The Grotmas Advent Calendar (2024)

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**BorderCountess**

Insularum wrote:
Crons are up, Deathwatch index is tomorrow.

Crons looking strong - like a vehicle spam focused version of awakened dynasty.

Yeah, that detachment screams [INSERT SILENT KING HERE] since he's not Titanic.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
cuda1179 wrote:
So how lazy is Deathwatch going to be? Un-Legending the lost units?

It's going to be some photocopied pages from the 9th Edition Codex, covered in post it notes and black marks.

Wow - it's even worse than that.

The ONLY Firstborn units that are available are Deathwatch Veterans and Kill Team Cassius - and KT Cassius ONLY in a non-tournament setting since they're still Legends. And since all the other Firstborn kill teams units are Agents of the Imperium, they can't even be included in non-tournament settings.

**BorderCountess**

The Assassination Force detachment seems REALLY fun, and might well be better than anything in the actual Codex!

**BorderCountess**

StudentOfEtherium wrote:
Custodes detachment is neat, but i don't have enough dreadnoughts to make good use of it. certainly appreciate it existing, at least

Now I have to figure out if I can wiggle this into Crusade.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
Now this is a Custodes Warlord:

Telemon Heavy Dreadnought
2x Telemon Caestus
Character
Warlord
Augury Uplink

Plus the detachment rule, this would be awesomeness personified.

I'm already thinking about whether or not to do it for our upcoming Crusade league.

March of the Dreadnoughts, anyone?

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
BorderCountess wrote:
Lathe Biosas wrote:
Now this is a Custodes Warlord:

Telemon Heavy Dreadnought
2x Telemon Caestus
Character
Warlord
Augury Uplink

Plus the detachment rule, this would be awesomeness personified.

I'm already thinking about whether or not to do it for our upcoming Crusade league.

Please. I'd love to know how this works...

Our league organizer ruled that I could give a Dreadnought an enhancement, but unless I'm running the Solar Spearhead the enhancement is 'turned off'.

And I also came up with the same all-bot list as Goonhammer.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/9sn7qfxn/grotmas-calendar-day-9-silent-knights-unholy-knights

Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights...

Is this worth losing FNP for allies?

It's probably a great deal for Chaos Knights, since the default detachment ability just makes anyone below starting strength test for Battleshock.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
Are you going to build a list around the grotmas changes?

Death Guard: No - I am comically anti-Nurgle.
Dark Angels: Maybe? I own enough models to give it a whirl, though many of them aren't built yet.
Tyranids: Probably not - It's wholly reliant upon Warriors, and I don't have nearly enough to make it worthwhile.
Thousand Sons: I'll give it a whirl - it doesn't require anything different from the existing detachment.
AdMech: No - I'm not going start AdMech. Though I'll consider Dark Mech if they make it to 40k.
Necrons: I'll give it a whirl.
Deathwatch: No.
Custodes: I am so tempted to try March of the Dreadnoughts, but it would be SO expensive!
Agents: Abso-fething-lutely!
Imperial Knights: No - see AdMech.
Chaos Knights: I already have all the cultists I need, so I'm gonna try it.

**BorderCountess**

Wyldhunt wrote:
ccs wrote:
Lathe Biosas wrote:
Do we have any Grey Knight players?

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/pmqh3irb/grotmas-calendar-day-10-tis-the-season-for-a-sanctified-killzone

Regular ol Space Marines arines tomorrow.

Hmm.
That detachment looks slightly more usefull than my current one.
I think I'll give it a try the next time the GK take the field.

Opinion from GK players elsewhere seems to be that it's not terrible but also not as good as the index. The index has Armor of Contempt and that Mists strat that lets you scoop a unit up to avoid being shot at. This one gives you a little more offense, but you give up some defense and mobility for it.

But, crucially, the new one encourages infantry over baby carriers.

**BorderCountess**

PenitentJake wrote:
Oh no.

I regularly whine about marines getting everything.

I regularly whine about the removal of chosen psychic powers from 10th.

Now GW decides to fix the lack of chosen powers... But only for marines.

melon-fether!

::Makes the Sign of the Nine::

Just as planned...

**BorderCountess**

I can't wait to use it myself!

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
Anyone else look at the Grotmas Balance Datasheets...

Looks like the Sisters got coal for Grotmas.

But Armigers got a 10 point reduction and an Allied Vindicare Assassin dropped to 100 points, so I'm happy.

At a tournament I was at this past weekend, a group of us were discussing how powerful Miracle dice were, as well as the Bringers of Flame - which was my Round 3 game. This feels timely.

The allied Vindicare is 125 - it had been 150.

And... ::slow clap:: ...for increasing the points on a unit they don't even sell models for. Peak GW.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
BorderCountess wrote:

And... ::slow clap:: ...for increasing the points on a unit they don't even sell models for. Peak GW.

To paraphrase Jack Skelington..."What unit is this?"

The Grotesques. GW's only ever made one model for them: they were ugly and Finecast, so nobody bought them. They're no longer on sale, and they're right at the top of the list of things that need a new kit with their codex.

**BorderCountess**

sambojin wrote:
What would the Dakka community think if the Thousand Sons detachment had one small but useful sentence added to their detachment rule?

"Prosperine Kopeshes and Tzaangor Blades count as [Psychic] attacks in this detachment."

Would that work for you? It gives the detachment an obvious identity (not CoM-lite), allows for a few cool uses for underused units (Scarabs and Tzaangor), but doesn't really overpower them because the detachment rule is still pretty bad.

Would a unit of S6/S7 Termies or Tzaangor help too much, or not enough? Reroll 1's or +1 to-wound in melee isn't that big on either, but it's a nice chipper boost. It's not saying "don't take Magnus", but after you take 1-2 units of either Scarabs or Chickens, you'd be hard pressed into having the points too. And less cabal points and shooting psychic for the effort.
(And honestly, even at peak performance, they're like 300+pt Powerfist side-grades on Termies, or 1 200+pt medium melee unit with good OC)

We already do a bit of melee, but this does other melee, and other OC. Yeah, there's Mutas, but they don't do psychic.

Would that one sentence addition change it into an ok'ish detachment? Just a different way that you can play your army, with not-very-used troops (that aren't bad, they're just not good at anything for the points, even with the MFM update). So, a potential second style of play might be handy, rather than CoM "now only three-quarters as good" edition.

It's like they didn't know we didn't have that many psychic attacks (just heaps of rules that make it feel like we did). But if we could have a few more in this detachment (melee, but we don't have that other than Magnus or DPs usually), would that work for you?

It just "feels" a lot better, with that sentence. And adds a tonne of build options, that you never would have taken before. Almost like it's TSons "could try and do melee/ OC" edition, which is a good thing I think.

Thousand Sons aren't - and aren't intended to be - a close combat army. Khopeshes are pretty good against anything that is smaller than a Terminator/Gravis model, and Magnus can pretty much ruin anyone's day. Where the Sons excel is in close-range firefights, and I'm not sure there's anything that can really be done to make them a combat army. That just not What They Do.

The disappointment with this new detachment is that it really doesn't offer up anything different than what we already have, or put the focus on different units.

**BorderCountess**

VladimirHerzog wrote:
Dysartes wrote:
VladimirHerzog wrote:
Dysartes wrote:
Interesting - ended up with one Eldar and one Dark Eldar detachment, not two Eldar ones.

Theyre both Aeldari

And I didn't see anyone suggesting the Dark Eldar would get anything until they did, so ye can drop the snark.

You're seeing snark where there isn't...

Asuryani is the Eldar society
Drukhari is the Dark Eldar society
Aeldari is the encompassing name.

But to be fair, Codex: Aeldari doesn't include the Dark Eldar.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
JNAProductions wrote:
Heck yeah! Daemons!

What do you think they are going to play like?

If they are indeed making these detachments future-proof, then I'll bet none of them interact with Shadow of Chaos.

**BorderCountess**

The Tzeentch detachment is awesomely hilarious and I can't wait to give it a whirl! I think my top 5 so far are:

1) Tzeentchian Hilarity
2) Drukhari vs. Harlequins
3) Chaos Knights with Cultists
4) Blood Ravens
5) March of the Dreadnoughts (Custodes)

**BorderCountess**

There are six days left, and we know tomorrow is Sisters.

Also missing:
-Blood Angels
-World Eaters
-T'au
-Black Templars.

That leaves one more. I'm fairly certain they're planning to drop news regarding the Emperor's Children on Christmas Day, so I'm not sure that's it.

Maybe someone is getting a second go?

**BorderCountess**

Dysartes wrote:

Don't forget the Space Wolves, BorderCountess - I don't see them on the list yet.

I wish I could forget them...

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
We're almost finished with our holiday list, only the Templar, World Eaters, and Space Wolves remain.

The question is, which of these were presents, and which were lumps of coal in your stockings?

Exactly What I Wanted for Grotmas:
DEC 9 Chaos Knights
DEC 11 Blood Ravens
DEC 13 Dark Eldar
DEC 16 Chaos Daemons - Tzeentch

Presents:
DEC 1 Death Guard
DEC 2 Dark Angels
DEC 6 Necrons
DEC 8 Adeptus Custodes
DEC 8 Officio Assassinorum
DEC 9 Imperial Knights
DEC 10 Grey Knights
DEC 12 Chaos Space Marines (Bile)
DEC 14 Orks
DEC 18 Genestealer Cults
DEC 20 Blood Angels
DEC 21 Tau
DEC 22 Black Templar

Neutral:
DEC 5 Adeptus Mechanicus
DEC 7 Deathwatch
DEC 15 Imperial Guard
DEC 16 Chaos Daemons - Khorne
DEC 16 Chaos Daemons - Slaanesh
DEC 17 Leagues of Votann
DEC 19 Sisters of Battle - This would be a present two weeks ago...

Coal:
DEC 3 Tyranids - Too focused on a single unit.
DEC 4 Thousand Sons - Not a fan of 'zone of control' rules, and doesn't really distinguish itself from the existing detachment.
DEC 13 Eldar - The focus on vehicles is certainly a choice...

"I hope you kept the receipt":
DEC 16 Chaos Daemons - Nurgle
DEC 23 World Eaters - They're the most boring faction in the game, in my opinion.
DEC 24 Butchers of Prospero (Space Wolves)

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
Lord Damocles wrote:
Oh good. The World Eaters' detachment makes the one dimensional melee dudes better at melee. Daring today, aren't we.

There's not much you can do with that army...

As much fun as a shooty WE force would be, I can't see any other types of Detachments for these guys.

The only faction in all of Warhmmer that's more boring than the World Eaters is Age of Sigmar's Blades of Khorne. At least the World Eaters have access to tanks and Daemon Engines.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
Overall, do you consider these detachments to be more flavor, or more competitive... or a even mix of both?

I think most of these are about adding fun and flavor, and mostly they succeeded (see: Thousand Sons as a counter-point). Making a Librarian-focused detachment for Marines, adding new ways to ally, the Bile-themed CSM detachment... and especially what they did with Daemons. They added more FUN to the game, which I think it needed. I'm okay with releasing a month's worth of content that isn't focused on the hyper-competitive meta, for once.

They should do this more often.

**BorderCountess**

xeen wrote:
Now that it is over, the start of my work day is depressing without new 40k detachments lol

Agreed. This was a strange highlight of my day for the last month.

**BorderCountess**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
BorderCountess wrote:
xeen wrote:
Now that it is over, the start of my work day is depressing without new 40k detachments lol

Agreed. This was a strange highlight of my day for the last month.

Wait— I thought you were visiting this thread for my sparkling personality and not just for the 40k detachments! Guess I’ll have to step up my game!

We'll have to find something else cool to look forward to in January, and ideas?

The real gift is the friends we made along the way.

Noise Marines, hopefully. I want to add a unit to my collection.