Friday 27 March 2015

Sisters of Battle

Well, Skitarii (aka AdMech), are here, and I'm slightly underwhelmed. I don't mean that in a bad way, just that it doesn't float my boat, so to speak. There are still a lot more models and rules to come, but I really can't get excited about the new faction and I really don't know why. They are an Imperium faction with decent looking models and rules, but their is just something about them that I don't like. I'll have to see what the rest of the releases are like before I really make up my mind though.

All the rumours going around has sparked the age old questions and rumours about everyone's favourite bolter babes, the Sisters of Battle. Personally, if this release had been a sisters release, then I would have been jumping for joy and raiding the petty cash draw for every last penny! But, alas, it appears that plastic Sisters are still some way out, although the possibility is still out there.

Personally, I would love to add a Sisters contingent to my Inq detachment, with added plasma servitors. The Sisters would add the weight, with maxed out 20 sister strong squads with a couple of Seraphim squads flying about all backed up with Dominions and Retributors, with melta by the bucket load. Maybe not the greatest list in the world, but a very fluffy one.

Hopefully, one day Sisters will get a plastic release and then the fun can begin! Provided of course, I've finished every other project!

Friday 20 March 2015

An Attempt Fan Fiction

Right, this is a little piece of fiction that I've been thinking about. Now I'm no writer, so this will be rough, with a capital R, but I'm going to put it out there anyway.

"Sergeant"
.......
"Sergeant Maxen"
.......
"SERGEANT MAXEN"

"Yes, Demi-Sargent Ilar"

"Large rebel group approaching from the south west, intercept in 45 minutes"

"Is the target present"

"Target is presented"

"Continue over watch, secure evac route" not that Demi-sergeant Ilar would need such instructions.

Dam, why were they coming from the south west, they were supposed to be coming from the north west! 5 days laying in wait and they may end up getting trampled by hundreds of rebels, dam AM intelligence! Hopefully they will avoid the thick woods and marsh and keep to the road. At least with the ford ahead they will have little choice but to move in to the kill zone.

"Squad Epsilon, Target approaching, intercept in 40 minutes, ready all weapons, prepare for fighting withdrawal"

Even with his enhanced hearing the sounds of the squad around him preparing their weapons and bodies to react were barely audible, a good sign, even after all this time laying silently and still in the damp ground, his marines remained unaffected. He looked to his own weapon and started to run though the standard checks, testing the magazine, the bolt and a dozen other items. At the same time, he tensed and relaxed each muscle in his body, ensuring that each was ready for an rapid and instant  response should one be needed.

"Target moving north of location, 20 minutes to intercept"

Good, so luck at last. He thumbed a response and a green light lit up in his helmet to show it had been received. It was time to prepare mentally for the task I hand. A prayer to the Emperor and the Dorm and a blessing to his bolter, Some Concentration. The name still brought a smile to his face, even after all these years.

"Recruit Maxen, what are you doing!"

"Sergeant?"

"Your supposed to be shooting the target NOT the wall! Some days I wonder if you could hit a Thunderhawk with that bolt pistol, even if you were standing INSIDE the blessed thing! You'll never hit anything with out some concentration."

The next day they had been handed their personal weapons and from the first moment that he had laid eyes on the battered old bolter, only one thought had come to mind. While the other recruits had taken the existing names engraved by the previous recruit or had thought of new names, such as vengeance, destroyer, justice and slayer, he had only one name in mind, Some Concentration. While others had received their new bolters upon becoming full battle brothers, he had kept his and carried it all these years. With it he had become the best shot in the company and one of the best in the Chapter, and that way why he was here.....

His concentration was broken by the twinkling of comms lights in his helmet, two of the marines were talking. He opened up the channel to listen in.

"Confirmed, I have visual, targets entering Beta teams arcs"

So the target was entering the kill zone, sticking to the road and the dry ground, a good sign, maybe this wasn't going to be a disaster after all.

"Sergeant, Target entering kill zone"

"Confirmed"

He could see the target now, the old man was not as impressive as he thought he would be, but it was always the same. It was hard to believe at times, but the story was always the same, this old man had raised the population of Hjaltland in to rebellion with tales of freedom and democracy. Yet here he was, looking fat and well fed, his rich clothes flowing in the wind as he was fanned and carried aloft on a luxurious sedan by half starved, sweating men and women, while hundreds more followed along hoping for some hand out or another. His key followers could be seen similarly dressed and looking well fed and watered, trailing directly in his wake, acting like gods amongst men. There would be no glory today, just cold hard retribution and justice.

Maxen raised his bolter in to position and squinted slightly down the scope, reading off all the targeting information.

"5 minutes till intercept, stand ready"

A little longer and a little closer, then it would be his job to eliminate the target and the rest of the squad would take out any of the retinue that they could, hopefully killing off the power behind the rebellion. Although this would normally be a scout units job, the lack of available scouts and the importance of the mission meant that it had fallen to Squad Epsilon and himself.

"2 minutes"

This was it, the target was in the kill zone and in range. He drew his breath and thumbed the mic switch.....

VISUAL OVERLOAD...........
VISUAL SENSORS COMPENSATING.......

As his vision cleared he could see the crowd of rebels recoiling and the targets sedan was no longer in sight, but what caught the attention of the sergeant most, was the figures that had appeared across the ford, Scions. Not many of them, and now that the crown was reacting and weapons were appearing, not nearly enough of them.

"Target lost!!"

Maxen looked back to the crowd, the target was gone, the sedan lying discarded and broken on the floor, but he knew where to look as he scanned the back of the rebels. There he was, hurrying away like the coward he was, and they had the nerve to slander the Emperors name. When did He every run from the enemy. Maxen took aim with his bolter, zeroing in on the target as it moved through the crowd.

"Stand by to withdraw on my order"

He squinted down the scope, waiting for the shot. Waiting for that moment when the target would be in full view, even if only for a second.

He felt the bolter recoiled in to his shoulder, he felt the motion through his armour as if it was his own skin. He watched as the targets head exploded in a cloud of red and white, while the now lifeless corpse collapsed to the ground. He could see the reaction of the crowd around the dead body, recoiling in horror and shock. His job done, he took one last look at the scene, weapons had appeared on the rebel side, in quite some numbers, more than he would have expected and the Scions were starting to feel the effects of the rebels numbers.

"Beta squad withdraw, alpha squad prepare to over watch"

As the squad started to withdraw, marine Tegid spoke up

"Are we to support the Scions?"

"Negative, we withdraw as planned" This was not the time for action, they were outnumber and did not have any support elements in place.

"I don't think they'll need our support" can a reply from demi-sergeant Ilar.

Maxen was about to ask that mean when the roar of jet engines became clear and three Valkyries came roaring over head, multiple launch rocket pods spitting death, door gunners leaning out firing their heavy bolters randomly and indiscriminately in to the crowd.

"Withdraw at speed, we move to the extraction point at half run, weapons free, eliminate targets as necessary, move, move, move"

The tone of his voice left little doubt as to the urgency of the message, the last thing that the sergeant wanted was to get caught in the crossfire. The Valkyries rockets and Scions HS lasguns could make short work of the squad if they weren't careful.

One last look back at the kill zone before the marines disappear over the hill showed a scene of carnage, with bodies all over the place, the scions advancing over the ford, with the now hovering Valkyries, continuing to pore rockets, multilaser shots and heavy bolter shells in the fleeing rebels. It was uncertain whether the full retinue of the heretic's had been eliminated, but whatever the case, the rebels had been dealt a blow this day and the Emperors Disciples had opened their campaign on Hjaltland with a successful mission.

Friday 13 March 2015

A new plan???

Right, I think that I may need a new plan for KotN, not to drastic a rethink but enough of one to warrent some proper thought. At present I'm looking at a primary detachment, an allied detachment and a formation, but I'm thinking of changing the allied and formation for a second detachment.

There are several reasons for this, the first being that I'm using the allied detachment to get my Sternguard unit in using the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics, but this is of little use as the main one, Bolter Drill, doesn't work when firing special issue ammo, which they will be doing for the majority of the time and secondly, although the formation rules are good, I think I can gain better benefits from using the Blood Angles Detachment rules. The formation looses the +1I on assault, which when combined with a priest for +1WS and FNP, will make the Vanguard better, add in a Chaplin with a full assault squad and I believe it will work out better than the formation.

In reality, my list is not going to be tailored to anything, it's more of just a collection of units and an excercise to see how many different units I can take in one army. But I'm starting to think that a rethink of the core unit is what's needed to get all the units I want with all the upgrades I want in to the list.

If I wanted to give the top place a good shot, I would be bringing my full MT force with additional melta and plasma gunners, the Vanguard Strike Force with tooled up vets and both my fliers, although I'd have to figure a way to get the Vendetta in with the smallest, cheapest IG force I could. I'd use the IG to anchor the line behind an aegis, deep strike all the rest where they could do the most damage with their ap3 HS guns and lightening claws or power swords. It could be fun, but I'm not bothered about the top spot and it would be weird having so few IG models on the table!

Last minute edit!; Just had another loom through this and major, and I mean MAJOR miscalculation! So as a result a second rethink was called for and thins time I think I've cracked it! How? Well I'm back to a primary and an allied, but placing my Knights as the primary and the Hjaltland as allies. This means that I can take all the SM units; Priest, 2 Tacs, Sternguard, Vanguard, and an Assault Squad with the IG units being; Company Command, with Priest, Psykers and Commissars (non-FoC), MT platoon, Inf Platoon, Wyvern Sqn and Vendetta. This is the beauty of the plan, using the IG structure, taking just on one choice doesn't become a problem, after all a one choice doesn't mean one vehicle! So, the MT platoon will consist of a Command Squad and two Squads, the Inf platoon consists of a platoon command and 4 squads and the wyvern squadron will contain 2 vehicles. This still gives me a large presence of IG with out taking up a large amount of FoC slots. I'm hopeful to get a game in soon and test this list out to its full potential.

Friday 6 March 2015

Model count

Right, I've been through my models and taken an inventory of everything I own. This was for two reasons, one I didn't actually know what I owned and two I keep buying stuff for projects with out actually knowing what I've already got! Not a good situation to be in!

So what do I own? Well, I've got a lot!

Currently I have 331 guardsmen, consisting of officers, medics, vox casters, flamers, plasma gunners, grenade launchers plus lots of other models. Also within that number there are 180 lasgun armed grunts and 33 heavy weapons, 6 of each type with an extra 3 missile launchers. In addition to the standard guardsmen and officers, I also have 4 commissars, 2 psykers, 4 priests, 9 ratlings, and 35 chaos cultists, which are being converted to various units, notably psykers and priests, in addition, a number will be converted to Inquisition models.

 I also have a number of vehicles, including a Hellhound, 3 Scout sentinels, 2 Wyverns, 3 Chimeras, 3 Leman Russ tanks, one old style battle tank with fixed HB sponsons and lascannon hull mount, one new style battle tank and one new style demolisher, a Valkyrie and also a Vendetta.

Granted this is not the usual list you'll see for a Guard collector as there are relatively few vehicles, but I prefer infantry based armies and massed lasguns.

My Tempestus force is a little smaller, consisting of only an officer, 4 sgt's, a medic, 4 vox casters, 3 HS volley gunners and 12 Scions. I will be getting more models in the future in order to be able to field a decent force, and hopefully the ground assault formation at some point but for the moment this is all I have.

The size of my SM collection was surprising, I didn't realise I owned as much as I did, but I guess that I shouldn't be to surprise when I own two DV box sets to start with. Anyway, the rest of the collection consists of;

3 Librarians, 4 Captain/CM models, 15 Termies, including 2 assault cannons, 1 heavy flamer and 2 chain fists, 52 CC armed marines, with a few plasma pistols and power weapons and a couple of lighting claw armed marines but mostly its chain swords and bolt pistols, 76 bolter marines plus two plasma gunners and 2 plasma cannons. There are also 10 bikes, 2 with plasma guns, 3 dreadnoughts, a Razorback with TL lascannons and 7 Rhinos.

There is a lack of heavy weapons in the marines, but I have a number ready to go with a little conversion work, so no worries there. I have also lumped in all my chaos marines in to the list above as they will be de-chaos'd and put to work for the Emperor. A number of the Rhinos will also be getting up grades, mostly to Razorbacks but one will become a Baal Predator.

Lastly, I have my Inquisition force which currently stands at an inquisitor in power armour and 2 cultists converted to crusaders with power axes, which will need converting to power swords.

So that's it, a nice little force, with pretty much everything I need. With all the extra bits I own, such as the jump packs I've been buying I should have everything I need to play all the lists I want to. Now I just have to find the time to build, convert and most importantly paint them all. Simple really!

I'll try one day, if I can to get as many of the models as I can out and photo them together. I use to have a picture off all my guard models arranged in parade formation, but that seems to have been lost over the course of time.