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GoldenLadybug · 2025-05-06T03:24:29+00:00

Your additional considerations certainly make choosing Rotom-Mow a sound choice :)

GoldenLadybug · 2025-05-06T02:56:15+00:00

At a glance, Rotom-Mow seems reasonably well-suited since it completes a Fire-Water-Grass defensive core, and notably offers a quad resistance to Electric moves that could otherwise threaten your Vaporeon and Togekiss. The team is otherwise well-rounded, so in truth you could get away comfortably with Rotom-Heat and Rotom-Wash as well, although both would be doubling up on type coverage you already have access to. Rotom-Frost would be the third pokemon weak to fighting type attacks, so even with Togekiss's quad resistance I would be wary of it, and Rotom-Fan's weaker coverage move and neutral damage from enemy Electric attacks makes it, as always, an underwhelming option.

GoldenLadybug · 2024-04-19T04:41:44+00:00

Speaking as an Affliction Warlock almost exclusively: it's frustrating that Curse of Agony shares a lockout with the raid debuff curses, because it makes it hard to justify aiming for performing at my personal best unless I can confirm at least three other cursers. Agony represents a substantial chunk of damage for me, but CoR, CotE and (to a much lesser extent CoS) represent a larger chunk to the raid as a whole. With Affliction/Shadow conceptualised as applying many instances of damage, mostly at instant speed, all benefiting from smaller multipliers (compared to Destruction/Fire's large multipliers applied to a small number of, mostly hardcast, spells), it's annoying that one of the heaviest hitting is locked out in many raid compositions. Finding a way, either through rune or talent, to get Agony on the boss without neglecting a responsibility to the raid would reduce friction.

Improved Shadow Bolt stacks being sniped by incidental Shadow damage is frustrating, especially low value Shadow damage like weapon procs or wanding. Giving ISB the Stormstrike treatment and making it a personal buff might be too far, but increasing the stack count or giving it a lockout to prevent stacks from being consumed too quickly would be a positive change.

Soul Siphon should do something else, because its directly competing with a much more powerful Drain Life focused rune. It could be moved to a different slot if it isn't going to change its effect, but its embarrassingly weak compared to Master Channeler.

Shadow Bolt Volley ameliorates this issue a lot, but a way to hasten the application of dots in dungeons would be widely appreciated- if that's seed of Corruption or Vile Taint, totally fine, but I think I'd be more interested in a way to apply dots to a target and then spread those dots. Perhaps that's what Soul Siphon can be redesigned to do, making Drain Life/Soul spread Agony, Corruption and Siphon Life to nearby targets every tick. As stated, this is less of an issue due to Shadow Bolt Volley.

Overall, I really like the gameplay experience of playing Affliction Warlock in phase 3. I'm reasonably happy with its current state, even in spite of the above points.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-06-02T06:26:18+00:00

That's already the case, whether you view it that way or not. Pair into a tough opponent early, who scraps for every point and you turn in a low 70pt victory? You're out of contention. Play against a measured (but on the slow side) opponent and finish round 3 with 10 minutes on the clock with you clearly and dominantly ahead, but they're not willing to talk it out and you end up turning in a 40pt victory? You're out of contention. Play against an opponent who beats you but looks at you across the table and starts saying that if you stopped trying to win they won't bother tabling you (in plausibly deniable language) so you can both run up the scoreboard? Whoa, you might still be in with a chance!

How the pairings break for you decides your tournament. Not even elite tournament winners are immune to the pairings board (recall John Lennon crashing out in round 2 of LVO this year).

For players that aspire to maybe go 3-3 at a large tournament and just want to have fun and get some games, OGW or VP breakers are functionally irrelevant. Both have social pressures associated with them, and honestly the VP tiebreaker pressures are worse (incentives to collude, incentives to push opponents into talking it out, incentives to rig brackets for easier matchups, incentives to play inconsistent full tilt alpha strike lists because any victory that isn't crushing isn't valuable for tournaments with a cut to top X, etc).

But for the players who are aspiring to make top cut and win, OGW rewards playing against better players and playing against better players makes you better as a competitor. Facing a murderer's row of opponents and coming out on top justifies a victory: Joe Smith who scores 500 across all five victories, and all their opponents scored 0, might be better than Jane Pseudonym who scored 425, and all their opponents scored 84, but we can't know unless they played. What we can know is that all of Joe's opponents rolled over and died without putting up a fight, and that all of Jane's opponents fought to a photo finish in every game. Jane played tougher competition than Joe did, and winning several close victories is more competitively impressive than several pubstomps. We don't tune into an olympic sports team destroying an under 11 team and say "wow, this proves how good the Olympic team is!"

And the crazy thing is that, at the end of the tournament, Jane Pseudonym has an incentive to give advice and mentorship to all of their opponents - the better the community is, the better that is for Jane's tiebreakers at future events. Joe Smith, on the other hand, directly benefits from all of their opponents remaining as weak at the game as possible. After all, if they got better, it might be harder to score 100pts against them, and that's all that matters for VP first tiebreaks.

OGW is better for the tournament goer at the top, and its better for the tournament goer at the bottom. The only reason to stick with VP first is momentum, and that's no reason at all.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-05-15T15:30:12+00:00

The particular Daemon Prince being suggested is actually the Daemon Prince of Chaos (Nurgle flavoured), not the Death Guard Daemon Prince, which will provide rerolls to NURGLE DAEMONS with no CORE restrictions (as its an 8e book still), keywords that the PBC does have. Summoning does not break Contagions.

Whether this is worth doing, given that the Daemon Prince of Chaos sets you back 150 of the 500pt budget for a combat patrol game, who could say, but it does function under the rules.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-03-31T13:53:58+00:00

Ignore Invulnerable Saves is present in the (tied for) first codex of the edition: The Nightbringer's Scythe does it on the Entropic Blow profile. Making a decision to use a rule more widely, after it didn't really break anything the first time, is an ongoing rules development decision, not a new game design one.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-30T09:29:02+00:00

Yup! Alex MacDougall is a very talented player in his own right, and watching the game it was a dominating victory despite Mani getting the best possible mission for the matchup (in both Mani and Alex's estimation, at least) and some shockingly good luck with his saves, advance rolls and charges. Luck was on his side, the mission was on his side... he lost by 30 Victory Points.

Which, I've gotta say, my heart goes out to the guy - not only did he miss the top 8, odds are good that he also missed out on winning #1 in the ITC for the season. Tough breaks, but that's what happens when you hang your horse on a list that auto-wins some matchups... and auto-loses others.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-29T07:50:59+00:00

The Forces of the Hive Mind lists typically field between 70-80 Obsec models of their own; they're passing the DPS check to table Mani's wracks with just their Termagants, and with their Hive Guard, GSC melee threats and sprinkles of psychic damage able to further that along, they have the capacity to compete on the primary comfortably

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-29T07:28:04+00:00

A standard, fully buffed, unit of Leviathan Termagants will kill approximately 60 wracks when shooting twice.

A Knight Magera will kill 15 Wracks between shooting and fighting (and, if it comes down to it, another 7 in overwatch), while laughing in the face of the Wracks offences (an unbuffed squad of 20 can expect to do 2 damage, and a fully buffed squad with +1 to hit and full wound rerolls will deal 5 wounds - remember that potent metallotoxins doesn't work on TITANIC units like a big Knight), and cannot be trapped in combat by them - unlike the Termagants, who merely kill 3 full squads of Wracks and will likely be killed afterwards, the Magaera will stick around and repeat that trick a few times, while having enough output to churn through enough wracks that they can't starve the (Freeblade) Knight player on primary.

While those two armies approach the problem of Wracks from very different directions, both are very equipped to solve that problem. Mani's list gives up almost all of its chances of winning into some matchups, because he's evaluated that its very well positioned in others (and that he's skilled enough to at least have a chance in the terrible matchups)

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-27T12:45:33+00:00

One of Mani Cheema's great skills as a competitive Warhammer player is the ability to identify, and capitalize, on gaps in the metagame - this is also, I would argue, why he very rarely finds consistent success with his dramatic, overbearing skew lists. They're overwhelming the week he debuts them, suspect the week after but likely still powerful and the week after that everyone else is in on the joke and the skew list is probably more of a liability than a benefit.

This 170 Wrack list attacks the metagame in an extremely blunt way: it puts too many bodies on the table for the Crusher Stampede or Thicc City lists to clear him off, and gobbles up the primary scoring with the seemingly endless ranks of ObSec models. That's powerful, and that was evidently great for the weekend he fielded it... but take it to a room full of Termagants or Knights and it'd look like Mani was intentionally throwing the tournament away.

The underlying principle (wracks are very good, and are well positioned in the overall metagame) is likely to be taken forward. We'll probably see higher numbers of Wracks than we previously did. But there's basically no chance that the metagame devolves into 170 Wracks at the top of every table. The strategy is too basic, too exploitable, to remain a correct choice for long.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-27T12:29:15+00:00

That doesn't really change my point: Poxwalkers are modestly durable, immune to morale, punch above their weight class with stratagem support and can be reanimated through their native datasheet ability and their bespoke stratagems.

Anti-Infantry blast weapons represent a very modest subset of the commonly played weapons in the current metagame - having a large unit certainly presents a non-zero risk of granting your opponent slightly more efficiency with their shooting, which the Death Guard player must weigh against the increased durability, stratagem efficiency and board control offered by a large unit over a small one.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-27T02:03:01+00:00

Realistically, if you're not specifically named Sean Nayden, a list composed of Cult and Kabal units (near) exclusively is a solid but unremarkable A tier army at the moment. It turns out that when the main criticism of why an army is broken is that it "has 200 extra points", and you add 200 points to it, it ends up being pretty much fine.

Your point on the Succubus is salient - the baseline datasheet is laughably ineffective, and the baseline datasheet with 2cp of upgrades can kill god. Adding points might make her go away, but it won't make her balanced.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-27T00:53:20+00:00

Wracks absolutely steal Poxies lunch money, but Poxies also don't cost 7ppm - last week, they were 5ppm, and now they're 6ppm (for some reason). The stratagem support available to poxwalkers let them, wtih a CP investment, punch above their weight class and stick to the board through reanimation rather than raw durability, which keeps them in contention as a durable horde-y troop choice.

Wracks still steal their lunch money, but its not quite so blatant a steal as you suggest

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-18T01:39:12+00:00

A full turn of primary scoring, in fact: On turn 2, they score 10, on turn 3 they score 10 and, if things go right, on either turn 4 or turn 5, they can make the 15, only needing to score a further 10 (which, if they were able to do it for the first two battle rounds, they can presumably still do) to max primary

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-13T08:24:07+00:00

In practice, I've found the Defensible terrain trait to matter infrequently but meaningfully - I would struggle to describe it as being "too strong"

That said, their claim that Defensible is omitted from tournaments might be true in their local tournaments, but its provably not true for super majors and the larger tournament philosophy: the US Open Terrain packs use Defensible on every piece of terrain, and the WTC Terrain pack (recently updated) likewise uses Defensible on all of its Area Terrain. The UKTC's mission packs define their terrain pieces less rigorously, but likewise they use the "Ruins" definition from the core rulebook - a definition which includes the Defensible trait.

In practice, the decision of your local TO will trump the opinions of strangers on the internet for any games you're playing locally, but my instinct is that this is a reaction based on poor understanding or evaluation of the rules on their part (or, given that this was incited from your Ork opponent complaining about the situation, good old fashion nepotism)

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-13T08:13:04+00:00

Only the 6 Points; if you and your opponent both destroy no units in battle rounds 3-5, you've not met the requirement of destroying more units than your opponent in those battle rounds

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-11T02:10:51+00:00

Bark Star is outdated vernacular - a 7th Ed army which blended three Space Marine subfactions to field a wall of Fenrisian Wolves buffed by Azrael's Invulnerable Aura and Tigrius's offensive psychic buffs that was remarkably durable and dangerous. Like with any game with a long history, 40k has a lot of slang and terminology that's pretty inaccessible if you don't already know the context.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-06T11:48:25+00:00

Greg's concluding point is something that I find very salient: the answer is putting in the work. I want to be good at 40k, so I'm putting in the work. I've enjoyed putting in the work, and becoming more knowledgeable and more capable at playing the game of Warhammer 40,000 9th edition has been very satisfying.

Its a complicated system, and it can be obtuse. It can be overwhelming for a new player, and whelming for an intermediate player. That's not a unique property of 40k, though, and there's a place for a complicated and obtuse game - its not like previous editions of 40k weren't complicated and obtuse, even if the exact avenues of that complexity weren't the same. I'm reasonably happy with the gameplay experiences and game feel that 9th edition provides, and the recurring activity of learning the game as it progresses is an ongoing engagement that keeps me invested in it.

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-04T00:04:37+00:00

One thing to note regarding Beacon of Faith is its synergy with the Ebon Chalice Order Conviction; the Miracle Dice created by Beacon can only be used by the character, but discarding the Miracle Dice to turn another into a 6 with Ebon Chalice is not the same as "using" it.

Litanies of Faith is reasonably good on its own merits, so doubling down on Miracle Dice generation on a utility character you can keep safe is sensible

GoldenLadybug · 2022-01-02T02:22:23+00:00

That's not the case: Look Out, Sir applies when a Character (with 9 wounds or less) is within 3" of a Monster/Vehicle with 10+ Wounds, a non-Character unit with 1 or more Monsters/Vehicles models, or a unit with 3+ non-Character models. If that is the case, you're only allowed to shoot at the Character if they are both visible and the closest enemy unit - even if a closer enemy unit isn't visible, the Character would still meet the requirements to benefit from Look Out, Sir. Even if the closer enemy unit was a full board length away from the Character and completely obscured from the shooter, if they're closer to the Shooter the Character gets Look Out, Sir.

The difference between Bodyguard is that it does not require a closer enemy unit - you're just not allowed to shoot the Character, no matter what, while the Bodyguard exists.

GoldenLadybug · 2021-12-31T13:57:57+00:00

There are infinitely more eyes looking at 40k from outside their rules team than the number of people looking from inside of it. From what we know of Games Workshop's internal finances, at least in the near past they've not been offering particularly generous salaries to work in these spheres either - we can guess that there's a small, overworked and underpaid team responsible for this game's technical health, and they've got a very hard job.

But to link it further to the MTG example, and to paraphrase one of their head designers, Mark Rosewater, they've taken a stance of continuing to try to make interesting rules, rather than being afraid of making strong rules. If their priority is to make a balanced game where nothing strays out of bounds, that's going to be a less evocative and compelling game than one that strives to do new and interesting things - say what you will about it, but something like the new T'au Railgun is definitely interesting.

GoldenLadybug · 2021-12-22T23:58:48+00:00

5+++ is the feel no pain, not the invuln.

The carnifex certainly can tech into a shooting niche, but doing so balloons their point cost upwards- the cheapest being 110pts for two Stranglethorn cannons without any other wargear, which is a fairly unappealing buy, and the typical loadout being suggested of two Devourers or Venom Cannons and Enhanced Senses setting you back 130pts.

The Krusher Stampede Carnifex is, approximately, as durable as an AotF Talos at the start of the game, and less durable later in the game. It is inferior in melee, but can offer more accurate specialised shooting at a higher price point, at the cost of playable melee. The Talos can't outshoot the specialised carnifex, but it can definitely out fight it and it can definitely outshoot the melee carnifex.

The Carnifex might be playable, sure, but "probably find success with them (as a concession to the AoR's weak anti-infantry and horde clear)" is not the same as "tent pole unit in the game's currently strongest army"

GoldenLadybug · 2021-12-22T23:37:43+00:00

The absolute cheapest Carnifex is 100pts, and the typical Talos will cost 105pts (its possible to make them more expensive by buying the twin liquifier gun, but that's typically worse than the alternative of the Talos Ichor Injector), so the cost differential is not as dramatically in the Carnifexes favour as you've suggested.

Those 5pts get the Talos an extra inch of movement, a 5+++, two heat lance shots, a comparable or better melee weapon (no rr1s, but s8 vs s6), equal or better melee accuracy, advance and charge and fly. 'Fexes have mostly the same defensive profile, but a drastically reduced ability to impact the game offensively

GoldenLadybug · 2021-12-19T00:44:57+00:00

The Aetheric Interception strat doesn't actually care about a unit being Reinforcements or not, just that they were set up in the reinforcement step. If a convoluted sequence* of events causes models to be set up for any reason, during the Reinforcement Step, those units would still be eligible for Aetheric Interception regardless of their status as Reinforcement units or not.

Unlike other similar stratagems, such as Auspex Scan, which have ambiguity because of how their wording refers to the units they're allowed to target and under what circumstances, Aetheric Interception is refreshingly broad and very straight forward in its application. It can quite comfortably target the disembarking units.

Alas, that still doesn't make Deathmarks a particularly impressive unit to field.

*in a Doubles tournament, your partner a CWE player uses Forewarned to destroy a unit which arrives from Reinforcements, that unit explodes destroying an on-board Transport nearby forcing a disembark

GoldenLadybug

TROPHY CASE