Kill team shadow vaults

So it's been a while since Shadow vaults came out but I haven't had an opportunity to look at it and give my thoughts as there has been a shed load of guard leaks to look at. We'll start with the overall box and then look at the new Kasrkins. I'm not looking at the necrons, as I don't have any real thoughts on them and no desire to get them.

The box contains the usual board, terrain and models. The board and terrain is apparently mostly the same, with just some scatter terrain having been changed. I think this is a good idea as it means that you don't need to buy multiple boxset to get everything, just one and then any teams you want. Again, I won't be buying this box set. I do like the look of the Kasrkins but I don't want the necrons and I would like more terrain then this provides. Which is where the other terrain box come in, but more on that later. Overall I do think this box is a good set and a good step in the right direction for GW and kill team. I don't like all the individual boxes with different terrain and rules, having the same terrain in every box mean you can choose what you want and just get the bits you actually want. 

As for the teams, the Kasrkins look great, not great enough for me to buy some but I really do like the sculpts.

Again, as with most of the new kits, the detail is amazing, really high quality and it looks like it's a proper multi part kit and not mono pose. 
 

The options available in the squad is good as well, with all the special weapons available plus some kill team specific as well. The grenadier model is probably the worst model out of the lot, the extra armour that it's wearing just looks a little bit silly. 

These models are a great update to the original models, as with a lot of the new guard models, they are a faithful revision rather that some reimagining or interpretation of the old models. I think GW have really hit the nail on the head with these recent guard releases. 

Rough riders!

Finally, after  a long break, we finally have our horses back!

Rough riders are an iconic unit and the new versions are faithful but sensible updates to the old units. They have kept the horses which was a bit of a worry for me, rough riders without horses would have been good but these look great and I definitely plan on getting a couple of boxes worth. As with most of the new boxsets, they have got a few new options. 

The new unit comes with 3 new Lance's, the two listed above, the classic frag tip and the new melta tip, but also the Goad tip. The main difference is that the frag and melta tip are interchangeable but the goad tip is a separate weapons profile that can be taken once for every 5 riders. The goad tip is a melee weapon with S+2 -3ap D2, but it does also have a ability that does a mortal wound for every attack you allocate to a vehicle. This means you should be able to do some major damage to vehicles when combined with melta tips on the other 4. There is also the option for a power sabre on the Sgt, which is basically a power sword by a different name (melee, S+1 -3ap D2 +1 extra attack)

In addition all the guys also have lasguns and apparently laspistols, which is a nice little bonus. Also, there are some additional rules, such as ignoring modifiers to moving, advancing and charging plus, if you do charge you gain +2 strength in addition to the Lance's bonus (for a possible +4 strength or S8)

The units stats are alright, with a slightly enhanced guard stat line, with S4 and T4 and a 4+Sv. A 12 inch move is also useful, giving quite a threat range. The only downsides to me are the fact that they only have 2 attacks and 2 wounds each. I would have like to have seen at least 1 more of each. I would have liked to have seen some attacks for the horses and maybe we will, as most other mounted units get some sort of attacks from the mounts.

The unit also has the Platoon and Core keywords, meaning they can receive orders and other bonuses such as rerolls. 

Points wise, I'm still a little unsure, the list I've seen says 20 points but I'm not sure if that right. I'm assuming it's talking each model, so between 100 and 200 points. I think this sounds about right but I'm no expert. 

All in all I'm very excited for the new rough rider and will definitely be getting a couple of boxes.

Guard leaks - Rogal Dorn

So I've run through all the leaks from the other week, apart from the new Rogal Dorn tank. This is a new heavy tank that sits between the Leman Russ and Baneblade, because what we really need was a new heavy tank, rather than some other fast attack options, such as the Tauros or Centaur.

The tank itself is a bit of a beast, with 17 wounds, t9 and a 2+ save, compared to the LRBT's 13 wounds and t8, although both have the turret special rule. Although this model can be equipped with the armoured tracks upgrade which gives ive you a +1 to your armour save against D1 weapons. I don't know if we will retain Armour of Contempt or not but I think armoured tracks is almost a must have. 

It apparently come with a twin battle cannon, castigator Gatling cannon and a heavy stubbed. It can also take sponsors, either heavy bolters or multimeltas and two additional heavy stubbers or melta guns.

If you want a bit more bang, bang you can switch out the battle cannon for a Oppressor cannon and cohax autocannon and the Gatling cannon for a pulveriser cannon, both of which have lass shots but more strength and ap. 

And you can field all this for a base coat of 250 points (LRBT's are a base 140), more with the sponsons, extra weapons and upgrades to the the main weapons. 

Now I'm not going to go into a side by side comparison of the LRBT and Rogal Dorn (RDBT I guess) but I will take a quick look at the weapons profiles. The default load of twin battle cannons is not quite a double of the LRBT's battle cannon, with 2d6 shots to 1d6+3 and ap-3 to ap-2 respectively, but it is still a good gun, 3specially when backed up by the Gatling cannon with 12 shots at ap-1. You can upgrade the battle cannon to a Oppressor cannon dropping to 1d6+3 shots but gaining 2 strength, -1 ap and 1 more damage. Similarly the Gatling cannon can be upgraded to a pulveriser cannon, which is basically a d6 shot battle cannon. Personally from what I have seen so far, I would either keep it standard or upgrade the Gatling cannon to a pulveriser cannon, slap on some heavy bolters and call it done. If you have extra points then more stubbers would work but the meltaguns really are too short a range for this tank. 

I still don't know if I will get one of these or not. While I think it might be fun to, with 4 LRBT's and a Hellhammer, I just don't have need for any and I would much rather spend my money on the new Field Ordinance Battery. 

Guard leaks - additional information

So having looked over various parts of the codex there are a number of other rules bits that have been leaked as well. These don't fit into any specific area so they are lumped together here. 

Hammer for the emperor stays but possibly has a new name, in addition adds the ability for units to use an officer's leadership if within 6" or 12" with a vox. There still seems to be some debate about whether you retain HotE if you take a regimental doctrine. For some.of the other rules I've seen then I suspect that you will. This could be one of the key choices when constructing your army.

The new Chain of command rules mean you must select an officer to be your warlord if your army includes one, in addition you can only have 1 castellan in each detachment and he must be your warlord. You can also have one of the new Lord Solar units and he must be your Warlord if you do. This is now pretty standard and also goes along with the way guard armies are fielded. 

Command squads are also back and you can now attach people to them like in the old codices. Each squad contains an officer and 4 guardsmen and you can add an officer of fleet, Master of Ordinance or an astropath. All but the officer apparently have just 1 wound. You can also attach an Ogryn body guard which has the “big rule”, this means that if you attach one, and the unit is targeted, you use his toughness etc.

One last bit of information about officers and orders, is that they will still spread out in the same way as they do now.

Other changes mean that Scions are now elites. However if you bring a full Scion detachment they may be taken as troops. There is also something about other keywords being added, but as yet we don't know what these are. There is another way of getting scions as troops and that's by taking  the Lord Solar as your warlord. There is some downsides to taking a pure Scion detachment as well, apparently if you do you loose a lot of the abilities and it makes about a quarter of the codex unusable. I honestly don't know what this means, as if you took scions on their own now, you loose a lot of units as well, so it seems, if you only loose 25% of the codex, you might actually be gaining units your can use. Hopefully it will make more sense when we see the full rules. 

Platoons are back, just in a very different way (not lik in 2nd or 3rd edition). It seems to be a Special Detachment rule, likened to the dark eldar real space raider detachment and there is a new platoon keyword that enables this.

There are a few changes and additions to various units in the new book. The one we all know about is that Cadian shock troops can carry two special weapons but are not allowed to take heavy weapons. It is also rumoured that Catachan can only take flamers. However the rumour states that for every 5 models you can take a flamer. So does this mean that you can take a squad of 5 or that you can take more than 10? Or is it just a wording issue that means you can take up to 2 flamers. DKoK also get an infantry squad, which come.with a plasma and can have up to 2 more special weapons plus a medic for ignoring the first damage a turn. The last bit about squads is that sniper rifles are now Tanith only. This seems a little strange as Tanith only have Gaunts Ghosts and as there doesn't seem to be an option for named regiments, I'm not sure how this will work.

Artillery finally seem to be the death dealing machines they should be as they apparently will dish out mortal wounds for hits. How many mortal wounds is unknown but hopefully it'll be more than 1!

There are a few now models, such as the new Castellan and Lord Solar. The new Lord Solar is apparently a cavalry unit with a move of 12 inches and some rumours have put him as a supreme command detachment model. Most characters have been rolled in to squads but Preachers (I'm guessing Priests) and engineers (techpriests enginseers) are still independent characters and apparently have more wounds.

However, it's not all good news, there are a number of options that have been removed from the codex! To be honest I don't understand why any of them have been removed, all can be built from existing boxsets. 

Conscripts have been removed but there are conflicting rumours about white shields. Some saying that whiteshields are out and others saying they are in. Personally if white shields are in then they will be just a 10 man squad, rather than the 20 to 30 man squads were use to.

Veterans are out as well. I don't understand this at all, they are a viable unit from the current boxsets with just a few rules tweaks. However, I guess with the various options for troops, they are kinds of surplus to requirements. In addition to vets, special weapons squads are also gone. Again this is strange as with a few tweaks you could easily make this squad out of a current box, like the command squads by just dropping a lasgun and restricting weapon options. 

There are also changes to Scion squads and how special weapons work. Currently you can take 4 weapons of any type for a ten man squad but now it looks like you'll only be able to.take a max of two of the same, so no more 4 plasma squads. 

Unfortunately there are also some characters being removed. Some are understandable, such as old man Creed and Kell. Paso has also been removed, which I don't think is a good move but the one that I really think is a mistake is the removal of the old man of Hades hive, Commissar Yarrick. As Ghazghkull got a brand new plastic model, I thought that Yarrick might have got a nice new model too. If he had, it would have sold well.

I'll just leave this here, Rough riders confirmed to be back

Lastly there are a couple of vehicles rules. One piece of good news is that vehicle squadrons are still around, so we still have a little bit of wiggle room on the "rule of 3". Whether all the current squadron options remain is yet to be seen. Lastly we have lost the Grinding Advance rules but gained the Turret Waeapon rule, which applies a +1 to hit to turret weapons and enables turret weapons, including blast, to be fired out of combat. Loosing grinding advance is a shame but having a +1 to hit and the ability to fire out of combat (always a major issue for Leman Russ tanks) is a good substitute.