This Week in 40K Podcasting: 7/06/2012 – 7/12/2012

Welcome to another “This Week in 40K Podcasting,”  Here is this week’s top 5!

The 11th Company – Episode 125

Highlights:  This week’s show is a monster 4+ hour rules laden show!  The guys are joined by Breng77, Eric from Tactical Terrain, and Allen ‘Blackmoor’ Hernandez to discuss more 6^thEdition in ‘part two’ of their review.  They open up the show with ‘This Week in Gaming’ where they talk about the latest games they have been playing lately in 6^th.  This included some great conversation on some rules questions that have come up so far into their games.  Next, in ‘Pat’s Corner’, Pat has an interview with Nick Rose and they talk about his first impressions of 6^thEdition and some of the more interesting effects of the new rules on his new army for 6th.  Pat then talked to Tim Trammel who is currently ranked #22 on RankingsHQ, and they discuss the Dark Angels in 6^th Edition and how they will perform.  Pat also talked to AbusePuppy from Blood of Kittens about how Tyranids have improved in 6^th Edition, and they also hit on some changes to the Blood Angels army.  In the community segment, Pat talked to Mark and Ken from the Ohiohammer: Second Founding podcast, James Hakola from Mr.Dandy.com, and Dave from the ‘Brawl in the Hall’ 40K event.  In the final segment of the show, the panel of hosts and guest discuss more 6^th Edition.  They started off with the Moral rules and how significant the changes to these rules really were and how they impact the game tactically. They then move on to discuss the changes made to the Universal Special Rules, and some of these changes are rather large and game changing, such as Acute Senses, Fearless, Feel No Pain, Force Weapons, Hammer of Wraith and all of the rules lawyering over these changes.  They also focus on Infiltrate, Interceptor, Jink, and Independent Characters. 

Opinion:  Overall the 11^th Company’s coverage of 6^th Edition has been the most comprehensive I have heard so far, covering every angle, nook, cranny, and tweak of the new edition of the game, and I love every minute of it.  They are just some things that have come up in games so far that I felt prepared for thanks to their review, I highly recommend this one to anyone! 

The Overlords – Episode 104 ***Explicit***

Highlights:  This week the Overlords also check in with a 4+ hour monster of a 6^th Edition show!  They open up the show with some non-6^th Edition related news which included releases from the Black Library, Forgeworld, and more.  They move on to discuss some local news before the big review of the 6^thEdition of 40K!  They open up the discussion with the book itself and their first impression of the rules.  They all point out things they liked and that made more sense in their heads now with these new rules.  The boys then move on to a point-by-point review of the rules, starting with the Movement phase and the rules that have changed there.  They move on to the Shooting Phase, opening up with a discussion about the change to Rapid Fire and moving on to Snap Fire, Wound Allocation, ‘Look Out, Sir!’ and Focus Fire.  They then break down the individual unit types, Bikes, Jet Bikes, Jump Troops, and so on.  They then move on to a conversation about the Universal Special Rules and some of the changes made there.  Next, it was on to the Assault Phase, where the boys discussed Random Charge length, Hammer of Wraith, Wound Allocation, Multi-Assaulting, the sub-phases of the assault, Challenges and much more!  They then do a quick rundown of more USRs, and discuss the changes to Feel No Pain, Fleet, and much more.  They then go in-depth with vehicles and all of the rules that have been added or changed with them, including movement, shooting and more.  This included the rules for Flyers, Chariots, Transports, and Skimmers.  They then cover the new rules for Psykers and psychic powers, Allies and all of that fun, and the new Fortifications.    

Opinion:  This week’s show was by far one of my favorite with a pretty great outline of the new rules and the guys were genuinely excited by the possibilities of the new edition.  I appreciated hearing their take and their opinions on the game, and I am looking forward to hearing the rest of their review.  A great 6^thEdition review, so check this one out!

The Independent Characters – Episode 54

Highlights:  This week the ICs are doing part two of their series on Competitive 40K and some 6^thEdition discussion.  They open up the show with the ‘Work Bench’ where they talk about the hobby progress they have accomplished and the game they have been playing.  This included their early games of 6^thEdition and some of the things they are learning early on.  They move on to their feeling of the book, its layout and construction, and some of the accessories that came with the launch. In the main segment of the show, the guys continued on with their conversation about competitiveness in 40K.  They open up by laying out some of the general issues in the competitive circuit right now, including a new edition to the game.  They talk about the ‘NetListing’ or ‘List-hammer’, the concept that the list and construction of a list is the primary focus to a winning formula, and the most common, competitive builds of armies.  Next, they discuss the concept of Math-Hammer, the process of reducing a unit down to a mathematical probability equation as opposed to on the table performance.  They also hit one the ideas of SPAM, MSU, and unit efficiency.  In the second segment of this topic, they guys reviewed the tendencies of tournament players to reduce the improbability in their lists, and eliminating the randomness to their army.  They hit on the controversial topic GW pulling away from the tournament circuit and not supporting the tournament scene at this time.  They close out the show with another ‘Forgotten Lore’ segment, where this time the guys review the Black Library book The Emperor’s Gift by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Opinion:  This was a good show to get the 6^th Edition sensory overload out of my system with.  While the guys did not ignore the 600 pound elephant in the room, this show was more glanced over with 6^thedition rules rather than being solely bound to it.  With every podcast out there talking about 6^th, a little something different on a great topic of Competitive 40K was nice to listen to.  Thanks guys, I really enjoyed this one!

Preferred Enemies – Episode 32 ***Explicit***

Highlights:  This week the guys are talking all about Warhammer 40K 6^th Edition!  This is a joint podcast with their parent podcast and the boys open up the show with some of the fun they had getting the rulebooks from GW.  They move on to give their review of the rulebook itself, including the full color pages, the bindings, the outstanding artwork, and all of the massive amount of models found in this book.  They then move on to discuss the new rules, starting off with some of the major changes including pre-measuring, snap fire, 5+ cover saves, wound allocations and much more.  They move on to discuss the assault phase and all of the interesting changes made here, which included random charges, Overwatch, the pile-ins, and the changes to the Moral rules.  They then moved on to talk about the changes to the Universal Special Rules, including Fleet, Rage, Nighfighting, Skyfire, Jump/Jet Pack units and much more.  They then move on to discuss the changes to the weapons of 40K, mostly the close combat weapons now having an AP value and throwing grenades!  They then moved on to talk about the impact of Characters on the game now and Psychic powers.  This rolled into a detailed conversation on the changes to vehicles in 6^th Edition, including scoring, Hull Points, and the new Chariot vehicle!  They then move on to talk about the new Allies, Fortifications, and additional Force Organization Charts at 2000 points and above.  They also discuss the new missions and the new deployments and some of the interesting changes that have come, including reserves, assaulting out of reserves, flyers, and much more!  The guys close out the show with their overall opinion of the new game early on and what they really are looking forward to in the future. 

Opinion:  As with a lot of the podcasts this week, 6^th Edition is the main topic of conversation.  The PEs did a pretty good job reviewing this new rule set, hitting on the most common rule changes and new rules introduced in this new edition.  Having never listened to their parent podcast (sorry guys, not enough 40K) it was really a treat to hear from the combined staff and here some of their well thought out responses to the new rules.  Great work gang!

The Heroic 28s – Episode 34 ***Explicit***

Highlights:  The boys are back after an extended time off!  The boys open up the show with a very brief review of this year’s Railhead Rumble.  They then discussed their work at this year’s WarGamesCon, which included their video coverage of the event and some games played there.  This moved on to what they have been up too lately in gaming and the hobby, covering quite a span of time.  In the next segment, the boys start talking 6^th Edition!  They do a side-by-side comparison of what changed from 5^th to 6^th and what they liked and did not liked in those changes, which included the missions, deployment, mysterious terrain, cover saves and more.  They then move on to talk about what armies and builds they think will perform well early on in 6^thedition, this included all foot lists and lists using transports to get across the board quickly.  They then talk about some of the new rules and rule changes that they thought were most interesting, such as Snap Shot and Overwatch, the new Physic Rapid Fire, Feel No Pain, Monstrous Creatures and Skyfire and Flyers.  They move on to focus on the assault phase and how they believe it received a massive nerf in 6^th Edition.  They also discuss multi-wound characters and grenades on monstrous creatures.  They close out the show with some bonus content that they had recorded at the Railhead Rumble, which was mostly just a lot of fun. 

Opinion:  Man is it good to have the 28s back!  Missed you guys!  This week’s show, as you might have guessed, is almost completely dedicated to 6^th Edition!  I did like hearing about their experience at WarGamesCon and how that all turned out.  They then go into a pretty good review of most of the rules of 6^th; this one was done as a brief review, so I suspect a more comprehensive review is coming next.  And the bonus content recorded at the Railhead was a lot of fun to listen too.  Great work guys! 

Honorable Mentions – All great podcasts that just missed this cut this week, but you should still check them out, in no particular order:

Signals from the Frontline ***Explicit*** Heavy Gear and more on 6^th Edition

The Eternal Warriors – Episode 42 ***Explicit*** 6^th Edition 40K, a really intuitive review!  Great work guys! 

Battle Plan Roll 6s – Episode 9 Welcome back guys, Goodbye to 5^th Edition and their 6th Edition thoughts

Ohiohammer: Second Founding – Episode 8 Top 10 Favorite Models

Jaded Gamercast – 84 ***Explicit*** Jon Wong and more 6^th Edition

The Screaming Heretics – Episode 29  ***Explicit*** ‘Kiss My CSM List’, 6^th Edition, and teaching old dogs new