Pestilence and Decay

Two months ago I thought about trying to get back into 40K by changing my play style and developing a new space marine army, the Scions of Mars. Well, that never got going and my enthusiasm waned yet again. At the end of January I had a bit of a boost. I was watching my friend Joel and his daemons army crushing a Thousand Sons force by utilizing the new malefic psychic powers. Swarm after swarm of pink horrors warping onto the battlefield and it lit that spark again.

This time it isn't for those loyalist marines but for an unbound Chaos force. Specifically Death Guard and Nurgle daemons. Always had a bit of a soft spot for the pestilent one and I am surprised to say that my enthusiasm is still strong.

I thought I'd take this late night moment to post some WiP photos. Sorry for the quality. All I have to take them with is my camera phone.

Typhus himself. I decided that rather than the usual green colour scheme that I would go with something more resembling the old pre-Heresy colours. I figure it'll make him stand out a bit on the battlefield. I'm also pondering giving him a terminator bodyguard squad and I may paint them the same colour.

Cholic, sorcerer of Nurgle. This is a very much WiP figure as I can't quite get the face and horns right. He's the fantasy chaos sorcerer figure but I wanted something to look a bit different than the regular models. Somewhere I have the normal 40K chaos sorcerer figure (painted as Emperor's Children I think) who shall be redone as Ebolas, favoured sorcerer of Typhus.

This Helbrute I bought ages ago when I was thinking of doing Chaos marines before. I almost sold him and I'm glad that I didn't. He's the figure so far that I am most pleased with. 

Other than these I also have enough figures to build two twenty man Death Guard squads. Mostly regular CSM but with a handful proper plague marines thrown in for appearance. There is also a box of plaguebearers sitting on the shelf to join them as well.

Not sure how I feel about vehicles yet as traditionally the Death Guard are ground pounders whose tanks fell apart centuries ago. I also don't want any of those silly daemon engines. I just can't see the Death Guard utilizing something like that too much. 

Tomorrow night is going to be a painting evening to get some of those plague marines done. Photos as I get them done.

Scions of Mars

Although my interest in Warhammer 40K has waned considerably over this past year for various reasons I haven't fully dropped the game. In preparing our clubs upcoming 2015 league I have had thoughts about coming back fresh with a new insight to the game. I feel that I've been too hung up on a few things about the new edition.

I'm not going to be partaking in the league this time around. Instead I am going to be using 2015 to design and build a new army. Last year I tried playing Tau for the first time and was horribly disappointed. It does seem that space marines are the only army that I enjoy playing. I have my Sons of Tantalus (about 1750pts worth) but I want to try something different. I normally rush through these things but I am going to use this year to slowly build and properly paint a new chapter, the Scions of Mars.

The idea for them came about because the Sons of Tantalus chapter I built used the Ultramarines chapter traits which quite frankly I found next to useless. I don't think I have ever had the opportunity to use them during a game. One test game using the Iron Hands chapter tactics proved far more effective although I still lost the engagement. Using the B&C marine painter webpage I came up with the image above as my chosen colour scheme for them. As I want them to be closely aligned with the Cult Mechanicum of Mars I am going to need to get my hands on as many of the mechanicus shoulder guards as possible.

Conquest Basic Faction Overview

I've been playing Conquest on and off for a few weeks now. Losing mostly, but that's because my opponents have bought more than one starter and at the moment I can't afford to do so. Even so I am finding it a very entertaining game although I wish I could get my head around exactly what I need to do with each faction to win. This is my thoughts on the factions available right now.

Space Marines.
I love Space Marines in 40K and always have so I have been trying to get these to work more than any other faction. On paper they seem quite strong and the area effect mechanic that some have is really good. Some units seem a little over costed though but I have that issue with most of FFG's card games.
Space Marines seem to be the faction to go all out on securing the three planets first and foremost. Hard hitting enough to snatch one early on and force your opponent to catch up.

Astra Millitarum Imperial Guard.
Sorry, not calling them Astra Millitarum. They are the Imperial Guard. At first glance this faction looks good but in truth they seem weak in actual play. So much so that I've used them as allies in my Space Marine deck because I don't think they'll work as the primary for now.
Lots of cheap-ish units that allow you to deploy over multiple planets thus allowing you the chance to secure resources before trying to snatch planets from your opponent.

Eldar.
As in the war game the Eldar faction is a little too good though not broken. A mix of handy units though low in wounds as it should be. Eldar seem more driven to wasting your war lord than winning through planets which I find irksome. If I remember right they are also the only faction that can easily return cards from the discard which gives them a big advantage.
Eldar are able to go straight for the Planet win or play the long game gathering resources. My experience is that they tend to just go for your war lord and win that way though. Boring.

Dark Eldar.
I haven't played this faction yet but have played against it many times. This faction isn't very strong at the moment but it can be very infuriating. They exhaust (tap) units and reduce attack values until your forces are worthless. As I say, it makes playing against them just frustrating and boring to play against. They do work well as an ally for the Eldar making them even worse.
I'm sure exactly how Dark Eldar should be played. I am guessing they go for the long game or the war lord kill same as the craftworld Eldar.

Orks.
The Ork faction is an odd one. By looks of it your units should get themselves wounded and then run roughshod over everything your opponent has. My experience is that they get to do it once and then get killed off meaning that you have to play things in waves almost. At the moment I am more likely to play them as allies to Chaos or the Imperial Guard.
Orks are like Space Marines in that they are probably best played to snatch the first planet as quickly as possible and force your opponent to catch up.

Chaos.
Chaos seems to be to be the strongest faction in the game right now. A mix of very hard units and some extremely powerful combos involving daemons should see them smash through any non-Chaos opponent. They are another faction that I really don't want to play against until I can get some more cards or another starter. It may well be that if my regular foes were using one starter that Chaos might not be so bad.
The Chaos faction seems to have the ability to go for the first planet win, capture resources and focus on the enemy war lord making it difficult to handle them.

Tau.
I quite like Tau from playing them in a couple games. They seem comparable to Space Marines but with more shooting and less area effect cards. They really need a second starter though to get the important cards. I've seen them played with some effect as allies to Eldar and Space Marines so maybe for now that is the way to play them.
Tau look like they are better at securing resources first and foremost before trying to grab planets. With enough resources they should be able to plonk down their big units and annoying cards and win.

Now to wait for the first set of expansions and the arrival of the Necrons and Tyranids.

40K Conquest

I've started playing the new living card game from Fantasy Flight Games based on 40K called Conquest.

Like pretty much everything FFG puts out it is good quality, reused artwork and comes with more tokens and playing chits than you can shake a force weapon at. However, unlike most of their games, Conquest isn't unnecessarily complex. In fact it is quite the opposite, being easy to learn and the playing time is about half an hour based upon the games I've played thus far. It seems to be based in part on the old Warhammer 40K card game by Sabretooth Games but simplified and more player friendly.

The idea of the game is to capture the planets of the Traxis sector by winning command struggles (resources and cards basically) and by capturing the first planet. There are ten planets presently but you only ever play the first seven randomly drawn from the deck. Each planet has one, two or three coloured icons, and victory is determined by being the player who captures three planets with matching coloured icons.

In the starter box there are several factions: space marines, imperial guard, chaos, orks, eldar, dark eldar and tau empire. In a future expansion necrons and tyranids will be added to the roster.

So far I think the game has good potential and as a LCG you don't need to be chasing down boosters for the rare cards. Each month sees a 60 card pack released so that everyone has the same cards and the same pool to draw upon.

At present I have only the one starter though I think as usual for an LCG you really want two just to get the extra cards. As I have been playing against opponents with two or three starters I have not done very well at all outside of the first few games. At the moment I am trying a space marine deck with imperial guard allies. They seem good at dealing damage but not so good in winning me the command struggle so I tend not to be able to play my more expensive cards and units.

I know I'm not so good at explaining games like this so here is the tutorial video. Enjoy.

7th ed - first thoughts

Last night I had my first game of 7th edition against my friend Jon. Two space marine armies both fairly basic (Ultramarines vs Iron Hands) just to get my head around how things now play. We didn't manage a full game due to time constraints but we managed four or five rounds I think.

So for the most part I thought it was ok. Perhaps having a few months break from the game did me good though I am still not sure that I am going to buy into it again. Cost, time and personal niggles will probably prevent that for the time being.

So what didn't I like? Lets start there.

Psychic tests. This now plays like the magic phase of Warhammer Fantasy. I much preferred it as it was under the previous edition. Not a major grumble but a game change that I can't see the reason for doing unless both games are becoming much closer systems.

That is it. I am sure that somewhere there is something that never cropped up but other than the psychic system no complaints.

What stood out as being a big thumbs up?

Mission objectives. Initially I was a little ambivalent about this. Oh yes, another gimmick. But in fairness I have to agree with Jon that they made the game more interesting and less about just blasting the opponent into little bits. I don't think it will stop people doing that. It is still a very competitive game after all but if you can nudge players into playing my objectives then I this gets a thumbs up from me.

We shall see whether it pulls me back or not though I did flick through the space marine codex before bed last night and pondered it.

Update

I haven't been around for a good while. Real life has taken a real pain in the backside turn this year and events have eaten up a lot of the time I'd normally post on here.

Basically at the moment I am on a hiatus from 40K. A mixture of prices, cashflow and a general dislike of the new edition have driven me from the game so I am taking an extended break for the time being.

Codex Tyranid Traits

 

 

 

 



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