Citadel Finecast: You Be The Judge

With all the hubbub about Citadel Finecast, I thought I would present these photos for you to be the judge of "hot or not".

I found myself in need of a new Terminator Librarian (as my metal one has gone missing). So, with the arrival of Finecast, I thought I'd get one and check it out. My FLGS was nice enough to hold a new Terminator Libby for me and I picked it up today.

I took these pics with my phone's camera, which is pretty decent, but not fantastic or anything.

So, without further ado, here's the "unboxing" pics:




If you'd just like to see the Picasa album (and much higher-res pics), here it is.

So...what do you guys think?

Draigowing - Now with Extra Support!

So I've been thinking about Draigowing with Paladins. Yes, Paladins cost a LOT, but I think they're worth it. The biggest issue with them is they need long-range support, and something to pop tanks from a distance (so they can get at the chewy stuff in the transports, mainly).

Granted, in the modern Grey Knights codex that means "Psyflemen" dreads. I just happened to get lucky and score a ForgeWorld dread body from a friend the other night, and I ordered the auto-cannon arms Sunday. Of course, if I make this list permanent, I'm going to be ordering another dread and auto-cannon arms, but that's OK. I figure if this list works out I can get more resin-y goodness to make the appropriate dread model (I could even use a -- gasp! -- standard dread model instead of a ForgeWorld one and just order the right arms). The really good news about this list is the only other model I need to purchase is (another) Librarian in Terminator armor (as I can't seem to find my metal one). I've got one of the new FineCast ones pre-ordered at the FLGS so we'll see how that works out. I have realistic hopes that it'll at least look good, I don't know how I feel about the whole FineCast thing yet, but I figure I need the model anyway, might as well give it a shot. Right? Right.

Anyway, this list:

HQ: Lord Kaldor Draigo (1#, 275 pts)

Troops: Paladin Squad (5#, 340 pts)
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Sword; Psycannon
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Psycannon
1 Paladin Nemesis Daemonhammer; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Brotherhood Banner; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Storm Bolter

HQ: Librarian (1#, 180 pts)
Nemesis Force Sword; Storm Bolter
Hammerhand; Might of Titan; Quicksilver; Sanctuary; The Shrouding; The Summoning; Warp Rift

Elite: Techmarine (1#, 133 pts)
Blind Grenades; Rad Grenades; Storm Bolter; Nemesis Warding Stave; Servo Harness

Troops: Paladin Squad (10#, 655 pts)
2 Paladin Nemesis Force Sword; Psycannon
2 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Psycannon
2 Paladin Nemesis Daemonhammer; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Nemesis Brotherhood Banner; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Sword; Storm Bolter
2 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Storm Bolter

Elite: Vindicare Assassin (1#, 145 pts)

Heavy Support: Psyfleman Dread (1#, 135 pts)

Heavy Support: Psyfleman Dread (1#, 135 pts)

...total of 1998 points. Yay.

Here's the plan:

Techmarine will bolster terrain, and the Vindicare will hide out there, with Stealth that'll give him a tasty 2+ cover save. I can live with that. The dreads will hang out near him. I have the big 10-dude Pallie squad as it's the only way I could give all my Pallies a BB, if I *need* to I can combat-squad them and have the Techmarine hop in with them, letting his Rad Grenade dispenser hopefully make up for the lack of +1 attacks they won't be getting from the BB (at least a little bit). Either way it gives me options and that's a good thing. I can DS Draigo and his squad (or another unit of Pallies, taking advantage of Draigo's Psychic Communion) if I really need to get across the board without hoofing it. Lastly -- and I'm pretty sure this'll work, but I don't have my codex here with me at work -- I can use The Summoning to yank the Vindicare out of harm's way should something assaulty get too close.

What do you guys think?

Paladins: Totally Worth It

Actually, to get an idea of how I say it, you have to imagine me with a big ol' grin giving two thumbs up and saying, "Paladins: Totally worth it."

(BTW: This pic is of my WIP Draigo-led unit of Paladins in my "Draigo's All-Stars" list that I used in this past weekend's team tournament.)

So, I played my Draigo's All-Stars list over the weekend in a tournament, partnered with CrazyRedPraetorian's IG. I have learned a few things about Paladins, and I thought I'd share:

The volume of fire a squad of 7 with 2 psycannons puts out is amazing for such a (relatively) small unit. 8 psycannon shots a turn makes things die.

Librarian + Paladins with Brotherhood Banner = Hammerhand + Might of Titan + Quicksilver = everything you charge in CC dies like a squealing pig before it gets to swing back. Well, almost everything. That's why you have a Paladin with a Daemonhammer for mop-up.

The Apothecary upgrade isn't really worth it. As I'm sure has been discussed, what kills Paladins dead isn't small arms fire, it's anti-tank weapons that you don't get FnP rolls on anyway. The few times I had a Paladin actually die it was to either AT weapons or a DH. The few times I got to make a FnP roll, it usually didn't help (I made exactly 1 out of 5). Yes, that was bad luck on my part, but the fact remains that FnP only has a 50% chance of working in the first place, and you don't get to use it that often with Paladins. Therefore those 75 points are more than likely better spent elsewhere (on more Paladins, I think).

Did I mention that anti-tank weapons make Paladins cry? They do.

Wound Allocation Shenanigans (WAS) with Paladins make them very, very hard to kill.

Mixing in a few NFSs with NFHs lets you spread those CC power weapon wounds around with a 16.67% better chance of making your invulnerable save. Since you have to do it that way for WAS anyway, make the most of it.

I'm still undecided on the Brotherhood Banner. Yes, it does give all your Paladins an extra attack, but it does remove an NFx from the squad. I can't decide if it's worth it, or not. I'm going to have to play some more games with it and see. The BB's other ability -- auto-passing the NFx activation -- would have been perfect had I not already used Hammerhand that round of CC. That's my fault, and not some flaw in the BB, so I'll need to be more judicious in my use of Hammerhand in those times when it would be more useful to have force weapons insta-gank multi-wound models (I'm looking at you, Ork Nob units). Sure, S6 > S5, but not having to deal with someone else's WAS with multi-wound models would be >S6 since you can't get S8 without a DH. Did I mention you really need a DH? Yes, you do. Don't leave the battle-barge without at least one.

The only unit that gave my Paladins issues was...another unit of Paladins, all set up for WAS and including a Warding Stave. Sometimes that 2++ really helps ("Just die, damn you, just die!").

Paladins can and will fail leadership tests when your dice have decided they're done for the day and want to go home.

"Deep striking is for suckers," that's my motto. But if you really need to do it with Paladins, well, they're pretty good at surviving the hailstorm of incoming fire they're going to get. Regardless, I got lucky on both my reserve rolls and DS rolls (hit once, scattered 3 the other). I still think DS is too iffy, though, especially when your Psychic Communion generator (Draigo) is Deep Striking, too. IMHO too many things can go wrong and therefore, I stand by my motto, even though sometimes you just gotta be a sucker. "No balls, no babies," as CRP would say.

Don't roll ones. Just don't. Your Paladins don't like ones. However, the first one isn't usually a big deal. Unless, of course, you're making a save against a krak missile hit. It goes without saying that rolling a second one on the same Paladin is absolutely verboten.

Njal Stormcaller makes your Paladins sad. When you see him across the table, know in your silver-armored heart that He. Must. Die. (And the sooner, the better.)

Paladins assaulting Njal Stormcaller and his boys makes Njal cry hot wolfy tears. Psyk-out grenades are fun when you're the one using them.

Other units of Paladins will make you sad, especially when they get the charge on you. Psyk-out grenades are no fun when used against you.

If you're going to use Grand Strategy to give Paladins an extra ability, counter-charge is good -- especially if you have a BB. Getting 4 attacks when charged (and more than likely going first) helps quite a bit. It will also make your opponent think twice about charging in -- which hopefully results in another round of tasty, tasty shooting from your Paladins before you charge in and wreck shop. I'll have to experiment with the "gains Scouts" ability and see how that works out, but it's not like you're going to get close enough to get into CC on round one anyway...

Frag grenades on terminators, such a pleasant surprise (well, for you, anyway...). "Don't hide from Paladins in difficult terrain, you'll just die covered in debris."

Lastly, expect to see things like this a lot when you play GK (and Paladins as troops in particular):


...in short: Paladins: Always outnumbered, never outgunned.


Oh, how'd we do in the tournament? Made it to Table 2, and lost by 2 KP to a GK/SW team, which cost us placing. Remember what I said about another unit of Paladins? A-yep, that's what did it to me (well, I didn't lose the unit, but they lost CC due to number of wounds caused vs. taken, and then failed the morale check with effin' boxcars...). A dreadnaught drop-podding into our IG-filled backfield didn't help. Every game was fun, though -- we definitely had a good time.