Warhammer: The Horus Heresy 3rd Edition- Game Thoughts

 When it comes to mass battle games, Warhammer really is the only thing that does it for me in terms of accessibility and gameplay. I've been playing a bit of 40k lately with Eldar and a new Krieg army I've been working on for some Siege of Vraks action, and some very sporadic Old World games, but my main foray into the worlds of Warhammer is in the realm of the Horus Heresy with the multiple armies I've put together over the last 4 years. 

For a game that boils down mostly to Space Marines fighting other Space Marines with a couple of armies on the side, I must say Heresy really makes the most of what it is. With an edition change that's been controversial to say the least, I do genuinely think that 3rd has taken all of the best bits of the previous 2 editions and made it into something unique as opposed to just a carbon copy of old 40k with a few small tweaks. The addition of initiative modifiers to melee weapons is really great to have a more granular system in melee (which I'll share my gripes with later in this piece) and the detachment system makes for more thematic army building, if a little convoluted in terms of learning how to work it out. Once you've figured it out though it's easier than ever to tailor your list to a specific theme without even needing Rites of War that you would've needed before.

This isn't to say the game isn't without its flaws, as any game has. The Weapon Skill chart is the biggest thing, as the jump from WS4 to 5 is huge, and swings melee massively as opposed to the older chart that pushes penalties for hitting higher Weapon Skills to needing a higher difference. I honestly think simply replacing the current 2nd/3rd ed chart with the older 1st ed chart (which is also the same chart in Old World and older 40k editions) would go a long way to making combat feel a lot closer and not the massive disparities that it currently has. Another thing I find a little annoying is the focus for needing units with Line or Vanguard, although you'll almost always have some of these units it is still basically mandatory to have some in order to keep up in scoring from your opponent. This has been something especially apparent for my own Knight army, where I've needed to add Solar Auxilia units as house-guard to be able to claim objectives at all. I do really enjoy the variety in list building though, and I am a person who played entire armies without scoring units in 2nd ed so it isn't a huge issue, but something I've had to factor in with my list building to take a couple of Tactical Squads, Lesser Daemons or Solar Auxilia to get some objective play.

The move from GW across the board in terms of Specialist Games moving from bigger book releases into small journals I think is fantastic, as you can pick up specific books that are relevant to you at a lower price point (and carry around smaller books) if you don't want all the rules. The journals for Heresy do all have some really cool alternate missions in them though, with Zone Mortalis and the armoured missions being something I'm particularly keen to try out as I have tons of vehicles between my Dark Angels and Knights. I'm sure this is something we'll get back to when I get the chance to play the missions, I'll make sure to get some Battle Reports out!

My own personal armies are Dark Angels (my earliest gaming love, and something that's always stuck with me), Emperor's Children and Imperial Knights in what have both become hybrid 30k/40k armies. I love them all for different reasons, but they're all things that I've enjoyed modelling and painting, and although my game time with them has been decidedly less in 3rd ed compared to the dozens of games of 2nd I played, I still love all the games I have. 

My Dark Angels are the stoic defenders of the Imperium, not caring about their own casualties or that of anyone in between them and the objective, focusing mainly on the horrific weaponry of the Dreadwing or the mass vehicular assaults of the Ironwing as those are the aspects of the legion I love the most- Angels of Caliban's opening scene with the Dreadwing armoured assault is what sold me on this build specifically. 

My Knights are House Vyronii, as the feudal background really resonated with me (something I leant into when adding Solar Auxilia for house-guard in 3rd edition), they were a natural addition lore-wise to my Dark Angels and I really like the metallic green colour scheme. Win or lose with them it makes sense as well, as Vyronii take part in some of the most brutal betrayals and horrific battles of the Heresy, so losses and pyrrhic victories are what I love to see on the tabletop as it really reflects their lore. 

My in progress Emperor's Children on the other hand are a late-Heresy, fully traitor army with a ton of Kakophoni/Noise Marines and various marines in stages of corruption as they turn from the purple into a chaotic pink. Fulgrim and a bunch of Slaanesh daemons cap off this army, marking them as very different to my loyalists in both look and feel. All of these armies I had a vision for, and set out to achieve that more than any specific gameplay purposes, and I can say that I am proud of what I have achieved in terms of the story the armies convey.

Fallout Wasteland Warfare- My Thoughts

 Another game I've been playing over the past couple of years is Fallout Wasteland Warfare, the narrative-based game set in the nuclear wastelands of Fallout. I really love the Fallout universe in all its forms, so this game is something I delved quite far into both through the official miniatures and a ton of third party 3d prints. I've got quite a bit of my own miniatures for this (and one very large one) so everything I've attached as pictures is from my own collection.

A big thing to note about FWW is the fact that the game uses specialist dice, in the vein of a Fantasy Flight game like Star Wars Legion or X-Wing. The game uses a variety of dice, but they basically boil down to the success dice (used for every roll other than armour or crits), the armour dice (used to prevent damage), the luck dice (used for special effects, and is just a coin flip), and the extra dice added for specific rolls to change effects of things. Of these there are black (bonus damage), yellow (armour penetration), green (accuracy modifiers) and blue (random effects, the least common of the 4). While this may seem like a lot to keep track of, they share a lot of common features and when rolled in a bunch they can pretty easily be read which is nice, as it takes away from the intimidation factor a bit. I do generally speaking prefer games to use regular dice of whatever form (be that d6, d10 or d20 I've played and enjoyed all of them) but the dice system in FWW is a part of the uniqueness and I don't begrudge the game for it at all, although it is something to note when it comes to accessibility. I'm also not entirely sure how this is changing for 2nd edition, so this is very much a note for the 1st edition of the game specifically.

What I really love most about the game is the scenarios are for the most part designed around set pieces or quests from the games with some tweaks to make them work for a PVP tabletop wargame. The Fallout 76 wave in particular is of note here, as all of the scenarios are based around specific raids from that game which I find really cool from a gameplay point of view. The campaign books are also really great for a linked series of games, where the results of the scenarios either affect specific scenarios ahead or the final scenario of the campaign (the New Vegas campaign for example all affect the Battle of Hoover Dam scenario) so one player can still win a campaign even if their opponent wins the first 4 games. It also means it doesn't necessarily have to be the same 2 people playing the whole campaign, and different people can tag in and out to play different scenarios with their own factions. The one other thing to note is that a significant part of these scenarios use specific models, so to play everything you will need to own quite a lot and have a pretty hefty collection. That said though, with how varied the scenarios are and the variety in model choice you can have a lot of very different games.

My favourite factions on the tabletop are the same as my favourites in the games, both in theme, models and gameplay. I really enjoy the playstyle of NCR and the Brotherhood of Steel, both with smaller models to run objectives and elite heavy hitters to take out enemies and tank hits. Both NCR Veteran Rangers and Brotherhood Paladins are the stars of their factions, and a lot of fun to play. I also really enjoy Robots as a faction, although they're likely to go away with the upcoming 2nd edition changing factions, as the idea of a single controller (usually The Courier for me) buffing and manipulating a series of robots to function better is really mechanically interesting and fun to keep on top of. 

Carnevale as a Beginner Part 1- Gangs

 The natural first part of getting into Carnevale is in getting gangs ready. As I mentioned in previous posts I had already had Rashaar from a few years back, but I've also printed a bunch more since then to really flesh out the faction.

The whole Cult of Dagon and otherworldly fish monster vibe really appeals to me, and it's something I've gravitated to in a few different systems now. When it's come to the few games I've played so far the real standouts to me are the Magi-Rashaar, my favourite design of the leaders but also really fun to play (and I really want to print the Extreme Magi at some stage soon) and the Karcharos. Giant landshark is just such a cool idea, and it's great fun to play as well so it's seeing a lot of table time (although I'm trying to branch out and try the other monsters). Advanced Hybrids are also a favourite of mine, although they've been a bit more hit and miss compared to the others that I've used. 

All the factions have quite a bit of flavour and uniqueness, and multiple sub-factions to delve into if synergies and theme is your thing (I definitely appreciate it myself). The minis themselves are all fantastic, and with the Extreme sculpts coming there are some really great models coming out that are super accessible with 3d printing. I live in Australia and shipping from TTCombat is often quite expensive so 3d printing where possible is the best option for me, although I definitely do plan on ordering for some things at some point soon to finish off the Rashaar with some bigger monsters. 

The rest of my group have split a bit between currently playing Strigoi and Doctors, although we have a Vatican player and the Doctors player has also printed a bunch of Guild so Patricians and Gifted are the only factions currently not represented, although I'm planning on a Patricians list with a few Gifted in it so that will be another faction covered at some stage soon. 

Warmachine Battle Report- Goreshade vs Arkadius

 In a bit of a throwback I decided to pull out my old Cryx for Warmachine to play with a friend, who has been printing and painting Farrow since they've been made available as part of Warmachine 3D. I brought out my old favourite Banes led by Goreshade, and faced a Warbeast-heavy list fueled by the mad Dr Arkadius. 

My initial advance was somewhat spread out, with Goreshade in the middle, a unit of Bane Knights either end with a Deathripper, and Tartarus, a unit of Warriors with command, a Desecrator and Deathwalker all around Goreshade. The goal was to get the arc nodes up so I could start slinging Hex Blasts into grouped units (which was successful in wiping the Bone Grinders turn 2) and try and get the units into position to do as much damage as possible early for a Goreshade Feat run at Arkadius.

As things advanced I was facing 2 Hogs on one flank, and Lytiersis on the other. I had hoped the Warriors could deal with Lytiersis while the Knights moved the other way to take both Hogs, but ultimately they dealt a little bit of damage before all getting killed by Lytiersis, who then had to deal with a Desecrator before he could reach Goreshade. 

With all the Knights moving over, Tartarus unfortunately was priority target and the first to die. The Knights ended up doing quite a lot to the War Hog, although they didn't quite get through the Road Hog. A few rounds of Gunfighter on the Flamethrower did work, putting damage onto Goreshade and killing Deathwalker although not doing much to the Banes in front of it.

Arkadius took an unlucky 11 damage hit from the Desecrator's gun, which was forced onto a lone Razor Boar looking down Goreshade. He then managed to Feat on Arkadius after a Psychic Surgery, sneak a slam onto the Desecrator from Lytiersis, knocking down Goreshade in the process, the Road Hog shooting to take Goreshade to 1 wound remaining before the Razor Boar finished him off and ending the game. It was a real hail mary of a turn as I had quite a lot of Banes remaining and had them within charge range of Arkadius the next turn, but unfortunately the gamble paid off and Goreshade got taken out. My first game of Warmachine since early Mk3 it's been a real experience coming back, but I had a lot of fun and I'm now looking at printing an all Monstrosity Cephalyx list for a bit of fun and to have some variety

Carnevale- Game Thoughts

 Carnevale is quickly becoming one of my preferred tabletop skirmish games, dripping with flavour and incentivising some really cool terrain layouts that I've been enjoying getting into a lot. I've owned models for the game for a few years now, but with the new MyMiniFactory Tribe a few friends have also gotten in and I've gotten a lot of terrain printed for the game, so we can play properly the past few weeks. You may have seen in my recent Trench Crusade Battle Report all the Venetian terrain I've been working on, as it works for that game as well and I've been getting a lot of use out of it.

The first thing I've come to notice about Carnevale is how unique it is, partly in terms of flavour and partly in terms of gameplay. The vibes of the game in terms of how it represents Venice really feels perfect, as the table itself is balanced around land, rooftops and the canals. Some factions favour the water, with extra speed and immunity to being drowned, while some hate getting wet (the armour of the Vatican knights in particular is a real liability in water, but a massive strength on land) and the ability to throw someone with a gun into a canal to stop them shooting is a really nice alternative to killing them outright. Other factions however much prefer being on the rooftops, with rooftop traversal being far easier for these factions and extra bonuses for attacking from above. All of this combined means immersive tables is best, and there's so many ways you can put things together in ways that are really cool and thematic. The focus on terrain is something that although it was the biggest barrier for entry on my part for a while (I was working on my table for a few months before it actually got put together and played on) once you have a core of terrain it's really easy to play around with and modify with a couple of other pieces to make something awesome.

The scenarios in Carnevale and how they work is also quite interesting, as unlike most games you don't write a list until after you know the scenario you're playing. This is somewhat similar to Malifaux, which I've played for a decade now and I've posted quite a lot about, but with the difference you don't know what your opponent is playing on paper (although in practice you often do based on the nature of people's collections). This lets a player with a bigger collection tailor their list to any given scenario, so you can't end up locking yourself out by taking things that can't climb rooftops when all the objectives are up there for example, or things that can't move far in water with water based objectives. This is a clever way to make sure players can both tailor to the scenario in ways that will benefit them, but also in a way that means someone doesn't accidentally show up with a list that is favoured in a scenario where there opponent is screwed because they built a different list type. The other thing with scenarios I really like about Carnevale is the linked campaign system, with most campaigns involving a series of 5 scenarios following on from each other. These campaigns don't actually care who wins the first 4 scenarios which stops someone from running away with a campaign early on, but the result of one game does affect the next one, giving the winner a slight bonus in the next scenario. This is similar to the campaign system from Fallout Wasteland Warfare, another game that I've really loved the scenario system from. 

I've really delved deep into the Rashaar as my faction of choice, as one of the things I tend to gravitate towards in miniatures is fish cultists and sea monsters, something Rashaar have in spades. I love the mix of alien monsters from another dimension with their cultists and I've collected quite a bit for the faction already. I'm tossing up between Patricians, Guild and Doctors at the moment for a 2nd faction but I can't settle on something I really love as much as Rashaar

Trench Crusade- My Thoughts

 Where else should I start other than by saying since I've started playing it during the Kickstarter period about 18 months ago, Trench Crusade has become my gaming love. There isn't any other game I'm enjoying anywhere near as much right now, and I recently flew down from Sydney to Melbourne to attend Arcfest for 2 days just to play Trench and meet Tuomas Pirinen, the mastermind behind it. This is to say that none of what I'm writing here is objective, and there is a lot of personal bias behind my thoughts as I really do love the game.

The key to the game is how simple it is- you roll 2d6 and need 7+ for successes, and 9+ on injuries to kill enemies. There's a lot more nuance when it comes down to modifiers and looking into scenarios, but at the heart of it the gameplay loop is incredibly simple and easy to pick up. Generally speaking every faction have basic troops with 0s for bonuses (some have negatives for real cheap chaff), some better troops with +1 in either melee or ranged and then proper Elite models that can have multiple bonuses to stats (Leaders always have +2 or even +3) and can gain experience in campaigns right off the bat. Elites are where your fun is going to be most of the time, but I've found a lot of the better basic troops to be the thing that really draws people in from a purely vibes based level. It's the War Wolves, Artillery Witches, Stigmatic Nuns, Brazen Bulls and Mechanised Infantry that draws people in more than anything. The thing is though that there really isn't any wrong way to do it, as most factions and most playstyles give a fairly rewarding experience and are definitely fun to play. 

Expanding a bit on what I said earlier, the modifiers for success and injury rolls are where the game really comes into its own in terms of the gameplay loop. Whether or not to spend Blood Markers (Trench Crusade's mechanic instead of having wounds on any models- everything is as easy to kill as any other for the most part) on an enemy's success rolls to make things harder for them to achieve, or save them to try and kill them easier is a real choice, although usually it is better to make your opponent fail actions as that is where scoring will come out. The Risky Action mechanic is something to note here as well, as failing a regular action simply means you fail and can continue the activation, while if you fail a Risky Action then your activation immediately ends. This can often end up being incredibly punishing (failing a Dash is likely the biggest gamble in Trench Crusade) but what it usually means is you save Risky Actions until last, so you can do as much as possible.

In a really unique thing compared to most other skirmish games, Trench Crusade doesn't have models with a lot of wounds so that your warband sticks around longer. If you roll a 9+ on a damage roll then the target is dead, end of discussion. Armour plays a factor in this, as well as a few other less-common rules that give negatives to injury rolls, but for the most part killing something is as easy as rolling a 7+ then a 9+. This does mean armour is an absolute must on important models, but even things that are super hard to kill will usually get stacked with Blood Markers that can be used in their own mini-game as I mentioned earlier. Even if you aren't killing something outright, you're almost always putting down Blood Markers or even knocking enemies prone, both of which are important debuffs that you can also use to benefit yourself to achieve victory.

Something I've noticed a lot of people question is the lack of trenches in Trench Crusade. To this I'll say that the game and the world isn't entirely made out of trench lines (just like the 40k universe isn't made up entirely of L-shapes) and there is a ton of scope for tables of all varieties. The game rules specify 3 different setups, all of which are able to be mixed but also built entirely separate to make really immersive tables-

• No Man's land (where most scenarios should be played) with a mix of trenches, ruins, hills and broken natural features
• Decimated Ruins in the ruins of towns and villages. These tables will be the most evocative of Mordheim styles of terrain, and indeed Mordheim terrain is perfect for these boards
• Trench Lines are the table most people expect, with the board being criss-crossed with trench lines and barbed wire, dotted with ruined tanks and bunkers.

The variety in scenarios for Trench Crusade is also something I really appreciate. Although not as massive in scope as some of the other games I've been playing recently, there are still a lot of scenarios and each one operates pretty differently. From simple claiming buildings and looting objectives, killing the foe (or hunting heroes specifically) to hunting a rampaging dragon or storming a beach there are a lot of different ways to express the medieval crusader/WW1 mix of vibes that Trench Crusade has. I haven't played every scenario because I'm missing a couple of the more unique models that I need, but I'm working on getting those done so I can play everything and adapt them into my campaigns.

The campaign system is also a ton of fun, and I really like the way that things end up working out in terms of a narrative. My last campaign for example I had a Trench Cleric become possessed from an injury while fighting a Trench Ghost warband, which I felt was incredibly thematic, and the possession got him facing more injuries as he was forced into danger. He then got a skill while at 2/3 injuries to increase his limit before death, only to get injured again the next game and survive as a result. It's those little things that help in creating your own narrative behind the games and what happens in them that really make campaigns great I think, and the exploration options are really flavourful and often quite useful in what they give. I did have a campaign where almost everyone found a Book of Golems, which was quite funny to see all of them running around afterwards!

I've played and have warbands for every faction currently, and some factions multiple. My real loves though are Red Brigade New Antioch and Heretic Naval Raiders, as they really gel with the style of play I like. Close ranged, high speed and hard hitting but somewhat fragile, it's a playstyle that I lean towards in almost every game and will likely continue to. Plus Red Brigade lets me take a bunch of dogs and that's a huge plus for any wargame. 

Blood in the Canals - Trench Crusade Battle Report

 Hello again everyone, after a long hiatus! I've come back to writing to put my thoughts out there again, starting with a battle report of a game I had last night of Trench Crusade

Battle lines drawn up, using my new Venice terrain and the heretic submarine from Diceverse. Reading the Trench Crusade lore and seeing Venice is newly taken by the forces of hell, and building up a table to play Carnevale (more on that later) I decided to make a heretical dockyard table, with the submarine being an amazing centrepiece

I brought along my Defenders of the Iron Wall to play against Andrew's Highland Wolves Assault Cadre, with the forces of the Kingdom of Alba bringing a lot of Machine Armour and some heavy-duty weaponry. A significant part of my forces were invested into the Captain and the Brazen Bull, both of which I wanted to try out some of the recent rule changes to see how they went. I have a notoriously bad track record with Sultanate outside of Assassins, but I really love the idea behind Defenders so I keep trying to make them work for me. 

Firing positions secured, the Sniper Priest looks from his rooftop perch while across the battlefield, a Siege Jezzail team mobilises

Something very representative of this game- we both failed almost every single dash attempt!

Round 1 and 2 was mostly advancing, with some pot shots made across the table plinking off each other's heavy armour (Andrew's Machine Armour and my Captain and Mamluk all in -3 armour). The Scots did manage to get into quite an advantageous position on top of the submarine though, and that MG on top of the sub had a great firing spot to rain hell onto my poor Azebs. The Janissaries took more punishment, but the MG still got one of them before the game was up.

In some incredibly bad luck (and sensationally poor tactics on my part, but also cinematic) my Captain shot into a combat between the Scottish Lieutenant and my Brazen Bull, both of which had already lost tough, and managed to kill my own Bull before not doing any further damage the rest of the game. The Bull's tough got stripped by a brave Shocktrooper, who unfortunately managed to scatter his own Satchel Charge onto himself and was slain in the process, but hurting the beast was a worthy sacrifice. 

The game devolved at this point into a scrum at the edge of the canal, with 2 Mechanised Heavy Infantry jumping into the Captain (one with a diving charge off the submarine!) and none of them doing any damage whatsoever. There were a lot of 11s rolled, but with -3 armour and not a single 12 to be seen nobody actually died here. However, the rest of the Scots managed to thin me down to 3 models by the end of the game with the only casualty their brave Shocktrooper, making it a fairly decisive victory for the forces of New Antioch. Not enough to reclaim Venice it seems, but the loss for the Sultanate will surely be felt.