City Stratagems

Nick speaking,

It's been a long time since I picked up White Dwarf from my front door mat, with any excitement that there maybe something of interest in it, that I don't already know about! Imagine my delighted surprise when I opened issue 379, and saw some brand new Cities of Death stuff!

In reality, I am sure it is nothing more than GW noticing that Cities sales have died a bit, and need a boost, but as it has come out at the same time that I have been thinking about getting my Cities board out for a few games, I was actually quite excited about this issue!

Dubbed as 'Official', it introduces some dedicated new Stratagems for each of the 'major' armies, along with four brand new missions, which is a nice added bonus for anyone who has played the current missions to death, and need a change. This brings me nicely onto the real reason for this post, something that I had already planned for before the Cities WD came out...

What Stratagems are the best? Even though they are 'free', which ones should I take? Is there some sort of mathammer way to decide?

Until this day, my buddy still uses the very same Stratagems he used when we first started playing CoD. With Medicae (FNP) and Booby Traps (S8 AP2 hits) being his favourites. I notice he pretty much takes them without thinking about it, as if it is easier to have the same old, than take something new, or are they the best? When I first started playing, I always chose Barricades, Razor wire and Tank Traps! Not because they were the best, but because I had spent so much time making my terrain, I wanted it to be used, especially as I had made a broken Blood Angels bike barricade to put out when my buddies BA's came to town...

I soon realised that Obstacle Stratagems, along with Deployment and Armoury Stratagems, weren't really worth taking for my armies, and I ended up with four standard Stratagems that I choose between. My favourites being, Fortifications (+1 cover for every unit in a building), Ammunition Stores (re-roll to hit for one unit), Power Generator (re-roll to wound for one unit) and of course Medicae for the (feel no pain)

So will the new Stratagems offer me more choices for my armies? I won't list down all the description of the Stratagems, but here is what I am thinking...

Eldar: Holo-Emitters
Having the ability to redeploy and swap units about, is a great dirty trick, and matches in with the current Eldrad Devination power. I like this one, but it is something that will need to be planned out rather than randomly taking it. I think I will give it a try.

Necrons: Flayed One Haunt
Lets just say, when the new Codex hits, and we can take Flayed Ones as troops, I will have a closer look at it, but until then, Flayed Ones are off my radar.

Tyranids: Gargoyle Eyrie
Maybe if you are a Gargoyle fan then great, but personally, I just have to ask, WHY?

Space Wolves/Space Marines: The Noble Hero
Of course GW won't let us down with the Marines, any Marine within 6" of the building get to re-roll all failed rolls to hit!

So there you have it, I may play the Eldar one, but it only helps once at the beginning of the game, unlike the nice Space Marine one that last for the whole game, and can effect your whole army!

So what do you think? Stratagems! Do you like them? Do you plan what ones you will take before a game or do you randomly pick them? What do you think of the new Stratagems and should Stratagems be introduced into normal 40k games?