Catch Up and Super Mario Maker!

Hey there everyone! I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. Work and other things have kept me from blogging for over a month. Each time I wanted to give an update, I got waylaid by something else.

But, I have been doing hobby work. I finished doing that commissioned work from the Deathstorm box for my friend's friend's store. If you recall, I did a bunch of Tyranids earlier in the year. Well, the guy's store is about to open and he wanted to display them in the store. So I did 5 terminators, 1 dreadnought, and 5 Death Company. I've never done Blood Angels before, and it was an educational experience, no doubt. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take pictures of them. Perhaps when they are on display I'll be able to get a couple of pics.

 I also took my friend Brian to play a tournament at my local store. This was his first tournament, so it was exciting for him. He took Ultramarines and an Imperial Knight ally. For my part, I took my Khorne Daemonkin horde. My first game saw me battling Nick, my last opponent in the previous tournament. Our last game was close fought, and even though I lost, Nick was a great opponent and I had a blast. This game was no different, though I swore revenge. It was again an even and close fought game (this time he had his Grey Knights). He beat me again, though by only one Victory Point. My second game was against James' Terminator heavy Dark Angels with some regular SMs and Devastators in support. Much to my chagrin, I found that DAs shooting overwatch at FULL ballistic skill is waaaayy too much for my close combat army. I didn't make it easy, but he wiped the floor with me. My third opponent was Grey Knights (again). But my last two losses made me aggressive- he had never played against Daemonkin before, and I wanted blood. I won the match, though he put up a stronger fight at the end of the game.

Overall, out of 12 players, I came in 6th. Right in the meaty part of the curve. But- Brian the "novice" placed 4th! Wow! He really is a good player- I have taught him well. We are both eagerly looking forward to the next tournament.

Meanwhile, I've been helping my friend Joe with his table (which used to be my table before I moved). He has decided to do a "Hoth"-like ice world table, complete with a frozen river bisecting the board. After Pete carved the foam pieces, Joe and I used texture paint to cover the blue undercoat. The effect is striking- it really looks like ice and snow. This week, we used water effects to fill up the frozen lake area. So far, we have used 4 bottles! However, it is looking quite good. Joe is particularly thrilled with its reflective quality. The board isn't done yet- but it will look great when its done. Can't wait to game on it.

At any rate, besides all that, I have found a "new" obsession. As long time readers know, I have loved video games ever since I was a kid. Though I play games less now than I used to, I am still a fan (at one time I could have been considered hardcore; but now I'm more casual, though I can't wait for Fallout 4). Though I had an Atari 2600, it was Super Mario Brothers and Nintendo that really ignited my passion for video games. The first SMB is such a classic, and in my eyes it is what games are all about. I love all types, but Mario is the grail, as far as I'm concerned.

With that in mind, it was a no-brainer for me to get Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. Making my own levels? Playing the levels of others from around the world? What's not to like?

The "game" is revolutionary. Using the Wii U pad, building levels is very intuitive and a breeze to use. Indeed, this is THE game for the Wii U- taking FULL advantage of the touch screen. Building a SMB level without it would be so much harder. But with the pad- wow. Its so simple. You could create a Mario level very quickly and efficiently, thanks to the pad and a solid interface.

Of course, creating GOOD Mario levels is easier said than done. As we are not game developers, it is easy to lose one's way, making things too tough, adding too many enemies, too many blind jumps, etc. Even I have fallen into this trap once and again. Making the balance that is the hallmark of the Mario series is where the true challenge lies. I have been working hard at this- even though I can "do it"- I have to say that I have an even greater appreciation for what Miyamoto and company accomplished 3 decades ago because of Super Mario Maker.

It is also a lot of fun playing the levels of people from around the world. Sure, there are plenty of cheap/instant deaths, levels where you don't have to move, etc. However, I have played a bunch that could well have been real levels in the old games. What I love is that this game allows you to play new SMB levels- new for as long as people create them. That's just amazing- and unthinkable to an old NES player. An unending supply of new SMB levels. Wow.

The only downside is that it is tough to find creators and levels that are on your skill level. Further, Nintendo has chosen to show off those with the highest ratings (each course can be starred as "excellent" by a player). Sadly, this means only the highest games are easily accessed. Otherwise you can play the 100 Mario challenge, which randomly loads up levels you can play. Its great, though I think Nintendo could work on this aspect more.

That not withstanding, Super Mario Maker is nothing short of phenomenal. Truly, it allows me to fulfill a childhood fantasy of creating my own Nintendo games. It is that darn good, But I'm not satisfied. Come on Nintendo- give me Zelda Maker. Metroid Maker. Mario Kart Maker. It CAN be done Nintendo- you just proved it!!

So, at any rate, I'm going to leave some of the course IDs for a few of my levels, if you happen to have Super Mario Maker. I hope you enjoy them:

2DD8-0000-005F-40BE  ("Building Castles in the Sky")
9BF7-0000-003E-C171   ("March of the Bob-ombs")
51E9-0000-0037-F01B    ("A Mushroom Too Far")
6CC2-0000-0034-5E83    ("The Shell Game")
13CD-0000-004B-D599   ("Return of da Goomba")
93A7-0000-0078-7C16     ("Koopenstein Castle")
CB9A-0000-0082-0DD0   ("Bullet Bills at 20 Paces")
C9BA-0000-004B-D027   ("Liz's Ghost House" - which I made for my wife, lol)

Oh, if you want, you could put your course ID's in my comment section, and I'll be glad to play them. 

Until Next Time...

Campaigning in 40K- A Personal Quest

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen, to yet another glorious update to the Chaos Corner. I hope you will find this offering to be interesting, intriguing, and indispensable! I have to say I am very excited to see new Dark Eldar on the horizon (I love the Haemonculus and the Wracks- though I wish the Wracks were a bit cheaper- unless they have really strengthened them in the new Codex). The Dark Eldar was my first army back in the day (I started in 2000 with 3rd edition Dark Eldar), and I loved their update in 2010 (fantastic models, great codex with lots and lots of options). And while I don't play Fantasy, the Nagash stuff has been interesting, and rumors that Fantasy Chaos will be getting goodies may well translate into 40K Chaos players getting goodies too (one can hope- either new Daemon models or at the very leaset models and bitz for conversions).

I have always wanted to play a long term, story driven campaign complete with a campaign map, story background, and a lot more. I'm not interested in the tournament scene really, much preferring to play with friends or one-offs with people at my local store. However, I have always wanted a hard-hitting, twist-turning, and exciting campaign. The problem was getting people to invest the time and effort in such a campaign.

In July 2005, my friends and I managed to put together one campaign. It was called The Gryphonne Secondus Campaign: The Siege of Kronian. Basically, the famous Forgeworld of Gryphonne IV is under attack by Tyranids. It's lesser known neighbor, Gryphonne Secondus is also under attack- not just by Nids, but also by Chaos and Orks! The idea was that all of our friends could take part in the campaign.

 We wrote a storyline that featured a good-hearted but weak Planetary Governor, a divided populous rife with traitors, slavering Nids and Orks, as well as heroic Guradsmen and Space Marines. The campaign centered on the city of Kronian, capital of Gryphonne II. We created a whole "campaign pack", which included the background, rules, maps, pictures, charts, and even quotes from key leaders. Yes- our imaginations ran wild! This was exactly what we were talking about doing for years! The first batch of games were an absolute blast! I even made a newsletter (The Daily Inquisitor) at the end of every campaign turn to summarize the events of the turn in an exciting fashion- I printed it on "old parchment" looking paper to boot.

But, there were a few problems. Our imagination got the better of us. We made the darn thing way too complicated. The map system I devised was a mess- with limited avenues of attack on the city "tiles". Making it worse was that each "tile" had its own rules, missions, etc. Basically,  it was way more cumbersome than it should have been. It made preparation a nightmare. And, of course, it was hard to schedule everyone to get together. Before you knew it, people dropped out--- the whole thing pretty much collapsed.

We played 4 campaign turns, which saw several battles in each turn- so it turned out to be a lot of battles, but as everyone pulled out, the whole thing just came undone. In the end, it was just me and my brother (which was not at all what I expected to happen). We played a "final Apocalyspe" match to determine the winner. Ultimately, my brother's guardsmen won the day, saving the world from the forces of evil.

The collapse of the campaign saddened me. But, the flame would not quite die. For the next few years, I tinkered with campaign ideas, tearing down what was done with the Gryphonne II campaign pack and streamlining it. I painted up the map- tiles that Games Workshop produced. I began to create a new story (which would see several revisions). Most of all- I kept after the rules, making sure that it would be faster and playable.

The Victory Parade at the end of the Gryphonne II Campaign

Thus, after years of tinkering and revision, my new campaign was ready- the Judgement of Trovana Prime!! In my next blog update, I'll let you guys all know how that campaign has been going- if I have indeed learned from my mistakes, or if I am indeed a fool and have learned nothing...

Until next time!!

7th Edition Thoughts and a Short Battle Report

Hey there Chaos fanatics! I know I've been away a bit, but things have really been crazy in my corner of the Eye of Terror. Yet, I know you don't care about any of that hogwash. You just want an update from Old Man Chaos- well, I'm back baby! As the summer begins I'll be posting more regularly once again.

So, 7th edition landed a couple of weeks ago, and I've read through it cover to cover once, and re-read certain sections (like the Psyker phase stuff). Ultimately, I find that the book is more of a 6.5 edition than an outright new edition, but... that's fine by me. There are changes, big and small (look at counterattack for an example of a slight change that could go unnoticed).

Basically, if you liked 6th then you'll pretty much like 7th. Most of the mechanics are the same, and ultimately the changes that were made (save two) don't have an enormous impact. The Psyker phase isn't quite a "game breaker"- the odds against getting off warp charge 3 spells are higher than you think, and Deny The Witch can block any psychic power- well, let's just say that unless you are fielding an all sorcerer army, then the new phase isn't going to drastically alter the game. Even a Daemon summoning Daemons isn't easy. The Maelstrom of War cards/missions are fun, but again don't change everything about 40K.

 There are two changes that are huge though. First is the whole unbounded/battle-forged army list. With ALL units now counting as scoring, this changes the dynamic of the whole thing- I know everyone is rethinking their troop usage and the like. The concept of unbounded armies is an idea fraught with peril, but also filled with promise. On the one hand, you know there's going to be butt-holes (this is a family publication) that are going to field an army of Riptides or Heldrakes. Sadly, there won't be much you can do about them except choose not to play them. However, unbounded also opens up the codexes, allowing for more variety. For example, an Iron Warriors army could field 4 Maulerfiends and a couple of Vindicators and a handful of Warpsmiths. That is a fluffy army and one that ISN'T invincible. That means a Khorne Bezerker army can take Bloodcrushers without the old HQ/2 Troop "Tax". It is endless possibilities, and no two armies need be the same ever again. Again, I just hope players act reasonably with this.

The other big change is that indeed, Lords of War ARE part and parcel of the new rule set, meaning you could see super-heavies at any time in any battle. While I don't think this is a "bad thing" per se, I just again hope that players act responsibly, and discuss with their opponents if this is OK or not. I do think TOs can choose to have them or not (indeed, I think GW is being quite open ended, making it easy for TOs to make the tournaments as they wish).

I played my first game of 7th edition last Friday. My brother and my friend Brian teamed up, with Brian as Grey Knights and my brother as Imperial Guard. The total was 3,000 points per side/faction- Brian and Steve had 1500 each then. My bro went unbounded, taking only tanks as his force (since they were together, we decided that their whole army was "unbounded"). I was originally going to do battle-forged, but... the temptation to do unbounded was just too great! For the first time ever, I did a combined Khorne Bezerker / Plague Marine army. I've had combined daemon forces, but never Khorne and Nurgle Chaos Marines. I didn't have to worry about who was troops or elites, as with unbound they are all scoring. I must confess it was quite freeing.

I ended up taking Kharn, a Nurgle Sorcerer, a Warpsmith, 2 squads of Bezerkers, 2 squads of Plague Marines, 2 Heldrakes (I normally don't do that, but at 3,000 I think its acceptable), 3 Maulerfiends, a Land Raider, 2 Dreadnoughts (one with Helcult), 2 squads of cultists, and a Daemon Prince of Nurgle (so that's a mastery 6 total). Taking an army with no limits is great, but I kept thinking "Ohhh... how about I take this? Or how about that...?".

We decided to use the tactical cards, with each side having 3 secret cards (discard, etc allowed). The game started off rough for me, with the Imperial scum going first. Steve's tanks blew chunks out of my army, felling a Maulerfiend turn 1. The only way to win was to get in there and negate his tanks range as much as possible.

The game was a see-saw at first. Ultimately I managed to summon two squads of plaguebearers but- every other thing I tried to summon failed- either denied or I didn't get enough 4s. The Plaguebearers distracted my opponents, and even Touch of Rust-ed a tank, but they were more annoyance than game changing. The Grey Knights proved frustrating with all of their bells and whistles, as usual. Iron Arm was amazing though, allowing my Sorcerer to survive just about anything, and cursed earth is good for daemons, no doubt.

By mid-game, my 2 Maulerfiends began to tear up the tanks, as did my close combat Helbrute. I kept my daemon prince airborne, attempting to use my psychic powers to lash out at the enemy or summon new daemons (which didn't work out so well). My Heldrakes arrived, torching the Grey Knights quite a bit. My brother's Hydra couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

The cards made things interesting. There was a constant shuffle to try to reach one objective or another. I wouldn't play with the cards EVERY time, but when you get tired of Eternal War missions the Maelstrom ones make for a fresh experience. I approve, and I hope they release other cards (for campaigns or just new missions), as I think there is a lot of potential here.

In the end, adding kill points and objectives gained, it was a score of 11 to 15. My forces were all over the Imperial table edge at the end, and I still had fresh guys in their tanks (you try not to put troops outside of their transports when you are facing several ordinance launching tanks). The game was an absolute blast though, with plenty of back and forth throughout.

It was a fun game, and I am pleased to say that this first test was just fine. The sky isn't falling. The only big concern is how people might abuse the rules as I mentioned above. Barring that, 7th is worthy. At any rate, I'll be playing at my local this week- my opponent and I already talked, and let's just say both of us will be bringing a super-heavy (see? agreed in advance). Should be a blast!

Until next time...

Battle Report: Dawn of the Dead!

Welcome back to another edition of Chaos Corner- your favorite place for Warhammer 40K goodness. I've got a battle report for you- I'll keep it brief. I fought my Grey Knight opponent once again. My others of my gaming group have had some things going on in their lives (marriages and such), so we haven't gotten a chance to play as much. That should change by the summer, if the new Eldar codex rumors are true. I'll also have time to play at my local store once the summer comes.

Deamons and Chaos Marines fighting together- as nature intended!

At any rate, my brother decided to play his Grey Knights once again (one day, he'll go back to Imperial Guard). It was his usual list. As for me, I decided to go for a Chaos alliance- Plague Marines and Nurgle Daemons. I've been excited by this possibility for a while, and I was very anxious to try it out.

The Dead Will Walk The Earth

I had Typhus as my leader, plus I took a Dark Apostle as HQ choices. I took 2 squads of 30 zombies apiece (One squad for Typhus and the other for the Apostle). In addition, I had a squad of 7 Plague Marines (with 2 Meltas) in a Rhino equipped with Dirge Casters. These forces were backed up by a Predator with Twin Lascannon turret and sponson Heavy Bolters. The Daemon contingent had 2 squads of 14 Plaguebearers and a Great Unclean One, who was waiting in the Warp, just waiting to deep strike into the carnage.

My brother then surprised me by suggesting that we play one of the missions that I posted here- the Dawn of The Dead mission, since I already was taking zombies. I was thrilled to try out one of my crafted missions, so I agreed (see the Dawn of the Dead mission in my post New Battle Missions). We set up the table, as per the deployment I described in that mission. He had the bottom quarter, and I had the other 3. We had to be at least 6" away from the boundary. My mission was to wipe out his troop choices in 6 turns (his 10 Marines and 2 squads of 5 Terminators apiece- 20 men I had to eat or kill). His mission was to keep them alive until dawn (or turn 6).

I had a serious placement problem...

 I made a stupid mistake at the outset. I placed my Plaguebearers first, with my zombies further back. This was stupid placement on my part, especially since my "Dawn of The Dead" roll gave all zombies +1A!! My thoughts were that the Daemons would get in there and hurt the Grey Knights, but not kill them. Then, the zombies would move on in, cleaning up the job. My Plague Marines and Predator would provide the fire support. A good plan, but as I said, I placed the zombies a bit too far back. It took them way too long to move up the field. Once they got close, the battle was already over.

My Brother always plays great defensive campaigns...

 Of course, I once again underestimated my brother's ability to play defensively. He has always been very good at such scenarios- basically he adopts a "Come and get me attitude" toward playing in defense- and he is damn good at it- withdrawing rather than advancing- making me do the work of getting to him. In this mission, he hid his troops in a series of manufactorum ruins. Thus, his Marines and Terminators got a 4+ cover save- I literally had to go to him, and he made me pay for every inch.

I bet that was expensive!

The game started off well (deceptively) for me. My Plaguebearers charged his Land Raider, and using Touch of Rust, they managed to score 4(!!) glancing hits- thus his Land Raider was a wreck. My brother was unpreturbed though. In his turn, his Dreadnought turned the corner and laid waste to most of the Plaguebearers that wrecked the LR. His Grey Knight Terminators opened fire on the zombie squad coming from the ruins- A lot of casualties. Stupidly, I decided to put them back into cover to await my Plague Marines to arrive via Rhino- 2 Meltas would put a good whomping on them, allowing the zombies to move forward- but that wouldn't be until turn 3 at the earliest.

What possessed me to HIDE the zombies!?!

My Great Unclean One- affectionately known as "Jimmy"...

In my second turn, my Great Unclean One appeared near the second Plaguebearer squad (thanks to the Icon no scattering) though he was nearing the Dreadknight. Typhus' zombies moved upfield, while the Apostle's took cover. My Predator shot at the Dreadknight, but missed (twice with Twin Linked!!). My Plaguebears began to move toward the Dreadnought, and my Rhino advanced behind them. In his turn, he moved the Dreadknight toward me, but still a bit to far for him to charge. His Dreadnought and Terminators shot the Plaguebearers, but just a few still clung to life.

The Great Unclean One is  to open for business- and business is good!

The Death Guard are about to unleash strong fire discipline on the Grey Knights

Top of turn 3, I move my Predator to get a better shot at the troops in the manufactorum. I shot using snap shots, killing one. I moved the Apostle's zombies out of cover again, knowing that the Rhino was drawing near. It pulled up, and the Death Guard deployed. They put good fire discipline on the Terminators at the top of the factory, killing 1.  One squad of Plagueberers advanced down the street, while the other squad charged the Dreadknight- I used their Plaguebanner, thus allowing them to hit in 2+. My brother took 1 wound. Then I threw in the GUO- my Daemon lost a hit point but passed his Ld. The Dreadknight took another wound. For the Grey Knight turn, my brother's dreadnought killed off the one squad of Plaguebearers, and took some shots at the zombies, since my Rhino provided a good screen. In the Grey Knight's 3rd turn, he shot at my Death Guard, killing one. The Dreadnought had no choice but to shoot at the zombies- killing a score more. Finally, his Dreadknight succumbed to my Great Unclean One- plus several of the Plaguebearers were alive to fight on.

It's going to be tough to get them out of their positions...

At my turn 4- I tried to put on the full court press- I advanced my GUO and Plaguebearers toward the Marines in the factory- and the 2nd squad of terminators just under the walkway. My Typhus zombies advanced (but they were just too damn far away). My Death Guard shot at the terminators on the walkway, killing all but one, who was on the other side of the walkway (hidden from view, which would haunt me later). Meanwhile, my Predator finally got into the fight, killing a few more Marines on the other walkway. In his phase, his Dreadnought continued to shoot at my zombies, killing another handful. His marines on the lower walkway shot at my GUO- that much storm bolter and psilencer fire is a bit too much- my GUO lost 2 wounds!! His Terminators on the ground also took a few shots, and the GUO lost another wound.

The Death Guard advance through the ruins to get at the other Terminators.

The zombies were just too far away to make a difference.

 By turn 5, I realized that my zombies just weren't going to make it in time. I needed my Death Gaurd and the Great Unclean One to get in there and take out the rest of his men. The GUO used his primaris power, killing all but one of the Marines on the lower walkway. The Predator then finished the job. My Dark Apostle broke from the zombie squad and charged the Dreadnought, hoping to score 6s. He did not. But neither did the Dread hurt him (both arms were shooting arms). The Death Guard were making their way to through the ruins to get to the ground level Terminator squad. They technically were not behind cover, so in turn 6 I could use the Meltas and hopefully make him fail those saves.

I just couldn't get to him...

Decision time- Turn 6. This would be the game. I had my GUO jump up to the lower platform and used his Primaris Power on the lone Terminator who was hiding at the top with Captain Stern. The Primaris power hit, but he rolled his invulnerable save. Damn. Technically, the game was over right there. My Death Guard fired at the terminators, only killing one. The zombies were nearing, but they were just too far off- if only I had one more turn! Alas, I did not, and my brother won.

In a way, it was fitting. In the tradition of the zombie movie- the heroes faced quiet moments until all hell broke lose. When it did, many of them died; but, at the very end, there are a handful of survivors, which was was the case here. Despite my last full effort, he had 1 Terminator from one squad and 4 from the other still alive. Out of 20, 5 were left. That meant that he won. Once again, I must give kudos to my brother for fighting a great defensive campaign. He made my forces die for every inch, and ultimately I just didn't have enough time. Again, my big mistake was to put the zombies too far back- I was too conservative with them.

"I choose not to run"

Regardless of win or loss, it was a great match. There was a lot of tension, some great dice rolls, a lot of back and forth... There was a thrill about using my own mission rules- must try out the other ones I made/tweaked. The battle was a ton of fun, a classic 40K match for us. My brother gloated all weekend about his victory. When I asked him for a rematch, he said "I choose not to run"! Haha! He will though, he will... and then vengeance will be mine!!

Until next time...

Brief Battle Report: Daemons versus Grey Knights

Hey there everybody! Apparently, Spring has sprung, but the weather is still too darn cold and nasty. I would love to be able to open my window to the spring air and get some painting done. Well, I have been painting, but I'd like it to be nicer out.

Ahem. Anyway, I had a battle last week with the new Chaos Daemons. As nature intended, my Daemons went up against the Grey Knights. Now, my Daemon force is missing many things, as it was never my primary focus (no Steeds of Slaanesh, no Flesh hounds, etc). I also haven't picked up anything from the new release except for 3 Plague Drones (I prefer the term Rot Flies) and the Nurgle Herald (wicked model, by the way). Thus, my choices are more limited than what I'm used to.

I took a Great Unclean One (We call him "Jimmy"), and 1 Nurgle Herald, 1 Khorne Herald, Skulltaker, and Epidemus. I took 2 squads of 10 Plaguebearers, 2 squads of 10 Bloodletters, a squad of 5 Bloodcrushers (the metal ones), a squad of 10 Blue Horrors, and a squad of 5 Screamers. I gave all the troops banners and instruments. The GUO had 2 Nurgle powers (one was the Primaris). I took the various Loci (FNP is a MUST for a Nurgle Herald). I had some good greater gift rolls, too.

The mission was The Relic (which was placed at the center, right near the "Tower of Nurgle", which was built and painted by my friend Pete). The deployment called for us to go on opposite short edges. I decided to keep my GUO in reserve, and have him deep strike later. My plan was simple. Everyone knows that PB hold objectives and Bloodletters get into close combat. I decided to reverse that- I advanced both up at the same time, planning on the PBs to be the tar pit from hell, while the BL grabbed the relic and ran. Thus, my brother worried that the Bloodletters would get into his men, and, seeing them as the true threat, focused more on their movements.

I won't get into this move for move, as I have in the past. This game was a bit of a "trial run" for me, in terms of the new Daemon Codex and new rules. So, for now, I just want to give you the highlights of the battle in terms of how the new rules impacted me. As an aside, I found it very useful to have the Codex on iPad- if you have a question about a rule, just hit it and it appears. This really saved a lot of time flipping through the book, so again I was pleased with the purchase.

As for the new rules, I really dig the new Codex. It has just the right amount of strength and weakness, and the randomness is just enough- you are playing the army, it is clearly not playing you, which was a concern. For example, I thought the I would hate the Warpstorm Chart- but I didn't. I mostly rolled 7 (nothing happens), and the few times I rolled something else, I used the instrument re-roll to avoid it (except once, when Rot killed 2 Blue Horrors). The Grey Knights didn't lose anybody to it (this time). The only thing is you have to remember to do it in your shooting phase (its an odd addition and I forgot it for one turn).

The troops each have their roles, and I learned a bit about the utility of each unit. Let's look:

Khorne- Bloodletters are good in close combat, no doubt. But, they have their limits. First, never have them charge Terminators. Their Hellbalde is only AP 3- thus, Terminators get their 2+ save. I made that mistake when I sent 1 squad against Termies- he just kept rolling those 2+ saves. My Bloodletters would have been more effective against his Marines instead. The Bloodcrushers are a bit pricey, but they have speed, toughness, and a bunch of attacks (next time, I'll take a herald for them). They are great on the charge. Also, if they have a banner, you can use them to race in, and then drop Khorne daemons from their banner with no scatter. Ironically, Skulltaker never got into combat (he was in the unit sneakily going for the objective), so I can't attest to his utility. Yet.

Plaguebearers are really good. Yes, they are  T4 (they had been T5, but consider that the other Daemon troops are all T3), but their poisoned weapons are great (I didn't get to use Touch of Rust- but that will help at some point against vehicles). They will be fine at holding, but they are effective tar pits as well, tying up the Marines, a squad of Termies and, best of all the Dreadknight himself. My only recommendation is to take a Herald with FNP- it really makes them a total pain in the ass to get rid of. I wasn't thrilled with Epidemus- he was strong, but I didn't like his locus power- FNP would be better, I think. The GUO is a force to be reckoned with- his high T and wounds make him a powerhouse. My problem with him is that I rolled poorly with him in combat- some of my worst rolls to date- repeatedly, so next time I hope that the dice favor him a bit more.

Tzeentch is a mixed bag. The Screamers are not as strong as they were in that WD pamphlet (was GW trying to sell more of them, or were they testing rules that turned out to be too powerful? I'm not sure). However, they still managed to take out the Dreadnought, and then I moved them deep into the enemy deployment zone, thus ensuring that I would get Line breaker. The Horrors- I'm still trying to figure them out. Do they each get to roll for their psychic power? Do they each get 2D6 shots, or is it 2D6 for the entire unit? I was a bit confused by this- it is a bit unclear in the book, I hope to find the answer.

So, what happened in the course of battle? I followed my plan pretty closely, though I was perturbed when my Bloodletters couldn't cut through those damn Terminators (the Bloodcrushers had to do it). I scored first blood by destroying the Dreadnought (good rolls for the screamers). The Grey Knights moved in response to my Bloodletters w/ Skulltaker- they fell into the trap of getting hit by my Plaguebearers instead. By turn 5, Skulltaker had the Relic, and the Grey Knights were too bogged down in disease and monotone Plaguebearers to do anything about it. Thus, the game was mine. I got the Relic, plus Linebreaker, plus First Blood. Neither got Slay the Warlord (Neither Stern nor "Jimmy" would fall).

So, I really enjoyed the game, and I think that the new Codex is really good. I am looking forward to trying new units and combinations (I have 3 Rot Flies to work on. I also need to try out my Slaanesh daemons). I also want to give Daemon Princes a go. I'd like to try the chariots, but I want clarification on the Tzeentch one before I buy- can the big flamer fire while moving or not? I am also dying to try out a Plague Marine / Plague Daemon alliance- that will be killer. (Of course, so would a Bezerker / Bloodletter army).

Its a good time to be a Chaos player folks. I hope those of you who have Chaos armies are getting out there and raising some hell.  Until next time!!