponent will ignore the Techmarine, or even scoff at it, until he fires 12 lascannons at your Venerable Dreadnought only to find that all that shooting didn't even scratch the paint.  That's when he will get a sinking feeling when he realizes the game just got 10x harder than he thought it was going to be.

40k Hobby Update A Lot of Work Done

Sorry for the very late update today.  I put on Season 2 of Eastbound and Down and cranked out some assembly.  32 Purifiers later, I now have 4 squads of 8 Purifiers ready to kick ass.  This weekend will be paint-riffic, I'm guessing.

Progress!

40k Hobby Update: A lot of Work To Do

Gonna start gluing while watching the Dodgers Giants game.  We'll see how far I get.