Hrossey MY play styles.

This post is a bit later then planned, snow days and school closures put a bit of a spanner in the works. Anyway, as I mentioned I the last post, there are two ways of running this list, superheavy and sans superheavy, however both play in a very similar style, with the superheavy version being a little more direct in approach. (Edit: so with the new FAQ last week, things have changed slightly, the DKoK squads have had a minor rejig, to follow the updates)

The non-super heavy version is formed as such:

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Plasma gun, Grenade launcher, Ogryn Bodyguard, Astropath, Master of Ordnance

Platoon Command Squad: Missile launcher, Heavy flamer, Grenade launcher

Tank Commander: Battle Cannon

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Grenade launcher (X2)

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Meltagun

Commissar

Regimental Preacher

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Demolisher

Leman Russ Vanquisher

Wyvern (X2)

Chimera (x3)

The main focus of this force is movement with supporting artillery. The Leman Russ Tanks, plus chimeras and hellhound push forward as an armoured spearhead, sticking quite closely together to enable the units to bring their combined fire power to bare on a target. There are several different types of tank, with the two general purpose battle cannon tanks being the main fire power, with the demolisher to crack open the biggest targets, like transports and the vanquisher for taking on the big targets, like monsters or hq units.  The hellhound and the chimeras, two of the three have double flamers, are there to act as anti infantry screens, in addition to battle taxis for the chimeras. There is not many troops that can stand up to half a dozen heavy flamers! The troops are mostly there to disembark and take objectives as the armour moves past them, the will still have some bite with melta guns and plasma, but are at the end of the day, Imperial guard troops. The Wyverns, a grenade launcher squad and second command squad will be sitting back holding the home objectives and, in the case of the wyverns, lobbing stuff at any infantry hiding in or behind building holding objectives. 

Now the edit! As you'll see above, there are two units of DKoK with dual grenade launchers and a squad with dual meltas, these will have to change, probably with two squads with melta and grenade launcher and a squads with grenade launcher and flamer, but I will have to raid my box of spare guardsmen. 

The alternative build, the super heavy build, has a very similar way of functioning but with different units;

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Plasma gun, Grenade launcher, Ogryn Bodyguard, Astropath

Tank Commander: Battle Cannon

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Grenade launcher (X2)

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Meltagun

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Demolisher

Leman Russ Vanquisher

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer 

With less infantry units and loosing the wyverns for indirect fire support,the main issue is holding the home objectives. This role, surprisingly is actually going to be taken by the Hellhammer and there is method to this madness. The Hellhammer will gain the Knight of Piety tank ace trait, meaning that when sitting at the back, he'll have quite a commanding view of the battlefield, with a 2+, 5+ and depending upon mission and objectives, the Astropath may be there to help with nightshroud, if he can roll high enough. The other unit will move up the board as before, taking the fight to the enemy. Again, the DKoK squads will be rearranged the same as above, as they are based off the same force. 

The general point of both of these lists is to take the fight to the enemy, using the mobility and firepower of the tanks, plus the ability to not get locked up in combat due to the turret weapons rule. Overall there is one big weakness to this list and that is the lack of numbers. These are only a maximum of 49 infantry bodies in total in this list and a maximum of 10 vehicles, less in the second list. This means that there is less redundancy within the army but hopefully it can punch hard at the beginning and not have to worry to much about the punch back.  

Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry

 The Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry are my armoured force, comprised of mostly vehicles with only minimal infantry, in the old force these were here to just help hold objectives or they were specialised troops with very specific roles. The old list, shown below, was mostly about the objective secured Leman Russ Tanks.

Primaris Psyker

Tank Commander

Master of Ordnance

Ministorum Priest

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tanks (x3)

Company Commander

Lord Commissar

Command Squad: Heavy flamer, Regimental Standard, 2x Plasma gun

Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Commander

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Meltagun

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Grenade launcher, Missile launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: Heavy bolter (x2)

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer

However, like then other lists this needed to change and unlike the other two list which changes to make them better or more efficient rather then out of pure necessity, this change mostly out of necessity. The new list, while retaining many elements of the old list, is quite different;

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Plasma gun, Grenade launcher, Ogryn Bodyguard, Astropath, Master of Ordnance

Platoon Command Squad: Missile launcher, Heavy flamer, Grenade launcher

Tank Commander: Battle Cannon

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Grenade launcher (X2)

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Meltagun

Commissar

Regimental Preacher

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Demolisher 

Leman Russ Vanquisher

Wyvern (X2)

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer

This list is around 2500 points in total, there are really two ways of playing at 2000 points. The first is without the superheavy hellhammer, while the other requires the removal of the wyverns, preacher, commissar and the second command squad, along with the master of ordnance from the first command squad.

The biggest issue with the change has been the troops. Before I had 2 vet squads and a command element, all of which fitted in the three chimeras. However, I now have 3 squads and two platoon command squads, which do not all fit in chimeras. This isn't too much of an issue, but it does mean that at least one unit will be sitting at the back. Overall this won't make to much of a difference to the way the army plays as the main armoured elements are still present. 

The big issue I have at the moment is with the hellhammer. The rules changes mean that one set of sponsors are free and I really would like to add a second set, however, I don't have a second set and I don't want to fork out a load of money to get a second set. In addition the wyverns moving across from the Hjaltland list is more in keeping with the armoured style of this list, but I'm less sure of the rules for these units now, as although the strength and ap got better, loosing the rerolls to wound will hurt.

I think overall that this list hasn't felt to much of a change in terms of overall firepower or ability, as there really haven't been that many changes. The play styles will be discussed next and will be a longer post due to the two way this list can be built but overall I'm still happy with this list and the options I presents.

Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry

 

Next up is the Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry and the army with probably the biggest problem. This list is quite small but still potent. The current army contains;

Primaris Psyker

Tank Commander

Master of Ordnance

Ministorum Priest

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tanks (x3)

Company Commander

Lord Commissar

Command Squad: Heavy flamer, Regimental Standard, 2x Plasma gun

Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Commander

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Meltagun

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Grenade launcher, Missile launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: Heavy bolter (x2)

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer

 All for a total of 2,325pts.

Not this list doesn't have a massive amount of issues. Most of the vehicles are fine and can stay as they are, as with only one tank commander and three other LRBT'S it is still codex compliant. The hellhammer, hellhound and Chimeras are all fine and will continue on. Other units that are able to continue on are the primaris psyker, priest and heavy weapons teams, as these mostly remain unchanged.

The rest of the list however needs some serious work. I have two commanders, one platoon and one company and only one command squad, which contains two plasma guns. I can change this command to contain a heavy flamer, standard, plasma and melta, by taking a melta out of one of the vet squads. Not very efficient but legal. I will most likely have more of a rejig between all the different armies at some point, to try and balance up all the options but for now this is a good start. This squad will also include one of the commanders along side the Master of ordnance and Ogryn Bodyguard. 

This then leaves me with one commander and two vet squads that need adjusting. The first answer that springs to mind is to move the heavy weapons team, heavy flamer and a grenade launcher from one squad to form a new command squad and then mix up the remaining special weapons and add in some additional troops to from two Cadian style squads with a melta and grenade launcher each. This will leave me with a heavy flamer extra but I'm sure I can find a space for him somewhere. 

That just leave me to demote the lord commissar to regular commissar and we're all done.

This means that all my troops should fit within the new codex structure but unfortunately they won't fit in to the Chimeras, with the Ogryn bodyguard taking up too many spaces. I could drop this unit but he looks to much fun for that! I don't really want to get another chimera but I may have to look in to it at some point.

Hrossey Yeomanry Army Photos

After the last army overview, the Hrossey Yeomanry look quite thin on the ground, but what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in firepower! This force is points wise very similar to the Hjaltland Light Infantry, being within 20 points, sitting around 2371 points. The difference here is that the majority of the points are made up of bigger single model units plus the Hellhammer is a large points sink on its own. 

The commander Colonel Leith with commissar and Inquisitor xxx

The Command elements

The two heavy weapons squads are actually taken from the Hildasay PDF force.

A close up of Inquisitor xxxxx

Centre Rear of picture is Tank Commander, Major Turvous. 

Major Turvous is the Commander of the Helliar Armoured detachment, formed for the 4 tanks plus Hellhound and Hellhammer.

The other tank units.

At the rear, the super heavy Hellhammer, Emperours Victory 

The small but potent force

So the compact Hrossey Yeomanry and Hellier armoured company. Granted there is actually more points in the armoured element for this force but it's still the Yeomanry in command. This force is next to useless on the table top at the moment, with the tanks being less than effective (although better than they were) and there really not being enough troops to screen properly but it's very fluffy, so I don't care. There is very little to add to this list apart from Rough Riders, if they get re-released, as I have always wanted to add some in. Next up are the Dagr Ormr, the one army that still needs work.

The Hrossey Yeomanry

 While I've been working on the Eagle Knights and Terrain recently, I found some time to finish off some of the Hrossey Yeomanry vehicles that were in one of my KR cases with the the Dagr Ormr. These consisted of 3 sentinels and a Chimera and Leman Russ hull. 

First up the three sentinels. I've tried to give these each a different personality and paint job, and yes, I know that two of the legs are on backwards but in my defense, I brought them second hand. 

The three sentinels

The first one has a relatively basic camo pattern on it, with a camo net on the top.

The second has a more complex pattern, with a larger pattern of camo on it. It also has a camo.net across the top, although this one is a bit more subtle. 

Lastly we have the command sentinel. This one has a darker paint scheme with a "tiger stripes" type of pattern across its surfaces. The vehicle also has a sensor array on its roof, which is purely visual but emphasizes the command role that the vehicle plays. 

Frontal view.

Sensor array

These are the first vehicles that I have finished for the Hrossey Yeomanry, although their weapons still need painting. I hope to get a few more finished soon. 

Next up are the hills of a Chimera and Leman Russ. It's only the hulls at present as the turrets are packed away in a different box, with the rest of the vehicles. 

First up the Chimera. There isn't much to say about this other than to note the missing lasguns on the rear of the hull. This is because I built this back in 7th when you could fire weapons out of the hull, so they were acting as firing ports rather than as they lasgun array they do today. I'm sure I have all the bits somewhere but the back door is sealed shut, so it will take a bit of effort to crack it open and get them in.

Hull with regimental markings.

The Leman Russ hull, again just painted up ready to receive the turret and hull weapons. 

I'm hoping to get the final box of models down soon, bit it's quite a big box and it's up high, so my wife struggles to get it down. Hopefully by the time you read this I'll be out of plaster and back on my feet properly and be able to get it down.

The future of my guard armies

So after going through my hopes for the guard and scions in 9th, i thought i should go through the actual armies themselves. While the next post about the Marines is a reasonable length, this will be pretty short, as there really isn't much to say!

Hjaltland Light Infantry

The Hjaltland LI are my main 40k army and my original. It hasn't changed much in the last two editions from when it came together in 6th and there is nothing within 9th that I have seen so far that will change how the army is formed or played. There will have to be a slight rejig of units as there have been a few points increases but on the whole, this will mostly likely just be dropping an infantry unit or two. 

Hrossey Yeomanry

The Yeomanry, the armoured fist of the 256th. Again, not much is going to change here. The biggest change is going to be around the load out for the vehicle secondary weapons l, as many of the LR battle tanks will be fielding flamers on their sponsors, instead of bolters as they have done in the past. This does mean that the chimera's twin flamer arrangement now makes even more sense! There have been a few points increases and with the armament changes, there will be a bit of rejigging but on the whole there will be little change.

Dagr Ormr Tempestus Scions

This is the army that will probably change the most, mainly due to some of the reserve rules and points increases. The army at present is the smallest of my guard armies, at around 1400 points and will probably be up to 1500 or so in 9th. I will have to read the updated reserve rule to figure out how much of the army can be reserved for deep strike. In addition I will need to figure out how to build this army using as few a detachments as possible now, due to the army formation rule changes. This was always run as a 2 detachment army and to really get the most out of it you need to. My only real hope is some sort of special rule allowing scions to be taken as a patrol detachment without penalty.

The main changes to the armies comes when the points drop. At 2000, 1500 and 1000 points, the armies will retain there main structure, along the 3 army lines, however at 500 points the armies will break down quite differently. At combat patrol levels the Hjaltland LI will still be as it is, a wyvern supporting infantry. The Dagr Ormr will change and drop all support elements from the PDF heavy weapons but will form there own force, maybe gaining a Valkyrie in the process. The Yeomanry will also find their forces split, with a force formed of a couple of tanks with a supporting infantry unit and company Commander to fill the required slots, the other half of the force will form into a mechanised infantry force, with infantry in chimera's, probably a vet squad or two in chimera's with a standard infantry squad for support. All this may change, depending upon the new points for the various guard units but from what I've seen the points aren't changing that much. 

Next up I'll talk about my marine lists, which as I said earlier are in for a complete overhaul with the change to primaris. 

Baneblade

So, a couple of months ago, my local club had a model sale, where you could take your unwanted models along and see if any other club members were interested in buying them. One member brought along his old tank army, featuring 3 super heavies and 8 LRBT's. In have always wanted a super heavy for my collection, my first choice being a Stormlord, with its twin Vulcan megabolters. 

So when I turned up to the sale to see three super heavies sitting on the side, I got quite excited. One was out of the running straight off, as it was a Shadow sword. Now, don't get me wrong, shadow swords are great at taking down big things, such as knights and other super heavies but when you not facing them, they aren't much use. 3 strength 16 Ap-5 2d6 damage shots are a bit overkill for taking out marines, even primaris ones. 

The other two super heavies there were a Hellhammer and Stormlord. Given the choice and what I said earlier, you'd be forgiven for thinking I'd go straight for the Stormlord, however, the Stormlord had seen better days. It was missing several bit, which I could have scrounged of eBay but I couldn't be bothered, so I went for the Hellhammer. I also picked up another LRBT, meaning I now have 4 for a complete tank "platoon".

The two "new" tanks, little and large.

So, here she is. She needs some work, mostly just a few touch ups and a little bit of repainting here and there. They are tabletop ready as they are, which is useful but I will still adjust them a little to better fit the rest of the tanks. The main issue with the current painting is the brown highlights, which I will turn to green or, in some case, silver. The commander also needs finishing off. 

The yellow of the lights shows up really well in the pictures here but in reality they are very faint and need re-doing. Also the first bit of damage, the missing lascannon turret. You can also see that the heavy bolters are not fitted to the sponsons very well and I may need to split the sponsons to re-doing the bolters housings.

So touch ups required at the back and the barrels definitely need another coat of paint on them. 

Second minor damage, a couple of track links missing, these should be easy enough to replace, either with bits from underneath or with green stuff.

The LRBT, again needing a minor repaint and touch ups. 

As with the bigger one, the extra fuel tank needs another coat of paint.

While the Hellhammer would not be my first choice of super heavy tank, it is a solid choice. With 2d6 shots at S10, -4ap and doing 3 damage per wound, you are able to put some hurt on most things. Ok, it's a little overkill on troops, but not as bad as the shadowsword. Your looking at 7 to 8 shots, hitting about 3 to 4 and doing almost as many wounds in most cases (as you'll be wounding on 2's most of the time and 3's otherwise). With 3 damage each, that's around 9 to 12 damage a time and that's not including the rest of the weapons, including that critical lasgun out the back!

As for deployment, I will usually run the Hellhammer with the 4 Russ's, as an armoured fist group. 2 of the Russ's are old school ones, with fixed weapons (battle cannon, lascannon hull and bolter sponsons), the other two are new versions, one normal and one demolisher variant. I plan on running the as two standard Russ's, one as either a punisher bolter boat (punisher plus 3 heavy bolters) or executioner with plasma sponsons, depending upon the enemy and a vanquisher tank commander with lascannon and bolter sponsons. The battle tanks will flank and provide general protection, the punisher\executioner will go on point and the vanquisher tank commander will hover at the back to give out orders where necessary.

The choice of punisher or executioner will depend upon the enemy. For light armoured enemies, such as eldar, guard and tau, the punisher will be better, as it is there to take out the troops and with the battle tanks dealing with the higher save units. If I'm facing power armour, either chaos or imperial, or other high save armies, then the executioner will be first choice. The inclusion of a vanquisher will also puzzle some people, as many will suggest that a regular battle tank will yeild better results, which is generally true against most targets but against single large targets, the ability to roll two d6 dice and pick the highest for damage is key. Doing this twice is even better and being on the tank commander your on a 3+bs, so more chance of hitting on the first place.

The whole lot will, usually, be supported by an armoured infantry column, with a couple of vet squads in chimeras and a hellhound, with 3 sentinels pushing forward to screen any deep striking units. This will produce a mobile force with a central mobile castle, with mobile infantry for grabbing objectives and forward screen and all for 2000 points.

Hobby update

I had 5 minutes to sit down at the hobby table the other day and realised that I have got only 2 more Death Company Marines to paint before the whole of the Eagle Knights Space Marine chapter is complete, all 2000+ points of it. This lead me to look at all the posts sitting in my draft folder and see that most of them are hobby updates as I have completed the various units of Knights but haven't posted as I have been busy on the Astra Militarum Codex review. At this point I went back and had a look at the review posts and I was shocked to find that I have basically been doing nothing but the review post since the end of September! The 25th to be precise. That's basically two and a half months of bombarding you with all my nonsense on the new codex! Well, its time to catch up with the rest of the hobby I think. As such I will be posting up a couple of battle reports, one from way back in September, which was a practice match for the Northern Invasion tournament that I did not end up attending (next year!) and something that I haven't even do a review post on. I will also post all the updates to the Knights, running through all the various squads and models that I have painted up for the army, which with the new BA codex, may well have to change again. I don't have the new codex yet, I maybe lucky to get it for Christmas or I may have to buy it in the new year, I'll have to see but I am really excited to get the knights on to the table top now that there all painted.

Now that the Knights are all painted the plan is to go back and redo any thing I need to do to the Hjaltland LI to bring it in line with the new codex, which I am hoping will include painting up a new model, namely an Ogryn Bodyguard for my Warlord. I may well have to paint up a few new models to cover the removal of priest and possibly commissars, although I still need to go through the list properly. I also intend on updating the Valkyrie paint scheme to add in some more camouflage to the green on the top, as suggested by a number of readers, probably by using a darker green or two to add some stripes or splodges, mostly to break up the solid colour that it currently is. After this I will start on the next project. This is where i'm a little torn, as I have two or three projects that I'm pretty keen on getting stuck in to.

The first option is to finish painting up the Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus force including the Hildasay PDF units. I have got a number of the Dagr Ormr painted up and the colour scheme is well established. The Hildasay PDF have, after a couple of test models, also received there colours, in there case it will be dark grey trousers and top, with a lighter grey vest and weapon, with black boots, pouches and other highlights, combines with a very pale looking skin tone, probably Pallid Wych Flesh as the final tone. This will tie into the fact that these are supposed to be a local PDF force from an overcrowed, totalitarian hive world, where there main operating environment is the inner and under hive, which are both urban (for the grey) and enclosed (pale flesh). The troops may now be attached to the Dagr Ormr and operation out of there normal environment, but they have retained there kit and look for the moment.

The second option is the Hrossey Yeomanry, with all of its armoured units. With the changes to 8th edition, LRBT's are now a very viable unit on the table top and I have been using them in quite a few games so far. So i'm thinking that it would be nice to get them all painted up properly and get them on to the table top in there entirety. I have a colour scheme in mind for the tanks and also for the various troop units as well, although there will have to be a fair bit of rejigging for the list before I can fully paint everything, as with the disappearance of the platoon structure, there will need to be a few changes to the list. This maybe by the inclusion of addition chimera, of which I still need to purchase one more anyway, or maybe by the addition of a new units or two. I am, as yet, undecided and will probably remain so until I decide to make these my main priority.

The final project that is on the list is a different sort of project as it will probably not see the battlefield much but is quite important to the fluff. The final idea is to get some of my Inquisition painted up, as its these guys that are driving the whole narrative forward and are the reason for my forces existing as they do. This is going to be the smallest of all the projects, as it consists of just a handful of models for each of the three inquisitors and I plan on just painting up one Inquisitor and there retinue for the moment. The biggest issue that I have though, is that in the new edition, Inquisitors, as far as I am aware, have lost the ability to take any form of armour apart from Flak armour, which is annoying, as both of my modelled Inquisitors are wearing power armour. The war band will also have to have some modifications, as they unit sizes and compositions have changed as well, but that should be fairly easy to deal with.

At the moment I am leaning towards doing the Inquisitor and his war band, mostly for the fluff and narrative perspective, as this is lacking somewhat on the table top, plus it will be something different from what I have been painting as there will be little uniformity to the units, with each model being a slightly different pattern and scheme to the others, although they will all follow a basic colour scheme in order to tie them all together. Each Inquisitor will have a primary colour that is shared by all their war band, so that the different war bands are not confused, but the secondary colours will be varied on all the models. One thing I'm confused about at the moment though, is how do you take an inquisitorial detachment as there are no troops?

Talking of the fluff, i really need to update my fluff for the 8th edition setting. Although my little war is set out in the segmentum Pacificus, an area that is on the fringes of the galaxy and also one that seems to be so what removed from the crisis, seeing as the great rift doesn't seem to extend far in to it, there will obviously be repercussions for the men and women of the Hamnavoe System.

The big issue at the moment is how to write in the Eagle Knights to the Baal conflict, as they are a BA successor and all but the Lamenters answered the call from Baal. I guess that the current company that is in my narrative will have been to far away to answer, but the rest of the chapter did. This will lead to a number of reinforcements arriving, as the remains of the chapter join the company, the last major fighting force of the Eagle Knights. How this occurs in game i don't know, as a lot will depend on the new codex. One thing is for sure though, for the moment, they will not be accepting the Primaris marines into there ranks, as they have a similar mentality to Gabriel Seth on the matter of the new marines.

I intended to write up a narrative for each battle i fought and forge it in to a grand narrative for the whole campaign and fluff but as yet i haven't done anything. I really need to find some time to update and catch up with everything, maybe I'll get some time in the New Year when the young lady starts nursery!

Other 8th ed imperial lists

So following on from the last post, here are the new and old Hrossey Yeomanry lists. Ill go through details at the bottom.

Tank command squad w/pask in Punisher w/Bolter sponsons, Relic plating, Dozer blade                 LRBT w/battle cannon                 Company Command Squad w/ Stracken,               4x vet w/CCW, Carapace                 Chimera                 Preist w/Autogun                 Primaris Psyker                                 Vet squad w/ 3x Plasma, Sgt w/bolt pistol                 Grenadiers Doctrine                 Chimera                 Vet squad w/ 3x Melta                 Demolitions and Grenadiers doctrines                 Chimera                 Vet squad w/ 3x Melta                 Grenadiers doctrines                 Chimera                 Platoon command squad w/ Commander w/Bolter, heavy flamer, 3x flamer                                 squad w/flamer                 squad w/flamer                 Heavy weapons team w/ 3x Missile launchers w/Flakk                                 LR Vanquisher w/Lascannon                 Promethium pipe relay                  Scout Sentinals w/ 3x sentinals w/autocannons                 hell hound          points - 1998

Pask w/punisher, Bolter sponsons stracken priest w/autogun psyker w/stave lrbt w/Bolter sponsons, lascannon, battle cannon command squad w/ vox, 3x sniper rifles Vet squad w/ 3x plasma, vox, sgt w/ bolt pistol Vet squad w/ 3x Melta, heavy flamer, vox Vet squad w/ 3x Melta, heavy flamer, vox Chimera w/ MultiLaser, Heavy bolter Chimera w/ MultiLaser, Heavy bolter Chimera w/ MultiLaser, Heavy bolter Chimera w/ MultiLaser, Heavy bolter Company commander Platoon Commander Platoon Commander Heavy weapons team w/ 3x Missile launchers Heavy weapons team w/ 3x Missile launchers Lrbt w/vanquisher cannon, lascannon 3x sentinel w/Autocannon, chainswords Hellhound w/inferno cannon, heavy flamer Points - 1965

So, changes? Well, as I said previously, lots of the changes have come from the change from 7th to 8th. Pask, still in the bolter boat (punished plus 3 heavy bolters) is now running solo, as is straken. The second Russ has stayed the same but Straken command squad has changed a bit though. Before, they were armed to support straken in combat, now as they won't be getting in to combat the same way, they have taken sniper rifles. There still going character hunting, just from range now.  The other change to the command squad is the inclusion of the vox caster, something that has found itsnway in to all the squads now due to the way orders work in 8th.

As for the squads, there have been other changes apart from the vox casters, with all of the squads loosing their doctrines, something that hopefully will return with the codex or at the very least an option to upgrade their flak armour to carapace. Two of the squads also gained though, with the inclusion of a heavy Flamer in addition to their melta guns, rather than instead of one of them. In 7th, a few people argued against this combination, validly claiming it meant that you were either wasting a melta shot or a heavy Flamer shot, as the two weapons don't overlap. However, with 8th, they now work well together as you can target different units. The plasma squad didn't gain the Flamer though, as this does have a specific role, and a heavy Flamer won't add much to it.

The third Russ has remained the same, as has the hell hound. The sentinels have gained their chainswords, something I've always though they should have had in the first place. Now they actually do something, rather than just look cool.

The Promethium pipe relay seems to have bitten the dust some what. Yes, there are rules for it as a terrain piece, but not as a fortification, which is a shame as I liked it, it had some fun rules. But this coupled with the change to platoons means that it was not as useful as it was anyway. This is because I was bringing the platoon to get some anti air cover with flakk missile launchers, but with the scrapping of flakk and the removal of platoons, I can bring a normal missile squad and not waste points on the platoon command squad or two infantry squads and as these were the units that benefited from the pipe relay, with them fine the relay was surplus to requirements. This did leave some extra points spare though, so some extra squads have been added to give more supporting fire and act as back field objective holders. The platoon commanders and the company commander were added to give extra orders cover and with either run with the vet squads or cover the weapons squads depending upon the enemy.

Before this list is finalized I hope that the codex is out, as I really hope that doctrines for vets or similar army wide rules. It will be a while before I get around to this list anyway, as the Eagle Knights are currently on the paint table and will be followed by the dagr ormr.

Other Imperial 8th ed armies

I thought that I would look at the other armies that I have in my collection and for this post, that means focusing on the Hrossey Yeomanry, with a little bit about the Hildasay PDF.

Ill start with the Yeomanry and what seems to be the main changes to the army. The first thing that needs sorting is now the fact that Straken and Pask have two different key works (Catachan and Cadian) and can't be in the same detachment. So its got to be two detachments, which isn't really a problem. The other issue is that vets are now elite choices, as are command squads. This leaves me with a large number of elite choices, so forces me to use the vanguard detachment. I will also have to be careful to keep all the infantry who can receive orders in one detachment so that they can actually make use of them.

The armored might of the Hrossey, still needing a bit of work!

Ill round own through the list from the top again, the same as previous posts and see where the main changes are going to be.

First up, the Hq units, Pask and Straken. Both of these units had to be taken in squads before, but now run solo, so while the characters have stayed the same, the squads have separated.

The elite section on this list is slightly ridiculous,  as with both the command squad and vets now being elite choices, the section is now packed full. Combine this with the fact that commissars are also elites,means that there are now 6 units in the elite section in the list (3x vets, 2x commissars and a command squad). In addition to these units, there are also 4 chimeras. While these are technically in the dedicated transport section, they will be providing a ride for the vets and command squad, so its worth mentioning here.

Wanna lift? Two ebay purchases in need of alterations, twin heavy flames are not the greatest for chimeras, even in 8th.

On the contrary the troop section is bare, as in there are no units, as the list contains neither infantry squads or conscripts.

The fast attack section has stayed exactly the same as before, with the scout sentinels and hellhound. I stuck with the scout sentinals mostly because I still think their rules are better for what I want. Yes, armored sentinals are tougher (better save) but I want a cheap maneuverable unit to hit specific targets, which is where scouts are better ( cheaper, quicker and have a scout move).

The heavy support, section has been extended slightly, due to the changes to the tank commanders. Now the other two Russ's now occupy space in this area, running as two separate units, as there is little point running them as a unit. Also the heavy weapons teams are now in the heavy support section. With the change in the way that the imperial guard now works, as in the removal of platoons, it had meant that I can drop the infantry squads and platoon command squads and add in extra heavy weapons.

All in all the list has not changed much, just a few minor tweaks here and there, mostly to take account of the changes in the way that the guard now operate. I'll go through the list in more detail in the next post.

The other guard army that I have is the Hildasay PDF, although this was mostly a paperwork exercise and an excuse to use up the many spare models that I possess. The plan was to build a heavy weapons heavy force with as few a number of troops as possible. However, with the change in rules, a new plan has emerged. As a result of the heavy weapons teams now being heavy support, one of tthe only benifits is that I can now include them into the Dagr Ormr force easily, without any need for troops, which was one of my original thoughts. So the Hildasay PDF will now be supporting the Dagr Ormr scions with heavy weapon support, bringing a mass of mortars and lascannons. The other advantage of this arrangement is that it enables me to place all of the scion units into reserve, just placing the PDF units on the table and being able to counter my opponents deployment.

This does mean that the force will not become a fully fledged 2000 point army but will likely be around 5 or 6 hundred points in total. The current list consists of a company commander, a couple of platoon commanders and half a dozen heavy weapons teams, namely a couple of lascannon squads, a couple of mortar squads and a couple of heavy bolter squads.

Whilst I would have liked to have built up the force as a proper army, its just to practical or sensible, as I have plenty of models left to paint was it is, plus I wood have needed to pad out the scions somehow. I won't include the list in the next post, as I will post a full 2000 point Dagr Ormr list soon, after i write up the battle report from last weekend, the the Dagr Ormr went up against the Tau Empire.

Regimental deployments.

A short post today to highlight a ppiston the Devos 4 blog, and the arrival of the 3422 army group. Some familiar regiments are deploying to assist in the struggle against the rebels.

Rebasing some models

I thought that I would have a little break from the Disciples, after all I'm sure you don't want to see endless posts of near repetitive shots of grey plastic minis! So, when I was looking through my bits box the other day and came across some spare bits that I thought might make some good scenic bases and add a little something to a few of the characters, make them stand out a little for the masses. 

I pulled out my characters from the Hjaltland LI, namely (from left to right) medic, Master of Ordinance, Officer of the Fleet and the main man, Commander Ollaw Jhonisoun. At present, they are just on their standard bases and look a little bland. As special characters I thought that they should have something extra.  

And this was the result. You'll notice an extra character has snuck in, that the Master of Ordinance from the Hrossey Yeomanry. I redid his base as I had a few extra bits, so I thought I would do both of the Officer of the Fleets the same, as to keep some consistency across the forces, especially as they are supposed to be attachments from the Navy.

Here are a few shots of the individual models. Some of the details are hard to see, mostly because I don't have a light box or anything and my set-up for photos generally consists of finding a space on a shelf or window sill and taking a picture.

Medic, prepping himself behind some sand bags, ready to dash out to attend those in need.

The Commander, cape flowing in the wind. Behind him is some kit and rifle, either his or some that has been left behind by some forgetful Guardsman and to his side, just visible on the right picture, his sword.

Officer of the Fleet, with communication relay and data slate, keeping an eye on the movement of any aircraft that maybe in the area.

Master of Ordinance, with range finder and targeter and a set of good old fashioned bino's, ready to relay co-ordinates to the waiting artillery units.

The Hrossey Officer of the Fleet, again with communication relay and a field computer.

With most of the Hjaltland command squad rebased and I have been wondering about rebasing the other members, namely the HWT and the Standard. The Heavy Weapons Team will be easy as its just a case of sticking them on to the proper 60mm base, which only leaves the standard. However, this will be tricky as I want the standard to be the focus, not the base, so I may just leave him be.

2016 update

So, we're well in to 2016 and things are going well on the modeling front, but I though that I would look back at the new years resolutions and see what's happening.

The resolutions:

1) Try and model up all the missing models from the various army lists. So what needed doing?

Hjaltland LI needed their Valkyrie, which is now built but as usual is not painted
The Hrossey Yeomanry required a Primaris Psyker and purchase a Chimera. The psyker is complete, however the Chimera is still on the wish list.
The Dagr Ormr strike force is now complete, with the addition of a OotF and Standard from the command squad and 2 Sgts and a heavy flamer from the vets.

So part one is going well.

2) Sell models I don't need. Well, this is not going as well, I was planning on selling some metal termies and some of the heavy weapons team, but I've modelled up the termites and thought of a new way to use the heavy weapons teams. Have I mentioned I'm a bit of a horder? So as yet nothing been sold.

3) Try and base coat some of the models. Yep, still not happened, not likely to either with all the DiY work that the wife has lined up. However, she maybe going away to a conferance or two soon, so I may get to sneek in some painting time, just don't tell the wife!

4) Play some games! Well, I've played 2, so not going great on that front.

As for the marines. Well, the knights are modelled, the Disciples are in progress and the Guardians are back on track, well, kind of anyway. I've been planning and plotting for the Guardians and have come up with a viable list based around the fluff, without buying to many more models.

The Assassins Cadre is on hold, I'm collecting bits still, but at the moment, the Disciples are the main focus.

As for new models, I've got BoC and the models there and I'm still looking at getting the transports from anvil for the MT's alongside the new Chimera for the Hrossey Yeomanry. I'm also looking at the new models for the Guardians, namely a couple of Attack Bikes and Landspeeder Tempests, but I'm still not sure. Also there are still no new models that I want from GW, just the renegade game!

As for terrain, I'm going to try at some point to get hold of some foam board and some plans from Confessions of a 40k Addict and bash up some scenery for a table or two.

WIP sheets part 2

Well, here are the other WIP sheets I was on about, for the Dark Guardians, Emperors Disciples and Hrossey MechVets. I was going to post this last week but with the news of specialist games coming back, it got bumped to this weeks post. So with out further delay, here are the other wip lists;



First up the Dark Guardians, and as you can see, its kinda red all over! Even the yellow is a little optimistic as they don't actually have their back packs attached and their not glued, just pressed together. The rest are in bits in bags in the box of doom/bits.

The Emperors Disciples, are not much better, a little more yellow and lots of blue. The blue are mostly Ultramarines at this point, so definitely need stripping! The Sternguard are also a little bit of a cheat as they don't have combi's at all, this is because they are the old metal models mostly and I don't want to damage the old metal work. Again most of the bits are in the box along with the parts for the Dark Guardians. These guys, as with the ones above are not high on the priority list, so by the time I get around to them we could be several codices down the line and the army will have changed quite a bit and depending upon what happens with Specialist Games, they may find themselves relegated to allied detachment, with little more then a min troop choice and a 10 man Sternguard and a 5 man missile Dev squad.

Lastly we have the Hrossey Mech vets. These boys are a little but more complete and are probably more complete than shown below as I have a number of models, quite a few of which are undercoated, sitting in the box that will form this army. However, I haven't dug down to the bottom of the box to confirm what's models are in what state so I've just done them in red for the moment. The only model missing at the moment is the 4th chimera, and all the compete models are ones that I haven't actually painted myself!

So, all in all, a lot of work to do and not really any time to do any! These will all get their time in the lime light at some point, but it could be a while.

The armies of the 256th IBG

Well, as the title suggests this is a recap of the armies of the 256th Imperial Battle Group. This is mostly due to the new SM codex and the addition of the Dark Guardians DA successor chapter but also to recap where each project is and what the current plans.

As can be seen by the last couple of posts, there has been a few changes around the battle group, and this not only includes the Disciples and the Guardians but also extends to the two main Guard lists, with the recent inclusion of a Promethium Relay Pipes and the redeployment of the Valkyrie from the Hrossey MechInf to the Hjaltland LI. This has also meant that a number of units have also been transferred, namely the third Platoon of the Hjaltland LI have been transferred to the Hrossy MI and in return a Vet squad has gone the other way. This was mostly to take advantage of the flamer torrent rules that come with the pipe system but it also means that the LI maintain there antitank melta count. There are also a number of minor changes, namely in regards to the Missile Heavy weapons team which have also been moved with the platoon to the MI, to provide anti-air cover with the loss of the two flyers to the LI, as the Vendetta has also been put on permanent duty with the LI and is no longer shared. This means that the MI are fully ground based and mostly mechanized with just a small force of regular troops to hold the rear and the LI are all ground based with some highly mobile air based units.

These two armies will form my main fighting forces still, and as such are the focus of my painting efforts, although there has been little movement on that from since the KotN 15. I'm hoping that when the house move if finalised I'll be able to set up a permanent painting and modelling table, something I've wanted to do for years.

In addition to these changes, the Dagr Ormr have receive some reinforcements, in the form of Dreamforges Eisenkern Command Squad and Eisenkern Panzerjagers. This means that I will be able to field a good size force and when Anvil Industries get around to releasing there Unity Council APC, I'll be looking at adding 4, as Tauroxs', to form a ground assault formation, plus maybe 3 of their Republic's 'Instigator' Assault Reconnaissance Vehicles, as Tauros FA vehicles.

So in reality, there has been very little progress on the actual modelling and painting fronts, but a fair bit on the army list and fluff side of things, which is about right for my gaming.

A minor issue

Well, I've come across a minor issue with my IG forces. My Hjaltland LI, Hrossey Yeomanry and
 the Hildasay PDF and the rest of the Hamnavoe System were all named after real places. Not somewhere you would find on a map, well, not a modern map anyway but real places none the less. The names are not in current wide spread use, but are used a lot in the local area and even when not used they are well know. So how does this cause a problem?

Well, I originally went with the standard codex names, namely just called them Catachans, but as I developed my forces I wanted more of a personal back story and so I thought about names, settling on the names of several roman forts in the area where I live. However, I didn't live here at the time, as I had moved further north in to bonnie Scotland, as so naming my units after Roman forts in the NE of England was fine. It gave them a name and flavour, while keeping them all linked. When my family moved back to the NE, I decided to change the names, which was easy as I hadn't really put anything down on paper and hadn't started this blog. When I changed the name, I went straight to using a number of old place names from where we lived in Scotland, for the same reasons, it gave them some flavour and tied them all together. Now were moving back up, and my question is, what do I do? Do I just keep the names, or do I change them back?

Its a little harder to change the names now that I've created this blog and put pen to paper, and in many ways it wont make much difference to the armies. I suppose its more about me being a wimp and not wanting to get laughed at for having written all this stuff down, let a lone broadcast it to the world! Oh well, I enjoy it and I suppose that's all that really matters. Not that it solves the problem!

On a side note, the move may well help with my lack of games in recent months, as the games night would switch from Thursday nights to Sunday afternoons, combined with the fact that I wouldn't be working evening/nights anymore either. The only issue might be the winter indoor cricket season up there is also played on the Sunday afternoon, and I'll getting back in to that as well!