Courting the Improbable, Part 2

A little while ago I started musing aloud (aprint?) about the nature of improbability in our game, and digressed into a comparison of models who are expected to be good vs models that are expected to be bad, and how the improbable events differ inversely in their value.

Now, I want to look at more systemic improbabilities, which in 6th ed 40k have multiplied to a level not seen since 2nd ed.

The genesis of this line of thinking goes back to my days playing BloodBowl, still my favourite GW game, though unfortunately I lost my board and many of my models. Back in the day, I played it as much as I could, ventured to a tourney a year for a few years running, read BloodBowl stuff on the tubez, etc. And the constant theme was 'minimise your risk'.

Arcanacon, Game 1

Arcanacon hosted a 1200pt 40K tourney on the Australia Day weekend, and I was fortunate enough to be taking part! Although the tournament scores included comp, it didn't have a large bearing on my army selection, as I basically brought along all of the 5th ed Dark Eldar that I have painted (yes, I have been going since the 5th ed codex came out; yes, I am a very slow painter!)

Arc40k

I made it to the Arcanacon 40k tourney last week, for my first 40k tournament in almost ten years! I had a blast, thanks to everyone involved!

I'm working on putting up some batreps with pics, but since I didn't take enough photos for a blow by blow (out of practice, pushed for time... etc), I'm going to try and make some maps.

The bad news is it might be a little while! Check back in a couple of weeks, with any luck there'll be some action.

In the mean time, here are some other pics from the event.

These are my Dark Eldar, on one of the splendid tables available!

 Here are a couple of the beautiful armies that were on show:

Courting the Improbable

Warhammer 40K is, if nothing else, a game of dice. Random numbers generated in certain limited ways govern most of the actions through which we meaningfully interact with our counterparts. So its no surprise that managing probability has a central place in generalship.

Much of the chatter regarding the randomness inherent in our game is focussed on ameliorating or avoiding those times that probability falls out of our favour. For example, take the number of forum posters bemoaning the switch to random charge distances in 6th ed, and the common advice to work with it by getting as close as possible.

But, extremes of probability occur on either side of the mean. Sometimes the dice will simply fuck us. But other times, wild and unexpected success can happen - provided that we allow it to.

Objective placement for fun and profit

Four of the six missions six allow the players to place the objectives. So, how can you best place the objectives to suit your game, and deny the enemy his?

Overwatch!

I've been thinking about overwatch a lot, lately, and specifically trying to think of ways to get around it. After all, I don't like my wyches getting shot at the best of times... I suppose running in to assault is the best of times, and I certainly don't like being shot then. So no. I do not like my wyches being shot, ever :)

But what to do? Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play a lot of 6th ed yet - precisely one game. So what follows is a brainstorm of sorts, of untested ideas to get the girls engaged without getting gimped.

Dark Eldar Anti-Air ideas

We all know that its no longer enough to have anti-infantry and anti-tank firepower. We also need to have anti-air firepower. And to my mind, that puts the Dark Eldar in a slightly uncomfortable position. Below, I'll throw around some ideas on how to interdict some of the nasty new kids on the aircraft block.