A game of sorts......Assassins

Well, it wasn't a game of 40k, but it was a game in the 40k universe. I was down at the new club the other week and there was a game of Assassinorum Execution Force going. I was quite keen to get a game of this when I saw the box sitting on the side at the club and I wasn't disappointed.

The models are great, I really like the new assassin models, even more so now I've seen them in the flesh. I wont be rushing out to buy any of them though, as I'm going to kit bash some together so that they fit in more with the armies that I have and that I will be using them with, making them more like hard-core special vets then brainwashed assassins. First up will be the Vindicare assassin, but the others will follow. The Chaos models are fairly basic. The marines are basic push fit models, nothing fancy and no options, just old school push fit models and the cultists are straight out of the DV box set, no changes at all. The Chaos Lord on the other hand is a very detailed model and looks very nice, even if there are no options to it, not that I think you need any as I wouldn't change it, apart from the face, which is just a little silly for my liking.

On to the game though, and personally, what a game. Its easy to learn and play and fast and fun paced, all the things you want in a game. It also can be played on your own, which while being slightly sad that you have to play on your own, also means that you can challenge yourself and try out different things. This is possible because the Chaos models move around by themselves, well, you have to move them but the dice decide all the movement patterns, so unless you just ignore the dice, you never know quite what's going to happen.

In our game we had 3 assassins, the Vindicare, the Eversor and the Callidus assassins. I played the Eversor assassin and did pretty well, although I really wanted to blow myself up at the end, I didn't get the chance! Maybe next time. We won the game quite easily in the end, mostly because the others had played the game a few times and they knew what needed to happen, although we did run in to a few problems that could have caused us problems, such as several marines appearing just at the end, a turn earlier and they would have been all over us and caused us lots of problems as we couldn't have handled all of them and got through to where we needed to be. What also helped was that we had a good idea about how to take down the Chaos Lord, which worked out quite well.

All in all, I would recommend the game to anyone. Yes, it is quite pricey as a stand alone game, but as a deal containing the models for regular games and as a stand alone game, its a very good deal.

New MT's!!

Well, my orders have arrived, one box of Eisenkern Command Squad, one box of Eisenkern Panzerjagers. They arrived in record time, especially considering where I live! So I would highly recommend the seller on eBay, I may even pick up another 10 man box set at some point, but I'll wait and see.

As for the sets, well, they are amazing! As I pretty much expect from Dreamforge stuff, the quality and detain is superb, the only criticism I have is a lack of options with the command squad, technically there is only one way to build the squad up, but with the accessories pack already bought, I have plenty of options.

I'll post up some more info and maybe even pictures soon, once I've had a chance to start building the units up.

250 views

Well, I've reached another mile stone in the blog, 250 views. Yes I know some blogs can rack up this total in mere hours or some a week or so, but for me and my little blog I'm pretty happy.

So, who's viewing? Well, the top ten viewing countries are;

America - 120
UK - 52
Ukraine - 18
Ireland - 17
France - 9
Russia - 8
Poland - 5
Hungary, South Korea and Panama - 2 each

which leaves 15 unaccounted for.

In addition, the browsers and operation systems used are;

Chrome - 108
IE - 62
Safari/mobile Safari - 44
Firefox 33
plus a few other minor ones

and

Windows - 129
Mac and istuff - 114
Android - 11
plus a few others

Again, like my last post, (100 Views) this information is pretty useless to most people, but I find it interesting.

New models and Compressor

Well, I've taken the plunge. Yesterday I ordered these boys (and girls) off ebay and I have put a bid on a compressor, an AS18 type, on ebay. I'll let you know what happens with the bidding and also when the new MT's arrive.

That new game, what's it called??? Oh yeah, Age of Sigmar

So there is a new kid on the block, Age of Sigmar, and its the current hot topic. Loved and hated in equal measure. Pushing some people to the edge of sanity ( see video of burning army on YouTube ), while also being heralded as the greatest thing since sliced bread by others! But then this is the internet and everything is a case of extremes.

So, what's my thoughts? Well, strangely I don't really care. I have never been one for fantasy, don't know why but I never got in to the fluff side of it and that's a big part of my gaming enjoyment. AoS, as it seems to get called, is significantly different from WHFB in terms of fluff but I think that I have so many 40k projects and models needing attention that AoS just wont get a look-in. Having said that, I do like the models, even if the first thing that they said to me was, "we wanna be Blood Angels". I would love to kit bash some in to BA marines but I have neither the time, money or inclination to really do it, not when I already have all the models I need. I would love to be able to collect a few of these for conversion, as they would make excellent Sanguinary Guard or Veteran squads, Vanguard or Sternguard, or even Death Company at a push.

However, I am hoping to get a game in sometime soon, probably when some others have learnt the rules and can explain them to me, so I don't have to bother learning them myself. I am abit concerned with the who no points thing, but I feel that there are to many early calls being made on this front. We don't yet know the full extent of things for AoS, there are still a lot of books and details yet to be released and digested by the community at large and I'm sure that some of these will go alone way to creating balance within the game. Also, it seems that a lot of people are shouting about certain areas of balance, or rather unbalance, when there is a lot more balance that first appears. Everyone was shouting about how powerful things like Nagash were going to be, but from the web and friends who have played, they don't seem to be nearly as scary as first thought, being taken down by weight of fire from ranks of archers and gunners.

When I do play a game, I will tell you about it, and until then and from further discussions from the local gaming groups, I will reserve my decision on the game, but I defiantly wont be getting any figures, well, not until I've finished my 40k stuff anyway.

The Dark Guardians Space Marine Chapter

I've been looking through my model collection of late and I still have a number of unused models, so I though I would see what I could do with them and so the Dark Guardians SM Chapter was born. The initial plan was either to build the force around the Iron Hands, as the Iron Guardians with only the min troop choices and lots of elite units, namely termies and bikes. However, with the release of the new DA codex, plans changed and the Dark Guardians were born.

While the full fluff hasn't been formulated, one thing I do know is that they will be a semi-renegade fleet based Successor chapter, of an unknown founding. As for the rest of the fluff, the only bit I've decided on is that they will be loyalist but declared renegade by the Ultramarines (after a bust up with the ultramarines), who they hate for being the golden boys of the imperium, an organisation they believe has been corrupted and warped by the Administratum and the Ecclesiarchy, to meet their own needs. They also believe that the Emperor has died and has ascended to become a god to rival the gods of chaos, but because of the Ecclesiarchy denying this, his powers and abilities are being denied to him and so he is powerless to fight the god of chaos on equal terms. Although they have been declared renegade, it is not official in terms of the Inquisition, but insofar as being shunned but the imperium at large and Mechanicus and being watched very carefully by inquisition, however they still maintain their link as members of the Unforgiven.

The chapter is small in number, as a result of the fact that they have a very poor relationship with the rest of the imperium, and as such are very restricted in where and when they can recruit. They still maintain a lose codex structure, but have high numbers of TDA suits, Bikes and Dreadnoughts.

The 2000pts list will include a large number of elite units, including an honour guard and vets, 15 terminators, hopefully in the Deathwing Strike Force, along side a few squads of bikes from the Ravenwing Strike Formation. This should form a fairly heavy duty army, with a lot of sticking power. Its not optimised, as there are no pods or anything like that, but it uses up the models and gives me a third and very different type of SM army.

Codex: Dark Angles

Well, the new DA codex is here and it looks good. Very similar to the standard SM codex, with the notable exceptions of the two other main Detachments, Ravenwing and Deathwing. However, I have the same issues with the DA Demi-Company as I have with the SM one.

Although I haven't published my list or my army for the Dark Guardians, (I will as soon as I know the full extent of the DA codex changes) I was using certain characters, namely Belial, to put two units of Termies as Troops, with Ravenwing Command and FA options, with Company Vets as my Elite options, forming an elite force with a heavy hitting core flanked by fast moving units. This is not possible with the new Formations/Detachments.

So what's my thoughts? Well, with a little rejig of my armies, I could form a Ravenwing Formation of a Command and 2 units of 3 bikes for some fast and hard hitting units, plus a Deathwing Formation with a command and 2 squads. This would mean a core of heavy and fast units, the rest would be made up of a CAD detachment formed of a HQ, two basic troops and as many Company Vets as I can squeeze in, which probably wont be many!

From my initial plans based on the limited info that I have, I would be able to get an HQ, 2 Tacs, 2 Vets, and a Command Squad (which I'm guessing is now a Elite choice). This would form a nice little force, elite in nature and formation. I'm assuming all this is legal and all, mixing and matching the Formations/Detachments, which I'm sure it is.

I'll post up the Dark Guardians list in the next few weeks.

EDIT: Well I've spotted a minor problem. With the Ravenwing Strike Force, all units must have the Ravenwing special rule. Well the only two HQ's that seem to have it are Sammael and Sableclaw, which you cannot field together, but the formation allows you to field 3 HQ's? So does that mean any HQ on a bike has the Ravenwing special rule? or do you have to do something else? I probably  should have got a proper codex rather than a rip and a partial one at that!

Codex: Space Marine

Well, things are moving forward with house moves and everything, but were still a bit thin on the ground with internet and the like, however, I'm borrowing some of our neighbours internet (legally I might add). This means that my post may be few and far between but I will endeavour to post as I can. 

Well, the new codex is here, and while I haven't seen all of it, what I have seen is both good and bad.

In general the new codex looks good, it has addressed issues and fixed them, to a certain degree and has given us some nice detachments and formations to work with. It is also these detachments and formations that are going to cause me some issues. While I haven't seen all of the codex and read all of the rules I like what I've seen.

The Demi-Company looks good, is fluffy and comes with good rules, however, it doesn't fit with my army. The main problem is that it limits the number and type of units, as do many of the other detachments, and this is the problem.

The Emperors Disciples currently have  2 HQ plus Honour Guard, 3 Troop, no Fast, 3 Elite and 2 Heavy. While I can solve a few issues by taking the Reclusian Command Squad to get a second HQ and the Command squad, it will give me a Chaplain and not a Libby. The second problem is that I run two Devi squads, and the detachment only allows one, so where does the second come from? another Demi-Company? There is also the problem of no FA slot being used, I could put a 3 man bike squad in or a 5 man assault squad, which I can do with what I've got.

The other main issue is that I run a Sternguard and a Termie squad, but that would leave me short by one unit in order to field the 1st Company Task Force.  

The main issue that I have is that the Disciples are supposed to be a shooty army, not engaging in close combat, so no Assault Marines, Vanguard Vets or Assault Termies, which limits options, plus I don't really want to purchase any new models, as the whole point was that I am using the models that I already have.

So in order to use the new formation, I'm going to either have to buy new models or completely change around my armies to fit in with the new detachments/formations. So while I'm not sure that the new formation is a bad thing, I think I might have to stick to the standard CAD, at least until they remove it from the BRB!