Dug in tight as an Alabama Tick! Stuck in "old rules?"

While I was at Rock-Con at the tournament, I had a situation come up with 3 of my 5 opponents during the tournament games.  The situation involved an enemy unit either failing a pinning test and being forced to "Go to Ground"or voluntarily choosing to "Go to Ground."  In each case, they were under the impression that once they had been pinned ("Gone to ground" as the rulebook defines it), they would be able to avoid having to take a morale test at the end of the shooting phase (despite suffering 25% or more casualties in the phase).

 They're not going anywhere, they've gone to ground!

In each case, I was able to direct them to the main rulebook page 24, "Going to ground" section, to the last paragraph that very explicitly states that the unit is affected normally by enemy actions, giving the example of taking morale tests as normal.  When I showed them the section in the rulebook, they went along with the ruling, but begrudgingly with a comment close to "we don't play it that way" or "that's not the way it used to be." 

My reaction to hearing "That's not the way it used to be."

I'm not going to claim that I haven't ever been wrong about a specifically written rule, but I just find it a weak cop-out to say something like "I don't play it that way" or "That's not the way it used to be."  The times people have pointed out a mistake I have made in the rules, I check out the rules on that, admit my mistake and move on. 

 With a complex rules system like this, it can be easy to miss rules here and there.  We're all human and can miss bits and pieces here and there.  Also I can understand either if someone is brand new into the game, or  5th edition.  Everyone deals with the transition between new rules editions , but it's been more than two years since 5th edition came out and regular players still cop out with excuses of old rules.

I don't even see the validity of the excuse of "that's not the way it used to be," because nobody has qualms with using the beneficial aspects of 5th edition (Going to Ground voluntarily for improved cover saves, etc).  These people don't mind going to ground voluntarily to get an improved cover save, but as soon as the negative portion of the rule creeps up (affected normally by enemy actions), they put up the defense "we don't play it that way" or "that's not what the rules used to say."

"What do you mean that's not how the rules are?  I hate these new rules" 

They're picking and choosing which rules they want to follow for their own advantage, whether deliberately or sub-consciously (remembering rules they like and forgetting rules they don't like).  I don't mind gaming groups that wish to "house rule" or play the game in the way that makes them happy, but when you're at a regional tournament that is going by the regular 40k rules, "house rules" don't fly.

At some point, we all need to take some personal responsibility to have a general understanding of the game rules and when presented with something that we're unaware or unfamiliar, look at it rationally and resolve it amiably. 

Back From Rock-Con

 I am back from Rock-Con and I have to say it was an absolutely fun time.  I met many interesting and cool 40k players (several of who listened to DLT) from around the region (Chicago, Rockford IL, Milwaukee, Madison WI, and Minnesota).  I did some open gaming friday with another IG player and spent time with a couple of players exchanging ideas and tactics.

I played in the tournament saturday and sunday.  The turnout was a little less than expected (22 out of the planned 30).  I was also surprised with what armies showed up.  There were four IG players, two space wolves (with exactly identical lists, every piece), one blood angels, five Space Marines, 3 chaos space marines, 1 daemons, 1 ork, 2 necrons, 1 eldar, 1 tau, 1 witch hunters.  I'm too used to my local meta game being dominated by Space Wolves and Orks.

I'll give some more in depth battle reports throughout the week, but I'd have to say that I was disappointed with my overall performance.  I had 2 wins and 3 losses in the tournament, with my three losses coming by very close games to Witch Hunters, Chaos Space Marines, and all biker Orks.

 "Best General?  You Kidding Me!? Don't Talk about Best General!!  I  just hope I can win a game!" - Myself at RockCon

Those three games were the most fun I had during the tournament because each of those games were just total slugfests between both players, resulting in very little left on each side.  My two wins were both 4th turn wipeouts.  One was against an Ultramarines player who was used to chaos marines and very new to space marines.  The last one was against Necrons, phased him out after 4 turns.

After all 5 games though, I ended up 11th place in terms of win/loss record, but tied for 5th in mission points, mostly due to me gaining full points during my two wins.  Every game I played, I felt as though I had the much better list, but in each of my three losses, I just could not do enough damage.  The psyker battle squad was big money, but my infantry platoon was useless.  The autocannons killed almost nothing over 5 games, and they gave up many extra kill points.  I'll probably replace the platoon with two melta vet squads in chimeras. 

Despite my army not performing as well as it could have, I did have to say that I learned quite a bit about my army and had some really fun games.  Not only will I be going next year, I'm much more excited and eager to travel out to other Cons and tournaments next year.

The End of Dice Like Thunder

He was hit especially hard by the news.

A sudden issue has crept up and forced us to no longer produce DLT. This was completely unplanned, unexpected and unavoidable. There is no in-fighting between current cast members and we are all still very good friends. We realized it was time to start a new podcast that incorporates the lessons learned by the hosts while working on DLT.

In early November, we will be starting a new podcast called The Eternal Warriors. As you can imagine, it will be a podcast about Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and all things awesome! The current cast of Dice Like Thunder will return and what would have been Ep 106 of DLT will instead be Ep 1 of The Eternal Warriors. Old episodes and materials of Dice Like Thunder will be available for a short period of time. When they get removed, it will be permanent!

We can not adequately express what the fans of DLT mean to us. Over the course of 2 years, you are what has driven us to continue making DLT episodes, home brew material and explore hobby communities outside of our own. For 105 episodes, you have been incredible and we want to thank you one last time while under the DLT name.

In the next few weeks, check us out at our new home: The Eternal Warriors!

Getting ready to Rock-Con!

First item on today's office agenda, ROCK N ROLL!!!

It has been a hectic week of getting this blog going whilst preparing for the trip to Rock-Con tomorrow.  Despite Adepticon being local for me, there are very few other events going on in the region during the year, so this should be a fun event to go to.  It is a 30 person, 5 round tournament, 1850 points which will take place over two days (3 rounds Saturday, 2 rounds Sunday).  There should also be plenty of time outside of the games to be able to check out all of the stuff going on there.

I'll be bringing my competitive IG list to this tournament.  It generally follows the current IG mech template.  I have also checked it numerous times by hand and calculator to make sure that all of the values add up properly and the total does not exceed 1850. 

{HQ}
[205] Company Command Squad - 4x plasma guns, plasma pistol, officer of the fleet - chimera w/ hull heavy flamer, Multi-laser

{Troops} -
Infantry Platoon
[105] - Platoon Command Squad - 4x flamers - chimera w/ hull heavy flamer, Multi-laser

[125] - Infantry Squad – autocannon, meltagun - chimera w/ hull heavy flamer, Multi-laser
[70] - Infantry Squad – autocannon, meltagun

[65] – Infantry Squad - autocannon, flamer

[50] – Special Weapons Squad – 3x flamers

[130] Veteran Squad - 3x meltaguns, demolitions

[130] Veteran Squad - 3x meltaguns, demolitions

{Elites}

[175] Psyker Battle Squad – 9x psykers, 1x overseer, chimera w/ hull heavy flamer, hvy stubber, multi-laser

[65] Guardsman Marbo

{Fast Attack}

[130] Vendetta

[130] Vendetta

{Heavy Support}

[150] Hydra Flak Tank x2 (squadron) - hull heavy bolter(s)

[160] Manticore - hull heavy bolter

[160]  Manticore – hull heavy bolter

Total:  1850

 "Are those Space Marines?"  - Local "regular" upon seeing my IG vehicles, infantry, and vendettas.

I'm confident in the list, it will mainly depend on the matchups I end up with to determine how I'll do.  Honestly I'm looking to at least put up a good fight in every game and just have a fun time meeting some new players from other areas.  Next week I should have up the results and some battle reports.