3 Ways to troll people with your new Dark Eldar (i.e. how to lose friends)

THE INTERNET HAS SPOKEN and the collective neckbeard wisdom is that the new DE codex has been *nerfed*.  This is wildly inaccurate as there are many subtle builds that can be made from the new book.  However for those of you who seek a more a more immediate WAAC approach read on....

1. Take Multiple detachments / formations from the Coven book for maximum LD shenanigans.

From pg 50: "Freakish spectacle: Enemy units within 12" of one or more units from this detachment suffer a -1 penalty to their LD value" 

[Games Workshop Design Studio, Haemonculus Covens, (GW: Nottingham, 2014)]

The keen eyed among you will note that this stipulates the specific detachment.  It stands to say then that if you have two Covenite detachments in your force, both will place the LD penalty on an opponent separately.  Even better, the formations also have this rule (referring you to pg 50 quoted above).  Combine with deepstriking misery armour and tank shocking venoms for maximum troll value.

NB if you want to double down on the fear, throw in some 'terrify' from the Eldar Codex.

2. Adopt a hard 'RAW' approach to Soul Fright.

Main codex pg 105: "At the end of the Shooting phase...unit...must make a Leadership test...Wounds cannot be allocated to models with the Fearless or ATSKNF special rules (any excess Wounds are lost)" 

[Games Workshop Design Studio, Codex: Dark Eldar, (GW: Nottingham, 2014)]

The important bit here is that only models with the fearless /ATSKNF special rule are unaffected. There are a few repercussions here.  

•  Models with the 'Zealot' USR can be affected by the test.  The counter argument to this is that their unit automatically passes the 'Leadership' test imposed by Soul Fright.  To counter this, point out to your opponent that what it's asking them to do is take a 'Characteristic test' based on their Leadership.  Zealot means you automatically pass Morale tests; if GW wanted you to take a Morale test they would have specified.  Instead they used the capitalised form of Leadership, which has a specific game meaning.

• If you follow the above, you'll also now see in a big unit with one Fearless model, only the individual model with the Fearless USR is immune.  The whole unit may automatically pass Morale, Pinning checks etc., but Fearless does not confer the USR itself to the rest of the unit.  Again, this is not a Morale test (which they automatically pass) but a Leadership characteristic test.  Hence a big blob of Guardsmen are vulnerable (even if they have a Zealot-priest). 

• This also means that Daemons are vulnerable to Soul Fright, as are any units (i.e. Orks over 10 men) that "automatically pass Morale tests".  To state it one more time: Soul Fright doesn't ask for a morale test, it asks for a characteristic test based on "Leadership".  Say it enough times and you might start believing it yourself.

Here are the key passages from the BRB:

Morale Tests

"Morale represents the grit, determination, or (sometimes) plain stupidity of warriors in action. Morale checks are a specific kind of Leadership test."

Fearless

"Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear, Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons Are Useless rule. If a unit has Gone to Ground and then gains the Fearless special rule, all the effects of Go to Ground are immediately cancelled."

Zealot

"A unit containing one or more models with the Zealot special rule automatically passes Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons Are Useless rule. If a unit gains the Zealot special rule when it has Gone to Ground, all the effects of Go to Ground are immediately cancelled."

[Games Workshop Design Team, Warhammer 40K: The Rules (Digital Edition), (GW: Nottingham, 2014)]

One point it is worth noting here is that the Fearless special rule does talk about the 'unit' gaining fearless in the second highlighted section...

3. Use your Deepstriking Skimmers like Evil Drop Pods without fear!

This relies on a passage in the Skimmer rules of the BRB:
Moving Skimmers

"Skimmers can move over friendly and enemy models, but they cannot end their move on top of either.

Skimmers can move over all terrain, ignoring all penalties for difficult terrain and Dangerous Terrain tests . However, if a moving Skimmer starts or ends its move in difficult or dangerous terrain, it must take a Dangerous Terrain test. A Skimmer can even end its move over impassable terrain if it is possible to actually place the model on top of it, but if it does so it must take a Dangerous Terrain test.

If a Skimmer is forced to end its move over friendly or enemy models, move the Skimmer the minimum distance so that no models are left underneath it."

This combined with the fact that 1: Deep Striking units count as having moved in the shooting phase, and 2: when else would a skimmer be forced to end its move over friendly or enemy models? means that you can argue any DS skimmer which hits an enemy unit while scattering, does a Drop Pod and stops just short.

A WORD OF CAUTION

I do not recommend you use any of the above in games with friends/ever.  Doing so may make you a massive twat.

I will add more troll tactics to this page as they occur to me / the internet.

Enjoy!

How to teach people board games / wargames

As a keen board gamer / wargamer this is something close to my heart.  Not only that, but I am soon to start working in the UK's first board games cafe / shop.  In light of this, I recently had a conversation with a friend who expressed the sentiment that 40k is simply too complex to teach to new players.  In answer to this I present the excellent guide below (farmed from Monopolatte on reddit):

My university has a very detailed exam rulebook...

"Hey, folks. I work as a games teacher at a board game café, and I thought I would stop by to cover some basic rules I try to follow when introducing players to a new game.

DO

• Lead with the objective. As soon as you've set the tone with the game's theme, players should know what they're shooting for. When players know what their goals are, everything else falls into place. This will require some discretion: some games are straightforward enough that you can describe the whole goal in one sentence. Others aren't. If a game has a lot of stratified sources of points (ex. Terra Mystica), show some of the most important, and what the iconography for VP look like in the game. If the sources of points are impossible to describe without first detailing the mechanic (ex. Tigris & Euphrates), a quick explanation of the scoring will suffice (ex. "you win if you have the most points-- these coloured cubes-- at the end. Your final score will be equal to your weakest colour of points"). You can always be more specific later, but it's important to start with a focal point.
• Talk about their possible actions early in the game. Actions- or moves, or whatever the game calls them- are the main thing a player will actually be doing. The earlier you can describe their moves, the better. If you're teaching Pandemic, going through the action card together is one of the best ways to introduce a new player. If you're teaching a game with complex actions which take a while to resolve, mention all available actions before talking about the specific protocols for each.
• Describe the phases of a round in the order they happen. If an upkeep phase happens at the beginning of the turn, mention that, even if the actual demonstration can wait until you play it. People are good at grasping things that are presented in a linear way-- first this happens, then this happens, then this happens.
• Delegate simple set-up tasks to the players. If the cards need to be shuffled, get the players to shuffle them while you talk. If each player needs five bronze cubes, let them take these cubes themselves while you explain what they are. It's important to be engaged, and especially if you're not a very charismatic person, having something to work on is a quick draw-in for your gaming table. It speeds up the set-up, too.
• Engage with the game board. If the players have to go to the tavern, point to the tavern. If the players are collecting gold coins, hold up a gold coin. Board games are tactile, visual experiences, and you have to teach them in a way that accommodates that.
• Answer questions-- or at least validate them. Players asking questions is good, because it means they're paying attention. If they ask you something you can naturally segue into, or that would be quick to describe, answer them right away. If it's too big a question to address until you cover some other things, validate their line of thought: "That's a great question! Yes, it happens sometimes in combat. I'm going to talk about that part of the game in a couple of minutes, so hold on and I'll get back to it. Anyway, the third thing you can do..."
• Your homework. Understand a game fully before you take it to the table. Practice in the mirror if you have to. You want to make this as painless as possible, because if you're not better than the rulebook, there's no point in the players listening to you. Consider checking online video tutorials if you need help figuring out how to present the game-- whether you end up mirroring them, or avoiding mistakes they make.

DON'T

• Talk about exceptions before you're done explaining the rule. This is really distracting, and makes the whole process more complicated. If there's a role/race-specific power that changes the rule, don't even mention it until the end. Player-specific exceptions should always wait until the rest of the game is clear.
• Ignore the theme. You can have the best explanation in the world, but if the game seems boring? Why bother. Unless you're playing a theme-centric game like Betrayal: House on the Hill, theme doesn't usually take much effort to establish-- but it has to be addressed, because it's the spice rub on the meat of the game. Sometimes it helps objectives make sense, too: inLast Will, I can't imagine the disengagement of knowing that you have to be the first to spend all your money without knowing the thematic explanation why.
• Multi-task. If you want players' full attention, you should be giving them yours. It's hard enough to quarantine cell phones; you should have the television off and look as engaged and interested as you want your players to be.
• Forget the big picture. When you're talking about actions, you should be drawing parallels back to the objectives of the game. Not every What needs to come with a Why, but it helps when you can work it in.
• Cover every possible strategy. Not every eventuality has to be accounted for. There are a lot of games that offer many paths to victory, and you should do what you can to chip away at their beginner's handicap. It's helpful, for example, being reminded that in King of Tokyo, it can be dangerous to attack the monster in Tokyo if your health is low. It's less helpful hearing every possible problem you'll face in Arkham Horror, and the best strategies to escape for each role. You want the player to have enough information to be competitive, but not so much that they're overwhelmed with distracting information.
• Get frustrated with slower players. Not everyone is on their 32nd playthrough of Dominant Species. Playing a board game together means describing the game at the speed of the lowest common denominator. If your "modern Euro worker placement classic" is too much for a newbie, maybe you should have lead them through a couple gateway games first. We all started somewhere!

That's all the general tips I have. Remember: every game is different, and every time you teach a game, you get a little better. I'm going to use this last line to shamelessly plug our café, which I work at as a server. If you're in the Ottawa region, feel free to ask for Kurt. :) Happy gaming.

Tl;dr: Okay, so you can talk about things. Like. You can talk about action points. Oh. The game is- the game is about- it's set in the present, and you're teaching games. You have to talk about games, so you can talk about action points sometimes. Except the cleric, who can't because it's a weekday but you guys aren't playing the cleric.

(This post is an x-post from /r/HelpMeExplainRules, which could use some more love!)"

(Taken from http://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/2csl51/how_to_explain_games_a_guide_from_a_professional/)

How to get the most out of your Grotesques [Updated]

So I've played three  games with the new codex and supplement so far. I have won two and drawn in another. The game I drew I was facing a tournament list with a decidedly noncompetitive build so early signs are good.

Grotesques and how to use them

Grotesques ate fantastic. Aim them at anything toughness 4 or Multi-wound with toughness 6+ to get the best from them. This will either mean they are wounding on 3s with rerolls or they have a chance for their instant death buff / fixed poison wounding comes into its own.

I have been running four in a Raider with a Succubus and vanilla Haemonculus. On the charge against a tactical squad they get 5 attacks plus d3 for rampage each. Add liquifiers to taste.

This throws out roughly 26 attacks at BS4, wounding on 3s with a reroll. If you're taking them out of the codex, furious charge means you're rerolling to wound on a 2+ against Marines. 

The Succubus gives you some nice ap2 high iniative attacks to compliment the bludgeoning grotesques; I have been using this to snipe any models that might be problematic (instant death weapons etc) with her pile-in step. The unit gives her an average toughness of 5 which is phenomenal. 

Acothyst or not?

Taking a scissorhand on the Acothyst (if you want one) is a decent route.  Against a lot of enemies he will be rerolling to wound, giving him more chance for rends.  This is especially true if you are taking grotesques from the main codex (and thus have the chance for a furious charge).  An agoniser is very good as well (rerolling to wound at AP3 against Marines), but 70pts for a squad leader is a little hefty. 

I've found an Acothyst valuable for protecting the Succubus from anything which might instagib her in a challenge, but he is not necessary for the success of the squad.

An HQ Tax?

The downside of Grotesques is that to get the most out of them you should really take them on the PfP table from the coven book as otherwise their first two turns of PfP grant them nothing. This does mean you lose the s6 charge, but for fearless and zealot it's a good trade. 

The only issue with this is it imposes an HQ tax on you: the standard Cohen detachment requiring 2 HQ and 2 Elites. A better option is probably go for the 'Grotesquerie' formation (which also gives them some nice boons) but this does require you to take two squads of them. Minimum points cost for this formation would be 275pts for vanilla everything. 

Potential Loadouts

The best route would probably be to take the 'Grotesquerie' formation outlined above.  Here is a potential loud out and tactica for their use:

•  4 Grotesques in one squad riding with a Succubus in misery armour and wielding an archite glaive
•  3 with Haemonculus totinng liquifier in the other (give these Grotesques liquifiers if you have the points to).

 Zoom the Succubus squad up the board in a Raider causing a nuisance (perhaps using advanced aethersails), aiming for a turn 2 charge backed up by deep striking units.  The liquifier unit can either deepstrike behind enemy lines with a WWP (providing the anvil to the Succubus' hammer) or zoom up the board with the Haemonculus. 

Doubling down on the fear

Once your Raiders have unloaded their contents, be sure to use them to tank shock units in the back field.  Once empty they will likely stop being a target priority, so be sure to use them to good effect.  If the Raiders have been bought from the Coven supplement they will cause -1 LD.  Combine this with the Misery Armour to scare deep lying devastator squads etc. off the board (requires grisly trophies / shock prows).

Complimentary Units

If you are big on coven units, a Webway Portal deep striking 'Dark Artisan' detachment will give your Grotesques some valuable buffs on their FnP (if you take the Spirit Syphon).  Deepstrike them in next to your grots; liquifier and spirit syphon the enemy before a charge with the grotesques.  There isn't a huge amount in the game that can withstand this and the talos provides you with valuable vehicle popping abilities (take a scissorhand on the Haemonculus so he can help out).  This will also help to spread the fear a little wider for your tank shocking Raiders (using their -1 LD bubble).

Grotesque / Wraithguard Conversion [update]

I have been busy at work since the new Dark Eldar codex release working on some new horrors to inflict upon my opponents.  Here's an update on how my Grotesque / Wraithguard conversions are going.

Quad Machine from the Quake 2 Soundtrack provides a perfect accompaniment to painting Grotesques. 

  

I now have 5 fully assembled, one fully painted and two who are a WIP

The best thing about this photo is the Wicket W Warrick mug in the background...

I have been using some of the tips from the Raiders of Commorragh painting guide that came with my new Archon edition.  The book is well worth the investment if you're interested in the painting side of things and contains some ideas for special characters. 

An Abberation with an agoniser is now a pretty gruesome concept (rerolling to wound at AP3 against most marines). I have also been toying with the idea of fielding a Grotesquerie formation from the Covens supplement. This throws a few nice buffs their way.

Add in a Chronos and you have 4+ FNP Grots who reroll all 1s when making their FNP throws.  If you wanted to be even more disgusting you could throw in a Spiritseer and roll on Runes of Battle. Worse case scenario you get some shrouded Grots; best case perhaps +1 S? This would make them fearsome vehicle smashers.

How are you planning to use Grotesques in the new edition?

If anyone wants details on how to make / paint up these models, drop me a private message. 

VECT LIVES!

Stark