Problems with Rough Riders

I'm a fan of Rough Riders which is why I'm currently converting a unit from Cadian's and Empire Knights. However I struggle to see how effective they will actually be on the table and after reading through the codex I'm wondering what GW were thinking when they equipped them.

For example, in the fluff it says that they use Lasgun's but they can't even take Lasgun's. They have the option of either a Laspistol or close combat weapon (CCW) to go with their Hunting Lance, not both. Why? Surely it would make sense that they would have a pistol or CCW holstered for use after the initial charge. It would also make them a little more effective because after the Lance has been used they are Initiative 3 with 2 attacks on the charge which is very poor. If they were a little more effective then maybe more people would use them.

Another problem now is that Hunting Lance are AP3 meaning they cannot reliably kill Terminators and other 2+ armour units. The Sergeant can take a Power Axe but will be using his Hunting Lance on the initial charge. It could be useful for finishing of a 2+ armour unit provided he is not challenged by a model with a higher Initiative.

Why would a Rough Rider exchange his Hunting Lance for a Special Weapon? Surely they could exchange their Laspistol or CCW.

And now in 6th Edition they can't charge from reserve and with only 5+ armour saves your relying on cover  and screening vehicles to get them where they need to be.

It's not all bad though. One advantage from the current FAQ is that they can now gain an extra attack from having a Lance and pistol/CCW as the sentence that said they could not has been removed and the lance is a 'melee' type weapon. Unfortunately, this will obviously only work for the first round of combat. Also, Mogul Kamir is now better due to the changes to the Rage and Fearless special rules.

I'll be taking them for a few games to see how they do. Also, it should be fun, and not too difficult, to convert them.

So does anyone use Rough Riders in 6th Editon? Are they worth it?

First Impressions of the Chaos Codex

I finally got my first couple of games in with the Chaos Codex at the weekend and I was very impressed. I had two games, both against Dark Angels, and both finished with me wiping out my opponent.

The Heldrake was just as good as I had expected, wiping out whole squads of marines at a time. The Deathwing Terminators were a bit of a problem though but were eventually beaten to a pulp by my Khorne lord wielding the Axe of blind Fury (AoBF). In the hands of a Chaos Lord the AoBF is amazing but unfortunately rebelled twice causing a wound. I am currently considering a Juggernaut to carry him to battle as it would make him even more survivable and it would mean that I could dust off my Spawn and use them as a bodyguard unit.

The great thing about the Chaos Lord is the amount of competitive builds there is in the codex. This means that you are unlikely to see everybody run the same HQ’s as happened with the previous codex.

The other unit I was impressed with was my Forgefiend. I ran it with just the Hades Autocannon’s to keep it as cheap as possible and found it to be excellent for snap-shotting flyers. It shot down two Darktalon’s over the two games, killed 4 Ravenwing bikers and destroyed two predators. Its biggest drawback was the Autocannon’s AP, which overall was ineffective against marines, and lack of combat prowess. It was assaulted in my first game by Terminators and quickly destroyed. The Daemonforge ability was useful but not exactly game changing.

Overall the army seems to be a lot more fun to use than with the previous codex but having read through both the Dark Angels and Tau codex’s I can’t help but feel that Chaos got screwed again by GW.

For example:

No Eternal Warrior for Daemon Princes and a huge points increase due to power armour and wings being must buy options. May your chosen god help you if you play against Tau regularly as their strength 10 weaponry will make mincemeat out of Daemon Princes.

No units with Interceptor and very little access to Skyfire. Compare this to the Dark Angels that can get Flakk missiles in their troop choices.

10 man strong Chaos Space Marine units needed to access Heavy Weapons whereas Dark Angels only need 5.

Obliterators can’t shoot the same weapon in subsequent shooting phases, are no longer fearless and have Leadership 8.

Most units have to pay for Veterans of the Long War but almost all Dark Angels seem to get Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines) or Stubborn for free.

Khorne Berzerkers have Rage and Counter Attack instead of +1 Attack which might not seem too bad but they have pass a Leadership test to Counter Attack (failed mine at the weekend) and if they don’t wipe out a unit in the first turn of combat they are no better than normal Chaos Marines with Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons.

Defilers cost too much, most likely to make people buy the new Daemon engines.

Cultists with Autogun’s cost the same as a regular Guardsmen despite being worse. The Autogun’s should have been a free upgrade in my opinion.

I don’t mean to rant but it just stinks of GW not wanting any other army to be able to challenge the Space Marines. The Tau got a significant boost with their new codex and they are Battle Brothers with them also. The saving grace of this codex is the number of possible builds which will keep it fun, if not entirely competitive.

Faeit212 Has Disappeared



The big news in the Wargame's blogging world is the disappearance of Faeit212. This is apparently due to the blog displaying unreleased images of content from the White Dwarf magazine.

April 22, 2013

Sender Information: Games Workshop Limited Sent by: [Private] Games Workshop Limited GB

Recipient Information:
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Google, Inc. [Blogger]
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Sent via: online form: Form
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1. Complainant's Information
Name: Company name: Games Workshop Limited
Full legal name of the copyright holder: Games Workshop Limited
Country of residence: GB

2. Your copyrighted work
Location of copyrighted work (where your authorized work is located):

The copyrighted work is the contents of the
unreleased 'White Dwarf' magazine (ISSN: 0265-8712) produced by Games
Workshop Limited and due for release on 27th April 2013.

Description of the copyrighted work:

The magazine content and images are
protected by copyright and Games Workshop Limited does not give permission
for it to be displayed on the Faeit212 Blog. The blog is displaying
photographic copies of the pages of the magazine. The 19 photos of magazine
pages in the body of the blog post infringe.

As copyright owner, Games Workshop also has the rights to first release of
the material to the public. These rights are being infringed by the
Faeit212 blog entry identified, belonging to user 'Natfka'.

Due to the confidential nature of the work being infringed and its current
status as unreleased, we kindly request you remove this material from your
service as swiftly as possible.

3. Allegedly Infringing Material:
URL of the allegedly infringing material in our search results:

(1.)
http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/lots-of-new-pics-for-high-elves.html

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Taken from chillingeffects.org.

I can understand GW's point of view but I don't think this will do anything for their already tarnished public image. Interestingly, it appears that Faeit212 has not been the only blog targeted by GW, with Apocalyse40k amongst others also receiving a DMCA complaint. BoLS also went down but it is thought that it was probably due to a Google error.

The question is what/who will GW target next? They seem to want to destroy their own company by firstly forcing customers to buy direct from them and now slowly shutting down the internet community that supports their products.