Succubus clocking in.

So yes. Hello. There'll be a TL;DR at the bottom. In italics.

I'm Payce. I'm into reading, listening to music, watching the NHL, playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Warhammer 40,000. I've played 40k since late 2nd ed., competitively in 3rd and 4th ed. (Iron Warriors, Tyranids), drastically casual in 5th (Green Tide Orks). Around a year ago I set out to build an army I've dreamt of since late 2005 - an all-female Wych Cult. The new plastic models were a godsend, and I went berserk and bought... possibly too many boxes. And then came 6th.

Random charge length. Hull points. Flyers. Just reading through the book made me feel about as confident as a sentient cow when it arrives at the slaughterhouse. For a fair while, I didn't do anything at all, before grudgingly packing away my Wyches in the closet, waiting for pastures new. And then came the dual power armour starter kit, and the Chaos codex and I picked up my old Iron Warriors aaaaaaand...

...the new Chaos codex really is craptacular. As in, really. They're the Tyranids of 6th ed. Mark my words. They are. So freaking gimp it's not even funny. Add to that a Forge World-order fumbled worse than a double six Leadership test (miscasts of about half a millimeter, stuff missing, them taking a month to even reply to the email complaints, and even longer to ship replacements) and my Iron Warriors stranded in a desert of stagnation.

And so it was that I got, at the beginning of December, a text, asking if I wanted a 1000 point game over xmas. My mate obviously wouldn't have everything painted, but didn't I just start out my IW? I probably wouldn't have either, nudge nudge wink wink? And man. I wanted to play a game again soon.

*takes a brief look at Forge World stuff that's really unfixably ruined*

Crap. I'll need to do something els... wait a second. What's that box in the back of the closet there? Aren't those... yeah, sure as hell, there they were. My girls. My sweet precious girls. And so it was that I packed away everything, and finally (after seven years) got around to start my all-female Wych Cult.

TL;DR - I like girls.

Hi, I joined thedarkcity days before you! I'm looking at starting a DE army too, as I am also rather partial to an angry woman!

I have been playing, and often winning, with a Tyranid army for 2 years; 6th hit Tyranids fairly hard, unless you go for the one viable build: Tervigon and Hiveguard spam.
I don't like spam, I don't want to build 4 more Tervs, and I sure as heck don't want to paint hundreds more gaunts!

After discussions with friends, and some good forum threads, I have lessened my anger with 6th:

Random charge length: to be honest, if your opponent was any good in 6th, you would normally need to do some of your movement with penalties anyway, so in real terms, random charge length isn't as big a deal as it may seem. Mathhammering will give you expected ranges, so figure out how much of a gambler you are, and work within those limits.

Overwatch is similar; by the time you have organised a few good compound charges, WS1 plus armour saves means that only expensive and poorly armoured CC units, such as,err, OK Dark Eldar (!) will get more than a death or two. Play it right and you can mitigate these.

Fliers have completely changed the game; I hate them. They are, however, here to stay, unless you can persuade your buddies not to, and all my mates love their Vendettas, Heldrakes and Dakkajets.
DE have some good Fliers, access to AA in the Aegis, and allies. (Tyranids are screwed here, having none of those! Why, GW?!?!)

Difficulties aside, I think 6th is actually MORE fun, but the access to broken combinations has increased; friendly games with mates are hugely entertaining now, especially with mysterious terrain, but playing THAT creepy guy in the shop has gotten less pleasant.

TL:DR I Iike girls with swords ;-)

Heya Sasha!

I agree that my anger, or rather, annoyance, with 6th have dwindled. There are certain things that still annoy me - the whole "cinematic narrative" thing they have going, for one - but overall, the game is more streamlined. MY main annoyance is that in their quest to create a cinematic game, the balance have shifted in a way that make certain things (gunlines, fliers) a lot more powerful, opposed to certain other things (assault, transports).

Random charge length is probably the change that more than anything, helps us, due to Fleet. Clever use of Flat Out Raiders jinking and Fleet can position and re-position a charge incredibly fast. I never mathhammer myself (I leave that more experienced players), but I fully expect at least an 8" charge every time now.

Overwatch is annoying. It needs to be handled extremely delicately, I find. I run two squads of 5 Wyches in Venoms as support, as I can both reduce an opponent with poisoned shots, as well and charge in with 5 additional bodies after Overwatch is resolved. Overall, I find Overwatch to be something I need to "sacrifice" a unit or two to deal with, then playing my other units cleverly when they've "cleared the way".

Fliers, I hate them. You forgot to mention the Stormtalon, Assault Cannon and Missile setup is more or less a guaranteed transport/Ravager down each turn. I try to deal with it by moving in loops to get Jink every turn, Ravager Aerial Assault rule is absolutely crucial to abuse to the fullest. Likewise, I try to flat out my transports, again, in a loop if I need them in space to pick up some girls the next turn. But overall, I do feel that the power of fliers is simply too strong, and the Dark Angels Nehpilim showcased in the new White Dward hardly suggest that power level dwindling anytime soon.

I've actually, as a response to fliers, considered Eldar allies; Cheap Farseer with Guide, and three War Walkers with double Scatter Lasers. A potential 48 S6 shots should hopefully be worth something, however, the unit screams for attention and is really just as fragile and expensive as our own fliers, so I don't knoe...

I feel that alongside fliers, our greatest weakness is Kill Points and First Blood. Our paper thin transports simply goes down too fast, and we're dependent on them. It's sad to look at your six troops choices and realize that they're worth 12 Kill Points - often more than the opponent's army total. Likewise, not being able to glance to death vehicles (as we ourselves are more then a little prone to be the victim of) with poisoned weapons makes us weak against mech and skimmer lists.

Having that said.

I go to every game with the stalwart belief that I CAN in fact win the game. We're a surgeon's tool, not a blunt hammer. And surgeons always need to be just that one bit smarter than anyone else

Please do not swear. Cheers - Cavash.

Welcome to The Dark City Payce!

I think you'll find overwatch is not a big deal for wyches, as fleet makes them great at charging through cover and Phantasm Grenade Launchers (a 10pt wonder on them) give them stealth against shooting from enemies within 8" of them (defensive grenades). This means as long as they are charging out of cover or from behind a screening unit they should have a 4+ cover save against overwatch (unless they are charging out of ruins in which case they have a 3+ cover save). This really makes overwatch a non issue (except flamers).

If you like Cult armies, you should check out the battle reports linked in my signature (lots of pictures). In most of them I was running dual succubi, wyches and reavers.

Hope that helps.

48 S6 shots isn't all that much: are they Anti-Air and/or twin linked? If not, you're only looking at 1 or 2 glances on AV12, if you're lucky.
The Tyranid Dakkafex is 12 TL S6, often taken in pairs, and they are our best shooty unit, but they still whiff against fliers.
Sliscus firing an Aegis Line cannon is going to be in my first lists, I'm sure of it.

I dislike allies, and refuse to use them: the concept is silly for 40K, only appropriate for Apocalypse, and the chart should have been MUCH less generous: 1 or 2 options each at most.

Mushkilla wrote:

and Phantasm Grenade Launchers (a 10pt wonder on them)

It costs whaaaaaaaat? Oh god. I've been writing PGL on Hekatrix as 25 points at all times for over a year! Why oh why all things must cost standard, except for that one little thing! Oh well, thanks for the heads-up Mush, now PGLs will be mandatory for my girls!


Also, welcome to the Dark City, Payce. While Wych assaults have taken a bit of a hit, they are an absolute death to vehicles. Haywire Grenades in these times are absolutely amazing.

Siticus the Ancient wrote:

Mushkilla wrote:

and Phantasm Grenade Launchers (a 10pt wonder on them)

It costs whaaaaaaaat? Oh god. I've been writing PGL on Hekatrix as 25 points at all times for over a year!

I do try to stress it's cost as most players never having used them in 5th always assume it's 25! For 10 it's a bargain.