Imperial Guard Vs Space Wolves - Tournament warmup game 1

 These are a bit out of time here but this is the first of four battle reports that I played before the Northern Invasion tournament. These were just small scale games of 1000 points to get my head around some of the rules changes for 10th before the tournament. This was the first game that I played, against Space Wolves, the same player I ended up playing against when I got to the tournament. The list i played against was pretty similar to the full tournament list, with some thunder wolf cavalry, blood claws, grey hunters and intercessions, with some eradicators, which didn’t make the final list. My list on the other hand consisted of the infantry, breachers in Valkyries and a Field Ordnance battery with heavy lascannons. 

We played a leviathan mission, Sweeping Engagement, Take and Hold with scrambler fields. The scrambler field had no effect on the game, due to neither of us having strategic reserves. Take and hold should have been easy for me, but I really failed to take advantage of the mission. 

Guard Deployment

Space wolf deployment 

Blood Claws and Ragnar pushing up the centre

Blood Claws

The blood claws and Ragnar went charging up the field turn one, engaged and destroyed a full 20 man guard squad with ease and then proceeded to just sweep through my battle lines almost completely unopposed. 

The empty battlefield.

The flyer trying to do something useful

The flyer and everything on the right is dead.

So in this game I found out that flyers are not quite as good as they use to be and when I say not as good, what I mean is useless. You can see the blood claws as the very bottom of the table having slaughtered their way through two 20 man catachan squads and the field ordnance battery. 

The guard almost tabled 

The lone assassin sitting on his perch 

The final result was a resounding victory for the space wolves. I was completely unable to move anywhere on the board, without getting absolutely slaughtered by the space wolves. This game was good though for a number of reasons. The first thing I learnt was that no matter how much I like the idea of 20 man guard squads, 10 man squads are the way to go I think. This means that there is less chance of all 20 guardsmen getting wiped out in a single turn of firing or combat. The second lesson learnt is that flyers are not very resilient, with no natural -1 to hit and even with the extra toughness and save, they are still quite easy to remove. The last thing i learnt was less about the game and more about the system as a whole, that guard are either really over priced or space marines are over powered, as there were as many space wolf units on the table as there were guard units! I’m use to outnumbering the enemy by several units, but this time around I was actually outnumbered!

As a result of this game, I decided to thin down the squad sizes and look at getting more movement options in the list. I wish I could have tried playing this list again with an updated list but there was just no time. I did change the list for my next game, adding in a couple of vehicle to see how that does.

Game 2 recap - wolves

 I was really looking forward to this game after the lost one, as I felt that I could actually compete and give a good account of myself. I was not expecting to win but I was hoping to keep the gap between scores a little closer. My opponent for this game was a space wolf army, comprised of mostly first born marines, the only primaris model being a redemptor dreadnought.

The actual list itself contained a number of different element, including Grimnar and sledge, two 6 man units of blood claws and two 6 man units of grey hunters, two long fang squads, thunder wolves, wolf guard terminators and a terminator chaplain, a tech marine and then a whole bunch of dreads, Bjorn, murder fang, a redemptor and two venerables. The only advantage I had with the vehicles and most other units in the list was their slow movent, mostly 6 inches, with only the redemptor (8"), thunder wolves and Grimnar (10" each)  being quicker. Luckily the deployment map favoured me here as it opened up the no man's land to around 27 inches due to its diagonal nature. 

Guard Deployment

You can just about make out the random model to the left of my tape measure, that's a priest that's sitting out to deny the deep striking terminators. My Hellhammer is also sitting back to put as much distance between him and anything that might want to shoot at him as possible turn 1. As it happened, I got turn 1 and he moved up on the left flank.

The board 

The central ruins, marked by the two large and two smaller building sections were obscuring terrain, so my Hellhammer couldn't see through them but could be seen nonetheless. This did give me some issues but nothing I couldn't get around.

Space wolves deployment

Another view of the guard deployment

This time round I think the placing of objectives was significantly better and as a result I was able to hold at least 2 objectives pretty much all game, only failing in the last turn, partly due to some unlucky\lucky dice rolls but we'll get in to that later. My opponent placed his objectives down very sensibly, with the middle objective in the centre being placed in the central ruins furthest from me, thus making it a lot harder to get at for me. 

Turn 2

I can't remember what shooting happened in turn one, but it wasn't very much, mostly due to the distance between the armies. I know my mortars chipped a would each of the blood claws but I think that we about it. By the end of turn two though things were a little different. My Hellhammer and survived remarkable untouched by the long fangs and the twin lascannons of Bjorn, the missile launcher long fangs actually did the majority of wounds over the game, mostly as the lascannon armed ones were removed in my second turn, one shorted by the big Hellhammer cannon. In general the there had been little damage inflicted on either side by the end of turn two. The only thing of note was the charge of Grimnar in to an infantry squad on the left and his subsequent removal from the board by the secondary armament of the Hellhammer supported by various infantry squads. 

Turn 2

Some of.my scions dropped in turn 2 and tried to take out the big guy at the back but failed, reducing him down a bracket though. This is one of the mistakes I made in the game, holding on to the bring it down card for an additional turn. I should have ditched it as soon as I failed to score it in turn 2, I could have drawn an additional card I could have achieve in turn 5 as a result. If I could have drawn a line of sight from my Hellhammer it could have been very different but the two buildings in the middle prevented this.

Turn 3

Turn 3 and things were starting to heat up. The wolves were getting close now, one unit already being in combat but a number of failed charges meant that I'd had a little bit of extra time to whittle them down even more. This meant that I could take down a number of thunder wolf Calvary, dropping two but not quite managing the third. I also made a second mistake with the cards here, as I forgot I had "no retreat, no surrender" and fell a unit out of combat. I could easily have go the 5 points, even if it would have meant loosing a few more models, but it might also have changed where the terminators also dropped in, although unlikely.

It was at this point that the new abilities of the marines came in to play, their sticky objectives. In turn 3 when the MT command squad had dropped in on the backfield objective near my opponents deployment zone, he had been forces to send a squad of blood claws after them and abandon the central objective. However, with the sticky objective rule he still held on to it and scored points, without this rule he would have lost at least 14 points or been forced to pull another units, a dreadnought realistically, to hold it. This could have changed the game quite a bit and there wasn't really anything i could do about it.

Turn 3

Turn 4

It was in turn 4 that the game started to finally swing in favour of one of us. Until this point it could have go either way but there were a few moment where things didn't quite line up for me and the wolves just showed that extra resilience over the guard. For me the two moment in this turn that set the scene for the wolves victory were the terminators clearing out the centre of the last guard resistance and the failure of the Hellhammer to Clare the blood claws at the back of the table, enabling them to charge and wipe out the MT command squad and claim the objective. To be honest, there was little I could do about the terminators in the centre as I had little to reinforce my units with. The blood claws in the top corner however I could do something about. I fired the Hellhammer cannon, which up until this point had basically eliminated a squad every turn (apart from the thunder wolf Calvary, where it still took enough wounds to remove a 5 man unit but not enough to wipe the Calvary squad), doing enough wounds, 8 I believe, to realistically kill the squad when saving of 5+'s. My opponent didn't see it that way and rolled 6 5+ saves, only killing 2 marines leaving enough to wipe out the 5 man command squad in his turn. This dropped me to just a single primary in my final turn and denied me vital points.

Turn 4

End game

Turn 5 and the last few plays of the game. This was a short turn and again we didn't play out all of it, as there was little need. The one part we did play out was the final death throws of the Hellhammer. With bring it down in his hand my opponent needed to try and get the last few wounds off the big guy and after shooting everything that it could in to it, I was on 1 wound left. Charges were declared and so was overwatch. I knew that this was a long shot and wasn't going to stop the inevitable result, as there were two breads within easy charge range. The first one though tried his luck and was the second (or maybe even third) dread to be brought low by the mighty weapons of the Hellhammer, mostly the 4 heavy flamers, which really proved their worth this match. Bjorn however didn't fail and made short work of the Hellhammer.

End game

At this point there was little on the table, however it was mostly space wolves and some chunky units at that, including Bjorn, 6 terminators and a redemptor, who while injured had his attendant tech priest following him around. If the game had of gone on longer the weight of power would only have tipped further towards the wolves.

The score card

In the end it the space wolves claimed victory and there wasn't really much o could have done about it. Even if I had played the cards slightly differently, if I had ditched bring it down earlier and not fluffed "no retreat, no surrender" and if I had managed to take out the last of the blood claws, there is still no guarantee that I could have altered the final score of my opponent. The real game changer was the sticky objectives, as it would have brought the scores down by at least ten points, possibly more when factoring in the different cards that were drawn. However, I was really please with how well the game went and really enjoyed it. My opponent was great to play against and played very well, making full use of his rules. I believe that my next game is against Sister of Battle followed by the Eldar. It will be interesting to see how the Hellhammer does against these T3 armies.

Space Wolves kill team

Over the last few weeks I've had a bit of time to do some painting, not as much as I would have liked but still, I can't complain! Anyway, I've managed to get a few kill teams done, 3 to be precise, as well as start a couple of others but more about that later. 

This kill team is the Stone Dragons and is based on the Space Wolf kill team faction rules. The reason that these guys follow the Space Wolves rules is simple, it's the only way I can run the bloke with the storm bolter and storm shield with a jump pack. Not the greatest reason to base a kill team on but it works. 

But who are these noble warriors I hear you ask? Well it, the main chapter history can be found HERE, these forces are form one of the many crusading forces from the chapter and are lead by the Librarian Dysouris, or more accurately Codicier Gaius Dysouris. The squad themselves are specialist in infiltration, although while they follow the Space Wolves ways of war, they lack the keen senses the Sons of Russ have, being of Ultramarine stock. Despite this or maybe because of this, they have still mastered the art of infiltrating behind enemy lines before unleasing a barrage of bolter shells and blades to secure and control any ground they need to. Dispite this shock and awe approach the lives and safety of Imperial citizens is paramount in the eyes of the Stone Dragons and the warriors of this war band will go to great lengths to avoid any unnecessary civilian casualties. (Mission- Secure and control, Background - Infiltration, Squad Quirk - Selfless)

The warband itself is quite small, formed of only 11 members, although once there were nearly 50. Not all of these have been lost, several have been injured and unable to continue fighting, others have split off, joining other bands, where there skill were required more urgently. Only a few have actually died on the crusade, mostly down to the forsight of the Codicier and the attention of the Apothecary novitiate Sgt Cassus. 

The warband in it's current form, ready to battle the enemies of the Imperium.

Commander Codicier Gaius Dysouris - ebullient - Gaius is an relatively young for a Codicier and this is his first crusade as Commander. Newly promoted from Lexicanium and given charge of this crusade as a test of his abilities, not only psychically but also in leadership. While he maybe nervous of commanding so many battle hardened veterans, he is not nervous of the work he undertakes, for this is the Emperor's work and it is the most noble cause in the universe and he is honoured and delighted to be a part of it. While his zeal for smiting the enemies of the Emperor can draw looks of concern from his more veteran companions, none would criticise him for it.

In game, this will be run as a Commander, the only army that does actually contain a Commander. Obviously it will be a librarian but past this I have no idea how else it will be run. I have not played with commanders at all, nor have I really spent any time looking through the various options or bonuses. If I ever do play with him, I will have to look through the book.

From left to right; Agnathio Tarentus, Marius Varenus, Cato Cassus

The warbands junior leadership and the ones who usually lead the warband in combat. While none doubt the capabilities or passion of the Codicier, his experience however, is a different matter. Therefore it fall to either Veteran Sargeant Marius Varenus (centre) or Tactical Sargeant Agnathio Tarentus (left). These men could be more different. Vet Sgt Varenus is a Sombre, grim faced warrior, who strides the battle field with methodical purpose, recanting the various litanies of war every battle brother is taught, while  Tac Sgt Tarentus is a ferocious hunter, screaming wrathful war cries as he smites the does around him. There is a rivalry between these two, one of a gentle nature though, as each respects and trusts the other wholeheartedly. These two brother joined the Dragons around the same time and have served and fought much the same but Sgt Tarentus has not risen above the rank of Tactical Sargeant where as Varenus has risen to Veteran Sargeant and each feels a need to prove that they are the better warrior. The third member is Company Veteran Cato Cassus, a Mysterious character who, While technically superior to Varenus through rank, due to having been promoted from Tactical Sargeant, is by far more junior in experience and willingly defers to the older and more experience warrior. While unusual, it is not unheard of for such things to occur and if challenged, Cassus nearly shrugs and mutters a few words of wisdom to his questioner, words that it is usually wise to listen to and learn from. 

In game, Varenus and Tarentus, as Veteran Sargeant and Tactical Sargeant, are my leader specialists and which one I take depends upon which other selections I feel I need for the mission. There are two other Sargeants in the roster, another Tactical and another Veteran. The third member, Cassus, is run as a basic Company Veteran without a specialism, although he can be taken as a combat specialist if needs be.

Marcus Aggennor and Andrus Poladrus 

Next up we have the mobile and fast element to the team, Veteran Sargeant Marcus Aggennor and Company Veteran Andrus Poladrus. Vet Sgt Aggennor is an Ebullient warrior, who delights at nothing more than getting stuck in to the enemy and delivering the Emperor's Justice. While he is a Veteran Sargeant, he takes every opportunity to avoid the responsibility of such rank. He would have been happy still being an assault marine or maybe at most a Sargeant but he has found himself elevated to ever higher levels of leadership, the only benefit of which Aggennor can see, is a better selection of kit. Company Veteran Andrus Poladrus on the other hand is a noble and selfless warrior, who has taken it upon himself to watch over Aggennor's back as he throws himself at the enemy with complete disregard for his own safety. Poladrus owes his life to Aggennor, for it was due to one of Aggennors reckless actions, that saved Poladrus, who was just a Battle Brother at the time, from certain death. As such Poladrus watches over his friend and takes care of the threats that Aggennor can't.

In game Aggennor is the second Veteran Sargeant in the roster and will usually be fielded as a Zealot specialist. This means that he has 5 attacks at S5 on the charge and with twin claws, is hitting on 2's, wounding most things on 3's, rerolling, with -2ap, meaning that you will be getting a injury roll every turn of combat, if not an actual kill. At worse, he will be hitting on 3's, wounding on 4's, rerolling, with 4 attacks. So still a good chance of doing damage. Company Veteran Poladrus, a basic Company Veteran, probably run as a Veteran Specialist, for that pregame move to get his storm bolter in to rapid fire range as early as possible, or maybe a Demolition specialist for taking out those obscured targets with his storm bolter. 

From left to right: Titus Poladrus, Ollonius Aggennor, Cassius Cassus, Titus Poladrus, Andrus Tarentus, Cato Chronus

Next up are the basic tactical Marines. These form the bulk of the fighting force. On the left we have Tactical Gunners, Gunner Ollonius Aggennor, with his trusty Missile launcher and Gunner Cassius Cassus, armed with the temperamental plasma gun. Both these men are noble warriors of the chapter, upholding the chapters tennant that civilian casualties be avoided wherever possible. While both these men also apply this to the other brothers within the chapter, they do so in different ways. Gunner Aggennor watches from a far, spying targets and applying surgical strikes to eliminate the enemy threat while Gunner Cassus prefers getting up close and personal before unleashing a torrent of plasma fire at the enemy. To the right there are the two Tactical Marines, Brother Andrus Tarentus and Brother Cato Chronus. Both of the battle brothers are young and aggressive warriors, always eager to be at the front of the battle and prove themselves. Brother Tarentus carries the units comms array, needed for communicating back to the ships in orbit when deep within the hives and tunnels the warband often find themselves in, Brother Chronus on the other hand carries nothing but his bolt weapons. Lastly, in the centre we have Tactical Sargeant and Apothecary Novitiate, Sgt Titus Poladrus. Titus is one of the oldest members of the warband and is probably the most liked as well, due to his charismatic nature and friendly attitude. A veteran of many war zones, he 8s the bands medical support and a rather good one at that. Although not a fully fledged member of the Apothecarian, he has had substantial training from them, as due to the structure of the Dragons, it is not possible for all warbands to contain an apothecary. Titus is trained to do pretty much everything bar harvest the geneseed of the fallen. 

In game, Gunner Aggennor with his missile launcher will usually be played as a heavy specialist, to enable him to move and fire without penalty. With the range of the missile launcher, this will usually mean he is only suffering due to obscurement. Gunner Cassus on the other had is usually run without any specialism, although he may run as a sniper specialist on the odd occasion. Either way, Brother Tarentus, as a comms specialist, is always fielded when Gunner Aggennor is fielded, to ensure that those missiles fly straight and true. He maybe run other times but more often than not he will be paired with Aggennor. Unfortunately Brother Chronus is only ever run as a basic marine to fill the points and add another body to the mix. Tactical Sargeant Titus is the last Sgt model on the roster and usually fielded alongside Veteran Sargeant Varenus. 

So that's the warband in it's entirety. Only 11 models, 10 of which form the main band. The Librarian is really only there as I painted him up a long time ago when I was planning of running a larger force of these guys for 40k games but scrapped that idea a long time ago, when I just couldn't get stuff painted and when it became clear that primaris were going to take over all the Marine rolls. 

Anyway, the band is really split into two 100 point lists;

Vet Sgt Varenus (leader), 

Tac Sgt Titus (medic), 

Gunner Aggennor (heavy)

Tac Tarentus (comms) 

Vet Cassus 

Gunner Cassus

Or

Tac Sgt Tarentus (leader)

Vet Sgt Aggennor (Zealot)

Vet Poladrus (Demo) 

Vet Cassus (combat)

Gunner Cassus

For 125 point games, the list looks like this:

Tac Sgt Tarentus (leader)

Vet Sgt Aggennor (Zealot)

Gunner Aggennor (heavy)

Tac Tarentus (comms) 

Vet Poladrus

Vet Cassus

Gunner Cassus

The more observant will notice that Brother Chronus doesn't get a mention, like I said, he's there to make up the numbers and swap around with people if I want to change things up a bit. Obviously this is in no way an optimised list and is built mainly around the two jump pack equipped vets and the other storm bolter equipped vets. 

Next up are the Dark Guardians (Dark Angels successors) and their heavy list.

Other kill teams

So following on from the Deathwatch kill team, I have decided to have a quick run down of the other teams I'm planning. Some of these teams are going to be full 20 man rosters, some of them are going to be just 10 man rosters or maybe somewhere in between. Some of these teams are also complete and some are still to be purchased or even released!

I'll start with the ones that are at least complete, in terms of the fact that I own all the models needed to complete the teams. These are mostly Marine based teams but there are also a chaos and tyranids team as well. Im also starting here as these are the teams that I will probably use most of all, after the likes of the guard and AdMech anyway.

Eagle Knights

The first team I'll talk about will be the Blood Angels. Now, the Blood Angels are generally associated with combat and assault packs, so this is the main theme of the force. There is very little shooting, with only a handful of weapons that can shoot over 12 inches, as in 2. One bolter on a tactical marine and a special issue boltgun on a Stern guard Sgt. Other ranged weapons include a tactical with flamer and a tactical Sgt (acting as medic) and 2 vanguard vet both with bolt pistols, and that's it. Nearly Half the team, 3 company vets and a vanguard vet, don't  have any shooting capacity at all. Although what the vanguard vets do have is jump packs, making them fast and the company vets all have storm Shields, making them fairly resilient. The basic idea with these guys is simple, get up close and personal and then try and chain combats. Against elite armies, this team should do well but might struggle against horde type armies as they just don't have the power to reach out and touch that many units at a time.

Stone Dragons

One team that shouldn't have much trouble with hordes however, is the Space Wolves, or Stone Dragons. There is only one man that doesn't have a ranged weapon and only 3 that can't shoot over 12 inches. Within the remaining 6, 3 have storm bolters, 2 bolters and the last man a plasma gun. Space Wolves are not known as a long range chapter and that's reflected here as well with a number of combat weapons spread around plus there are two vets with jump packs for extra mobility. This all means that there is a good mix of fire power and shooting, with the force being best in the 0 to 12 inch range, as opposed to the 0 to 1 inch range of the Blood Angels. This force is also a bit of general purpose list, with the ability to take on elites with plasma and also hordes with storm bolters and boltguns.

Dark Guardians

Yes I know it's a biker, but it's the only full painted model

So, we have a combat oriented and a short\medium ranged team in the mix but there is not a lot of options for a long ranged team, so we're going in another direction now and going for some resilience, as the last marine force is the Dark Angels, or Dark Guardians. This force is very different again and is formed around a core of terminators, in fact half the team is armoured in TDA suits. These suits are a combination of combat and ranged, with twin claws, a TH\SS, heavy flamer, storm bolters and an assault cannon in there. These are supported by a number of power armoured Marines and by support I mean support. Now you could just use 3 termies, with no other units, but 2 with a couple of Marines in support would be best. This force is would be capable of taking on both elite and horde style armies, although fast moving armies would prove a bit more of a challenge due to the termies slow speed.

The last marine team to talk about is the scout team. This is the first full 20 man team and is formed of 17 scouts and 3 full battle brothers. These guys are a mix of weapons, with two heavy bolters, two sniper rifles, two shotguns, X bolters and X bolt pistol and combat knives, with X having chain swords to act as scout sgts. The full Marines are a tactical with plasma gun, and two sets, one with chain sword and plasma pistol and one with Combi plasma, as the whole premis of the force is a small squad of scouts lead by an experienced tactical Sgt. The force can be split in to two rough factions, long ranged with heavy bolters, bolters, sniper rifles and shotguns, and short range with pistols and knives, although there will no doubt be some overlap between these.

The next force is also power armoured but is not a standard marine force, as it belongs to the Grey Knights. This force will be a smallish force, 10 to 12 models. This force is just a basic force with a few of each type of model in. There really isn't a theme or purpose to the force, I just wanted a Grey Knights force in the collection. Dispute not really having any theme to this little force, I'm still looking forward to playing this force.

The last imperial faction I'm going to collect is the adepta sororitas or sisters of battle. I've been looking forward to collecting and building since they announced the new plastic sisters. The plan is to build a force around the battle sisters with only one, modified sister to represent a repentia. I won't be using arco-flagellants at all, as I don't see them as being part of kill team, to unreliable and I can't imagine they would be very good at sneaking through enemy territory to raid or assassinate. The force will contain at least one of each heavy and special weapon, plus a couple of variants of sister superiors. The will also be a minimum of 7 regular battle sisters, one with a Simulacrum Imperialis, one modelled as a medic and 5 basic models to fill out the team.  The repentia will be a modified sister of battle, modified to carry a couple of chain saw. This is because I want the force to have very coherent look and feel to it, like it's a single squad, or two squads, of sisters sent out on a mission. Of all these forces, this is the one I'm most excited about!

After all the imperial forces there are a couple of other forces in the mix, one chaos and one xenos.

The chaos force is formed of a core of Marines, supported by a number of cultists. There are effectively two teams here, a ranged team and a combat team. The Marines are armed with various weapons, a couple with bolters but some have assault weapons, like axes and claws. The cultists are armed with 2 flamers and 2 heavy stubbers, along side several cultists with autoguns and several with auto pistols and brutal assault weapons. While I don't plan on using this team much I have a plan for them. The cultists are going to be painted in very dull and bland colours, with only minor bright colours on sashes or bands, dedicated to the specific god that cultists follows. The marines on the other hand will have very bright and colourful armour, in keeping with there old legions or god. These will form the "bad guy" faction for me to play when I feel like a change.

The final team at present is the only xeno's team and is that of the dreaded Tyranids. This team is actually pretty sizable, about 30 or more models. The main movers and shakers of the team are a Tyranids Warrior, with a big gun, possibly a venom cannon, maybe?, and a lictor. Apart from these two big monsters, we have 12 Hormagaunts and 16 Termagants, with a selection of weapons. There are 4 spinefists, 6 fleshborers and 6 devourers. This force will mostly be used as a enemy force when playing at home, rather than a force to play at the club or tournament. It is also a force that has just grown up as I've gathered bit and there has been no thought or process to how it's been collected.

There are also 3 other teams that I am considering if I get time. The first is a custodies team, which will be formed of just 3 custodes, a spear and two swords. I would basically be collecting this force as it's the only outstanding imperial faction. The second force I might consider is basically a copy of the chaos force but built as an imperial faction, something similar the Ultramarines and their auxiliary forces. Lastly, I might consider another xeno's force, namely an Ork force, just because it would be fun to bash a force together and be a very fun team to play when I fancied a change.

40k update

After running through my Deathwatch kill team and starting a post on all my other teams that I have plans for (it'll be up soon), I thought that I really should give an update for my 40k stuff. I haven't talked about 40k in a long time, apart from the games I played when I was hoping to get to the Northern Invasion Tournament. Unfortunately there have been a significant shift in my thinking I. Terms of 40k armies, one I'm not to happy about but I unfortunately don't really see another sensible option.

I'll start by talking through my guard armies, as these are my main armies. I currently have 3 armies, my Hjaltland Light Infantry, the Hrossey Armoured Yeomanry and the Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus force.  The Hjaltland Light Infantry force is pretty much complete, with only a few extra units that I need to paint up, a couple of heavy weapons squad and special.weapons squads. These shouldn't take much to finish, it's just a case of getting the time to do so. The second force, the Hrossey Armoured Yeomanry, is also complete, although far less finished. All the tanks are primed\based green and the troops are primed but there is still quite a bit of painting to do but it should be fairly easy as most of it is formed of vehicles. The final force is the scions of the Dagr Ormr. The scions are built but not primed or painted, except for a hand full of models. The scions only form part of this force though, the other being formed of the Hildasay PDF, of which all but two vets squads and a couple of characters are painted.  I would love to get all the models in my guard armies painted and I will one day, as these are going to be my main forces for the foreseeable future. I can't see the guard changing dramatically anytime soon and I'm sure all the models I have will remain current for quite a while too.

That fact may not have seem relevant a couple of years ago but with the changes to the space Marine line it has taken on a new meaning. I currently have 2 main space Marine armies, a small faction and was planning another smaller faction as well. These plans have now been shelved and all marine armies have been put on hold. Why you ask? There are a couple of reason for this move, the most obvious one is that they are comprised of old school mini Marines and it's pretty obvious that they are living on borrowed time. The only thing that's is keeping many units alive is that there is, as yet, no direct replacement for them in the primaris line up. This will change over the next couple of years, as more and more primaris units are created. My main focus has always been on my Eagle Knights (Blood Angels) and as such they actually have a 2000 point list of fully painted Marines but there are about 1000 points of unpainted models as well. I will paint these up in the future, to complete the force as I see it but there will be no hurry for this. The Dark Guardians (Dark Angels) are even less complete, as although the colour scheme is simple and pretty much all the models are based black, only about 3 or 4 models are completed. Formed entirely of Raven wing and Death wing units, they are again mini Marines and it's only a matter of time before they are replaced as well.

I have also  mentioned the second factor a couple of times above, the fact that these models are unpainted and I have moved a long way from playing with completely unpainted models and now like to have the majority of models painted, as it does look a lot better. As I mentioned before, I do want to have bother these armies full painted one day but at my current rate, that could be several decades away. It's a shame that I haven't gotten around to painting and playing with these armies more. I started with the Knights but never really got to grips with them, loosing all the games I played with them.

The other two armies I mentioned were my stone dragons (Space Wolves) and Deathwatch. The Stone Dragons were to be a small, around 1000 point, very elite army but I never got time to get them going, however, they will continue with two kill teams being formed out of the remnants, which will also provide a small force that could be used in 40k proper if I wished. This will probably be around 500 points, certainly not up to the 1000 point minimum I was planning. The Deathwatch are in a similar position, as I have a 25 Marines ready, primed and part painted for kill team, plus one venerable dread primed and based black ready for 40k. I also have a contemptor dread that was going to be used for the Stone Dragons that will most likely be used for Deathwatch now.

Although the forces of the Eagle Knights and Dark Guardians are going to be boxed up and put into storage, a select few will find themselves else where. Both forces have dispatched 10 man kill teams, based around the characteristics of the chapter. The Eagle Knights force includes lots of close combat weapons, including three with jump packs. There are only 2 weapons capable of firing more than 12 inches, in the form of two bolters. The Dark Guardians have 4 terminators and a number of company vets (armed with plasma) in the roster. These teams are, in general, based around combat and shooting respectively but there is also the two stone dragons teams, one of which is formed almost exclusively of scouts, 17 to be exact, with 3 full Marine mentors and a second team is formed mostly of elite units, with a lot of storm bolters and a mixed combat and shooting. The three teams will all operate in different ways, which I will go in to in another post.

I also had plans for an AdMech army, again only about 1000 points,with a knight, a couple of Armiger's and some Skitarii troops. As it stands I will just be using what I have, just the two Armiger's and the Skitarii I already have. I would live to own a knight or two, but I can't justify the cost nor do I have the time to really paint one up properly. The Skitarii are all painted and ready to use, I just need to paint up the tech priest Dominus to lead them.

In addition to all these I had considered other armies, such as grey knights and sisters of battle, both of which would have been around 1000 point armies, aimed to ally in with the guard or Eagle knights. Again, this idea has been down graded to kill teams with one command element to form a patrol detachment for 40k if I want to.

So where does this leave my 40k hobby? The guard will continue as is and be completed. The Dark Guardians and Eagle Knights will be boxed up and put into the loft. The Deathwatch will be completed to a small force around 500 points, as will the AdMech force but that's it. The other armies I had planned are also being shelved. This is not the final say though, there will be a revival of sorts for all the armies at some point in the future.

The Eagle Knights will be reborn when some proper combat units and death company units get released in the future. The whole army is based on fast moving, close combat units with vehicle borne support units. There are rumours of primaris combat units coming so we'll see what happens.

The Dark Guardians will have to wait for some heavy troops, Terminator equivalent, units with fast moving biker units in support. The army is supposed to revolve around the bikes providing mobile firepower while the terminators get stuck in to the main force. At the moment neither of these units exist for primaris Marines.

The Stone Dragons are supposed to be an elite mobile hunting force and are probably the only army that I can see moving forward at the moment, as the new vanguard units could work for my idea of a hunting force but I've no plans to start anything yet.

The Deathwatch will also get an update in due course as well but in what direction I don't know and only time will tell.

Another great wall wa text! I seem to be writing a few of these posts at the moment and there's a couple more to come as well, hopefully I'm not boring you all to death with my ramblings.

Other 8th ed marine lists

The last of my army list discussions is finally here. This post will focus on the two remaining army lists, the Stone Dragons and the Emperors Disciples, as talked about in the last post. Again, ill start with the stone dragons.

Rune Priest - w/plasma pistol and runic sword
Wolf Lord - w/storm bolter and wolf claw
Wolf Priest - w/ plasma pistol
Grey Hunters - Wolf guard w/plasma pistol and chain sword, Pack leader w/power sword, grey hunter w/ plasma pistol, grey hunter w/plasma gun, 2x grey hunter w/boltgun
Grey Hunters - Wolf guard w/plasma pistol and chain sword, Pack leader w/powerfist, grey hunter w/ plasma pistol, grey hunter w/plasma gun, 2x grey hunter w/boltgun
Long Fangs - Ancient w/boltgun, bolt pistol and chainsword, 2x lascannons, 2x plasma cannons
Rhino - storm bolter
Rhino - storm bolter

827 points (47 power points)

As you can see, the dragons are a bit of a mixed bag. The keen eyed amongst you might notice a bit of a difference between what was written about these guys in the last post and the list here. This is because having gone back through the index to double check the entries and also using BattleScribe, I have discovered that you can no longer take wolf guard squads with bolter, pistol and combat weapon, as per the last errata. No this is a bit of a pain, but not the end of the world, it just means that I've had to have a rethink about the force. So, out come the wolf guard squad and in goes........ Well, that's a good question, what does go in? With nearly 200 points to spare, what is going to go in the place of the wolf guard squads? I have thought about lone wolves, but even then, two lone wolves aren't the best choice, although they certainly are the cool choice. So what do i do? I will probably either run these guys with  the Disciples or with some Dagr Ormr, so I guess its better to go with a more combat orientated unit, but I want more good all rounds and just not Grey hunters. I think that my main problem right now is that I wanted to stay away from space wolves specific units, as in fenrisian wolves, thunderwolf Calvary and wolfen, not to mention chapter specific characters as well. Hopefully a solution will present itself in due course or maybe when the codex does arrive, either way there is a bit of time to decide.

Next up are the Emperors Disciples. As I mention in the previous post, these are going to be a fairly elite army, with only the captain and Dev's sitting outside the elite choices. Now, as mentioned in the last post, there is a high likelihood of a lieutenant being included within the list, probably at the expense of the company champion.

Captian - w/Combi-plasma and power sword
Apothecary
Company Champion
Honour Guard - Powerfist, Power Axe
Honour Guard - Power Sword, Power Axe
Sternguard - Sgt w/Powerfist
Sternguard
Devastator Squad - 4x missile launchers
Razorback - w/heavy bolters
Rhino - w/stormbolter
Rhino - w/stormbolter
Rhino - w/stormbolter
Rhino - w/stormbolter

966 points (56 power points)

With the current set up, you can see that there are 3 proper squads and 2 small squads and 2 characters, all of which can sit quite comfortably in the transports. While the Dev's won't  spend a lot of time in there's, it does mean that there are greater options for moving around the field, with a decent amount of redundancy built in to the list. Ideally I would upgrade a couple of the rhinos to razorbacks and I probably could upgrade 2 as things stand, but until I get around to building the force, I want to give myself some room to manoeuvre. Again it would be nice to have these razorbacks armed up with twin lascannon for some extra anti-armour punch, but that will be expensive.

In terms of the rest of the force, the plan is to run one sternguard squad and one honour guard squad together in a rhino, and then run the Dev's in the third rhino. The honour guard are there to help if the sternguard get too close to the enemy and get caught up in combat. Ideally they won't get charged, but if they do, then they will try and fall back at the first opportunity and leave the honour guard to hold up the enemy, until the sternguard can shoot again. Lastly, The razorback will carry the captain, lieutenant and apothecary, to support one of the sternguard units, depending upon who requires the most assistance. So, while not the most balanced list, it should be fun to play and also fairly easy to paint up!

Other 8th ed Marine armies

So, I've run through most of my army lists but there are a few still outstanding, pal of which are space marine armies. Now, for quite awhile I have been thinking about slimming down my forces, afterall, 2 pure guard, 1 guard/tempestus and 5 marine armies is quite a few. In reality this equates to 5 2000 point armies and 2 1000 point armies and a 500 point army, which is probably a little excessive. I have often thought about selling off a few models and reducing down my collection but I've never got around to it. Anyway, that's really for a another post, right now lets look at the last few army lists.

We'll start with the Stone Dragons. These are the space wolves derived chapter and are quickly growing in size. Starting out as a 500 point force, there now up to 1000 points. The original force was made of awolf priest, a squad of Grey hunters and a small unit of 3 long fangs. Now with the rule changes and the changes to some of the squads, namely the long fangs, the force has grown to include a wolf lord and rune priest, a second Grey hunter squad and a wolf guard squad, in addition to extra long fangs and a couple of rhinos. Now, even with these extra units, the idea of the force remains, as a multipurpose force, tooled up for combat and ranged combat, with every one wielding bolter, pistol and swords (of various types). They are not going to be combat monsters, or even ranged killers, but a general force to support other, more specific forces.

The end list may change again, when the wolves codex drops, and they will probably not see masses of table time, as I don't envisage me buying the wolves codex, unless its quite a bit cheaper then the main marine codex, which I don't see happening. I do however, see this force growing over time, as I like the wolves and their character.

Next up are the Emperors Disciples. These were actually the first force that I decided on, as a companion to my guard infantry force, something to add some "weight" behind the guardsmen. They have however been relegated somewhat to one of the lesser forces over time and also have become one of the more specialized forces. When this force originated it was in the form of a demi-company, with all the requirements that entailed, then with the release of the ssternhammer detachment its various formations, the force changed in a more dedicated force, something it retains now.

The main part of the force is still made up of sternguard squads, but with the increase in the cost of transports, there are now just two squads with rhinos, supported by missile Dev's and two honor guard squads and company champion for close support. Add in the obligatory captain and apothecary and the force is complete. Now, with the inclusion of a lieutenant in the codex, there is a good chance that one will find its way in to the force, giving some extra re-rolls and meaning that atleast one ofthe sternguard squads will be re-rolling 1's to hit and wound. There are also some additional transports, in the shape of another rhino and a razorback. This means that the force is a highly mobile force, with everyone being able to get into a transportfor rapid mobility, which is the main point of this force.

The last force to talk about are the Brazen Hawks. Now here is the biggest change, as I will be dropping these guys from my build schedule or rather my paint schedule as most of them are already build. The reason is that I was never really happy with the force in the first place. I think that I have mentioned this in the past, I wanted a black templars force and I created a story around that, but I could never get the force to where I wanted it. In terms of fluff, I like the back story, but the actual force always seemed a bit of a compromise.

In reality I would have liked to have included neophytes in to the squads, to have the proper feel to the units. Ideally I would have had land raiders as well, probably two land raider crusaders with a big squads of crusaders each and a couple of characters for good measure, all in a 1000 point force. But the reality is that I don't own the models and I'm sticking to my no buying new models rule (except for the chimera I need for the Hrossey yeomanry). As such, the models from this force have been distributed to the other forces.

Primaris marines continued

Having looked at the generic units, what about the other chapters? The space wolves, dark angels and blood angels? There are a lot of units that are the same as the vanilla marines, but there are some differances, more so with the Space Wolves than anything else.  We'll go through them all again and see what's what and ill put my pennies worth in again.


The Space Wolves

Thunderwolf calavry + wolves - now my thoughts here are that the thunder wolves are supposed to be the biggest wolves around and the marines look like jockeys riding througher breads not grown men riding Shetland ponies. So unless they come up with new and improved primaris thunder wolves I don't see how this will work. The ferrisian wolves as just normal wolves and will continue as before.

Grey hunters - I guess this is fairly easy, just alter the weapon loads of the intercessors and call it job done.

Blood claws - these boys are a lot harder to do. With the apparent loss of scouts, will these turn into space wolf style reivers? Trouble is blood claws are very different to scouts, in both form and function. If they are replaced, it will have to be with a dedicated unit, but does that fit in to the new scheme?

Long fangs - these are basically just devastators with some extra fluff, so they'll just become aggressors.

Wolf guard - I can see these guys becoming similar to hellblasters and what ever the other special weapons squads will be called. That will mean a loss of some flaviour but these guys are so versatile right now, possibly the most versatile in the game, that I can't see how they can't loose something. One extra thing I can see, is that the Wolf Guard Battle Leader may become the wolves version of the lieutenant.

Stormwolf and Stormfang - I guess these will stay roughly the same but just get the usual primaris treatment, ie bigger and more powerful, otherwise they might just be replaced with the generic flyer.

Wulfen - if I remember right, these guys technically can't change at all as they are the 13th company? So I guess they'll continue unchanged, but just be a little less special.

Skyclaws/swift claws/wolf scouts - I've lumped these together as they will all just end up being replaced with the new versions, in the case of skyclaws the inceptors and the wolf scouts with reivers. The swift claws will have to wait until they bring out the new bike units.

Wolf Lord - I guess this will just become the captain model with extra fluff for the background.

Rune priest - both librarian  and apothecary in one. The question is, will this receive a new model or just use one of the other models with some extra rules? Personally I lean to the latter more than the former.

Iron priest - the wolves version of the techmarine, and as with the Lord and Priest, I think it will just be a case of same model, extra rules.



Next up are the Dark Angels, there are still quite a few unique units here too.

Interrogator-chaplain - this is probably the easiest model to do, just the regular chaplain with a few extra rules.

Deathwing (including the knights + command squad + terminator's + dreads) - most of these units will probably just take on there primaris equivalent, namely the aggressors and the dread. The only units that may have issues is the knights, as they have specialist weaponry. I can see these guys becoming a normal unit with lots of extra rules rather that a specialist unit will a few extra rules.

Company vets - again I this k these guys will go to be hellblaster (and equivalent) units, loosing some of the versatility but still keeping the veteran type unit.

Ravenwing (including black knights + command squad + bikes and attack bikes) - as with the Deathwing, lots of these will be replace with the primaris units, what ever the bike unit will be called. As with the vanilla marines, I see the attack bikes disappearing and I can also see the black knights loosing some of the special weapons (aka the talons) and becoming a normal unit with extra options, mostly combat ones, and gaining lots of extra rules.

Landspeeder vengeance - with the fact that I see any replacement for the landspeeder becoming bigger and better armed, the vengeance becomes less special and looks less necessary. As such i can see the vengeance disappearing in favor of a normal speeder with extra weapon options and rules.

Ravenwing darkshroud + dark talon - these are two very specialist units, used only by the Ravenwing and no one else. As such I'm not sure that they will be replaced. The dark talon might be replaced, along side the jetfigher, with the generic fighter/transport flyer from the vanilla marines. It would probably get extra rules, similar to the rest of the Ravenwing but that would be it. The darkshroud will have an even harder time I think, as with the vengeance, due to the increase in size I see from the speeder. I can see this unit becoming a normal speeder with extra rules but little else if it exists at all.

Nephilim jetfighter - as I mention above, I can't see this existing I current form. If they do bring out a primaris fighter, then it will get a black paint job and some extra rules, if they just release one flyer, then it will still get a black paint job and some extra rules and be the new jetfigher.

The final chapter to talk about is the Blood Angels. There are less unique units here but still a few to talk about.

Sanguinary priest - this is the only one

Librarian Dreadnought - I can see this becoming a new unit for the primaris units in general, being opened up to a lot more chapters, after all why is it that only the BA can make Libby dreads?

Furioso dreadnought - again, I can see this unit being opened up as an option to other chapters in the new dread model.

Death company (Dreadnought + troops) - well, this is a difficult one. With the changes made to the primaris geneseed, has the flaws of the chapter been eliminated? Only time will tell if the death company will continue to exist or if the flaw has been eliminated, personally I think it would be a mistake to eliminate the flaw as its part of the the chapters lore and so ingrained into the chapter. Hopefully it will remain, as all it requires is some extra rules and doesn't really require specific models.

Sanguinary guard - these guys are very different from pretty much everything else, but I see these guys becoming inceptors with extra options and rules. Loosing  some of there individuality but retaining some flavor.

Baal predator - as this is pretty much a normal predator (or repulsar as it will actually be) with a different gun, I can see it continuing, but I also see it being opened up to other chapters, the same as the dreads above.


So that's the end of my little run through, ok, so its very pessimistic and will in all likelihood be completely wrong. I hope that all the current units will get ported over some how, but I very much doubt that they will. As is probably evident, I see quite a culling of units, especially in the short term, as this gives options for new units and releases in the future, without having to come up with "new" units. Its also quite a pessimistic view in the fact that it makes no allowances for the continued existence of the old marine. Why? Well if you had the choice between turning a recruit in to an old style marine or a primaris marine, would you really make the old one? Of course not, you'd make the bigger, better and more powerful version. And with the current state of the wh40k universe, losses are going to be high and lots of replacements needed, so the old marines are defiantly on borrowed time.