INTO the EYE  An investigation into the deepest and darkest nooks of the GW Universe By Mike Brandon [December 2006] Welcome to the eighth volume of ‘Into the Eye’, a look into the finer parts of the GW hobby.  Escalation of Conflict....or “If your having a Psyker i'm having one” There is a strain of thinking surrounding 40k (and Warhammer) that brings out the very worst in unoriginality. Its the copycat syndrome, the fighting fire with fire rather than finding a new angle to throw that pail of water. Let me outline a few scenario's. It's a Monday night, the game is on and your opponent deploys a Level 4 Psyker. You spend the game being so conscious of this that your plan collapses and the Psyker runs amok devastating your troops. A week later.....You have your very own master Psyker, word then gets around from someone else watching the battle and soon every game has a Warp Flux of 4D6 and infantry and armour is sidetracked in devastating Psyker battles. Tactics and most certainly fun goes out the window with the lightning blasts and soon players try and deviate by tooling up hundreds of points worth of anti-psyker measures. And thus every battle is forever doomed and eventually people lose interest and can even quit the hobby...yikes! Another scenario, is armour, and this is something OGC has suffered and I for one have been guilty of. Whilst mobilising lots of armour isn't quite as soul destroying as character conflicts, and can even be cool sometimes, every battle should not be a re-run of Kursk. They've got tanks, so I need tanks, they've taken some tanks so I need more....where does it end? Well, the % cap on the support section, but it still means that large parts of the army has been dedicated to the unimaginative rumblers.  These 'escalations of conflicts' or 'copycat syndromes' are a sure sign of a group losing its innovation streak and in the case of the Psyker example it can be very detrimental to the gaming group, especially for more casual players. So here's the point, innovate. In the case of tanks a better battlefield can help, but to really counter the potential of extreme escalations find ways around it. Against Psykers the best defence can be no Psyker at all, keep the Warp Flux low, and if the enemy compensates with more Psykers they are going to be weaker and thus easier to destroy. Note a low level psyker with a psychic hood can easily still perpetuate the situation as everyone will end up with one. Also they may be deliberately protected which can tie up squads on protection duty and thus if you stick to a slid plan, the enemy is going to be under supported to stick to theirs. There are also many ways of taking out a single character, you can pound the area to oblivion and if so many points have been invested in one model, your enemy is likely to be stuck as to what to do if it falls. You can thus remove the 'beard' prevent any escalation and encourage more tactical and fun games where Psykers play a supporting role rather than being engines of apocalypse.  Against heavy tank forces, sticking to terrain is key, you can take them out the game this way and seriously frustrate your opponent. Some anti-tanktics can help too, melta bombs, close assaults with high penetration weapons, can force your opponent to take tank shields which further wastes valuable troops and compromises strategy. Its not that taking tanks and other support vehicles is wrong, but they are support, and as such the infantry are where the fun is and they should be getting the job done (perhaps not the case with Imperial Guard but infantry can play a bigger role than usual if the beard is sliced). The calling here is that allowing armies to get out of hand can make your games more boring, and can put off more casual players. Experienced players have the tools to try out new things and breathe fun back in if ever your gaming group is stagnating, so give it a try! It'll make games more fun, more tactical and attract more players! 'Tis the Season to play lots of games Ahhh Christmas, time off, and everywhere is closed....so why not get people together and have a gaming Christmas party. We run something each year and its always good fun so get people together on those intermediate days between Christmas and New year and have a laugh, you might not get to do it for another 12 months! Strange Visions New creatures for the battlefields of Warhammer and 40k Sandy Claws This month, Jack Skellington's [the Nightmare Before Christmas] aspirations are realised in the Warhammer world as he flies about delivering 'presents' to the battlefields of 40k and Fantasy. Between December 1st and 25th, players roll 2d6 at the beginning of each turn,. On a roll of Snake eyes, Sandy Claws arrives! Troop Type M WS BS S T W  I  A LD Save Points Sandy Claws 4 5 5 4 4 3 5 3 10 - 80 Weapons – Claws and goodwill. He rides his undead sleigh (see below) Armour – Sandy suit (6+ save) Special – Jack (Sandy) is undead, and is thus immune to psychology. As the Pumpkin King he also causes terror and has regenerate (4+ save to regenerate a lost wound).His attacks count as magical. Undead Sleigh – To represent Jacks sleigh place a marker in the centre table, it will move randomly using the scatter dice to represent direction and artillery to represent distance, which is doubled. A misfire should be re-rolled. Any units which the marker moves over receive a 'gift' from Halloween Town. Place the 2” template (or nearest size) to represent the gift, all models covered suffer a Strength 4 hit with -1 save, representing vampire bears, clockwork toy soldiers of death etc. The sleigh moves at the beginning of each players turn until it moves off the table or is shot down.  You can make a shooting attack (into the air) against the sleigh, the sleigh counts as having Toughness 6 and 4 wounds, with a 4+ unmodified save on account of a magical field which wards the sleigh from danger. If the sleigh is destroyed place Jack Skellington/Sandy Claws on the table 2D6” from the sleighs end point in a random direction. Sandy will move in a straight line towards the nearest table edge, if this collides Jack with an enemy model, then he counts as charging and will attack until the enemy is defeated and he can carry on his escape. Images from Games Workshop website and 'The nightmare Before Christmas'