The Fickle Tide

I don't have an outline in my head for this post. It is going to be a stream of consciousness rant about the online 40k community.

There has been buzz about Necron for the last 4 years at least. During this time and especially in the last year, the new of a new metal-zombie release was greeted with enthusiasm and excitement. there was wild speculation and rumormongering. Folks talked about how cool the new army would be and how hard they were going to be to beat.

Then the codex is released and all that changes for some reason.

The tone in the articles (and here I am primarily thinking of the flaccid BOLS) change from that of exuberance to ennui and disappointment. The immediate response is to declare seemingly overpowered units as "broken" (I really dislike that word) and seemingly bland units as worthless. This is before many of them have even played a game.

It seems to me that these people are their own victims. Almost nothing can live up to the hype and expectations that were generated. The sad part is, the same people that write about their disappointment in the finished product, were the same raising the expectations.

I am annoyed by this but mostly it makes me sad. Can't people be happy that this army is getting an update after over a decade. It seems that people should be happy for what they get rather than complaining that it did not meet their unreasonable expectations.


As a bit of a sidebar, there is another annoying trend with new codices and that is the intentional "breaking" by list building. Net lists bug me. Mostly it is the idiotic names they give them (e.g. Razorspan, DoA, Nidzilla, etc). The names are used from site to site with no clear definition of what they mean. Nidzilla might mean "all monstrous creatures" to one person but "at least three Carnifexes" to another and yet they both use the same word. It's poor communication at best and idiocy at worst.

Some people like netlists and they have their reasons. I don't and my reasons are simple. A good general can beat an evenly matches opponent. A great one can pull off a victory when outnumbered and outgunned. assuming that there is a "best possible army" in every codex, the general that wins with that army is not the equal of the general that can win with an inferior list.

Of course actual generals want the best men and equipment they can find and more often than not but they do the best with what they are given. A hero overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve victory while a bully uses overwhelming force against an inferior opponent.

I am not saying that we should seek to handicap ourselves on the table top but I play this game to have fun and not to win all the time. I expect an entertaining game against a challenging and skilled opponent. I would rather play against someone with a beautifully painted army full of life,  background and fluff than a grey or primed army that was taken because it is the "best." At that point you may as well not even buy the minis and play with scraps of paper.

Finished - Catacomb Command Barge: Mine and Their's

Necrons coming along.I am loving this Catacomb Command Barge. It is a great mini and devastating on the battlefield.

On the table now - Lots going on

I've been blogfading and that's not cool, yo. Part of the reason was that my computer tried to blow up but really, I've not had much time for the hobby. I am dating a new and awesome girl (well, new since July) and girls have a habit of taking up your time. That time was hobby time and TMM can't keep you warm at night.

Right now I am working on 5 Sang guard for the blood Angelse and the planned Dante+SG army. That has kind of stalled out and I've lost interest in it. It is still on the table but may go into a baggie soon.

Also on the table are some Necrons. I painted some rusty Necrons up early last year and have about 1500 or so points under the old rules. Under the new rules I have about the same though everything has changed. I know there is an Embargo on, but I bought the Catacomb Command Barge to give me two different HQ options. If I did not do that, my only HQ dould have been the Destroyer Lord and I like choices.

I'm also finishing 5 DC models. they are just waiting on shoulderpads. then I'll have to paint backpacks and jump packs for all these assholes. I hate it when I have to paint 30 backpacks at a go. Feels like wasting time.

I've also been playing Dawn of War II. As a result of the a fore mentioned computer explosion, I was forced to buy a new graphics card. That upgrade allowed me to run DoWII. It is ok. the random weapon drops and character building are interesting. It is a departure from DOWI, that's for sure.

As far as things I want to write, I want to write more about my Grey Knights. I've gotten lost in the history stuff. While I love doing the reseach and learining about my boys, it is growing out of control into these epic posts that eat up a bunch of time and don't have any real benefit. I may focus on my guys and ignore the history. 

I also want to write about the new hotness before they become the old busted. I want to write about the changes to the rules and fluff regarding the metal zombies. I also want to fucking play with them. I have not had a game sine Tony wiped the board with me. that was months ago. 

I am also gettin ready to start a Deathwatch RPG soon. Likely dice will roll in Jan but there is a lot of prep work to do. I need to type up notes about what it means to play a Space Marine and how that differs from playing a human. I may as well post those notes here. I also want to write a getting started adventure and do some character sketches. that will help me get a grip on the game.

After over a decade...

Got my Necron codex yesterday. Need to get back in the habit of updating this blog and will when the computer is fixed.
Want to write about the change in attitude when new codexes come out, old vs new Necrons and a painting article on how I paint metal.

On the table now - tired of painting red

4 more DC, finishing touches on the Primarch, 5 sanguinary guard, bits for GK

Two sides of the same deadly deadly coin: Chaplain and Mephistion in Herohammer

I'm taking a break from writing the Grey Knight Strike and Intercept Squad post. I am having problems taking pictures of my TMM that is worth a damn. This whole series is just holding up production of this blog. I enjoy writing them, but they are getting a little too epic. Thus, it is on hold for now.

We could be big damn heroes if just for one day.

Holding out for a Hero
The days of 2nd Edition 40k was sometimes known as Herohammer because of the habit it had of being full of super-powered leaders that could slay whole armies on their own. The supporting troops became an pitiful footnote in the epic saga of the hero. This style of play was diminished with the reset/restart of 3rd Edition. Flash forward to 2005-2008 and starting with the Eldar Codex and 5th Edition, you started to see these monsters stalk the battlefield once more.

These days, it is the hero that makes your army. some (like almost all the character in the Space Marine Codex) have special abilities that dramatically change the makeup of your army. Many characters relax restrictions on the types of units you can take or allow Elite, Fast Attack or Heavy choices to count as (or be taken as) Troops. Heroes can have abilities that enhance their abilities or enhance the abilities of the unit they are with. In this article, we'll examine two of the leader characters and with contrasting styles.

Do you have what it takes to be a Grey Knight?

I'm planning on writing an article on the Creation of a Space Marine. Once that is done I'll have to come back and cross link these two articles. In this post I am going to try to focus on the differences between what it takes to make a Grey Knight and what it takes to make a Space Marine.

Recruitment
The Grey Knights are the chamber militant of the Inquisition and specifically the Daemon Hunters or Ordo Malleus. They cruse around, find the things that go bump in the night and bump right back. They can do this because each and every one them is a psyker. It is the very rare human that is a psyker and ever fewer of them still can muster their powers for anything productive.

The Grey Knights send out their Gatherers across the galaxy to seek out and recruit young mortals to become Grey Knights. The ply the black between all world and no planet of off limits to their scouring. As a sign of deference, other Space Marine Chapters allow the Grey Knights Gatherers ships to take mortals from worlds that are normally for their recruitment only. Some Chapters (most notably the Exorcists and the Silver Skulls) give the Grey Knights psychically talented aspirants of their own volition. Heck, the Gatherers have even been known to swipe psykers off of the Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. This shows how much gravatas they have.

Very few mortals have what it takes to be a Space Marine (I can't find exact numbers but they are only looking for the best of the best of the best, sir! With honors), perhaps one in a hundred. Only one in a thousand aspirants can even hope to be a Grey Knight and many of those die in training. For starters they have to by psykers and that eliminates the vast majority of humanity. Once they are spotted and deposited in the Gatherers ships, they then begin their long trek back to the Sol System and Titan, their home for the next few years.

No, no, no, no, no, no, YES! No, no, no, no, no, no, YES!

The aspirants arrive in the Chamber of Trials and with a name like that I'm gonna guess that there is no complementary tea and cookies served. Nowhere is the experience of the aspirant described (I have not read any of the Grey Knight Novels so I can't say for sure. It's just not searchable.), but I wish it was. I think that Graham or Dan could make it an awesome scene. I imagine it is like the scene in Starship Troopers but without the warmth and tenderness. Thousand of scared children and youths (the ideal candidate is below 10 years of age), herded through gates and waiting in long lines while being poked and prodded by unfeeling servitors and acolytes. It's sobering.


Training
But that's what they want. The training and indoctrination for "regular" Space Marines is designed to weed out the non-hackers from the start. For starters Space Marines only take those that have already proven themselves physically and mentally superior to most mortals. Grey Knights are denied this luxury (I suspect) as they have to select those individuals with psychic potential only. Therefor they need to wash out all the weak of body and mind in the training process. I am assuming again that the wash outs that were still living were sent to Terra to either become part of the Astronomicon or fed to the God Emperor.

Remember back when I said that only one in a thousand can aspire to be a Grey Knight? After reading some more in the Codex, I learned that this is because only1 in a thousand will survive the first of three challenges on the way to becoming a neophyte. There are some strange places with scary sounding names and anyone that wants to be a Grey Knight has to go through them. It is not explicitly stated but it is strongly implied that these trials are not only really really hard but also deadly.

So you're 10 years old and you've just wandered through the Valley of Death and come out the other side. Some man in robes with a metal face tell you that you've won the grand prize and could you please get on the probeulator. That's when the really hard and weird stuff starts. At this point, the aspirant undergoes the physical and psychological alteration necessary to make them a Space Marine and that takes about 8 years. Even this is not without danger as many humans are not physiological able to withstand the implants or go insane from the training.

Here is where we diverge from the "regular" genetically-engeneered super-human killing machine and talk about what makes Grey Knights special. For starters, once you start the training, your mind is wiped, name erased and you are given a number. With this you lose whatever made that person unique, but you also lose anything that might leave them open to corruption.

Also, Grey Knights do not really have a "work as your learn" program, meaning they do not employ Scouts. See, normally when you graduate from your 8 years surgery and indoctrination program, you get so spend some time in shake down as a Scout. Here you get to have light duty, mostly garrisoning places already taken by Marines, forward scouting duty or long range sniping and support. Grey Knights do not truck with that nonsense and that is a huge departure from the Codex Astartes.

In the service of the Grey Knights, when you say you are ready, you had best be ready to put on your boogy shoes and dance. There is no such thing as "light duty" when you are a Grey Knight and you should be ashamed for asking such a stupid question. They are given their power armor and weapons and sent into the fray. It is assumed that after 8 years of super-intense training that you have mastered all of the arts of battle and are ready for duty. This is similar to doctrine of the Black Templars where they mix in their Scouts with Marines. It is a kind of trial by fire and I guess the strategy behind it is to let the more experienced Brothers fill in any gaps in the Neophyte's training and the greenies that can't hack it just f-f-fade away. 


This post has set long enough as a draft (2 weeks) and is just too damned long. Stay tuned for the second part of this post that will detail my Strike and Intercept squads.