Daemons and You!

Now I could go on, and on, ad nauseam on the changes to the Daemons of Chaos/Chaos Daemons update, and how it will change this, or tweak that, but we both have better things to do on the Internet, so I'll keep this as succinct and readable as I can.

Introduction
This 16-page booklet came free in the August issue of White Dwarf. With the introduction of new plastics for old Daemon favorites, the design studio felt it appropriate to update the Chaos Daemons codex for Warhammer 40,000, and the Daemons of Chaos army book for Warhammer. This booklet does not touch on every unit in the army/armies, but it only gives us a few units that were in the direst need of change. It also introduced new Slaanesh units, much to my excitement, as that damnable prince of pleasure is my favorite of the Chaos Gods.

New plastic Plaguebearers

Warhammer
Let's begin with the Warhammer portion of the Daemon changes. The most noticeable change for Daemons of Chaos is the introduction of the Soul Grinder. Though many of you may scratch your heads at the idea of a mechanical construct coming down from the Realm of Chaos into the Empire, need I point out the 4th edition Warhammer Chaos Army Book with the titan in the background?

There's always been a weird mix of the technological with the Warhammer World, so let's get over it. The Soul Grinder is about the cost of a Slaaneshi Giant, but is way more reliable. Though I wonder why I would pay 55pts for a bolt thrower upgrade for the damned thing (pun intended), it does get access to a stone thrower, a fire thrower, and what amounts to a power fist (S10) that does d6 wounds. I don't know if I'd take all three upgrades, as they're ~50pts each, but I can see taking a couple just to give it some versatility. Six Wounds and a Toughness of 7 means that it's going to be around for a bit, but the WS and BS of 3 isn't anything to write home about. Overall, I like it.

Soulgrinder

Flamers and Screamers of Tzeentch got a much-needed change. Flamers went up by 5pts and no longer destroy any unit they look at. They now count as shooting with Multiple Shots, which gives them a -1 to hit penalty. Their attacks are still flaming, but now they have a Warpflame ability which pretty much means there's a chance the unit targeted will suffer additional hits for being covered with daemonic fire. Their Strength got dropped to 4 (which makes sense). I hate to toss around the phrase "broken" the way so many gamers on the Internet do, but now they're not broken.

New plastic Flamers of Tzeentch

Screamers have an additional Wound, 2 additional Attacks, and an additional Strength and Toughness all for a measly 10pt upgrade. Their slashing attacks got better, wherein they now cause d3 S4 hits on a 4+ to one unengaged unit they move over (note that I didn't mention that the unit has to be in the open like in the old entry. Not even forests can protect you from creepy daemon fish). They also have this thing called Lamprey's Bite, which means they cause Multiple Wounds (d3) to Large Targets.

New plastic Screamers of Tzeentch

Now onto the good stuff: Slaanesh. He/She/It's got some good stuff in this update in the form of chariot-thingys. One is a Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh which is a T4/W4 chariot that does Impact Hits with Armor Piercing. If you're sick of the phrase "Glass Cannon," then I'm sorry to use it again, but this is it. It's only got a 6+ save, so don't expect this thing to take a hit. But it's 20pts cheaper than a Chaos Warrior chariot so I'm alright with that. I wouldn't say it's an amazing buy, but it's nice to see Slaanesh get a heavier hitter. It also comes in Exalted form, which doubles its Attacks and Wounds, and  gives it 2d6+1 Impact Hits with Armor Piercing! But for double the points, and a Rare space. For the last two points, I'm not sure if I'm necessarily down with the Exalted version, but I'm willing to see it in play and judge for myself. I think I'd take one, just for the sake of having more Slaaneshi stuff, but I'm not making any judgement calls either way. Ooh, but 2d6+1 Armor Piercing Impact Hits is tempting... Much like the allure of Slaanesh...

Plastic Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh

Now there's this thing called the Hellflayer of Slaanesh which looks like a Chaos version of farm equipment. It seems like a version of the regular chariot but, like the Exalted chariot, has an Exalted Alluress on it. It still has only W4, but it has an ability called Soulscent which gives the Exalted Alluress extra attacks based on the number of unsaved Wounds caused by its Impact Hits. For 130pts I think this one's a good buy. It still takes up a Rare space, which you might want for a Soul Grinder, but choice is a part of army construction.

Plastic Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh
(Can be built with two Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh boxes)

Warhammer 40,000
For 40k they pretty much just updated the same units. Flamers of Tzeentch are 12pts cheaper and are now limited to 9 models per squad (Tzeentch's number). They have an extra Wound, and an extra point of Initiative. It's important to note that all the Daemons in this update don't have Save values, but instead have the Daemon special rule (which states that they cause Fear and have a 5+ Invulnerable save).


Screamers have an extra Wound, and extra point of Initiative, and two extra Attacks for 9 more points. Again, their squad size is limited to nine models, and they get Lamprey's Bite just like their Warhammer cousins. In 40k, however, this attack does a S5, AP2, Melee attack with Armorbane. They lose Warp Jaws because of this attack. Now, just like their Warhammer cousins, they get a Slashing Attack which works similarly to the Warhammer version (d3 S4, AP-, hits (no rolling to hit) to one unit you fly over), with the exception that takes advantage of 40k's new wound allocation rules: "Use the final position of the Screamers for Wound allocation..." This means that if your opponents are hiding their choice targets at the back of their units for fear of them dying to incoming (usually 12 o' clock) fire, these puppies (er - fish) can take 'em out with a back strike. 

New plastic Nurglings

So far, I think these two units are still worth it. Flamers have always been pretty nasty, but now their Save is lower. I think Flamers are now a total no-brainer (if they weren't before), but from what I understand from people who understand the "meta-game" more than I, Chaos Daemons needed a bit of a boost.


The new Slaaneshi units take advantage of the new Chariot designation in the 40k, 6th edition, rulebook. I can't remember any specific details about Chariots (and to be perfectly honest, it's 2:38 and I'm kinda tired), but they're pretty much 11/11/10 vehicles for 40pts (for a Seeker Chariot), to 60pts (for a Hellflayer), to 90pts (for an Exalted Seeker Chariot).

Plastic Hellflayer of Slaanesh

I've noticed a couple interesting typos in regards to the Slaaneshi Chariots: For one, in the army list entry for the Hellflayer, the Alluress has I5 instead of I6 like in the Bestiary, or the other Chariot entries. Also, the Hellflayer entry doesn't have Fleshshredder like it does in the Bestiary or like the other Chariots have. 


Fleshshredder gives you a Hammer of Wrath attack (pretty much Impact Hits like in Warhammer) at S4, AP-, with Rending. It also gives you d6 of these Hammer of Wrath attacks for each Hull Point it has remaining (they all start with 2 except for the Exalted Chariot which has 4!). This makes the Exalted Chariot a total no-brainer, unlike it's more ambiguous Warhammer counterpart (it's not like the Chaos Daemon codex was brimming with other Heavy Support choices, either).


The Hellflayer is a Fast Attack choice that has the exact same rule from Warhammer: Soulscent. Except replace Impact Hits with Hammer of Wrath attacks. 


Conclusion
I imagine Games Workshop will release this as a PDF for free (or they may charge... They do have a digital library these days) a month or so after release like they've done with many White Dwarf army lists (Blood Angels 4-5, Sisters of Battle, etc.). Overall the toning-down of the Flamers in Warhammer, and the beefing up of all the Daemons in 40k were much needed. I hated Flamers in Warhammer, and I always felt that Daemons in 40k needed more punch. I don't know if these changes will fix the balance with 40k Daemons, but I'm looking forward to find out. At the very least it can't hurt. The changes in Warhammer were less dramatic, but now I really want a Soul Grinder (they finally stuck the damn thing on a base too! I'm gonna get the big oval base for my Chaos Marine Defiler), so I can use it for Warhammer and 40k.

I hope this was readable and informative. If not, then I apologize. I've gotten progressively more and more tired as this thing went on. I have a Warhammer game scheduled for 11:00 today, so I really should be up in ~5 hours to do some errands and get ready. Any more Daemonic questions, or to berate my naïveté, just leave 'em in the comments section and I'll respond in kind. I'm pretty good about allowing even the most critical comments (as you might be able to tell if you go back and see some previous comments). I just keep the filters on to weed out spam, and racist/sexist/homophobic stuff.

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Couple Things

First: Baldur's Gate.

Holy carp!

To say that I'm excited for this game, is an understatement. Baldur's Gate is my favorite video game of all time, bar none, and AD&D 2nd edition still holds some emotional allure to myself. It seems that they haven't tinkered with it too much, except to add stuff, so I look forward to re-creating Archer, the human rogue, and taking him back into the Forgotten Realms.

Second: If you want to read a WARMACHINE battle report I took part in, go here.

Third: I got my White Dwarf with the Daemons of Chaos/Chaos Daemons updates in it. I'll write-up a review tonight and have it ready for Friday's post (for once).

Fourth: I have a 2000pt game of Warhammer tomorrow, wherein my Warriors of Chaos will (hopefully) put the iron boots to an Orc & Goblin horde.

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I think it's Daemons

Have y'all seen this?

I think it's Chaos Daemons/Daemons of Chaos. What do I have to back this up? August's sealed White Dwarf to my left that has a free booklet full of updates for Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 Daemons.

More on this, when I'm allowed to purchase/open my copy.

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White Dwarf 355 - July 2009

So I decided to add a new feature to the blog, every month (or two in the case of No Quarter) I will go through a copy of White Dwarf, or No Quarter, and give my opinions of it. Though it's not entirely necessary thanks to articles such as this, or this, I thought it would be fun to go through them, hopefully add a second opinion to it, and most importantly generate content. So without further ado:

White Dwarf 355 - July 2009

Now, first off, even though I live in Canada (and for the next two months, Germany), I'll be using the British issue numbering because it was the original magazine, and until Canada and Germany switched over to their own numbering, they used the British one. For the record this would be issue 163 for Germany, 354 for the US, and I have no clue for Canada, as I can't find their numbering on the website (plus I have no clue what's going on with GW Canada these days, as it shut down after I left for Germany). Also, keep in mind I'm going from the German issues until September (I'm gonna try and get a British August issue, but we'll see), so if there's any difference between terms I use, and ones you see in your English White Dwarf, then go with the WD, as I'm going by translation, and it's often not a direct translation.

A big criticism of White Dwarf has been that the magazine is simply an advertising vehicle for Games Workshop. The most telling aspect of this has been the 'New Releases' section of the magazine. Now I have no problem with new releases, as I want to see prices, release dates, and pictures as well, but I prefer the days of the 'Red Period' White Dwarfs (191-227 I think) where each game system had one or two pages dedicated to New Releases as opposed to these days. However, this issue has only 11 pages of New Releases and it goes through all the Planetstrike stuff as well as the subsidiary stuff like Black Library and Forge World. Doesn't look like a single thing for Warhammer or Lord of the Rings, which seems a bit strange; and as we'll see, this issue is rather devoid of Warhammer or LotR articles.

Further on we have the news section, which I rather like. In this one we have an article on the Open House event they had in Nottingham which I wish I attended, followed by a preview of the new board game Chaos in the Old World, that's put out by Fantasy Flight, and a blurb about an audio book by James Swallow called Heart of Rage. Despite being a huge Blood Angels fan I haven't actually read any of James Swallow's Blood Angels books, which this is supposed to be a continuation of, so I don't really have any anticipatory notes on it, but I'm excited as hell by the board game, as it has to do with the Chaos gods, and it harkens back to the time when GW made board games.

There's also three teaser sentences pretty much coming out and screaming that the next Warhammer faction to be redone is Skaven, but I don't know if that will surprise the rumor-forum junkies out there.

To the meat of the issue we have "War on all Fronts" the Planetstrike article, that's your standard fare design article, followed by some sample army lists. As a wannabe games designer, I enjoy design articles, as they give you an insight into the mentality behind design (something you can't always determine from the finished product).

This one seemed okay. It didn't go into anything profound (ie, things left on the cutting-room floor, upcoming products, etc.) instead it just gave a pretty good overview of Planetstrike itself, and gave passing comments about the balancing issues inherent in the new expansion.

The lone Warhammer article was a bit disappointing. I'm sure for a new Empire player, the Empire Tactica article would be helpful (and as much as things like this aren't very useful to us vets, we have to concede space to newer players) to the vets out there. I don't have my Empire army up and running yet, and I wanted to get to Standard Bearer as quickly as I could, so I didn't read this article.

Up next is an article, the likes of which I like to see in White Dwarf. This one's a new one as far as I know, and it's called Dave and Jeremy's Old War Stories. This article has Jeremy Vetock and Dave Andrews, two GW veterans giving alternative ways to play GW games (house rules, strange scenarios, etc). This one has them do a Kill-Team scenario with a handful of Catachans against a whole slew of Orks.

I like this kind of stuff in White Dwarf, because I believe it's using White Dwarf to its fullest, which is to provide alternative ways to enjoy your GW games, in addition to previews, news, battle reports, painting guides, and what have you. This one, in particular I don't think I'll recreate, but it provided me with somewhere to jump from if I want to do a similar thing, such as a Death Korps squad that's pushed too far into enemy lines and needs to regroup with it's HQ, or at the very least broke up the new release monotony that White Dwarfs can sometimes fall into.

Another article I like to see in White Dwarfs is an army list, and in this issue we have one for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. It's the Galadhrim list that appeared in the War of the Ring book, but converted for use in LotR. As if harkening back to the days when White Dwarf introduced new units (Genestealer Hybrids back in Rogue Trader), or full army lists (Legion of the Damned in 2nd edition). This was particularly pleasing to me, as I'm planning on doing a Galadhrim army for WotR, and now I'll be able to use it for LotR as well.

Afterwards we get a battle report between Eldar and Imperial Guard using the new Planetstrike rules. Usually I enjoy reading the battle report(s) in White Dwarf, but whenever a new codex or army book comes out, I can tell you exactly who will win, thus I tend to avoid those ones. This one I haven't read yet.

My favorite part of the recent White Dwarfs is Jervis' column Standard Bearer. Jervis is an industry vet within Games Workshop and has created, and contributed to some of my favorite games (including my favorite game: Epic). In his column he muses over certain aspects like collecting, painting, sportsmanship, points values, or in the case of this month's column: the social aspect of gaming. His very British style, and humor remind me of the days when he had more of a hand in White Dwarf articles, and are always a good read.

Finally we get to the painting articles. In this one we have a couple good ones, and some alright ones. Of course, they have a Planetstrike-themed terrain-building article that gives you some examples of bastions for various factions such as Chaos, Eldar (which looks Eldarish, but not very Bastion-like), and some tabletop setups that look fairly impressive. There's not much on the actual execution of these vis a vis a step-by-step guide, but for an experienced modeler, these provide some pretty neat inspiration.

There's a modeling guide for some new Space Marine stuff that's coming out including the Ironclad Dreadnought and the new Landspeeder Storm. There are no building instructions, but I think the point of these articles is to show you some configurations, and most importantly: every damned piece in the kit. I like the cut-away layouts that show every bit, along with a legend telling you what they are. I find that rather handy.

Up next was a rather, disappointing article on the new paint brushes Citadel is putting out. Rather, it seems to be just a reorganization of their current paint brush line. Anyways, it's pretty much a 4-page ad for their brushes. The only good thing to come out of it is a shot of the workshop where the brushes are made, that thankfully shows that it's not done by slave-labor, but instead by happy-looking women from England.

Finally, my favorite is a competition put on by the 'Eavy Metal team, where they each drew a type of wizard from the Imperial College of Wizardry out of a hat and had to build and paint that wizard. The winner got a neat little certificate, and I imagine some bragging rights amongst the other painters. Besides being a look behind the scenes at the people who work at Games Workshop, it also shocased some very nice looking models, and paintjobs.

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So that's it then. My overall impression is that this is a good issue of White Dwarf, and that if you're a 40K player with an interest in Planetstrike, or a LotR player who wants to field the Galadhrim from WotR on your LotR tabletop, then it's worth getting. Otherwise not...

My favorite articles in this were (naturally) Standard Bearer, War on all Fronts, The Wizard contest article, and the Galadhrim army list. My least favorite articles were the rest of the painting/modeling articles, and the Empire Tactica article. All in all a very 40K-centric issue.

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