Review/Drinking Game: Warhams 40k 7Ed: Send Help

[maglag]

These days, there are enough weird enemy types that you may need multiple specialist weaponry. Monstrous creatures need multiple high strength attacks to pop because of their multiple wounds, but don't need or benefit from super high single target effects and are only hit once by blasts. Aircraft have their own stupid rules that I can't be fucked to learn. And so on. How much you need to pack of any particular weapon type is wholly up to the discretion of your opponent. In most versions of 40k, "degenerate" armies, where all your points go towards units of one target type are quite effective, which may invalidate many weapons that your opponent might have. So for example, your opponent might be a Guard Tank Company, in which case all the splinter rifles in your entire army serve literally no purpose and you hope you brought enough Dark Lances because otherwise the battle is literally over as soon as the players show each other their lists. But against "most" armies, you will get most of your important kills by shooting at infantry, with a variable number of variously harder targets that you also want to do something about.

Actually, the current golden rule is to basically pack as much high power low AP weapons as your army can.

Imperial Knights means that you may be facing an army made of only giant robots. And the infantry armies are hiding their troops inside METAL BOXES, and/or Feel No Pain, so it's very rare that your high Str weapons will be wasted.

In particular when most units already have anti-infantry options packed in. That tactical team comes with at least 4 "free" bolters besides the dude with a special/heavy weapon. The fireprism comes with a "free" large blast attack. The imperial knight can always make stomp attacks to crush blobs regardless of what weapons it brought. Necrons have the infamous gauss weaponry that melts whatever it shoots regardless if it's a land raider or guardsmen. The riptide is infamous for both having an "anti-everything" main weapon while being stupidly tough with 2+/3++ saves plus T6 with multiple wounds.

The only other target that matters are fliers, which means you either bring your own fliers, stuff with skyfire, or heavy weapons that shoot a lot so that some of your snapshots hit.

And I am aware that there are a number of degenerate armies that are so hard to fight that the Imperial Fists aren't even considered good. And that makes me weep.

-Username17

Yeah, nobody really cares that you can re-roll 1s on bolter shots when you're facing 3 imperial knights that are fully immune or half a dozen riptides that may as well be immune to bolters (you'll need 36 shots hitting to score one wound in average).

[Koumei]

It really can sometimes be as bad as maglag says. For a lot of foes, especially the "Hi look at all my Knights", stuff like "All Melta Guns are Twin-Linked" is what you want, even though you maybe have one Melta per five men. For Riptides and shit, you probably want to make your guns Rending or put Poison on everything.

Anyway. I'd like to take a moment to tell everyone about Ass Cannons.


They will go down in the anals of history as a fundamental part of your weapons suppository.

It's a special Space Marines Gatling Gun. Back in second edition, it was S 8 with -3 Save modifier (so ~= AP 4), and you rolled three Sustained Fire Dice. I can't remember if they were 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, JAM or if they were 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, JAM. Anyway, if you roll Triple Jams, the weapon explodes, instantly killing the wielder, fuck you and your "3+ on 2d6" Armour Save, you're dead.

Over time that changed, removing the explosion, removing the randomness to a fixed rate of fire without jamming, then everyone agreeing they should be S 6 but fucking Rending. At that point Rending was practically exclusive to Harlequins (who were going through a rough patch between their crazy 2E "You die" weapons and their current 7E sweet form) and Tyranids. And it was all close combat. Suddenly Space Marines had ranged Rending, because go fuck yourself.

Because of this, people found Rending to be a bit too good (ON RANGED PLATFORMS), and weakened it down in... 5E? It had been "6 to hit == auto Wound, no saves of any kind at all" and "6 to hit? == Armourbane" (might actually be "6 to Penetrate a vehicle gives you an extra d6", making it a different roll that triggers the Rend based on whether your target is a tank or not). Anyway, it changed to the current form: 6 to Wound always Wounds regardless of Toughness, no Armour Saves, and 6 to Penetrate gives you an extra 1d3 on the Penetration. Tyranids became sad because Space Marines are [EDITED]. This is a trend that would continue.

And that is the story of ASS CANNONS. Now they have no real weaknesses and are a slice of fried gold, you should take as many as possible. Also you should convince everyone else to call them ass cannons so the term sticks.

Also in 2E there was an Ultramarines character called Helveticus. He carried a special Standard.
Helveticus.
Standard.



I miss the stupid jokes.

So anyway, FAST ATTACK:
Assault Squads


5-10 guys without Jump Packs, including a Sarge who can be upgraded to Veteran status. BP, CCW, Grenades. You can upgrade them to have Jump Packs or you can give them a Rhino, Razorback or Drop Pod. Two can swap their Bolt Pistols for either Flamers or Plasma Pistols. 1/5 models can swap both weapons for an Eviscerator. The Sarge has access to Melee Weapons, swapping his pistol for a Plasma or Grav Pistol, and can take Melta Bombs and a Combat Shield. Yes at 5 men, you can have each person equipped with different weapons. The new plastic kit looks nice, but I can't work up the enthusiasm for a bunch of melee guys.

Scout Bikes


3-10 Bikes (including Sarge who can upgrade to a Veteran), with BP, Shotgun, Grenades and Bike (with Twin-Linked Bolters). Infiltrate and Scout. They can take Cluster Mines to fuck with one pre-determined piece of cover, and up to 3 can swap the bolters for single Grenade Launchers. The Sergeant can take appropriate upgrades, and a Locator Beacon, which is pretty handy for bringing your Terminators in accurately.

Bike Squad


3-8 Bikes (including Sarge who can upgrade to a Veteran) with BP, Grenades and a Bike with Twin Bolters. Can include one Attack Bike with either a Heavy Bolter or a Multi-Melta. No Heavy Flamers - can one of the Americans here mount their flamethrower on a motorbike and tell me what happens if they fire it while driving? I really want to know. Anyway, Pistols can be swapped for Chainswords, and drink once because that does absolutely fucking nothing. Two of them can take Special Weapons. The Sergeant can take Sergeantly upgrades. Also if you have an Independent Character with a Bike, these guys are now Troops. That means less than it used to, and has no effect on the Decurion. Whatevs.

Attack Bike Squad


1-3 Attack Bikes (2 Wounds each) with Heavy Bolters. They can swap for Multi-Meltas. They look kind of stupid and I'm not sure there's a way to fix that without ditching the idea of "motorbike with a side buggy".

Land Speeder Storm

Nice shading and edgework on that one.

10/10/10 with 2 HP, Open-Topped Fast Skimmer. Holds 5 models, and only Scouts (including their Sergeants, Telion and such). Deep Strike, Scout, Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (18" S 4 AP 6 Large Blast, Blinding). Jamming Beacon doubles the number of scatter dice for enemies trying to Derp Strike to within 12" of it. Doesn't affect "You do not Scatter" things, obviously. Can swap the Heavy Bolter for a Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta, or Ass Cannon. This is a good transport because it fucks with the enemy as a great Support thing.

Land Speeders


1-3 Deep Striking Fast Skimmers with 10/10/10 and 2 HP. If you have three, they cause an anti-grav upwash that lets them move an extra 6" when going Flat Out. Fuck you, Eldar, WE'RE THE FASTEST SKIMMERS. Has a Heavy Bolter (can swap for a Heavy Flamer or Multi-Melta), and can also take an extra Heavy Bolter, heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta, Ass Cannon, or a Heavy 2 Missile Launcher.

Rhino


Or


METAL BOXES! These are the same as ever.

Razorback
Current:


Lego:


Original, as painted by GQ and seen in the 2Ed Dex and not sold as a children's toy:


These are the same as in a long time. Twin Heavy Bolters, but you can swap for a Twin Heavy Flamer, Twin Lascannon, Twin Ass Cannon, or one Lascannon and Twin Plasma (ie the classic Razorback).

Drop Pod


It's a Drop Pod, you know what these do. Now often found housing Ophanim Choirs Sisters Dominion. With Melta Guns.

Stormtalon


Papercraft version:


It's a Hover Flyer. 11/11/11 with 2 HP. Looks like a potato with bits added on. Ceramite Plating (Melta does not apply), Twin Ass Cannon, Twin Heavy Bolter. BS 5 against Ground Targets, and if it Zooms flat-out, it gets +6" of speed (haha Eldar). It gets +1 to Jink saves when Hovering. It can swap the Bolters for a Skyhammer Launcher (60" S 7 AP 4 Heavy 3), a Twin Lascannon, or a Heavy 2 Missile Launcher.

Heavy will be later. Probably in a few days - I'm going dark over the weekend.

[OgreBattle]

I'm pretty sure all of the imperium's vehicle Standard Construction Template actually comes from a 40,000 year old copy of Advance War found on mars:

[maglag]

More acurattely, they found a compilation which besides Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2, and Advance Wars Dual strike, included Advance Wars: Evangelion Rebirth, which shall only be made in 2035 after successful Mars colonization. That explains the Imperium's love for giant robots.

[GâtFromKI]

The lego dreadnought is awesome. Lego should definitely create a WH40K brand.

[Koumei]

I return, to review... HEAVY SUPPORT
And also more Lego:


Devastator Squad


5-10 Marines (with Sergeant/Veteran). BP, Boltgun, Grenades. Sergeant gets a Signum, so he can forego shooting to let someone else in the squad fire at BS 5. Up to four can take Heavy Weapons (no Heavy Flamers though). Sarge can take a Cherub which does something, and can take the usual options. They can take the usual transports.

Centurion Devastator Squad


3-6 of the massive guys, one is a Sarge (can be a Veteran). Each has a Hurricane Bolter and a Twin Heavy Bolter, and they can fire two weapons each. Any can swap the Hurricane Bolter for a Missile Launcher. Any can swap the Twin Heavy Bolter for a Twin Lascannon or a Grav Cannon + Grav-Amp. Sergeant can take an Omniscope, unit can take any flavour of Land Raider.

Thunderfire Cannons


1-3 Artillery cannons (T 7 W 2 Sv 3+), each with a Techmarine (BP, Grenades, Servo Harness). They get Bolster Defences, just like a Techmarine, and if there are three cannons in the unit, the gunners all get +1 BS. If there's only one, you can take a Pod. The cannons have three fire modes:
-Surface: S 6 AP 5 Heavy 4 Barrage, Blast
-Airburst: S 5 AP 6 Heavy 4 Barrage, Blast, Ignores Cover
-Underground: S 4 AP - Heavy 4 Barrage, Blast, Strikedown

Predators


1-3 tanks with Autocannon Turrets. If you have 3, they gain the Monster Hunter and Tank Hunter rules. Any can swap the Autocannon for a Twin Lascannon. Any can take a pair of Sponsons with Heavy Bolters or Lascannons.

Whirlwinds

Warning stripes for giant fuck-off missile launchers. Health and Safety Gone Mad.

1-3 tanks with big explosion launchers (1-4 feet. S 5 AP 4 Ord 1 Barrage, Large Blast. Or S 4 AP 5 Ignores Cover, choose at the start of the battle). If you have 3, their missiles all gain Pinning and Shred.

Vindicators


1-3 tanks with Demolisher cannons (close range S 10 AP 2 Ord 1 Large Blast). They can take siege shields. If there are three of them, they can choose to combine their fire into one Apocalyptic Blast that Ignores Cover.

Hunters


1-3 tanks with special anti-aircraft Missile Launchers. If the missile misses a Flyer, Flying Monster, Skimmer or Jetbike, then place a token next to the target. Next turn roll a die and remove the token. On a 5+, the missile locked on, arcs around and hits on the way back (hitting the Rear Armour if need be). If you have 3 of these in a unit, you can re-roll that die.

Stalkers


1-3 tanks with Icarus Stormcannon Arrays. If you have 3, they Ignore Cover.
These weapons are 48" S 7 AP 4 Heavy 3, Skyfire, Interceptor. So they shoot ground and air targets, and shoot you when you drop in. When shooting, select one or two targets. Against just one, it's Twin-Linked.

Stormraven Gunship


Flyer with Hover Mode, 12/12/12 and 3 Hull Points. Twin Ass Cannon (can swap for Twin Plasma Cannon or Twin Lascannon), Twin Heavy Bolter (can swap for Twin Multi-Melta or Heavy 2 Missile Launcher), Four Stormstrike Missiles (72" S 8 AP 2 single-use, Concussive). Ceramite Plating, Assault Vehicle, Power of the Machine Spirit, and if it moves more than 6" passengers can leap out, possibly to their deaths, and cannot charge that turn. It can take a Locator Beacon, and can swap the two side access points for a pair of Hurricane Bolters.

It can hold up to 12 guys and one Dreadnought.

Land Raider


You know how these things work. No change in a long time. 4 Hull Points.

Land Raider Crusader


These also haven't changed since 3rd Edition. 4 Hull Points.

Land Raider Redeemer


These haven't changed since 4th Edition. 4 Hull Points.

LORD OF WAR
Marneus Calgar


He is a big pile of numbers and stats. Lets you pick your (Space Marines) Warlord Trait if he's the Warlord, and gives you an extra Doctrine use per game that affects all of your Ultramarines. Has a pair of Power Fists that hit at normal Initiative.

[Koumei]

So now we can cover the Decurion:

The Battle Demi-Company is the Core choice, and requires: 1 Captain or Chaplain*, including special characters of the relevant chapter, 0-1 Command Squad, 3 Tactical Squads, 1 of [Assault Squad, Bike Squad, Attack Bike Squad, Land Speeder Squadron, Centurion Assault Squad], 1 Devastator or Centurion Devastator Squad, 0-1 unit of Dreads or Ironclad Dreads or Venerable Dreads. The whole thing gets Ob-Sec, and you get an extra use of the Tactical Doctrine, for that Demi-Company.
*If you take two Battle Demi-Companies for the "Free transports!", you need one of each here.

Anti-Air Defence Force (Auxilairy)
1x Hunters, 1x Stalkers. Must have at least 2 Stalkers in their unit. If a Hunter causes a Hit on a Flyer or Flying Monster, all the Stalkers get +1 BS for that phase against that target.

1st Company Task Force (Auxiliary)
3-5 units from: Terminator Squad, Terminator Assault Squad, Sternguard Vets, Vanguard Vets. They gain Fear and Fearless, and enemies within 12" of at least 3 units from the formation are at -2 Ld. Before deployment, nominate one enemy unit. The formation gets Preferred Enemy (that unit).

Strike Force Alpha (Auxiliary)
1 Captain with Terminator Armour (can be Lysander), 2 Terminator Squads, 2 Terminator Assault Squads, 1 Venerable Dread, 1 Stormraven, 1 Land Raider Crusader or Redeemer. Everything in the unit which is not a transport vehicle must begin embarked on a transport vehicle or held in Derp Strike Reserves. You shove the entire thing in Reserves and roll for them as one unit. When Terminators first disembark or Derp Strike, all of their ranged weapons make an extra shot each for that turn. Termassaulters get +1 Attack when they disembark.

Reclusiam Command Squad (Auxiliary)
1 Chaplain (can be Cassius) and Command Squad. He has to join the squad and can't leave it, and they all have to take a Razorback together. They gain the Crusader rule, and all friendly Space Marines within 6" of the Chaplain re-roll Misses in the first round of an assault.

10th Company Task Force (Auxiliary)
3-5 units of: Scouts, Scout Bikes. 0-1 Telion. Bikes have to take Cluster Mines. Anyone who Infiltrates and doesn't have Stealth is Concealed, gaining Stealth until they move, shoot, run, Turbo Boost, charge, fall back or whatever. And during turn 1, they all have Precision Shots.

Storm Wing (Auxiliary)
1 Stormraven and 2 Stormtalons. The Stormraven gets +1 BS against ground opponents as long as at least one Stormtalon remains. Also they're treated as one unit for Reserves, referencing the old "Escort Craft" rules that Stormtalons had back when they only had a White Dwarf entry, for 5Ed.

Centurion Siegebreaker (Auxiliary)
2-4 Centurion Assault Squads and 1 unit of Ironclad Dreads. If any one model in a unit has an Omniscope, the whole unit re-rolls failed Penetration against buildings, and if anything from this formation causes a transport or building to lose its last Hull Point, anyone inside gets hit for 2d6 S 6 AP 4 hits that ignore cover.

Land Raider Spearhead (Auxiliary)
3 Land Raiders of any kind. Any part of the formation that is close to any other part of the formation ignores Crew Shaken, Crew Stunned, Weapon Destroyed and Immobilised results (but still takes the Hull Point). They also get to re-roll failed To Wound/Armour Penetration rolls against Gargantuan Creatures, Super-Heavy Vehicles, and Mighty Bulwark Buildings. If you could include non-Codex Land Raiders (like the Terminus Ultra - 3x Twin Lascannon, 2x Single Lascannon, GET REKT), this would be pretty crazy for killing Super-Heavies.

Librarius Conclave (Auxiliary)
3-5 Librarians (one can be Tigurius). Each Psychic Phase, you get to point to one Librarian in the formation, and he can steal powers known by others within 12" (but they can't use any powers that Phase). If one of them is near him, he harnesses Warp Charges on a 3+, and if 2 or more are close that becomes a 2+.

Armoured Task Force (Auxiliary)
1 Techmarine, 0-3 Thunderfire units, 0-1 Sergeant Chronus, and 3-5 units from: Vindicators, Predators, Whirlwinds. Vehicles ignore Crew Shaken/Stunned (not the HP damage) when close to any Techmarines from the formation, who also get +1 to their "Fix that piece of shit" rolls for repairing these vehicles.

Suppression Force (Auxiliary)
This is basically the same as an old Apocalypse Datasheet. 1 unit of Whirlwinds (at least 2 models) and 1 unit of Land Speeders. Each Shooting Phase, one Land Speeder gets to nominate an enemy unit within 18" (but cannot move Flat Out if it does this). If the Whirlwinds attack that unit, their missile launchers have infinite range and re-roll To Hit rolls. I assume they mean re-roll scatter, but that means a drink is due!

It would be grand if Forgeworld crapped out a 1-2 page document saying things like "This character can be taken in that Formation". Because these formation specify "1 Captain ([these listed captains] can be taken in place of a Captain" and not "1 Captain (including named special character Captains)".

AND THAT IS IT. SPACE MARINES ARE FUCKING DONE. Next post I will tidy up with the final thing, Mont'ka, and after that I'm probably done.

[DrPraetor]

Heavy will be later. Probably in a few days - I'm going dark over the weekend.

I hate to ask a stupid question, but why is Helvetica Standard using the Evangelion Spear of Longinus to spear a slice of cheesecake (or bean curd or whatever pastry that is)?

This is... a Japanese pun?

Best,
Sam

[Koumei]

I'm not sure there really is a reason for the fork to basically be the Lance of Longinus.

Right, so onto War Zone Damocles: Monte Carlos


This is a campaign book about Tau vs Imperium. I don't have the first one and don't really care. However, they did introduce a new Space Marine character (and formations for the Ravens or Scars or whatever), complete with mini, and a new Tau Ethereal, complete with mini.

Now this is the second book, and having just introduced a new Tau character, with rules and description and a special mini for people to buy for a hundred million dollars... yes, you guessed it, they kill him off in this book.

Now yes, the Tau basically win, but it's a Pyrrhic victory for them, and to their mindset that means it's a crushing defeat, because they don't belong in a setting where there is never real progress and it's always Status Quo and nobody ever gets a clean victory. But the Imperium was the actual army who had to go home and really lick its wounds and admit (in private) that they lost, while reporting home that it was a huge success and they set the entire system on fire just to prove how badass they are.

Yeah, a planet is on fire, as is the "Gulf of Damocles" which used to be a handy way of getting to that planet. Basically, a labyrinth of space lanes in the giant star cloud. Yes, Imperials have their own way of getting there, much faster and only with a somewhat significant risk of daemon attack.

And yes, you can obviously still use the mini and rules - death hasn't stopped other characters from continuing to exist in the rules. But it's still a pointless, dickish thing to do.

It's seriously worth pointing out that the Tau basically held even/drove back the combined Astra Militarum, Space Marines, Imperial Knights AND Adeptus Mechanicus, and they only suffered their "real" loss (the death of their hero) thanks to an attack by four Imperial Assassins (one of each).

In this book, we also learn that Tau bleed red (no they fucking don't).

I will grudgingly admire the quantity of quality artwork in this book, too.


Right, so why am I covering this book anyway? Well, it adds a Decurion for the Astra Militarum (Catachan specifically, but whatevs).

1+ Command choice (Battle Group Command: 1 Company Command or Tank Commander, plus 0-1 Lord Commissar, no special rules)
0-3 Core per Command
0-3 Auxiliary per Core

Benefits: Company Commanders are better at issuing orders (more and further), roll 3drop1 for Ld tests for orders, and re-roll all To Hit rolls of 1 with Lasguns and Hot-Shot Lasguns.

Auxiliary/Component: Emperor's Shield Infantry Platoon
1 Infantry Platoon (must include at least five Infantry squads, no transports) and 1-3 units of Scout Sentinels or Armoured Sentinels. Infantry get Move Through Cover when close to Sentinels, and the Commander gets to shout "Shoot, counting as Stationary even if you moved!" at the Infantry.

Core: Emperor's Shield Infantry Company
1 Company Command Squad and 3 Emperor's Shield Infantry Platoons. Yes, a minimum of 19 squads of infantry (15 Infantry, 3 Platoon Command, 1 Company Command - so 170+ mans). The Company Commander can issue "Everyone shoot shoot shoot!" and have that affect as many units as he wants, with one Ld test, all against the same target.

Core: Emperor's Fist Armoured Company
1 Tank Commander (with at least one extra as normal), 3 Lemon Ruski squadrons (any kind), 1-3 Enginseers. Yes, this is a Core choice, yes your army can basically consist of LR tanks, this is awesome. Tanks from this formation that are close to Enginseers find that Penetrating Hits are Not Very Effective (roll twice and drop the highest), tanks get BS 4 when close to the commander, and if a bunch of these Tank Shock or Ram the same target in the same turn, you:
-Subtract 1 Ld for the Tank Shock, per extra tank
-Add 1 to the ram damage for the Ram, per extra tank. Except they're already Strength 7 (half of Front Armour 13-14), +1 for being a Tank, +2 for being Heavy, == Strength 10. DRINK ONCE.

Auxiliary: Emperor's Talon Recon Company
2-4 units of Sentinels (any). Each has to be the full 3 models. They gain Outflank, and you pick one target at the start and they all get Preferred Enemy (that unit). Also one Sentinel is the Commander, who can issue certain commands to Sentinels at Ld 8.

Auxiliary: Emperor's Blade Assault Company
1 Company Command Squad (in a Chimera or Taurox), 3x Veterans (in Chimerae or Tauroxes), 1-3 squadrons of Hellhounds (or Banewolves or Devildogs or a mix or whatever). All units have Preferred Enemy (enemies close to Objectives), and the Infantry all have Ob-Sec. This is a pretty good one, and I wouldn't fault anyone for taking one or two of these.

Auxiliary: Emperor's Wrath Artillery Company
1 Company Command Squad (in a Chimera or Taurox), 1-3 Enginseers, 1 Manticore or Deathstrike, and 2 units of either Basilisks, Hydras or Wyverns. The Company Commander can issue certain commands to vehicles from this formation (Ld 8). Once per turn, one model with a Vox Caster (not necessarily from this formation) can call in coordinates of a nearby enemy. This formation then gets Twin-Link against that enemy. This is grand. Take a couple.

Auxiliary: Ogryn Auxilia
1 Commissar, 2 Ogryn units, 2 Bullgryn units. If one unit charges an enemy, then another unit also charges, the second unit gets S 7 for HoW hits. Also they're all Fearless when within 12" of the Commissar.

Auxiliary: Psykana Division
1 Primaris Psyker, 3 units of Wyrdvane Psykers, 1-3 Commissars. The Primaris knows any powers known by any Wyrdvanes that are close, and for every 5 Wyrdvane close to him, he gets an extra Mastery Level (but not powers known). Any unit of Wyrdvane joined by a Commissar gets to harness Warp Charges on a 2+, but if they fail the test, one model is instantly executed. This also happens if they roll Perils, but that prevents Perils from happening at all.

Auxiliary: Emperor's Fury Super-Heavy Company
1 Enginseer and 3 Super-Heavies. The Enginseer gets +2 to repair these tanks, enemies are in Difficult Terrain if they're close to at least two of these tanks, and an enemy hit by Primary Weapons from all three has to take a Morale check on 4d6 unless it has Gone to Ground.

Auxiliary: Emperor's Spear Aerial Company
3 units of Valkyrie or Vendetta Squadrons. You roll Reserves for all of them at once. They can also perform Low-Altitude Drops. If they do this, they can't Jink and they suffer Difficult Terrain tests if they fly over terrain more than 3" tall, but units that leap out via Grav-Chute do not scatter.

(Also available as Auxiliary with no special rules: one Super-Heavy Tank, Militarum Tempestus Platoon, Infantry Platoon)

Tau also get some additional formations because they're assholes.
Counterstrike Cadre: 1 Pathfinder Team, 3 Strike/Breacher Teams. All of them need Devilfish Transports. They all get Twin-Linked against enemies too close to Objectives, and the vehicles are Fast when coming in from Reserves.

Rapid Insertion Force (obligatory sex joke goes here)
1 unit of Stealth Suits, 3 units of Crisis Suits, 1 unit of Riptides. The Stealth Suits start on the field and everyone else is in Derp Strike Reserves. Any unit from the formation that Derps in close to the Stealth Suits doesn't scatter and has Twin Linked shooting tor that turn.

Ranged Support Cadre
3x Pathfinders, 3x Broadsides. The Broadsides double the value of Markerlights fired by the Pathfinders. The Pathfinders have Infiltrate and Shrouded until they move or fire any non-Markerlight weapons. Also, the Broadsides can provide supporting fire for the Pathfinders at any range (within weapon range).

Piranha Firestream Wing
4 units of Piranhas. One unit must have only one, and that's the Target Acquisition. Every turn, it picks one target, and against that target they all get +1 BS and Tank Hunters. If any unit is fully within 6" of a table edge at the end of the Move Phase, they can go into Ongoing Reserves. When they come back, they're at full strength (I assume this also means destroyed models are brought back), with damage repaired and Drones and seeker missiles replaced. That can be pretty handy. Also you could have drones detach and wander off, then re-arm and get more free drones. A very small freebie, sure, but all you're really giving up is some Burst Cannon fire.

Ghostkeel Wing
3 units of Ghostkeel. Any unit gets +1 BS to shoot an enemy another unit has already shot at this turn. Friendly models within 12" of 2 units from this gain Stealth. If they already have Stealth, they get Shrouded. If a unit from this is close to another unit from this, enemies can't Overwatch against them.

Skysweep Missile Defence
1 Devilfish and 3 units of Sky Rays. Sky Rays close to the Devilfish can just flay-out fire as many Seeker Missiles as they have, without a per-turn limit, and while the Devilfish remains undestroyed, the Sky Rays get a 5+ Cover Save against the shooting attacks of "flying crap".

Ethereal Council
3-7 Ethereals, which can include Aun'Va and Aun'Shi. They are Fearless, all form one single unit of Characters (not Independent), and double the range of Failure Is Not An Option. Additionally, they grant the powers of all four elements at once, every turn.

Drone Net VX1-0
4+ Drone units. As long as at least 2 units remain on the field, they all get +1 BS (as do all drones in the army that aren't part of this formation, haxx!). All Drones in this formation also get Interceptor, Jink, Outflank, Precision Shots and Split Fire.

Riptide Wing
3 units of Riptides. If one unit shoots something another unit shot, they get +1 BS. Each Riptide close to another gets to re-roll Nova Reactor attempts, because it's safer to put all your nuclear reactors next to each other. 1/battle you can unleash the SUPERSHOOTERS. Each one that didn't move can fire twice (four times for those that Nova'd their shooting to double). They can't Assault on that turn.

Air Superiority Cadre
3 Razorsharks. +1 BS against flying crap and Jetbikes and Skimmers. As long as at least one model remains at the start of the shooting phase, automatically chuck 1d3 Markerlight counters to place anywhere you want. And as long as enemy flying crap (including Skimmers/Jetbikes) are on the table, there is no Reserves roll, they just fly on to deal with it.

THE EIGHT
Eight specific supersuits, all special characters. They quad the Supporting Fire range for each other, they grant Stubborn to the entire army (until all eight are dead), and they're Fearless and have Preferred Enemy (enemies). Specifically it's Commander Farsight, one Iridium Crisis Suit Commander, one Riptide Shas'vre, one Broadside Shas'vre, four Crisis Commanders. They all have specific wargear.

For what it's worth, they're not bad choices by any stretch - it's a very solid group there, and you split them up as Independent Characters and attach them to whatever you like.

And now everything is done and until they shit out another Codex I can just take a holiday.

[maglag]

Wait, what about the base KAYOS codex? Did I miss it? I could've sworn you just reviewed the Corn Flakes codex.

[Koumei]

I'm just reviewing 7Ed. Khay-oss Meringues, Daemons of Chaos, Adepta Sororitas, Every Other Flavour of Space Marines and Tyranids all miss out.

[OgreBattle]

The Company Commander can issue "Everyone shoot shoot shoot!" and have that affect as many units as he wants, with one Ld test, all against the same target.

All Imperial officers are trained with a 40,000 year old copy of Space Channel 5



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Something that's been bugging me is how some heavy weapons have a man portable version and a vehicle turret main weapon version that's way bigger and have the same stats. The autocannon specifically, it could be turned into 2-3 different weapons like...

Infantry autocannon (like an IG weapons team)- the same ol' s7 ap4 heavy 2
Heavy Autocannon (Like a predator turret) s8 ap3 heavy 2, functionally like two krak missiles

The anti-air autocannons already have unique stats with more shots so don't need change there.

[Koumei]

Is that the only thing bugging you? If so, you have just about reached the pinnacle of the Zen state.

[Koumei]

So, looking over my various rough notes, here's something I thought I'd share, just for you people. People can criticise or whatever, but there's little point to it: it's "what I would do", not "something you can actually take to your local store and play".

CODEX SUPPLEMENT: DARK ELDAR WYCH CULT

The Wych Cult has the Dark Eldar Faction. Units taken from this Codex that are also listed in Codex: Dark Eldar use the rules presented here - however, if they are taken as part of a Dark Eldar army, those rules are still used. Lelith Hesperax is still a unique character, and although her rules differ slightly between versions, they are both the same character and she cannot be taken more than once in an army.

WYCH CULT SPECIAL RULES

COMBAT DRUGS

Though they drastically shorten the life expectancy of the user, chemical stimulants are widely used to heighten combat performance.
After determining Warlord Traits, but before deployment, roll a d6 and look up the result on the Combat Drugs table. All friendly models that have the Combat Drugs special rule receive the characteristic bonus listed on the table for the duration of the battle. If you have multiple allied armies that each use Combat Drugs, roll once for each table, but select only one of the rolled results and apply it to all units with Combat Drugs, even if that result is not normally available to those units.

For example, if a Wych Cult is allied with normal Dark Eldar, including a unit of Hellions, you would roll once for the Wych Cult drugs and once for the Dark Eldar drugs used by the Hellions. If either of the results turned up as a 6, which is different for both armies, you could choose that result and thus either give two drug effects to all, or give +1 Ld to all.

Combat Drugs Table

D6	Drug	Bonus
1	Adrenalight	+1 Attack
2	Grave Lotus	+1 Strength
3	Hypex	+1 Initiative
4	Painbringer	+1 Toughness
5	Serpentin	+1 Weapon Skill
6	Splintermind	Roll again twice (re-rolling results of 6) and take both (duplicates stack)

POWER FROM PAIN

As Dark Eldar feed on the souls of their foes and cause terrible injuries in combat, they become imbued with supernatural might, eventually turning into killing machines.
At the start of each game turn, look up the game turn number on the Power From Pain table. All models with the Power From Pain special rule gain the special rules listed on the table, in addition to any other special rules they have. For units from this supplement, the following table replaces the standard Power From Pain table found in Codex: Dark Eldar.

Power From Pain Table

Turn	Special Rules
1	None
2	Feel No Pain (6+)
3	Feel No Pain (6+), Crusaders
4	Feel No Pain, Crusaders
5	Feel No Pain, Furious Charge, Crusaders
6+	Feel No Pain, Furious Charge, Fearless, Crusaders

COMBAT DODGE

Trained for combat in the lethal arenas, these combatants used life-or-death combat as a simple sport – the attacks of enemies on the battlefield are easy to predict and avoid for a trained combatant used to facing the fastest and most accurate of attacks.
A model with this rule has a 4+ Invulnerable Save during the entire Assault Phase. This even applies against Overwatch, exploding vehicles and other Wounds that are suffered in the Assault Phase but not as a result of enemy Close Combat attacks.

DEADLY PRECISION

The strikes of a Wych in close combat have a terrifying habit of gliding past simple defences, seeking out the weakest point in armour and driving through to cause the most damage. Even when wielding light weapons that seem unable to scratch their foe, they can soon leave a mess of tangled limbs behind.
If a model with this rule attacks a model with a lower Weapon Skill (or no Weapon Skill at all), she treats all close combat attacks against them as having the Rending special rule. This applies regardless of wargear being wielded, and even applies to any Hammer of Wrath hits, but not Overwatch.

WARLORD TRAITS

When generating their Warlord Traits, a Wych Cult Warlord may either roll on one of the Warlord Traits tables in Warhammer 40,000: The Rules or Codex: Dark Eldar, or roll on the table below.

1. Alchemical Mastery
Some spend as much time in alchemical labs as in the arena, carefully mixing varieties of experimental drugs to later use – but rarely the same thing twice.
You may roll twice on the Combat Drugs table and select which one to gain. At the start of any of your turns, you may then switch to the other, losing the benefits of the previous result and gaining the benefits of the new one. You cannot swap back after this - the change is permanent.

2. To Kill Without a Thought
To some, killing is an art, to others, it is just a way of life. Foes turn and flee in the face of the impassive, ruthless murder, and she uses this to her advantage.
The Warlord gains the Fear special rule, and all Leadership Tests enemies have to take as a result of combat with her (such as Fear or losing an assault) are made at a -2 penalty. Enemy units that fail such a test and are not immediately wiped out can from then on only fire Snap Shots at her.

3. Blood Dancer
It is hard to pin this warrior down, as she glides through enemy forces to select the perfect target.
The Warlord and her unit gain the Hit & Run and Hammer of Wrath special rules.

4. Murderous Grace
One on one, the Warlord is peerless and unbeatable. There is no escape, only death.
When the Warlord issues a Challenge, the enemy cannot refuse – one model must accept. If the Warlord's Deadly Precision applies against that foe, her attacks have the Fleshbane rule.

5. Trophy Hunter
Masters of the arena are well known for not just killing their opponents, but tearing their heads or hearts away to keep as terrifying reminders of their prowess.
The first time the Warlord slays an enemy in a Challenge or the enemy declines her Challenge, permanently treat the game turn as one higher for the purpose of Power From Pain.

6. Calm Amidst Chaos
Even when under fire, the greatest of warriors remain calm, keeping their wits about them and never fleeing.
The Warlord is Fearless, as are all friendly units within 12” of her.

WARGEAR LISTS

Melee Weapons
A model may exchange any weapon for one of the following:
-Power Weapon +15
-Electrocorrosive Whip +15
-Archite Glaive* +20
-Agonizer +20
-Huskblade* +25
*Succubus only

Ranged Weapons
A model may exchange her Splinter Pistol for one of the following:
-Shredder +5
-Neuro Disruptor* +10
-Lobotomiser +10
-Blast Pistol +15
*Succubus only

Wych Cult Weapons
A model may exchange her Close Combat Weapon and Splinter Pistol for one of the following:
-Hookscythe +5
-Two Hydra Gauntlets +5
-Two Razorflails +5
-Shardnet & Impaler +5
-Meteor Hammer +5

Hekatrix Trophies
A model may exchange any weapon for one of the following:
-Chainaxe +2
-Scorpion Chainsword +5
-Harlequin's Kiss +5
-Taser Goad +10
-Transonic Razor +10
-Power Weapon +15
-Lightning Claw +15

Other Wargear
A model may take one of each of the following:
-Haywire Grenades +5
-Haze Grenades +5
-Reaver Jetbike* +25
-Webway Portal* +35
*Succubus Only

Vehicle Wargear
A model may take one of each of the following:
-Chain-Snares +5
-Enhanced Aethersails* +5
-Grisly Trophies +10
-Shock Prow* +10
-Night Shields* +15
-Torment Grenade Launchers* +15
-Splinter Racks* +15
*Cannot be taken by a Venom

Prizes of the Arena (ie Relics)
Only one of each Prize of the Arena may be taken per army. A model may take one of the following:
-Abduction Claws* +10
-Voidspace Warpaint +15
-Armour of Snares +15
-The Forsaken Shroud +15
-Pact Blade** +15
-Power Brace +30
*Replaces both the Splinter Pistol and close combat weapon
**Replaces either the Splinter Pistol or close combat weapon

HQ: Succubus (80)

The very best in the field, wyches who accumulate hundreds of victories, can hone their abilities such that they would be wasted just being soldiers or fighting for entertainment. They are required to lead forces in their own right, becoming commanders and tacticians even if all they desire is bloodshed.

WS 8 BS 6 S 3 T 3 W 3 I 8 A 4 Ld 9 Sv 6+

Unit Type: Infantry (Character)
Unit Composition: 1 Succubus
Wargear: Wychsuit, Splinter Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Plasma Grenades
Special Rules: Combat Drugs, Independent Character, Fleet, Night Vision, Power From Pain, Combat Dodge, Deadly Precision

Options:
May take items from the Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Wych Cult Weapons, Hekatrix Trophies, Other Wargear and Prizes of the Arena lists

If a Reaver Jetbike is taken, she may take one of the following:
-A Grav-Talon +5
-Cluster Caltrops +15

HQ: Lelith Hesperax (150)

The Queen of Blades is truly without equal in the arena, and is seen as its rightful ruler in Commoragh – and indeed in any other arena she should visit. However, that merely makes her a target, and so she is subjected to countless challenges, and has never backed down from them, always adding to her tally. Whether in the fighting pits or on the battlefield, the grace with which she fights is considered the highest art form, akin to a human ballet.

Lelith Hesperax WS 10 BS 9 S 3 T 3 W 3 I 9 A 5 Ld 9 Sv 6+

Unit Type: Infantry (Character)
Unit Composition: 1 Unique
Wargear: Wychsuit, Two Close Combat Weapons, Plasma Grenades
Warlord Trait: Blood Dancer
Special Rules: Fleet, Independent Character, Night Vision, Power From Pain, Rampage

A League Apart: Lelith Hesperax re-rolls all failed rolls To Hit and To Wound whilst fighting a challenge, or against all foes if her challenge is refused.

The Penetrating Blade: Armour Saves cannot be taken against Wounds inflicted by Lelith Hesperax's Melee weapons, and on a roll of 6 to Wound, she wounds a target even if their Toughness is too high for her to normally wound. Against Vehicles, a 6 to Penetrate causes an automatic Penetrating Hit.

Quicksilver Dodge: Lelith Hesperax has a 4+ Invulnerable Save. This is increased to 3+ during the entirety of the Assault Phase.

HQ: Azraheinne the Nemesis (120)

Dark Eldar are all aware of the grasp Slaanesh has over them, of the threat that Chaos God presents, having been born of their vices. However, while some turn to sorcery or the Harlequin's Path as a way of escape, one has found solace in giving herself over to Khorne, the nemesis of Slaanesh. Fighting just for the sake of fighting, Azraheinne thinks only of battle in every waking moment, and has worked her arena skills into a form of worship.

WS 8 BS 6 S 4 T 3 W 3 I 8 A 6 Ld 9 Sv 6+

Unit Type: Infantry (Character)
Unit Composition: Azraheinne
Wargear: Wychsuit, Two Power Swords, Plasma Grenades
Warlord Trait: Murderous Grace
Special Rules: Combat Drugs, Independent Character, Fleet, Night Vision, Power From Pain, Combat Dodge, Deadly Precision

Marked by the Nemesis: having found an escape from She Who Thirsts, Azraheinne instead belongs to Khorne. She has Rage, Counter Attack, Adamantium Will, and Hatred (Daemons of Slaanesh).

Elite: Hekatrix Bloodbrides (70)

(Void Elves Blood Vestals, Heroes of Light and Darkness)

Veterans of the field, the bloodbrides are those who have proven themselves worthy. They often carry the weapons of fallen foes as reminders of their skill, and lead the charge in battle. Beyond that, they can assist on the field in choosing priority targets and leading individual teams. The greatest of these are the Syrens, who in turn lead entire packs of bloodbrides into battle to outfight the best their opponents can bring.

-Bloodbride WS 6 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 2 Ld 9 Sv 6+
-Syren WS 7 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 3 Ld 9 Sv 6+

Unit Type: Infantry. Syren is Infantry (Character).
Unit Composition: 5 Bloodbrides
Wargear: Wychsuit, Splinter Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Plasma Grenades
Special Rules: Combat Drugs, Deadly Precision, Combat Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power From Pain

Options:
May include up to ten additional Bloodbrides +14/model
One Bloodbride may be upgraded to a Syren +10
The Syren may take items from the Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Wych Cult Weapons, Hekatrix Trophies and Other Wargear lists
One Bloodbride may take an item from the Wych Cult Weapons or Hekatrix Trophies lists. If the unit numbers ten or more models, two additional Bloodbrides may take items from the Wych Cult Weapons or Hekatrix Trophies lists.

The unit may take a Raider or Venom as a Dedicated Transport

Troops: Wyches (60)

The core of any wych cult, these are the teams of gladiatrices who fight at great length in the fighting pits. In the arena, it is typically a free for all, and yet on the battlefield, they fight as one, their honed skills put to deadly use against a common threat.

-Wych WS 5 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 1 Ld 8 Sv 6+
-Hekatrix WS 6 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 2 Ld 9 Sv 6+

Unit Type: Infantry. Hekatrix is Infantry (Character).
Unit Composition: 5 Wyches
Wargear: Wychsuit, Splinter Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Plasma Grenades
Special Rules: Combat Drugs, Deadly Precision, Combat Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power From Pain

Options:
May include up to ten additional Wyches +12/model
One Wych may be upgraded to a Hekatrix +10
The Hekatrix may take items from the Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Wych Cult Weapons, Hekatrix Trophies and Other Wargear lists
One Wych may take an item from the Wych Cult Weapons list. If the unit numbers ten or more models, two additional Wyches may take items from the Wych Cult Weapons list.

The unit may take a Raider or Venom as a Dedicated Transport

Fast Attack: Beast Masters (Variable Cost)

A sub-set of the wych cult, most beastmasters are male – and indeed, most males are beastmasters – where they command teams of bizarre creatures to fight for them, tearing enemies limb from limb. Some are enslaved animals pulled from the warp, others are natural species taken from planets and used as a high-impact expendible fighting force.

-Beasmaster WS 5 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 1 Ld 8 Sv 5+
-Khymera WS 4 BS 0 S 4 T 4 W 1 I 6 A 3 Ld 5 Sv 6+
-Razorwing Flock WS 2 BS 0 S 3 T 3 W 3 I 5 A 4 Ld 5 Sv 6+
-Clawed Fiend WS 3 BS 0 S 5 T 5 W 3 I 5 A 4 Ld 5 Sv 6+

Unit Type: Beast
Unit Composition: See Below
Wargear:
-Beastmaster: Wychsuit, Close Combat Weapon, Beastmaster Skyboard
Special Rules:
-Beastmaster: Night Vision, Power From Pain, Combat Dodge
-Clawed Fiend: Night Vision, Rage, Rampage, Feel No Pain
-Khymera: Night Vision, Daemon, Rending
-Razorwing Flock: Swarms, Rending, Night Vision

Options:
A Beastmaster unit consists of between 1 and 12 of the following models in any combination:
-Beastmaster 12 points/model
-Khymera 12 points/model
-Razorwing Flock 20 points/model
-Clawed Fiend 30 points/model

Any Beastmaster may take:
-Haywire Grenades +5
-Haze Grenades +5

Any Beastmaster may take items from the Melee Weapons list.

Fast Attack: Reavers (54)

Most wych arenas are surrounded by curved tracks laden with spikes, chains and shrapnel, serving as the racing grounds of the reavers on their jetbikes. Flying at speeds too great for the reflexes of humans, they dodge and weave past each other and the obstacles, trying to win either through speed, reflexes or simply violence. On the battlefield, they are just as fast and just as deadly.

-Reaver WS 5 BS 4 S 3 T 4 W 1 I 6 A 2 Ld 8 Sv 5+
-Arena Champion WS 6 BS 5 S 3 T 4 W 1 I 6 A 3 Ld 9 Sv 5+

Unit Type: Eldar Jetbike. Arena Champion is Eldar Jetbike (Character).
Unit Composition: 3 Reavers
Wargear: Wychsuit, Splinter Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Reaver Jetbike, Bladevanes
Special Rules: Combat Drugs, Deadly Precision, Hit & Run, Skilled Rider, Night Vision, Power From Pain, Combat Dodge

Options:
May include up to nine additional Reavers +18/model
One Reaver may be upgraded to Arena Champion +10
The Arena Champion may take items from the Melee Weapons and Wych Cult Weapons lists.
For every three models in the unit, one Reaver may replace their Reaver Jetbike's Splinter Rifle with one of the following:
-Shredder +5
-Heat Lance +10
-Blaster +10
For every three models in the unit, one Reaver may take one of the following:
-Grav-talon +5
-Cluster Caltrops +15

Fast Attack: Hellions (75)

Not entirely part of the wych cult, yet still close enough to constantly fight in their arenas and gain access to their drugs, the hellions ride terrifying skyboards at head height. Diving from blackened skies, they pick their targets simply from those that appear most vulnerable, and leave panic and ruin in their wake.

-Hellion WS 5 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 1 Ld 8 Sv 5+
-Helliarch WS 6 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 2 Ld 9 Sv 5+

Unit Type: Jump Infantry; Helliarch is Jump Infantry (Character).
Unit Composition: 5 Hellions
Wargear: Close Combat Weapon, Hellion Skyboard, Hellglaive
Special Rules: Combat Drugs, Fleet, Hit & Run, Night Vision, Power From Pain, Combat Dodge

Sneak Attack: when making a Hit & Run move from battle, the Helliarch may make one additional attack with one equipped weapon. This attack must be directed at an enemy Character if possible.

Options:
May include up to fifteen additional Hellions +15/model
One model may be upgraded to a Helliarch +10
The Helliarch may replace their Hellglaive and Close Combat Weapon with one of the following:
-Splinter Pistol and Stunclaw +10
-Two Lobotomisers +10
-Splinter Pistol and Power Sword +15
-Splinter Pistol and Agoniser +20
-Blast Pistol and Stunclaw +20
-Power Sword and Stunclaw +20
The entire unit may be equipped with any of the following:
-Haze Grenades +1/model
-Haywire Grenades +3/model

Fast Attack: Swyftshard Raider (60)

The standard form of transport for Dark Eldar is the Raider, and this is no different for Wych cults. Though their raiders are called Swyftshards, there is very little difference in how they function, merely in the payload of infantry they carry.

Same as Codex: Dark Eldar except as follows

Screaming Sirens: the cacaphony of wailing doom from the sirens on Wych Cult transport vessels causes eardrums to burst and eyes to water. When a unit disembarks from a vehicle equipped with Screaming Sirens, if they charge into combat in the same turn the enemy cannot fire Overwatch.

Fast Attack: Wych Venom (55)

The other prime method of transportation, the lightning-fast Venom cannot carry as many, but it is ideal for delivering small groups of elite warriors into the heart of the enemy. Despite the fragile build, it can be hard just to draw a bead on them and they pack a surprising amount of firepower.

Same as Codex: Dark Eldar, except also gains Screaming Sirens (see Swyftshard Raider).

Heavy Support: Razorwing Jetfighter (130)

Although the fighter jets are not typically used in arena battles, they are usually piloted by highly skilled Reavers who have the reflexes and finesse needed to manoeuvre them about the battlefield. Even so, they have a tendency to fly dangerously close to the ground and to attempt to ram other vehicles - a habit hard to break.

-Razorwing Jetfighter BS 4 FAV 10 SAV 10 RAV 10 HP 3

Unit Type: Vehicle (Flyer)
Unit Composition: 1 Razorwing Jetfighter
Wargear: Two Disintegrator Cannons, Four Monoscythe Missiles, Twin-Linked Splinter Rifle
Special Rules: Night Vision, Supersonic

Low-Altitude Strike: in the Movement Phase, a Razorwing Jetfighter may move in low-altitude. If this happens, nominate one enemy non-vehicle it passes over. That unit takes 1d3 S 8 AP 3 hits with no Cover Saves allowed. However, until the start of your next Movement Phase, it cannot target Flyers or Flying Monstrous Creatures with its weapons, and enemies can fire at it normally without the Skyfire rule. Conversely, enemies with the Skyfire rule and without the Interceptor rule can only fire Snap Shots at it.

Options:
May replace both Disintegrator Cannons with two Dark Lances +10
May replace both Disintegrator Cannons with two Void Lances +30
May replace Twin-Linked Splinter Rigle with a Splinter Cannon +10
May replace any Monoscythe Missile with one of the following:
-Necrotoxin Missile +0
-Shatterfield Missile +5
May take Night Shields +15

Heavy Support: Paragon Chariots (50)

See: Void/Dark Elves Draahk Chariots (Toughest Girls in the Galaxy), not yet modelled.

Some of the larger creatures captured by Beastmasters are not just fierce monsters, but make excellent steeds, and even beasts of burden to draw chariots. Bristling with poisoned blades, they plough through enemies and leave a trail of shredded flesh and broken bones, and even ram vehicles with everything they have.

-Wych Crew WS 5 BS 4 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A 1 Ld 8 Sv 6+
-Paragon Chariot BS 0 F 11 S 11 R 10 HP 2

Unit Type: Vehicle (Chariot, Fast, Open-Topped). Wych Crew are Infantry (Character).
Unit Composition: 1 Paragon Chariot with 2 Wych Crew
Wargear:
-Wych Crew: Wychsuit, Splinter Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Plasma Grenades
Special Rules:
-Wych Crew: Night Vision, Power From Pain, Combat Drugs, Combat Dodge, Deadly Precision
-Paragon Chariot: Combat Dodge

Tearing Claws and Blades: the Paragon Chariot makes 1d6 Hammer of Wrath attacks, plus 1 for each Hull Point remaining, and resolves these at Strength 5 AP - with the Shred and Rending special rules.

Note: when the Chariot is destroyed, the Wych Crew, who may not disembark, are removed as casualties as well. If the Wych Crew are removed as casualties while the Chariot remains in play, it can be occupied by a single Independent Character with the Infantry type.

Options:
Up to five additional Paragon Chariots, each with 2 Wych Crew, may be taken +50/Chariot
Any Wych Crew may exchange her Close Combat Weapon for one of the following:
-Power Weapon +10
-Agonizer +15
Alternatively, any Wych Crew may take items from the Wych Cult Weapons list.

Heavy Support: Swyftshard Tantalus (220)

This is the same as that found in Imperial Armour: Apocalypse, save that it has Screaming Sirens.

Fortification: Soul Cage (100)

(The middle one)

Many an arena houses a Soul Cage in the centre, to feed upon the pain, suffering and carnage, and even to absorb souls of the fallen. They also make excellent defences for the rare occasion when the wyches are under attack, as attackers are struck down by waves of agony, then fed upon at the tower's leisure. Constructing these is impractical when attempting to occupy new lands, but it has been done, and serves as a sturdy rallying point.

Terrain Type: Medium Building (Armour Value 14)
Unit Composition: 1 Soul Cage
Access Points & Fire Points: 1 Access Point on each side, 0 Fire Points
Wargear: Four emplaced Torment Grenade Launchers
Special Rules: Shrouded, Night Vision, Fear

Gloom Pulse: at Initiative Step 10 in the Fight Sub-Phase, all enemy models in base-to-base contact with this building suffer an attack with the following profile: S 1 AP 2 Assault 1, Blind, Psi-Shock.

Echoes of Agony: all friendly units within 12” of the Soul Cage treat the turn number as one higher for the purpose of the Power From Pain table. Enemy models within 12” of the Soul Cage suffer a -2 Penalty to their Leadership score.

Options:
May upgrade Gloom Pulse to Strength 4 +10
May include an Escape Hatch +25

Note: this may also be taken as a Fortification for a Codex: Dark Eldar army or a Harlequin Coven

Armoury

This will only cover new or altered wargear
Melee Weapons
Hookscythe: these blades find ways to slice foes even when they think they are well protected, hooking in from behind to dig into weak points and get around shields.
S +1 AP - Melee, Two-Handed. Foes must re-roll successful Saving Throws made against Wounds caused by this weapon.

Meteor Hammer: heavy spiked weights on long chains, these fly from the user's grasp and collide with bone-shattering strength even when attacking from a distance.
S +0 AP - Melee, Two-Handed. The user's unit may re-roll Charge Range, and foes who flee from combat must re-roll successful attempts to escape.

Ranged Weapons
Lobotomiser: this is a specially-made small pistol designed to delight crowds. It fires a group of slender barbs to punch straight through the head and pull blood and brain matter out behind them.
6" S 4 AP 6 Pistol. On a 6 to Wound, the weapon is AP 2 and causes Instant Death.

Stunclaw: this is a hookshot built into an arm-brace, firing a harpoon out into targets and drawing them in for the kill.
12" S 4 AP 6 Pistol. If it successfully hits, even if no Wound is suffered, the user (and their unit) may roll an extra d6 to determine Charge range against that unit.

Other Wargear
Bladevanes: if the unit moves their maximum speed in the Movement Phase, nominate one unit they moved over, except for Vehicles, Buildings, or Flying Monstrous Creatures. The target suffers 1 automatic S 4 AP - Rending hit for each model with Bladevanes that moved over them. These are allocated as a Shooting attack originating from the starting point of the movement.

Cluster Caltrops: these function as Bladevanes, except they deal 1d6 S 6 AP - Rending hits.

Grav-Talon: these function as Bladevanes, except they have the Strikedown and Pinning rules instead of Rending.

Haze Bombs: these are both Offensive and Defensive Grenades.

Prizes of the Arena
Abduction Claws:
A work of genius, these hooked blades encompass both hands and fire barbed darts on the ends of powerful cables. Plunging the blades in, the wielder can then reel into combat and collide in a frenzy of death and dismemberment.
These are treated as a pair of Hydraclaws, but also allow an attack in the Shooting Phase: 12" S 5 AP 5 Assault 2. If at least one hits, the user automatically has the maximum Charge range against that target on that Assault Phase, and the target is denied Overwatch. This maximum movement only applies to the character, not any unit to which she is attached - she must detach and they have to roll Charge range as normal.

Armour of Snares:
The combatant is wreathed in coils of razor sharp adamantium armour that can deflect even the most powerful of attacks. Although most of the blades face outwards, tearing the skin from enemies, some of it does still dig inwards, if anything keeping her more alert and focused on combat.
The wearer gains a 3+ Armour Save and a 4+ Invulnerable Save. Any time an enemy hits her in close combat and she succeeds on a Saving Throw, the enemy suffers a single S 4 AP 5 Rending hit at the same Initiative count.

Forsaken Shroud:
Woven from captured banners and standards, and hides torn from foes, this grizzly cloak serves as a reminder to all that the Wyches are the greatest of combatants. The suffering and soul energies that infuse the cloak bring life to the wearer.
As long as the wearer is not attached to another unit, she can Run and Charge in the same turn, and enemies firing at her reduce their Ballistic Skill to 1. Additionally, she treats the turn as 1 higher for the purpose of the Power From Pain table.

Pact Blade:
A special deal has been made with the daemons that reside inside this massive two-handed falchion. As long as it regularly bathes in the blood of enemies, and may take control in battle, it lends its strength to the wielder willingly.
This weapon has the following profile: S +2 AP 3 Melee, Two Handed.
The wielder additionally gains the Daemon and Fearless rules as soon as they cause one or more enemy models to be removed as casualties

Power Brace:
Just a small backpack unit that hums quietly, this draws upon warp energy to send incredible power along its tubes, sheathing the wielder's hands and weapons in dark, disruptive energies. Worse still are the bolts of power unleashed from it.
All of the wearer's close combat attacks are made at +1 S beyond those normally granted, and at AP 3 unless the wielded weapons are AP 2 or better. Additionally, they can be fired as a pair of Blast Pistols.

Voidspace Warpaint:
Nobody is quite sure where this paint came from, but the reserves are always low - the smallest amount is used to paint the wearer's face, and on return they will try to scrape it off and return it to the cauldron, for its power is obvious and cannot be wasted.
The wearer gains +1 to Feel no Pain rolls (and gains Feel no Pain 6+ if she does not have FnP at all), +3 inches to Run and Charge distance, and ignores Dangerous Terrain.

Formations:

Formation: Wych Cult Battle Team
This cannot be a Primary Detachment
Most forces of Dark Eldar Kabalites typically take some contingent of Wyches, finding them too valuable and dangerous to ignore. Even when legions are not amassed, there are still small groups brought to bear.
Composition: 1 Succubus (or Lelith Hesperax or Azraheinne), 1-2 units of Wyches, 1 unit of Hellions or Reavers or Beastmasters
Restrictions: None
Special Rules: Move Through Cover

Formation: Reaver Rapid Assault
Groups consisting of Reavers (and former Reavers) are often brought to battle, finding wider fields more valuable than the (barely) contained events in the arenas. Given more space, they can race across the landscape and bring destruction where needed.
Composition: 0-1 Succubus, 2-4 units of Reavers, 1-3 Razorwing Jetfighters.
Restrictions: if a Succubus is taken, she must have a Reaver Jetbike
Special Rules: Scouts

Deadly Impact: hits from Bladevanes, Cluster Caltrops, Grav-Talons and Low-Altitude Strikes from this formation have the Shred special rule.

Formation: Wych Force
When the Wyches attack in legion, taking control of the battlefield and leading the assault rather than being an addition, it is a terrifying sight to behold. Instead of darkening the skies with a hail of poisoned splinters, they bring the fight all too quickly to the enemy, leaving them unable to respond.
Composition: 1-2 Succubus (may take Azraheinne or Lelith Hesperax), 1-3 units of Hekatrix Bloodbrides, 3-6 units of Wyches, 1-2 units of Reavers, 0-2 units of Beastmasters or Hellions, 1 unit of Paragon Chariots.
Restrictions: None
Special Rules: Move Through Cover, Fearless

Team Captain: if the Warlord is chosen from this Formation, you may re-roll her Warlord Trait when rolling on the Wych Cult Warlord Trait table.

Blinding Speed: anything that may Jink gains a +1 bonus to its Jink Save. Infantry from this formation may Run and Assault in the same turn, or may choose to automatically Run the full distance, in which case they count as Obscured, gaining a 5+ Cover Save until the start of your next turn.

Formation: Skyboard Assault
When the skies darken, it could be storm clouds, but it could just as easily be groups of auxiliary forces, riding skyboards and tagging alongside the wyches for their own purposes.
Composition: 2-3 units of Hellions, 1-3 units of Beastmasters
Restrictions: each unit of Beastmasters must have at least one Beastmaster. At least one unit of Hellions must have a Helliarch
Special Rules: Fear, Fearless, Deep Strike

Aerial Interference: the entire formation begins play in Deep Strike Assault. Make one Reserves roll for the entire formation, which you may re-roll if you wish. When they come on, first place one unit of Hellions with a Helliarch at least 6" away from any enemy units. They do not scatter. Any other unit in the formation that is placed within 12" of the initial unit does not scatter either. Until your next turn, the entire formation gains the Shrouded special rule.

Decapitation: on any turn in which a unit from this formation charges, all To Wound rolls of 6 cause Instant Death.

Formation: the Champion's Stable
It is inevitable that when one rises to the top of the league, she is surrounded by others - not so much to share the fame and wealth and "hang on", but to wait for the perfect moment to attack, and seize the coveted position for herself. That's just how it works. But when they use that familiarity to function as a team in battle...
Composition: 1 Succubus (or Lelith Hesperax or Azraheinne), 1 unit of Hekatrix Bloodbrides, 1 Swyftshard Tantalus
Restrictions: the Succubus cannot have a Jetbike. The unit of Hekatrix Bloodbrides must number 15 models. All Infantry must begin embarked upon the Tantalus, and the Succubus cannot leave the unit of Bloodbrides.
Special Rules: Move Through Cover, Fearless

Team Captain: if the Warlord is chosen from this Formation, you may re-roll her Warlord Trait when rolling on the Wych Cult Warlord Trait table.

Battle Craft: if the Tantalus is attacked by enemies in the Assault Phase, the crew may fight back as though it were a Chariot. This only applies to models from this formation.

Signature Move: the Succubus gains the Slam rule. The doubling of Strength happens before any additions from wargear, but after any bonus from Furious Charge or Combat Drugs.

You're welcome, GW, I'll do your job any time.

[OgreBattle]

Is that the only thing bugging you? If so, you have just about reached the pinnacle of the Zen state.

Most of the things that bother most 40k fans also bug me, that autocannon example was mainly "I don't often hear this brought up in 40k, but it sure rustles my jimmies"

So OgreBattle's Big List of 40k rustling is...

- Balance, internal and meta.

- Rerolling stuff, wasting time, and mechanical synergy.
-It's annoying when you roll on the DE drug table and get +1S for your agonizer succubus, and other instances of things that don't synergize.
-Rerolling takes up time, a lot of effects would be better off as "+1 to a roll" instead of needing to reroll.
-"Master Crafted" is particularly annoying to me fluff wise cuz lots and lots of legendary weapons in 40k don't have that rule even thoughthey are "masterfully crafted", and mechanics wise it's a fiddly reroll that takes up time for a relatively small effect.
-The extra FNP roll could be discarded for simply increasing toughness on certain units or give -X to the opponent's to-wound roll
-Stuff like "regenerate" could just give an extra wound or more toughness and be functionally the same in a 4-7 round game
-Generally dislike "always wound on 4+" and "armor above 12 is 12" weapons, prefer granularity


- "Hey here's a fear effect you can pay points for, too bad the most popular army in the game that's over 60% of what you'll be facing is immune to it"

- Scale, in a game where it matters what kind of pistol and grenade a squad leader is carrying it feels whack when said squad leader is shooting at supersonic jet bombers with his pistol and grenading a super robot in the foot. Having all heavy-tank armies that said squad leader can't scratch at all is also unhealthy for the game.

- Consistency, this relates to scale somewhat.
-It feels weird that tyranids have a super spike cannon that will rip through a rhino, then plink off of the space marines inside because of how strength, AP, armor saves and armor values works.
-"This daemon engine is a vehicle, this daemon engine is a creature, this piloted mecha is a vehicle, this piloted mecha is a creature, this two man jetbike is a creature, this two man trike is a vehicle"
-"This swarm creature in this codex treats various kinds of attacks completely differently from this other one"
-"We made a new USR with a vague name, it is made up of two other USR's you already knew about"
-"This is optical camo so it's a cover save, this is optical camo so it's an inv sv",

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Off the top of my head things I'd change with 40k to make it more consistent in a fluff/mechanics way are...

Twin linked: Gives you +1 to hit OR +1 to wound/penetrate, choose before firing.
X Fighter: +1 to hit against X (the 'to wound' portion is divided into another USR)
X Killer: +1 to wound against X
Poison (Tag): wounds automatically against (tag)on a 6 to hit so it bypasses the wounding roll
Swarm: not affected by double strength instant death, template/blast weapons have instant death effect
Grit X: ignore effects of X wound modifiers

If an ability is "always on" then a +1 modifier is preferred. If an ability is activated via psychic powers/orders then perhaps it could be a reroll. But +/- modifiers should be overall more common than rerolls to keep the game going and avoid stacking rerolls doing nothing.

I'd change the AP system back to an armor modification system, BUT be conservative with what gets -1 to saves. Neither the lasgun nor bolter will modify armor saves, only stuff like heavy bolters, plasma guns, and bigger do so.

So the armor modification system would look like...

-0: almost all small arms. Maybe necrons or tau can stand out with -1sv basic infantry guns
-1: something that shreds infantry and can glance light vehicles like the heavy bolter
-2: something that shreds heavy infantry like the plasma gun, and threatens light vehicles like the autocannon
-3: something that shreds light vehicles like a krak missile
-4: something meant to take on battle tanks like the lascannon
-5: something that blows through all armor like the meltagun or railgun
-6: some super weapon that will make players who's army doesn't have access to it butthurt

All units (and some weapons) have tags like...
-Living
-Mindless
-Mechanical
-Psychic
-Daemonic
-Flaming
-Greenskin
-Aspect
-Coven

These tags make interactions of special effects more clear and goes into doing away with separate stats for vehicles and monstrous creatures. Use the toughness/save system for vehicles. The tag system makes it so dark eldar aren't poisoning leman russ's to death but a haywire blaster will work on a battlesuit.

So units scale up like...

t4: space marine, Eldar riding a jetbike
t5: ork on a bike, tau battlesuit
t6: open vehicles like vyper or trukk where you can imagine a lasgun hitting the pilot
t7: walkers like the talos, armored sentinel, closed transports like a rhino
t8: heavy walker like wraithlord/dreadnought, medium tank like the falcon
t9: heavy vehicles with a lot of mass like the battlewagon and landraider
t10: absurd space-magic like the monolith

4+ open ramshackle vehicle like a trukk
3+ front armor of light vehicles like a vyper, raider, rear armor of a russ tank
2+ front armor of a medium tank like the predator
1+: fully enclosed heavy front armor like a russ, auto sv vs non AP weapons

w1: man-sized to most bikers
w2: sentinel, 'heavy bikes' like vyper, landspeeder
w3: wraithlord/dreadnought sized walker, most transports and tanks
w4: landraider, battlewagon, regenerating tyranid monster


examples of some common vehicles...
Trukk: t6 w3 4+/4+/4+
Venom: t6 w2 3+/3+/3+
Chimera: t7 w3 2+/3+/3+
Wave Serpent: t8 w3 2+/2+/3+
Leman Russ: t8 w3 1+/2+/3+
Monolith: t10 w4 1+/1+/1+

Units like ogryns n' nobs that had multiple wounds and come in groups of more than 3 are changed to have higher toughness rather than more wounds, like how the wraithguard is t6 w1. Perhaps "FNP" can still be around so these w1 guys are less likely to be dropped by lasgun fire. Of course the points of everything has to be adjusted.

Maybe there'd be a damage chart for vehicles and monstrous creatures, or maybe damage charts are discarded alongside the old vehicle rules that made them different from toughness/wound units, I've never seen anyone wish their wraithlord was a vehicle.

[shlominus]

WYCH CULT SPECIAL RULES

COMBAT DRUGS
Though they drastically shorten the life expectancy of the user, chemical stimulants are widely used to heighten combat performance.
After determining Warlord Traits, but before deployment, roll a d6 and look up the result on the Combat Drugs table. All friendly models that have the Combat Drugs special rule receive the characteristic bonus listed on the table for the duration of the battle. If you have multiple allied armies that each use Combat Drugs, roll once for each table, but select only one of the rolled results and apply it to all units with Combat Drugs, even if that result is not normally available to those units.

Combat Drugs (for Wych Cult stuff) are just roll on a random table, drink three times, and then get +1 to either Attacks, Strength, Initiative, Toughness, Weapon Skill, or Leadership. One of these results (Ld) is generally good, but worthless as soon as you get Fearless, two of these are awesome (S and T), two are probably useless but not always, depending on your foes (WS and I), and Attacks... you can always do with more.

you'd still have to drink. why not simply create a few different drugs, one of which can be bought as wargear?

[Koumei]

Maybe there'd be a damage chart for vehicles and monstrous creatures, or maybe damage charts are discarded alongside the old vehicle rules that made them different from toughness/wound units, I've never seen anyone wish their wraithlord was a vehicle.

They have to explode when killed. That is non-negotiable. I will bring out the charts (consisting of mecha anime) if I have to.

shlominus: because they've pretty much decided you have to roll for drugs - the new Frogworld book (update of Imperial Armour 512) made a table you roll on (IIRC it's identical to the one I proposed) for Corsairs that have drugs, for instance. If I had my druthers and controlled everything from the top down? Sure, they'd just flat-out get something like +1 S (something you generally want to have) or maybe even a USR. But I was making that as a sort of "Okay, accepting the structure they've decided to go with, and without having to imagine crazy new plastic kits (so limiting it to what they made + Raging Heroes + simple conversions), this is what I'd do. Feel free to use this in your house games."

[OgreBattle]

They have to explode when killed. That is non-negotiable. I will bring out the charts (consisting of mecha anime) if I have to.

Ah, forgot to include that. The idea I got is "mechanical units reduced to negative wounds explode with a radius of d6+max wounds in inches", so explosion isn't part of the damage chart but multiple wounds are.

The damage chart would be rolled whenever a MC/vehicle loses a wound:
1,2: nothing happens
3,4: -1 to hit next turn
5: -1 to hit rolls and 1/2 movement next turn
6: -2 to hit rolls and 1/2 movement next turn
7+: lose an additional wound, suffer effects of 6

If a weapon has just enough AP to remove target's armor save, add +1 to damage roll
If a weapon has more than enough AP to remove target's armor save, add +2 to damage roll

immobilized is as good as dead for close combat walkers and IS a destroyed result for squadrons, so I figure it can be left out of the 40k game of power fists and carnifex's

drugs

getting +1 strength is annoying when you've got an agonizer though, so one or the other has to change to have synergy. If a randumb chart must be preserved then...

1-2 makes you killier, something like +1 to hit that's useful for all weapons
3-4 makes you harder to kill with +1t or FNP (4+)
5 makes you harder to break with stubborn or a LD boost if that takes drugs has ld10 to begin with
6 lets you pick your choice

7e Power from Pain is kind of odd in that the "Blazing Fast Strike First" Dark Eldar are incentivized to hide in the bushes staring at their prey dodging bullets for turn 1-3 before their PfP is sufficiently aroused. I like how the 6e version encouraged you to deliver death as soon as possible, but then that had token tracking for every unit.

The blood tith that Khorne Daemons has is pretty neat and not too messy. Maybe do something similar with PfP: "Gain a PfP token whenever an enemy unit, vehicle, or character is killed. Every unit you have with the PfP rule gains bonuses depending on how many PfP tokens you have."

bladevane automatic s4 rending hit

If I remember correctly the 6e bladevanes were d3 automatic s4 hits right? a single rending hit seems a downgrade in damage though I haven't mathhammered it.

The stunclaw and other "get over here!" weapons making for more reliable charges is cool, I haven't seen that idea in 40k before.

[Username17]

I'd change the AP system back to an armor modification system, BUT be conservative with what gets -1 to saves.

Terrible idea.

Armor Penetration is one of the few parts of the game where weapons aren't merely "better" or "Worse." Is an Autocannon better or worse than a Plasma Gun? Well, if enemies have Sv 3+ or better, the Plasma is better. Otherwise, the Autocannon is better. That's an interesting dynamic.

With Armor Save modifiers, it doesn't fucking matter. Weapons simply exist on a continuum, where better weapons are better. The Autocannon subtracts a couple points from enemy saves and the Plasma Gun subtracts a few more, but enemies end up needing a 4+ or worse to save against the Autocannon, and the Autocannon fires twice, so the Autocannon is always at least as good as the Plasma.

AP numbers was one of the main innovations of WH40K3, and it makes the game better in pretty much every way. There are now reasons to use different weapons and to target different kinds of enemies with different weapons. They've walked back almost everything from 3rd edition, but AP stays because it is fucking awesome and the people who want to roll it back to the Fantasy Battle nonsense need to get their heads out of their asses.

-Username17

[maglag]

Hmmm, I always believed that 40K's AP rules were to benefit speech merines. Since it allows them to shrugg off autocannon/heavy bolter shots with ease. And terminators will give a single fuck out of 6 unless you're shooting them with plasma/melta.

Also feels weird that Koumei makes the nekkid arena warriors more expensive than the professional soldiers with actual rifles of the same faction. If they're the super bestest warriors, why are they the ones fighting for other's amusement instead of just conquering their faction? We're talking about DE here, the best don't serve, they take control. Heck, even their transports are better just because.

[Koumei]

I gave their vehicles "You can leap out and not get shot to death" because that's 100% necessary. Adding Overwatch was a terrible thing, and I say this as someone who would play Sisters if I played anything at all. Sisters are the poster child for "We are only good at shooting, also, our shooting all happens at a range so close you can assault us".

So basically, doing the Chaos Marines thing and going "Fuck it, pay a bit extra and just not suck up Overwatch" is definitely the thing to do.

As for the units themselves being expensive, I could very well be overpricing them their. I err on the side of Scrooge when doing these things - if you overcost a homebrew thing, people don't mind. As for being loaded up with special rules and things, well... again, it's kind of necessary.
-The Doge* makes them more resilient than Space Marines at taking Power Sword hits (a Strength 4 hit has a 1/2 chance of Wounding a Space Marine, or 1/6 if it isn't piercing their armour. A Strength 4 hit always has a 1/3 chance of Wounding a Wych in close combat, regardless of AP. Depending on whether or not it has a glowing blue field and an edge, Wyches are either a bit happier or a lot sadder.) The only real change I made to that is doubling down on protecting them Overwatch after their Origami Transports explode.
-Drugs follow the usual thing and they always had them. As for Agonizers, you could put a rule in that says "If the model would normally Wound on a 4+ (or better) on Strength alone, the Agonizer allows them to re-roll failed rolls To Wound". That would probably work just fine.
-The WS increase isn't actually that amazing, it was just needed so they can rend *basic* Space Marines. And because I tire of seeing every man and his fucking dog have 3s and 4s across the board.
-Power From Pain, Night Vision, Fleet: already there from before
-Precision: they need something beyond "I hit you at Strength 3. Also 1 model has a special weapon". So it's not flat-out "We Rend like weaker Genestealers" - Troops rend most infantry and vehicles, Elites rend some heroes, HQ rends even your mum. So it was going to be some kind of extra rule to make their S 3 (or 4 if they're lucky) attacks actually do something. I decided to go with the thing that lets them mob Monsters, Light Tanks and occasionally rip spleens out of Space Marines.

So really, they needed something in the ballpark of what I gave them, because being a useful close combat unit is harder than just being "a guy with a decent firearm". At least, without Power Armour it is. Also keep in mind that Deldar Warriors are considered a good choice, what with them being able to just inject cyanide into your junk from a distance. It's just a question of "Did I price them too high for what they have?"

The stunclaw and other "get over here!" weapons making for more reliable charges is cool, I haven't seen that idea in 40k before.

I have been playing Just Cause 2. You know, "the hookshot game".

*Such evade, wow

[Username17]

Hmmm, I always believed that 40K's AP rules were to benefit speech merines. Since it allows them to shrugg off autocannon/heavy bolter shots with ease. And terminators will give a single fuck out of 6 unless you're shooting them with plasma/melta.

A major effect of the AP rules is that Space Marines are bad ass. Power Armor in 2nd edition was pretty much useless. A flamer killed 1/3 of the Space Marines it landed on, and fully 1/2 of the Ork Boys it landed on. There just wasn't a big difference and Power Armor was considered "mostly cosmetic." The result of course, was that units that were actually supposed to be hard to kill all ended up with bullshit saves out the ass. For fuck's sake, the old Harlequin list had a 2+ invulnerable save on most of their characters. Terminator Armor was rolled on 2d6 added together because that was the only way to stay on the RNG. The 3rd edition AP rules could very definitely be seen as a reaction against that - something that made each type of armor really matter and heavier armors be considered bad ass.

But is that a bad thing? I would submit that it is not. Having units in heavier armor feel demonstrably tougher than units in armor that is less heavy is probably a good thing. Phoenix Warriors are tougher than Aspect Warriors and Aspect Warriors are tougher than Guardians and this actually matters. That is a good thing.

Now, the "Know No Fear" rule is straight bullshit. If you want Spess Marines to not break you should just give them higher Leadership values. But the thing where different armor values make units dramatically harder to kill with a large array of weaponry is very much to the benefit of the game. It's one of the few metrics on which one unit can be different from another in that fucking game.

-Username17

[maglag]

Now, the "Know No Fear" rule is straight bullshit. If you want Spess Marines to not break you should just give them higher Leadership values.
-Username17

The 30K books that give rules for armies during the Horus Heresy seem to have realized that "And they Shall Know No Rules Fear" is bad, as speech merines now know fear (Death Guard technically is immune to Fear, but only the ability of said name instead of half the system). 30K Speech merines can still regroup while under half-strength and some other minor bonus, but you can overrun them and pin them with snipers and actually follow most of the core rules for morale stuff when playing with them.

Explanations about homebrew wyches.

I wouldn't say you costed them too high. I'm more complaining that wyches suddenly become pseudo genestealers who'll rip bolter-immune wraithlords to pieces with normal knives. You created an unit with basically no weak points (super fast assault transport that says NOPE to overwatch, whereas chaos tanks don't allow their troops to pop out and assault right away). And that unit is threatening against basically 90% of the other units in the game and is a core troop before upgrades. Heavy infantry, monsters, terminators, guardsmen, tau, wyches just don't give a fuck and will tear it apart with their basic weapons while laughing at the enemy useless guns. That's just bad design. Even necron warriors utterly suck at melee even if their basic guns can scratch land raiders to death.

As an alternative, wyches are supposed to be arena fighters. That means they fight to impress, not kill really fast. I remember codex wyches having stuff like webs that reduced enemy attacks, making them great at tarpitting enemy units. Make them gain a bonus for combat resolution so that they can win even if they don't inflict casualities and then force the enemy to run or be auto-captured. I also remember they being able to grab haywire grenades to deal with tanks and whatnot. Don't make them super-effective against everything by default, make them good at something limited and then allow upgrades to specialize them.

[Koumei]

I wouldn't say you costed them too high. I'm more complaining that wyches suddenly become pseudo genestealers who'll rip bolter-immune wraithlords to pieces with normal knives.

On sixes to Wound. If ten of them charge (120 points before any upgrades), that's 30 attacks (assuming they all get into base contact), and then ~20 of those hit. They deal 3 Wounds and sparechange, killing it. It also costs 120 points without upgrades. They are then standing in the open and take as many S-Cannon hits as you'd care to imagine, or suck up a single Dispersed Prism Cannon Blast and die horribly.

On the super-fast transports, remember that you still can't assault if it actually moves super fast, and also remember that it's probably going to explode if you look at it hard enough, because it's 10/10/10 with 2 HP.

Against vehicles, they are still S 3 so they can just half-heartedly try to Rend their way to Glancing Armour 12 or Penetrating Armour 10-11 (ie "Transports full of targets").

Other infantry still shoot them to death on their own turn. Heck, everything shoots them to death on their own turn.

And remember that they're still not as resilient or flat-out Strong as Genestealers, and people don't even like taking Genestealers these days. You can't say "Does this compare to X?", you have to say "Does this do it's fucking job?"

As an alternative, wyches are supposed to be arena fighters. That means they fight to impress, not kill really fast.

Read the fluff, mongoloid. They fight to impress by killing. Their arena battles are not like the WWE, they are like prison knife fights: get in there and murder the other guy before he can do the same to you, bonus points if you cause a spray of blood. If they weren't actually good at killing, they would be Sir Not Appearing In This Game.

I remember codex wyches having stuff like webs that reduced enemy attacks, making them great at tarpitting enemy units.

That was eighty years ago in the 3Ed codex. Back when Hydra Knives doubled your number of Attacks (after bonuses for 2 weapons and charging and drugs and whatever). Now, maybe it would be better to change their weapons away from re-rolls to stuff like:
Net+Impaler: all enemy models in BtB contact are -1 A. Stacks for multiple models with nets.
Hydras: I don't know, honestly, punching someone BUT WITH SPIKES just sounds like improving the Strength and AP of punching.
Swordflails: a more offensive option like Rending or whatever (if you're not giving that to the whole army)

But you're still looking at an army of S 3 T 3 W 1 models that are supposed to be close combat specialists. They need to bring something good to the table. Maybe a weaker variant of Slam (any model can trade all attacks for a single attack at S *2 AP -) so they can run up and superkick Marines (and still have a small shot at hurting light tanks). Maybe Shred or Poison if you don't mind them just being awful at anything remotely armoured and actually needing all their vehicles to sit back and Lance things to death.

Make them gain a bonus for combat resolution so that they can win even if they don't inflict casualities and then force the enemy to run or be auto-captured.

Sure, and while I'm at it I'll just also update literally every other codex in the game so that anybody gives a flying shit about combat resolution, shall I?

I also remember they being able to grab haywire grenades to deal with tanks and whatnot.

This is something that they could do with their fancy... 5E? dex. And then they were a go-to choice, 100% for ruining vehicles. As in, the units that were written as crazy killers in close combat against fleshy people were used just for running up and making tanks explode (while facing away and wearing sunglasses). So they were effective and had a role, that's true... it's just nothing like what they were supposed to be doing.

On the other hand, I can see merit in giving them that upgrade option if they all have a baseline "I'm great at killing infantry in close combat" thing going. That can even put less reliance on having Raiders.

[OgreBattle]

DP