Steep Learning Curve..

This Saturday past I got in a test game for the new Dar Dex. I was really hoping to get some play time in with some of the new units I'm looking at, I even was rolling with other units not in the game to compare them with what was included. Mainly it was if there were Reapers in the list instead of doubling up on the Prism. My friend Sean was playing his new Tau list. Sadly it ended a bit rough for me but not in the way you might think. With my son teething I've not had much sleep in the past few weeks so my patience has been at a low. I was suffering from another game of rolling like crap, the past six months I've had more game rolling like complete crap then games rolling at least average. I've tried more dice then I can count but all I can come up with is it's me. This game I wasn't even caring about win or loss I wanted to get some data about units but that doesn't work when nothing is going right.. sadly I lost it at one point.. and I quit. It was a vastly annoying game, rolled for reserves and got 1 of 5 on turn 2, rolling two 1s, two 2s, and one 3. I knew the game was going to go rough as the first Warp Spider Jump was snake eyes.. not only was distance crap but one got sucked into the Warp. On turn three I was annoyed and pretty much fired my entire army on a Riptide, it only had 4 wounds left to remove but I couldn't kill it. Rolling badly and him making a ton of 5++ saves. In a game I wanted to get average data on units I couldn't even do that ..  so annoying. I hate complaining about it but consistent bad rolling takes it's toll. haha.. I need some sleep! And need to offer something nice up to the die gods.. something!

But anyway lets get to some of the info that I did glean in that game.

Warp Spiders - These guys are awesome. The amount of movement you can get with them is pretty sweet and since their guns are very strong they are going to put the hurt on. In their first turn other then losing a member to bad rolling even with the 8" movement they jumped up to the center blasted his Kroot, killed 7 and made them break off the relic in the center. Then jumped back behind a wall. If you judge distances right you can keep these guys out of sight near some decent terrain. These guys are totally worth it.

Illic Nightspear - He's ok but he won't do much for you. If you are lucky you might cause someone to have a bad day. I did hit his Riptide and rolled a 6 to wound so instant death if he didn't roll a 5 and make his 5++. So you could really make someone hate the world but it's going to be against solo models. He still fails from Look Out Sir.. ha I can precision shot you! oh.. too bad that standard trooper man jumped up against a shot he had no idea is coming. I doubt he'll be on the table much other then some fun games.

Guardians - Still not impressed, but I'm not really into a group of goons that just sit there. They had two support weapons which is ok but mainly they just hide Illic and gave him some meat shields. Something to me Eldar would never do. I'd rather them be more expensive with more kit. For 20 Gs with 2 Support they came up to 220, that's still not that cheap to me.

Dire Avengers - I still like these guys better. Sadly in the game we played and deployment they didn't get to do too much. I think if they were to hang out near an objective and then strike and fade might not do too bad. People are bashing the Shimmer and PW but I like it, if you are going to play a lot of Tau you'll need that ++ save when they are ignoring your cover. Plus if you do get charged you have counter attack and in the Challenge you'll have a good change against most things other then big ICs or Termies.. not bad.

Jetbikes - I had to pick up a few more bikes sadly. But in doing so I realized I'd been using the wrong bases for these for awhile. I never really used them much but when I had purchased a large batch of them (can't remember where I got them from) I got the Vyper bases with them. At the time I thought oh they increased it, if you played them with the metal models you remember the crazy circle/hex bases they had. So now I have to change them but the footprint is smaller because of that which is nice. Jetbikes are probably going to be the troop of choice. Built in cover and TL ChurCats that can be used regularly and then speed away. The worst part is the old models. They came in late and separated so they got hurt by intercept. Normally I would have stayed away but wanted to see if the firepower would be good and worth a strong shooting attack. But with me rolling like crap don't really know yet. Lightning strikes are going to be the way to go I think. When in doubt keep your distance.

Prism or Reapers - I was really trying to pay attention to this comparison. The Prisms didn't do too much but he made all the saves so I think it's more on that but they did die easily. I positioned and took half his firepower out of the mix so I could concentrate on one section of his forces. A ton of misses and his saves hurt me. I also rolled for the Reapers that would have put 2 wounds on the Riptide the way I had the Squad kitted. So they would have been better as more shots and I'm thinking it's going to be 1 and 1 .. the next turn I would 12 shots and hit with one 2 wounding 1 time.. though normal Save. But that was down to poor rolling.

Crimson Hunters - Have no chance against Tau. Any army with a lot of Intercept units are going to kill them right off. They came out and one died and the other Jinked and only because he rolled low did it live. I love the models but I'm really debating if these are going to make it into the competitive list. Which sucks, I really do like them.

Tau - The new Dex is crazy and the amount of fire power they have is ridiculous. High Strength at High Range and if they are TL'd you are going to hurt badly. It's truly crazy and again make me wonder what the Codex Authors do, do they even talk to one another to balance the power levels and cost of armies? The Riptide is just plain silly for it's points...

But speaking of Tau, I think I'm going to put up a Hammerhead I painted a while back on Ebay. I don't plan on playing them anymore so no need for it. I sold the rest of my models a while back so only have this sitting here. To make up some room and money it's probably going to be Ebay'd soon.