WTF? - Ethereal and Cadre Fireblade

My first post in 3 days... I've been busy with anything but the Fire Caste, meaning that I haven't done any actual hobby-ing.

What I did do, however, is read up on the rules for Ethereals and Cadre Fireblades.
Time for another WTF post...

Tau: how they play

This post will detail my experience with Tau units' performance on the battlefield.

Friday was the first battle I did with them with the new Codex, and also in 6th edition. I think the last time I played Tau was in 4th...

Check my previous post here to see what list me and Dries were playing.

Tau: Inaugural battle

Friday night, I had the first of (hopefully) many battles with my new Tau army.
This will be a short battle report mainly focussing on how the army plays.

Faeit 212: Temporary site

Just a quick update about Faeit 212.

Natfka has a temporary site set up on blogspot while waiting for his own, permanent new website.
Visit http://faeit.blogspot.com for news and rumors!

Yay!

One power armour; coming up!

I just read an article on Gizmodo that talks about a new support system for soldiers, called "Warrior Web".

The idea is that it's a full suit that can be worn underneath the soldier's uniform. It incorporates such things as sensors, components to provide joint support where needed and the ability to stiffen to help distribute weight of gear carried on the body.

Is anyone else seeing the similarities with the Space Marine's black carapace?
Could this, along with the developments in exoskeletons, be the first step towards a fully functioning power armour?

I've added some additional links to read after the break...

Next!

Meet Bob.

Bob is a friendly Tau. He's currently employed as an XV88 pilot in the service of the Greater Good(tm). In his spare time, Bob is an avid member of the Fire caste and he likes to shoot Heavy Rail Rifles, preferably at things that are far, far away.

Fred is Bob's coworker and squadmate. He's also Bob's best friend and once a week, they get together for a night of poker. That night, they are joined by other employees of the Greater Good(tm) like Lucy and Joe. Joe is just a starting Shas'la and is currently something of a pariah, being without a squad to belong in. Also, everybody thinks him and Lucy are a couple, but Lucy thinks she is way out of his league. Lucy is (for now) unique in the Greater Good(tm) as she is the only marker drone around. Maybe that's why she has a bit of a superiority complex.

Bob's current title is Shas'ui, but at night, he dreams of becoming Shas'vre one day. Could you help Bob out by not trying to kill him next time he's on the battlefield? Bob would be very grateful.

Also, Bob doesn't like the fact that his feet need to be so close together, he'd much prefer a larger space to pose. However, his employer is using old equipment right now, but once newer equipment becomes available, Bob was promised an upgrade.

Tau: State of the army

So I finished my two XV8 suits and 3 Firewarriors batch and wanted to take some time to evaluate where I am now with painting my Tau army.

On April 16th, I started this whole madness with Shas'la S'mik. Now, 35 days later, this is where I'm at. I like to think I made a lot of progress with the army and I really like the pace at which this project is moving forward.

I have about 300 points painted up if you count both XV8s as regular XV8s. However, I need a Commander, so before I buy one, one of the XV8s will stand in as the commander, bumping the painted points (for now) to about 400. Not bad for a month of painting :D

After the break, there's a list of what I have finished and what I still need to do.

XV8s: awaiting varnish and static grass

Y'all know the drill, this is where I left off and after the break you get the goodies ;)

XV8 Update

Long overdue update here. As usual, the above picture is where I left off.
Last wednesday, I had another PPP (Peer Pressure Painting) session (this is gonne be a monthly thing now) and so I have a bit of an update for you guys.

Tau Crisis Suits

Remember this lot?

Before the weekend, I finished the Stealth Suits and 2 accompanying Firewarriors, as you probably read here.

So yesterday, I decided to start the rest of the guys in this picture. Yes, that means that I'll be doing 2 Crisis Suits and 3 Firewarriors next.

Faeit 212: New site?

A small update here about the fate of faeit 212... where does that name come from anyway...

Natfka has posted 2 more updates, of which the newest is after the break.

Basically what he says is that he's working on a new site based on Drupal and hosted on his own domain name: http://www.faeit212.com.
There are however some delays as the webdesigner he's working with is really busy right now and they'll meet up again soonish to further discuss the site.
Also, he needs to familiarize himself with the mechanics of Drupal as this is a much more sophisticated site setup than blogspot. (although I'm quite happy with blogspot myself :p)

He has a temporary site set up on blogspot, but he's still working on that as well, trying to get it up in the same vein as his former blog on blogspot. More on that soon.

The new site will have more game systems instead of just 40k and the bleed into warhammer fantasy that was occurring of late. It will allow you to choose your game system and then receive all the news about that system.

That's about it, he'll post a new video later in the week with updates.

WTF? - XV104 Riptide

Let's talk about the Riptide.

Basics

It's T6 with 5 wounds and 2+ Save, 5+ invulnerable. Pretty survivable.
BS3 is the norm with Tau and it isn't any different with the XV104.
The Jet Pack allows you to Jump-Shoot-Jump. If you use the Nova-reactor to nova-charge the Jet Pack, you get to use 4D6 (!) for your jump in the assault phase. Great for getting out of reach.

Heavy Burst Cannon vs. Ion Accelerator
The HBC gives you 8 shots of S6 AP4 at 36" and if you use the Nova-reactor, it gets you 4 more shots and makes them rending... however, it also makes them Get hot in addition to the nova-charge's risk of overheating. 12 shots that get hot... hmmm, that's on average 2 shots that overheat and which you need to save against. (If you use "perfect" dice... using GW's dice, that's an average of 3.48)

Equipping the IA gives you 3 60" S7 AP2 shots. Overcharge adds +1S and fires one Large Blast with Gets hot. Nova-charge is another +1S and makes the shot Ordnance. On this gun, the Nova-charge is usually not necessary. S8 gives you double strength instant death vs T4, S9 adds nothing to that. Everything up to T6 is wounded on 2+. I don't know a lot of stuff that's T7 or above (except Tyranid MCs with Iron Arm *grmbl grmbl*) and if it is, better to shoot it with the normal mode of the gun.

Conclusion: I'll take the Ion Accelerator. It gives me more flexibility and less chance of killing itself.

Secondary Armament
This all depends on what (secondary) role you want the Riptide to fill.
You want to slag some heavy armor? Take the Fusion Blaster.
Want some more dead heavy infantry? Grab some Plasma Rifles.
Need something to help blast light infantry from cover? Smart Missile System to the rescue!

Maybe it's best to give the Riptide something to help fill a certain role (or hole) in your army.

Just remember that the Riptide has BS3. It's not super accurate. These things are twin-linked and, to add to that, you can use the Nova reactor to shoot this weapon twice in a turn!

Conclusion: I usually face Nids or Guard on the battlefield, so I think I'll take the Plasma Rifles. This allows me to, again, be flexible. It hurts heavy infantry but also can (help) take down vehicles, especially when hit in the side or rear.

Two drones or not two drones?
At 25 points a piece, this is a pricey upgrade.
It gives you some added survivability in the form of 1 wound each with a 4+ invulnerable save and some more firepower with the missile pods mounted on them.
However, they also make the Riptide into a unit. This allows you to join up with independent characters which can give you interesting bonuses. Shadowsun gives the Riptide Stealth and Shrouded. This gets expensive sooner rather than later however.
Downside to being a unit is that the Riptide will need to take a leadership test if a drone is killed.

Conclusion: I'll spend my 50 points elsewhere.

Support Systems
If you take the drones, a Target Lock might prove useful. This allows you to fire the missiles at something and the Riptide's gun at something else.
The Velocity tracker is good for shooting at flyers, but for 20 points a bit on the expensive side.
The Stimulant Injector gives Feel no Pain. Do you want a super-survivable XV104? Do you have 35 points to spend? Get this!
Early warning override is also a viable upgrade if you plan on facing deep striking enemies!

Conclusion: I think I would take the Stimulant Injector, but only if I can't use the points somewhere else. The Riptide is already an expensive unit and you don't want to go overboard.

Example build
XV104 Riptide with Ion Accelerator for 185 points. Adding the Stim Injector bumps him to 220.

How do you field your Riptide?

XV104 Construction - part 2: Magnetizing the Riptide

This is the next part of XV104 Construction.

As I said before and you probably already knew, the Riptide is a massive model. I didn't exactly measure how long it took me to put it together, but I'm guessing it was about 3 hours in total. Of course this includes the time it took me to magnetize the main gun, read on after the break...

Batch finished

These were left with only the basing to do.
And that's exactly what I did today...

XV104 construction

Yesterday, I finally started construction on the Riptide model and man, what a beast of a model it is.

The Angels of Destruction descend

My main army is a Successor chapter of the Dark Angels called the "Angels of Destruction". I've been constantly adding to and tweaking this army over the years, going back as far as 3rd edition 40k. My first army in 40k was Dark Eldar but this was primarily out of budgetary concerns as someone I knew bought the 3rd edition starter set and I could buy the Dark Eldar from him for a good price. Also, I was about 15 at the time, so I didn't have a lot of money.

I always had a soft spot for the most stubborn of Space Marine chapters, so I didn't wait too long to get them started.

Now, 15 years and a lot of experience later, this is where the army stands now.

Tau progress

Remember where we left off?

This bunch is everything I undercoated last week + 1 dude that already received his monochrome highlight drybrush.

On sunday and last night I did some painting on the Stealth Suits and 2 more Firewarriors...

Weekend Thoughts - New models and a quick update

This weekend, like most other weekend, I had a lot of stuff going on and most of them weren't on the hobby side of things.

However, I did away with the idea of painting every Tau I have before buying something new...

Faeit 212: They will be back!

As always, the weekend was spent mostly on not-hobby-related stuff so today, I found the video of Natfka telling the community that he will be back with Faeit 212. This time around, it will be at http://www.faeit212.com and he will own the site himself, so that if GW has complaints, they need to talk to him instead of contacting Google or any other service his site is on.

The site is currently being worked on and should be up in about a week.

Video after the break.

Second batch done!

I finally got some hobby-time. It's been a busy week and I haven't been feeling too well. Also, World of Tanks needed some attention as well. I'm grinding my way to get mucho XP with the M4E3A2 Sherman Jumbo so I can unlock the T-29, according to the interweb, one of the best Tier VII heavies in the game. Also, I still need about 1.1 million credits to be able to afford it :(

Since I also want the T-20, I need to keep the Jumbo to grind another 55k of XP, in the mean time giving my crew some nice skills to put them in the T-20 afterwards.

Anyway, onto 40k:
I finished the second batch of Tau models, you can check the pictures after the break.

WTF? - Crisis suit loadout

Since the latest FAQ, you're allowed to give your Crisis Battlesuits double weapons instead of the twin linked versions. This opens up some interesting options, since a XV8 suit already has a multi-tracker, allowing it to shoot with 2 weapons in the same shooting phase (only the shooting phase, so no shooting 2 weapons on overwatch)

Deathrain
Two missile pods gives a Crisis suit basically 2 autocannons with reduced range. Which can be fired on the move. Even used with JSJ (jump-shoot-jump) to stay hidden behind cover. What's not to like? Those are 4 S7 shots at BS3. Which is the equivalent of 2 Imperial Guard heavy weapon teams with autocannons... or a Rifleman Dreadnought... but maneuvrable. And it costs 52 points. Missile spam anyone? (XV8 Crisis suit + 2x missile pod: 52pts)

Sunforge Give a guy 2 Fusion blasters. Deep strike him near some enemy vehicles, possibly guided by a Stealth Shas'vre with homing beacon and melt something to slag. Jump behind cover and repeat next turn. With this configuration you don't have the range to help you survive so some additional toys can come in handy. Consider the shield generator to give you that all important 4+ invulnerable save. Also, the standard XV8 is quite a vulnerable frame with T4, W2 and 3+ save so the commander would be a better base for the Sunforge config with W4. This also gives you some more options to increase survivability. Add the Iridium battlesuit for T5 (nearly immune to double strength instant death) and 2+ save and if you want to go over the top, get a stimulant injector for Feel no Pain on top of that.
(XV8-05 Commander + 2x fusion blaster + Iridium battlesuit + shield generator: 165pts)

Burning eye
Very similar to the Sunforge but more for heavy infantry killing, the Burning eye uses double plasma guns for that important high strength and low AP Terminator and Marine killing power. You have a bit more range here to keep you safe, but they still need to get within rapid fire range to do any real damage.
(XV8-05 Commander + 2x plasma rifle + Iridium battlesuit + shield generator: 165pts)

Helios
Both the Sunforge and Burning eye shown before, leave the commander with one wargear option available. If you want your commander to be a bit more versatile, you can add an extra weapon. For the Sunforge, you can add a Plasma rifle to aid in heavy infantry killing (making it a Helios config) or a flamer for some horde thinning capability. The burning eye can likewise benefit from a Fusion blaster for vehicle popping (again, making it a Helios config) or the flamer for aforementioned horde thinning.
Also, remember that the flamer gives you some automatic overwatch hits when you get assaulted. Mind you, this makes the commander even more expensive.
(Helios Commander: 180pts, Sunforge or Burning eye with flamer: 170pts)

What is the most effective configuration for your XV8s?

Faeit 212: Update

Natfka has posted 2 youtube videos with updates on what's going on with his website.

Whatever happens, he says his blog will be back up. Either in the same spot or somewhere else on blogger or a different blogging service like wordpress (even though he doesn't like that one).

Also, a counter-claim has been filed by a sympathising lawyer.

Original videos and my opinion past the break...

(T)Rolling dice

This is a response to Natfka's post about Average Rolling Dice.

I just read his post and it was a really interesting read... go read it before you continue here.

Past this point, there may be spoilers...

UPDATE: Since Faeit 212 is down, I looked up the original article on Warseer, so you can read the study Natfka's article is based on.  HERE