Dark Angels spoilers

So Dark Angels is getting a January 2013 release. I'm very interested in this because it may be a good indication of how the other loyalist marine codexes are going to be. Especially where things like Warlord traits are going.

Anyway, we have some photos of the new models and units. Let's take a look...

Belial's new model. I can't say I like this one because the model is too static. Character models need to be more dynamic and with an action pose.

The new terminators are quite nice. Interesting to see that Dark Angels retain command squad terminators. I hope that they will come back for all space marine codexes. However, these models look nice though robed terminators doesn't quite look right to me.

Bikes with twin-linked plasma guns? Nice. I hope that they are an upgrade rather than as standard otherwise they are going to be a pain to deal with. But still nice.

The new Dark Angel plane. I love this design though the big ass guns at the front seem a tad too big. It shall be interesting to see these on the battlefield as some rumours suggest that they are designed as an anti-flyer option.

 

 

Two new land speeders. The top version comes with twin-linked plasma cannons. That will be an ouch for lots of us. The bottom however, looks odd. There are no rear weapons just what appears to be a shrine, but one with an operator. Odd.

 

 

What are your thoughts?

BR: Space Marines vs Eldar

Thursday night I was challenged to a 1000pt game. I knew that my opponent had access to blood angels, ultramarines and eldar, so I decided to do a simple list to hopefully deal with any of them. In the end it was eldar that faced and things did not go to plan all that well.

My list was:

Librarian: epistolery with plasma pistol.
5 man terminator squad with assault cannon.
10 man tactical squad with flamer and heavy bolter, in a rhino. Sarge had power weapon and plasma pistol.
10 man tactical squad with plasmagun and missile launcher. Sarge had power weapon and plasma pistol.
Stormtalon gunship with assault cannon and heavy bolters.

990pts.

From memory, my opponent had:

Eldrad.
6 man pathfinder squad.
10 man dire avengers squad with exarch in wave serpent.
10 man fire dragon squad in wave serpent.
3 warwalkers with scatter lasers.

We agreed to roll a mission from the Battle Missions book and rolled Prepared Assault. I deployed first placing my librarian with the terminators in cover near the central objective, flamer squad in rhino next to the second objective, and the second tac squad on a hill so I could get a good field of fire for the missile launcher. My opponent deployed everything in one corner nearest the third objective.

The game did not start well for me. Some very accurate scatter laser shots devestated half of my terminators. Not what I wanted. Things would not go well for them though the dice gods guided those armour saves and look out sir rolls fantastically for most of the game but evetually they could taken down. The terminators didn't do a thing all game which irked me somewhat. Had the mission allowed me to deep strike them from reserve things would have been very different.

When the Stormtalon arrived on turn 2 it failed to do anything and had to fly off the table on the following turn. When it did return it dropped a couple pathfinders and then went into hover mode to shoot them with a better BS. I had forgotten that about the cover saves provided by their cloaks and they went to ground with a 4+ cover save. It did manage to survive two turns in hover mode, before it crashed to the ground. Had I been my opponent I would have shot it with the scatter lasers a turn earlier but hey ho.

I did have one bit of luck which was the total annihilation of the dire avengers when they jumped out of their wave serpent. It didn't last though and I lost my flamer tactical squad and the survivours of the ML squad fled off the table turn 7.

Had the game ended turn 5 as I wanted, things would have been better but turn 6 saw to it that I would lose this game.

I had high hopes that my list would have done better, but I think a mixture of mission and deployment was what really screwed me. More terrain would have helped too I think.

Good fun game but better luck next time.

The Midas Crusade - intro

After reading through Crusade of Fire I have decided that the campaign example given within isn't so bad. It has plenty of potential and so I have started tweaking it slightly. The work in progress is called the Midas Crusade and follows a similar storyline I guess to the Crusade of Fire campaign. I have opened it up to the different factions of 40K rather than Imperial and Chaos. Initially, Crusade of Fire plays out over three turns and then you tally the results of captured worlds to determine the winner. I have taken that but I think it wouldn't be too difficult to expand it indefinately so that a open ended narrative campaign could be played with any number of players.

As I get it tweaked and finalised I'll post back some details. Firstly though I am going to need to handpick 3-4 players to test it out come the new year.

Crusade of Fire reivew

Crusade of Fire is not as bad as I feared. Knowing what it is like now I think I still would have bought it. It just depends whether or not you feel you'll get something out of it. In the introduction it does say that the book is designed as a knd of spring board for people to create their own campaigns and here are some ideas. Can't grumble with that.

The main body of the book is the campaign itself. It does suggest the use of the Planetary Empires set but if you have access to hexmap software you can make your own no problem. I would have done it as a series of planets in the sector rather than a tile system but that is just me. It uses a similar victory mechanic as Planetary Empires plus bonus points (see below). The Corvus sector isn't even a sector it is just a planetary system with 9 worlds and a space station. The idea being that it was engulfed by a warp storm and that storm is slowly receding back and uncovering worlds as it goes. Nice idea actually. The book gives some new traits but they are overall campaign ones rather than warlord traits. You roll on the Crusade of Fire (Imperial) or the Servants of Ruin (Chaos). Anyone else chooses which they want. These determine how your forces will win campaign points. Again, nice idea. You also get a review of each of the planets from the POV of either main side (Imp or Chaos) and why they want those worlds. All fluff but if written up properly would make for some nice hand outs for the players.

You then get a detailed backstory to the crusade and more in depth info on the planets for any GM you have running the campaign who may wish to include some secret objectives or add extra stuff to make things unpredictable. It makes suggestion ideas like having a lost necron tomb which awakens during the fight, and having a necron force (controlled by the GM or a neutral third player) enter the battlefield.

The main body of the book is handed over to the armies played by the GW staff members as they played the game, the special scenarios they came up with, and some rather vague battle/turn reports. For me, it was an interesting read but I can see how some may see it as a waste of money. Not everyone gives a damn about their games. The special scenarios struck me as being a bit too much hard work to employ and I don't think I would use them. They are not my cup o tea.

Next up is the dog-fighting rules as an addition to the flyers in the rulebook. I wouldn't bother. These were a bit of a dissapointment for me. It essentially adds more actions into the flyer's actions, and thus bogs the game down I think. YMMV of course. The special maneuvers and fighter aces rules are tied into the dog-fighting rules so you can't use them outside of that addition. I wanted something different here.

Then we have rules for Daemon Worlds. I suspect everyone has seen the page shot of this that was floating around for a couple weeks before release. Everything for fighting on Daemon Worlds is in that screen shot. Feels a bit like the extra rules for Death Worlds that WD put out a while back. These could see some use in my games though they won't be for everyone's liking.

Lastly, the book gives us the Arena of Death rules for gladiatorial combat. This is designed for very small tables (2x2 is recommended) and one or two characters aside. Again, I think this is for a certain sort of player really and I have no use for it. There are rules for manoeuvres and facings, plus manoeuvre cards with some actions promoting the adulation of the crowd.


Overall, I think the actual campaign idea is rather good and even if you don't try it as written, you can easily adapt or tweak it. As someone who has been searching everywhere for a decent set of campaign rules this was worth the purchase of the book. The rest of it less so which is dissapointing. I would have rather that they ditched the extra rules and expanded the campaign to include random events, multi-system campaigns and the like.

What went wrong?

At the club last Thursday I challenged my nephew to a 1000pt game against his Sisters of Battle. I chose him because he isn't an optimising player and when playing his Sisters, we usually have a much better game. I'm also fed up a little of the higher point games and so 1000pts has become my current points limit as I try to refit myself into the game.

He agreed providing we used his new GW martyr's defence lines. Not a problem. He set them up two his side and a larger on mine. We then rolled the length of the table as our deployment zones and agreed to just play the old style pitched battle across table.

My list:

Librarian epistolery.
10 man tac squad with plasma gun and plasma cannon.
10 man tac squad with plasma gun and missile launcher.
10 man scout squad with sniper rifles and missile launcher.
5 man terminator squad with assault cannon.

A simple very basic list, which is what I wanted to play. I forget his list at the moment but it was something like:

Uriah Jacobus.
15 or 20 woman squad with meltagun and heavy bolter.
15 or 20 woman squad with meltagun and heavy bolter.
6 man death cult assassin squad.
6 woman heavy weapon squad with heavy bolters and heavy flamers.
2 Rhinos.

I really felt that I shouldn't have a problem with this list and the game should be nicely balanced. But for some reason he utterly crushed me. I ended up on turn 5 with just half the scout squad left. He had made some mistakes such as putting his squad leaders and special weapons at the front of his squads, so they died really quickly. What went so wrong for me was the fact that I couldn't pass a 3+ armour save hardly at all, and my terminators deviated upon teleporting in and ended up right in front of the death cult assassins who lost two to my shooting and then carved up the squad in two rounds of combat (there goes those 2+ armour saves!).

So, when we called it he had two objectives and contested a third.

My dice hate me.

The Doom of Galt

When the bioships of Hive Fleet Leviathan reached the Galt system, they swept aside the Imperial defenders with ease and proceeded to devour the ice rich outer worlds. The delay was enough to allow a great many to evacuate the hive cities of Galt V but not everyone was able to escape. As the Tyranid bio organisms burst onto the doomed world, the Planetary Defence Forces put up a brave but futile fight. Only when help arrived from the Sons of Tantalus fourth company did things change. Captain Democritus choose the tight confines at the edge of Hive Tempest to engage the horde. They only had to slow the advance long enough for more evacuation transports to get away.

A couple nights ago my mate Joel came over for a game. he had asked me for a 3,000 point game and for some crazy reason I said yes. I hate large scale games with a passion. They are generally far too twinky and take an age to complete. But I had said yes. I decided to play a lot more infantry than usual, taking an third tactical squad, a 9-man squad of terminators, 9 man squad of assault termines split between lightning claws and thunder hammers, and upping my scout squad to ten men. Dropped the predator for a vidicator, and added in a dreadnought.

Then I found out that he had brought his Tyranids.

Joy.

We rolled the kill point style mission and that gods awful table quarter one! Why GW? WHY? We both had barely enough room to place everything. I also suggested that we roll for a battlefield trait since they will be used in the upcoming league, and we got a toxic miasma which meant all close combat attacks were poisoned (4+). This hurt his MC's a lot.

Once the game got underway it wasn't so bad and my marines did an awful lot better than I expected though Joel had his usual twinky luck. He got first turn and I lost the vidicator to tyrant guard, and a load of marines and termies to spore mines. Couldn't have put the termies in reserve because there just wasn't the room on the table to risk it.

Game went to turn five after about three hours of play. All I had left was the scout squad who hadn't been touched and quite frankly were my unit of the day. They did awesome. The sheer number of monstrous creatrues hurt me badly but the poisoned wounds did make any combats easier for me.

I called it after turn 5 due to there being no point in continuing.

Good game and actually reasonably fun, but never again at that point value.

Wish me luck!

I have Joel coming over later and he has challenged me to a 3000pt 40K game. I don't know what he is playing (Eldar, Eldar Corsairs or Tyranids) but it is going to be a slog. I'm not a huge fan of big point games but once in a while they can be fun.

But it is Joel. Mr Twinky himself.

Wish me luck!

Warlord Traits - CSM

Warlord Traits - part 3

Warlord Traits - part 2

Warlord Traits - part 1

A little something I've been working on. I plan to do likewise for new codexes when they are released. Just need to find somewhere to get them printed.

League 2013

After some recent discussion about the nature of the next league and it's Forge World allowance, I've decided that FW can be allowed but only with the agreement of an opponent before the start of the league. Seems a fair compromise for this though after talking to the other club members after this, leagues will be strictly codex only (plus White Dwarf updates).

The final league will be as follows:

• 1750pt games.
• Single codex though list may be changed between round knowing opponent, their codex and the mission.
• Allies are acceptable, as are fortifications with the exception of the Fortress of Redemption (due to size and terrain issues).
• Missions will be generated before the league starts using the system in Battle Mission (chance of rulebook missions, Battle Mission missions and Death World missions).
• Each table will have a mysterious forest and one other random special terrain.
• Each game will also have a random war zone trait rolled at the start of the game (rulebook page 368).

WD codexes?

Lately I've been reading rumours that the 6th edition Black Templars and Chaos Daemons codexes are going to be White Dwarf codexes rather than physical books. I certainly hope that this isn't going to be the case.

It has the problem that once the issue has gone out of circulation then new players can't get a hold of the codex, and potentially be stuck with an out of date codex since GW don't seem interested in putting the WD codexes up online as PDF's like they used to.

I'm going to keep an ear out on this and hope that it isn't true.

Grey Knight codex review

Crusade of Fire

Yesturday I learnt of a new release for 40K called Crusade of Fire. This is a £25 limited edition pre-order.

Crusade of Fire is a campaign system for Warhammer 40,000 that enables you to join the campaign to control the Corvus Sub-sector. Whether you choose to join the Crusade of Fire itself, the foul Servants of Ruin or the bloodthirsty Prophets of War, the fate of the sub-sector lies in your hands.

This 96-page, full-colour hardcover book features exclusive artwork and a host of dynamic new rules. As well as the campaign system itself, the book contains rules that can be used in any Warhammer 40,000 game, from massive multi-player scenarios fought in low-gravity environments or in bunkers deep below the ground, to expanded rules for Flyers. It also features rules for playing games in the gladiatorial arenas of Commorragh as well as for fighting battles on the surface of a Daemon World.

Crusade of Fire also features the story of nine hobbyists as they play through the campaign, including detailed battle reports, fantastic army showcases and turn-by-turn accounts of their conquests.

As someone who loves proper campaigns, I have laid down by cash for this even though I don't know what the release date is (couldn't see it on the GW site).

My only grumble is did this really need to be a limited edition release? I don't recall the Fantasy one that came out earlier this year being such a release, so why this one. Either way I am looking forward to it and hoping that it will be useful to the campaign ideas that I keep having. Details as I get them.

Extinction Angels

Now that I have the chaos side of things from the Dark Vengeance box set I am setting down to work out a 1000pts list (to start with). I had thought of going with the Word Bearers legion but that has slipped away and I've decided to go with the warband that I found last year and contemplated expanding upon, the Extinction Angels.

You can read what little there is about them here.

The Extinction Angels had been fighting on Deimos Primary under the banner of Abaddon the Despoiler during the early days of the 13th Black Crusade. Their task was to disable the various Mechanicus facilities there. Unfortunately despite many successes the planet was liberated by the Black Templars chapter and the warband was forced into the lower levels of the main facility. The Black Templars enacted a sweep and clear, slowly eradicating the survivours.

Not all were slain however. Champion Magnus Creel had long suspected that the Despoiler was just using warbands like the Extinction Angels as expendable cannon fodder. Unhappy with this situation, Creel puts escape plans in motion long before the warband reached Deimos Primary, to enable his escape along with those loyal to him. Utilising an ancient relic recovered on some distant world, he was able to open a warp corridor to a waiting ship on the edge of the system. Leaving the rest to die, Creel and his followers departed for Imperial space. Since that time, the warband has raided Imperial backwater worlds for supplies and wargear.

The Extinction Angels are primarily servants of Slaanesh but in order to grow the warband in strength, Magnus Creel has accepted a handful of others into their number, including a number of Death Guard. Creel has also made an alliance with the Tzeentchian sorcerer Tallos. In return for the use of his sorcery and the thousand sons he commands, Creel has agreed to aid him in recovering certain relics and secrets scattered across the Tyken Sector.

The Extinction Angels as were are no more, but under Magnus Creel's leadership they may well go far and bring much destruction to the worlds of the false Emperor!

Not my painting, just a representation of what they look like.

Codex comparrisons - part 3

Sisters of Battle.
All I can say about this army list is that it desperately needs a proper codex and not a white dwarf article. At the moment it is woefully lacking in everything. They don't have enough options for vehicles, no flyers and not enough options for their infantry choices. Under 6th they should probably be put away until GW give them a proper book.

Space Marines.
The Space Marines have gained something this time around! Yay! Moving and firing a heavy weapon, being able to overwatch and the host of new psychic disciples have bumped up their playability now. Their tanks are more survivable under the hull point system though you do have to adapt your thoughts to rhinos and realise that they are there to get you half way up the table now. If they survive then yay. Obviously this applies to the other space marine codex as well but I included it here because it is a boost for this codex. Since 6th I have had much more luck and won more games than I ever did under 5th. The changes have been good for them. Tactical squads still need close combat weapons or the option to take them though.

Space Wolves.
This army was a nightmare under 5th and have got worse under 6th. Although the new edition has made the right move and favours shooting over combat, Space Wolves are still IMO the best close combat army in the game. It's for this reason that they are the commonest ally I see taken by other players.
They get so many options for weapon load outs that they can almost cherry pick like Eldar do. Their rune priests can deny the witch in an area on a 4+ which is just crazy. Long Fangs can split fire with heavy weapons which is a huge bonus.
I think 6th edition has done this codex very well.

Tau Empire.
Under 5th the Tau army has always been a one trick pony - they sit back and shoot with scary accuracy. Close combat screwed them severly and that was an opponents saving grace. 6th edition has changed that. The codex still desperately needs an update but can now hold it's own a lot more. Overwatch has helped stem the assault problems and they can pick vehicles apart a lot better. Much like with Space Wolves, I fully expect the Tau to end up relegated to the ally detachment until they get a new book.

Tyranids.
Under 5th the Tyranids were yet another nightmare to deal with. They don't have good shooting so they became crazy good at close combat, as you would expect. However I feel that they were made too good. The current codex did a nice job of toning them down and bringing them to an equal level with everyone else. The problem, once again, is that some units have become obsolete. Genestealers won't see use under 6th and why take carnifexes when trygons are a better option?
Overwatch has been a balancing factor for other armies but if you get into close combat with tyranids you can just count your unit as a speed bump.
Tyranids are still a really tough army to play against and have come through 6th edition in  a good way. As with many codexes, it will just take players time to work out what does and doesn't work any more. Like the hive, they'll have to adapt.

Codex comparrisons - part 2

Eldar.
The Eldar codex has always been a tough one to beat. Excellent shooty and some good assault based units. However, it has been impression (and that of many locally at the club) that if the Eldar player knows which codex he is up against next he should never lose because the Eldar codex is perfect for cherry picking exactly what you need. There are some units that are pointless, guardians and swooping hawks - I'm looking at you. Dire avengers are far far better option that guardians and warp spiders are a better choice than the hawks.
Under 6th I think that they are still very good but Eldar players are grumbling that they now have no anti-terminator weapons anymore and that banshees are now pointless. I disagree. Unless you are facing Dark Angels or Space Wolves you won't see that many terminators. Scorpions and banshees can still tear through regular troops with power armour or worse.

Grey Knights.
When this codex came out all you could hear about was how overpowered and cheesy they were. What people weren't realising was that this is very much an elite army meaning that they are expensive and you can't take everything. This is their balance. Anyone playing against them just needs to do their best to avoid close combat with them and gun them down with massed firepower, same as you would any power armour type opponent.
6th edition has made them better in close combat and given them some more useful options. For instance, until 6th I never saw anyone take the GK Librarian. Now they get a lot more play. The new edition has forced GK players to adapt a lot more than any other army has needed to I think.

Imperial Guard.
Under 5th this army was massed firepower and tanks. Under 6th it has become more mass firepower, less tanks and a lot more heavy weapons. The IG codex irks me at times because of the sheer number of shots that it can put out which can whittle down even a full power armoured army. It feels overbalanced and that seems to have been made worse by 6th somehow.
The biggest shift has definately been that vehicle heavy lists have been pushed to the back as they'll take so many shots that they'll fall apart under the hull point rules. The army is very much now a footslogging or stand and shoot infantry army with some limited heavy tank support. Overall the codex got worse in some areas, better in others and so basically stayed the same.

Necrons.
My thoughts on the Necron codex has been that it is a nice codex but isn't anywhere near as powerful as people want to make out. It does now have some good options but really it felt fair compared to everyone else. The only truely stupid additions was entropic strike, an ability that should have been rethought into a different mechanic.
Under 6th edition Necrons remaind balanced and are quite easy to defeat. This only changes when they take allies to cover their shortfalls. Much like dark eldar, this is what they need to do to remain competative IMO.

Orks.
I'm honestly not sure what to say about the Ork codex as I rarely played against it under 5th and I have had no chance to do so under 6th. The only thing that really comes to mind about the army under 6th is overwatch. When overwatching their ballistic skill doesn't change all that much so it's just like any shooting. Plus, burnaboyz when using their weapons as heavy flamers auto hit d3 hits per weapon. I can fully see certain weapon options and bikers being made more use of under 6th edition.

Codex comparrisons - part 1.

So, KhorneGuy suggested that I put forward my thoughts on how each codex was under 5th and now 6th. Not a bad idea so here goes. Bear in mind as always that this is a casual players point of view not a competative one.

Black Templars.
I have only played against the black templars once under 5th and that was right near the beginning of that edition. Still learning the changes between 4th and 5th my vanilla marines were defeated (though to be fair, my opponent was and still is a lot better than me).
Under 5th Black Templars were not too bad but I think they suffered the same problems that the vanilla codex did and that was that compared to everyone else they were too expensive and fewer options. The only thing going for them was land raider crusaders as dedicated transports thus allowing them to hold objectives with a scoring unit inside. They could also have close combat weapons in troop options which was a step up from the vanilla codex.
Under 6th I think they are now underpowered as they don't really gain the benefits that the vanilla marines got from the new edition and they lost the ability to hide in their land raiders on top of objectives. This codex really needs an update, though to be fair I think they should be dropped and just brought into the vanilla dex. I don't see that they bring anything new to the table.

Blood Angels.
A horrible tough army to beat under 5th and even worse now under 6th. Depending on the player I really don't enjoy many games against this codex ( *cough* my nephew *cough* ). There are far too many twinky options that just make them far far too killy. Under 5th furisos dreadnoughts in drop pods or carried under a stormraven were the bane of my marines. At least under 6th if I can't hurt it I can at least run away and try to let something else have a go.
I think Blood Angels have done rather well out of the new edition. The combat rules favour them and as an army built for close combat they do well out of it. With power armout it is still tough to drop them with overwatch.

Chaos Daemons.
When this codex first came out it was horribly broken and twinky, and it remained that way throughout 5th edition. The only time Chaos Daemons seemed to lose a game was when the player wasn't focused or when he was up against a much more canny opponent. Khorne themed lists were a must for the most part because they had power weapons on their bloodletter troops (why? *shakes fist*). Now they have lost a lot of that focus under 6th as power weapons can't drop terminators and everyone is afraid of terminators. The codex does need an update but I feel GW will just make them stupidly powerful again when they do.

Chaos Marines.
Under 5th CSM players grumbled like all hell about how weak this codex was. I think they were smoking something because while not very fluffy, this army was extremely powerful. Ten to twenty man squads with the close combat weapon and pistol bonus attacks already overpowered the pathetic space marine tactical squads. Daemon princes were far too powerful and two was a common deployment. Obliterators too. But in balance they had units such as bikers, raptors and havocs that no one ever took.
As the first codex of 6th I think we have a good idea where GW are taking codexes for this edition, and this time we have a nice balanced codex. The cost of units seems fair and nothing stood out as being too good. This probably means that CSM players will still grumble. As the new codex has only been out for a few weeks at this point I think it will be a while before we get a real idea of how this army now plays.

Dark Angels.
There are really only two ways to play Dark Angels, either terminators as troops or bikes as troops. No one ever plays the bike list. With terminators being the run to list for the codex now what with changes to power weapons under 6th I think this is all we will see until they get a new codex. The army suffers in only one regard right now in my opinion and that is the lack of a flyer and rumours seem keen to say that they won't get one in the new book.
Despite the lack these days of something unique to call their own I think the Dark Angel codex is still very viable, tough and fun to play.

Dark Eldar.
Dark Eldar were pants until they got their 5th edition codex and then they became a nice balanced army. They had strong points; good in close combat, decent initiative and excellent long range heavy weapons. However I feel that 6th edition has screwed them royally. Their vehicles are more fragile than ever as small arms fire can just glance them to destruction and overwatch has blunted their close combat prowess. These days I feel that the only real way for Dark Eldar to win is if they take allies to shore up their weaknesses. Shame as the codex under 5th had a nice feel to it.

To be continued...

?

My blog has been very quiet of late. I think i ran out of things to comment upon. So I am going throw out to you guys and girls, give me some topics to write about and I'll see what I can do.

Update

Things have been really quiet of late. Club has been almost dead despite a fantasy league running, I've lost all interest in painting my marines and I think other than a few games with select people I may take a bit of a break from 40K.

Sometimes you need a nice break. Don't go away though. :-)

6th ed CSM codex review

Battle Report

While on patrol, the battle barge Sword of Endeavour picked up a faint distress call eminating from the world of Avacyn. Formally an Imperial world that fell to an unknown aggressor nearly ten years ago. Deviating from their course, the 4th company set down to investigate and found themselves under surprise attack from a company of Space Wolves. Unable to raise their commander, the Sons of Tantalus fought against their brothers for their very survival.

Played a 2000pt game against Muffin last night with the Big Guns Never Tire mission (4 objectives). Yet again I got that bloody awful corner deployment (Dear GW, why? It's just awkward!). I played my regular list with the addition of a Librarian and a regular pattern land raider.

Muffin's list was very unusual for him I thought but fair enough. Trying to remember it was something like two rune priests and a wolf lord, two squads of battle brothers, two long fang squads (one with missile launchers and one with plasma cannons), and two terminator squads. There might have been one or two more but I forget.

I haven't played against a space marine horde list for quite a while and it was a real pain to deal with. The two long fangs squads did most of the damage really, by blasting my rhino's apart and then striking the survivours with the blast templates. I lost my scouts early on who were holding one objective and forced me on to the defensive. After that it was just mass firepower and living lightning psychic attacks which screwed me. Random heavy shots and some meltaguns finished off my Redeemer before it could really do anything.

One interesting and infuriating event was the challenge between my captain and his wolf lord. We knocked a wound of each other and then made every armour save. They were locked in combat with 4 rounds and did sod all to each other. Not had that before.

When the game ended at the climax of round 5 it was obvious who had won. Muffin won 11 victory points to 4. Good game but rather annoying at the same time. Muffin has come a long way since he first started and that's good.

It is unknown why the Space Wolves attacked the Sons, but when the dust settled and the dead collected, a report was filed about their actions. The two chapters will not look at each other the same way ever again.

Possible new terrain/fortifications

Taken from fieldsofblood.com

Here are the terrain features on the list:

256145512010301 Tau Empire Nautilus Defence Platform

208282112050207 Eldar Webway Gate

200462312010203 Space Marine Astartes Battle Fortress Defence Wall

200462412010202 Space Marine Astartes Battle Fortress Tower / Pillar of Heroes

200462512340209 Space Marine Astartes Battle Fortress Monastery

201279412010205 Ork Gun Fortress / Mega Tellyporta

All of these bar the Webway Gate would seem to be able to use as fortifications.

Chaos Codex

My copy of the new Chaos Marine codex arrived this morning. I need to give it a proper read but even just flicking through I am very impressed. Look for a proper review later this week after I've read it (and my cold has gone).

Thoughts on plasma weapons?

Imperial Armour

Treat

With all the family issues causing me much stress recently I have decided to treat myself to a little something from Forge World... some Mk IV power armour marines and some classic style over the should heavy weapons.

 

I do love the look of the Mk IV helmets and am tempted to slowly buy a few more of these from FW to fill out the troops for my Sons of Tantalus chapter. As for the heavy weapons I remember that the 1st ed / Rogue Trader era heavy weapons were all this type carried over the shoulder and these look very similar in design.

Heldrake

I have to be honest... I do not like the look of this model. It looks like someone took the bits of a Helltalon or Hellblade fighter and stuck some dragon bits on it. Did GW need to do this? Why not just take the two chaos planes and make them plastic kits? I do not like that CSM are going weird and getting crazy machine monsters.

*shrugs*

Played a game against my mate Marko last night at the club. This was his first ever game of 6th edition. The problem is that Marko is a WAAC player who is infamous for his cheesy army builds and lately no one will play against him. You can understand his frustration so I offered to give him a game, even suggested he play Chaos Daemons but he wanted to go with Chaos Marines. Right there is where he went wrong. He usually plays twinky Khornate, Tzeentch or combined armies which are really powerful but this time he woefully underplayed.

His list was Abaddon (who ran around on his own with no meatshields), a chaos lord, three basic CSM squads with plasma gun and lascannon, two rhinos and two defilers.

Abaddon died because he ran out on his own to fight a TH/SS termie squad and got pummeled. Newbie mistake that he shouldn't have made. Thats 270 (275?) points wasted there and then.

At one point he managed to grab my objective (my base, your base mission) and was going to win if I didn't pull it out of the bag, but next turn I did and I won by two secondary objectives. In the end I lost five scouts, 3 marines and a gun from a predator. I have never seen Marko play so poorly.

But then to top it off, he goes off on one at how 6th edition has screwed over everything that was fun in the game. Now remember that this is his first game and it does take a little bit to get used to. He must have read the rulebook but still did silly things like heavy and special weapons in the front rank facing the oncoming fire.

It was a fun game but I expected more from him. I have a strange feeling that he may well drop out and that will be another club member gone since 6th came out.

The Stygia Campaign

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to some bods from the club (I forget who unfortunately) and the topic of how you could have a planetary campaign featuring all factions came up. Many years ago that is exactly what I planned for a couple of campaigns that we ran. Hunting through my files I found the backstory I had written for it. Just for enterainments sake here is the Stygian Campaign.

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Armageddon. Cadia. Vraks. Macgragge. These are wars so vast that no one will ever forget them. Now, in the waning years of the Imperium a new name has been added to that list, Stygia. A world located deep in the heart of the Ghoul Stars. A world that has become the centre point for every major power in the galaxy. A world whose fate may very well spell the salvation or damnation for the entire universe.

            Thousands of years before mankind crawled from the seas, the Eldar race had already been instrumental in the banishment of the Necrontyr, but found the universe still beset by warp entities from the Immaterium. Their seers knew of the Chaos Gods, and foresaw a time when the ruinous powers could collapse the walls between worlds and all would be lost. They scoured worlds where daemonic incursions had destroyed native species and laid traps for the most powerful daemons, drawing them from the warp and containing their essences within specially prepared devices called the Amarth-Thame ("Apocalypse Box"). By the time the seers declared an end to their work, they had contained the spirits of thousands of powerful warp entities within these devices. Now they needed somewhere to hide them away. Such a place was found along the rim of the galaxy, a newly forming world still primordial with a surface of molten rock. The Amarth-Thame were dropped into the churning core of the planet, hidden away but protected from the untamed forces of creation. Within a few generations knowledge of the Amarth-Thame had been forgotten amongst the petty desires of the Eldar race. The world that would be Stygia cooled and solidified. The artifacts were distributed across its surface, deep beneath the ground. Here the contained daemons slumbered and awaited a time when they would be freed to extract their wrath upon the galaxy.

Stygia was first discovered by humanity in M24 when a colony ship, the Endeavour, was swept of course in the warp by powerful storms that buffeted and pushed the ship far off its intended route. When finally, the ship's navigator was able to punch a hole back into the material universe they were in a region of space dominated by ancient and dying stars. Too far from Earth or its other colonies to make contact, the colonists looked for a new home out here. They found Stygia, a beautiful green world with vibrant blue oceans. After a brief exploration, this is where they decided to make their new home.

In M31, an exploratory ship moving ahead of the Great Crusade located Stygia and its colony. What they found disturbed the crew greatly. The colonists were living a simple lifestyle, living off the land but almost a third of the population exhibited mutation or unchecked psychic potential. The mutants, though accepted by their human counterparts, lived separate to them and had thus slowed the unnatural evolution of the humans on the planet. The world was logged but all concerns were swept aside when in the following year the Imperium was plunged into civil war. The Horus Heresy had begun.

Once again, Stygia was forgotten until 812.M41 when records of the planets existence were uncovered by an accident in the great libraries of the Administratum on Holy Terra. For some time now, space marines of the Death Spectres chapter had been stationed near the Ghoul Stars, fending off incursions from daemons and other warp entities, and word was dispatched to them to investigate the current situation on Stygia. When they arrived, they found that mutation had spread further through the population though no direct cause could be attributed. Those who were heavily mutated or were identified as latent psykers were eradicated by the Death Spectres and the planet forcibly converted into the Imperium. Local system lord, Salem Draco, paid a visit to the planet and decided that it would be perfect for an agri-colony, supplying the nearby systems with an abundance of food. The locals were put to work working the newly planted fields, or in the mines pulling precious ores to the surface. The surviving mutants, manyclassified as "beast men", fled into the untamed forests and hills to escape persecution or extermination. The planetary governor, Exon Valdez, set up his palace in the newly constructed city of Bludhaven.

Several years later, miners working the Drakkensgraab mines unearth and bring to the surface an unusual object bearing xenos markings. The first Amarth-Thame had been pulled from its resting place beneath Stygia. Concerned by this turn of events, Exon has the artifact dispatched to an Inquisitorial facility in a nearby system. Scholars of the Ordo Hereticus determined that the object was of Eldar manufacture and that the runes were of containment, and that they held the essence of Chaos. The Amarth-Thame was quickly secured within their fortress library behind multiple purity seals, for safekeeping. Over the next one hundred and fifty years, several more of these artifacts are uncovered and the concerns of the Inquisition grow.

Events come to a head in early 999.M41 when suddenly and without warning all the Amarth-Thame began to broadcast a psychic scream that penetrated the minds of all on Stygia. The scream echoes into the warp, affecting psykers across the galaxy, disturbing the sleep of ancient evils and drawing the armies of Chaos like bees to honey. Even the Tau whose species have no psykers were able to hear this call, though faintly. The Eldar farseers are affected worse than any other, feeling the rage of a thousand trapped daemons flooding through their souls. The Amarth-Thame have been unearthed and awakened.

Now, in the last days of the 41st millennium, every major race has descended upon Stygia.

Why We Fight…

Chaos Marines & Chaos Daemons.

The call of the daemons trapped within the Apocalypse Boxes has reached across the galaxy. Touching the minds of all who serve the Ruinous Powers, it calls them to battle, plunder and fire. Fleets of traitor ships are leaving the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom, and their strongholds throughout the galaxy are heading towards the Ghoul Stars. Daemons claw their way through the weak fabric of reality, stepping onto the surface of Stygia. Soon this world will burn and the entities within the Amarth-Thame will be freed.

Grey Knights & Sisters of Battle.

The Inquisition has been aware that something is afoot on Stygia for some time and has planned for just such an event. Grey Knights and Inquisitorial forces have been drawn from their secret places and now bolster the defences of Stygia. Under the guidance of one High Inquisitor Butlerian, the armies of the Inquisition fight to uncover and safely deal with the xenos artifacts and any heretic forces that have arrived.

Dark Eldar.

The Dark Eldar have raided Stygia for centuries, taking slaves and generating fear among the colonists. Drawn again to Stygia by the cry of the Amarth-Thame, these piratical Eldar see the war as a great opportunity to conduct their attacks with impunity. Let the lesser races fight one another, while they sow disorder and reap the benefits.

Eldar.

Memories of the Amarth-Thame have resurfaced and the Elder rush to Stygia. They have found the foolish humans uncovering things better left alone. Reading the fickle winds of fate, the seers of the Eldar know that this war will determine the fate of the entire galaxy. Either humanity will rise from this stronger or else they will usher in a new age of Chaos. Neither event favours the Eldar, but they cannot sit back and do nothing. The Eldar ride to war.

Necrons.

The psychic scream of the Amarth-Thame have disturbed the Necron who still slumber under dead worlds in the Ghoul Stars. The psychic scream interferes with their machines, awaking them early and causing great pain. The Necrons have begun to materialise upon Stygia, harvesting life forces and seeking a way to silence the incessant scream that interferes with their operation.

Orks.

Orks are drawn to conflict, and even they sense that something big is going down. Across the galaxy Orks are leaving battlefields to follow larger fleets that are headed into the rim of known space. Most Ork vessels are destroyed before reaching orbit but a few have managed to get past the great fleets above and crash into the surface of Stygia. It matters not to the Orks what this fight is about, they just won't be left out of it.

Space Marines & Imperial Guard.

The might of the Emperor's finest have been redirected to Stygia by the planetary governor and the Inquisition. The PDF has been augmented by troops from Cadia, Valhalla and other fortress worlds, while companies of Space Marines are deployed across the surface of Stygia. This world belongs to the Emperor and they fight to ensure it remains so.

Tau.

The Tau high command has sensed an opportunity with the growing conflict on Stygia. Their race has no knowledge of warp travel, but intercepted communications hint at the presence of artifacts from the warp. If such artifacts could be recovered and returned to the enclaves, the Tau would gain a significant advantage. Under cover, the Tau have managed to sneak a force onto the surface of Stygia in an effort to recover the Amarth-Thame for the Greater Good.

Tyranids.

The psychic scream of Amarth-Thame has even blotted out the shadow in the warp. Disorientated and lost without a connection to the greater hive mind, a Tyranid bio-ship entered the Stygia system and was engaged by picket vessels of the Imperium. Confused, the ship was no match for the enemy and crashed through the atmosphere, its carcass spewing spores in a last ditch effort to ensure the survival of its brood. However, the Amarth-Thame have prevented the emergent Tyranids from connecting to a single hive mind and those hives that have sprung up and survived have become single entities. Reports from the Ordos Xenos have even indicated that rival hives have fought and consumed one another in a savage survival of the fittest.

Apocalypse Review

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Now, I love the look of the new Chaos models in this set but I do find myself wishing that they would go back to how Chaos Marines looked under 1st ed (Rogue Trader). They weren't just spikey marines they looked like these new guys, all twisted and mutated by their devotion to the dark gods.

That last one... GW did a whole range of heavy weapon CSM at the time, and most of them had mutations. I had one that had a skull head on a long neck with a flamer of tzeench's body. Another had three arms, one of which was a tentacle holding the base of the heavy wepaon. These were much better than the spikey marines they do now. The look of the DV box CSM remind me much more of the 1st ed marines. I hope they keep this design with upcoming releases.

IG vs Marines

A couple nights ago I played my friend Matt in what is supposedly our first ever 40K game together. Not going to cover the report as it has largely slipped around in my head and his blog does it more justice.

You can read it here.

I expected tank heavy and was not dissapointed. Despite that I decided to stick to my current standard list even though I didn't think it would do much to several tanks. I have never done well against Guard. Far too much concentrated firepower for marines to survive and some awesome cross table heavy weapons that wreck my Rhino's and Land Raiders. Under 6th they are exactly the same.

My biggest problem when facing Guard is that I find myself unable to properly coordinate target priority. For example, in this game I really wanted to do away with his heavy weapon teams but by the time my Redeemer got there I had already decimated the lascannon threats and then what? But then I don't play against Guard often enough (only two Guard players locally) to develop a proper play style against them.

I lost the game partly because of that and also because the mission where the objectives have different values, and Matt started with two high point ones in his deployment right behind an Aegis line.

A very good game. One of the more enjoyable of late.

Dark Vengeance

I wasn't going to bother but I may just get this for the models. It would be nice to have a small Dark Angels and Chaos Marines (Word Bearers) army. Will see once it comes out.

Rumours

I've been reading through some rumours today for 40K. First up is a converstion kit for Sternguard. Resin bits including (and about time too dagnamit!) a combi-flamer. Finally. Only taken you how long to do that GW? But could be a nice handy dandy kit to get.

Secondly is the idea that the soon to be released DA codex and general FAQs will be giving missile launchers the anti-air missiles but by replacing the standard missiles. That makes no sense at all. I can see a points upgrade to have them as a third option but replacement just seems dumb. No one would bother since it makes the missile launcher guy far too specific.

Something else that has been bothering me lately is how the progress of the game is going to influence the use of flyers. At the moment flyers are proving to be a nice addition to the game. 6's needed to hit them but they are not so good that they unbalance the game. The problem that I can see is that as soon as all this anti-air hits the shelves, everyone is going to take it and suddenly flyers will not be worth playing anymore.

Forge World: Horus Heresy

And so it begins (again), and (again) a trailer that shows you nothing useful.

Battle Report

Last night at the club I played a friendly game against Joel. His first game of 6th edition. I played my 1500pt default list of marines, and he played a Tyranid list. I was expecting to face Eldar with wraithguard and wraithlords so this was kinda nice.

The deployment was the awful table corners (I forget the name) and the mission was three objectives. We both put an objective in our table corners and I had the third which I put as close to my side as I could hoping to keep them from the oncoming horde.

With his initial deployment of guants and a tervigon I was a little concerned but ultimately it didn't prove as irritating as it used to under 5th ed for some reason. First turn was night fight so I just tried to knock some wounds off his tervigon and he just crept forward.

Turn 2 and I continued to pour fire into the gaunts dropping loads of them and holding him back. His turn saw a winged hive tyrant, trygon and two zoanthropes (mycetic spores) drop out of reserve. The Trygon fires bioplasma and drops most of my scout squad guarding my main objective. The hive tyrant destroys one rhino leaving the marines standing in a crater pointing their guns at him. Zoanthropes knock a HP from the land raider redeemer.

Turn 3 and my Stormtalon turns up and blows the snot out of the trygon, and the scouts drop it to 1 wound remaining. Stormbolter on a rhino forced the winged hive tyrant to make a check which it failed, falling to the ground and taking a wound. The squad just a few inches away unload everything and slay the beast! Yay me! My captain and TH/SS terminators leap from my land raider and assault the zoanthropes who die far too easily.
His trygon assaults the scouts and kills them with ease, and the gaunts try to assault but three squads of them fail to reach even average distance and just sit there. At this point I think the game is likely to be a draw as we both hold an objective, he has first blood and I have the warlord kill, with the third objective likely to be contested.

Turn 4 his gaunts surround my terminators and assault them in huge waves, and the other squads leap onto the squad in the open. My second tactical squad retreats to hold my primary objective. Predator shots kill the trygon, and the Stormtalon hovers and opens fire onto the one gaunt squad it can still fire at.
His shooting takes out the Stormtalon which was irritating, but it had done well enough that I'm not complaining. His turn was pretty much just combat slowly whittling away at the two squads he's fighting.

Turn 5 was more combat and then finally he took out my captain and terminators and consolidated into my deployment zone. Matt rolled the dice and the game ended giving Joel the 1vp he needed to win.

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For some reason which I can't quite fathom this game was much easier than any other game I've had against tyranids. The only thing I can think of is that the overwatch and random charge helped me keep them back long enough to give me extra turns. Also, the trygon and hive tyrants have never been so easy to kill. Perhaps it was the plasma rather than meltas that helped?

Joel is not an easy opponent and he takes his fairly lengthy time but that was a good game.

Stormtalon

Spent this evening working on the Stormtalon for my Sons of Tantalus chapter. She iswn't finished but the base colours are in place. Rakarth Flesh is a nice colour but it needs two or three coats to do it right where as one was fine for my captain. I'll be finishing her off probably over the weekend and then it's working on two tactical squads.

Battle for Tyken's Rift - 2013 Leagues

1. All games have a maximum limit of 1750pts.

2. The league will be split into two leagues of equal size. League #1 is for codex only games, and league #2 is for Forge World games. Each player will play each other player in their league once. Each round will (hopefully) be on a fortnightly basis (week 1 is league A, week 2 is league B, week 3 is league A, for example).

3. If you do not think for any reason that you cannot commit to the league schedule nor stay committed to the end then respectfully, please do not sign up.

4. At the start of the league each player specifies one codex that they will be using for the duration. Lists are not fixed and can be changed between rounds once players know who their opponent is and what the upcoming mission is.

5. Missions will be core rulebook and Battle Missions, using the Ultimate Challenge method. Missions 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 will be the equivilent Death World missions (Battle Missions expansion) from White Dwarf #388 (April 2012).

6. Missions will be known in advance, giving players a fortnight to plan their list around their opponent's codex and the mission.

7. To update the Battle Missions scenarios to 6th edition, the following changes are being made:

* All objective missions will use the VP method, with objectives being worth 3VP.
*Secondary objectives will be used in all games.
*Night fighting and reserves rules from the 6th edition rulebook override those in Battle Missions.
*All objectives in objective missions will use the Mysterious Objectives rules.

8. Each game will have D2 random special terrain (table has been drawn up, see below) plus a Mysterious Forest.

9. If your army receives a new codex during the run of the league, you must do your best to upgrade as quickly as possible.

11. League scoring is 3vp for a win, 2vp for a draw, and 1vp for a loss.

The start date is currently the first week of February 2013

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Random special terrain generator

1. Ammunition dump.
2. Comms relay.
3. Fuel reserve.
4. Shield generators.
5. Warp storm. Page 367.
6. Minefield.
7. Archeotech artifact.
8. Shrine to chaos.
9. Imperial statuary.
10. Gun emplacement.
11. Lightning storm. Page 367.
12. Seismic cataclysm. Page 367.



Imperial Guard codex review

Forgeworld to do Horus Heresy

It looks like Forge World are going to be doing several Imperial Armour books based on the Horus Heresy. Does anyone else feel that the Heresy is being flogged to death by Games Workshop? Quite frankly I don't see love that people seem to have for it.

The Heresy novel series has been running for about four years now and still we haven't got very far in the overall story. I fear that it'll be ten more years, give or take, before it wraps up. That is far too much. A dozen books should have covered it. In other words it should be done by now.

The game is set at the end of the 41st millennium, not ten thousand years ago. The Heresy is part of the background fluff and IMO it should remain there. Let's focus on the here and now please.