Musings about the "New" Vampire Units in WD 379

Posted by Ranillon on 21. August 2011 12:28

Since I personally own a Vampire Counts army (it's my oldest and therefore least well done so I admit I don't play it often) and that our main "demonstration" army for Warhammer here at 40KOrigins is likewise VC I was naturally quite interested in the "official" update to the army book that came with White Dwarf 379.  Since I've been thinking about it anyway I figured now would be a good time to reveal my thoughts in a new blog post.

The Zombie Dragon/Terrorghiest

Naturally, given that it's (drawn) picture is on the front cover and that inside there are impressive images of it the new combination Zombie Dragon/Terrorghiest kit is the first thing that grabs your attention.  Looking like a partially digested flying lizard badly needing a visit to the local beauty salon, this new model is quite impressive.  By choosing between two sets of heads and a few other similar bits you can turn it into either a classic Zombie Dragon or into the new Terrorghiest.  In terms of appearance both make for great centerpieces, but in terms of rules there are important differences.

The Zombie Dragon uses the rules already found in the VC book -- flying, terror, breath weapon, 6 toughness, nasty stats, and a 5+ scaly skin armor save.  The Terrorghiest has the same basic abilities and is in fact rather close to the Zombie Dragon is many ways, but it does switch out the breath weapon for a death shriek that can be used every round (instead only once in the cace of the breath weapon) and 6+ regeneration for the scaly skin.  Beyond that the Terrorghiest suffers from a WS of 3 and one less strength and attacks, but then again receives +1 Initiative and Wounds. 

"Say, does anyone have a really big breath mint?"

However, perhaps the biggest difference is that the Terrorghiest is 50 points less despite being roughly as effective.  That's 50 points that can instead be used for, say, vampiric powers for the rider -- which in this case is limited to a vamp with the Ghoulkin power -- or other units.  Obviously then, the Terrorghiest is a possible mount for your "Ghoul King" vampire lord, but you can also purchase it as a rare choice.  Either way it makes for an attention grapping model and thus is worth taking you best effort to paint up well.

The lower cost of the Terrorghiest is potentially more vital than you may think.  Given that the minimum price for a vamp lord on a Zombie Dragon is 480 points and that your points ceiling for Lord characters is 25% of your army trying to take one for your typical 2000 point force is already barely doable.  Note that's without any of those extra magic items or vampiric powers that turn your vampire lord from badass to living god -- an important consideration as his effectiveness and survival is key to you winning the game. 

By comparison, taking a Terrorghiest as a mount gives you more points to work with under the cap (although half of it does admittedly have to go toward Ghoulkin so you'd want to take an army that could utilize it well) while be about as overall effective.  Likewise, unlike the Zombie Dragon you can take also take a Terrorghiest as a rare choice.  Thus, unless you are going to go around playing high point games where you can comfortably get away with a ~600 point vampire general, I'd recommend using the new kit to do up a Terrorghiest.

The Tomb Banshee

Now is when we get to the worst "new" unit in WD 379 -- the nigh worthless Tomb Banshee. 

You think I am being a bit harsh?  If anything I'm being nice -- the original Banshee was already not worth the points, but this new hero choice version is even more expensive (at a whopping 95 points!) while otherwise not having been upgraded at all!  She has the stats of an Empire spearman except for an extra wound, being a little faster, and having a lower leadership.  Without any special melee attacks you can't expect her to do anything in close combat, which is the prime reason for including a character in a unit.  Yet, even with her ethereal nature you don't dare use her as a lone character as she'll be an instant kill thanks to combat resolution if charged by an enemy unit of any size and/or ability.

 
"Stop!...In the Naaaame of Deathhhhhhhhh!  ...Before I eeeeat your heart!"

Of course, her only claim to fame is her Ghostly Howl ability, but if you sit down and think about its effectiveness you quickly see it doesn't have much.  To use it she has to take aim at a unit no further away than a meager 8" and then role 2d6+2 and compare that to the target's leadership.  For every point above that she'll do a wound, but the simple truth is that on average that won't be much if anything.  Consider that thanks to heroes or a nearby general and/or their intrinsic leadership score most units  in the game can be guaranteed of at least a 8-10 leadership value.  Since the average result for 2d6+2 is 9 that means that on average she'll do a whopping one wound -- and she could easily do nothing on average, especially if dealing with dwarves or elves.

She'll just target a more vulnerable unit you say?  That's going to be hard when the range of her ability is that pathetic 8".  A smart opponent isn't going to let a vulnerable target -- say, a monster with a low leadership who likes to wander away from his general -- anywhere near a Tomb Banshee.  Or, in the case of horde armies, he'll just send in a huge group of guys who can lose 1-4 soldiers and not even notice.  Worse, since she has to get in so close just to do anything that leaves her much more vulnerable to being charged or becoming the target for special attacks/spells that will ignore her ethereal nature.

Now, compare this to the Tomb King's Casket of Souls that has a similar sort of effect, but is far better at using it.  The Casket makes the target test on 3d6 which means an average roll of 10.5 (that is, alternating between 10 and 11).  Also, due to the differences in probability between rolling two and three dice, it is twice as likely that the Casket will produce a result 11+ than even the 2d6+2 of the Banshee (~50% versus ~25%).  Likewise, the upper limit of the Casket is higher -- you have a 2.7% chance of maxing out the Banshee with a result of 14 while you have a 4.6% of a 16 or better with the Casket. 

Even more importantly the Casket of Souls has a fantastic range of 48" meaning that it is far easier to pick out your enemy's most vulnerable units to be zapped.  And, on top of that there is a 66% chance that after ravaging your first target the attack hops on to another enemy unit within 6" and starts the whole process again!

In short, the clever/lucky use of the Tomb Banshee's howl might get you 1-3 dead enemy soldiers compared to the clever/lucky usage of the Casket of Souls that might get you 6-10 dead!

Admittedly, the Casket of Souls' Light of Death power is a Bound Spell that can be dispelled, but being a spell also has its advantages.  Likewise, the Casket also costs half again as much, but for that you get an extra 1d3 power dice every of your magic phases, a couple of kick-butt guards to defend it, and the ability to blow up in the face of any unit that destroys it (this could also claim any nearby Tomb King unit, but given that the Casket is highly unlikely to die until late in the battle when the TK units have wandered away the risk is minor).  All of that is easily worth the extra points so when comparing Ghostly Howl and Light of Death the latter is clearly superior -- and, more basically, actually useful.

In short, don't use a Tomb Banshee.

Carn Wraiths

By comparison, a hero choice Carn Wraith is pretty good.  He gets everything the Banshee receives (save the howl, of course), but has 3 attacks and a great weapon.  That means that he can regularly kill 1-2 extra enemy in close-combat when leading a unit (which he should always be doing).  That may not sound like much, but as I've learned from experience getting those extra few kills so as to win close combat resolutions is a must have if you want your blocks of skeletons to be successful. 

What you eventually turn into if you have really bad posture

The fact that he always goes last might be a problem if he wasn't ethereal -- being immune to normal attacks means he is far more likely to survive to use his scythe.  You do have to watch for magic using characters aiming for him, but against regular opponent's he does a good job while providing a source of terror to send units running.  Just as importantly he is only 2/3rds the cost of the Tomb Banshee and the de facto cheapest character you can get for a VC army (a vanilla 1st level Necromancer is 5 points less, but when are you going to field one without at least some toys?).  That means you can easily slip him into your army list to help fortify your otherwise vulnerable blocks of skeletons.

A Look at the Empire in the Age of 8th Edition Warhammer, Part Two

Posted by Ranillon on 23. July 2011 02:40

So, now that we have taken a look at the Empire army with the newest set of Warhammer rules, let's examine the individual units themselves.  To this end I have sat down and worked out a lot of probabilities and general comparisons which you can download as a PDF here.  I'll summarize my findings here: Empire_Unit_Comparisons.pdf (109.13 kb)

Generally Speaking, All of the Basic Empire Troop Types are Effective:  There is no basic weapon armed unit that is obviously inferior to their compatriots in most every situation.  However, weapon vs. weapon swords are undoubtedly inferior, even painfully so.  Thankfully, as Empire Swordsmen get a free upgrade of Weapon Skill and Initiative (both to 4) this neatly negates this disadvantage and places them on a roughly equal footing with the rest.

Believe it or Not, Overall Spearmen Tend to be the Most Effective:  Yes, I am sure that some of you will balk at the very idea, but the math proves my point -- assuming that the spearmen are charged rather charging (not usually too hard to achieve) overall they tend to do slightly better than any other weapon type.  However, this is not uniform in the sense that spearmen are always superior in every situation.  Against higher toughness opponents Halberdiers are a bit better (but only a bit) while swordsmen are only ever better than spearmen on the charge.  As long as the spearmen are defending swordsmen are never better at killing the bad guys, not even against their ideal opponents -- those with a WS of 3.  The extra rank of attacks is simply worth more than hitting a little more often.

Notably, spearmen also have an advantage over other basic types when it comes to armor as they can use shields all the time.  Halberdiers can't do so in close-combat and the 6+ ward save for sword and shield is, at best, a minor advantage that means nothing except against far more rare high-end opponents.  Against regular rank and file spearmen have as good of armor as swordsmen.  It is unfortunate that swordsmen didn't retain their +1 to armor for hand weapon and shield in hand-to-hand of previous editions.  Now that would give them an important advantage.  By comparison, the 6+ ward save is almost trivial.  It won't  come into use all that often, when it does you'll likely be facing powerful opposition able to trash Empire state troopers as a matter of routine anyway, and -- ultimately -- relying on a 1-in-6 roll for anything is folly.  If nothing else you certainly can't make doing so any reasonable part of a plan for victory.

Ranged Attacks Are Far More Useful Now:  On a point-for-point basis ranged troops -- really crossbows and handgunners for the Empire as the availability of bows is limited -- aren't quite as efficient as hand-to-hand troops due to the former's basic cost of 8 points a model.  However, ranged troops possess the obvious advantage of being able to kill at range.  They can start doing damage to the enemy on turn one while your usual Close-combat unit could wait 3 or 4 turns to do so.  That fact muddies the waters when it comes to comparing ranged and hand-to-hand troopers in terms of the point efficiency as in the end it boils down to one question -- how many turns of attack can you get from the former in comparison to the latter.  If your ranged units get just one extra turn of shooting over your CC-units turns of hacking, the ranged troopers become more point efficient.

Now, that isn't all the matters since hand-to-hand troopers have one big advantage over their ranged counterparts, namely being able to cause break tests in their opponents.  A unit of, say, halberdiers that runs down a mob of fleeing orks ends up slaughtering a large amount of the enemy in one go.  By comparison, ranged troops can only whittle down your opponent one model at a time -- and causing possible panic checks is nowhere as potentially deadly as forcing break tests in CC.

That said, the new rules allowing you to always fire in two ranks instead of one single-handedly make Empire crossbows and handgunners (not to mention shooters in general) substantially more effective.  Firing in two ranks likewise allows you to routinely keep your units in at least two ranks which helps when they get into close-combat -- before you either had to give up firepower or a turn of shooting to "gang up"  in the face of an imminent enemy charge.  Any Empire force would now be incomplete without at least a few units of ranged fire to soften up the opposition before sending in your hand-to-hand troopers for the coup de grace.  Likewise, you need to take individual units (not just detachments) of handgunners in order to then include special weapons such as the Hochland Long Rifle.

Going on, crossbows tend to be a bit more effective than handgunners due to the former's greater range.  In fact, the 24" basic range for handguns is especially aggravating as many scenarios result in the two sides starting just outside 24" thereby easily costing the Empire side a turn of firing if they go first or if the enemy refuses to move.  This limit makes me hope for the return of that extra few inches of range with the first shot that previously came with handgunner.  Naturally, bows are better choices if you plan on moving your missile troops, but their limited 24" range and meager strength 3 means they aren't going to kill very much.

Greatswords are Pretty Good for the Cost:  In terms of sheer killing power greatswords are not as point efficient as, say, halberdiers.  However, for their admittedly substantial cost they get a lot of advantages -- 4+ saves, strength 5 attacks, and Stubborn.  That gives them a good chance to stay around long enough to whack things while being able to stick around even in the face of being outnumbered.  I wouldn't take more than one unit given their cost and their status as Special, but they are more of a worthwhile choice than previously.

Mortars are Suddenly Underpriced:  In the past when you had to guess their range and still watch them deviate mortars were usually more trouble than they were worth, even at the discounted price compared to other Empire war machines.  However, now that you can just place the template automatically and then roll for deviation that makes them far more accurate.  They may only be strength 3 for the most part, but the large 5" template and -1 to all saves makes it an effective mass killer of regular troops.  By comparison, cannons are only somewhat more accurate, but retain their role as the killer of big things like giants.  Of all the Empire war machines the Hellstorm Missile Battery fared the worst as it still retains a combination of the inaccurate natures of both mortars and cannons.

Those are some general assessments as to what works now or better than before.  Next time we'll look at some more specific applications of these new ideas and then my wish list of what I want to see in any new Empire book (which the rumor mill has arriving as early as next year).

More to Come....

A Look at the Empire in the Age of 8th Edition Warhammer, Part One

Posted by Ranillon on 18. July 2011 01:57

Despite this site being primarily devoted to 40K (although we are trying to move into more general Games Workshop game coverage, just like we are adding more non-40K events to Origins every year), I personally started off playing first the old Epic rules (back when they had the cool detachment cards) and then I got into Warhammer.  40K was actually the third major GW game I got involved in, although the process of starting off with Epic, then Warhammer, then finally 40K took only about five years (compare that to the fact that I've been playing GW games in general for twenty-one years now - yikes!).  While my first complete fantasy army was Vampire Counts, the army that I eventually fell in love with and which became my favorite was Empire.

Is this an Empire soldier or an 16th Century German landsknecht?  Is there a real difference?

I enjoyed the historical feel to Empire (it is based strongly around 16th century Imperial armies of the Holy Roman Empire -- in fact, you could substitute pictures of units from that era for Empire units and literally see absolutely no difference), the fact that it has access to such a wide range of weapons, and the general idea of a human army using training and ingenuity to take on the rest of the world.  But, the deciding factor was that one of the possible state armies of the Empire comes from the small (yet mighty) province of Hochland and my own last name turns out to be Hoch.  I figured that was a sign from God (or, at least, Sigmar) that I was destined to play an Empire Hochland army.

However, my time is limited and in recent years I had been busy doing most 40K so my otherwise beloved Hochland army mostly stayed packed away.  At least, that is, until recent times when we here at Origins 40K labs decided to start adding fantasy events to our Origins offerings.  Since I was one of the few people to actually have a fully painted fantasy force I (and my army) was the natural choice to help running said events.  I ended up running most of the Intro and Intermediate Warhammer Fantasy demos while in the process giving the Grand Army of Hochland a good chance to stretch its legs and take on dwarves and Vampire Counts, our other two available demo armies.  It was likewise my chance to get some much needed practical experience with the newest edition of Warhammer Fantasy.

Why the New Edition is a Good Thing for Empire

I have to say that after playing a number of games and delving back into the new rules I've come to the conclusion that the new edition has for the most part been a blessing for the forces of the Empire.

• Being able to automatically fight with an extra rank -- both in hand-to-hand and for your shooting units -- is definitely a bonus for a force like the Empire which has large numbers of so-so troops.  This singlehandedly makes gun/crossbow lines twice as effective (while removing the old de facto requirement of having a minimum of ten, yet only being able to use 5 due to space concerns) and thus a good deal more attractive.  This is especially so for a Hochland army that in the fluff is always being described as "renowned for their deadly accurate archers and handgunners."

• The new magic rules tend to mute the "magical juggernaut" forces of the past and as a result make the magically mediocre Empire less vulnerable to such dangers.  Nothing was more depressing that facing a hyper-magical army of Tzeentchian horrors or spell happy High Elves rolling ten or (at times much) more power dice when you only have a few dispel scrolls and dice in response.  With the new limits to the amount of dice you can have (12), the amount you can ever use to cast a spell (6), and -- most of all -- that irresistible force is also an invitation to have your wizard blow himself up (and maybe part of your army with him), magic is no longer so threatening.

• The new rules for charging -- your base move plus 2d6 (3d6 - pick the best two for cav) -- makes infantry (the mainstay of any Empire force) more effective as an offensive force than before as the gap between it and cavalry in terms of speed is no longer so vast.  This just doesn't make infantry better able to reach out and clobber someone, but likewise adds tactical flexibility that allows ground-pounders to more greatly influence the game.

• The ability to always be able to measure before doing anything -- even things like firing cannonballs -- generally makes war machines a bit more effective.  This is especially true for the mortar which is now not nearly as inaccurate as before (where you had to guess the distance and still roll for deviation).

• Then there are plenty of little things such as Fear not quite being so effective and having more ranks than the enemy allowing you to ignore negatives to Break Tests that likewise tend to play to the strengths of the Empire.

That doesn't mean that the Empire is suddenly the army to beat, but its limitations are now (in my opinion) more a matter of the problems in its now outdated army book than issues with the basic rules.

So, if things are looking up for the Imperial army in general, what about the individual units themselves?  Which have benefited and which may have become less valuable than before?  That'll be the subject of Part Two...

This is the Big Week -- And Don't Forget Wednesday!

Posted by Ranillon on 20. June 2011 19:24

As I hope everyone knows Origins starts this week, but what you might not know is that unlike in the past there is a lot of stuff going on starting Wednesday night -- including our introductory events for both Warhammer and Warhammer 40K.  If you've only played one and want to find out what the other is like, here is your chance.  But, don't worry if you can't make it Wednesday night as we'll be offering intros for both games throughout Origins.

We will of course be offering complete coverage of all our events here at 40KOrigins.com for those that can't attend, including battle reports, photos, and video!  So, they'll be a lot for you to enjoy here even if you can't make it to the convention itself.  It all starts just the day after tomorrow.  Yikes!

Schedule for Saturday's Warhammer 40K RTT at Origins 2011

Posted by Ranillon on 2. June 2011 16:05

Here is the schedule for our Indy GT Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Tournament on Saturday, the 25th:

Just a reminder:  Army size is 1850 points and you can use any legal and current Game Workshop Warhammer 40K army.  Forge World armies or lists from any other source are not allowed, although you can use Forge World models to represent otherwise legal models/units.

Also, we will be taking pictures and videos all day long so be sure to have your smiles ready to go!