Blood Bowl PC Game

So the Blood Bowl video game made it into retail channels in the states recently. I decided to pick it up for the PC. I had originally planned on getting it for my xbox 360 but I heard that the xbox 360 game did not support online leagues. While my 360 is not on live right now, I plan on getting it back to live at some point and leagues are the only way to really play blood bowl.


Now having it on PC presents some problems. My PC is perfectly able to run the game but my wife uses it most of the time for running her two blogs which are much bigger than mine so I can only use it at odd hours for gaming. I had actually not played a game on the pc since moving a few years ago.


I picked the game up a few weeks ago but finally actually got to play it this weekend since I was at Disney world the previous weekend. My first impression is that the AI is pretty weak. I have played about 6 matches so far (1 one off match with Chaos, and 5 campaign matches with Dark Elves) and I have won them all. The computer plays its team OK with trying to cage to protect the ball carrier and such but its biggest problem is that it does not change tactics when the end of the half or the game approaches. It seems to not really pay attention to the turn number like it should.

I have seen several games where it could have likely scored near the end of the half or game if it made a effort to make sure it was advancing the ball more. The AI will place deep receivers to throw passes to even with teams that do not really throw but it does not seem to make the effort in turn 6 for example to make sure it has people forward enough to score in the last two turns.

Another problem I saw was skill selection. Even for the preprogramed teams it seems like the skills were chosen more to show the possiabilities than to really make an optimal team. In one of my early campaign games I ran into a beastman with a prehensile tail as its first skill. Now there are way better skills than that for a chaos team that they really need.

The interface is a little funky also and I sometimes find myself thinking I have switched to a different player but actually still moving someone else or doing crazy things like dodging back and forth between squares because I used the wrong mouse click. Anyone out there know how to declare a blitz such that you hit the opponent as the first thing and then are free to determine you movement path after the hit?

I am still enjoying the game and would recommend it to people who know the board game. I skipped the tutorial so I do not know how it is for someone new to the boardgame.

Tyrannofex: Close only Counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades.

So I am looking at the rules for one of the new super bugs trying to see what he is good for. He is a W6 Av2+ monstrous creature who with regenerate and choice of main weapon runs in at almost 300 points. Pretty hefty chuck of a 1500 point army. While they have some secondary armament that are like hull heavy bolters/flamers, these guys are all about their big guns. But this is really where they are lacking.

The basic choice is the Acid Spray which is essential the same in game terms to a hellhound's inferno cannon. The problem here is that the hellhound is a fast vehicle which means it can move 18 inches in a turn(twice the pace of a running tyrannofex) or move 12 and still fire the inferno cannon out to 12 more inches. So the tyrannofex is probably going to have a much harder time bringing this weapon to bear optimally than the hellhound. While you can use the Tervigon's Onslaught power to get it into range better this is another 160+ points invested and prevents that monstrous creature from shooting, running, or assaulting that turn. Sure the tyrannofex will be more survivable but you can probably get a squadron of 2 hellhounds for the cost of 1 tyrannofex. Here you are probably better off drop poding a unit of Pyrovores at lower cost.

Next Up is the Fleshboarer Hive with its 20 shots. This is the Leman Russ Punisher version except with S4 AP5 instead of S5 Ap -. The lower strength is fine if you are shooting at Av5+ troops but against Av4 or people with cover saves the punisher wins. The punisher also gets the advantage with twice the range meaning it can do its damage outside of meltagun, rapid fire plasma range, or non fleet assault range(powerfist in tac squad will keep this guy locked all game) . In the nid list, I think the newly out of favor dakkafex is better than this equipment since 12 Twinlinked Str 6 shots are probably similar in effectiveness.

Final Big gun choice is the Rupture Cannon. The name makes it sound like it will be deadly. S10 Assault 2 now that could put the hurt on something. Oh wait AP 4. So this is totally useless against MEQ infantry unlike any other S9-10 weapon in the game where if no good armor shows it self you can at least force a couple of marines to make coversaves if they have them. Since you are BS 3 your 2 shots get you 1 hit which has a good chance of penetrating most armor but then again you will be shooting at the front most likely so 13-14 is that standard armor you will be seeing that makes a worthwhile target. (Rhino's, Waveserpeants, and Chimera's are for Hive Guard putting out 6 times your shots on a per point basis). 1 Hit per turn, less than 50% penetration rate then 33% kill rate means you can expect to kill 1 tank a game with this guy. Maybe you will be lucky and get that landraider before it drops those thunderhammer terminators on you because they will own your monstrous butt in combat with 10 wounds to your less than 0.5.

Now you cannot compare this gun to the ordnance blast weapons of demolisher since they both anti-tank and anti-MEQ. The best comparison is with the Tau Railgun on a broadside. Both have solid stand off ranges, can be fired on the move(assuming upgrade to broadside suit never seen one without it), have 10 Strength, Twinlinked Heavy 1~Assault 2(not as good but close), but AP1 vs AP4 for that important +1 on the damage table. That +1 increase vehicle destroyed results by more than 50% (more vs those pesky holofield grav tanks). Plus while I do not know the cost of a Broadside I bet you can get at least 2 (canceling the shot advantage) plus some shield drones to increase survivability for 300 points. And you can hide in low level cover.

So the morale of the story appears to be that the nids big gun is really not big enough. Maybe you will find just the right situation for this guy once in a blue moon but most of the time you will probably wish you had something else like a 3 Hive Guard and 2 Zoans for about the same price for anti tank duty.

Hive Guard?

So currently Hive Guard are out of stock for like 8 weeks from GW US. They are also 20 dollars a pop and 3 are really needed to make the unit have any kind of punch so that is like 60 dollars for the unit. As I am in a no spend money mode until I get some projects done if I want some I will have to make them myself. Now I do have 3 unbuilt warriors and 3 unused venom cannons plus fleshhooks for the tips and extra carapace bits to armor them up. Might not look so bad if done right. Different from other fleets Hive Guard but what are Tyranids without some variation.

Termagants

Everyone facing the new Tyranids will probably be seeing more Termagants. Not because they are good or really cheap but since they allow you to take a Tervigon as a troop who in turn spawns more Termagants.

Now the basic Termagant with fleshborer is a point cheaper but he has lost fleet and the living ammunition rule while gaining a point of leadership. The living ammunition rule itself made him a 50% better shooter so the lose was probably not worth the point. He is pretty much now a guardsman with a bolt pistol and +1 initiative but worse save.

They have a couple of options for load out with complete changes to spinefists, spike rifles, or devourers.

Spinefist exchange a point of S for twinlinking. This is a wash vs T4 targets, and a 12% increase in wounds vs T3 but since the unit costs 20% more each now and they have no hope vs even the lightest vehicles it is a bad upgrade. The only time it is worth the points is against T6 opponents where the spines are 25% better(due to the repeat 6+ to wound on the tables). So spinefists are the way to go verses nidzilla. In general though, they should be costed the same as fleshborers such that you are tuning the unit for low or high toughness targets. If you see spinfists on the board it is because the opponent already had them modeled and did not want to change them.

Spike Rifles trade 1 point of strength for 6 inches more range. Also increase model cost by 20%. This is much more of a tactical based decision but against T4 that point of strength reduces your shooting quality by 33%. Might be worthwhile trade since 6 extra inches range could mean a whole extra turn of shooting. But even if you double your shooting for the whole game(not easy) you are essentially just get 33% more wounds compared to the same number of fleshborers factor in the model but you have 20% fewer shooters. Factoring that in I think this is another bad upgrade. Should be even cost.

Devourers give you both 6 more inches of range plus 2 additional shots at the loss of the AP value. This upgrade double the model cost so that significant increase in firepower is essentially mostly canceled by having half the models. So on a fixed cost basis you will be generating 50% more wounds but also have half the wounds to give for a unit with a very bad save. The 18 inch range helps with Lurking and if you could put the unit in cover that was not going to be flamed or assaulted it might work out. I think this upgrade would have been better costed about 3 points per model.

Now for every 10 termagants you can get a strangleweb. It is an interesting concept: Wound vs Strength instead of toughness with a assault 1 pinning template. Problem is obvious though in that is S2 weapon meaning 5's to wound the weakest normal opponents and 6's for standard opponents. It is also Ap - which means everyone gets their armor saves. I have a hard time expecting this to generate any unsaved wounds to force the pinning check. You need 18 marines under the template to expect a unsaved wound. Only need about 4 orks but they generally are not worried about pinning when the are together enough to get great template coverage. Had this weapon had a Strength of at least 3 it might have been worth while but I think to cover its listed cost of 2 termagants it probably would need to be S4.

There are also 2 biomorph options: Adrenal Glands which grant furious charge and Toxin Sacs which give a Poison 4+ to the close combat attacks. Each of these increase the cost of the termagants by 20%. Adrenal Glands might be worth it if you plan on charging with your termagants but since they are now not fleet you have to have them within rapid fire range the turn before to do it. Poison is good since your S3 unit now wounds every thing on a 4. Again strangley good for monstrous creature hunting. Are we getting the results of 2 hive fleets fighting it out right now. If you combine them both on the charge your Strength is 4 so you can reroll those failed to wounds on T4 or lower targets not to bad.

With both upgrades you can essentially go toe to toe with choppa Ork Boyz (Termagants generating .75 wounds each vs 1 wound each for boys) if you charge and they are not in cover since if they strike first they will clean your clock. These upgrades are not bad but the low weapon skill, toughness, and save mean the termagants will take heavy damage back. If they do not really hit the opponent hard and first you will lose the combat and then either be swept or no retreated to death.

Last Point to consider is the instinctive behavior: Lurk. So out of synapse you need to pass a leadership 6 test of go to Lurk mode. So you can pretty much assume you will be lurking a lot. Least you still count as scoring. Now Lurk requires you to shot at the nearest target if one is visible and in range or run to cover. No movement or assault. This is a place where the 18 inch range of the devourers/spikerifles might be useful since it might help you not run toward the nearest cover. I guess the thing to do is to make sure you put any objectives you plan on camping with Termagants in cover.

New Tyranid Codex: Where did it all go wrong?

So I finally managed to pick up my order of the new tyranid codex and while there are a lot of neat things in their especially in the unique characters I really have to say I do not like most of it. Seems like every change they made which made the units make more sense or better was counteracted by something else which just did the opposite leaving player with less choices. Here is my rundown of things I am not liking:

1. Synapse and Instinctive Behavior: Losing the immunity to instant death from double strength weapons is annoying for many of units (14 out of 34) but at least it forces opponents to try to balance very high strength(8-10) for multiwounds with high shots vs MC and swarms. Failing back toward board edge now vs toward synapse before is also fine. No big deal.

The two classes of Instinctive behavior is also a good concept if the leadership for so many units were not so low. Sure gaunts should be 6 but that seems to be the default level for many things meaning that when your synapse breaks down 58% of the time you no longer have meaningful control of the units. Several of the feed units are not really ones you want in combat or could have shooting weapons they will not be using. Some of the lurk units look like it is fine like Biovores or Hiveguard but then you note that the rule says visible targets so even though your weapons do not need line of sight you have to go running for terrain instead of shooting if you have tried to hide them behind solid cover. Especial annoying in the fast attack where your garagoyles will be at best not advancing and shooting their assault 1 S4 guns or running for cover. At least they are only running for cover so that you do not have to take dangerous terrain tests when you get there(you are not force to fly, it is an option). Sure you only move d6 but it will almost never be the direction you want if you have solid opponents.

2. Lichtor: Here is an unloved model from the last codex, too expensive and fragile especially once kill zones where removed. Maybe you could jump out and pop light armor, you got the pheromone bonus, and if he hung around other guys they could use his feeder tentacles, but lets not mention that stupid dangerous terrain issue for your required deepstrike deployment. Now he is a little tougher with the extra wound but his stealth save is worse with only a plus one (no longer 5+ cover and armor in the open), his pheromones require him to be on the board but he does act as a beacon, but the real kicker is that he cannot assault anymore the turn he arrives eventhough he is no longer deepstriking but placed. He can attack with his 6 inch range attack but it has about a 1 in 6 chance of doing anything with the rend after you account for the BS 3. Maybe you can damage a vehicle but since it is a Ap - weapon it is not likely to destroy it. He is an old marine cheaper but still not a great buy.

These are major changes for a unit that needed just a tweak. Take the old unit fix the deepstrike dangerous terrain problem clearly and add a 1 new special rule: Lightening Assault, Lichtor assaults are so fast that opponents do not get defender reacts move and only models engaged can be taken as casualties. This would make the lichtor slightly able to snipe hidden fists and such if they were exposed at the edge of unit near terrain. Would have made a nice unit maybe worth all 80 points without the feeder tendril buff and maybe no running after deepstriking.

3. Hive Tyrants. I will admit that Tyrants were probably undercosted in the last codex with very little competition for the HQ slots. The problem now is that it is hard to make a good shooty tyrant without wasting abilities that you are being forced to pay for like WS8 and 4 Attacks. You cannot take 2 of the heavy weapons to make a sniper tyrant plus the range on these is wasted since you have paid for 2 of 4 psychic powers all of which are 12 inch or less shooting attacks. You have to be in the thick of it. The dakka tryant has paid for the psychic powers that are probably of less use than his devourers. If you want to go close combat like they are pushing you, the classic problem of getting the slow monster into battle is left. No pod for the Tyrant so wings it has to be and now you are really really expensive without any additional upgrades.

4. Fexes. Fexes were also undercosted before also with limited competition for FOC spaces. But can anyone honestly say they think the pricing was off by like 65% especially since the general pricing for many things has gone down between the two books. So which book was play tested so poorly that the pricing for the fex gets an E grade. One of them must have been for a 65% point change to be required.

Now if you want a shooty fex you are at about the same cost for the trygon but the Instinctive behavior:feed gets in the way of shooting 41% of the time out of synapse. Throw in a pod to get up close and personal for short range dakka fexes and you are at the same cost as a Trygon prime who has just as many shots and is better at CC with higher weapon skill and more attacks plus more wounds. Sure he does not instant death things due to the lower strength but he has a lot going for him. A close combat fex with no upgrades and a pod to get there is again the cost of a trygon with fewer attacks, lower weapon skill, no shooty weapons, not fleet, and fewer wounds. Where do fexes fit in? Only thing going for them seems to be instant death in CC plus crunch AV 14 all side armor without needing the 2d6 penetration (Monolith). Throw in Jaws of the Wolf on the I1 model and what is the point.

5. Rules Questions. Lets not forget the stupid rules issues like if the Mawloc deepstriking directly on units with scattering since they are normally classified as impassible terrain(positions models cannot be placed) or whether the tryanid close combat weapons bonus stack or you have to pick 1 to use each turn if you have several. Sure you have a lash whip and bonesword as standard so what will it be negating opponents armor saves or reducing some of their initiatives to 1.

I am sure I will have more rants to follow. As a note I do not have a nidzilla army already just 1 tyrant and the 3 fexes from the assault brood box all waiting for me to decide what to do with them.

Fantasy Football: Player Aid Skill Rings

Here is another item I got from Impact! Miniatures, skill rings. These are little plastic rings with inner diameters just larger than the standard base size. Originally I expected them to be almost exact fits which were held in place by the sloping edges of the bases so that they would stay on if you picked the piece up without any problem. This is not the case.

They come off the bottom if you are not careful. The reason for this is so that you can slip them on and off from the bottom without having to take the mini through the ring. Most of the minis are not totally contained in the diameter of the base so getting perfect fit rings on them would have been like those classic metal puzzles games of going around 1 arm first then the head then this spike etc. Given that some minis it is not even possible it is a good thing they slip on from the bottom. Even with this limitation they seem to work pretty well.


Here we have a yellow ring and a blue one allowing for these to skinks to be quickly identified as one with say catch and the other with side step.

The rings come in lots of different colors varieties but probably defeat their usefulness if every single model has a different one. I got a combo back with 6 different rings each in their own color but they have other arrangements like if you give players block you could get a bunch of red rings(Red=Blitzers whose defining feature is start with block skill) or green (Green=Blockers traditionally). One of the guys in my league writes in pen skills on the white painted edges of his bases especially for tournaments. Of course he does not always update them between league and tournament play so that is less helpful.

With my last league team I did not need these since I pretty much had a different model for the full roster except for 2 repeated gutter runners but this might something I need this season. Might even take them to games and ask if I can place them on opponents players which have specific skills of note like strip ball or stat increase to help use both keep track of them.

Splinter Fleet To Be Named Later

So I have had a small force of nids for a few years that I started collecting as my own opposition force but given how rarely I get games in I never really used since I still had some many possibilities with my marine collection. Once I heard there was a new codex in the pipe line, I had even more incentive to sit on them to see what was in store.

The assembled unpainted force currently stands at made up of metal blisters, Battle of Mac, and one 3ed battleforce:
Broodlord with Retinue of 6 Stealers
3 Warriors with deathspitters and talons
2 Tyrant Guard
2 Lichtors
12 Stealers
14 Termigants
12 Spineguants
16 Homogaunts
1 Zoan

As you can see this is not a nidzilla force but it is also probably not competitive in any metagame out there. First thing about this model selection is that I do not know if I can really even make a valid list. I used to have an HQ option with the broodlord or warriors but now neither of those are HQ. I can call the Warriors primes to fill this void but that takes away a whole unit.

To go with these models, I have unassembled 1 Hive Tyrant, 2 more Zoans, 1 more Tyrant Guard, 3 fexes, 16 homogaunts, 16 termigants, 16 Stealers, and 6 warriors(18 Month old assault brood box). Given that I have this much unassembled stuff there is no justification for a budget for new units for quite sometime(maybe in the summer I can swing a Trygon plus another new unit). So I am quite unhappy to hear that both the Tyrants and Fexes got their points jacked up so much that people think the new Trygon is the way to go on the monstrous creature side. I am currently sans codex which I expect to get this weekend so I will have to wait and see.

Once I get the codex I will sit down to see what my build options are and compare what I see to my prerumor predictions/rant for the codex.

Fantasy Football: Player Aid Tokens

As part of one of my Christmas presents from my mom, I got a token pack from Impact! Miniatures to use with fantasy football games. The token pack comes with 1 Stunned/Prone token, 1 rooted token, and 1 no zone token. I also had her get me an additional Stunned/Prone in case I need 2 at once. Nice plastic tokens. Wording could be a little clearer but you can always brighten it with some white paint.

Everyone has seen this situation caused by the different in size between the big guys bases and the board spaces. What is a slight problem standing(I have some on square bases which is worse) becomes a huge problem when the player is prone or stunned. Enter the prone/stunned token.



Now no space problem, plus since one side is labeled prone and the other stunned you also can use it for any models which have a hard time lying down both ways due to their 3 dimensional nature(not a problem for most of the minis but can happen). I got two in case more than 1 big guy was in use but I was thinking it would be great if these came in 2 different colors(red and blue) to make sure people do not get confused about which token is for which big guy. Might not happen often but I could imagine two big guys down right next to each other combined with some fast paced turnovers causing a forgetful coach to replace the wrong one with his big guy.

Here is another one of the tokens in action. Gutter runner just slips on by the no zoned big guy. These tokens are good because both bonehead and hypnotized players have to take actions to get their zones back so it is possible for them to stay that way over several turns where you could easily forget. An coach with lots of gaze would do well to have multiple tokens like this. Luckily they have a combo pack for that also.

These tokens are pretty cheap so if you are ordering something already they are a could thing to throw in with it so you are not paying separate shipping charges.

Blood Bowl: Classic Bases

When you are really behind on your painting like I am, your opponents can sometimes have trouble telling which lump of lead is a line man and which is a blitzer. This is a more common problem with newer players but can happen to anyone playing an unfamiliar miniature set. To help out my opponent's with this last season(they were all using proxies so I did not feel bad about unpainted) I switched over to using the classic second edition bases that came with the old plastic teams. Since I had all four of those plastic teams I have plenty of these to use.



These classic bases were nice for 2 reasons for this application. First they were is gray plastic which allows for writing numbers on them in pencil with good viability. Next many of them were 2 parts with a smaller in plastic base with a detachable colored edging. This way my opponent could easy distinguish the classes of minis.

The classic color scheme is:
Blitzers=Red
Blockers=Green
Throwers/Runners=White
Catchers=Yellow
Linemen=Grey

Of course most people do not have 4 sets of these bases lying around but you could always just paint the edges of the bases you are using in this scheme. The other problem with this scheme is that the slot width in the bases are smaller which causes a lot of the teams not to fit.

My Main Christmas Present

I have not gotten much hobby work done recently. The main reason is that I got Rock Band 2 as a Christmas present from my wife and daughter. I had Guitar Hero 3 before but found that the differences between what I was actually doing and the sounds from the game were almost distracting. I had played original Rock Band at a friends place a few months before getting Guitar Hero and enjoyed it more since I was able to play my natural instrument, the bass. Back like 15 years before 2 of the other 3 people I was playing with were in a garage band with me while the third we had played with a little. Having a real drummer playing the drums makes the game easier.

So I got the game mainly so I could play bass lines but also try out the drum kit as an impulse buy. The price was right during the holiday sales. My daughter was with us when we picked it up and wanted to see what it was about before Christmas so I showed her some of Guitar Hero but she became very concerned about the girls dancing in the cages so I stopped playing that.

I have enjoyed the game and also got Lego Rockband for its super easy mode with automatic kick drum so my daughter can play the drums with me. I have moved the diffeculty up to Hard for the base lines and find that I now need to actually make a decision about a consistant way to do the 5th note either by stretching out my pinky (tough to do 5 to 4 transitions) or going to second position. Currently I am doing a mixture on both but that leaves me often to lose track of my fingering. Also need to work on 2 finger strumming on the strum bar and decide one whether to use my guitar hero 3 controller or my rock band one. But that is starting to sound like real work.


I even managed to get my wife to play a few songs. She used to play electric guitar and says it is nothing like really playing. Ofcourse not, actually playing a guitar takes practice and they are trying to make something people can just pick up and have fun with.