This is not the end of Dice Like Thunder, obviously it can live on without me just fine. Dan & Richard have been doing this for quite some time. The new format is a lot of work and I am happy to put in the hours, so that isn’t the factor either. It’s actually a good thing.

I found a job. A good job. A great job. My dream job. Unfortunately it would be professionally inappropriate for me to continue podcasting like I currently am. Hopefully you guys will all hear from me again some day in a professional capacity. Rest assured I will be reading the forums and chatting with Dan & Richard on a regular basis.

To keep the new site going I have found a veteran gamer who you is rather new to the site. Rafe is a skilled tournament player who has been doing this for years. He too has a degree in game design and really knows his stuff. Heck, half of what I write is passed on from him anyway! He won’t be able to write an article a day, so the articles will be coming on a less scheduled basis. Expect 3 to 5 a week, but not in any particular order.

Hopefully I can squeeze in one last webcast before I relocate to my new job, but it will be soon. Very soon. I’ll still be around for a few days, maybe a week maybe two. I’ll have to go soon, however. Gotta be a professional… damn it.

Man… I’m gonna miss all this. I’m gonna miss it a lot. Wow, I just don’t have the words. Thank you all so much for listening to me rant and rave. I can’t tell you how much the success of this show has meant to me. My recent opportunities are very much tied to this site and the webcast. None of this would have been possible without you guys. I can’t express my appreciation properly.

I was planning on NOT reviewing actual games in the “product review” section of our site… but I have to break my promise… cus I’m totally excited about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay now. Why? Cus I built a character and did a few mock combat to figure out how the game functions in a non-theoretical way.

I know there are a lot of you out there who were a big fan of the last edition. I know there are a lot of you out there who hate new editions of anything. Well on this one you’re just plain wrong. It’s one of, if not the, best roleplaying game I have ever played.

A few weeks ago Chuck and I both dropped $100 apiece on the main box set. It’s a big price tag I know, but when you actually get down to what’s in the box it’s worth it. There are hundreds of cards, puzzle pieces (for tracking all kinds of stuff) and all the special dice you will need.

I’ve read through all the rule books and had a pretty good idea of how the game would work. I’d built a couple sample characters and tried to figure out what I was looking at when it came to those numbers interacting with the game world. I was pretty happy with the books but in no rush to play. The art quality was top notch, the production value of the pieces was excellent and the rules were comprehensive with few (if any) noticeable typos. There was also the word “moustache” which brought me immense joy.

So what changed? Well last night we built characters. At it’s heart the game has three major elements that all work seamlessly with each other to generate synergy on multiple levels. The first is the Character Cards which are your character class. During character creation you choose your race and draw 3 cards replacing them until you get 3 that your characters race can be. The group all drew their class cards and we decided as a group which of the party template cards we would use. Then we built our characters, choosing the best option to fit our template.

I can’t even begin to get into the detail of how complex and deep these mechanics were. Each player card has different options for talents to be slotted into them, these mimic those on the party card. We gain bonuses while doing things as a group and can share talents by slotting them in the party card rather than our own. We chose “Swords for Hire” which gives us shared tactic and reputation tabs and a nice ability to heal fatigue.

Sound complicated? It is! But not in a bad way. If you ignore the mechanics and go with what “sounds like fun” and create characters that fit the concept you will will have great party that functions well together.

Then there is the stance meter and action cards. This is a simple mechanic used to make every character function very differently without everyone having to learn their own set of rules. Once you have the basics down you can play any character. This lets the game focus on character growth instead of character sheet growth.

Everything about the art direction is designed to make an incredibly complex game run very smoothly. The stance meter is assembled through puzzle pieces and you slide a marker up and down it to track your stance. Tons of chits and helpful pieces make the game LOOK like a board game, but play like an RPG.

I’ll leave you with this example of game play.

Chuck: As you travel down the old dirt road (he lays down an old dirt road card) you come to a clearing in the forest (he lays down a forest glade card). It takes a moment before you notice a single bone hanging on a string made of gut from one of the gnarled trees. Once you see it, they all become vividly clear, dozens of bones hanging from the trees around you. Roll for combat initiative. He places our character stand ups (cardboard pictures on stands that could EASILY be replaced with Warhammer Mini’s) on the road card.

We each roll our Agility (social initiative is Fellowship). I take 4 blue 8 sided characteristic dice and luck out with 3 successes. The others roll theirs and report to Chuck, who places “hero” chits next to his initiative tracker. He then rolls some dice behind the screen and places a few monster chits nearby, but does not assign them to the tracker (we don’t know when they go). As a group we decide who is taking the first move, as my weapon is heaviest and we haven’t seen an enemy they let me draw my blade. We act on initiatives 3, 3 and 2, so pretty close together.

Me: I assume a conservative posture (I move my marker down the green line on my tracker) as I maneuver (those are non attack actions) to draw my Greatsword of Hoeth (guess what I’m playing!).

Ian: I draw my weapon and crouch ready to spring recklessly. (moving his marker down the red tracker).

Kevin: I slip an arrow into my longbow as silently as possible (going conservative). I assess the situation (kevin plays a green card labeled “assess the situation” and gathers 3 characteristic dice. He converts one into a conservative dice (as he is 1 point into the conservative track) and adds in a yellow expertise dice (he is trained in the appropriate skill). He rolls 2 successes, but one has an hourglass token. Chuck places 2 counters on his “assess the situation card” because of the hourglass, so he won’t be able to observe like that for 2 rounds. Kevin succeeded, however, and he is now harder to hit until the end of his next turn. Kevin ends his turn and removes one of the hourglass tokens from his Assess The Situation card.

Chuck: Several goblins step from behind trees, one calls out in a feeble voice, “THE SHINY BITS, WE TAKE!” They don’t move to engage you, however, they may be holding back to make use of their numbers. Chuck places a goblin token on the glades card, showing us that it is not at close range to us. Back up to the top of the initiative.

Kevin: Mind if I go first guys? (We nod our approval). I’ll let the one who spoke have it with carefully placed arrow. Kevin moves his tracker down another conservative notch. He takes the ranged shot card and rolls a ballistic skill test, he replaces 2 agility dice with conservative dice, adds in a yellow expertise dice and a white fate die for his specialization in the longbow.

Chuck: This shot isn’t too tough, especially for a longer range weapon like your bow. Chuck tosses in a single red challenge dice to represent the difficulty. Kevin gets 2 successes and 2 boons, the boons allow him to make a free maneuver, so he draws his longsword after the shot. Kevin deals 10 damage, minus some for the goblins toughness and soak, it’s hurt but not down.

Then we kick some goblin asses.

One of the discussions I have a lot lately is about comp scores. The reason they are so popular is that many players focus on one or two skill sets while learning the game and they feel this is the way the game “should” be played. Those players who throw down at 40k 3 or 4 times a weak usually feel that comp scores are unnecessary. It’s a matter of practice and a deeper understanding of the armies. This is basically what defines their play “style”. Modern Game Theory has many different skill sets and for the most part Warhammer 40k makes use of them all tactically and strategically, but many armies lean towards one skill more heavily than others. This is the typical “style” of the army. So what makes a good Marine player or Tyranid player?

I thought I would turn my BA in Game Design towards the world of 40k and talk about some rather esoteric stuff today… hope ya’ll don’t mind.

I’m going to walk through the current “Fifth” edition armies (as I see them) and talk a little about how each one uses a different skill set that many may not have thought about. It should be noted that every army requires ALL of these skills, some just function better in the hands of a player who has honed one area of expertise. This is typical referred to as “play style”. I (Miggidy Mack) function better with armies that focus on Dismantle tactics and find Space Wolves right up my ally. Richard is very skilled with Target Priority and plays Space Marines very well.

Chaos Daemons & Opponent Reading
The Chaos Daemon army is best played by a player who knows every other codex inside and out. Players who have had many other armies and know how they function are able to read their opponents army list and know exactly how to pull them apart. Many players attempt to field “powerful” forces with this codex. Those players who are successful field armies able to pull strategies apart. A good Daemon player has an army able to shift what goes into each half, and has a contingency plan for bad random selection. The Daemon player has to be able to read his opponents actions and through his own experience know how to counter act his opponents hidden strategy.

Daemons truly is a veterans army. Without a world of skill and lots of practice one will think that the army is weak. It is not, in the hands of a skilled player it decimates even the hardest “power list”. Poker players make good Daemon players as they know how to react to bad luck and to watch an opponents actions for strategy tip offs. Thus the importance of Opponent Reading in both poker and playing a Daemon army.

Orks & Field Manipulation
While the typical Ork army relies on volume of fire over quality of fire there are some notable exceptions that allows the force to field some very powerful elite units. It also combines speed and resilience, but rarely in the same unit. The obvious exception is Nob Bikers. Because of this the successful Ork player is able to manipulate the field to his advantage. Be it cover saves for his efficient Boyz or knowing when to Waaagh to cover those critical few inches into an assault. Orks take advantage of the game board as best as they can to bring their power to bear while protecting themselves.

Ork armies are more unforgiving than many players think, now that the metagame has calmed down. Go players find themselves at home with an Ork army. Their sheer volume of attacks makes “mathhammer” fairly predictable with them and this allows players well versed in strategic games able to make use of their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses.

Space Marines & Target Priority
With their resilience, variety of weaponry and higher than average ballistic skill the marines have a shooting answer for everything. Combine this with inexpensive transports and rapid assault units and you have a recipe for an army that does extremely well in the hands of a player who is good at target priority. Knowing what will do the most damage to your forces and taking out quickly (and reliably) is a complex topic but with marines it becomes much simpler. Ap 2 and 3 shooting becomes a priority, high strength shooting and power weapon wielding units need to die first. If this is done properly the Space Marine player will meet with much success.

Marine armies are often thought of as “beginner” armies because they are forgiving of mistakes. It is also true that they give new players a variety of options and let them learn the critical target priority skill. Players who are good at chess and can think several steps ahead while juggling multiple unit functions find Space Marines to be right up their ally. Just because people think that his is a “beginners” army that doesn’t mean it can rock your world!

Imperial Guard & Foresight
With big guns, lots of outflanking units and fragile units the Imperial Guard player finds himself needing a plan. He must choose his deployment very carefully and be ready to manipulate the pacing of the game from turn 1. Knowing his opponents deployment and holding units in reserve become critical to a guard player. The easiest way to defeat a guard player is to force him to go first! Guard players will often hold everything in reserve when going first, so that they can give themselves time to adjust to their opponents deployment.

Guard armies are attractive to players who appreciate redundant units, as it’s easier to plan when it’s unlikely to lose an entire strategic function in one round. Risk players are good Guard players. Their ability to plan the game out from deployment and then adapt to dice rolls makes a Risk player ready to handle bad scatter dice when his plan gets shaken up.

Space Wolves & Dismantling
Dismantling is a close relative of target priority, but it uses shock & awe to limit an opponents response options. By getting tied up in assaults the army protects itself from shooting. With the sheer number of characters the army also functions with fewer tactical assets. While a Space Wolves army might have 10 units, their are only 3 or 4 operating groups (HQ’s with troops in transports is 3 units that operate as one). This makes for hard hitting hammers that tear through enemy lines. Dismantle armies hit an opponent hard, forcing them to respond. A second unit then responds in turn and hopefully the opponents force is dismantled one piece at a time or at least reduced to intellectuality.

Space Wolves armies are another good army for a new player. In the hands of a veteran they can be even more devastating. Dungeons & Dragons players make good Space Wolves players, as they know the strengths of a few units and are able to support those units with each other.

Tyranids & Situational Analysis
The nids is a newer codex, but it really boils down to one thing… knowing the odds. With a relatively few number of attacks (4 or 5) on monstrous creatures they just won’t be able to take down a horde. Combine that with inefficient units (when compared to guard or orks) and you have a force that can field hordes, but not as well as other forces. It’s all about knowing the odds and not getting stuck in a war of attrition. It may seem like Tervigon’s will let you fight on forever, but often they just result in more dead bugs when a more powerful assault army hits your line. When faced with 30 Ork Boyz with a Klaw a much more expensive unit of Termigaunts and their Tervigon are just going to get crushed… so Nid players need to be able to guess ranges and do the math in their head or risk being ripped to shreds by attrition.

Nids are a great army for players who can deal with layers of complexity. It’s not 100% (as any statistician will tell you) but it does let the nid player know when he is up against a wall. Magic the Gathering players make good Nid players. They have to assess their tools and the metagame when building their army list. The nid codex is capable of several different strategies ranging form drop pod assaults, swarm tactics and hammer units. All these options operate differently and combining them well into one deck … er army list, is something Magic players have grown accustomed too.

So there you have it. The “5th edition” codex’s and their chosen “other skill”. I haven’t talked about older codex’s, but you can easily see how many function… but who knows how that will change! Eldar, for instance, are a focused fire army, bringing firepower to bear quickly and decisively. Daemonhunters operate similar to the Space Wolves but with an eye towards resilience. It’s an incredibly complicated topic that I could discuss for years without ever getting bored!

Here it is… enjoy! I wish there was more to say… but there is not!

RITUAL WITNESS CHAPTER 2

Since I have nothing else to really say today… here is a funny video that I found that makes me think of Richard.

We had a lot of fun recording this episode. After days of testing with the new nid codex we talk about it a lot.

In our first section we round up just chatting about the new website, our new contest and some of the many other things we do for crazy crazy fun. In addition we cover some nids stuff. We also thank Mr. Karklash-Ton!

I’d like to take this moment to mention that we didn’t get to talk about the change to the Space Wolves FAQ. We recorded 1 hour before it went online! Needless to say we like it. It shows that GW is treating the FAQ’s like a living document, that they don’t take nearly as long as thought to make changes AND that the goal is to have a more intuitive game! AWESOME!

In our second segment we give a shout out to some twin having forum user! Let’s call him Clutch. Then we get deep into a game of Orks Vs. Nidz played by Ian and Kev.

Our last segment? “IT’S D&D! Fighting with the dragons of yore! IT’S D&D! Never kissed a lady before!”

Enjoy!

Listen Here

So here is part II of our “Training New Players” segment. This one focuses on Target Priority. The goal of course if for new players to know what they are shooting at and why! They should be choosing the right things to kill at the right time. Now some armies may not need this sort of training but it’s good for them to understand anyway. After all their enemies will be doing it!

TRAINING DAY 2:

Veteran Force: The Veteran player has a force of 750 points that must have 4 or 5 units matching the following description. 2 identical units with at least 10 models (and as low an armor save as possible), 1 unit with a transport and 1 or 2 units with a shooting range of at least 36″.

New Player Force: The new player builds a list (without knowing what the veteran player is taking) of 750 points and should focus on shooting.

Terrain: Place 1 objective 12″ from the New Players board edge. There should also be 2 or 3 pieces of line of site blocking terrain on the board, covering about 25% of the board.

Setup: The veteran player deploys his forces in the noted locations. The new player then deploys his force within 12″ of his board edge.

Game Play: The Veteran player takes the first turn, moving his entire force onto the table from his board edge.

Make sure the new player is aware of every unit you are throwing at him. Explain what it does and what you are planning to shot at on the next turn… and why!

I was planning on writing a simple how – to on building a magnet board to display your mini’s on during a tournament… but the board hasn’t come yet! I got my magnets in the mail right away, but the board itself is taking much longer!

Instead I’m going to talk about cheap terrain. With 5th Edition many of us needed to add more line of site blocking terrain to our tables. This is going to be useless for SOME of you… sense you have battle bunkers to go too. This will be a revelation for others, as I have been to game stores with some pretty bad terrain!

Terrain is one of those things that is surprisingly easy to do. New players can make some fantastic looking terrain and practice their dry-brush skills all at the same time! It’s also really cheap. If you have $20 to spend why blow it on a brush and 3 paints when you can get creative around the house and build yourself a ton of new terrain!

The first step in building easy terrain at home is to have something to put it on. I don’t mean a table, I mean the base the terrain will sit on. Loose towers and forests are hard to manage and tend to fall over a lot. Even patches of rubble do much better with press board under them. Balsa Wood sheets work just fine for this task. They won’t stand up to rough treatment but if you store them with care they will last a long time. This sheet can make enough terrain plates for 5 or 6 pieces. Use PVA glue and patches of modelling sand to give the base a rougher texture. A sturdier base can be made out of lynolium or ceramic tiles, but this adds quite a bit of weight to the terrain.

Next you need junk. Empty large Monster Energy Drink cans make great silos. An over turned plastic plate or bowl and make some hills. Look at the shapes of things, try to imagine them as grey plastic. You will also need to file some things down, like mold nubs on cheap plastic wear. You might want to try a couple different tricks to getting your objects to stick to the base. I find Gorilla Glue is cheap, fast and sturdy.

If you want to spend a little more money you can also build up hills and terrain using foam. A cheap foam cutter and foam gets you some great hills and ruins with little effort. Got some old legos? BAM you’re good to go there!

With this junk in play now you have to rough it up a little so it takes paint well. Take some sand paper or steel wool and just scrub the surfaces down. Then use a cheap spray paint (such as Krylon’s Gray Primer) to coat the terrain. You want to use the cheap stuff because it will help obscure some of the details of the original object.

Now it’s painting time. Use large dry brushes and multiple coats. It doesn’t take to long to get everything “the right color”. Steal pipes and silos, grey stone bricks and dirt can all be built up very quickly from a gray primer base. If you want things to have a different tint try brown or black primer.

It really is that easy and if you get several people from your gaming group together you can put terrain on several tables very cheaply!

For other terrain ideas check out these websites:

BuildInScale.com
PurplePawn
Iron Hands
Triple Ace Games

Just so everyone knows I’m going to be visiting Minnesota for a couple days. I’m flying out in a few hours and I won’t return till Thursday night. So if you post responses or such I won’t be here to give them the OK. I also won’t be here to update the “latest donor”.

The next two articles are written so that shouldn’t be an issue as they update automatically. I just won’t be able to approve comments till I return. This weeks show is in the can and everything SHOULD run without a hitch.

WISH ME LUCK! Oh man oh man oh man. This is a really important trip for those who know what I’m talking about! Ok I’m done being excited. See you all in a couple days!

I know this is going to sound crazy, but sharpies are one of the smartest things you can add to your painting arsenal! Seriously, I mean it. There are several different things you can do with a simple permanent marker that a lot of players don’t think of. There are dozens of good quality markers out on the market today so I thought I would take a walk through them and rate some of them for you guys.

Writing names or adding text lines? You can really make purity seals pop by using a marker to add text lines. Grey Knights really look great when you write each ones name on his shoulder pad. “Freehand” work becomes a lot easier when you outline it in pencil and then trace that in permanent marker. You can then just paint by numbers from there. Eyes are also a lot quicker to do. If you have a hundred eyes to paint you can just white them all in and add the dots using a sturdy pen.

First up is the Micron Pen These are made by Pigma and are the first pens I started using. They also use them in government work for signing important documents… they just use fancy looking versions. I really like the Micron because it always has the same level of flow. It requires a very light touch. If you aren’t careful you can decimate the tip very easily. Treat it like a fine tipped brush and you’e business. The come in a variety of sizes including single pens and packs. They aren’t cheap though and buying in packs doesn’t save you much money. Combine their high price with how easy they are to damage (especially when working on miniatures instead of paper) and you have yourself a situation that can get pricey. You also have to go to art supply stores to get them, such as Dick Blick or Aaron Brothers. The black pens are great, but the other colors don’t have a high enough pigment content to use on models.

Cost: $4 USD per pen.
Durability: 3/10
Ink Quality: 8/10
Variety: 4/10
Flow Control: 10/10

Sharpie makes another great pen. Their new Ultra Fine Point is a great pen available at most office supply stores. You can get sharpies in variable thickness but really the smallest one is what you want for doing scroll work on a model or eyes. They are a lot sturdier than most pens, able to handle eyeball work much easier. You will want to get 3 or 4 because they do dull over time, but not nearly as much as other pens. They are also available in a variety of colors, so you could even do freehand work entirely with the pens. They are dark enough to show up on even blood red or dark blue surfaces and can really make a cloak “pop”. The larger pens are also great for touch ups when a model breaks at a tournament. Just use the marker to color in the bare metal or plastic, give it a moment to dry and then glue it back on. The dark black shadow will be a lot less noticeable than a bit of bare plastic or metal showing.

Cost: $3 USD per pen
Durability: 7/10
Ink Quality: 7/10
Variety: 8/10
Flow Control: 7/10

Copic Ciao Markers look great when you first see them. The most common ones are double sided, one wide and one pointed. They just aren’t fine enough for proper control and the double sides make it easy for air to flow through even when both caps are on, which leads to dry out very quickly. Their more technical pens aren’t bad. These pens are designed for paper based art work and it’s pretty clear from their design and ink. It’s also hard to find singles and they are pretty expensive. While they are the top of the line for many things, models is not one of them. They also rely on the ink being absorbed by the medium and plastics/metals don’t do that. I will give them credit, they know their product and if they made markers for miniatures I’m sure they would be the best in the business. Hell it would revolutionize painting… they even have a marker air brush!

Cost: $50 for 8 pens
Durability: 6/10
Ink Quality: 6/10
Variety: 10/10
Flow Control: 6/10

Bic also has some pens out there. These are mentioned more so you know why it’s worth paying so much for other pens. You get what you pay for. While I would have no problems using the finest point pen they have for repair work that’s about it. Take all the flaws of other pens and roll them into this one. The plus side? You can find them at grocery stores. So if you NEED a pen fast to repair at a tournament you can find these pretty cheap.

Cost: $.75 USD per pen
Durability: 5/10
Ink Quality: 4/10
Variety: 4/10
Flow Control: 3/10

I spend a lot of time listening to lists and helping fine tune army builds. I am sure you’ve all heard terms like “tank hunting” and “horde killing” but there are other rolls that have pop’d up in the new 5th edition metagame. Everyone has their own style of building a list and we all intuitively have some understanding of these function, but I thought it would be a nice exercise to put them down in concrete terms.

So here are MY unit roles, ask yourself what units fill those rolls in your army. You’ll find the information far more applicable to your situation if you read actively and apply the concepts to your metagame.

Tank Hunting: This is a defensive shooting unit, focusing on destroying the threats before they can deal a lot of damage. These units are characterized by high strength weapons designed to punch through armor. There are a variety of weapon types that handle this job, but they are typically strength 8 or higher. If a unit doesn’t have range (usually 36+ inches) it should have the ability to outflank or deep strike during turns 1 or 2. The goal of tank hunting units is to destroy powerful tanks, not just transports. Anything with 2d6 armor penetration also falls into this category. AP 1 is also a biggie.

Horde Killing: This is another defensive unit. These units commonly have a high rate of fire able to put 10 or 12 wounds into a unit that might have 20 or 30 models. Large Blast Templates and flamers also fall into the role, as they allow the player to skip rolling to hit.

Objective Holding: Troops that can take a few hits. These units make you able to win two thirds of the game types. That makes them pretty important. Resilience, numbers or a combination of the two is the name of the game here. Transports can also buy a unit several turns and force your opponent to bring tank hunting and troop killing weapons to bear on the unit.

Transport Crushing: Many players expect tanks to handle their transport hunting duties as well. This can be a mistake, depending on the type of tank hunting you are using. If your tank hunting units rely on short range high penetration weapons (as many do) then a transport will have already done it’s job by the time you kill it. Transport hunting weapons are long range and typically have multiple strength 6 to 8 attacks.

Hammer Breaking: With the advent of the new Tyranids Codex this role becomes even more important. Monsters aren’t just monstrous creatures, but are any unit that has multiple wounds and is very resilient. Many armies rely on a central powerful unit and Hammer Breakers efficiently deal with the problem. These units feature high initiative, power weapons or sheer volume of attacks.

Hammer: These are the “broken” unit in your army. Usually an HQ, this unit can slam into most units and decimate it in one or two rounds of close combat. High strength power weapons, multiple attacks, high weapon skill and resilience all lead to a hammer units success.

Trouble Shooting: These units are designed to intercept problems that arise through the randomness of game play. Deep striking units can really wreak havoc and having a small template with a high ap can ruin their day. Assassination work can also fall to the trouble shooter, breaking down powerful units so that other units can finish them off. The trouble shooter is a gap filler and a final blow when one is needed.

Now the real key isn’t just to know these roles, but to choose units that fill these rolls along with your play style. Additionally you’re going to want units that fill more than just one of these tasks. An objective holding unit might also deep strike with a meltagun, allowing it to do some tank hunting. You might run a hammer unit that doubles as a hammer breaker or handles some of your transport hunting duties.