Squats!

Way back in the day when 1st edition (called Rogue Trader back then) came out the game was much more fantasy in space mixed with the feel of 2000AD (a British sci-fi comic from the 70's & 80's). While the game didn't have Chaos until a couple years later, it did come with space elves, space orcs, space ogres and space halflings. It also had space dwarves known as Squats who were allied to the Imperium.
The problem was that Squats never really got a good shot at the game. I still have the original 1st edition Squat army list and they were a sort of weird biker army with a few heavy weapons. Games Workshop were never happy with the take they had and somewhere during the reign of 2nd edition they made the move of having them devoured by the Tyranids. For all intents and purposes the Squat race was dead.

But then in the late 1990's GW made mention of a race allied to the Tau called Demiurg. While there was no pictures or descriptions of the race itself they did get a ship in the Battlefleet Gothic game. Then a few years later a piece of concept art made the rounds.

Looks like a space dwarf to me anyway. Now in the last years worth of rumours it has been repeated over and over again by many that the new Tau Empire codex for 2012 will allow Demiurg as a playable race. Take the appropriate HQ and it unlocks Demiurg as troops. It also sounds like there will be a special character and a heavy weapon team type of unit as well. Which basically gives me hope that it will be possible to play a full Squat, sorry, Demiurg army again.
However, there is also a rumour circulating that GW still doesn't want to bring back the space dwarf and Demiurg are being turned into little stone men-like aliens. I will not be happy if this is true. I want my Squats dagnamit! There are people out here in the real world who want to see the return of the Squats, so GW sort it out.

Anywho, the Squat army is in my blood at the moment and I'm looking around for potential miniatures to use assuming rumours are accurate, the GW ones look awful or Demiurg become stone people. So far I have bought myself the 2009 White Dwarf mail subscription miniature:

I love the mini and want to use this as my HQ. Actual Squat minis on EBay are going for stupid prices and I refuse to even look there. Instead I found a company called Mantic who have just released a sci-fi wargame called Warpath (written by Calvatore who wrote 40K 5th edition). So far the only armies released for it are Forge Fathers (space dwarves) and Maruaders (space orcs).  They are the same scale as 40K, plastic for the most part and a hell of a lot cheaper. So I have ordered myself a set of their standard soldiers:

Click to enlarge for a better look. So far they also have a heavy weapon team, a thudgun type tracked cannon, terminator army looking guys (though they don't look as good) and a special character. I really want the special character but I doubt I'll get an accurate weapon load out to represent him:

The only issue I have right now other then desperately wanting to know more about the Demiurg in the new codex is if not, what codex would I use for my Squat army?

Chaos Space Marine codex review

Not too happy how this vid came out. Bit too negative really but it's how I feel about this one.

League Game #4

A couple days ago I met up with Aven my next opponent for the league so I could crush his Dark Eldar. Our mission was Cut & Run from the battle missions book, with Aven as the attacker.

His list was:

Archon 60pts, huskblade 35pts, haywire grenades 5 pts, combat drugs 10pts, shadow field 30pts, webway portal 35pts

Incubi 22pts x5 (mounted in raider 60pts (with archon), with darklance, flickerfields 10pts, retro fire jets 5pts)
Incubi 22pts x5
Incubi 22pts x5

Wyches 10pts x8, hydra gauntlets 10pts, haywire grenades 2pts x8, hekatrix 10pts, agoniser 20pts
Wyches 10pts x8, hydra gauntlets 10pts, haywire grenades 2pts x8, hekatrix 10pts, agoniser 20pts
Kabalite warriors 9pts x5 (mounted in raider 60pts, with darklance, flickerfields 10pts, retro fire jets 5pts)
Kabalite warriors 9pts x5 (mounted in raider 60pts, with darklance, flickerfields 10pts, retro fire jets 5pts)

Reavers 22pts x 3, heat lance 12pts, cluster caltrops 20pts
Reavers 22pts x 3, heat lance 12pts, cluster caltrops 20pts

Talos 100pts, chainflails 10pts, add close combat weapon 15pts, twin linked haywire blaster 5pts
Razorwing 145pts, splinter cannon 10pts, flickerfield 10pts
Razorwing 145pts, splinter cannon 10pts, flickerfield 10pts

He set up his forces first but I chose to keep everything off the table thus forcing him to remain on the table for at least at extra turn. Fortunately for me the majority of my army came on in the first reserve roll and I managed to get a couple kill points for dropping a pair of raiders. For the duration of the game the scores were pretty close with both of us securing the lead but ultimately Aven managed to claim the victory.

This was an awesome game. Very close all the way through. Aven didn't power play and took the game casual. I really wish more of my regular opponents played the same way.

Annoyingly though we played a friendly game afterwards randomly determined from the rulebook and I managed to crush Aven 9 kill points to 5. Why can't I do that in a campaign game? LOL!

League Scores week 2

So far it looks like Jon is on to a winner. Will his streak last?

7: Jon Quinn.
6: Luke Townsend, Aven Taylor, and Joel Tate.
3: Simon Butler, Mike Parker Mark Thomas, Dan Durham, and Richard Curr.
1: Mark Allen.
0: Colin Goodman, Ian Turner, Matt Gibson, Brian White, and Adam Townsend.

League scores - week 1

Tonight at the Primarchs the first round officially started, though a couple games have already been played. At the moment scores are:

6pts: Jon Quinn and Joel Tate.
3pts: Luke Townsend, Simon Butler, Mark Thomas, Dan Durham, and Richard Curr.
0pts: Colin Goodman, Matt Gibson, Aven Taylor, Brian White, and Adam Townsend.

Star Trek Clix

6th ed rules - fact or fake?

As you may or may not know there has been a supposed leaked version of the 6th edition 40K rules. I'm not impressed and I pray to the gods that this is just some well written fan thing, because I don't like these changes. I hope GW keep to the basic 5th edition rules and just tweak a few things.