40K Cabal Battle Report: First Allies Game

Although we have multiple tables, it's not unusual for our 40K group to play in teams of two. Typically each player brings an identical number of points to the table and we pair off, rarely considering whether the pairs make any sense or not. However, this past week Jon, Bryce, Carl, and I decided to try out 6th Edition's allies rules. Each of us brought a 1000 point primary detachment list and a 750 point allied detachment list. To make things interesting, we decided to randomly determine which armies would play as the primary detachments and which would be their allies. The alliances themselves were also randomly decided through dice rolls. The same was the case for the mission type and the deployment map.

In the end, Jon's Orks formed one primary detachment with Bryce's Tau army serving as allies of convenience. (Bryce had been neglecting his Tau army until he concluded that 6th Edition belongs to the shooty armies and added several Battlesuits to his existing force.) Carl's Grey Knights were the other primary detachment while my Ultramarines were his allies of convenience. The mission turned out to be the The Scouring while the deployment map was the Hammer and Anvil. One primary objective marker worth two victory points ended up on the Astartes side of the board while another marker was immediately between both armies.

My 750 point force included a Captain, a vanilla 10 man Tactical squad, a five man Sniper Squad with a missile launcher, five Terminators with an assault cannon, and a Vindicator. Carl brought a Brotherhood Champion, a Land Raider, two Terminator Squads, a heavy bolter Razorback, and a Purgation Squad. By luck, the Purgation Squad started out on top of one of the two objectives.

Jon brought his usual mob whose size boggles the mind of an Astartes player. He had a Big Mek with a Shokk Attack Gun, a three man Warbiker Mob (with one Nob), a Killa Kan, two squads of Lootas, a DeffKopta, and two 20 man mobs of Boyz. Bryce's force consisted of a Commander in a Battlesuit with a fusion blaster, his three man Crisis Battlesuit Bodyguard, a 12 man Fire Warrior Squad, a three man Stealth Team, a Piranha Skimmer with a fusion blaster, and a three man Broadside Battlesuit Team. The maddening amount of firepower and Battlesuit-granted durability that a "small" Tau army can bring makes me wonder if the 6th Edition Tau Codex will have more than a few points adjustments.

Rather quickly Carl and I realized that we were in trouble. For starters, the arrangement of the alliances reminded me a lot of a game we played earlier this year, In which Bryce's Imperial Guard and Jon's Orks faced off against my Ultramarines and Carl's (at the time) borrowed Grey Knights. In both games, a long range shooty army joined with a close combat army to fight against smaller, more elite Space Marine armies. And once again the Marines had to go second. Then there was the deployment map; we were playing on a 4'X8' board, so the Hammer and Anvil arrangement left us with a table just 4' wide and 8' long, which benefited both the Tau as well as the Orks.

Bryce was able to take advantage of the table's length to position his Broadsides with their long range railguns well outside of our range; he hammered our armies throughout the game with impunity. His other Battlesuits also started beyond our guns' range and used their mobility to close in quickly. In the meantime, the narrowness of the map gave the Orks a significant advantage. While a standard deployment on a 4'X6' or 4'X8' board forces Orks to spread out and gives their opponent room to maneuver and to more easily attack their flanks, a narrow map like the Hammer and Anvil allows them to stretch from table edge to table edge and sweep down onto their opponents like an enormous green bulldozer. Even if we wanted to rush the Tau forces, we would have to punch through a greenskin wall to do it.

Carl's list proved to be another unexpected liability. While 2+ armor saves excel against most armies, the cost of the Terminators meant that he had very wounds or shots on the table. With Orks bearing down on you and strength 10, AP1 railguns laughing at your fancy Terminator armor, the Terminators didn't have much of a chance.

Turn 1
Turn 1 ended up with night fighting rules, which denied the Broadsides their opening salvo. The Orks made their usual charge while the Tau troops stayed mostly behind the green wall. A squad of Lootas poured fire into the Grey Knight Terminators who failed way too many 2+ armor saves. My Snipers, who had to forgo camo cloaks due to point limitations, took advantage of the 3+ cover save granted by the nearby Imperial Statuary. Unfortunately, the neophytes still failed several cover saves.

The Piranha successfully hit the Vindicator's front armor but the result was merely a glance. It was during this game that I gained an appreciation for the new hull point rules. Under 5th, a glancing hit from an AP1 weapon would have a good chance of preventing the Vindicator from firing in its following turn. Under the new rules, my Vindicator got one step closer to being wrecked, but it still had a chance to hit back in the following turn.

The Marines suffered from a lack of long range fire, but they still did some damage in their turn. The Vindicator's Demolisher cannon missed the Piranha but hit the Killa Kan, which lost a hull point and was stunned, and killed several other models. The Tactical Squad once again took advantage of the new rapid fire rules and took a small toll on the oncoming mobs. The Grey Knight Terminators tried their best, but their storm bolters seemed to do little damage (Carl's rolling that night was atrocious). The Purgation Squad had a lot more luck and was able to inflict some damage. Jon's new Warbiker Mob was wiped out, which gave the Marines a victory point for destroying a Fast Attack unit. Realizing that marching into the face of railgun fire would be suicidal, I kept the Ultramarine Terminators in reserve in the hopes that I could teleport them in the next turn and tie up the Broadsides.

Unfortunately, the Astartes long range firepower lay in the Grey Knights' Land Raider, which was hampered by the night fighting rules. The tank was mostly wasted gunning down models of lower points value. Given how many enemy models were on the table, a Land Raider Crusader probably would have been more useful.

Turn 2
The Piranha's fusion blaster penetrated the Vindicator's armor on the second turn and achieved a weapon destroyed result (my disappointment was mitigated by the fact that we finally got to use my new vehicle damage dice). Another change to 6th is randomization of which weapon is destroyed; unfortunately for me it was the Demolisher cannon rather than the storm bolter. Although the Broadsides laid into the Land Raider, several missed shots and low penetration rolls ensured that the tank kept going. Carl's Terminators took even more shooting casualties before Jon declared a Waaagh! and hit one of the two squads with nearly 20 Boyz. The Grey Knights' fancy force weapons are wasted on Boyz so we all got to witness the effect of 45+ strength 4 attacks against three Terminators (the Terminators lost).

Despite 6th Edition's more forgiving reserve rolls, the Ultramarine Terminators had to sit out another turn. Those Astartes on the table struck back and wrecked the Killa Kan while the Piranha exploded under a hail of Purgation Squad fire. The Ultramarines wreaked vengeance on the briefly victorious Boyz by hitting them with fire from both the Sniper and Tactical Squads. One of the most remarkable shots of the game occurred when the Tactical Squad's flamer hit nine Boyz and killed eight of them. The survivors were charged by the Ultramarines, who made short work of the Xenos scum.

Turn 3
With nearly all the Ork units except for the Lootas having taken heavy casualties, the Tau began their advance in earnest. Fire warriors, the Crisis Battlesuit Bodyguard, and the Stealth Team eliminated the last of the Grey Knight Terminators and the Purgation Squad. The Broadsides again failed to destroy the Land Raider, but succeeded in destroying a twin-linked lascannon. The remaining mob of Ork Boyz and a power klaw Nob assaulted the Land Raider, but the power klaw was unable to glance or penetrate its armor. Heavy fire and poor cover save rolls reduced the Sniper Squad to a single Marine. The Grey Knight Razorback was soon wrecked.

The Ultramarine Terminators finally arrived from reserves, but with so few friendly units on the board there was little reason to even try to take on the Broadsides, particularly since the Broadsides were being covered by two nearly intact Loota Squads. The Terminators therefore landed within range of the Fire Warriors. My Munitorum dice, which had been pretty lucky up until that point, failed me during the shooting phase while Bryce made most of his armor saves. That left my unit within rapid fire range of ten Fire Warriors with as many strength 5 weapons. My Tactical Squad charged the Ork mob that had previously assaulted the Land Raider but, again, the dice did not cooperate. The sergeant who was left standing found himself surrounded by Orks.

Turn 4
As Jon and Bryce began the turn, it occurred to me that the only scoring units the Marines had left was a lone Sniper Scout and a sergeant that was probably going to be killed in the next round of close combat. It was clear that the Emperor wasn't going to be saving the Astartes and so we called the game.

All in all it was an interesting game. Although the Marines ended up in the worst possible position (i.e., playing against a strong combination of allies on a table that most benefited the enemy forces), a comparison of victory points showed that it wasn't a total rout. The Marines earned three victory points for destroying all Ork and Tau Fast Attack units. (This might not be a fair comparison since the Marines didn't bring any Fast Attack units for the Tau and the Orks to score off of.) Although Bryce and Jon never actually held the two primary objects, we obviously attributed the six victory points to them when we called the game.

As for the bloodletting part of the game, I was surprised by how well my Ultramarines did. Although I effectively had 520 points of Marines (the Terminators showed up too late to influence the game), the allied force may have killed more points than Carl's primary detachment. A lot of the Grey Knights' 1000 points was invested in Terminators that drew a huge amount of fire and died without having earned their points. The Purgation Squad, which benefited from its ability to target units without having line of sight, seemed to do better, but its 24" range left the squad vulnerable to fast moving Tau units. With the Broadsides out of its range and only cheaper Ork units nearby, the Land Raider ended up being an enormous points sink. Under other circumstances I think the Grey Knight army would have been formidable, but it didn't have a prayer against the Ork/Tau alliance.

After the game I thought of ways that the Ultramarine Terminators' 230 points could have been better spent. It occurred to me that a ten man Sternguard has nearly the same cost (i.e., 250 points without upgrades), can put out almost as many shots when it's between 12" and 24" from the target, and can put out nearly twice as many shots when it's within 12" of the target. With Hellfire rounds the Sternguard would be killing Orks on a 2+ rather than a 4+, the AP4 Kraken rounds would match the Fire Warriors' weapons range while denying them their armor saves, and AP3 Vengeance rounds could deny armor saves to most Battlesuits. Each Sternguard Marine is slightly more likely to die than a Terminator, of course, but the Squad makes up for it by having twice as many troops. All the more reason for me to pick up the pace on that Sternguard Squad I've been sporadically working on for months.

6th Edition and Changing Priorities

Sixth Edition is finally upon us and now a lot of 40K players are having to redesign their armies. Although it's nice to have a shake up now and then, it can also be intimidating to have to scrap all your plans.

A few months ago I found myself buying models willy-nilly, with no actual endgame strategy to tell me when I was (mostly) done buying models. Eventually I created a series of five 2,000 point lists to give me an idea of what to buy. The Space Marine Codex and my insistence on using special characters exclusively from the Ultramarines chapter were the only real limits for these lists, although I tried to minimize the number of units that I would need (nearly every unit type is used in two or more lists). As time went on, I revised some lists to include different models or units that I wanted (e.g., a Stormtalon, an Ironclad Dreadnought) or to incorporate certain strategies.

Although I still plan on buying a few more kits (I still don't have a Stormtalon), what I've purchased thus far based on my lists adds up to between 4,800 and 5,000 points. I had also determined a general priority for finishing various units, with a lot of my recent efforts being directed towards vehicles. However, with the advent of 6th Edition, it turns out that my lists could use a few changes. I also found that I need to re-prioritize what models I need to complete. The most dramatic alteration of my plans resulted from the change to rapid fire rules.

Until 6th Edition, Tactical Squads didn't have too much appeal for me. They're relatively expensive compared to other armies' troops, they're durable but not as durable as units like Terminators, they're decent in close combat but not as good as more dedicated squads, etc. But what actually made them unappealing was that their rapid fire weapons restricted their mobility. Although some of my lists included two Tactical Squads, I only did it to have bodies on the table.

Now Tactical Squads are as menacing as they were meant to be
[Models by Games Workshop]

Now that rapid fire weapons can be fired at their full range while on the move, Tactical Squads have become a lot more useful. Jon's Orks felt the brunt of this rule change in the Cabal's first 6th Edition game. Now I'm piecing out the models I need to field a second Tactical Squad, as well as to give me a greater variety of special and heavy weapons. (Thanks to snap fire, heavy bolters have become a more tempting heavy weapon given that they have a relatively decent chance of hitting something even if your squad has to relocate in a hurry). Since "power weapon" can refer to one of several items with different abilities/liabilities, I've also pieced out three more sergeants to provide a good selection of wargear. And because I'm big into the modelling aspect, I'm also making sure I have a greater variety of armor types since none of the starter kits that I got my Tactical Marines from had Mk V armor or the Mk VII armor without the aquila.

In fact, the humble Tactical Squad has become so effective that I've even begun to consider using up to three in 2000+ point games.

Special ammunition:
The Swiss  Army knife of 40K
[Model by Games Workshop]

The new rapid fire rules also make Sternguard even more effective. The unit originally appealed to me for fluff and modelling reasons. Now, thanks to the 30" range Kraken rounds, the already popular veteran unit has an effective range of up to 36" and can deny armor saves to a huge number of models. Monster slaying has also gotten a lot easier since a squad doesn't have to stand still and wait for that Hive Tyrant to rush into range and gamble that one or two turns of Hellfire rounds will drop it before it assaults. A Sternguard can now fire at 24" and slowly back off as the Tyrant approaches, gaining themselves one or two more turns of shooting.

Up until a couple months ago I had been focusing on a ten man Sternguard until I realized that I needed vehicles more than I needed more models with rapid fire weapons. Sixth has turned my thinking on its head; now it looks like the veterans will be getting some attention once the second Tactical Squad is finished.

First 6th Edition Game

Last night was the Cabal's first game under 6th Edition. Jon's Orks and Kevin's Dark Eldar faced off against Carl's Grey Knights and my Ultramarines. Since we were already trying to figure out so many other new rules, we didn't bother with the allies rules.

The game was close, although Jon and Kevin had the most kill points left when we finally called the game. The Marines had the misfortune of being unprepared for the fight. Each player was limited to 750 points, meaning that we couldn't bring some of our meaner units to the game. Also, Carl was using a highly experimental list that proved to be uncompetitive. Finally, both Kevin and Jon brought flyers, which Carl and I were totally unprepared for. Although the Ork Bommer and the Voidraven didn't do too much damage, they attracted a lot of fire that would have been better directed elsewhere.

My overall impression of 6th was very good. It didn't take too long to get used to new rules like the revised wound allocation since most are pretty intuitive. I even took advantage of it by placing a Captain with artificer armor in the front of a squad. Jon initially laughed at me for putting my most important model directly in the line of fire (he put his Warboss in the middle of his mob) until he realized that the multi-wound model with the 2+ armor save was deflecting nearly everything he could throw at it in order to protect the rest of the squad. When the Captain got down to a single wound, he started taking advantage of the Look Out Sir rule.

I'm also a fan of the snap shot. One Ultramarine successfully fired a missile launcher while on the move, killing an Ork. And a Razorback with a twin-linked lascannon was able to get around an obstacle blocking its line of sight by moving at cruising speed and then successfully hit a Dark Eldar Venom, immobilizing it. Even though you usually have only a 1 in 6 chance of hitting something with a snap shot (a little better than that if you have twin-linked weapons or weapons that put out a lot of fire), it's nice that we're at least allowed to make an attempt under 6th Edition's rules.

For me, the biggest change (and best improvement) was the revision to the rapid fire weapon rules. Now that the range of rapid fire weapons is unrestricted by movement, Tactical Squads, Sternguard Squads, and Scouts with bolters no longer have to avoid moving just so they can get in that one 24" shot. Last night, when my Tactical Marines found themselves 26" from an oncoming Ork mob, they were able to move forward just enough to get in their shots. Under the previous rules the turn would have been an utter waste for the Marines. Between the new rules and my new Destructor-pattern Predator a mob that would have completely overrun my squad before was whittled down to a single boy and a wounded Warboss (the Warboss was promptly dispatched by a Dreadnought).

By the end, the other Cabal members said that they liked the new rulebook. I don't think they liked it quite as much as I did, though.

Newest Models: Razorback and Predator

When I started playing 40K, I borrowed Bryce's ~1500 point Raven Guard army. After I had finished the Black Reach models, Bryce sold his Space Marine army to help pay for his Imperial Guard (those Steel Legion figures were surprisingly expensive). It wasn't long afterward that I realized that I sorely lacked vehicles. Unfortunately, after a veritable marathon of painting the Black Reach figures and a Vindicator, I had a very slow period during the first half of this year. Although I did a lot of prep work on various models, I was only able to finish a Sniper Scout squad.

Finally, I decided to pick up the pace and work on five vehicles at the same time. Although I was able to glue together various sub-assemblies, prime the parts, and begin painting larger areas, I ended up focusing on one vehicle at a time to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

The first one I finished is a lascannon-equipped Razorback. The turret plate and turret are held in place by gravity to allow the lascannon turret to be replaced with a heavy bolter turret or to turn the Razorback into a Rhino.

Although I enjoy playing the game, most of the reason why I like the hobby is because of the modelling. I won't sacrifice detail for speed, so each model takes me a long time. The interior of the Razorback is fully detailed (Bryce mocked me about this). Resting on a bench in this particular transport is a Tactical Squad sergeant's helmet. I put it there both to add some detail as well as to gain some practice painting laurels. I'll be painting plenty of those when I build my Vanguard and Sternguard squads.

The biggest lesson I learned while painting the laurels was not to use Ceramite White to do it. The white base paint is especially thick to allow it to cover darker colors and is difficult to use for detail work.

To ensure that I maintained consistency between my models, I pulled out my Vindicator to compare it with the Razorback. The Razorback is slightly darker due to a change in how I apply the washes. However, the color difference isn't so large that it couldn't be chalked up to different operational conditions.

 

The model I finished most recently is a Destructor-Pattern Predator. I'm modelling the Ultramarine's 2nd Company (hence the yellow circle with the "II" on each vehicle), whose captain was born to Talassari nobility. The Predator has therefore been christened Spear of Talassar.

A lot of the fun of making a Space Marine vehicle is in adding the various scripts, banners, blessings, etc. that the Space Marines bear into battle. I hoard the decorative bits included in the Tactical Squad and Command Squad boxes that seem a bit too big to attach to the Marines themselves but are perfectly sized for their vehicles.

Supposedly the crest on Sicarius' helmet bears the colors of his house; i.e., white and red. For that reason, much of the white script on Spear of Talassar begins with large red letters. 

Unlike my Marines, which are basecoated Mordian Blue (now Macragge Blue), all my vehicles are basecoated Ultramarine Blue (now Altdorf Guard Blue). However, the vehicles receive two to three heavy coats of black wash. I then dry brush the bascoat over the wash to highlight the edges, lighten up the overall paint job, and give the model a smudged, dirty look. This time I accidentally over-washed the Predator, which meant that I had to do a lot of dry brushing to make it consistent with the Razorback. By the time I'm done the vehicle is only slightly lighter in shade than the Marines' power armor. After I dry brush on the blue, I dry brush Boltgun Metal (now Leadbelchers) onto the corners, edges, and the occasional flat surface to give the paint a worn, chipped look.

To finish off each model, I add the decals. Once the decals are dry, I give them a very light coat of black wash so they match the smudged look of the rest of the model.

Munitorum Dice Redeemed (Mostly)

I said recently that I removed six of the twelve limited edition red Munitorum dice from my collection. This afternoon, as I was about to mark the dice to designate them as marker dice only, I decided to chi-square test them one more time before defacing them.

The more you roll the dice, the more likely you are to find a truly imbalanced die. As I said before, not a single Munitorum die had failed after 120 rolls (unlike several of my Chessex dice, which failed within 90 rolls), but several almost failed and a few seemed suspicious. I knew I would feel better if the dice had genuinely failed, so I decided to increase the number of rolls to see if they would fail.

The first die I tested was rolled 210 times; 75% more times than the first test. Lo and behold, not only did the die not fail, but it tested with a chi-square value of a mere 0.74 (0 is perfectly balanced and 11.07 means that it's statistically probable that the die is imbalanced). I calculated the P-value as being 98.1% or, in other words, that 98.1% of all balanced dice would give results that deviated from the theoretical value more than that particular die. Finding that a die I had removed from my collection was actually one of the most balanced ones started a spree of re-testing.

I gave the second die 300 rolls in an attempt to make it fail. Although its chi-square value was relatively high compared to that of other dice I've kept, I had more confidence that the apparent imbalance really could be a coincidence.

The third and fourth dice received 510 and 600 rolls respectively (I was really trying to see if those two would fail). According to the blog that first gave me the idea to test my dice, a test of 500 rolls has a nearly 100% chance of detecting an imbalanced die. Although the two dice tended to roll ones and twos a bit more than I'd like, the fact that neither actually failed the test indicated that they are at least mostly balanced.

The fifth die was rolled 300 times. Its chi-square value was low enough that I decided to stop.

It was the sixth die that was the odd one. After showing that five out of the six dice I had rejected as imbalanced were actually fine and just needed a significant number of rolls to prove it, I figured that the sixth one would be just like its companions. It took 510 rolls to do it, but the sixth die actually failed the test. For whatever reason, four showed up 114 times versus the expected 85. Contrary to every obsessive compulsive instinct in my brain, I decided to keep the die. The four seemed to show up to the detriment of the three and the five which, for a Marine player, usually makes little difference.

The best part of this is that I have more confidence that the soon to be released black and white Munitorum dice will be properly balanced.

[Update 7/29/12: Tonight's game using the full set of 12 Munitorum dice went very well. The dice seemed to roll fairly and even made a few memorable snap shots. I very nearly damaged/brought down a Voidraven Bomber with a plasma pistol shot, but the penetration roll was just short of glancing the armor.]

6th Edition Rulebook: Gamer's Edition Review

It took long enough, but my Gamer's Edition rulebook set finally arrived this past Saturday. The set contains a standard 6th Edition rulebook, a satchel for carrying it, and Gamer's Edition-only red Munitorum dice in a lasgun power pack tin. GW will be releasing more Munitorum dice in an identical tin, but these will be white with black markings; the red dice are exclusive to this edition. GW is also supposed to release Battlefield Objectives and Vehicle Markers in lasgun power pack tins, but these have all been delayed until the end of this month.

6th Edition Rulebook
I won't be reviewing the rules here (although I like a lot of the changes). However, let me say that the book is beautiful. It's full color and is filled with photos and artwork. I know that a lot of people balked at the $75 price, but having bought dozens of cheaply bound and less interesting text books for $100+ each in college, I feel like I'm getting a bargain.

Satchel
The leatherette satchel was the primary reason why I bought the Gamer's Edition since I've been carrying my books and other tools in a cardboard box for over a year. The embossing on the side declares it to be an Imperial Guard officer's signal satchel originating from Cadia. You can attach either an Imperial Aquila or the Chaos Star to the flap, both of which are heavy metal pins.

The primary pocket is ideally sized for the new rulebook and the secondary pocket is large enough to hold two to three codices with room to spare for templates. However, I'm guessing that the bag was designed with hardcover codices in mind, so I may have a lot less room in a couple years. Finally, there are three small pockets designed to hold the lasgun power pack dice tins (presumably one tin each for the Munitorum dice, Battlefield Objectives, and Vehicle Markers). I think the upcoming dice and tins are supposed to be limited edition, so I'm definitely going to have to order at least two more tins as soon as they're available to fill the remaining two pockets.

It's a shame that the Gamer's Edition and its satchel were so limited that they sold out of them within about four days. I think a lot more gamers would have bought the satchel over time if they had made more of them.

Munitorum Dice and Tin
Finally, there are twelve red Munitorum dice in the tin along with six servo skull dice holders. As I mentioned earlier, the tin is labeled as a lasgun power pack and has some fun fluff printed on it. It's listed as having a range rating of "19 megathule" but with the caveat to "Confirm compatibility with techpriest prior to using this power pack". While the satchel is from Cadia, the power pack says it's from Armageddon. The tin is easily large enough to hold all twelve dice and the six dice holders that come with it, while leaving some extra room. I'll probably fill one tin with Vehicle Markers, Battlefield Objectives, and as many holders as will fit, another with just Munitorum dice and some holders, and a third with my Chessex dice.

The dice holders are styled as tiny servo skulls that are just large enough to hold a single die. At first I thought the dice holders were a silly idea, then I realized that I accidentally snatch up counting dice at least once per game and my opponent and I then have to try to remember how many wounds are left, how many turns have passed, etc. Since we now have to keep track of vehicles' hull points in addition to everything else, I can see the need for the holders even more now.

And that brings us down to the Munitorum dice. The dice look great, with embossed gears, nuclear trefoils, hoses, and servo skulls behind the highly stylized numerals used in the 40K universe. But oh, how I wish I could say that the square corners and lack of indented pips make them well balanced. (I've discussed imbalanced dice here and here.) I was immediately suspicious when I opened the package and noticed how light the dice are. With square edges that reduce irregular rolling and without the deep pips that can affect a die's center of gravity, the only other major factor that can ruin a die's balance is porosity or internal bubbles. Lighter dice seem to suffer from such defects more often.

Since there were only 12 dice, I performed a chi-square test using 120 rolls per die instead of my usual 90. By increasing the number of rolls by 1/3, the chi-square test becomes a lot more sensitive and is better able to detect unbalanced dice. Although none of the dice failed, three very nearly failed the test and three more were suspiciously skewed. Interestingly, the six dice that appeared to be mostly balanced scored a lot better than most of the Chessex dice that tested relatively well. And since it's also possible that some Chessex dice that passed the test at 90 rolls would fail at 120, it's likely that the Munitorum dice are more fair than the much cheaper dice.

As for the apparently unbalanced Munitorum dice, whatever small manufacturing defect is present in them caused most to preferentially roll twos or fives. One die rolled a five 31 times out of 120; the expected number was 20. This behavior is different than what I've seen in Chessex dice, which tend to roll ones and twos when they're unbalanced. In the end, I removed six out of the 12 limited edition dice from my collection.

Oh well, when life gives you lemons, and all. The dice really are nice, I do need to be able to keep track a lot of things under 6th Edition, and I have six dice holders, so I'm going to mark the unbalanced dice and use them solely as counting dice. As farfetched as it may seem, I'm hoping that the delayed release of the other Munitorum dice is due to the discovery of balance issues and that the next release of dice will roll fairly. Being the sucker that I am, I will of course be buying the new dice and testing them too.

[Update 7/15/12: See my later post where I find that even a 120 roll test can be misleading.]

Spending More Money

I've neglected to cover the past couple Cabal games or to even discuss my recent modeling efforts (including my experience with some of the new Citadel paints). However, I thought I'd mention another little purchase I made today:

That's right, I bought the Gamer's Edition of the new 40K rulebook. Officially it can be pre-ordered on June 23rd. Obviously they meant June 23rd in England since my calendar still says the 22nd.

The Gamer's Edition comes with 12 red Munitorum dice that are supposed to be unique to this set. I've already seen scans of the recent White Dwarf showing that similar bone-white dice will be available on June 30th. Although the only limited aspect of these dice is their color, I had intended to buy 24 dice anyway, so I might as well have half of them in limited edition red and the other half in off-white. The dice are square edged and have printed numbers instead of indented pips. Those who have performed chi-square tests on GW and/or Chessex dice with round edges and compared the results to tests on square edged dice have found that the latter are a lot more balanced. Obviously I'll be testing that claim myself.

What really sold me on this edition was the nifty satchel. It's designed to carry the rulebook in the main pouch and has a second pouch to hold codices and templates. Three small pouches immediately under the satchel's flap are sized for the lasgun power pack-shaped tins that hold the Munitorum dice. I've gotten tired of lugging my books, dice, and templates around in a clumsy little box and liked the idea of a themed bag.