Now that the shock and abject horror has passed…

...lets see what we can do with our new lousy codex (vs. the old lousy codex).

We were properly prepared, why do I say that? Note: the tissues on the shelf in the background...lol.

Thus, Da Long Ways Dezert Groop took on the Fem Fa'Tau last night in their new codex battlefield debut. Unsurprisingly, they lost but truth be told, da boyz fared better than I expected.  The dice went thru periods of good and bad on both sides, though my GF is getting tired of the 'you can't roll any higher than a 2' syndrome her dice have been addicted to for quite some time now...that said, she rolled a whole slew of 6+ disruption field saves at the end!

Anyways, a few things I noticed during the game...

First up, Ork Witchfire psychic powers. Yeah, great. I need to cast and not perils (perils was my 1st wound suffered in the game), not be denied (and there she goes with those 6's again), and then have to roll to hit with a BS of 2??? BS indeed, thanks for that GW. The only spell that managed to work during the (short) lifespan of my Wierdboy was 'da jump' which tellyported da shoota boys across the table. They summarily gunned down the Pathfinders only to be pie plated into oblivion shortly thereafter. So that was a wash.

Basic Meks get all sorts of cool weaponry, but only ever get a 6+ save. So why would I ever put a 30 point killsaw on one of those? One Mek manned the Kannon (and the grots managed to hit a lot with said kannon, damage however...), one Mek disappeared in the a hail of burst cannon fire (more on that below), and the other died the first time he pulled the trigger on his Kustom-Mega-Blasta. Yes apparently the option of putting eavy armor on cheap characters was, like so many other things, too much to ask for.

Speaking of eavy armor, it felt like a knee-jerk reaction to put it on every boy that could get it, but that's exactly what I did. So spread across the army, eavy armor costs almost equaled the price of a Landraider (gulp!). That said, when the outflanking hordes of stealth suits, Shadowsun, and Kroot showed up, it was a godsend! Instead of having mobs simply evaporate (like the attached mek did), they actually absorbed a good bit of damage and were able to stay in the fight! Indeed, that's the only reason I had any troops left after turn 2! Would have been nice if GW discounted that a bit on regular boyz though. :-(

I added a nob and another grunt to my Tankbustas this week, bringing the mob up to 10 boyz.

Da Tankbustas. They did good, if not too much overall. Tank Hunter was not only long overdue,  but works well (though unfortunately, so do disruption fields). The mob of 10, in a Battlewagon, with a grot rigger, and a mek w/KFF and Gitfinda was something the tau could not crack (thankfully). Only used the gitfinda once when the wagon stayed put, but I in turn hit a Hammerhead 8 times! (3 disruption field saves later and we're moving on to another subject now...).

Stupid Mob rule!

Da Mob rule. Ah yes, the 800lb Gorilla in the room. Luckily, my boys were rolling low on their LD checks, and I didn't have to roll on that damned chart till the bottom of the last turn (we ended on turn 4 as I had to get up early for work). Yes the boss pole is essential as it saved my ass (I have more on order from ebay), and thanks again to the eavy armor, my warboss only managed to kill 1 of da boys whilst restoring order.

So in conclusion? Meh.

Aside from the eavy armor buff, and tankbustas not being entirely useless, i think my army is in much the same place it was before with the old dex. One thing of note, after building my army and looking at what was left out of my list, I have a lot of orks (and that's not even counting the equally massive Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun)!