The agony of choice

This is a short summary of 5 points one should think about when thinking about starting a new army.

I think everybody out there in the hobby world knows one the following situations:
One is currently working on an army and suddently feels like starting a new one, even though the old one is not finished yet. Or he is finishing his army and is planing to start a new one after this. I think we all agree that the second situation is the more clever one but unfortunetely the first one is often the case.
But anyway both of these situations lead to the same phanomenon:
'The agony of choice'

Apart from the lucky ones that do have already chosen an army one has to pick an army to start and has to consinder different factors, lets take a look at some:

1. personal taste. I put this at the first point because in my opionion this is the most important or the only REAL reason. One should of course just start an army one likes, because you will not perseve the process of building up an army if you do not like it. Conversions, color schemes, painting and even the army composition just work if you like that army
   
2. price. Yes, one might say this is not a point to look at when thinking about a new army but I think one should think about it, since some armies are more expensive then others. Whether it is because the army has a lot of metal models in it or the army one likes to play contains a lot of models. For example take space orks. If one wants to play a mass army one has to buy a lot of boyz (approx. 60 - 80 at 1500pts) and since there are only 10 models in a box for 20 Euros (12 Pound Sterling) it will cost you at least 120 - 160 Euros (72 - 96 Pounds) just for Ork Boyz! And now you need some Lootas which cost 19.50 Euros (13.50 Pounds) per box containing 5 modells, meaning that if you want to use e.g. 25 Lootas it costs you additional 97.5 Euros (67.5 Pounds), and so on. Or take a look at the Necrons, they are also a very expensive army even though you will not need so many models! So if you are a student or not willing to pay much money for that hobby you will have to think about this point too. But honestly this is a very expensive hobby so one has to face the truth :)
   My p.o.v.: As said, this is an expensive hobby and if you like an army money should not play the primary role, you don't need to buy everything at once!
   
3. model range and number of models. This point can also be explained by the same two examples from point #2: Playing an army whith a lot of models or one with not so much models! Again take the Orks, if your planing to play a mass army you have to keep in mind that all these models have to be assembled and painted! So if you are a slow painter or even don't like to paint (shame on you!) this should be in the back of your head! If you do not like to paint tanks or vehicles, a Imperial Guard army could be a real pain in the ass for you. If you want to have an army that contains only a few models the Necrons are an alternative because there are very limited in their choices. Or to give an example from WHFB, if you do not like to paint a lot of core choices you should consider an ogre army instead of a night goblin army.. But on the other hand, I know a lot of people (including me) that started an army just because they liked one single model! So this is a very ambivalent topic.
   My p.o.v.: This point is very crucial. I think if one does not like to paint, this hobby is not the right for him but it is very disappointing to have 200 models painted for just 150 of 1500 points when you want to finish the army to play it. This point is more about staying motivated and as we all know this is a big topic itself. But if you like the models of a specific army this is definitely a reason to start it.
   
   
4. the way I want to play it. Starting a new army is also depending whether the army can be played/used as one wants to use them. If you have a certain theme for that army in mind but the rules just do not allow you to play it that way, it is really sad. this is closely related to
   
5. is the army 'playable'. This is a point one has to think about when one thinks of playing the army instead of just collecting it or just painting it. And especially if one wants to play it on tournaments. I don't like these tournaments armies but since playing is an essential part of the hobby this point can be crucial. Some armies use a very old codex or rule book, e.g. dark eldar, necrons, tau, inquisition, tomb kings, Bretonians,... and some of them can not be played (at least not in any good sense) with the recent version of the game. Whether it is because their units are to point heavy, some special rules do not make any sense anymore or they are just not competitive any more. So one has to think maybe about wainting for a new codex / rule book - these poor dark eldar guys - or just start and hope for an early salvation. By the way here is a connection to point #3 model range, some armies just dont have all the models out there you may want to use in your army so you have to do them yourselves.
   My p.o.v.: I think if you really like to start a specific army you should not bother about this point to much but yes it is very sad that some armies can not be played very well, especially if they are very established in the history of the game or in the community, see Dark Eldar and Bretonians.
    

So ok these are 5 points that just came to my mind, of course there are many more and you are free to comment them to us. I think these 5 cover the main criteria. At this point I may want to apply these rather theoretical and generic thoughts to my personal situation:

I thought of starting a new side-project, and some months ago I thought of starting necrons and in the last weeks I was thinking of doing a Ork army instead. I love painting, converting and playing but I do not play tournaments and I love fluff! But I am also a very slow painter and I don't like mass armies, that's why I think I am not going to start the ork army, so lets apply the 5 points to orks: [1.] I like them yes, of course not as much as my Space Marines but this army is very funny! [2.] as I already said they are very pricey especially because I would like to field an army which would have to contain a lot of models [3.] models are great and they  have a lot of plastic out there very nice but as said I would have to field a mass army and I think it will take me to much time and I could loose the fun to paint very fast knowing this! [4.] see 3. and [5.] yes,.. I mentioned I do not want to participate at tournaments but I read a lot of people saying that orks have many little problems that make playing them very hard and not much competitive...

I could do the same for Necrons now, but I think this post is already long enought, so here briefly: Necrons have very nice models and are limited in their choices which is no problem for me. Their rules definitely need to be updated but they can be fielded anyway!

This is why I would at the moment prefer to start necrons, if yes if I would start a new army :) But as we all know, starting a new army often takes a lot of time just thinking about it, and so I will continue doing this while painting my Space Marines!

So, if you have any comments on this rather generic post on this very complex topic, feel free to leave them here!

HELL YEAH!

I was just wasting time and I randomly took a look at the counter at the end of my blog (which is nearly invisible due to the recent layout change) and ohhh yeah look what I saw:

(I just changed the background color to make it visible)
It says, in total 666 Users/clicks... Of course I know FTW and all the other guys will laught about this counter reading BUT its not the number of clicks but the number itself, its the number of the beast (as Iron Maiden told us many years ago)... And I am just happy that I captured this result :)

Anyway, nonsense :)

new layout

nothing special here, just (obviously) changed the layout of the blog. I did not customize this theme yet but I think its much nicer for reading since the previous one was very dark.

... there are .. voices .. in my head ...

This is a short review of the psychic powers a space marine librarian has access to. Please leave your personal thoughts on the powers as a comment!


Hi there,


the last two games (against two different chaos armies) I tried a new way of playing my iron knights space marines, I used a librarian accompanied by stern guard in a razorback (5 Veterans incl. a Sergeant with power fist, 3 combi-meltas and a heavy flamer, the razorback with heavy bolters). Despite the fact that this squad did not do anything special I will try them again next time. Regardless of the special equipment of the stern guard, I was thinking about which PSYCHIC POWER(S) I should take.


So this post is supposed to give you briefly my impressions on the different powers and additionally I would like you to comment your thoughts! I don't want to start a discussion here, where one discusses about the comments of other users. It is just supposed to be a summary of thoughts and I would really appreciate your comments.


So here we go:

    * Smite: A psychic shooting attack.

--> This is a solid choice, but since the Librarian has 'only' BS 4 he still has to hit the target. The fact that it is an assault 4 weapon and an incredible AP 2 makes it (on paper) a really nice power to take out heavy armored units like terminators, but the range of 12" also limits the use of this power.

    * Force Dome: Grants an invulnerable save to the librarian and his unit.

--> A 5+ inv. save is not that good, could increase your chance to survive in the open against some heavy shooting or cc. But I think this power could block one of the two power slots most of the time instead of being really useful.

    * Machine Curse: A psychic shooting attack against a vehicle.

--> Well, ok a glancing hit against a vehicle within 24". Sounds not much, but for example, with a bolter you need a 6 on a D6 to do this to the rear of a rhino and you will need a 5+ on a D6 for a Land Raider with a Las Can, so this is not that bad. And glancing hits  even if they are really bad in this edition and cannot destroy vehicles (except some skimmers) can at least save you some time or make a vehicle useless by destroying its weapon. So one could think about this power, but as ill luck would have it and you are facing tyranids this power could be a total waste!

    * The Avenger: A template based psychic shooting attack.

--> Well, I think this is one of the best powers to take. Since it is template based you don't need to hit, it ignores cover saves and has an incredible AP of 3 with roasts even marines easily. Put another way, it is a marine roasting heavy flamer! Definitely a power to think about

    * Quickening: Grants Fleet and a boosted Initiative stat for the assault phase.

--> I think one of the more useless powers since it puts your Librarian where he should not be, in close combat. Even worse it just affects the Librarian itself. Nonsense

    * Null Zone: Forces enemies to re-roll Invulnerable Saves.

--> This power does not affect your troops directly but decreases the durability of your enemy. It is certainly the hell for demons and other units relying on there inv. saves. But there are some things I think one should keep in mind: first of all it does not neglect theses saves they just have to be re-rolled if successful and there are not so many units that have to rely on inv. saves. Take for example the assault terminators, ok you may force them to re-roll their 3+ storm shield saves (or their 5+) but well, to penetrate their armor you also need AP 2 weapons... so this power is not bad could have a very good effect but is sensitively depending on the opponent you are facing

    * Might of the Ancients: Increases the Librarian's Strength and armor Penetration against vehicles in the Assault Phase.

--> Same as Quickening, It is only useful in CC, where your Librarian should not go to anyway. The armor penetration of 2D6 is nice but if your plan does not work out you are left somewhere in the open (since you are not stuck in cc with vehicles) and a very nice target. Rather useless in my opinion.


    * The Gate of Infinity: Teleports the Librarian and any unit he is with.

--> Hell, this is one of the most useful powers in my point of view. And there are some combinations which may make this power even more effective. For example, since you are allowed to re-deploy your units using the deep strike rules you can use locator beacons to place your troops without scattering and thereby without worrying about loosing a member of your unit due to a rolled double. So a deep striked dreadnought (or what ever) in a drop pod can provide you a region (of at least 12" in diameter) where you are able to drop your librarian (incl. unit) exactly where you want. Having different locator beacons spread (within 24") this means you can jump with your unit over the battle field like a rabbit. To make your unit even faster you can (YES I ASKED A GW GUY IT IS POSSIBLE) use the power within your razorback (rhino) which leaves the vehicle behind, but this means e.g. you drive 12" pop smokes, next turn you teleport 24" and then unleash the hell with your stern guard within 12". This makes a total movement of 36" in two turns and an effective range of 48"!! An additional feature of this power is, that since you use it at the beginning of your movement you can leave CC like this filthy necronlord, teleport yourself out of the CC lets say 12" and again unleash hell!

    * Vortex of Doom: High strength psychic shooting attack with a blast template that has a chance to fail and affect the Librarian.

--> Speaking of HELL, if you take a look at the stats of this power this really looks like hell for every terminator unit on this world BUT (!!!) if you take a look at the further rules it looks like hell for you and your librarian! Even though it does not happen very often, failing the psychic test will kill your Librarian and approx. half of the accompanied unit on a 2+ on a D6! Maybe a Librarian in a terminator armor with a storm shield in an equally equipped unit will be able to make use of this power without being in fear for one's life! This power is literally the SWORD OF DAMOCLES!


So this are my personal thoughts on the different powers, now it is up to yours to tell me/us what powers you like and for what special purpose! Lets go