We had a good week this week along the rumor mill, and as far as getting things done with my own armies, I accomplished quite a bit. The rumor mill has been full of Daemons and Tyranids, which leaves us plenty of things to be talking about, so lets get to it.
Presence of Faeit is my weekly editorial. I generally report during the week what is going on, and today is my day to comment on what exactly it is that I am thinking of.
Daemons
Daemons are currently one of those armies that I think really needs an update. While we had one just a few months back, it has lead to a lot of simple armies of nothing but screamers and flamers. Now do not get me wrong, I don't want to get down on people that are doing that, as they are amazing units, but for what they do with two wounds each, the point cost for them is incredible. I would go as far as saying that screamers might be the best overall single unit in the game right now. After all 3 base attacks at S5 AP2 with armourbane on a 2 wound T4 jebike that cannot be insta killed. Just put them in units of 9 (max) and go to town.
While I would really like to see a full codex release, it appears that a White Dwarf update is in the works. This is great, Slaanesh and Tzeentch received updates in the last one, so I am looking forward to seeing what looks like a Khorne and Nurgle update hit. I miss seeing those unruly Bloodletters hitting the battlefield in mass.
Now that we are getting lots of rumors about Daemons, they really are giving us the feel that they are coming next. While its always hard to tell for sure if the rumors are feeding off of each other, it does appear that we are getting a lot of the information from different sources.
So if Daemons are indeed scheduled for February, I am going to take the assumption that it means we will see pre-orders hit at the end of that month, and the release hit the first week of March.
Tyranids
Wow, how about that out of the blue.
Now for Rumor translations and comprehension 101.
Its not the details that matter so much, its the fact that it we are starting to get rumors with tyranids in them that matters. Rumors do not give us exactly what we get in rules or updates (extremely rare), they give us trends or ideas that GW is working on through playtesters or other means. So are they exact rules or models that we will eventually see?, not likely, but possible, especially this early.
So from the tyranid rumor what do I take out of it? Well for one I take it that tyranids may be being worked on right now, and some rumors are being leaked to get our play on them. I see that synapse is one direction that is likely being taken to update the tyranid army, and GW is looking at ways to combine models into a dual or multiple unit box sets. This seems to be a trend with most armies lately, and one that I like immensely.
Do I think we will see a White Dwarf update for Tyranids sometime soon? I hope so, and am leaning towards the yes category. A dual kit with the Harpy for tyranid flyers seems very likely, along with some rules adjustments specifically to synapse seems very logical and doable with a White Dwarf release.
Of course with all rumors, a dose of salt is required.
Grey Knight Inquisitorial Units
I have been working on my Grey Knights. Not only in list design but in getting models put together. One unit that I have been working on getting ready to hit the field is a counterpoint to my warrior acolytes with plasma guns (yes I field them 3 acolytes to a unit inside a Psyback).
A lot of players have fielded the inquisitorial units with 5 acolytes all bearing storm bolters, and these units are cheap and throw down a good amount of anti-infantry firepower on the move. Throw them into a psyback or a chimera (ideal) because shooting 5 guys out of the chimeras top hatch is fun.
What I have been doing though instead of 5 with storm bolters is the following
Inquisitor (1)
Inquisitorial Servitors with Heavy bolters (3)
Warrior Acolytes with storm bolters (2)
Chimera
While this unit is not moving and shooting as much, it sure is throwing down a ton of shots against anything that gets within range. The 9 Heavy bolter shots matches up nicely with the heavy dakka from the chimera, which in this case can be set up with a heavy bolter in the hull, the multi-laster turret.
What does this give you for 100pts (pay for the searchlight pls) not including the 25pt price of the inquisitor.
12 S5 AP4 shots 36" range
3 S6 AP- shots 36" range
4 S4 AP5 shots 24" range
Granted you need an inquisitor to join in this fun, and you can change him up past the basic to include a psycannon, conversion beamer or some other odd options. Making him a psyker can also help with divination and the prescience power.
Dark Eldar
After a late night game this week against Dark Eldar, (I have one tonight against Eldar), I spent a lot of time with my opponent discussing Dark Eldar Strategies and tactics. Hence why I broke out my dark eldar this week, and started some work on some vehicles. Its time to break out this army again, and get them on the tabletop. I have a list that I am dying to try out, once I can get the models actually done. So this is my current modelling project, so that I can get a field-able Dark Eldar list on the table for 2500pts.
While I am not going to go into the list today, it starts off with 3 crazied Archons with power axes meant for challenges.