An Open Letter of Apology

This is a letter that I feel inclined to write given recent games, and one that I think perhaps is expected from my opponents as penance for recent games.


Dear Wraithknight,

I must admit that when you first appeared, Games Workshop failed to do you justice visually with their photoshoots, and lets be honest, when you rock up at £70 there will be a heavy weight of expectation on every level. But after giving you a coat of paint, you are obviously one of the most impressive models (You are too big to be a miniature, I'm sorry) that is on the market at the moment.

The second problem was that you were following the Riptide, which I still believe is the best unit in the game, and was the first of the mini-titans. Let's be honest here, that thing is tough, not numerically tough like you, but with a 2+/5++ standard compared to your 3+, it's going to be hard to put wounds on it, whereas you can have wounds stripped off you by those high strength, high AP weapons. Let's face it, that armour save is only there to make it more difficult for 'lucky shots' to hurt you.

But back to that Riptide, and sure, it's the Swiss Army Knife of units, need it to take care of Flyers? Sure thing boss. Splat some blob squads? Can do. Breach some armour? Got it. There is nothing it can't take care of, and it was the standard by which you were held. But after playing a few games, I realised that that was unfair. I was the problem, not you.

I mean for starters, completely standard you hit like a truck. Sure, I would like the option to fire the Scatter Lasers, then the Heavy Wraithcannons (You're piloted by two minds, surely you can do that?), but S10 AP2 is nothing to be sneezed at. Heck, putting distort on it too makes it like some ironic joke Phil Kelly was having. You see, it took a while to open my eyes, but all that weaponry that can hurt you easily? It's expensive, and usually on some kind of mobile armoured platform. S10 weapon, meet Armour 12. It's simple really, the problem wasn't you being shot at, it was me not telling you to shoot the damn things first. If there's nothing on the table that can punch through your high toughness, we can be a little more reckless.

It's that realisation that changed our relationship, sure, the Riptide is a Jack of all Trades, but you are the surgical knife. You remove specific units from the tabletop to allow the rest of the army to move with more freedom. Let's not forget the one thing that you can do that the Riptide can never do in a million games. You are a big gun, some days, you do not tire. Try shifting you from an objective sometime once you've sat on it.

I'm never going to change the way I make judgement calls, but I am man enough to admit that I am wrong.

Wraithknight, I was wrong, you are credit to team. Now to find the key to unlocking the potential of your other two brothers.

P.S. I found a picture of your party trick from the last few games: