Tournament Report - Born of the Wolves (1750pts @ The Outpost)

This was the second outing for my hybrid wolves list. I've tweaked it slightly from last time to ditch the wolf standard giving me enough points for a fen wolf for the lord and hammers for all three WGBLs. Incidentally I don't think the wolf standard is totally useless but in this list it's simply not worth the points. A lot of the time the grey hunters are dropping in and getting hammered before they can think about assaulting. In the last tournament I found that the WGBLs were facing a lot of MCs. The hammers give them a chance of striking in the second round of combat, they might still die to a solid MC but there's a good chance they'll take it with them.

Game One - Wolves vs. Eldar/DE
My first opponent was Tess Yoxall who came along to the last Blog Wars. He'd heard about the tournament through reading this blog ironically. Anyway, Tess was running a mixed Eldar list with wave serpents, war walkers, spiders, hawks, war walkers, windriders and wraithguard along with an allied archon and warriors in a venom. The d-cannons from the wraithguard were a big worry for my thunderwolves and serpents/windriders would be an issue given we were playing Big Guns on Hammer & Anvil.

Tess won the roll off and used his serpents to take down one of the WGBLs for First Blood. His warlord trait had pinned another so I wasn't exactly off to a flyer. The pods came in and were massively underwhelming. One landed safely behind t
he serpents but the melta shot was successfully jinked meaning I just stripped a single HP. The other squad couldn't even down the venom leaving it immobile. Tess brought in his spiders and wraithguard bomb but to my surprise he went for one of the grey hunter packs leaving just two models remaining. His wave serpents went flat out to try and keep away from my grey hunters. This put one of them firmly in charge range of a WGBL though allowing me to smash it with his hammer but the real carnage was happening on the other flank.

My wolf lord charged the wraithguard and, with the archon failing his first shadowfield roll the lord was able to chew through most of the squad. The other WGBL charged the spiders and killed all but the archon and a spider who both ran never to return. The venom was downed and the remaining hunters charged the warriors. The combat there dragged out but was ultimately won by the terminator. Tess hit back killing the WGBL in revenge for his wave serpent. The war walkers also downed the other at this point I think leaving me just the lord locked in combat. The flyer helped deal more damage to the war walkers and the grey hunters thinned out the dire avengers who'd lost their serpent to the WGBL.

Attention now turned to the objectives. The lord finished his combat and headed towards my home objective, I had a drop pod on another (with the terminator heading that way too) with the other two unclaimed. The blood claws hopped out of the stormwolf and finished off the dire avengers to claim their objective. The remaining pod finally came in and held the central objective putting fire on the hawks who were lurking nearby. One of the serpents blasted up to try and contest the central objective. The flyer followed it but couldn't achieve much thanks to the serpent's 2+ Jink. The serpent elected to tank shock my hunters though allowing me to melta it and then finish off the occupants in my turn. The hawks tried to contest an objective but were easily wiped out by the lord. With the grey hunters sweeping up the war walkers I completed the tabling for a 15-1 victory and, of course, the full 1,750 blood points.

Game Two - Wolves vs. Eldar/DE

I thought I'd be playing Matt's round one opponent who was running broadside spam Tau (who ultimately won the event). However, there was an error in the scoring meaning I'd be playing his mate John instead who was another player using minimal DE to take advantage of the webway. He was also using the Armour of Misery combined with Psychic Shriek which is a horrible combo. The rest of his army was 3 serpents, 3 lots of two hornets (24 S8 AP2 shots!), several spiritseers (Iyanden) and a farseer with some weapon batteries on top of a bastion.

Despite getting +1 to Seize I still ended up going second. That meant I had little or no chance with all that S8 AP2 weaponry. He also got Shrouded on his spiritseers which has a 6" bubble and therefore 2+ jinks all round. My wolf lord died straight away and when my grey hunters arrived they managed to hit with both meltas but the hornets passed their jinks. Psychic shriek was brutal. Both times I had to roll for it I scored 15 and 17 wiping out the squads who were Ld7 thanks to the Armour of Misery.

Slowly but surely he destroyed the rest of my army until I was left with just the stormwolf with blood claws inside. This gave me a chance to make it a much closer game than it appeared. It was a long shot but if I could get the stormwolf onto one objective and the blood claws onto another it would mean just a narrow victory for him on secondary VPs. Not surprisingly it didn't go according to plan and I lost both the flyer and blood claws soon after resulting in a tabling. The final score was 1-9 and I only racked up a paltry 400 blood points.

Game Three - Wolves vs. Tau

I may have managed to avoid the worst Tau list there with excessive broadside spam but I still found myself playing a slight toned down version that Bob was running. He had two units of broadsides, two skyrays, a riptide, a commander with marker drones, aegis line, 20 kroot and two units of crisis suits in reserve. We'd be playing Kill Points but with a bonus point for the first unit killed from each FOC slot. I had a huge bonus having only HQ and Troops.

He castled up in the middle of his deployment zone behind his aegis line and with a ring of kroot outside of that to act as an assault buffer. I knew I'd need to make a hole in that line to get my TWC into the thick of it. I brought down my two pods either side of his army. He intercepted the pod blowing it up for First Blood but taking down 3 kroot in the process. The grey hunters then managed to kill a broadside with a melta shot and couple of missile drones. The other pod suffered a riptide blast that killed five hunters including one of the meltas. The terminator tried to use his combi-melta to destroy a skyray but it managed to jink. The drop pod then fired at the kroot managing to kill two and force a morale check. The kroot failed and were forced to fleet 5". It wasn't until we got right to the end of the line that we realised one kroot was within 5" of the table edge and therefore the whole squad was destroyed! This all worked quite nicely as a distraction away from my TWC characters as the Tau focussed on downing the grey hunters and therefore fired only minimal shots at the TWC.

This allowed me to charge into combat with the TWC. I knew I needed to plan things carefully though as all that Overwatch would be nasty. I therefore charged with my lord first who still had full wounds and his fenrisian wolf alive. The Tau managed to kill the fen wolf and take two wounds from the lord but this let me get all four characters into combat safely. The lord and one WGBL charged a full squad of broadsides whilst another WGBL charged the already depleted broadside team. On the left flank the final WGBL charged the riptide (which my opponent referred to as El Cataclismo). The riptide elected to Smash but fortunately I made the 3++ save. In response, the WGBL managed to cause 5 wounds but the riptide saved 3/5 on his 5++ save and the remaining two were cancelled by FNP! That meant no concussive to help me out in the next round. The other characters easily wiped out both broadside teams.

The Tau response was somewhat muted as they had only minimal forces left. I was able to get the third drop pod in safely and this helped take down the commander and his drones. One of the WGBLs charged a skyray and blew it up. The other skyray took fire from the stormwolf but still clung on. The riptide again used his Smash attack but this time the WGBL failed his 3++ save and was rather embarrassingly struck down. The crisis teams came in one by one which helped me no end. I was able to put fire on them from the grey hunters before charging with the blood claws and a TWC. The other squad met a similar fate but were irritatingly able to take the final wound from a WGBL.

I fired the flyer at the skyray again thinking I'd easily be able to strip the single remaining hull point. Despite being twin-linked BS4 I only managed a single penetrating hit. At this point one of the other competitors pointed out that an Immobile skimmer can still jink which seemed to check out in the rulebook (despite being ridiculous) and, of course, the save was passed.

The game ended there with just the riptide (who'd also finished off another WGBL with his shooting) and a damaged skyray left for my opponent. Final score 14-11 to me with a decent 1,415 blood points.

Conclusion
My first game against Tess really should've been much closer. With one WGBL pinned and another going down I was on the back foot early, especially when I failed to down either vehicle with my grey hunters. The archon's webway bomb really should've used their S10 on my lord who would almost certainly have died. They'd have then survived the fire from the grey hunters and been able to shoot them in the following turn. The serpents spent too much time moving flat out which certainly helped protect my troops and even landed one of them in range of my WGBL for a charge. Finally, the tank shock was totally unnecessary. It was unlikely to work against Ld9 and with a melta in the unit against a single hull point it was suicide. I'm not trying to overly criticise Tess but it certainly made my job a lot easier. Sadly for Tess he finished with the wooden spoon in the end too.

The second game was one of those rock vs. paper affairs where I never really had a chance. This made it a less than exciting game but I still had a great laugh with John about how ridiculously bad my leadership tests were etc. The game highlighted a couple of things I dislike about current 40K though. Firstly that, once again, DE were just used to borrow a single gimmick (webway) with just a minimal troop. It's a shame to see an army I love still being used in this way but I can't see that changing soon. It's one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan of allies. The second thing is Forge World. I don't allow them at Blog Wars for the reason that I think it's basically who can afford to buy the best rules. The hornets are a great example of this. They're incredibly cheap for what they give you.

However, the last game was one of best tournament games I have ever played. It may not sound it but it was pretty close throughout although it did swing my way in the later turns. There were just so many cool things that happened. The riptide killing a WGBL with a smash, the kroot running thanks to exploding drop pods and storm bolter fire killing just the right amount for a morale check, the crisis team taking the last wound from a WGBL, etc. I think it also helped that there was a lot of combat which, to me at least, always makes for a more fun game. It was a nice way to end a mixed day and the victory gave me 8th place overall which isn't too bad in a field of 24 I suppose.

Blog Wars 8 - Ticket Deadline Extended!

I've had a few emails from people saying they intend to buy a BW8 ticket but want to wait until pay day at the end of October. For this reason I'm now keeping ticket sales open for an extra week meaning you can still pick up a ticket until midnight on Saturday 1st November. If you're intending to buy a ticket please submit your army list immediately though as the deadline will have passed meaning I'll only have a week to get them checked before the event on the 8th. Tickets can be purchased using the link on the right or by sending £17.50 per ticket to this alexjbrown58@hotmail.com on PayPal. Please include your name if it is different from your PayPal account plus the names (and preferably email addresses) of all entrants if you are buying multiple tickets. As a reminder, your ticket gives you:

• 3 games of 40K in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere
• Lunch
• Entry to the raffle (with generous prizes)
• A chance to win two spot prizes each round

Please bear in mind the army selection process has changed significantly from BW7 (since the advent of 7th edition) so please take time to read the event page carefully. This can be found by clicking the BW8 logo on the right.

If you have any rules queries or need to get any proxies approved please contact me as soon as possible.

The venue will again be the NWGC in Stockport. This can easily be reached by train (walking distance from Stockport station) or alternatively there's a Premier Inn (Stockport South) across the road from the venue. There are often a few guys who arrive the night before so it's an opportunity to play some pick up games of 40K/x-wing/whatever in the venue before the main event.

I hope to see you in a couple of weeks! Stay tuned for the pie charts!

7th Edition 40K - New Dark Eldar Codex Review - Heavy Support

With the Razorwing being shifted to the Fast section you'd think the Heavy slots would belong safely in the hands of Ravagers but I don't think it's quite that easy!

Talos/Cronos

There's a lot of excitement about both the Talos and the Cronos in the new book. The main change is that you can now take a squad of up to three engines in a squad for each slot. The problem in the old book was that they were simply too slow and once the webway portals no longer allowed charging in 6th they struggled to make it to the enemy. They may be T7 but they've only got 3 wounds. There's a big difference between their T7 and the T8 of a wraithknight. T7 prevents S3 weapons from doing any harm (looking at you, guardsmen) but S4 can still wound on a 6. That's a big deal as it means the standard weaponry in the game, bolters etc, can still hurt you and marines can still cause wounds in combat. You do of course get FNP though which they'll get to roll most of the time. Anyway let's look at the individual units.

The Talos used to get D6 attacks but has now been fixed at 3. That's not such a bad thing as at least it's reliable. You now also get a second melee weapon included but that still makes the Talos 5pts more than it used to be. You can then swap a melee weapon for chain-flails or ichor injectors. That's either Shred or Fleshbane with ID on a 6. The latter is particularly tempting as it'd make a wraithknight very nervous. You could swap for a liquifier gun but even twin-linked it seems a shame to lose a melee weapon. Ranged weaponry comes in the form of a splinter cannon but even twin-linked with Relentless it's not going to cause many wounds. I personally think the heat lance works well on this platform and is pretty cheap. My loadout would therefore be 135pts each which isn't too bad for an MC.

The Cronos used to throw out pain tokens in my old webway list but I haven't fielded it once in 6th or 7th. With only S5 the Cronos isn't as good as the Talos in combat but the syphon and vortex provide reasonable anti-MEQ. Only reasonable though. The spirit probe on the other hand is very interesting giving a 6" FNP 4+ bubble. That's not bad at all. Problem is keeping everything in range of it since it's slower than a lot of other DE units.

I can see much more use for the Talos than the Cronos then but I'm not really sold on either. You'd want to take 2-3 in a squad and the costs soon add up in what is generally a pretty cheap army. Playtesting my change my opinion though and it's worth remembering that the Covens supplement formations change things somewhat. I'll be talking about that in a separate post though.

Ravager

There's nothing new about the Ravager yet it's seen a points jump by 20pts over the triple-lance build in the old book. Some argue that's reasonable since it's very powerful but frankly I've never found it to be particularly strong. With the changes to the vehicle damage table it really isn't as effective as it once was for destroying even light vehicles. Not only has the cost increased but the option for a Flickerfield has gone too. You could take Night Shields but that's an expensive upgrade that only works when you're Jinking and therefore firing at BS1.

DE have always struggled with anti-tank. This seems surprising to non-DE players who think that the excess of S8 AP2 shots means reliable tank killing. Still, most DE lists will still be including three of them as we need all the anti-tank we can get. They'll still be feared by MCs and low AV vehicles.

Voidraven Bomber
There's no doubt that the model for the Voidraven is one of the nicest vehicles GW has ever produced. The rumours that they've had the thing ready for a long time and haven't released it, if true, make no sense to me at all. Like many, I've bought one just for a aesthetic alone. However, the important question is will I actually want to field it?

The internet was ablaze with complaints about the supposedly land raider priced AV10 flyer. Well it isn't land raider priced unless you really tool it up but it's still a shame they chose to reduce it to AV10. It doesn't make much sense to me either. The Ravager was able to keep AV11 so why not the Voidraven? It's not all bad news though. The void mine is now a large blast which, with bomb accuracy, is a pretty lethal prospect for things like crisis suits and terminators. Not to mention you should be able to hit more than one vehicle with it.

The void lances are still the best ranged anti-tank weapons in the DE arsenal and it's very tempting to include the bomber just for those. The way you've got to think about it is in a comparison with the ravager. The ravager will be on the board from turn one and firing every turn. Trouble is it'll be a priority target and it has very little protection. The bomber may be only AV10 but it's still a flyer so has a decent chance of surviving a couple of turns. The price of the bomber isn't significantly more than a ravager so I'd be tempted to swap a ravager for a bomber just for the options the bomb and void lances give you.

I wouldn't bother with any of the missile pod options. Whilst they're significantly cheaper than they used to be you'll likely only fire one when it arrives (as you'll fire the bomb and the lances) and then you've got 40-60pts extra strapped the your AV10 flyer. Keep it vanilla I'd say, I wouldn't even bother with night shields.

Conclusion
I think the vast majority of players will be sticking with their three ravagers. The Covens supplement might change my opinion on the Talos/Cronos but I think they're still too expensive (in the context of this army) for what they offer.

I really want to field the bomber but I'm pretty sure this is mostly because of the model and not because I think it'll be particularly effective on the table. There'll be games where the void mine makes a massive difference and others where it just scores a hull point on a vehicle.

That's it for the codex then. I'm going to post soon with some ideas for lists but before then I want to cover the supplement. I hope you can see that this codex still offers a lot of potential. I think it's important to judge it against the 7th edition books where I think it's still competitive. The problem is it'll still have to play Eldar/Tau a lot where I don't think the comparison is so favourable. Despite the consensus of opinion online this isn't the death of the army. Like anything else in 40K there's an element of rock/paper/scissors and there'll be some armies out there that would struggle if they were faced with all that poisoned and dark light weaponry.

7th Edition 40K - New Dark Eldar Codex Review - Fast Attack

This was the section that saw the most interest towards the end of 6th edition and early 7th with competitive players adding a beast pack to their Eldar lists as a deathstar. Well things have changed quite a bit for the beasts so will they still be popular? This section has expanded somewhat with the addition of the empty raiders/venoms and the razorwing. Otherwise it's business as usual on the surface but there are some significant changes when you look a little deeper.

Beastmasters

For some strange reason beasts apparently no longer need masters. Strange name for the unit then eh? Well now you can take upto 12 models in any combination. That means no-one will bother with a beastmaster in all likelihood, although they do now all have access to agonisers which is interesting. They're also effectively cheaper Hellions (but Beasts instead of Jump Infantry). The clawed fiend is still a waste of time especially as Bestial Fury is replaced with Rage. Let's face it, most people are interested in what Khymerae and Razorwing Flocks are like now. They're the two units that got a lot of use as part of the deathstar that went alongside many an Eldar list at the top end of tournaments.

Well, Khymerae got cheaper but are now just 5++. It seems to have escaped peoples' notice but they're now T4 which is interesting. Their save might be worse but they should be making less of them with improved toughness. Still, I can't see them being anywhere near as popular with the top flight players. Razorwing flocks have gone up in price significantly and are now WS2 plus they've lost two wounds an attack per base! That's some hit they've taken. I'm very glad I didn't buy any or find a third party alternative.

Whilst I recognise they were powerful I've never seen the appeal of a beast pack and the new book hasn't changed my opinion. Glad I don't need to fork out for the incredibly expensive models. As I say, they're not going to disappear completely but they're far from what they were, which was to be expected really.

Raider & Venom
The basic raider is now cheaper but you pay to upgrade the disintegrator to a dark lance meaning the lance version is the same cost. With nearly all of the vehicle upgrades jumping in price and flickerfields vanishing completely for raiders it's hard to see a reason to upgrade them. The exception is probably splinter racks which now applies to all splinter weapons. That throws in some interesting options for trueborn with cannons, sslyth with shardcarbines or just ten warriors with rifles.

I think I'm going to be taking advantage of the saving and keeping the disintegrator cannon rather than upgrading to a lance. That means that a splinter rack raider is effectively the same cost as it was before. The disintegrator is by now means awful either and compliments the occupants role of anti-infantry well. It'll also prove irritating to MCs etc. There are other, better, ways of getting the dark light weaponry into the list. Not only that but you'll not worry about Jinking if you aren't particularly bothered about losing a lance shot. You could give yourself night shields but personally I think it's too expensive and sometimes useless. Keep the raiders cheap and don't worry about losing them.

Nothing has changed with the venom really. They're the same cost and will still want the upgrade to a second cannon. I'm actually pretty amazed they didn't get more expensive to be honest. Like with the other new books you can now field them empty which is incredibly tempting in the case of venoms. If you wanted to run the faction specific detachment you could be looking at 12 venoms (6 empty, 6 with 5 kabalites) for just over a thousand points. That's a pretty scary thought. Of course it's useless if your opponent is holed up in transports but some armies would melt in the face of that much poisoned firepower.

Finally, both the venom and raider can now Deep Strike by default. Since you used to pay for vectored thrusters this effectively means raiders and venoms are cheaper than before. I'm not totally convinced deep striking is the best idea without having some reserve manipulation but if I lost the roll off I'd strongly consider null deployment. It's nice to have the tactical flexibility if nothing else.

Reavers

I loved reavers in the last book and regularly ran them. They were pretty expensive though so it was difficult to justify them at times. In the new book they've taken a big price cut. This comes at the expense of their bladevane sweep attack antics but they now get rending HoW attacks instead. What this means is a shift in how they're used. In the past I'd run two squads of 6 with no upgrades at all which came to 132pts per unit. Now you could take the same squad of 6 but give them two heat lances or blasters and a set of cluster caltrops for just about the same points. It's worth noting here that you can now run them in units of 12 if you wanted.

To me they're now a source of mobile anti-tank and a decent combat unit (assuming they aren't charging through terrain). Should they get a decent combat drugs roll (thankfully the 3D6 to run has gone) they should be able to pick on weaker combat units without worrying too much. Should they find themselves in hot water they've now got Hit & Run. Unlike some of the other combat units in the army reavers actually have a good chance of getting there. Skilled Rider means they can totally ignore terrain and gives +1 to their Jink saves. Should they get FNP they'll be pretty tough to shift at range and they can cover a lot of ground quickly.

They're a decent anti-tank platform, reasonable combat unit and durable enough to be around at the end of the game for some objective grabbing. It's a shame there's no DE character that can join them on a bike or board.

Hellions
I really really want Hellions to be good as they're awesome models. In the old book you could throw in Baron to give them Stealth plus a helliarch with phantasm to give them grenades. Both of those options are gone now. The phantasm doesn't work the same and Baron is plain deleted. They may be quite a bit cheaper but I can't see me using them. They've got a decent amount of firepower but they don't offer anything you can't get elsewhere. In addition they're flimsy as hell and most of the time won't get to use their I6 with their lack of grenades.

What I also don't understand is why the melee weapons for the helliarch became so expensive? The stunclaw is interesting with S4 and Instant Death in challenges but you're relying too much on a failed save if you actually ever make it into combat to find out. Generally they just can't compete with the other Fast Attack choices so I think they'll be staying on the shelf. One less thing to rush to paint I suppose!

Razorwing Jetfighter

You'd be forgiven for thinking the Razorwing became significantly cheaper. However, you now pay for your lances. You'll be wanting to do that too so that you've got a chance against an enemy flyer. I'd even be tempted by the splinter cannon as you'll cause FMCs some headaches when combined with the lances. With that loadout you're still 5pts cheaper than the equivalent in the old book but we're still looking at 150pts for an AV10 flyer.

I think people are fixating on that too much though (especially with the voidraven but I'll get to that). The ace up the Razorwing's sleeve is the rack of missiles it carries. Having the option to come on and fire four S6 large blasts is a big deal. You could upgrade to Necrotoxins but I like the flexibility of hitting both troops and light vehicles. The shatterfield missiles bump the cost of the flyer up too much for my liking so I reckon I'll leave the monoscythes. I think the night shield is tempting but costs too much. It's a shame to lose the option of flickerfields as you're now forced to Jink for a save which means no missiles next turn. The secret I think is to run 2 or more razorwings and have some redundancy. Don't forget the faction specific detachment allows you to run six if you wanted.

I'm a big fan of the razorwing and it's benefitted a lot from a move to the Fast Attack section since it's no longer competing with ravagers. Expect to see more of them I reckon.

Scourges

I bought a couple of boxes of these a while back but mostly to get the shardcarbines for the trueborn unit I used to stick Duke in. They've sat on their sprues since then but I can assure you they won't be there much longer. For starters they're some of the nicest models GW have ever made (although that's the same for a lot of the DE range) but they've also seen huge improvements in the new book.

Like the reavers they used to be horribly overcosted and, again like the reavers, they've now been significantly reduced in price. The big thing though is that you can now field four special/heavy weapons per squad. In the old book you'd have had to take a full 10 to get the same number of special weapons. That means they're now an awesome choice for anti-tank duties. The choice in this role is between haywire blasters, heat lances (now cheaper) and blasters. Blasters can be found elsewhere in your list though so it's between heat lances and haywire which are the same points. For me the haywire wins on ground of range. Although scourges have a decent save their still T3 and so you'll want to keep them away from other units as much as you can. Having 12" move plus 24" haywire gives the a big threat radius and should keep them out of range of most of the return fire/charges.

With four haywire blasters in a unit you're pretty likely to strip hull points from a vehicle (cover saves permitting). That's probably more useful than the heat lances anyway which might not penetrate anyway and still aren't that likely to blow a vehicle up. Of course they're less useful if your opponent doesn't have vehicles but S4 AP4 isn't too bad as a backup.

Conclusion
Scourges are definitely the stars of the Fast Attack section as far as I'm concerned. For just 120 points you get a unit that's probably more reliable than a ravager against wave serpents which are the bane of DE. I can also see a role for razorwings and reavers too. I personally won't be fielding beasts and I can't see anyone taking hellions. That means scourges, reavers and razorwings have to compete for te slots.

Speaking of which, it's important to talk about the Realspace Raiders detachment here. Having the option of six fast choices will be very tempting but I'm still not convinced it's worth losing objective secured for. Having said that, your opponent isn't likely to have trouble shifting your troops if he needs to and your fast choices could be contesting/grabbing objectives in the end game. Coupled with Night Fighting your units will all have 5+ cover saves turn one as well. Troops will have 4+ of course but they're unlikely to be on the ground turn one (unless they find themselves rudely ejected from their transports.

One section left before I wrap things up and talk about some lists I'm considering. I hope you're finding these posts useful.

7th Edition 40K - New Dark Eldar Codex Review - Elites

As with elsewhere in the codex there's nothing new in the Elites section. There's a notable absence though in the form of Harlequins. Weirdly their fluff is still included in the codex as if they were a last minute decision. Since there are perfectly good models for them I can only assume that this was because they're getting their own release which will most likely be a dataslate in a similar way to the assassins being removed from the GK book but reappearing in dataslate form. It's also worth noting that wracks can no longer be moved to the Troops section by a haemonculus as they could before.

Incubi
I toyed with Incubi quite a bit with the old codex since they offer some of the only AP2 melee weaponry in the book. Now they've been boosted to Ld9 meaning the Klaivex isn't as useful. They can no longer take a bloodstone or the murderous assault/onslaught upgrade. Instead the Klaivex gets Rampage (GW really like this rule recently).

The difficulty was always getting them into combat with enough models left. Even though they have the best save of any standard infantry in the book they're still just T3 marines. If you could get their venom (or even raider) close enough they'll make a mess of MEQ or even Terminators but the backlash will be pretty fierce. They are cheaper now though so perhaps worth revisiting. Drazhar and a squad of incubi would make quite a powerful unit but they'd be very expensive for so few models.

Kabalite Trueborn
As I mentioned in the Troops post, Trueborn are now somewhat confusingly merged onto the same page as Warriors. Ultimately though they're the same as before with pretty much the same options. Like the wyches they've lost their ability to take haywires though (outside of the Dracon). They've also lost their shardcarbines which I can only assume is because they don't come in the warriors box but instead must be taken from the scourges. It's a bit of a shame but far from devastating.

The other crucial change is that you now have to take a minimum of five models. In the old book people often ran 3-4 trueborn all with blasters in a venom which came to be known as blasterborn (imaginative eh?). This unit is now that little bit more expensive as you have to take along some dead weight. They're still a great way of getting some much needed extra anti-tank into the list though. I think we'll be seeing them zipping around in venoms but I'm not going to be fielding them like I used to since they were an escort for Duke in my old lists.

Finally, you could now potentially field 20 trueborn. Not sure why you would but the option's there!

Hekatrix Bloodbrides
Like the Trueborn they now have a minimum size of 5 models and can now take upto 15 models. As before they're just wyches with an extra attack but in this book they don't even offer you extra wych cult weaponry over the standard wyches which would also have Obj Sec in a CAD. I'd be very surprised to ever see them on the table unless someone really wanted to field Lelith or a fully pimp Succubus. Competitively though they're pretty much a no go.

Mandrakes
Without a doubt Mandrakes were the worst unit in the old codex which was a huge shame since the models are stunning. Things have gotten better for them in the new book though. Not only are the 20% cheaper but they gain Shrouded on top of their Stealth. They sacrifice their 5++ save though so against armies with Ignores Cover they're without a save. One of the other problems in the old book as that they needed a pain token to use their baleblast which was nigh on impossible to get. Now they can always fire it and Pinning has been swapped for Soul Blaze.

They're far from useless then but are they really worth it? I suppose a unit of five is pretty cheap and they could be irritating to shift and annoying for objective grabbers like kroot, guardsmen, cultists, etc. They get the Most Improved Award but I'm still not really sold on them. Flamers make a real mess of them and if they don't kill their opponents first they'll not last long in combat.

Wracks

Typical GW policy is to release a new kit and buff the rules for it to make everyone want to buy it. That just doesn't seem to have happened with wracks. No-one was complaining too much about the Finecast models and the plastic ones are pretty much identical. It's a shame GW chose to spend time on them instead of other much needed models, like a alternate grotesque sculpts for example.

I used to run wracks in 5th edition as FNP 4+ made them a reasonable choice for Troops and by adding a haemonculus you could get them Furious Charge and hence a re-roll with their poisoned weapons. Well in 6th FNP became 5+ and 7th took away the poisoned re-roll when strength equals toughness. That means you're basically talking just slightly better than a 5+ save (6+ then 5+ FNP) and very limited close combat potential. The liquifier gun is still decent despite being limited to S3 and the new ossefactor could be fun. I'm really not sold on wracks though unless I'm missing something amazing?!

Grotesques

Often overlooked in the old book I actually think Grotesques were and still are a decent choice. They've stayed the same price but for three T5 wounds with permanent FNP 5+ they're not bad at all. With S5 they'll be re-rolling to wound with their flesh gauntlets against most targets and potentially getting some ID hits. Once again we get Rampage too which is likely to mean a good pile of attacks. I personally wouldn't bother with any liquifiers so that you're not killing too much off an preventing important charges. Definitely worth a look.

Conclusion
Like Wyches, Bloodbrides are the obvious losers here. Mandrakes are significantly better than before and against the right opponent they could be deadly. Trueborn will still make an appearance to spam special weapons. Incubi and Grotesques make for left-field choices that could come good but I'm really missing the big deal with wracks. Perhaps deep striking them in with a webway haemonculus with a couple of liquefiers?

Generally speaking a decent selection of units but I think Fast Attack (which I'm covering next) will be the go to section once you've filled up your Troops.

7th Edition 40K - New Dark Eldar Codex Review - Troops

With Baron gone and haemonculi no longer unlocking Wracks, we're left with just the standard two choices for Troops in the Dark Eldar army. Warriors saw a lot more action that wyches in 6th edition for me, I wonder if the new book will redress that balance?

Firstly, and somewhat irritatingly, the Warrior/Trueborn and Wych/Bloodbride entries have been merged into a single page each. It makes it pretty awkward to figure out the price and options of each unit and it seems simply to be an IP protection move since there are no trueborn or bride models. That or they were saving paper?

Kabalite Warriors

Effectively the same as they were in the old book but 1pt cheaper. Splinter cannons are now 5pts more expensive though which cancels out some of the reduction in unit cost and Salvo means you can't fire them and assault. Shredders now have, Shred (seems obvious) but as ever they're a small blast so a blaster is probably a better choice. You can also take two blasters or shredders in a 20-man unit now.

What this basically means is the standard unit of 5 warriors with blaster in a venom is 5pts cheaper. I doubt many people will be taking a Sybarite just like before so it comes down to a choice between five warriors in a venom, ten in a raider or upto 20 on foot. I'd be tempted to stick 20 of them with two cannons with a webway portal toting character and pile 44 poisoned shots into an enemy unit without them being able to stop you! Of course you might not survive very long after arriving but it's still very tempting, especially when you consider that with a little luck you could down a wraithknight!

More likely I'll be running the standard 5-man venoms with a couple of packed out raiders and possible splinter racks.

Wyches
The headline for wyches is that you can no longer give all of them haywire grenades and basically that sounds the death knell for them. They suffered a lot in 6th edition with FNP being reduced to 5+, vehicle explosions causing S4 hits and overwatch. You were lucky if any survived long enough to make it into combat! You'd still consider taking them though because haywires could often succeed where all your dark light weaponry had inexplicably failed. With that option taken away I can't see me using them very much at all.

Let's assume you could get them into combat alive though. The special weapons now offer either re-rolls to hit, re-rolls to wound or re-rolls 1s for both. Not too bad for 5pts a pop but perhaps not as good as before. It's worth noting you can take 3 of them in a 10+ strong unit without upgrading to brides. Combat Drugs will help out a lot if you can get a good roll too. That 4+ save and turn 3+ FNP will make them a great tarpit unit (especially turn 5 on when they're Fearless) but I just can't see much to make me spend 2pts more on them instead of a warrior.

Conclusion
I'd be very surprised to see wyches in many competitive lists. They were becoming less common already and the loss of haywires is hardly going to help them. The decision is how you run your warriors rather than whether to take them over wyches. It's a shame as I used to love fielding wyches and they've achieved some amazing feats over the years I've played Dark Eldar. I'm not saying I'll never run them again in friendly games but it's too easy a decision for competitive play. They're basically a case of bringing a knife to a gunfight!

The problem with kabalites is that against vehicles they're pretty limited. Poisoned shooting does nothing and with S3 and no grenades they won't be doing much in combat (until they get Furious Charge). That means you'll need some anti-tank elsewhere in the list or perhaps blasters in your kabalite units.

That was pretty straightforward then. Onto Elites!

7th Edition 40K - New Dark Eldar Codex Review - HQ

Normally I break the HQ section up into generic and special character posts. With the loss of a whopping FIVE special characters (Vect, Malys, Duke, Kheradruakh and Baron) there's a lot less choice though so I reckon a single post is sufficient. I can't really let that go without a comment either. Sure we won't really miss Kheradruakh or perhaps Lady Malys but I'll miss Duke Sliscus and I'm hugely disappointed we aren't seeing a new Vect and Dais model. Baron will mostly be missed by Eldar players but I'm kind of glad that little avenue for cheese has been closed off. It does have a dramatic effect on Hellions though but more on that later.

As I say, I'll be missing Duke the most as he featured in pretty much all my DE lists in the old book. Mind you I can't run the trueborn unit I used to put him with any more either! As I feel myself saying a lot recently, there's a lot of flavour that goes with these deletions and limiting options is rarely good in my opinion. It's not like in the Ork book where there was a little give and take either. The new succubus model is lovely but that archon is just plain awful and has no options at all. The voidraven was rumoured to have been done years ago (and that's believable) and the wracks are effectively recasts so it seems GW have barely created any new models for DE in the last 3 years. It's frustrating when Necrons got all of their SCs covered within a few months. Anyway, rant over, onto what we're left with. Must. Stay. Positive.

Archon

The Archon has remained the same cost and retains the same statline. His options are mostly the same too and similar cost. He can no longer take ghostplate armour, a venom blade or whip though and has finally listened to Mr. Garrison about taking drugs (mmmkay). Since the guy himself is pretty much the same it's more about the wargear he has access to.

The Huskblade is now significantly cheaper and still causes Instant Death. It's the same price as an agoniser (which is now poisoned (4+)) but ID is too tempting for me. Even at S3 it's worth the risk of an enemy character failing his invulnerable save and against units with multiple wounds it'll pay dividends. The agoniser is better against high toughness though as the archon can't hurt a wraithknight without it but with it he can cause some real problems (assuming he keeps passing his saves). The blast pistol is a little too pricey if you're taking a huskblade and I find the 6" range too restrictive most of the time. Haywires are a good choice though if you've got the points to spare.

I'd be tempted to throw in a soul trap with my huskblade/agoniser as it might make all the difference in the second round of a challenge or for combats later in the game and it's better than it used to be. The phantasm launcher is a massive disappointment even if it is much cheaper. It's hugely situational and I'd much rather have my grenades back so I can use my high initiative thanks.

It's a choice between shadow and clone fields as ever, the shadow field now lasts until the end of the phase if you fail which might just keep you alive but it's double the cost of the clone field. For such a flimsy model I personally think the shadow field is the way to go to help him be viable.

We have to talk about the webway now. Frankly I'm gutted I don't get to use my template any more but to be honest I haven't since 6th edition stopped assaults from it anyway. The new webway has HUGE potential for both DE and Eldar allies. It won't be long before people are coming up with dirty combos. I imagine most will take a plain archon and webway for just under 100pts to give another unit a non-scattering deep strike. D-scythe wraithguard would be fun for example (if expensive).

As I said in the first post the Kiss is a good choice if you've got the points but we're already making the guy expensive with a huskblade, soul trap and shadow field so don't bother with anything else from the artefacts unless you fancy the Helm. Finally, don't forget you can give him his own venom if you like but I'd personally want a meatshield riding with him!

Court of the Archon

I can't remember ever seeing one of these on the tabletop (except for the models as proxies for something else). That was probably because you had to have at least one of each. That's not the case anymore as you can take any combination. Hopefully we'll see more of them now since they're probably some of the nicest models in the range. Interestingly you don't need to take an Archon to unlock them now (although he does stop them using a slot).

Sslyths are interesting with two T5 wounds, a decent number of shots and plenty of attacks. With their reduced cost they'd be a good meatshield for an Archon and push his effective toughness up. Ur-ghuls now cause Fear (as much use as that is) but without a save (except FNP) they're a waste of time still. The Lhamaean no longer boosts the Archon's poisoned attacks which is a shame since the agoniser is now a poisoned weapon. Her weapon is still tasty though with poisoned (2+) and 6s to insta-kill, just a shame it has no AP. She's the cheapest option but I'm still not convinced. Finally, the medusae was the one everyone wished they could take in the old book. They've gotten significantly more expensive in the new book though. The template is now fixed at S4 AP3 which is probably the average of what you would've gotten. The cost is prohibitive for me and they'll die too easily.

It's all about the Sslyth then, unless I'm missing something. Even just two in a unit will be enough to make your Archon effectively T5. You could take a third and then throw one of the others in a venom with them for flavour if you wanted but avoid the Ur-Ghul.

Succubus

Now more expensive but with a stunning new model and newly found access to a webway portal. The stats stay the same meaning you need her to be in combat to have a hope of surviving long. Still, give her an agoniser or the new archite glaive and she can be pretty potent in combat with 6 attacks on the charge. She becomes even better once she's received Furious Charge from PfP and benefits from pretty much every drug result. It's just tricky to decide where to put her. She's going to need a transport and is probably most at home with a unit of wyches but I'm not sure they're all that great nowadays.

She's a bit flimsy to be your Warlord but makes a decent secondary HQ choice I reckon.

Lelith Hesperax

A good deal cheaper than before but still suffers from the same problems namely S3 and T3. League Apart now gives re-rolls to hit and wound in challenges which could be useful and with I9 and ignoring armour saves she's got potential. Furious Charge late in the game will be a great help but even with a potential 10 attacks she won't be causing many wounds outside of a challenge. Her low toughness means she's unlikely to get a second chance against most things in combat even with 3++ as S6 and above simply vapourises her if she fails an invulnerable save. She's also lost her Shardnet to help protect her. Her Warlord Trait makes her WS10 but that's rarely more use than WS9.

She doesn't offer much in excess of the much cheaper Succubus and that, for me at least, is the deciding factor. By no means terrible but still not going to see action despite being one of the few combat answers to 2+ saves.

Haemonculus

In the old book there used to be an option to upgrade to an Ancient. That's been rolled into the standard Haemonculus now who has the old Ancient's statline for a slightly lower cost. What it does mean though is you're paying more for the PfP benefits and you can no longer take three per HQ slot. There's quite a long list of things that've gone missing as options for the haemy, namely: venom blade, power weapon, electrocorrosive whip, huskblade, casket of flensing, soul trap, vexator mask, shattershard, dark gate and orb. The only one I'll actually miss is the shattershard though.

Onto what's left then. The Hexrifle stands out as a solid choice. The liquifier gun is now fixed at S3 but still has a random AP. Could be good but mostly sub-par. The agoniser is always good but expensive now which makes me tempted to just go for a scissorhand.

Personally I'd just keep him cheap and use him as a means of manipulating the PfP turn number. Perhaps an Animus would be useful in that regard. He's another chance to get a webway portal in too.

Urien Rakarth

He's been given a huge discount in points cost whilst retaining the same statline. With T5, 4++ and FNP 4+ he's probably the most survivable DE model going and IWND doesn't hurt either although Meld the Flesh used to be better. He's no slouch in combat with I5 and 3 attacks which wound on 2+ and can cause ID. His Casket of Flensing might be fixed at S3 AP3 now but get a decent roll and he could be killing a lot of MEQ with it.

The key to Urien is that he gives Master of Pain to every unit within 12" which means FNP 5+ on turn two for a good chunk of your army. His warlord trait isn't much use the majority of the time but I still think he'd make a good choice as warlord just because he's durable. He may be pricey but he actually offers a viable option I reckon.

Drazhar
As I've mentioned before Drazhar doesn't get a fixed Warlord Trait like Urien and Lelith. He remains the only Eternal Warrior in the book and is pretty durable with 2+ armour. He's a little on the expensive side despite a hefty price drop. With Rampage and his Demiklaives he can rack up a serious number of attacks that result in a pile of wounds even outside a challenge unlike Lelith. He's pretty lethal even on his own!

He can only join Incubi units though making him no use to anyone who doesn't want to field them. I actually think they're a reasonable choice but Drazhar's cost is prohibitive. He's pretty powerful though so I'd like to try him at least once before I make my mind up. Fearless, WS6 Incubi are tempting that's for sure.

Conclusion
With a lot less options and some regular choices going from the book, Dark Eldar players will be forced to look again at the HQ section. I'm finding it pretty difficult to call actually. Archons, Succubi and Haemos all have their merits. Lelith is unlikely to see much action but Drazhar and Urien are reasonable choices if you can stomach the points cost.

I expect to see more courts simply because there are less options available and people will want to try out the nice models. I'm seriously considering an Archon with a court full of Sslyth as a meatshield to get him into combat.

It's certainly given me a lot to think about. I'm sure one option will emerge as the go-to for DE players but I think it's far from obvious at this point. Perhaps once I've looked at the other units it'll be clear. What is clear is that the rumours of bikes or boards for the HQs were false! Onto the Troops....

New 7th Edition Dark Eldar Codex Review - First Impressions & General Rules

We're onto the fourth of these new style 7th edition codexes and there's now just a couple of armies who don't have a hardback codex. I can't imagine it will be long before they're updated either so I best get cracking with my review of the new Dark Eldar book. It's safe to say that the rumours of the rules in this book received a mixed response from the internet community. Hopefully I can talk through things in sufficient detail for you to make your own mind up about it. This was always going to be a dangerous update for some of the Dark Eldar units as a lot of the characters don't have models meaning the trend that started with Tyranids was likely to continue. My hopes for this book are that several different competitive builds will emerge for pure Dark Eldar without them relying on Eldar or else proving a gimmicky ally for their goody two-shoes cousins.

General Thoughts
As before this book follows the new datacard layout with a huge chunk of fluff at the start of the book and the unit entries/army list now somewhat condensed. Whereas with the wolves codex I was lamenting the loss of a lot of wonderful artwork the thought barely crosses my mind here as there's some stunning new (or at least re-coloured) stuff. The two-page spread on pages 4-5 is a particularly jaw-dropping example. I'm starting to get used to the rules layout with pretty much everything in the appendix at the back. It's still a bit frustrating at times but will end up being quicker once you've figured out what's changed and simply need to use it as reference every once in a while.

The 'Eavy Metal section (or whatever you want to call it now) is nice and varied with several different Kabal colour schemes on show. The spread on pages 56-57 (roughly) is a little disappointing though with the flyers in particular looking a little rushed. Assuming it's the same ones on the next pages though it might just be poor lighting though.

Once again there's clear evidence of GW's desire to ensure maximum protection for their intellectual property. For example, trueborn and bloodbrides are somewhat awkwardly merged onto the same page as warriors and wyches respectively to avoid having to show models which strictly speaking don't exist. There's been one hell of a cull in the HQ section too (more on that later) with several named characters vanishing into the night. The most notable of course is Vect and I'm sure you've read plenty of comments about his absence. Frankly I never used him but I was still hoping to with a new book and a lovely new model for him and his dais.

This is the first, and likely only, book that doesn't feature a Lord of War choice. There's been much talk about this already so I don't want to go over it again but suffice to say it's frustrating for most DE players.

Army Wide Rules
Pretty much everything has retained Night Vision which means you'll be wanting to roll for Night Fighting as much as possible and probably still rolling on the Strategic warlord traits for an extra chance too. Combat Drugs are still present but they now offer slightly different bonuses. Gone are the re-rolls with every type of drug offering +1 to a different stat. They only apply to Wyches, Hellions and Reavers though unless I'm missing something. Your Archon can no longer take them and with Duke gone there's no way of manipulating this roll. It ultimately depends on whether those units are worth taking as to whether drugs will be any use but I'll get to that in good time.

Power from Pain in the old codex was crucial for helping your units survive the first couple of turns. Now all units that benefit get the same bonus whether they've killed anything or not. It doesn't really become much use until turn 3 onwards though when a lot of your stuff has probably already died. Not much of a difference from before in some ways (as you'd often not killed any infantry etc. yet) but for those units that relied on it like Wracks and those that used a Haemo for a free token it's a big deal. On the plus side towards the end of the game your units will be getting Furious Charge (which was often difficult with the old rules) and Turn 5 onwards you're Fearless which is huge. That, as far as I'm concerned at least, will even rally units that were running at the end of turn 4. Should you make it to turn 6, Rage might help an otherwise average combat unit like Kabalites become that bit better at shifting hordes of guard, guants, etc. There is one definite benefit though, no pain token tracking and no need for me to finally get round to making some markers!

Whilst in the old book vehicles had the option to Deep Strike in the form of Retrofire Jets, in the new book they get it for free. Couple that with the webway and you can start to come up with some pretty disgusting combos. Those of you who like allies (I personally don't) will be salivating at the prospect of deep striking Eldar units too. This gives you the option for a null deployment army (i.e. one that doesn't deploy anything at the start of the game) but I'm not 100% sure that's a good idea with Dark Eldar. Having flimsy vehicles arriving by Deep Strike in dribs and drabs seems dangerous to me. At least with the changes to Deep Striking vehicles (in that they count as moving Combat Speed) you can fire all your weapons from a transport. It's a mechanic that's worth exploring though.

Warlord Traits
Before talking about the traits themselves I wanted to mention one unexpect disadvantage of losing some named HQs. In other books sometimes an SC is good simply because he gives you a guarantee of a particular trait. In DE's case that's just Lelith getting +1WS and Urien getting a 12" Fear bubble. Drazhar doesn't even have one! The traits that you'd want must be rolled for instead. Anyway here's what we're offered:

1. Ancient Evil - Fear is next to useless with most things either being Fearless or having ATSKNF.
2. Labyrinthine Cunning - by far the best trait and almost worth ignoring Strategic for and with the re-roll you've got a 1 in 3 chance of getting it (roughly). 
3. Soulthirst - again not much use and only your warlord benefits, re-roll!
4. Hatred Eternal - bit better than rolling a 3 but still meh, re-roll!
5. Blood Dancer - likely to be pretty useless (and is for Lelith 99% of the time), re-roll!
6. Towering Arrogance - Fearless bubbles are nearly always awesome these days. 

That to me makes it 50:50 between good and useless which with a re-roll is 75% chance of getting something worthwhile. Most people have come straight out and said, "roll strategic instead" but I think it's worth considering on a game-by-game basis rather than assuming strategic will always be better. I'll cover the supplement traits when I get to the book itself at the end of the codex review.

Artefacts of Cruelty

There may have been debate with the Space Wolves relics but these are almost certainly one per model and one of each per army. 

• Animus Vitae - used to give a pain token but now gives +1 to turn number for PfP if it causes a wound. Couple this with a haemonculus' Master of Pain ability and that's FNP 5+ and Furious Charge on turn 2 potentially (if unlikely). Pricey though.
• Archangel of Pain - shorter range than it used to be but now Ld test at -2 that works like Psychic Shriek. Sadly doesn't work on ATSKNF or Fearless though making it situational at best and therefore too expensive.
• Armour of Misery - ghostplate armour that causes Fear and -2 Ld. Not bad for only 5pts more than ghostplate armour used to be and it's no longer available for characters
• Djin Blade - power weapon with +2 attacks. Takes user's strength though so I'd rather have an agoniser for 5pts less and not risk wounding myself.
• Helm of Spite - again expensive but probably the best of the bunch in my opinion. Ad Will can make a massive difference in psychic defense and anything that makes perils more likely is good in my book.
• Parasite's Kiss - hard to resist for the points, shoot a guardsman, get a wound back. Could prove to be very irritating.

That stand outs for me are the Animus, Kiss and the Helm. The Kiss gets a mention because it's a great way to spend those spare 5pts you often have. The Djin blade is a waste of time (I might've been tempted if it were AP2) but Archangel and Armour could be good but suffer against the vast majority of armies which have ATSKNF or Fearless.

Formations & Detachments
The Realspace Raiders detachment uses a pretty standard FOC chart but requires a compulsory Fast Attack choice and allows a total of 6 FA units to be taken. Some people are getting excited about taking empty Venoms or fleets of Razorwings but frankly I want something in my Venoms and don't like the idea of having 6 flyers off the table at the start of the game. The Hunt from the Shadows special rule is nice especially if you successfully roll for Night Fighting or get it as your warlord trait but since I run a lot of vehicles it's only going to be a 5+ cover save at best. I'm not convinced it's worth ditching the benefits of a Combined Arms detachment for to be honest. Objective Secured is great with fast moving transports (even if they are flimsy) and don't forget the trait re-roll is only for DE traits with Realspace Raiders but any trait with a CAD.

The Kabalite Raiding Party is by no means a bad formation but I generally don't like being forced to make particular selections. It gives the same bonuses as the Realspace Raiders detachment but you also get +1 to the turn count for Power from Pain. Combine this with an Animus and Haemonculus (which isn't part of the formation) and you could get +3 to the table. Again I'm not sure it's worth it and you have to pay a Hellion tax for it.

Generally speaking I think you're better with a CAD but some may find a use for these two options. Of course there'll be more choices in the supplement but again I'll cover that after my codex run through.

Conclusion
A similar story to the other 7th edition codices. There's a lot of streamlining here with less bookkeeping and fewer complex special rules. As with the other books there's a loss of soul (pun intended) here but I think the codex is still strong and could be competitive in its own right. Perhaps not as good as their cuddlier cousins but decent nonetheless. I'm certainly excited to get stuck into the rest of the review and start to write some lists. I can already see some interesting combinations emerging and I can't wait to test the book out on Thursday against Matt.

For those of you who haven't read my reviews before I'll be covering each FOC slot in a separate post. This allows me to go into reasonable depth but that of course means pretty wordy posts. By the end of the review (in a week or so) you should hopefully know what's good or not though. Stick with me!