Nephilim, CSM and the new meta

So, the new CSM Codex made quite an impact. Not broken, but competitive ok.
Abbadon seems to be very strong, but thats ok. After all, well, he is Abbadon.
I wonder, if Drazhar could beat him...

Goonhammer (klick here!) followed some tournaments and it seems almost balanced.
You see more Necrons and Sisters now, but they could have their time to shine.
A bit Drukhari are still present in the meta, mostly coven and goodstuff/harls soup.
Almost no Wyches out there. I think AoC made them a bit unattractive.

Balance is probably better than it has been. However, I'll feel a lot more positive about it when I see Necron lists that don't have the Silent King as an auto-take. Also, Tyranids still seem to be disproportionately more powerful than other armies.

It's understandable, but a little disheartening to see all drukhari troop slots filled with wracks, regardless of what kind of detachment is being used.

Hui. I see your point. No Kabalites, no Wyches. That is a sad fact.
It would be much more fun, if they all would be, well, is metaplayable a real word?
Sad, but true, they arent. I really would prefer a real Realspaceraid.

Zenotaph wrote:

Hui. I see your point. No Kabalites, no Wyches. That is a sad fact.
It would be much more fun, if they all would be, well, is metaplayable a real word?
Sad, but true, they arent. I really would prefer a real Realspaceraid.

I think that Armor of Contempt was a lazy fix. It not only invalidates wyches when facing MEQ armies, but it screws over stuff like autocannons and other AP-1 weapons. If they wanted to rebalance marines, they could have done it in other ways. Or make AoC a stratagem - perhaps one that affects the entire army when used - but at least not have it as a freebie that is 'on' all of the time.

Though, on the other hand, space marines aren't exactly doing amazingly in Nephilim either. Though I have seen the occasional blood angel or black templar army in top spots recently. So, it appears that the most difficult armies to face usually won't have AoC, except for Sisters - Sisters are doing *exceedingly* well... though they all seem to be Bloody Rose, so it might be one particular build. I don't know much about Sisters, so I don't know if it's a build that takes particular advantage of AoC or not.

A lot of what Sisters have going for them currently is how absurdly easy their secondaries are. That's not the whole reason they're doing well, but being able to, e.g., score 15 VP from a single objective in a single turn is a major advantage.

AoC as as Stratagem? That sounds just right. It wouldnt make whole Troop choices obsolete.
But who are we to suggest such a thing?

Zenotaph wrote:

AoC as as Stratagem? That sounds just right. It wouldnt make whole Troop choices obsolete.
But who are we to suggest such a thing?

It also wouldn't invalidate other things that reduce AP by 1 - the CSM dex has a relic that reduces AP by 1. Completely pointless with AoC in place as-is.

I prefer stratagems to be more creative than just +1/-1 to all kinds of game stats.
The passive -1 to Marines is fitting, but it would be more reasonable if the wording was "lower AP by 1 to a minimum of 1", just as it is the case with damage-reducing passive abilities.

I for one am pleased with the state of things. Wracks, wracks for everyone!

Ya, CSM seem to be a solid A Tier faction. Not unbeatable, but quite competitive.

I feel that we are somewhere at the lower end of B Tier. We can win games if were better than the opponent, but have a hard time vs equally skilled opponents (in a Comp environment).

They can feel free to give CORE back to the pain engines now (or at least, back to the Talos).

The Strange Dark One wrote:

I prefer stratagems to be more creative than just +1/-1 to all kinds of game stats.
The passive -1 to Marines is fitting, but it would be more reasonable if the wording was "lower AP by 1 to a minimum of 1", just as it is the case with damage-reducing passive abilities.

i love this idea!
one other thing, i would apply the AoC (as it is right now) but only for infantry (i know that lorewise their plating is the same, but just for tabletop game perspective i think this would be ok)

I would also make it so that AoC has no effect while the unit is in cover. Balance issues aside, from a fluff perspective it makes more sense for it to work while going out to face the enemy, rather than while cowering in cover.

I was just now looking at the weekend's event results on Goonhammer's 40kstats site, and I noticed that Drukhari placed first in a 5 round GT (North and South GT), using a realspace raid (including a unit of bloodbrides), so apparently there *is* more than one useable list in Nephilim.

Though I'm still a bit salty about the nerf to Herd the Prey (and Engage on All Fronts doesn't look too much better - the 6" from any other quarter requirement is actually a significant change, particularly when trying to grab some of those points on round 1).