It a state of mind.

It's been a while since I've put some of my hobby thoughts, so, with little else to post at the moment, I have decided to put pen to paper (kinda) and let my thoughts and ideas spill out for your amusement.

It's not just a lack of stuff to post about that have led to this post but also some recent developments from GW, namely the previews from the Las Vegas Open. In terms of 40k, there weren't huge numbers of things  shown but there were a number of new AdMech units, the Pteraxii, the Serberys Sulphurhounds and the Serberys Raiders. Place these alongside the other recent AdMech releases, the two tanks and the planes, there is now a whole range of new AdMech units to get excited over. Or rather it's a whole load of units I should be getting excited over but just can't. It's not that I've lost my hobby mojo or any of my love for 40k but my desire for new shiny things has dulled slightly.

I think part of the reason is due to the new primaris unit. Now don't worry this isn't going to turn in to a rant against primaris units, even if the lore does suck but its more to do with the fact that I have one almost complete Blood Angels army and a Dark Angels army primed ready to paint and now both of them are effectively defunct. I put a lot of love in to the armies, especially the BA one and now there in a box in the loft and will no doubt stay there for many years to come. I plan on getting a new marine army at some point but not until more primaris units have been released, ones that are more inline with my ideas for a fast, aggressive, close combat army.

The other reason I think my enthusiasm has wained is due to the fact that there have been very little guard releases lately. Guard have always been my favorite army and they haven't been any new models recently, despite two units being released\previewed that have got me annoyed. The units in question is the GSC Atalan Jackals and the AdMech Serberys. Why have they annoyed me? Simple, because where are my Rough Riders? I'll not turn this into a rant about rough riders either but needless to say, they removed such an iconic unit from the game and then released 2 others that are basically what rough riders should be........ Anyway, right now, if it's not about the guard, I'm not really bothered.

There is also the fact that I'm still really into Kill Team, even if I haven't Played in months. I love the small scale of the game and I've built various teams, several guard and marine, plus AdMech and chaos. I'm also going to get sisters at some point in the year. It means I can have all the various armies that I want, without the huge out lay for models and without needing as much time to paint them. The there is the fact that the games take only a fraction of the time to play and, in case you haven't guessed already, time is a big factor these days. With 3 kids, including a very active toddler, getting time to do anything is a rarity.

I still love the game and everything around it, this blog is testament to that, as this blog was started way back when my eldest was just about to start nursery (some 5 and a half years ago now!), as a way to stay connected to the hobby when I didn't have time to paint or play. These new units do excite me, as they show what's capable from GW and show new ideas and thinking. Plus there's no doubt that they are stunning models, full of detail and character. I would still love to have shelves full of painted armies, imperial ones anyway but as I struggle to even paint o e model properly these days, full armies is a bit far fetched.

Ultimately I think this is what's killing the enthusiasm for the wider model range, lack of time. Long term followers of the blog will probably have noticed that the armies I've planned over the years has dwindled and I've got none planned at the moment, only a few to finish. I will get time to paint and play again soon, when is another question but when I do, I will no doubt make every effort to catch up on my armies and want to buy every shiny new thing that's released.

Now, I've read through this a few times and no, it doesn't make much sense and there's little structure to the post, partly as this was just a wondering through my thoughts and because I wrote this in several sitting when I could grab 5 minutes, meaning half the time I'd forgotten what I was writing or thinking. I thought about amending it all but in the end just though I'd leave it as it is, to show that when it comes to the hobby these days, my mind is all over the place and there's never time to site a collect my thoughts properly. One day there will be, just not today.

The Greater Good pt2

Following on from my post last week, this is the second half of my look at the new Imperial Guard rules found in the lastest Psychic Awakening book, the Greater Good. This post will focus on the Militarum Tempestus rules. This will mostly focus on the new Doctrines for the Scions, turning them back into a full fledged force in there own right, similar to how they were in 7th.

There are some good options here and some that aren't quite so good.

First up, for no other reason than it's the first picture blogger put in and it just happens to be the standard Doctrine, well almost anyway. This is slightly revised as it goes from generating an extra hit roll to a straight extra hit. While extra hits are good, in theory though it's only going to come in to play at less than nine inches and it doesn't solve the main problem with Scions, there short range.

In contrast, this does exactly the opposite, adding that much needed range. Adding 6 inches to the range of all rapid fire weapons brings hotshot lasguns up to the range of the volley guns and more importantly, brings the rapid fire range up to 12 inches and means that you can now reach out and touch targets from deep strike. I do like this doctrine as it does fix the biggest issue for me, the lack of range.

These guys are the current poster boys for the Tempestus Scions and their doctrine is a little odd. Firstly there are two parts, the only one that does. Secondly, the first half has a very specific effect, as it effects heavy type weapons, of which the Scions have only one, the Volley Gun. Now, does this signal a change and we might be getting heavy weapons teams for Scions? I doubt it, which I guess is why we get the second part, that when exiting a transport, they get a +1 to hit. This is pretty good, bringing there hit rolls to a 2+ when they disembark. However, it then does limit there options for deployment as the majority of the time they will gain no benefits from the doctrine. They only way to run these I think is from a taurox or more likely a Valkyrie and drop them point blank range, with a command squad full of volley guns.

This is probably the only doctrine that I don't really understand. To my mind, you are going to be running these guys against Marines (of both varieties) and they have both high leadership and ways to re-roll that leadership, so the effect of moral is lessened. Where this trait would be best is in lower leadership big squads, such as guard, eldar guardians, Tau fire warriors, chaos cultists and the likes, where two or three casualties will cause the squad major problems in moral but then these are not really the primary targets for hotshot lasguns. I'm really not sure about this tactic and it's the only one I don't see how I could use.

Again, this doctrine confused me at first but once I'd considered it for a while, it does make more sense to me. It brings the lasguns and pistols up to AP-3, where I think they should have been all along ( well they were S3 AP3 under the old system), putting MEQ's under more pressure. In addition it brings some much needed AP to things like bolt pistols and flamers, as well as grenade launcher. This really does help these weapons but it does push these forces in to two different directions. While it does help with there primary role taking out Marines, it also means that they are better at taking out Guard equivalent units with grenade launcher and flamers. If your going up against chaos with a mix of Marines and cultists, then these are the guys to take.

The last doctrine is very similar to the first but with a minor adjustment. Instead of granting extra hits on 6's within half range, the extra hits are generated when targeting the closest unit. This means that you could generate extra hits at any range, just as long as it's the closest unit your shooting at. While it's always useful to get extra hits, this doctrine does push you to target the closest unit in order to get any benefit from the doctrine, so you are probably going to have to choose, closest with benefits or proper target without.

In addition to the doctrines, we also got new relics and warlord traits, one for each regiment.

The relic we're given is for the Thetoid Eagles and is a replacement for a hotshot laspistol. Not only does it double the number of shots but also increases the range. What attracts me to this pistol is the simple fact that every hit causes a mortal wound, removing the second weakness of the hotshot weapons (first being range), their strength (S3). Definitely a good relic in my opinion.

The warlord trait is from the Kappic Eagles and ties in well to their doctrine. More often than not your going to deploy these units from transports and they are generally going to be quite dispersed, giving your warlord a 24 inch range for voice of command and the option to issue orders from inside a vehicle means that you can keep him in contact with other units very easily and not need to expose him unnecessarily. I think this is a good trait to have for these units, however unless your running a pure Scion list, I still wouldn't have my warlord in the Scion detachment.

Lastly we have a couple of stratagems, two of the eight universal stratagems that are available to the Scions. In addition there are 6 regiment specific stratagems, one for each regiment.

I don't know what the other stratagems are yet but this one is very, very good. Being able to drop just 5 inches from an enemy units from a Valkyrie,without having to worry about loosing anyone is amazing and will be used pretty much Everytime anyone deploys units in Valkyries. Now, the big question I have, is how does this actually work. I can see it working two ways right now; firstly, you select the flyer and a unit inside gains the benefit of the stratagem or secondly, you select the flyer and every units inside gains the benefits. The way I read this, every you select the flyer and every units on board (with aerial drop) gains the benefit of the stratagem, meaning you could load up a Valkyrie with two command squads and a tempestor with command rod, drop them at point blank range and unload. Now the 5 inch is key, as it puts you in to melta  range for those sweet damage rolls. In addition, I would assume that this will combine with the Kappic Eagles trait as well for a +1 to hit as well, meaning g you'll be hitting on 2's, with potential rerolls from your tempestor. This is going surpise a number of people.

This another good stratagem and can tie in well to the previous stratagem as well. Whether Dropping in you character with something like Old Grudges, or just bolstering a flank with Draconian Discipline, the options are all good and for a CP this is pretty much a must take. 

From the previews shown here, there are a couple of combinations that really stick out to me. The aforementioned Kappic Eagles doctrine combined with Precision Drop and a Tempestor with Progeny of Conflict, using Old Grudges and issuing the Take Aim order to two command squad. This will give you two units of 4 special weapons, hitting on 2's, rerolling 1's and rerolling wounds. Whatever you hit is going to have a really bad day. Yes this is a one hit wonder, but the units probably aren't going to survive until the next turn anyway, so it's a case of hitting the priority target hard and doing everything you can to make sure you eliminate it. Another way to run the Kappic Eagles would be to load up in Taurox's and using the warlord trait and their doctrine, charge forward before disembarking and unloading while the warlord issues orders from the safety of a transport. The final way I think you can think to run things, from what we've seen so far anyway and that's to use the Lambdan Lions or psion jakals , use a Valkyrie to drop in a large squad with flamers or grenade launcher just behind an enemy squad, using Precision Drop to get in flamer range and then go to town on the unit. This would work best on large squads, such as conscripts or a full squad of warriors, or something similar. 

While we still have a lot to see, this is shaping up to be a very good addition to the Scions and maybe a sign of the Militarum Tempestus gaining there own codex again, or more likely a codex supplement, along the lines of the recent marine supplements.

The greater good

So it has come around to the turn of the guard to get some goodness from the Psychic Awakening series. To be honest I haven't taken much interest in this series, as I don't really like supplements and the whole extra rules and such that come with them. I liked the whole point that 8th was going to be a streamlined system with out needing 20 thousand books to play. Ok, so that's a bit of an exaggeration but at the rate were going it won't be for long.

For this review, I'm not going into the full details, which are up on many sites and YouTube as well (check out Winters SEO for a good review on YouTube). This will just cover the Warhammer Community page releases and my own thoughts in the new stuff. Also this post will just cover the main guard releases and not the Scions, which will be in the next post.

First up the new Regimental Doctrines. We saw this in the Space Marine codex, where you could customise your chapter tactics and we all expected the system to get rolled out to all armies eventually and here are the guards version. While not as numerous as the marines, the guard have 12 options to choose from and the two that were previewed we're Gunnery Experts and Disciplined Shooters.

Gunnery Experts effects vehicles from your army and enables you to re-roll the dice when determining the number of shots a weapons has, such as the LR Battle cannons D6 shots.

The other doctrine we get is Disciplined Shooters, which enables units to effectively rapid fire out to 18 inches, weather than the standard 12 inches and as is pointed out in the Community article, combined with the First rank, Second rank order could see an Infantry unit shoot four shots out to 18 inches, so somewhere between 24 and 36 lasgun shots for a regular Infantry squad. 

Both of these Doctrines have been seen before, one with the Catachan and the other with the Armageddon Steel Legion, so are not new but being able to swap and change the two parts does make quite a difference.

We also get previews of some of the new options, namely Jury-rigged Repairs and Combined Auspex.

Jury-rigged is a nice little option, giving your units some more durability but I'm a little underwhelmed by this doctrine. Gaining back one wound will not make that much difference in most cases and I expect there to be better options out there

Combined Auspex allows you to fire overwatch on a 5+ for vehicles that are close to other vehicles. However, I'm not sure planning your whole strategy around getting vehicles charged is a particularly good idea.

So far these are a mixed bag, I would like to see what the rest have to offer as I think that these could be very useful indeed. I run a very Infantry based army, so having a doctrine tailored purely to Infantry would be better than what is out there at the moment. However, whether it's worth loosing the other bonus's such as warlord trait and stratagem, I'll have to wait and see.

Another addition to the tool bag are Tank Ace's. These can be used instead of a traditional warlord or for a 1CP stratagem you can include a tank ace in addition to your warlord (or have two tank Ace's). Now from other sources I know that there are different types of Ace's, from tank to support and super heavy Ace's, so lots of choice.

Again, we got a taste of some of the options with Weapon Expert and Steadfast Leviathan. 

This option is for one of your Leman Russ variants and could be useful on pretty much all of them, however I think it will be most useful on the likes of the Punisher, to give it some AP or the auto cannon to push it up to ap-2 and in to battle cannon challenging range. This may sound odd but a battle cannon is S8 AP-2 Dd3 and with this the auto cannon would be S7 AP-2 D2 plus the battle cannon is d6 shots vs the auto cannon is 4. I don't know how it will mathhammer out but it looks good to me.

Steadfast Leviathan is another good trait for a super heavy tank ace. If your running an armour heavy list, this could be very useful for boosting your super heavy to new levels, think of a Valhallan baneblade spitting death in all directions right up until the moment it dies itself. How this ties in with the new Doctrines we will have to wait and see but there is a lot of potential here.

Last up are a couple of new stratagems, I don't remember seeing how many there were going to be but there are three here, two from the Warhammer community post and one from their Facebook page.

The first, splash damage, looks like a good one. Yes, it's a bit situational, as the target unit needs to be in cover, but when your auto hitting, being able to re-roll wounds is great and can really pile on the damage.  

Next up is Strike First, Strike Hard and for me this really shouts to be used on a unit of scout sentinels. I say this because I see it going something like this; take 3 lascannon scout sentinels, deploy the unit last, in a position towards the front of the line, as close to a target as possible. Use the scout move to get the unit in to a perfect firing position and then stay still turn 1 movement. Open up in the shooting using this stratagem, taking the hit roll from a 4+ to a 2+. Yes wounding can be a problem but pick the target carefully, say a rhino or a squad of 3 aggressors, and you've a good chance of a kill. Armoured sentinels could also be used but they suffer from the -1 to hit for moving, meaning they would be hitting on 3's. Not a massive difference but enough. 

Lastly, we have this from Facebook.  Shield of Flesh is used when a Infantry squad is the while it is next to a squad of bullgryns. If the bullgryns are closer, then a -1 applies to the hit roll, as though you've got to shoot past\through the bullgryns and their Shields. The best use for this I can see is to protect a valuable unit, either a character being sniped or something like a plasma command squad, which you don't want to loose early. Combine this with "get down" for a bonus on a save and the target unit could become quite hard to shift.

Overall there looks to be a number of good options in this book but there also looks to be some not so good options. I think until we actually see all the option for the new Doctrines, relics and warlord traits that are in the book it's had to say if this will be a must buy for people. I won't be buying it, regardless of how much of a must buy the book is, as I will just wait until the new guard codex comes out. Next up are the new Scion rules that are also in the book and in my view are the more important and exciting bit of the book.

Wargames Atlantic - death fields Les grognards

Quite a while ago I answered an email to take part in a survey, related to miniture wargaming, although I can't remember who the survey was being run by. Anyway, as a result of the survey, I got a promo code for getting a one of a selection of promotional model sprues. There as a small diorama, some ancient warriors, second world war models or a set of sci-fi models. As you can imagine I went for the sci-fi option, mostly as I had hoped to use these figures as a sort of command unit, maybe make a supreme command detachment or something out of them.

The actual figures are from Wargames Atlantic and are part of there Death Fields sci-fi range. It's a very small range at the moment, consisting of options only two box sets, the Raumjager Infantry and the Les Gorgnards. I received a single sprue of the Les Gorgnards, consisting of 3 bodies and various weapons, the exact sprue I received can be seen below. If your interested in the boxes themselves, the link below will take you to the Wargames Atlantic site.

https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/demo-collection/products/les-grognards?variant=31187238813794

So what exactly are the Les Grognards? Well there supposed to be french troops, inspired by the various periods of french military history, from Waterloo through to the various Indo-china wars, all mixed with a does of sci-fi weapons and tech.

Above and below are some of the pictures from the website, showing the various options available.

There looks some interesting options available, however I didn't receive the full line up, just one sprue, which has all of the weapon options on but is missing a lot of the head options, as it contains only three heads. I haven't yet tried to build the models, as I'm not entirely sure what I'm actually going to do with them as my initial idea won't work. This is because of the options available to me on the single sprue.

The sprue I received in the post.

As you can see from the sprue above, I received a selection of weapons, including 3 rifles, 4 special weapons (what could pass for a plasma gun, melta gun, flamer and grenade launcher), a pistol, a sword arm, a couple of grenade arms and a pointing arm. The thing is, both the pistol.and sword, plus one of the grenade arms are right arms, with the pointing arm and a grenade arm being left handed. All the other weapons are two handed, none of which really seem to be positioned on the models like there being held comfortably with just one hand. This is a bit of an error or oversight to me. Now, I know that these figures aren't built specifically for 40k and other systems may have different rules but not being able to equip a Sergeant or officer with a pistol and sword seems like an oversight. For me this setup on the sprues is also problematic, as I was hoping to be able to build 3 officers or even commissars, but I'm an arm short at the very least. I've been holding off building them for the moment until I have tried cadian arms on to the bodies or possibly some of the spare Dreamforge Eisenkern arms I have, which I think will probably fit better, although they may look a little bit odd. The special weapons also look slightly odd to me, namely the "plasma" gun. It just doesn't look right to me but it is quite hard as there are no images of it on the website. I can see the flamer and the grenade launcher but not the plasma or laser gun, which is annoying.

The additional sprue that comes with the main box

The second sprue, the heads sprue, which comes in the main box set contains 7 types of head, which with the other 3 means there are 8 types or 24 heads per 3 bodies and as you get 24 models per box, that's a staggering 192 heads per box. It would have been nice to get the extra heads but 8 can understand why they only sent the base frame out. To be honest, saying that there are 8 different types of head is a bit misleading, as really there are just 4 types but each head comes in two versions, with or without a gas mask. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice touch but it's not really 8 different types.

As I haven't built these guys yet, it hard to give a final judgment but from what I've seen I'm not overly impressed with the models. Some of that is down to personal taste, as I don't like the design of some of the weapons, namely the "plasma" gun and what I assume is the "melta" gun, which looks a bit like an eldar fusion gun. I also don't like the scale of the models, which is far more true scale than the heroic scale used by GW. It gives it a very flimsy look to it but that's just as I'm use to the GW way of doing things, if your more of a bolt action player, you'll probably not even notice. The plastic used also feels of a lower quality but I don't know if that's just as I've got a promotion copy or if it's the same on the retailed version. I will really need to put them together to give a definite answer but from touch and sight, I'm not impressed.

However, 25 pound for 24 models is a good deal even more so when you buy multiple packs, getting down as low as 19 pound a pack if you buy 10, although why you'd want 240 guardsmen is a mystery to me, well ok maybe not. Still, personally, I wouldn't buy these models as they just don't appeal to me.

Blood Angels Kill Team

With the recent post about all.my other kill teams, I thought I would post up about the Blood Angels team or rather the Eagle Knights strike team Angelic.

The strike team are formed of 10 members, hand picked by the Veteran Sergeant, known as brother champion Lorenso, from the various members of the 3rd company that have impressed brother champion Lorenso over the last century or so. While brother champion Lorenso exhibits many of the traits of the chapter, he is also an exceptional leader and is considered by many to be a possible future companies Lord commander or even the chapters Grand High Lord Commander. The force has been tasked with providing one of the primary assault units, to act as a spear tip to the overall company, within which there role is to infiltrate and eliminate key targets and personal. Taking inspiration from Lorenso's aggressive nature, the team, once set on a mission, are constantly pushing forward, ready to adapt to any situation but always attacking.

A quick note here. All the information on the team was randomly generated, everything from the mission and background to the names and demeanor. I try and change as little as possible for anything, however, I do allow for bad rolls, such as with this team, when the background first came up as "fire support". Well for a team with only two guns capable of firing past 12 inches, fire support was going to be a little useless, so I rerolled the dice and they became infiltration specialists, which was a much better roll. I also had to change one of the names of the Marines as otherwise I would had had two Marines with the same name, which I thought was a bit odd,  and I don't mean just first or last names the same, I mean both names would have been the same.

Anyway, with that bit of housekeeping out the way, let's move on to the individual Marines.

Vanguard vets

First up we have the Vanguard Vets or as there known in the chapter, the Hawk Brethren. From left to right we have Sergeant Erasmus Arteros, Brother Leonid Raneil and Brother Donatelus Moriar.

Sgt Arteros is a ferocious warrior, who is always at the forefront of any fight, wielding his power fist with precision and power. Arteros is usually flanked by either Raneil or Moriar. Raneil jumps in to battle carring his power axe and pistol ready to smash the skulls of any enemies of the imperium, especially xeno's skull for whom he reserves a special hatred for. Moriar on the other hand is a very dour warrior. Conscious of the black rage and that become of those that fall, Moriar has trained both his mind and body to remove feeling and emotions from his action, so he goes about his work in an almost machine like fashion.

In game terms, I spent a lot of time going back and forth about who to make the vanguard Sergeant. I did initial think of Raneil and make the axe a relic blade (yes I know that they are usually swords, but it's just "blade" not "sword blade" so axe blade counts). This would have upped the AP and strength, but does sort of remove the need for a fist. In the end I went for the Sgt on Arteros with his fist, as I wasn't planning on using any of these as leaders, and making him a combat specialist means that he'll have 4 attacks (3 base plus 1 for combat) to off set the -1 for the fist plus with the Blood Angels trait he'll be wounding everything on 2's (2x S4 making him S8, +1 to wound for BA trait, meaning even Nurgle T5 Marines are wounded 2's). The other two will be Zealot specialists for the +1 strength and attacks, making the axe S6 and claws S5, meaning they will cut through pretty much anything (but Nurgle Marines).

Company vets

The company vets of the 3rd company, known as serpentia, part of the serpent squads. On the left is Brother Furian Amuto, with Brother Champion Faustian Lorenso and Brother Amareus Raneil.

Brother Amuto is a very grim faced Sombre marine, who take his duty very seriously indeed. Amuto is veteran of many centuries and he finds little pleasure in his task these days. Brother champion Lorenso is the overall commander of the force and exhibits many of the traits associated with those of the "blood". He is aggressive, blood thirstly and on occasion can get lost to the fires of battle. While he has heard the call of the black rage many times, he has as yet resisted it's urges. As well as these traits, he is also very wise and experienced, who's knowledge of battle is second to none within the force. Brother Raneil, Amareus Raneil, as opposed to Leonid Raneil from the Brethren, is altogether a different character, quiet, unassuming and mysterious. Little is known about him by his brothers but it is known that Lorenso trusts and often takes council from Raneil when difficult or troubling situations occur and as such he is trusted by the others.

In the game, Amuto and Raneil are going to be kept as non-specialists, to fill out the roster. Lorenso on the other hand will be the teams leader specialist, the only leader and will appear in every list, as it should be.

Marines and sternguard

The next selection are the "shoot" Marines, the tactical and sternguard.

Marines

There are several tactical Marines that have been chosen to accompany the companies veterans. Brother Morlaeo Moriar and Brother Rafael Amuto

Brother Morlaeo Moriar is a very dour warrior, Stern and grim faced, a man who takes little pleasure in his work. Carrying his flamer however, he is a solid reliable warrior, willing to stand his ground against any foes. Brother Rafael Amuto on the other hand is an Ebullient character. The youngest of the force, he still rejoices in the Emperor's work and is always Keen to impress his elders with his ability and zeal. Amuto was chosen, not for his combat prowess but for his technical know how and is relied upon as the main vox communication from the squad to the rest of the company.

There are two tactical Marines, one Gunner, Moriar and one standard, Amuto. The Gunner is armed with a flamer for some close up support, horde thinning and counter charge. He will not be getting a specialism as I don't really have enough space to give him one but also because his main job will be protecting the leader from charges or taking on hordes and so he can get away without needing a specialism. Amuto on the other had will be a comms specialist. Now you might question why I need a comms specialist when I don't have any shooting, well up next is a sternguard with special issue bolter and it's because of him that I need a comms. I've only one long range shot for sniping the enemy leaders and specialist, so I really need to make sure I can do something with it, hence the comms. I will be doing some additional modelling to this character to emphasise the comms element of the model. 

Marine Sgt and sternguard

The last two members of the team are Brother Sergeant Leonid Lorenso and sternguard Sergeant, or Vulture legionary Decanus Nicodemus Redolpho.

Brother Sergeant Leonid Lorenso was brought along due to his  training with Sanguinary Priests and so acts as the squads Apothecary. A charismatic character, Lorenso is just the marine you need at your side when your wounded. Able to not only heal the body, his force of will and strength of character have been know to motivate even the most grievously wounded Marine to continue fighting on. He will often be found at the front of any battle treating the wounded, right under the noses of the enemy. Vulture Legionnaire Decanus Nicodemus Redolpho, or Sternguard Sergeant Nicodemus Redolpho, is not quite so charismatic. A serious and stern and some what  dour man, he is nonetheless an excellent shot. Armed with his special issue boltgun, he was recruited to the team for his ability to eliminated targets at range, in even the most cluttered of environments. He is also armed with a power fist, although he generally uses this for punching holes in walls (to shoot through) and less for fighting, preferring to keep at arms length from his quarry.

There is a good reason for having a tactical Sergeant as a medic specialist, it's the only profile that fits the model I had. I could have built a new model, but the Sanguinary novitiate model is ready painted. As he's carrying a chain sword it limits the number of options a lot, down to tactical Sergeant and .......... Yeah, that's it really, so Tac Sgt it is. Medics aren't great but they do have a few tricks that can be useful, such as the level 1 tactic which adds an inch to charges and an extra attack to a model. For a combat oriented force, it could prove to be useful. The last model in the force is the Sternguard. This was included for one simple reason, to add some long range shooting to the force. With the 30 inch bolter there is nothing that can't be hit, if it can be seen plus the -2ap is pretty handy. The Sternguard will also be a sniper specialist for the re-rolls and with the tactic and the comms specialist, an obscured target at long range should be hitting on 3's, at close range, it'll be 2's, wounding might be a bit of a problem but even Marines are saving on 5's. The power fist on the model is there just because really, it's probably not going to get used much, but if something does get withing punching range, there's a good chance it's going to get splattered.

And that's it, that's the Eagle Knights strike team, now all I need to do is get that Sternguard painted up!