M42 - something really interesting is occuring

Sandwyrm and Eriochrome have 

been doing something really interesting.

For those of you who work somewhere near technology, open source should be familiar.  Crowd surfing is also a common thread.  This is the idea that rather than ferreting away creations behind closed doors and with limited playtesters, you create your product in full view.

When this first started, I was intrigued and even offered myself up to help (I couldn't help, but I tried).  The idea is to create a new set of rules which are based around original material, formented from the experience of Flames of War, 40k, Hordes, etc etc and trying to distil down a game that brings back the balance and dynamic to 40k.

The only thing you need is a series of 'proxy' models, luckily a company called games workshop sells those.

I'm AM SO IMPRESSED with what these guys have done.  These guys were always stat hounds in playing 40k, and the thought processes into the game mechanics are stupendous.  Even more impressive as they are right up there, in the open.

It's like watching the growing portfolio of the worlds greatest game designer.

IF it was just the mechanics it would be enough, but these guys have really grabbed the bull by the horns and got to grips with producing some very impressive narrative.  In this their sensitivity is spot on, as it is the fluff that sells the concepts and 'sells' this version.

The level of detail is impressive.

It's like 40k and Flames had a lovechild and adopted it to hordes and Infinity.  It's very very clever stuff indeed.

So head over to "The M42 Project" and bask in the glow of their collective creativity and awesomeness...

Are Allies in 40k a good thing?

I haven't played a game in a while.  In fact I've only played a single 6th Edition game, something keeps putting me off... I've got the models, the dice, the latest codeci, I should be all over it, shouldn't I?

It's Allies.  I can't get my head around it, it just feels like cheating.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm a player who brought a superheavy tank full of Tau Broadsides to an APOC game and murdered everything... I'm happy to WAAC with the best of them.  But allies intimidates me.

It's so many options, so many flavours.  I can see the logic behind it.  After all, if everyone needs every codex and you can cherry pick cool units from other places.

Tau getting smacked - grab a Wolfpack of Terminators.

The problem is that (in line with my opinion on the meta of the 40k codex anyhow), complete freedom does not lead to a world of win... in fact it leads to predictable power play and only a handful of 'best builds'.

Necessity is the mother of invention, not complete freedom.

"Its like bringing a handgun to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors."

I find myself totally unspired to even start to begin to learn the new 'allies-meta'.  I'm imagining a whole trope of 'auto-take' and must have unit combos that grace the least fluffy of WAAC armies.  Necron add in's combined with Wolfpack gribblies and the occassional Ork Looter air defence.  In short, I find the freedom depressing.

I've always played armies with mixed records.  I own over 5000pts of Imperial Guard and don't own a single hydra, manticore or Vendetta/Valkyrie.  I work hard to make Rough Riders and Mortar teams really work.  I own Tyranids ... but the least said about that the better.

It strikes me that handy everyone access to those 'autowin' units that every codex has opened a pandora's box where any tactical acumen is sacrificed to the 'cool stuff' of the inspired codex.

40k has always fielded deathstar units, Mephistons etc aren't unusual.  They are useful as the Doom, Mephiston or an Eldar deathball forces the tactics away from the table and into a new paradigm.  Its like bringing a handgun to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.  Marneus is pulling down his trousers again, ready to shaft or shit on his own tactical codex.

So I'm uninspired.  Maybe I'm old and over the hill, but if I want to play 'titan-battles' I'd rather get into Hordes... 40k should have some tactics to it... shouldn't it?

Three things in Flames of War that GW should learn from... but could never do.

 "...like watching Marneus Calgar dump a turd on the Codex Astartes."

 World War 2, that's not really interesting ... is it?  Well, yes it is.  Its a conflict where technology advanced of a level we only now see in silicon valley.  Put simply, the tactics, technologies and capabilities of war were refined, devised and created in this fulcrum of change.

So why the defence ... well compared to 15+ variant armies of space bugs, little blue men, alien elves, corrupted monstrosities and EPIC HEROES, world war two seems a little drab.

That is until you play a game like Flames of War.  The devil is always in the detail, but flames do some things very very very cleverly.

The One to Watch

Well yes it is, despite GW being inhabited by a soulless horde of nefarious profiteers, laughing manically while ensuring that we all switch from autowin unit A to autowin unit Z, there are a few gamers still in there.  GW had overwatch in second edition, during the hey day of Space Hulk and Advanced Space Crusade... but it took a little Kiwi firm to make them think how to use it properly.

The Snap Fire or Overwatch rules which now pepper the oncoming horde with 6's to hit is a core skill in Flames of War.  As is the ability (say Tau) to combine fire and fire on charging units that are attacking troops near you.  It makes charging Heavy Machine guns completely pointless.

Unlike 40k you fire your weapons at full rates of fire and normal to hit ratings ... which makes things very deadly.  Also you only need five hits to deter a charge and send them skulking back.

Close Combat is VERY effective in FoW, but getting into combat is really risky.  Solution - suppression.  Putting 5 hits on an enemy unit means their RoF drops to (normally) 1 shot.  This turns suicide into easy peasy, and forces you to play suppression and combined arms ... its like tactics stupid.

Option One: I hit you!

The first thing that Flames does better than 40k is that the 'to hit' roll is based on the shootee's competence, not the shooters.  This is based on the assumption that despite an individuals ability, it is the ability to use cover, situational awareness and competence that dictates whether you are shot.  In flames shooting recruits or conscripts is easy, shooting veterans is an almighty pain in the arse. 

Despite there only being three variants - crap, average and stellar (actually conscript, trained and veteran) the ability feeds across all sections.  This means that a veteran unit is as hard to shoot out of cover (and even impossible to hit, unlike 40k a 6 doesn't ALWAYS HIT) with a conscript unit as a veteran unit.  This enduring durability gives you confidence in the unit, but also means you need a different set of tactics than the 'stone, scissors, paper' of 40k unit statistics.

Elite units are expensive and cannot afford losses, this actually limits their tactical freedom while increasing their capabilities, oooo balance - who'd have thought.

Option Two: No heroes.

Action Heroes are great, Action movies are awesome.  Action movies are also the biggest pile of shite going.  Rewatch 'Commando', 'Predator' or Rambo movies with a tactical head on and realise that the 'hero' is actually going to die within half a minute in the real world.  The sort of monsters and heroes available in 40k is like watching Marneus Calgar dump a turd on the Codex Astartes.  Super units, super tanks, super monsters, spaceships and wound sinks.  How often do real dependable tactics get bent over and rogered by the 'half painted Mephiston in a  hat' card.  Nob biker hordes, Eldar Deathstar units etc etc.  They all gather tricks and gizmo's into a single Avengers unit and then stomp all over the enemy.

Tactically its a bit shit.  It's a one trick pony of autowin.  It doesn't require any sopisticated tactics, it dictates the battlefield and the response of your opponent.  It automatically puts them on the back foot.  It's a really cruddy way to win and a shitty way to lose.  I have exploited it tenaciously in the past.  Most WAAC players would, and even those would admit its cheese.  But when the whole gaming world doesn't take 2/3 of all codex entries - lay on the gorgonzola!

Flames snuffs that out.  The closest thing to a super unit is the Tiger tank - and that's because it really really was.  Suddenly, real tactics play a much bigger part and they are far more sophisticated.  Try taking two GW matching armies - without OP units and then see the 40k tactics blossom.

If you are looking for a heroes game, get good at infinity or Warmachine/Hordes/Malifaux.  These games better reflect to 'individual skirmish' aspect of the original Rogue Trader (infinity), or pumped up superpowers on a WAAC clash of micromanagement (t'others). 

Option Three: Army lists with purpose.

Put simply, the codex is a broken format.  There will always be good and bad units in any codex.  WW2 has plenty of examples of broken units, and often you are looking at an outdated piece of technology.  However, what they do is force particular 'formats' of army list on you.  This means you can choose an armoured company, or a recon unit, or a infantry company, etc etc.  Choosing one sacrifices another option.  Some are over powered is some fashions (the russians can field a penal legion full of flamethrowers, it actually existed...), but the more specialised, the more vulnerable you are.

You rarely get first choice in any structure.  And importantly, you sometimes are forced to field sub-par units as the 'best' option isn't available.  You have to make sacrifices.

This means that unit spam, cloning and redundancy are all nice to haves but actually you have to make 'real' sacrifices (not just leave behind some commander toy that may have been useful, maybe).

The other advantage is that an infantry company automatically defends against a tank company (because the opposite is absurd)... which brings me to some final few thoughts.

Conclusion

There are some other incidental problems with 40k.  For example:

1. Why are dug in troops so easy to kill?  In Flames, dug in troops are harder to kill than tanks - which is kinda the point?  You can charge them, or flamethrower them, use antitank weapons or assault them with tanks - but regardless of the infantry type - rifles and machineguns should be of marginal effectiveness (dirt equally fucks up laser, bolts, pulses or spines, its amazing, direct fire weaponry is completely shit at going around corners).
2. Why are tanks often slower than troops?  This makes no sense at all.  Even the best vehicles are a 'little bit' faster than running troops, unless they are driving at 30mph (turbo boost) and then they can't do anything else ... hang on a minute?
3. Why is there no downside to running?  Moving at the double has a serious downside in Flames.  If you are running about enemy units can roll DOUBLE their dice at you.  This neatly demonstrates how FUCKING STUPID it is to run into the line of sight of the enemy.  Moving at the double is something you only do in Flames if you REALLY need to be there, or can end the move behind something really solid.  Genestealers running at me with abandon, really hard to shoot - not.

So that's my round up, to each their own and there are lots of positives in 40k.  But some of the issues above continue to irritate me and positively disbalance the game, to the advantage of the share price and the WAAC player with deep pockets.

When are GW gonna get a grip? More thoughts on Tau.

Great comment on the last post pointed out that GW had dropped the ball again.  Only Broadsides can take Missile Drones.  Which means a highly versatile mobile firing platform is tied into a unit that doesn't really want to move.  Way to go GW, lets turn a win into a fail ... again!


This changes the dynamic quite a lot and balances the book better, as it quickly reduces the overpowering effectiveness of the "Commander+Drone Controller+Missile Drones" Blitzkrieg.  No one in 40k should have that kind of spammed firepower at their fingertips, unless they are Space Marines, or Space Wolves, or Imperial Guard.  Anyone non-human anyhow...

(Anyone from Nottingham may wanna skip the next paragraph, it's meant in jest, kinda.)

So is GW racist?  Well, dah?  Course they are, they're based in Nottinghamshire, (originally mistyped Nottinghamshite, oooo freudian) what do you expect?  I grew up not 30 miles from HQ and I can categorically state that while the 'gamers' were the most thought provoking of all my classmates, I also lived in a region that won 'whitest' in the UK.  Let's just say that if Morgan Freeman really had accompanied Kevin Costner to Nottingham Forest - he'd have been 'fuck this racist shit' in about four days.  That's not to say that Nottingham does not have a black and asian culture, it certainly does.  It also has one of the highest gun crimes rates in the UK, a big problem with gangs and drugs.

Anyhooo, my own childhood trauma aside... how does this effect the Tau list.  What would work?

Crisis Suits, ok they can't take Missile Drones, but marker drones are only 1 pt more expensive than pathfinders.  For one point they are toughness 4, gain a 4+ save over 5+ and most important are jetpack troops - allowing them to move-fire-move thanks to their relentless jetpacks.  They are BS2, but the addition of a drone controller makes them BS3, a commander with said controller makes them BS5.

So the real question is how many markerlights are effective.  This is a balancing act between several factors:

• Enough Markerlight hits to refuse cover save and give BS5 to an engaging unit (4)
• Having enough units to spread enough hits to 'spread the pain' around if needed.
• Making the unit big enough to impact severely (remember that each unit that shoots at the target will require 3-4 markerlights to maximise impact)
• Making the unit small enough that it can use cover effectively and minimise retaliation.

So lets see, the strongest contenders (ignoring Forgeworld loveliness) for 'markerlight' has to be the SkyRay, followed closely by the markerdrone (especially with a drone commander).  The last contender has to be pathfinders. 

4 drones at BS5 will score 3-4 hits, 8 drones score 6-7 hits.  This thrashes pathfinders raw, as two to three hits of each 55 point team is dire, PS: Using markerlights to 'breed' markerlights also seems shortsighted.  Yes, handing your team a 2+ to hit is nice, but it cost 2 markerlights.

There is another way...

Commander Shadowsun + Pathfinders

Commander Shadowsun and 10 pathfinders, including a command-link drone and an MV-52 drone costs 285pts.  Here's the advantages.   The MV52 'confers' a 3++ invulnerable save.  It doesn't have this, it confers it.  Let's share it around.  Shadowsun also just made her unit Stealth and Shrouded, oh AND night vision.  Your pathfinders now have a 2+ cover save and 3++ invulnerable save.  Hmmm, you still need a couple of markerlight bonuses to get 2+ to hit for your targets, but your command link drone also give you a reroll on 1's. 

Upside: That's pretty damn hardcore.  That's like Thunder termie saving throws on a markerlight until almost guaranteed to score 9-10 markerlight hits a turn.

Downside: Static and very squishy on the charge.  As upgrades go, she's pretty expensive and it ties her down to a low toughness unit.  Shadowsun will keep vehicles at bay though.  Although charging hordes aren't worried.  It's also expensive, just like the Stealth team below, it offers marginal advantage over just spamming pathfinder teams (285 buys nearly 26 pathfinders) and its not like there's loads of competition in the fast attack slot.

Stealth Team Rethinking...

Ok, here's my thinking.  A Group of Crisis Suits are hard to hide.  A Group of Stealth dudes, less so.  Combine the following:

Commander, 2 x Plasma Rifles, drone controller, ATS, 2 marker drones: 156pts
Stealth Team x 3, Shas'Vre with Markerlight and Target Lock, 3xATS, fusion blaster, 2 Marker Drones: 143pts

Total: 299pts

Now hear me out.  The advantage of this is as follows.  The unit is majority T4, it has 7 'disposable wounds'.  It makes 4 BS5 Markerlight shots a turn.  It's small, easily concealed and gets a 2+ cover save easily.  It has enough antipersonnel firepower, anti MEQ and anti tank firepower to make any unit wary of approaching it, and it can still be tactically useful while 'holding' an area.  Add in to this that the whole unit has ATS, and that means that the Shas'Vre can drop a markerlight precision shot on a specific model on a 5+.  Follow that with a Seeker Missile (no cover save, S8 and AP3) That's something worth talking about.  The rest of the team have enough firepower and precision shot ability (6's on 8 S5, AP5 shots, 5+ on the commanders 4 shots) to make terminators blush.

Is it better than a crisis team, or three large 9 man Pathfinder teams?  Sadly no.  But it's the most use I can make out of what GW have done to the Stealth team.  They would be a pain in the arse, they would be a super mobile toolkit of doom, they would be arguably less effective than a huge hulking elite robot.

Fecking GW.

Kroot Sniper Horde.

7pt each 24" range sniper rifles.  What's not to love.  They have some stealth ability, are slightly less accurate than ratlings, but 2 x 20 infiltrating snipers for 280 is awfully tempting.  Yes, they are prone to dying, but they will also throw a lot of firepower out before they do.  As an ambush unit, this is their best use, lulling the enemy into thinking they are 'just a deployment screen' and then unloading 40 sniper shots at point blank.  Add in enough markerlights against aggressive opponents (and try to save 4 for their charge and boost your snapshots to BS5) and watch the enemy drop.  40 shots should produce 5.55 rending hits with just 2 markerlights.  Remember to deny them cover with an extra two.  That's potent stuff.  That's a whole unit of space marines dead, or nearly 4 terminators.  Hmmmm.

Just watch out for Landraiders...

Tanks and Heavy weaponry

Speaking of which ... I can't see anything in the codex that beats the good'ole Hammerhead in tank destruction.  When you really positively have to kill a landraider, that's your only option (beyond suicide suits with fusion missing risk).  Even Broadsides with the Puretide engram commander only gets a reroll to penetrate, and that's expensive and also pretty shit.  If you want a killer, choose Longstrike - the combination of BS5, tank hunter, black sun filter and defensive fire automatically means he actually only costs 34pts for BS5, reroll 1's against Imperial Guard and reroll failed and non-penetrating hits on tanks - that's like a no brainer.  The downside is that Sensor Spines, Disruption Pod etc are essential - as this guy will attract Loads of heat.

Blocking with two sets of SkyRay's could do the job though.  4 markerlights, 12 seeker missile (for those precise Stealth team shots) Plus 2 Skyrays can block a charge, give cover to the real target and give you the option of 12 twin-linked Smart Missiles flying out every turn, as you retreat in the face of the charging enemy. 

New Thoughts, New List - 1502 pts

• Commander, 2 x Plasma Rifles, drone controller, ATS, 2 marker drones: 156pts
• Commander, 2 Missile Pod's, drone controller, ATS, 2 marker Drones: 156pts
• Stealth Team x 3, Shas'Vre with Markerlight and Target Lock, 3xATS, fusion blaster, 2 Marker Drones: 143pts
• Crisis Suit Team x 3, 6 Missile Pods, ATS, 6 marker Drones: 237pts
• Riptide - 180pts
• Fire Warriors x 9, Shas'Ui: 91 pts
• Devilfish, disruption pod, drones and sensor spines: 100pts
• Fire Warriors x 9, Shas'Ui: 91pts
• Kroot Sniper Unit, Shaper and 20 kroot, sniper bolts: 155pts
• Hammerhead, Longstrike, Disruption Pod, Sensor Spines, TL Smart Missile System - 190pts
• SkyRay, Sensor Spines, TL Smart Missile System - 120pts
• SkyRay, Sensor Spines, TL Smart Missile System - 120pts

Tactics:  consider this an army made of mobile sniper units.

The Kroot hold a flank, preferably in a bit of woodland for some extra cover.  The Shaper hopefully keeps them together long enough to launch a sniper ambush on them.  The on-foot firewarriors come on late for home defence, or take up a strong position.  The Sky-Ray's escort the Hammerhead to LoS on targets of opportunity and run interference.  Marker drones in both units attack targets of opportunity, with the riptide and kroot focusing fire.

Once vehicles are downed, it's on to the troops, which I believe this list will thrive at killing.

The danger is that the enemy get the drop on Longstrike... but then it's just a game of relocate for the win.  The inclusion of Shadowsun or the Stealth team really hold the same impact.  One has the ability to splatter a unit with so many markerlight it'll be taking every shot at its vulnerable bits.  The other has the ability to be a swiss army knife of killing at medium range, complement the markerlight tally and get away from the bad guys.

First rule of shooting is target priority.  If you have to drop a target you want the markerlight hits to make it hurt with everything you've got.  10 markerlight hits on a charging unit can give 2+ to hit for 3 units and still save 4 lights to give them a 2+ on the unit when it charges.

On that analogy, the static, high stealth unit is stronger - offering a big juicy, hard to kill unit which will kill a lot of the enemy.

The mobile list above offers 14 markerlights, the static version offers 22 per turn. 

It's gunline versus mobile again.  Does the static variant sacrifice too much firepower to enable markerlights?

Salute 2011 ... and how I've spent too much money again...

Check out Anton's breakdown of Salute 2011 ... he's got all the bases covered...

What impressed me most was the chance to meet so many creative enterprises face-to-face. The amount of creativity in the room was extraordinary and very exciting.

Big thanks to Anton, Lee and Nick (Rick) for putting up with me at Salute 2011. It was my first time, and what an eye-opener to all things wargamer and non-GW... The show was extraordinary and while being quite well behaved I managed to scoop up a plethora of bits, such as:

1. WARHAMMER 40k

Forgeworld Llugft Huron in Terminator Armour. My one concession to 40k in a conference lacking in 40k. I love this model - it slightly scares me and it totally intimidating in the detail and lustre - gob smacking in every way - but I love it! Has anyone got any tips on doing FW models?


2: INFINITY

Infinity models at 4 for 3 - can't pass that up!

2 x Nasmats (two in a box): These little guys are tiny, but very very cool. For 3 pts, you get a little man who can do the doctoring on the front line in mimicry to a Doctor (or engineer). Just very cool. He's also a small target and has Mimetism (which is like Stealth) - awesome!


2 x Viral Rifle Lasiqs. I've run with the Lasiq sniper and found her to be pretty good value, these guys however can offer a lot more Mid range punch. Viral Rifles are nasty lethal to all medium and light infantry. Combined with their x-visor (increases their effective range) and their mimentism - a nice pair of trouble makers.


Azra'il with AP rifle, Flamethrower and Panzerfaust. This guy is a very well equiped deathmonger. The flamethrower and AP rifle are both awesome as anti-infantry work... the Panzerfaust combined with his BS is a nasty combo. This guys a bit of a rambo.


2 x MicroArts Infinity Holoboard walls (need to order more walls though...)


Harbadin IFV from Governance of Technology (so new it's not even on their website!) for Infinity cover/scenarios etc...

Before moving on ... I've spotted that Infinity have a very sexy new website - go check it out and be gobsmacked by the stunning miniatures and biblical gameplay. Also remember - you can download an army builder and the game rules and proxy a game. THEN BUY THOSE MODELS!

3: CUTLASS!

And Cutlass ... oh cutlass...


All four of us came together and purchased 2 bands, a leader model and a book each. After reading through the rulebook - this is a perfect addition to my 'year of the skirmish game'.

I bought Mad Jim Jones: turns out to be a close combat monster who automatically kills anyone who he puts down... nasty!


A flurry of Privateers, these guys are a healthy mix between pirates and the army (who I'll be facing on Thursday night!


Rogues. The scum of the universe and the pirating world to boot. Cheap and miserable, then fill a disgusting niche...

The rules are really clever. The crux of it rolls around two concepts:

1. The better you are, the big the dice.
2. The wrestle for control of the game turn.

Better=bigger dice

Let me explain. Unlike most games, where skills are all based on conventional stats like BS4 or WS6, the stats in this game are a bit more interesting. A poorly skilled/weak/poor shot would roll a D4. An uber-marksman would roll a D20. You get me. Everything moves up and down that scale.

It all revolves around dice and the multiple concurrents with them. So getting injured results in a -1 die level. So a D8 skilled guy rolls a D6. Taken out (ie on the ground) results in all tests on a D4. And that's the point, you can quickly modify all the players statistics through injuring him, so he'll have dexterity D4 instead of D6, Combat skill D6 instead of D8. You follow?

To follow this up, the player can get bonuses for carrying two weapons, allowing his to roll two dice in combat AND parry (if the weapon allows it)... Other modifiers like this can turn a good attacker into a really nasty one - and beautifully for a skirmish game ... getting hurt can turn a dangerous model into a vulnerable one. Which I've not really seen before outside of RPG.

This would seem overpowered, except for a genius idea. The die are open ended. This translates that the maximum score on any dice allows you to roll again and add the totals together. This is a great leveller, as the poor player with say D4 attack has a 1/4 chance of scoring a 5-7, or a 1/16 chance of scoring a 9-11 etc etc. Suddenly the guy weilding one D10 in attack ought to be careful...

The Wrestle for the Game Turn

Alike the Infinity, the game includes actions and reactions. Unlike infinity, the ability to react is not guaranteed, and the amount of actions taken is not a fixed sum. Most teams roll a D8 at the start of the turn. The player with the highest score goes first. At the point at which the opponent 'chooses' to react, if successful. He goes from being the inactive player to the active.

***

So player A moves 'Big Jim McGreedy' out into the Line of Sight of 'Lil Phil', Player B doesn't fancy his chances at taking down McGreedy with a brace of pistols, but is desparate. Little Phil (a deck hand) has D6 Reaction roll and must roll a 4+ to react. He does and rolls to hit, he has an Accuracy of D4, whereas Big Jim (a pirate captain) has the dex of D6.

The shot is at point blank range, so Lil Phil gets +1 die level and boosted to D6, however he's shooting dramatically with a brace of pistols, cancelling this bonus - but giving him two shots. Big Jim rolls a 2, while Little Phil rolls a 2 and a four. The four roll extends and he rolls a 3. Giving him a total of 7, +5 over Big Jim.

The 2 misses, but the 7 scores a critical hit - giving him 2 dice to roll on the damage table. 2D6 versus D8 for the captain's constitution. The captain is injured! Player's active turn now moves to Player B. With the captain at -1 level, Lil Phil attacks with his hand axe.

***

The players keep jostling for control and initiative until all the actions are resolved on both side. At which point you consolidate and restart with an Authority roll.

Cutlass ... the conclusion

This back and forth seems really exciting and has certainly got me thinking. I've got a game Thursday and will report how it plays. The core rules are written by Gav Thorpe, and I think are some of the most interesting I've read in a while. The real heart of the games is on campaign though, with Adam Clarke working in what appears a both delightful and exciting campaign, loot and experience system - which looks to be one of the systems biggest attractions.

Speaking of which, Adam Clarke's models are stunning, and the amount of work involved in developing and creating this new game falls squarely on his talented shoulders. Simply - Wow!