I now have two beta weekend test events for Star Wars: The Old Republic under my belt. I will now inform you why this MMO is different than others and why I will be telling everyone and thier mother to play it! So a couple things that make it stand out as different to me are that it's sci-fi, story, immersion and it's frakkin Star Wars.
Some people don't like sci-fi in an MMO. They would rather play with magic, sword N' Board, or bows n arrows. I get that. I feel like that some times. I like the sci-fi aspect though too. Blasters, blaster rifles, rockets, light sabers, lightning, and all that jazz. As well as cool looking space ships flying around and other mechincal walkers and such.
The story is well thought out for each of the classes. I only played a few though, so that could be untrue. The bounty hunter, Jedi Consular, Trooper, and Sith Inquisitor all had great stories. So much so that I now find myself thinking very hard about what I want to play when the game comes out. I love both the Bounty Hunter and Inquistor stories that much!
Immersion is something every other MMO lacks. For the most part at least. SWTOR really brings this aspect to light in the story telling and the instance play. The first instance you can run with a group is called Black Talon. So I went on a run through that place and let me tell you, that it is by far the most fun I have had in an instance in a very, very long time. As soon as you step in you are thrown into this story and it is amazing. You are on a small military vessel called Black Talon and a Moff has asked you to help them take a republic general on another ship captive or kill him. The captain of the ship has refused though and you get to go take care of the situation so that you can continue the mission. With that taken care of, you jump in to hyperspace after this other ship. When you exit hyperspace, you begin firing on the other vessel and they board you! So you repel the boarders and go get on a shuttle to fly over and board their vessel! Then you fight your way to the general and decide his fate! One of the cooler parts of this whole experience is when you talk to the story NPC's on the ships, it requires all party members to be within a certain distance and you all take part in the conversation. Who ever selects the correct message to respond with, thier character is the one who speaks up. Now I don't know what happens when everyone chooses the same thing though. Maybe the story happens differently if you do? Choosing light side options or dark side for instance. That's what makes it great, it's your story!
The last little bit I wanted to mention, is of course that is is star wars after all. Who doesn't like these kind of games and not like star wars!? Getting to play out a character who is a ruthless bounty hunter or a heroic Republic Trooper?! It's frakkin awesome is what it is!
You guys should pick this up and play it even if all you do is play solo.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Space Marine!!!
This game is one of the funnest games I have played in a long time! I absolutely love this game. I play on xbox so take that for what you will. Some prefer shooter games on PC. Well me personally, I think there is a reason why Modern Warfare is one of the most successful games of all time and is on xbox.
On to the game play. The campaign is sweet. I play on hard only cause I'm cool like that. The campaign was indeed hard at moments and stupidly hard at others. I say that only because of some of the design elements of the game. As someone who originally wanted to design games, I tend to spot these things with regularity. Example number 1 : while enjoying smashing face with a thunder hammer and quite enjoying myself, I died several times to stupidly accurate rocket fire.....from orks!!! Now heavy fire like that is supposed to make the game hard I know and make you move around to avoid it. It was just something that nagged at me because of fluff. Orks just are not that good at shooting, so why in this game are they deadly accurate with their rockets? I started to learn how to time the dodging of the rockets or take the time to take those out first so not a game ruiner at all, just kind of peeved me is all.
As a 40k player, this game has an astounding amount of detail in it. Anywhere from the sound you make when you run to weapon sounds. It's just amazing. Almost everything you do in the game functions like you imagine it would.
The fun wrought in the campaign was just Delicious! Things the orks say and do are hilarious. When you throw a grenade at them they scream, "Oh no, stikbomb" and run away from it! haha. The executions in the game are violent as all get out but I think any normal person won't be bothered by it. I thought they were cool as hell. Some of them made me giddity. For me, I know it's just a game and I get to act out this side of my imagination. You get to take the thunderhammer and use it like a baseball bat to the nobs, it's awesome! Also, suplexing chaos marines and then smashing them to bits is frakking sweetness!
Multiplayer is stupendous as well. Imagine a cross between gears of war, halo and call of duty. Third person shooter, your armor = your shields basically and you gain experience towards leveling up and unlocking perks. You play as either a Space marine or Chaos marine. This is chosen randomly depending on what team the computer assigns you to, similar to terrorist or marine in Modern Warfare. If your in a party and you join a new game the computer seems to randomly assign the group to fill spots in the ongoing game, so you can find yourself killing your party members. Quite amusing :P After the first game though, you get assigned teams together which is fine with me.
The game play in multiplayer is really fun for me. There are many different ways you can play. There are three main classes - Tactical, Devastator, and Assault. Within these classes there are lots of different weapon loadouts you can choose from. Once you have unlocked them that is, and it doesn't take too long at all. By level 20 you have unlocked all the different types of weapons. You can also choose to specialize in your weapon of choice simply by playing it more often and getting better with it. There are two perks you can unlock for each weapon mostly. Those perks make you do more damage or have more ammo for example.
The balance needs to be tweaked slightly but not too much I think. There is a semblance of paper vs rock vs scissors in Space Marine. Where the Dev is a rock, the Assault is paper and the tactical is scissors in my opinion. All the classes can kill each other, they generally have set in weaknesses though as to not have one class dominating.
So I am really really enjoying this game, and I imagine I will be for a long time to come. My handle on Xbox is Caldera02 so send me an invite if you wanna game.
On to the game play. The campaign is sweet. I play on hard only cause I'm cool like that. The campaign was indeed hard at moments and stupidly hard at others. I say that only because of some of the design elements of the game. As someone who originally wanted to design games, I tend to spot these things with regularity. Example number 1 : while enjoying smashing face with a thunder hammer and quite enjoying myself, I died several times to stupidly accurate rocket fire.....from orks!!! Now heavy fire like that is supposed to make the game hard I know and make you move around to avoid it. It was just something that nagged at me because of fluff. Orks just are not that good at shooting, so why in this game are they deadly accurate with their rockets? I started to learn how to time the dodging of the rockets or take the time to take those out first so not a game ruiner at all, just kind of peeved me is all.
As a 40k player, this game has an astounding amount of detail in it. Anywhere from the sound you make when you run to weapon sounds. It's just amazing. Almost everything you do in the game functions like you imagine it would.
The fun wrought in the campaign was just Delicious! Things the orks say and do are hilarious. When you throw a grenade at them they scream, "Oh no, stikbomb" and run away from it! haha. The executions in the game are violent as all get out but I think any normal person won't be bothered by it. I thought they were cool as hell. Some of them made me giddity. For me, I know it's just a game and I get to act out this side of my imagination. You get to take the thunderhammer and use it like a baseball bat to the nobs, it's awesome! Also, suplexing chaos marines and then smashing them to bits is frakking sweetness!
Multiplayer is stupendous as well. Imagine a cross between gears of war, halo and call of duty. Third person shooter, your armor = your shields basically and you gain experience towards leveling up and unlocking perks. You play as either a Space marine or Chaos marine. This is chosen randomly depending on what team the computer assigns you to, similar to terrorist or marine in Modern Warfare. If your in a party and you join a new game the computer seems to randomly assign the group to fill spots in the ongoing game, so you can find yourself killing your party members. Quite amusing :P After the first game though, you get assigned teams together which is fine with me.
The game play in multiplayer is really fun for me. There are many different ways you can play. There are three main classes - Tactical, Devastator, and Assault. Within these classes there are lots of different weapon loadouts you can choose from. Once you have unlocked them that is, and it doesn't take too long at all. By level 20 you have unlocked all the different types of weapons. You can also choose to specialize in your weapon of choice simply by playing it more often and getting better with it. There are two perks you can unlock for each weapon mostly. Those perks make you do more damage or have more ammo for example.
The balance needs to be tweaked slightly but not too much I think. There is a semblance of paper vs rock vs scissors in Space Marine. Where the Dev is a rock, the Assault is paper and the tactical is scissors in my opinion. All the classes can kill each other, they generally have set in weaknesses though as to not have one class dominating.
So I am really really enjoying this game, and I imagine I will be for a long time to come. My handle on Xbox is Caldera02 so send me an invite if you wanna game.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
'Arrrrrrddddddd Boyz!!!!!
So the weekend has come and past. Ard Boyz round one is over and the dust is settling. I took 2nd place with 63 points! I am looking forward to round two in San Antonio. Overall, I think my Dark Eldar did really well. 2500 points is alot of stuff to play with! hehe.
Matchups were:
Round 1 - Grey Knights
Round 2 - Space Wolves
Round 3 - Grey Knights
Matchups were:
Round 1 - Grey Knights
Round 2 - Space Wolves
Round 3 - Grey Knights
Monday, August 1, 2011
Rhyas....and my first tournament win.
This past weekend I played in a local Warmahordes tournament at Dragon's lair. Ian, our other PG ran a nice 4 round Steamroller for us. There were about 20 people in attendance so it was a pretty good turn out. We had a few people from San Antonio and Waco that I know of.
I've played in two other tournaments before this one. My first one I placed third after getting my @ss handed to me by Gooch in the third round. That was my first time playing against eVlad and that guy is dirty! lol My second tourny I placed roughly 4 - 6th I believe. This was one where a Houston guy playing Circle knocked me out first round. That was a really good game. I had no idea the movement shenanigans Circle could do! hehe.
I had some really good games this weekend. I've really been wanting to play Rhyas since I started Legion but never got the model until recently. I have been enjoying her immensely. A lot of people around the interwebs are naysayers about her performance. I believe it's because she is not an easy button caster. She takes patience and will not win games for you by herself. You have to use all the other cheaty bits from Legion to do that!
On to my list I used.
Rhyas
Typhon
Ravagore
Nep. Protector
Shredder
Shredder
Max Swordsmen + UA
Sheperd
Sheperd
This is the Rearguard theme list, tier 3, so the UA is free. I am really liking this list. Start the game with upkeeps, whole army has stealth first turn, and the free UA. I used this list for 3 of my games out of 4 and won all three of those. My first game I used Saeryn and won that one.
Round 1: Saeryn vs Cryx
Round 2: Rhyas vs Thyra
Round 3: Rhyas vs Dr. Arkadius
Round 4: Rhyas vs Garryth
I think I am starting to get pretty good with her. The guy in the last round I played against won the Wargamescon steamroller and Lock N Load as well I believe. Really nice guy and a great opponent. He even asked me if we could get some more games in some time for him to practice against a good Legion player. Made my day :P
I've played in two other tournaments before this one. My first one I placed third after getting my @ss handed to me by Gooch in the third round. That was my first time playing against eVlad and that guy is dirty! lol My second tourny I placed roughly 4 - 6th I believe. This was one where a Houston guy playing Circle knocked me out first round. That was a really good game. I had no idea the movement shenanigans Circle could do! hehe.
I had some really good games this weekend. I've really been wanting to play Rhyas since I started Legion but never got the model until recently. I have been enjoying her immensely. A lot of people around the interwebs are naysayers about her performance. I believe it's because she is not an easy button caster. She takes patience and will not win games for you by herself. You have to use all the other cheaty bits from Legion to do that!
On to my list I used.
Rhyas
Typhon
Ravagore
Nep. Protector
Shredder
Shredder
Max Swordsmen + UA
Sheperd
Sheperd
This is the Rearguard theme list, tier 3, so the UA is free. I am really liking this list. Start the game with upkeeps, whole army has stealth first turn, and the free UA. I used this list for 3 of my games out of 4 and won all three of those. My first game I used Saeryn and won that one.
Round 1: Saeryn vs Cryx
Round 2: Rhyas vs Thyra
Round 3: Rhyas vs Dr. Arkadius
Round 4: Rhyas vs Garryth
I think I am starting to get pretty good with her. The guy in the last round I played against won the Wargamescon steamroller and Lock N Load as well I believe. Really nice guy and a great opponent. He even asked me if we could get some more games in some time for him to practice against a good Legion player. Made my day :P
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Court of the Archon
So rumors have been posted with screenshots of the two new Finecast models for Court of the Archon. The Ur-ghul and Medusae. The ur-ghul looks like a skinned DE man. Kindy freaky looking. The medusae looks like a headcrab with tentacles, which is what it is supposed to look like.
I really like the medusae of all 4 of the options in the court. D6 strength and D6 ap flamer template is hawt. As is now though, you can only take 2 and then have to take 1 of the each for the other three options. Really lame. Takes the potential right out of that Codex entry. The T5 guy? Why bother, his toughness never matters! Now if you could pick and choose, that would add so much flavor and potential for a really awesome unit. Buuuuuut Gw continues to put together some really awesome new books but then have an entry in it like that to just make you go, "Wha?!". Pyrovore comes to mind.
I'm looking forward to the last few pieces of the Dark Eldar line to come out. The special characters and especially the Bomber!
I really like the medusae of all 4 of the options in the court. D6 strength and D6 ap flamer template is hawt. As is now though, you can only take 2 and then have to take 1 of the each for the other three options. Really lame. Takes the potential right out of that Codex entry. The T5 guy? Why bother, his toughness never matters! Now if you could pick and choose, that would add so much flavor and potential for a really awesome unit. Buuuuuut Gw continues to put together some really awesome new books but then have an entry in it like that to just make you go, "Wha?!". Pyrovore comes to mind.
I'm looking forward to the last few pieces of the Dark Eldar line to come out. The special characters and especially the Bomber!
Friday, July 22, 2011
DE vs Grey Knights
So the Grey Kniggets have been out for a while. I believe I know how they tick now. So I am going to go over some things to look out for when facing up against the elite of the elite.
Overall the Grey Knights are a very tough force. They may not have a high model count if going the paladin route but they can withstand punishment. If they opt for an all purifier list then it is still 40+ marines. I will just go over the various units in the book and talk about what I think of them in relation to Dark Eldar.
HQ's:
Draigo - Eh, honestly he is whatever to me. Pretty standard 250+ space marine HQ. You shouldn't treat him any different than you would say Lysander. They pretty much have the same stats and so die the same. He buffs the army pretty good but there is nothing to change what he has already done for his army.
Librarian - Now these are how Librarian's should be! Buying what powers you want for 5pts a piece?! Sweet! Anyways, these guys are a real good buffing units and/or for the squad they are with. The powers we need to watch out for against them are Sanctuary and Shrouding. Weather you are assault based or shooty, one of these two powers is going to play havoc with you. Sanctuary will give anyone trying to assault the squads around the libby pause for sure. Don't let that be a deterrant though. That would be playing to thier advantage. They would rather you not assault them and be content to sit and shoot you to death. It also depends on the situation. If they are not sitting on an objective, you don't nessecarily need to assault that squad. Kill points however, that squad will have 2-3 kill points in it so it's worth taking out. I think being hyper aggressive in positioning is important here. Get as close as possible before launching the assault, don't try and long shot an assault because you will pay for it. Shrouding plus bolstered ruins anyone? Yea that's going to be annoying to try and shoot them down. However, the good news is with that mighty 2++ they can still roll ones.... So volume of fire is going to start playing a big role in this kind of situation. I now play with 4 venoms in my lists for this very reason(helps against other armies too).
Bro-captains, Champs and Grand masters - Really the only thing to look out for against these guys is the Heroic Sacrifice ability. Don't send an expensive HQ or other model to kill this guy, he might get you too!
Inquisitors - Whatever, these guys are chumps. They can bring some cool wargear and change FOC but I would not go out of my way to try and deal with them.
Elites:
Purifiers - These are probably going to be the mainstay of most non-paladin armies you might face. They are pretty dang good for what you pay for. They might even be troops to boot if they pay the Crowe tax. So they can get up to 4 Psycannons in the squad and can equip I6 halberds. Guess what? They still die like marines. The only thing that causes me to think for more than a second about weather to assault them or not is Cleansing Flame. With the new FAQ out, wyches get our 4++ against it. Couple that with Feel No Pain and you won't lose as many as before the FAQ. So I have no problem assaulting in on these guys anymore.
Techmarine - The now infamous grenade dispenser. The only thing I despise in this codex is Pychotroke grenades. Rad nades are fine and so are blind. But man, I win nades? They should be more expensive honestly. They are a joke for only power weapon cost. Most of the time I see this guy carrying a warding staff for the 2++. They still only have one wound, easily delt with.
Paladins - These guys can take a beating! 2 wounds, 2+ save, standard 5++(4++ in combat). Very respectable. Access to an apothecary as well. Not to shabby. Normal small arms fire won't put a very big dent in them. You know what does though? Lances. Lances smoke paladins pretty good. Shrouding will make this a bit a pain but is still your best ranged answer to paladins. In combat they can weather a fierce storm. 20 paladins with libby and Draigo can hold off 40+ wyches and two HQ's pretty handily. I think the key here is to wear them down with lances and small arms before engaging to get the numbers down and overwhelm them.
Assassins - I love these guys. Just fight them like normal and they die, nothing special you have to do really. Vindy will be most common, but he can roll 1's and 2's just like everything else. The calidus you have to wait till she comes out to deal with. Her template can kill swaths or our infantry. Having leadership 9 helps causing then she only kills on 5's but still, it's a template so be careful of being clumped up. Once she is out though, she can be dealt with standardly though.
Troops:
Grey Knight Squad - All force weapons and a couple of psycannons. Just regular marines to me. They die to shooting and assaulting like regular dudemans.
Grey Knight Terminators - Not as dangerous as paladins. Die just like regular termies. They are kind of a cross between C:SM shooty termies and assault termies. so they have a 4++ in combat, unless halbreds, and can have psycannons but not as many as in a paladin squad.
I would comment on the inquistorial squads but I don't have alot of experience on them yet. From what I've seen though they are just guardsmen with fancy wargear is all. They are still BS3 and T3, and crappy armor. The only thing to watch out for really is the death cult assassins and crusaders. These guys don't have grenades so keep that in mind if they are on the board.
Fast Attack:
Stormraven - Pretty Standard. The only thing different is the missles and those mean nothing against us.
Interceptors - They can teleport once per game, so keep in mind for objective grabbing. Also, they can cary incenerators and are jump infantry.
Heavy:
Dreadknight - The only scary thing about this guy is the heavy incenerator. Other than that he's a monsterous creature so......go posion! lol
Purgation Squad - For a solid 100pts these guys can pack 4 incenerators!!! Yikes! I treat them the same as when I see burna boys on the table. Kill them asap!!!!
Dreads - Strength 8 auto cannons. These are what you will see most often. They need to die as soon as you can get them. Becareful though, they have foritude so shaking them won't do.
Those are my thoughts on most of the units in the Grey Knights codex. If I didn't list them, they don't really matter. They have some neat toys but they are still just marines.
If you guys have any subjects you would like me to go more into detail about Grey Knights drop me a line at caldera40k@gmail.com
Overall the Grey Knights are a very tough force. They may not have a high model count if going the paladin route but they can withstand punishment. If they opt for an all purifier list then it is still 40+ marines. I will just go over the various units in the book and talk about what I think of them in relation to Dark Eldar.
HQ's:
Draigo - Eh, honestly he is whatever to me. Pretty standard 250+ space marine HQ. You shouldn't treat him any different than you would say Lysander. They pretty much have the same stats and so die the same. He buffs the army pretty good but there is nothing to change what he has already done for his army.
Librarian - Now these are how Librarian's should be! Buying what powers you want for 5pts a piece?! Sweet! Anyways, these guys are a real good buffing units and/or for the squad they are with. The powers we need to watch out for against them are Sanctuary and Shrouding. Weather you are assault based or shooty, one of these two powers is going to play havoc with you. Sanctuary will give anyone trying to assault the squads around the libby pause for sure. Don't let that be a deterrant though. That would be playing to thier advantage. They would rather you not assault them and be content to sit and shoot you to death. It also depends on the situation. If they are not sitting on an objective, you don't nessecarily need to assault that squad. Kill points however, that squad will have 2-3 kill points in it so it's worth taking out. I think being hyper aggressive in positioning is important here. Get as close as possible before launching the assault, don't try and long shot an assault because you will pay for it. Shrouding plus bolstered ruins anyone? Yea that's going to be annoying to try and shoot them down. However, the good news is with that mighty 2++ they can still roll ones.... So volume of fire is going to start playing a big role in this kind of situation. I now play with 4 venoms in my lists for this very reason(helps against other armies too).
Bro-captains, Champs and Grand masters - Really the only thing to look out for against these guys is the Heroic Sacrifice ability. Don't send an expensive HQ or other model to kill this guy, he might get you too!
Inquisitors - Whatever, these guys are chumps. They can bring some cool wargear and change FOC but I would not go out of my way to try and deal with them.
Elites:
Purifiers - These are probably going to be the mainstay of most non-paladin armies you might face. They are pretty dang good for what you pay for. They might even be troops to boot if they pay the Crowe tax. So they can get up to 4 Psycannons in the squad and can equip I6 halberds. Guess what? They still die like marines. The only thing that causes me to think for more than a second about weather to assault them or not is Cleansing Flame. With the new FAQ out, wyches get our 4++ against it. Couple that with Feel No Pain and you won't lose as many as before the FAQ. So I have no problem assaulting in on these guys anymore.
Techmarine - The now infamous grenade dispenser. The only thing I despise in this codex is Pychotroke grenades. Rad nades are fine and so are blind. But man, I win nades? They should be more expensive honestly. They are a joke for only power weapon cost. Most of the time I see this guy carrying a warding staff for the 2++. They still only have one wound, easily delt with.
Paladins - These guys can take a beating! 2 wounds, 2+ save, standard 5++(4++ in combat). Very respectable. Access to an apothecary as well. Not to shabby. Normal small arms fire won't put a very big dent in them. You know what does though? Lances. Lances smoke paladins pretty good. Shrouding will make this a bit a pain but is still your best ranged answer to paladins. In combat they can weather a fierce storm. 20 paladins with libby and Draigo can hold off 40+ wyches and two HQ's pretty handily. I think the key here is to wear them down with lances and small arms before engaging to get the numbers down and overwhelm them.
Assassins - I love these guys. Just fight them like normal and they die, nothing special you have to do really. Vindy will be most common, but he can roll 1's and 2's just like everything else. The calidus you have to wait till she comes out to deal with. Her template can kill swaths or our infantry. Having leadership 9 helps causing then she only kills on 5's but still, it's a template so be careful of being clumped up. Once she is out though, she can be dealt with standardly though.
Troops:
Grey Knight Squad - All force weapons and a couple of psycannons. Just regular marines to me. They die to shooting and assaulting like regular dudemans.
Grey Knight Terminators - Not as dangerous as paladins. Die just like regular termies. They are kind of a cross between C:SM shooty termies and assault termies. so they have a 4++ in combat, unless halbreds, and can have psycannons but not as many as in a paladin squad.
I would comment on the inquistorial squads but I don't have alot of experience on them yet. From what I've seen though they are just guardsmen with fancy wargear is all. They are still BS3 and T3, and crappy armor. The only thing to watch out for really is the death cult assassins and crusaders. These guys don't have grenades so keep that in mind if they are on the board.
Fast Attack:
Stormraven - Pretty Standard. The only thing different is the missles and those mean nothing against us.
Interceptors - They can teleport once per game, so keep in mind for objective grabbing. Also, they can cary incenerators and are jump infantry.
Heavy:
Dreadknight - The only scary thing about this guy is the heavy incenerator. Other than that he's a monsterous creature so......go posion! lol
Purgation Squad - For a solid 100pts these guys can pack 4 incenerators!!! Yikes! I treat them the same as when I see burna boys on the table. Kill them asap!!!!
Dreads - Strength 8 auto cannons. These are what you will see most often. They need to die as soon as you can get them. Becareful though, they have foritude so shaking them won't do.
Those are my thoughts on most of the units in the Grey Knights codex. If I didn't list them, they don't really matter. They have some neat toys but they are still just marines.
If you guys have any subjects you would like me to go more into detail about Grey Knights drop me a line at caldera40k@gmail.com
Friday, June 24, 2011
And so it begins...
My name is Caldera. I've been playing warhammer 40k for 14 years now with a gap where 4th edition should be. Armies I have played and know pretty well are Tyranids, Chaos Marines and now Dark Eldar.
With that out of the way, the reason I am writing this article now is to relay my gaming experience with others. I would like to share my thoughts on my favorite army with you all. be it the avid gamer or newer person to our hobby, my hope is that everyone can take some small piece of the article and apply them to their gaming.
I have wanted to play Dark Eldar for a long time now. Back when this all began for me Dark Eldar, had just been released. I had a choice between them and something else that peaked my interest, Tyranids. Nobody in my area played Dark Eldar though, so I ended up with the nids. Also, the models for DE back then were hideous! Now with the arrival of the new Dark Kin, my eyes just lit up with how gorgeous the models were. I was compelled to rekindle that initial yearning for them. Ok enough of that, on to the meat and potatoes.
My initial thoughts:
Speed - Holy cow this army is fast. I love it. Coming from Tyranids, the outright speed of this army is overwhelming. I didn't know what to do exactly. Even an all foot DE army is fast via web way portals.
Fragility - The army can pack a punch against every other army. With that said though, it hurts to get punched back! This was something I had to learn the hard way how to deal with. Vehicles are opened very easily and my squads can not with stand too much of a beating.
Options - There are so many ways to play this army, it makes me ecstatic thinking about all the ways you could play this codex. All wyches, check. All coven, check. All Warriors, check. Hybrid, check. So many possibilities.
I started with my Dark Eldar in November when they were released. I've played hundreds of games with them versus almost every other combination of army(I love my gaming scene here in Austin). Also, I have taken them to lots of local tournaments, Adepticon, Alamo GT, and Railhead Rumble. I have done fairly well with them so far but they are going to take some more time to master. Dark Eldar are not forgiving of their archons making mistakes!
Now on to what I have learned since I began playing them:
Speed - One of our best assets when you get comfortable with how fast this army can be. The speed becomes a very valuable tool for you. If your opponent knows what your army is capable of, it becomes a weapon for you. It plays mind games with your opponent because they can't make mistakes or they will pay for it. Usually in most games, your opponent only has one good round of shooting to cripple you or you are going to get where you want to be.
Fragility - Pain tokens, pain tokens, pain tokens! The only one that matters is the first one. The rest are just a bonus. With Feel No Pain, my wyches no longer fear being blown out of their transports(which is will happen). Also, when you get in a fight, your durability goes way up. This will cause your opponent to have to deal with your units with more force, in the process limiting their options.
Options - This one just pulls at the hobbyist in me. So many ways I could play this one army. I still have not played with every option yet! I have played with so many different variations though. The things I have found out about them is that there is not a whole lot of bad units in the army. So you can pick the units you like and still have a solid army.
In the end, it all comes down to play style. Thankfully there are many ways to play this book and that is truly fantastic. Some things to take away form this article hopefully; Dark Eldar are a glass cannon, lots of ways to play them and it takes patience to play them long enough to learn the In's and outs. Dark Eldar are not forgiving or easy to play, but they are very rewarding once you get the hang of them.. You will hear the cries of your opponents and it will bring pleasure to your dark soul......as it should be!
Caldera
With that out of the way, the reason I am writing this article now is to relay my gaming experience with others. I would like to share my thoughts on my favorite army with you all. be it the avid gamer or newer person to our hobby, my hope is that everyone can take some small piece of the article and apply them to their gaming.
I have wanted to play Dark Eldar for a long time now. Back when this all began for me Dark Eldar, had just been released. I had a choice between them and something else that peaked my interest, Tyranids. Nobody in my area played Dark Eldar though, so I ended up with the nids. Also, the models for DE back then were hideous! Now with the arrival of the new Dark Kin, my eyes just lit up with how gorgeous the models were. I was compelled to rekindle that initial yearning for them. Ok enough of that, on to the meat and potatoes.
My initial thoughts:
Speed - Holy cow this army is fast. I love it. Coming from Tyranids, the outright speed of this army is overwhelming. I didn't know what to do exactly. Even an all foot DE army is fast via web way portals.
Fragility - The army can pack a punch against every other army. With that said though, it hurts to get punched back! This was something I had to learn the hard way how to deal with. Vehicles are opened very easily and my squads can not with stand too much of a beating.
Options - There are so many ways to play this army, it makes me ecstatic thinking about all the ways you could play this codex. All wyches, check. All coven, check. All Warriors, check. Hybrid, check. So many possibilities.
I started with my Dark Eldar in November when they were released. I've played hundreds of games with them versus almost every other combination of army(I love my gaming scene here in Austin). Also, I have taken them to lots of local tournaments, Adepticon, Alamo GT, and Railhead Rumble. I have done fairly well with them so far but they are going to take some more time to master. Dark Eldar are not forgiving of their archons making mistakes!
Now on to what I have learned since I began playing them:
Speed - One of our best assets when you get comfortable with how fast this army can be. The speed becomes a very valuable tool for you. If your opponent knows what your army is capable of, it becomes a weapon for you. It plays mind games with your opponent because they can't make mistakes or they will pay for it. Usually in most games, your opponent only has one good round of shooting to cripple you or you are going to get where you want to be.
Fragility - Pain tokens, pain tokens, pain tokens! The only one that matters is the first one. The rest are just a bonus. With Feel No Pain, my wyches no longer fear being blown out of their transports(which is will happen). Also, when you get in a fight, your durability goes way up. This will cause your opponent to have to deal with your units with more force, in the process limiting their options.
Options - This one just pulls at the hobbyist in me. So many ways I could play this one army. I still have not played with every option yet! I have played with so many different variations though. The things I have found out about them is that there is not a whole lot of bad units in the army. So you can pick the units you like and still have a solid army.
In the end, it all comes down to play style. Thankfully there are many ways to play this book and that is truly fantastic. Some things to take away form this article hopefully; Dark Eldar are a glass cannon, lots of ways to play them and it takes patience to play them long enough to learn the In's and outs. Dark Eldar are not forgiving or easy to play, but they are very rewarding once you get the hang of them.. You will hear the cries of your opponents and it will bring pleasure to your dark soul......as it should be!
Caldera
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