Scion drop troops

A little late to the party but never mind. The new Tempestus Aquilons are here and they look stunning. 

All ten of the models have lots of character and poses are really nice and dynamic.

They have all the classic kill team operatives, from special weapons gunners and sniper (marksman) above, to fighters, gun slingers and demolitions at the bottom.

 And in kill team these guys have some very cool.rules and abilities, not least being able to drop in around the board over various turns rather than having to.start in your deployment zone. This gives you options to get in to positions you wouldn't have been able to and to pressure your opponent in all sorts of new ways. However, as much as I love kill team, and I'm genuinely excited to see what the new edition brings (hopefully less complicated cover and obscurity rules!), I'm a 40k player at heart and that's were things start to go a bit wrong for me.

There were three things that jumped out at me about the data sheet when I first read it, those being; movement, assault and special weapons. There were a few other bits that I noticed or were pointed out while watching various YouTube videos but we'll start with those three. Firstly the good point, assault. This means that they can be faster moving and still shoot, with the advance roll being an average of three and a max of six, that can be quite a boost to their movement, plus these are, as far as I know the only assault weapons in the whole of the guard codex. And that's the end of the good news. 

Movement is an issue for me, I was hoping that these would be fast moving troops, with a proper fast profile, ie 12 inch movement. Yes, I know they are drop pack \ grab chutes, but I was still hoping for something, as we don't really have many fast infantry options outside of the rough riders. Combine this with the shorter range of the weapons, 18 inch for the lascarbines, and the actual threat range is 24 to 30 inches (average 27 inches), where as the standard scions have a threat range of 30 inches.

Granted you'll have less shots at that range, a max of 20 for the Aquilons compared to just 10 for the scions, however, you could have better firepower as well, in the form of plasma, grenade launchers and volley guns. This is as big an issue as the movement, the lack of special weapons. Being able to take four special weapons in a 10 man squad of scions against just one in the Aquilons is a huge advantage. If you could take more in the Aquilons it would make a huge difference, dropping in three inches away (more on that later) and dropping two melta guns and two krak grenades in to a vehicle would be very useful. 

There are some other positive and negatives to.mention as well, firstly the positives.

The servo-sentry is a very useful model and goes some way to making up the lost firepower, with some good weapon profiles and the ability to shoot on the drop. It could make a huge difference on that initial drop, even at BS 4+. Secondly, the three inch drop. This could be huge for snatching objectives or victory points, getting around screening units and such. This could very easily become a major game play tactic. The long-las is another good point, even if it's only one shot at S4. If it does punch through, it's going to do damage. Lastly points, at only 90 points, less than the equivalent Scion unit, they are cheap for what they can do. 

However, there are some minor issues still to mention. The biggest here being that they are locked to a 10 man squad. 10 bases is a lot to squeeze in to the enemy deployment zone or to try and crowd out an objective. The second minor issue is the weapon options. Now I've mentioned the lack of special weapons but there is the other options, like taking twin pistols or swapping two lascarbines for pistols and a knife. I get that these are really set with kill team in mind and they have only done 40k rules to (try and) keep people happy but still, why would you drop carbines for pistols? The last negative is no unsurprising, the last of leader options. This is understandable as there are no drop troop characters or command squads but it does dent there utility and versatility so what.

 The last bit to mention is that these are still T3, 1W, 4+Sv, 7+LD, as they should be amd so you are going to have to be very careful where you drop them, as even a 10 man unit can disappear very quickly.

Over all I was really excited by these guys, now however I'm not in a hurry to pick up any and will see what happens with the next codex. 

Cabinet

So, a couple of weeks ago, (maybe more, I can't find the post!) I wrote about my new purchase of a display cabinet. Well, it has found a home in the corner of the front room (living room\family room, whatever you want to call it), despite not matching the rest of the wooden front room furniture. It has also gained some models.

The cabinet 

Lights!

The cabinet had some built in lights but the wiring was missing from behind, so I had to find a new power unit and wire it all in. It was relatively easy to do and with some new LED bulbs, as the standard ones didn't work, despite the power pack saying they would, we have some illumination. However, it's top down and so the top level is very well lit but the lower ones less so. It's more obvious on the pictures lower in the post.

Top shelf

Top shelf is a bit of a mish mash of Sisters, Deathwatch, Grey Knights, Imperial knights, AdMech, Imperial agents and some Chaos at the back. 

Upper Middle shelf

This shelf is mostly guard, with a couple of vehicles, some rough riders and various troops, with a small contingent of Eagle Knights on the right.

Middle middle shelf

This is my son's shelf, which contains some of his Tau models, although I keep suggesting he puts some of his orks on here too. 

I've skipped the lower middle shelf as it currently contains my paint tray, and that's not very exciting.

Bottom shelf

The bottom shelf, if you can call it a shelf, contains all my rule books and codicies, plus my copy of Conquest Card game. I plan on adding to this collection at some point with some of the older codicies for ages I have, but for now that's everything.

Night time lights

As you can see, the light dies off pretty quickly, meaning the lower shelves are in complete darkness. I think in time.i will replace the over-head lights with LED strip lights that run down the sides, maybe a couple of strips each side to ensure all the models are well lit. 

 I am really liking my little display cabinet and while it only shows a small portion of my total models it's still nice to have some out on display. I will try and rotate through the models over time but I doubt it will happen very often, probably only when I paint up new stuff I want to display.

Codex: Blood Angels

So another codex that I want is on the horizon, this time it's one of the original Angels of Death, the Blood Angels. 

This is a codex that I want as well, although I will probably only buy the codex rather than all the cards as well. The main reason for this is that I run a successor chapter and not the founding chapter, and so I don't have any of the characters or special units, although that may well change with plans to build some Sanguinary Guard.

The new release box is an amazing set, with the new characters, dread and a whole host of assault marines. My only gripe is that I wish they had all be jump assault marines and not split between the two. 

The new Sanguinary Guard models are also very nice, apart from the missing wings. I have plans to convert up some AoS models for a squad, the same way I have converted up a lot of my other squads. The new Stormcast Prosecutors look very nice, have spears and wings, they just need a proper power pack.

The new Lemartes modes is also very nice and the fact that we get jump chaplain's is great, more jump options the better! I don't know if I will get this model or not yet, I may well end up.converting up some AoS models again, just to keep the same theme going within the army.

Astorath the Grim however is the only model that isn't on my list. I have never really liked this model, it is a stunning model but I just don't like it. That applies to the old model as well. In addition, this isn't a unit I have ever felt like putting in the army, I haven't seen the rules for him properly yet but they would have to be very good for me to think about including him.

The brutalis dread in all its glory. I love this model and plan on getting at least 2 for my BA army. I will have to see what the difference is between the Death Company dread and the normal one, but I suspect that I will run them as the standard one most of the time. 

 Lastly we have the new combat patrol box, which is a really nice box. Several people (aka YouTubers) have said that two or even three of these boxes would form a solid core to a.BA force and I have to agree. If I wasn't going the route of converting up AoS models for a.lot of my force I would definitely grab a box of these. 

I am really excited for the new codex, even though I don't play with the blood angels much I will be grabbing the new codex when it comes out. I will also have to look at getting the space marines codex, or the data cards at least, so I can play the army properly. I will only ever play one of the three detachments in this book, so the full.SM codex is not required but if I can find a cheap one somewhere I'll grab it.

Codex: Imperial Agents

So I'm a bit behind the curve on this one, as the new codex and all the leaks are all over the internet and have been for couple of weeks now, not to mention it's up for sale.on the GW web store! I will be doing an in-depth review when I get the book, which I will be getting. 

 But what are my first impressions? Well I have trawled through the leaks, some of which are significantly better quality than others and we have now seen the points costs, so I have a pretty good idea of things, I think. And I really like the new book, yes, we have lost a lot of the kill teams, which I think was a mistake. I think that they should have kept all the primaris kill teams, they could easily have released an upgrade kit for them, they could have kept all the detachment rules the same, even kept the veterans as battle like and not the others, restricting them but still enabling them to be fielded. As it is, it doesn't affect me, I was planning on building up a heavy kill team, the Indomitor kill team, with it's gravis armoured units but now I will probably just look to build the three units separately, although they will have dropped down the priority list some what. 

In addition we got three release boxes, one for each Ordo of the Inquisition. None of the boxes are on my list though, each has elements that I like but they all.have parts that I have no need for.  

This is a good box, although I have plenty of Deathwatch vets, more than I can field, plus I already have the rouge trader and entourage. I would love a corvus blackstar and I plan on getting one some time soon. I have also recently purchased inquisitor Draxus and have my own kitbashed henchmen. So on the whole, it's only the blackstar I would want and it's cheaper on its own.

The next box has a similar issue for me. I have three chimera, so can use one of them to transport the henchmen around, which again I have my own kitbashed unit, in addition to having a kitbashed preist. I really don't like the new inquisitor model either. This leaves the assassin and the Grey Knights, both of which are on the wish list but the terminators are significantly high up the list. 

Lastly we have the Heretics boxset and this one differs slightly as there is basically nothing I need or want in this box. The henchmen, as mentioned above, I have and I have a full sister's squad already. I have recently purchased some proxy arbites for my knights list, so don't need the ones in here and Greyfax is surplus to my requirements as I have several kitbashed inquisitors of my own. The Immolator would be cool to have but the rhinos I currently have would work just as well and can take all the sisters together. So really there is nothing I need out of this box. 

So overall, while I think these boxes are really good deals and also are great for those just starting out on the Agents path, for me they are not required and I will be purchasing the three units I need separately over time. 

The box itself, while not giving Deathwatch players quite the options they are useless to, for me as an agents player it really gives me a lot more options and flavour, and I really like it. As I said at the beginning, a full review will be on here when I get the book.