Tournament round 1 analysis!

 

So, after my first game of 9th, which as a bit of a disaster, I've a few thoughts on the game and also 9th.

First up a quick run down on the menu forces and what they did in the game;

The Storm Lords arrayed for battle

Jump captain - did little during the game and while running with the clawed vets was not really required to remove any of the units they faced. 

Jump chaplain - was most useful for dropping the charge distance for the fist equipped vets, was useful but never really had much of an influence due to being dropped out on the edge of the board.

assault Intercessor squads - didn't get to do much during the game as both were destroyed by the Hellhammer early in the game.

intercessor squads - one held the home objective all game and the other gradually moved up to take my objective late in the game. Both proved very very hard to remove.

Blade guard squad - these were a name in my side the whole game. These will be target priority one next time. I threw bits and pieces of firepower at these guys during the game but I should have thrown everything at them early on and removed them. The main cannon of the Hellhammer would have been good for removing these guys, had I fired it them. With 3 wounds and a 4++ save, every failed save would have been a dead marine.

Blade guard, chief Apothecary and Judicar

Invictor tactical warsuits - the suits had their lucky pants on for the game as the vendetta fired 12 lascannon shots for 5 damage, which came from the 1 shot that actually went through. These guys should have been dead, or at least one of them should have been. 

Judicar - while not powerful himself, his ability really proved decisive. The ability to make a model fight last is really good and I should have targeted him earlier. I probably did have the chance to but didn't take it, which was a mistake.

Apothecary - not just an apothecary but a Chief Apothecary, which is massively overpowered! The ability to heal two models up to 3 wounds and bring a model back on full wounds for 0cp is huge and kept the blade guard punching at full power all game. He needs to die and die soon next time!

Vanguard vets - the claws did what they did and wiped out every unit they touched with ease, apart from the Ogryn Bodyguard, which proved a little harder, the fists were a less useful, originally dropping on the far side and then not really having any proper targets to attack.

attack bike squad - outflanked, missed, died to the Hellhammer, just as planned. Could have been a real pain but the Hellhammer did what it was supposed to and wiped them out with ease

outrider squads - these were a pain but I managed to deal with one fairly early but the other survived being hit with a Hellhammer, only taking out one and injuring another. I think I should have hit the blade guard rather than these guys turn 1. Still a unit that needs dealing with in a Scars list, due to there immense mobility.

So in summary, most of the units I thought were going to be the big threats were and then a few extras, namely the apothecary! I also ignored the blade guard, thinking that they wouldn't be able to do.much against the Hellhammer but with D2 power swords, this was a mistake!

I also guessed on three secondaries; Engage on all fronts, Thin their ranks and Assassinate. I was kind of right, as he did take engage on all fronts but took the mission specific secondary - direct assault and the marine specific one - oath of moments, which seems such a broad secondary that there is always going to generate points.

All in all these secondaries proved well chosen, with mobile troops easily able to pick up engage, and the second two complimenting each other nicely.  The oath of moments secondary is quite a good secondary and you can easily pick up 5 points over the course of the game by pretty much doing nothing.

Forces of the Imperium

But enough about my enemy, how did I do? Badly that's how, I had many good ideas which turned out to be not such good ideas but I learnt a lot of lessons, so that was a positive. Firstly the way objectives work in the sweep and clear mission is very powerful, claiming an objective until it's taken by someone else and not having to leave units babysitting objectives is very useful and something I forgot about. I could have moved up a lot more that I did. Secondly, talking of moving up, I did the unthinkable and split my infantry up and sent them off by themselves. This got them destroyed and my tank unprotected. This was a mistake and it cost me both tank and troops. Thirdly I was far to eager to push forward, I should have sat back for the first couple of turns and then pushed forward turns 3 onwards. I relied on the tanks toughness and high wounds to keep it alive but even with this the wounds were chipped of one by one or rather two by two by the blade guard. There was even opportunities to retreat with it at times but I didn't, which was silly. 

Secondaries wise, I think I did alright with them. Engage worked well and if I had thought a bit more at the time I could have easily managed this most turns. Parking the Hellhammer in one quarter, my main force in another and then pushed all the infantry up in to the third. The flyers would have occupied the forth when they turned up. I think the mental interrogation was also good, maybe I could use another psykers to make the most of it but I still think it was a good choice. The last secondary, while we stand, was also a good one for the game as my flyers took very little damage at all, due to the lack of long range high damage weapons the enemy had. The Hellhammer obviously died and as I mentioned above, I could and should have played better with it. In the end I think that I over played my hand and didn't really have a good handle on the abilities of my units. Needless to say I think I have a lot to learn about 9th but I also think I've made a good start. 

The next game will be a few weeks away, after at Christmas sometime. I hope that this will go a little better and I will have a better grasp of tactics and abilities. I don't think that the secondaries will change much but I do think how I play will. My opponent will most likely be Marines again but with a different flavour, so we will have to see how that goes. 

 

Tournament R1, the Enemy

This post is going to be a break down of all the individual units within the enemy army and my thoughts on them both as individuals and their place within the greater battle plan of the enemy. In truth by the time you read this I will have already played the game and will know better what effect each unit had on the game, so will try and write a little edit to each entry to see if I was right or not. 

The storm lords

The army is painted as storm lords, a white scars successor chapter and operate as any true scars successor would. This list is no different, it has a very fast and mobile feel to it with only a few units not being jump pack or bike units. 

Jump captain, lightning claw and bolt pistol - most likely to be running with the vanguard vets. He could be with either combat squad, fists to help with hitting or claws due to war gear. Not a big threat on his own but a definite force multiplier. Also the warlord, so if the chance occurs he will be removed.

Jump chaplain, crozier - most likey running with the other combat squad of vanguard vets. With the litanies he knows, he could be with either squad. Again, no a major threat on his own but a massive force multiplier and will be removed if the opportunity presents itself. 

2x 5 man assault Intercessor squads - these two squads are actually one of the least threatening units here, especially in the first turn or two. This is due to their lack of ranged firepower. Yes they are very quick, with a threat range of upto 24 inches but more likely 16 inches, however with only pistols, they have a limited shooting potential. This means they will mostly likely be advancing every turn and with these being troops, they will be going for objectives and as such are high on the priority list. 

2x 5 man intercessor squads - these will no doubt form the static home objective holders and probably won't move around all that much. They don't pose much of a threat as I doubt they will be advancing or assaulting much during the game. These will be low on the target list and will probably get the attention of the plasma command squad when they drop.

5 man Blade guard squad - Against a number of enemies, these would prove a major problem. With guard however there weapons are just as deadly as chainswords. I assume that these will be running with the Judicar and strike for the heart of my army. There shields will protect them from a lot of attacks and the hellhammer's -4ap is next to useless against these guys, instead it will require weight of fire to bring them down. These will be a priority for autocannons and heavy bolters.

2x invictor tactical warsuits - fast, mobile and aggressive, these will push up early and try to get the jump on objectives, forcing me to move up to take them out, rather than other targets. These are going to be high on the list and will be the main target for the Vendetta when it arrives plus the lascannons from the Hellhammer. 

Judicar - not a major priority, it's main ability doesn't do much for the guard, as fighting last won't make much of a difference to the outcome of the combat. In this circumstance, it doesn't provide much of a force multiplier either. All in all, a low priority target.

Apothecary - this model could be a pain if it is able to bring some models back, especially something like the bladeguard. Not really a priority in itself but worth taking out if I can.

10 man Vanguard vets with jump packs and 5x claws, 4x fists and 1x hammer with 10x shields  - this unit will combat squad, 5 men with fists and hammer and another 5 with claws. Thee fists will be a threat to my Hellhammer and will need targeting as soon as they arrive, the claws will go for the infantry and are less of a worry. The fact that they all have shields will make them a pain to remove. 

2 bike attack bike squad with multi-melta - these will be target number one for the Hellhammer turn 1. These will need taking out as soon as possible to stop them getting a chance to get shots in. They are the only real long range anti-armour firepower and with 4 shots have a good chance of doing some damage. These at at the top of the turn 1 list. 

2x 3 man outrider squad - this is the biggest range threat to the infantry, being fast and mobile with lots of shots. These are going to be pretty high on the target list and the main target for the Hellhammer once the attack bikes have been dealt with. 

So in summary, turn one the assault Intercessors and the attack bikes will be the main targets with other targets being attacked as opportunities appear. Turn 2, providing turn 1 went to plan, the bikes, vanguard and warsuits will be the main targets, after that it will be a case of taking out anything that's left  these units and then focusing on other targets. Simple.

I also guess that he will be taking these three secondaries, as they are the ones that I would take if it was me.

Engage on all fronts - he has fast, mobile and resilient troops and he want to close and engage, therefore he will be spreading around the board. It should be easy for him to claim 2 points a turn and probably manage to claim 3 points in at least 2 turns.

Thin their ranks - I have significantly more units and significantly weaker plus the two vehicles. In total I have around 130 models and so 13 points to give up here.

Assassinate - with 6 squishy characters and one slightly less squishy one on the board it should be fairly simple for him to remove several of these and claim points. With jump troops moving up to 24 inches and bike going up to 32 inches, it should be easy to sweep past screens and take out characters. 

Ok, so things may not be so simple but hopefully the dice will be with me and I can pull it off as planned!

Edit: ok, so there was so many errors I thought I'd right a separate post going over it all!

Tournament round 1 tactics

With the matches for round 1 now know and my opponents army list also known (shown previously) we have some extra things to consider. These fall in to 3 basic categories, secondary objectives, enemy threats and battle plan. I'll go through them all individually but there will be some overlap, especially between the objectives and the plan. 

First up I'll look at the threats to my forces, which are many and varied! Ok, so that's true for the infantry but maybe not so much for the vehicles. The infantry are out matched in pretty much all departments by the enemy infantry, with things like the assault Intercessors being able to lock out 21 attacks, which should kill 8 models on average on the charge and only 6 otherwise. From a squad of 10, this isn't great! The blade guard are going to be even more deadly, as are the vanguard vets with lightening claws. However, they have little range firepower, with just 10 intercessors being able to fire. This means that keeping the infantry at range is the best option although not really possible. It does mean that it gives me clear targets for the first round of shooting, hit the assault units hard with the mortars, try and strip a few models off the units, even one or two would make a difference. As for the rest of the units, the bikes are the next most dangerous, they can pump out a lot of shots and are very mobile. Annoyingly, they are also 4 wound models and the Hellhammer cannon is a damage 3 weapon! It's the same as with the attack bikes, but at S10 I'm wounding on 2's with -4ap, so I should be able to put some hurt on them. Talking of the tank, there is little anti-armour weaponry here, the vanguard vets with hammers, the attack bikes and the invictor warsuits fists. With only the attack bikes being ranged, these will be an early target, followed by the vets, with the suits being last on the list due to their lack of mobility over the others. 

So in quick summary, primary targets for anti-infantry are the assault elements, blade guard and assault Intercessors turn one and vanguard vets (w\claws) turn 2 or whenever they drop in. For anti-armour it's the attack bikes and then the outriders. 

A very important issue in 9th is secondaries. New to the game these have quite an impact and it's very hard to pick which 3 I want. It was relatively easy to pick a few that I didn't want, such as Titan slayers and attrition. In the end I get it down to a short list of; 

Assassinate

While we stand, we fight

Engage in all fronts

Line breaker

Domination

Investigate site

Repair teleport homers

Mental interrogation

Psychic ritual

This was a good start as it gave me option from all the sections, however, there were a few issues. Such as engage on all fronts, line breaker and domination are all from the Battlefield supremacy section. In the end I realistically brought the list down to these three options;

While we stand we fight

Engage on all fronts

Mental interrogation

While we stand we fight seems like a good one as the three models are my superheavy and my two flyers. Now my enemy doesn't have much anti-armour and the flyers, as long as they stay in supersonic mode should be able to weather what firepower he has and hopefully gaining me at least 10 points.

Engage on all fronts was harder to pick as all options were viable. However, I decided it would be easier to guarantee 10 points for the match by going for the quarters rather than objectives. I should, if I'm careful be able to get 12 points for this one. The other advantage of this one over the other two is that flyers count and I've got two. 

Mental interrogation is my last choice. With 2 psykers on my side and none on his and 4 enemy characters, I should be able to get in range o get this off. I did think about psychic ritual but I'd much rather take some points rather than none, as worst case I should get at least 6 point here. 

This means that I should be looking at gain a minimum of 28 point with a realistic chance of getting 36 points over the course of the battle.

Lastly we have the battle plan. The main plan is obviously to hit the enemy hard and destroy him but more realistically the plan will more about board control. Part of the plan is dependent on who goes first. If I go first then I will move up on to at least 3 objectives, with the home objective being held by the mortar teams and two squads of guard with the autocannons. The superheavy and two other squads will move to the centre objective and two other squads probably with the wyvern will move to the objective in the top left quarter, with other units dispersing around the board, with at least on moving in to the 3 quarter. When the flyers come on, they will drop there cargos in the enemy zones for the extra quarter and then go around taking out targets of opportunity. If I go second then I will still move up but I will be looking to keep things a lot closer together, especially if he has reserves. In both cases the mortars and wyverns will be going after intercessors and vets while the big guns go after the bikes and warsuits. The main thing will be to get at least 3 objectives and out score my opponent, maybe even pushing for 4 once my reserves come in to try and keep my opponent from scoring as many points as I can, while also maximising my opportunities. 

Hopefully this will net me the full 45 points but I should be able to get 40 points quite easily, meaning I should hopefully be looking at a score of at least 68 but possibly even 81. Alternatively, I could be looking at less than 30!

I'm looking forward to this game, it's going to be a baptism of fire for sure! Hopefully I can pull out a win, even if it costs me all my models........

Tournament round 1

After a long time of waiting the first round of games in the tournament has been drawn and with 12 players entered there are to be 6 games. The sides have been split in two, imperial to non imperial, with the imperial side made of 5 Marines (white Scars, space wolves, dark Angels, blood Angels and Deathwatch) and sisters\custodies and the non imperial made of 2 GSC, Necrons, Eldar, death guard and, interestingly, my guard! Why I have been dumped into the Xenos and Traitor group I have no idea! But anyhow, the list that I will be facing is quite a fast and combat oriented list, as shown below;

Jump captain, claw and pistol

Jump chaplain, 

2x 5 man assault Intercessor squads

2x 5 man intercessor squads

5 man Blade guard squad

2x invictor tactical warsuits

Judicar

Apothecary

10 man Vanguard vets with jump packs and 5x claws, 4x fists and 1x hammer with 10x shields 

2 bike attack bike squad with multi-melta

2x 3 man outrider squad

So, lots of fast units and that's before we consider the White Scars chapter tactics, which enables them to charge even if they advanced or fell back that turn. Add in the combat doctrines and you've a very fast and powerful assault army. The mission has also been picked for the match, in this case it's one of the GT missions,strike force mission 32 - Sweep and Clear. 

While these is one good thing, that objectives are held even if you don't have any units on them, the board lends itself to the Scars.

The 18 inch gap in the middle of the board means that a jump unit, starting on the board, can be at the edge of my deployment zone before then charging. Bikers are going to be in my deployment zone and even non-jump infantry are going to be well within charge range. I'll go into full analysis in a different post but needless to say, there's going to be some hard thinking needed. 

Even though this list is fast, there isn't much that can threaten my superheavy at range, so I think that is going to be key. Only the attack bikes in the list have good ranged anti-armour and the vanguard vets with hammers and warsuits have good combat anti-armour. Kill of the bikes and keep to rest at range and it should be able to survive. 

In theory, I have a good list to counter the Scars fast aggressive list and it will be a grinding game, one where I will have to try and out last my opponent more than anything. 

Commanders and command squads.

 

The other day or rather night, as it was 1am and I was waiting for the wee one to finally decided it was time for bed, I was watching random YouTube videos and came across Mordian Glory, a name I know of from Winter's SEO, and decided to have a little watch of some videos. He's got a series he is working through talking about fixing rules and one of them struck me, specifically the one about command squads. Now, I don't agree with all that he said, in fact I don't really agree with much of it at all but that's ok, I can rant here about my feelings!

So what are my feelings? I think that command squads do work at the moment but not for what they should be doing. They are generally used for special weapons squads, usually with 4 plasma or melta, something I'm guilty of doing myself and as it stands, why wouldn't you! However, I feel this isn't really right, as special weapons squads are for special weapons and command squads are for command. Now back in the old days, I'm talking 5th here, we had proper command squads with advisers and bodyguards and I think we need to return to this, not quite in the same way but certainly take certain elements. 

The main element I think we should be taking is the bodyguards, maybe not the models, although I do think this would be a good thing but definitely the rules. After all, part of a command squads role is to ensure the survival of the commander. It would be nice to see bodyguards come back as an option, either as additional men in the command squads (with very limited weapon options) or as additional units, such as Calgars Victrix's Guard, with fixed weapons. I'd prefer them as addition men for the command squad, with options for pistols and combat weapons, similar to Sargeants. Advisers are still around in character form and they work as they are so no need for change there. 

Although the main point of Mordian Glory's video was command squads, I wanted to start with the commanders themselves. There are two at the moment, platoon and company commanders. 

Platoon commanders are almost the same as company commanders but with one less order. In the past they had less orders they could issue, 3 rather than 6. I like the modern version and really don't see much wrong with how they are. Their weapon options are fine, although I probably would like to have the option for a power maul or similar alongside the power sword. All in all I would leave the platoon commander as he is.

Company commander is the highest level commander we have right now and again, there is little wrong with him. He can issue two orders, which is fine as it stands, although if they bring in similar restrictions to the space Marine Captain\Lieutenant then my feelings might change. Stat wise I think he's fine, he's not supposed to be a combat monster or a one man basilisk, his main job is to issue orders and command. Again, I'd leave him as he is.

Now we get on to the new ideas, the Regimental commander. Space Marines can upgrade a Captain to Chapter Master, so I don't see why we shouldn't have the option to upgrade, in a similar fashion, a company commander to regimental commander. I would be quite happy to pay a command point or two, depending upon level of upgrade. The level I would like to see would be a single CP upgrade, gaining a further order, an increased aura range and extra wound or two, plus the added leadership bonus. Other than that he would remain the same, apart from maybe a extra bit of armour save, say 4+. The idea would basically be a steady progress from platoon commander to regimental commander, in line with both lore and common sense. It's hard to really get a sense of bigger formations with the guard at the moment when the highest commander you can have (apart from Creed) is a company commander and that's not really how it should be. 

Next up are the command squads and this is where things get a little bit come complex. The command squads in my opinion need quite a bit more work to bring them up to where they should be. As it stands there is just one command squad, with one set of options and I think this should be changed. It would be quite simple I think to do, as you have a standard command squad, which can take a vox-caster, a standard, a medic, a Sargeant, up to 2 special weapons and a heavy weapon. Obviously they couldn't take all of these at once, still being restricted to 4 members but they can be taken in any combination. The trick would be what level of these things can be taken and that would depend upon what level of commanders you have. 

Take for example a Platoon command squad. You could take a vox-caster, which would give to the ability to issue an order to another vox unit within a certain range, say 12 inches, a medic who could heal a wounded man on a 4+, a standard that gave a leadership buff within a certain range, probably the same as the medics range. Plus you could have a platoon Sargeant, basically a standard Sargeant stat line but also giving out a buff, maybe +1A or +1S, again maybe the same range as the standard and medic, say 6 inches. Add these to the option for special weapon troopers, all with standard trooper stats and options, including heavy flamers as standard and you have a small command squad that gives out buff to a small area, as a platoon commander would. 

1. 

Next up would be the Company Command squad, which would follow a similar structure to the platoon command squad, with a vox-caster but with maybe a 18 inch range, a medic, who wouldn't need to roll a dice but could automatically heal a wound or a man but still with a 6 inch aura (after all his arms are only so long!) and a standard that would buff leadership, out to say 12 inches but maybe also mean that you only fail combat attrition tests on a 1 regardless of losses. The company Sargeant and special and heavy weapons troopers would all be veteran stat lines, with the same options. The company Sargeant would also give a buff, probably the opposite to the platoon Sargeant.

The final option would be the Regimental command squad. This, like the regimental commander would be a stratagem upgrade, only available if a regimental commander has been taken and would be fairly fixed in it's options. You would have to take a company level Vox-caster, Medic, Standard and Sargeant and then upgrade, probably a 2cp upgrade, for a total of 3cp to upgrade to a full regimental command structure. For this upgrade you would get a 24 inch aura on the vox-caster and standard, with the standard giving a +2 leadership and either a re-roll to leadership tests or limiting the losses to combat attrition to 1 model. The medic, still with a 6 inch aura can heal d3 wounds or raise d3 models or maybe a FNP aura ability and the regimental Sargeant would give buffs within 12 inches, maybe both +1S and +1A plus he would have a booted stat line himself, maybe 3 or even 4 attacks and S4. All members would have a 4+ save as well, to represent their higher level of status. 

Now, I know that there is a lot of wish listing in this post but I can also see some of this happening in the game, although most likely in crusade mode, something I don't intend on playing. I am intrigued by what the new guard codex may bring us, I don't think it will be a big change from what has come before and will mostly combine all the various bits and pieces from the various books and supplements that were released over the last few years. I doubt that there will actually be many new units, if any at all but maybe we'll get a surprise or two!

Forge World

So with the revamp of the Forge World line and the moving of many lines to the Legacy section of the 40k universe, I've had a couple of thoughts. 

Now, I know that a lot of stuff has probably been moved as either it just didn't sell very well or because the moulds have worn out or are wearing out. I guess that all the renegade stuff will fall in to this category but some like the marine characters will no doubt be removed to make way for primaris versions or new characters. Anyway, it's the Guard section that I am most interested by.

On the list of guard units that have been moved to the Legacy list are a number of static guns, like the earthshaker battery. These are basically just static versions of standard GW products and so it's not surprising they have disappeared. There are also various Chimera based units. Only one is a true Chimera vehicle, the Storm and this is really only a specialised turret option. The others are highly specialised, such as the scout cars but all of them are a variation on a theme. The fact that the base upgrade has disappeared is not a surprise and given that the various others are linked to either the death corps or the Elysian's it is again not surprising they have disappeared, even if the toolings are still good. 

It is not the disappearance of these units that I wish to talk about however but the possibilities that their disappearance brings about. With the release of 9th and the updates that many armies are likely to get plus the various "special" models that the guards have received lately brings me some hope that we might be getting a long awaited overhaul to the troops options. Now I know that many of the vehicles are relatively new and don't really need much updating (Leman Russ Annihilator anyone?) but the infantry line does need some work. The complete lack of female sculpts is one thing but there is a more basic issue, the complete lack of special weapons on many of the sprues. Having to buy the command sets to get access to many of the special weapons for your squads is a bit of an issue that seriously needs rectifying and a new edition is a good time to do it. The easiest way would be via upgrade sets, similar to the marine sets but with some torsos, heads and arms. Together with a redone cadian and catachan sets, this could lead to a whole variety of different regiments being available. Granted they won't be as detailed as the current FW ones but they will still be better than nothing!

Catachan Jungle Fighters

I'm hoping the removal of so many units from the FW list mean that there is a big update coming to the guard. As mentioned above, I hope that there will be an update to the basic guard boxes and I hope that there will be some sort of upgrade packs to give the various regiments some distinct identity. However my biggest hope surrounds the light vehicles, the Salamanders, Tauros and Centaur. Now I know what a lot of you will be thinking, more guard vehicles! And yes, you would be right, however, you'd also be wrong. The guard have lots of vehicles, I don't deny that but it's the type of vehicles that they don't have that's most marked in my opinion. We have some very good tanks and some good transports, we also have some excellent artillery prices but what we lack are proper fast vehicles. The fast attack section is very thin on the ground and with various units moving to legends it will be even thinner. Yes the troop slot is very thin too but that's a moan for another time. 

As it stands, there are 3 fast attack options in the main codex and only one from FW and these are either sentinels or hellhounds. Now, we're getting into pure wish listing territory here but what I would like to see is two vehicle kits to replace the old FW models with mainline codex kits. I have mentioned one of these in the past, a Tauros type of kit, mostly to go with the Militarum Tempestus forces along side their Taurox's. This kit would basically be a copy of the old kit just in plastic and build both options. It will probably require a rework of the design but should be pretty easy to achieve. 

Tauros Assault vehicle

The second kit I would like to see would also be a multi build kit and replace the salamander and Centaur vehicles as armed light transports. Now, i know that this might seem funny, as if there transports then they should be in the transport section right? Well no, as they would be light, fast gun platforms that could take small squads, say 5 or 6 models. I could see them being armed with multi-meltas, plasma cannons or even grav cannons, weapons that the standard heavy weapons teams don't or can't carry. Imagine a special weapons squad with flamers riding in one of these with a multi-melta, charging up to an enemy transport and vaporising it with the melta before flaming the inhabitants and then most likely being annihilated themselves. 

Centaur light carrier

The issue with these ideas I guess is that sentinels have a very similar role to the Tauros and chimeras can for fill the role of the second vehicle in most cases. I just feel that these are really the only two areas that the guard are lacking in and the only options that did exist were forge world models and now even there gone. 

Oh, and while we're on the topic of fast attack options, where are my Rough Riders!

Some musings on blast weapons

 

So this is more of a filler post than anything else. I've a couple of posts needing finishing off but we're going through a bit of a lull at the moment. The new SM codex is out and looks good but I'm not going to write anything on that yet, as I don't have a copy and lots of people out there have written or are writing some very good reviews using the actual book (St Andrews wargaming). I will get the books eventually, just not yet, I'm waiting for all the supplements to.come.out first and figure what I actually want for my new marine lists. Talking of Marines, a second eBay purchase has come through, the marine half of Shadowspear. This means that I now own all the Dark Imperium and Shadowspear Space Marines and am well.on the way to for filling all my 500 point marine armies. The Dark Imperium Marines are built but Shadowspear Marines are still on sprues. When I got them all built and primed I'll post them up here but that could be a while! 

I have also, almost finished the last few Hjaltland LI models, to complete the army but I need to finish them before I can post up pictures. Only a few models to finish, so hopefully that won't take to long. I also have some lore to post up, as I have my sister's of battle kill team built and primed and ready for painting. These are on the list, fairly near the top, so I need to get the lore written up and posted. I should also probably write something for my Deathwatch and Grey Knights as well but I've nothing prepared for them. Hopefully the sisters lore will be up over the next couple of weeks. 

Apart from that little lot, there really isn't much going on in my hobby love right now. Lack of time and, in some respects, motivation means that the blog is going through a bit of a dry spell right now. Hopefully we'll get a new guard codex soon after Christmas and I'll be back in the groove again. 

Anyway, the main point of this blog was supposed to be about blast weapons. I was watching a battle report on DZTV earlier and a discussion about blast weapons came up, which got me thinking. As it's stands units less than 5 it's just the straight Dx (D3 or D6 usually) roll but if the unit is 6 to 10, it's a minimum of 3 shots and if the units 11+ then it's the maximum number of shots. Now for most units this is great but there are some exceptions. I mention this when I looked at the wyverns during GW's faction focus posts but now I've had time to think about this and I've come up with an issue for my at selection.

Now as I said in that post, wyverns fire 4d6 shots, meaning a straight up 4d6 for a unit 5 and under but also for units 6 to 10, as it's a min 3 shots per weapon, not per dice and as the stormshard mortar is a single weapon, it's a minimum 3 shots, (on 4d6!) Only when the enemy is over 11 models does the blast rule really kick in, resulting in a straight 24 shots. 

Now the issue arises when you look at mortar teams. A basic wyverns cost 135 points and for 136 point you can get 8 mortar teams. Ok, you need 9 for 3 heavy weapons squads but you could also have some in infantry squads, which will still do the same job. Anyway, 8 teams is 16 wounds compared to 11 for the wyverns. Yes the wyverns is T6 I stead of T3 and has a 3+ save rather than a 5+. Then again, it can't benifit from cover and the +1 to save, it's profile degrades, hitting on 6's by the end. All in all there is not a great deal to separate these units and there's not, in my opinion, a clear winner. 

When you look at the amount of shots there is a real disparity between the two. A wyvern, as I said is looking at 4d6 up to 10 models and 24 for an 11 plus unit, while 8 mortar teams are looking at 8d6 up to 5 models, 8d6 with a minimum of 24 shots on units 6 to 10 and a massive 48 shots on a unit 11+. This may sound good but it's not as clear cut, as the wyvern fires all at once, where as the mortars all shoot individually. There for not all the mortar squads will be shooting at a unit that is 11+ models, some will be shooting at a unit that is 6 to 10 models strong, meaning that there won't be a full 48 shots but somewhere between 24 and 48 shots. Then there is the fact that the wyverns rerolls to wound, which will also make a difference to the amount of models that are killed, as in theory, more wounds will result from fewer hits.

So with all this in mind, I've tried a little bit of mathhammer to see what the difference actually would be. First up the wyvern, as it's the easiest to calculate. (A note to mention, <5 models is taken as the average number of shots, 6-10 is based on the minimum number of shots and 11+ maximum number of shots, all number are rounded down to nearest whole number as well)

Wyverns; 

Against T3 Sv5+ models (eg Guard)

<5 - 4 dead

6-10 - 4 dead

11+ - 7 dead

Against T4 Sv5+ models (eg Orks)

<5 - 3 dead

6-10 - 3 dead

11+ - 6 dead

Against T4 Sv3+ models (eg Marines)

<5 - 1 dead

6-10 - 1 dead 

11+ - 3 dead

Now, this isn't spectacular but is decent. In terms of the T3 and T4 5+ save models there will be morale issues at the end of the turn. T4 Sv3+ models are always going to be hard to remove and also unlikely to be in units of 11+.

But how does this compare to a mortar team or 8? Well a lone mortar team looks something like this;

Against T3 Sv5+ models

<5 - 0 dead

6-10 - 0 dead

11+ - 1 dead

Against T4 Sv5+ models 

<5 - 0 dead

6-10 - 0 dead

11+ - 1 dead

Against T4 Sv3+ models 

<5 - 0 dead

6-10 - 0 dead 

11+ - 0 dead

Yeah, not great is it? To be fair it's one mortar, but how does this stack when 8 are used?

Against T3 Sv5+ models 

<5 - 6 dead

6-10 - 5 dead

11+ - 10 dead

Against T4 Sv5+ models

<5 - 4 dead

6-10 - 4 dead

11+ - 8 dead

Against T4 Sv3+ models 

<5 - 2 dead

6-10 - 2 dead 

11+ - 4 dead

As you can see it's better than the Wyverns scores, even with the minor discrepancy with the T3 models! So what does this tell us? Well, taking 8 mortar teams is better than taking one wyvern in terms of killing power, possibly. As I said, it's not quite as clear cut as this. For example on the first two options, T3 Sv5+ and T4 Sv5+ the numbers killed would most likely drop the unit down a bracket and reduce the number of shots, resulting in less wounds and therefore less kills, meaning that the difference would be less and there maybe no difference at all. This is especially so when you consider that most units will not be 20 or 10 strong in anything but the first round of shooting. Out of interest I also did 6 teams or two complete squads, to see what the results would be;

Against T3 Sv5+ models 

<5 - 4 dead

6-10 - 4 dead

11+ - 8 dead

Against T4 Sv5+ models 

<5 - 3 dead

6-10 - 3 dead

11+ - 6 dead

Against T4 Sv3+ models 

<5 - 1 dead

6-10 - 1 dead 

11+ - 3 dead 

Now this was a surprise! These are almost exactly the same as the wyverns tally! This definitely gives me pause for though, as two squads of mortars are just over 100 points, a saving of over 30 points. Again some caveats apply but I may have to reevaluate my ideas a bit. There is no doubt the wyvern is a great vehicle but it definitely needs a little extra something, such as -1ap or an extra point of strength to really push it past the mortar teams. I will probably keep on using the wyverns as I like them but I think that they are getting out classes by plain old mortar squads. Also, I do realise that wyverns also have heavy bolters as standard but they mortar teams also have lasguns, so maybe once these are included things may change a little but most of the time both units are going to be hidden away and not able to use them. 

Wow, that turned in to something I wasn't expecting from a short filler post! Got kinds carried away there. I hope this was of interest to someone and maybe was a bit of an eye opener to the new blast rules. 

New Eagle Knights

 

The last of my army updates and, for me, the most important one. The Eagle Knights primaris units had a rough introduction to the chapter, they were unwelcome Interlopers in to a proud successor of the Blood Angels and we're only accepted because Lord Commander Dante, the Lord of the Angels, decreed that they should. Separated off and sent on unimportant missions to keep them out the way, they built themselves a reputation as worthy warriors and more importantly worthy Knights. With the introduction of the Rubicon Primaris and the Indoctrinated or upgrading old ones Marines to primaris and the process of turning scouts to primaris marines, the original primaris were brought back in to the chapter proper and treated as equals. 

The chapter lore will be progressed to show this integration and the change in operations to reflect the new ways. The overall theory will remain though, up close and personal or fast and mobile. As such the main bulk will be formed of the new assault Intercessors and supported by suppressors. This will give both the elements that the chapter uses, with their intercessors charging headlong across the board to get in to combat while the suppressors use their mobility to jump around taking out other targets. The plan is also to get the new Lieutenant and Captain from the 9th edition boxsets and also have their shields tank stuff. 

In terms of colour scheme, this won't change. There are a few minor differences from the original art above, namely the feet aren't black, nor is the top of the pack and helmet but that's really it. Minor things that looked good on paper but just didn't work on a model. The new Marines will.follow exactly the same as the old ones and will, if I feel like it, be able to be run together with no issues. 

So, if all goes to plan, the basic force should consist of the new Lieutenant and Captain from the Indominus boxset, the ones with the storm shields, supporting 10 assault Marines, possibly split in to two squads but most likely just painted up to enable them to combat squad. The suppressors, the standard 3 of them, will form the fire support. As I mention above, the aim is to charge across the field and get in to combat, while the enemy long range firepower is being dealt with by the suppressors. Is is far from a power list or even a well rounded list but it's fluffy and should be fun to play. 

In future the force my expand, although I suspect not by much and not for a long time. What will make the biggest difference will be the codicies and how that are handled. I know that all the chapters are now in the main codex with supplements for specific chapters but I don't know whether I will.both with the supplements or just stick with the main book and just use stuff out of there. I imagine that by the time I get my app my guard finished, not to mention all the kill team stuff, there will have been another marine codex and a whole host of new models released anyway, so things might be very different by the time I'm actually in a position to expand my Marines properly again!

The Tournament Plan

 Last time I went through the list but ran out of space and time to talk about how I plan on running the list, so here goes. Now I know that no plan ever survives an encounter with the enemy but you should still have an overall plan and here's mine (I just hope none of my opponent are reading!)

First up, let's explain the three main elements. Firstly the static firebase. This is going to be formed of the warlord commander, Inquisitor, master of ordnance, Ogryn Bodyguard, two infantry squads with autocannons and the two wyverns. The second element will be formed from the two flyers, the Valkyrie carrying the vets squad and the vendetta carrying the platoon commander and plasma command squad. The final element will be formed of the Hellhammer, second commander, office of the fleet, psyker and 4 remaining infantry squads. This last element will probably be subdivided again depending upon mission and enemy. 

The firebase element will form the core and be positioned somewhere towards the centre of the deployment zone, somewhere where the Wyverns can have a good range of fire and cover as much of the board as possible. With two of them there should be little of the board they can't cover. The Guardsmen are there to act as screening, which while less of an issue now, is still something that should be available. The others are there to support these two options with the commander there to issue orders and the Master of Ordnance to buff the Wyverns. With the new rules for blast weapons not really effecting the wyverns, these will just be picking on priority targets rather than going for maximum shots, granted, if a large unit is present, then I will be dropping shots on them. 

The second element, the airborne units, will be hunting high priority targets from the off. The vendetta will be looking to big powerful units, like dreadnoughts or tanks, while the Valkyrie will be looking more for powerful infantry units. The cargo will stay in for as long as possible, dropping in when a good targets appears. The melta vets will be looking for tanks, walkers and other similar targets. With 3 meltas, possible in half range, depending upon if the unit is dropped or disembarks normally, it should be able to seriously damage whatever it hits. Granted, there is a high likely hood that it will be a suicide mission but if they can kill something of a higher value than themselves then it's all good. The plasma command squad are in a similar position, they will drop out, hit something hard and probably die but again, as long as they do their job it doesn't matter. This element is probably the biggest gamble of the force, they can hit like a train or a feather and until the dice are rolled, you never know which. 

The final element is possible the most unknown element. I've not run a super heavy before, in any circumstances. The general idea for this is that the Hellhammer will run up the table followed by either 2 or 4 of the squads plus the second company commander, psyker and the officer of the fleet. This lot will move towards the main bulk of the enemy and try and prevent them from being able to claim objectives, either by over running them with bodies or shooting them off. The commander is there to control discipline and issue orders, while the psyker is there to buff the tank with psychic spells to either up the save or affect enemy hit rolls, basically to try and keep it alive longer. The officer of the fleet is there to help the flyers by picking out priority targets for the guns and with the new rules, this will help even more, as there is no negative to hit for the heavy weapons. As I mentioned above, there are 4 infantry squads in this section but these may split into two sections of two, one staying with the tank and commander and two heading out on their own, either to hold a position or to generally be a pain. 

Although this is the general plan, there maybe times when I'll need to change things up, either pushing up all the infantry or holding them back. The vets can be deployed on the table and a normal infantry squad jump in the Valkyrie to get dumped on the far side just to score some points before being destroyed. I think there is enough flexibility in the list not to get pigeon holed into one way of thinking.

Tournament list

 So, I wrote about the upcoming tournament at the club recently and I thought that I would write up my list and my thoughts on how it will work. I'll warm you now, this is going to turn in to a long one, so brace yourselves!

 The list works around 3 main elements, a static gunline section, a fast moving assault section and an armoured thrust. I'll go over the full plan later but first let's just run through the list (as it is copied from BattleScribe)

The overall force consists of two detachments, the first if a batallion;

Battalion Detachment - 83 PL, 12CP, 1,460pts

Regimental Doctrine: Valhallan

This portion contains the majority of the force, nearly three quarters of it and all the infantry units. Being as it's a 2000 point list, it provides a 12 command points. I have also decided to go for the Valhallan doctrine. This is for two reasons, firstly to make the Infantry more resilient, vehicles as well and secondly there's a cool relic. I could have gone with the standard Cadian, or even Vostroyan or possibly even Tallarn. Both are viable options, with Vostroyan giving valuable extra range and a very cool stratagem, allowing you to shoot at units your in combat with. Tallarn on the other hand enables you to move around a lot, constantly moving your army without having to worry about any penalties to shooting. However the relic and stratagem for Tallarn are useless for this army. In the end I went with Valhallan, mostly, as I said, because it helps a lot with morale, which can be a big thing. It means that the enemy will have to concentrate on one unit at a time right until its destroyed, rather than just peppering it and letting morale do the rest. Secondly, it makes vehicles very hard to get rid of, again they need reducing right down to just one or two wounds to reduce their effectiveness. The pistol relic is also good for morale. The stratagem is rubbish (send in the next wave) but we all know that. The stratagem on the other hand is rather good. Similar to the Vostroyan one but reversed, enabling you to shoot at units engaged in combat with other units. This means that you could put shots in from multiple units, rather than one depleted unit.

+ Stratagems +

Imperial Commander's Armoury [-1CP]: 1 additional Heirloom of Conquest

Next up is the the extra relic stratagem, giving me 2 relics in total. This is so that I can have the aforementioned pistol and another relic on my warlord.

+ Agents of the Imperium +

Inquisitor [4 PL, 70pts] Ordo Hereticus, Plasma pistol, Power maul, Psyker: Psychic Fortitude

The Inquisitor, the very basis of this list and the story behind it all. She's tooled up as well with plasma pistol and maul, meaning she can take care of herself should she need to. She's a psyker as well, mostly to help buff nearby units if needed, I don't really plan of getting in smite range very often.

+ HQ +

Company Commander [2 PL, 35pts] Relic: The Laurels of Command,WT: Bellowing Voice

Company Commander [2 PL, 37pts] Relic: Pietrov's Mk 45 

Primaris Psyker [3 PL, 50pts] Nightshroud, Psychic Barrier

The command structure of the force and it's very basic. Two company commanders, to issue orders. The warlord with the Bellowing Voice trait to increase his orders range, plus with with the laurels of command relic, the second relic in the list, there could be some good orders combos going on, as Laurels let's you issue a second order to a unit. This commander will be sitting back with some elements of the force to form a firebase in support of the other elements. The second commander, with relic pistol will be pushing forward to take objectives as such. The primaris psyker will be hidden behind the super heavy, with the sole aim of trying to protect it, either by making it harder to hit or buffing it's save, which ever I think will be best at the time. He may occasionally smite but that will only be as a last resort.

+ Troops +

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 65pts] Flamer, Autocannon

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 65pts] Flamer Autocannon

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 55pts] Flamer

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 55pts] Flamer

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 55pts] Flamer

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 55pts] Flamer

6 infantry squads, 2 with autocannons, forming part of the firebase and providing protection for the vehicles. These will sit with the warlord and Inquisitor and remain pretty static for most of the game. The other 4 squads will be split, probably in to two units of two and push forward, one lot with the commander and one lot with the super heavy. They will be there to take and hold objectives or preform actions if needed. Realistically they probably won't provide much of the overall firepower in the list.

+ Elites +

Command Squad [2 PL, 64pts] 4x Plasma gun

Master of Ordnance [2 PL, 35pts]

Officer of the Fleet [2 PL, 25pts]

Ogryn Bodyguard [6 PL, 60pts] Bullgryn Maul, Bullgryn Plate, Slabshield

Platoon Commander [2 PL, 27pts] Bolt pistol

Veterans [5 PL, 102pts] Heavy flamer, 3x Meltagun

A very mixed bag here. The command squad, platoon commander and veterans will be loaded into flyers and will form the mobile element of the list, dropping in where and when they are required. With the melta and plasma, they should be able to deal with most things they encounter. The master of ordnance will be sitting with the heavy support in the firebase, providing rerolls and such, while the officer of the fleet will be pushing up with one of the other mobile forces to enable to flyers to get some rerolls as well. The last unit here is the Ogryn Bodyguard. This is a bit of a wild card unit, I'm not sure how it will play out but it will sit down with the warlord and Inquisitor and protect them or at least try to anyway. 

+ Heavy Support +

Wyverns [8 PL, 135pts] Heavy Bolter,

Wyverns [8 PL, 135pts] Heavy Flamer

The wyverns, a firm fixture in most of my lists. These will sit in the firebase and just rain death on people and with the new rules, there's the chance of doing some real damage. 

+ Flyer +

Valkyries [7 PL, 120pts] 2x Multiple Rocket Pods, Multi-laser,

Vendetta Gunship [12 PL, 215pts]

This forms the mobile element of my force, loaded up with vets and plasma command squad. These will take the fight to the enemy and generally be a pain to deal with. The Valkyrie should be able to put out a good amount of anti-armour as well, something that tends to be lacking in this list. 

The final element of this list is the super heavy. This forms a quarter of the army and it's going to be a bullet magnet! It also costs me 3cp now!

Super-Heavy Auxiliary - 33 PL, -3CP, 540pts

Regimental Doctrine: Valhallan

+ Stratagems +

Tank Ace [-1CP]

I've put these bit together, as they don't make sense apart. Super heavies don't get regimental doctrines as a rule but with the Tank Ace stratagem, which costs a CP, you can make a superheavy a tank Ace and give them a trait, in this case, the Steadfast Leviathan, which gives the superheavy the full benefits of the doctrine, in this case doubling wounds when deciding on profiles. This means that you have to drop it to 6 wounds to get it off it's too profile, instead of 13, quite some difference. 

+ Super-Heavy +

Hellhammer [33 PL, 540pts] Lascannon & Twin Heavy Flamer Sponson

The final price of the puzzle, the Hellhammer. This will be run up the table and force my opponent to deal with it. With the new rules for 9th, it will just keep on trundling up the table. Technically its got heavy bolters sponsors rather than flamers, but I'm hoping no one will mind. 

++ Total: [116 PL, 7CP, 2,000pts] ++

So that's it, my full list, 2000 points on the nose, giving me 7cp. 7! God, what happened to my 22+ CP I'm use to! Overall I will have 12 but still. Anyway, I was going to talk through my plans for the list but I think this post has got long enough, so next time, how I plan to run my list.

Stone Dragons

 

Next up are the Stone Dragons. This force is the least complete of all my new forces, as it currently consists of 3 Reivers, although 3 more should be on the way. 

The Stone Dragons are a bit of a mixed bag. The current lore states that these guys are probably Ultramarine successors but they follow the ways of the Space Wolves. This was because I wanted Space Wolves but without having Space Wolves, which you couldn't do. Now however you can but these guys are not a new chapter, so I can't just rewrite the lore. I could just continue as it is but that leaves another problem, how do you integrate new Ultramarine primaris units into a Space Wolf following chapter? Did they just turn up and go "yeah, that's sounds like a great idea!" Some how I doubt it. Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure a way to bring it all together. 

One thing that hasn't changed about the Dragons however, is the colour scheme. Along with the Knights, the original colour scheme is still in use, as it just fitted and look right straight away. It's Space Wolf enough for it to be obvious they follow the Space Wolves tactics but far enough away that they aren't instantly identified as Wolves. There have been a couple of minor alterations to the scheme and there will probably be some more minor changes to get it to fit with the new models, which I will explain later, but these will be minor. 

The only edits to the current scheme is the loss of the yellow helmet crest and the vox grill on the front being black instead off yellow, both because it hid the eyes to much, turning them from a prominent feature of the helmet in to just another yellow splodge.

The new Dragons will continue the lore of hunters and surgical strikes. This will be continued with the new breed by switching over to Vanguard Marines and exclusively using Phobos pattern armour. The lore will progress to a point where the "new" recruits and upgraded old ones will have integrated to form a coherent fighting force of silent hunters, using shock and awe tactics.  

As such the new for will look something like quite different to the old force, not that it got built! The new list will be lead by either a Librarian or a Lieutenant. I would prefer a Librarian but it depends on what boxsets I manage to pick up. The Vanguard start collecting box has a Lieutenant in, where as the Shadowspear box has all 3 options. A Librarian would also fit in better for when the forces are combined as with the new codex, I believe you can only have 1 Captain and 2 lieutenants in the force, so having a librarian and chaplain (from Dark Guardians) in the mix would be useful. Next up will be Infiltrators or possibly Incursors. Both of the boxsets, Shadowspear and the Vanguard start collecting set, contain Infiltrators but whether these are mono pose, single build models or proper multiparty kits I don't know. I suspect that they are mono pose jobs and so I won't have a choice. Thematically, I would like Incursors with their paired combat blades, it's more Wolfy but Infiltrators would still work. A barrage of bolters followed by an assault, should still be able to do a fair amount of damage. Next up are a small squad of Reivers, these are here for two reasons, partly due to there combat abilities, a unit of 5 can put out 21 attacks on the charge but also there ability to drop on grav chutes can be useful for grabbing back field objectives. The last element of the list is the Eliminators. These will offer some longer range fire power and also some anti-vehicle potential. Granted theses are not lascannons but they can still put out some damage.

All in all I think this is a pretty well rounded list for a 500 point list. These is some combat, some shooting and some long range shooting, plus the ability to snipe out characters. Yes, anti-armour is slightly lacking but at 500 point levels, I can't see many Land Raiders or Repulsars being used.  

As it stands, I have 6 Reivers, so I'm a long way off this list. As mentioned above, the colour scheme may change and this is due to the fact that Phobos armour only has one pauldrons and so I may well paint the top of the left arm yellow as well. I have no doubt there will be other changes, probably to the power packs but until I paint up some of the Reivers I won't really know. 

All that is left now are the Eagle Knights and that could be a long one!

Edit: Well, my plans have been in place for less than a month and already they will have to change! In the last post in this series I spoke about the Dark Guardians and how they were being built around scouts, to form a very narrative force. Only now scouts aren't troops. Yeah, didn't see that one coming! So a rethink is in order, what that rethink will be I don't know but I suspect it will be Phobos shaped.

Tournament time, maybe..........

The local club is trying to hold a tournament, has been for a little while but with things going the way they are it's been a bit of a challenge to get it actually organised. The tournament was first voiced a couple of months back, you know, one of those things to work towards when lock down finished and a bit of motivation to get some models painted. We're past the first list submission date and rapidly heading towards the next with little sign that were actually going to get to play. Even the Escalation league that's has been running this year now allows games played on Table Top Simulator or similar to be counted towards league games, obviously playing with your actually painted models as it were. 

Anyway, it's a 2000 point team type tournament, you know Chaos vs Xenos vs Imperium. So far there's only been half a dozen lists put in and we're 4 Imperium, 4 Xenos but only 2 Chaos. By my reckoning, we'll get one more of each faction, which leaves Chaos some what at a disadvantage. There might be some wiggle room to move some stuff from one faction to another but I don't know the actual armies involved, just what faction they are part of. The general idea is that the various faction have been drawn to a mysterious planet on the fringes of Imperial space, uncharted and unknown but something has called out in to the void and it has been answered. The factions will fight the other factions, with points for the individual matches being combined to see who takes control over all. Depending upon how things go, this may well be the start of a longer running campaign within the group, maybe taking other tournaments in to account in the future or even various matched through out the year, who know! 

Personally I really like these sort of narrative things, hence the blog! I have often dreamed about running a full on narrative tournament type thing, spanning the full spectrum of GW games, from Battle Fleet Gothic right down to Kill team, via Epic and 40k. A full on planetary invasion with two massive forces. Not a realistic prospect unless I win the lottery, which when you consider I don't actually play, is quite unlikely. 

As for this tournament, I have gone with my classic guard list but with a bit of a super heavy twist. The whole list is based around the idea of an Inquisitor sent to find out the secrets of the planet and having be given a company of guardsmen to act as bodyguards \ sacrificial lambs, which ever is needed. 

I'll go into the full list in another post and give my thoughts on why I've chosen what I have, there are reason for most choices but a few were there just for fun really. I'm not taking this tournament very seriously, as it will be my first games of 9th, which I have yet to actually read or even buy the rules for. I have a rough idea of the changes but things like actions are still an unknown quantity to me. 

The list is however almost ready to go, the only thing that needs painting is the Inquisitor! She's half painted but needs finishing off. She'll be done by the time she's needed for the table top, I'll make sure of that. The super heavy could do with a spruce up as well, as although it's painted, it was second hand and needs a little tidying up, plus the commander needs a new head, as he lost his old one somewhere. 

Hopefully when we do get to play, I'll post up some pictures of the games. 

Dark Guardians

 The Dark Guardians are my second marine army and as a Dark Angels successor, they are part of my second favorite marine army. I have always loved the lore of the 1st legion, it's hidden history and shady dealing. The Dark Guardians were supposed to be a full 2000+ point army in there own right, to go alongside my Eagle Knights army but with no time to really paint or play they have been relegated to the loft, although there is a full force there just waiting to get painted and I will get them painted, one day.........

Anyway, there new Primaris Guardians are one their way, although it might be a while till I get the last of them. First though, there have been, as always, a few updates to the chapter. This time the updates are minor and are pretty much all visual. Some may have noticed that the colour scheme has changed a bit from the fluff, to be honest I didn't when I painted them! I had gone off the original scheme, mostly the yellow chest plate but when I painted up the kill team, I followed the pattern from a biker I had already painted up and did t really think much about it. It was only when I was over the pages for the Brazen Hawks that I noticed that the colours for the Guardians was different on their page! Anyway this is the old and new colours for the Guardians;

The old scheme

The new scheme

I think the new scheme is cleaner, simpler. It doesn't show very well on here but the edges of the pauldrons and vents on the pack are actually metallic, leadbelcher to be precise. It's clearer n these pictures;

Apart from the colour scheme changing, the lore will remain the same but as with the others, be progressed. In terms of the Guardians this means accepting, all be it grudgingly some primaris marines, who will be put to work on more mundane tasks, while those who survive the upgrade procedure will continue with the "other" tasks. The force will switch to the new bikes and heavier armoured primaris units, namely gravis armoured  Inceptors. These fit in to the tried and tested hammer and anvil tactics of the chapter.

The 500 point force will consist of a Chaplain and 2 scout squads. One of these squads will be for close combat work, with knives and bolt pistols, while the other will have sniper rifles, heavy bolters and bolters. This core will be supported by a squad of the new Outriders , just the one squad of 3 for the moment. There will also be a squad of Inceptors, armed with the assault bolters, mainly because these are the ones that come in the Dark Imperium box set. If I decide to increase the size of this force, then I will no doubt add another squad of bikes and a squad of plasma Inceptors, I may also add in one of the new land speeders but that's going to be some way off, like years!

So far I have the scouts and the Inceptors and fire the mean time a lieutenant will suffice as the units warlord, meaning I will have a legal force to field. 

 

More eBay purchases

 

Well, I've done it again, bought another eBay bargain! This time however, it's for kill team. As you may have noticed I am a massive fan of kill team, I like the idea, the size and the rules, I just wish I had some more like minded people around to play with! 40k wise, I'm sorted, there's plenty for nice people to play with but kill teams a bit under supported up here. 

Anyway, I do tend to play a lot with the kids, both mind and friends and they tend to want to play big games with lots of stuff on the table but I'm hoping that with some arena boards I can reduce the size of the games but still retain the fun aspect of it. I don't think it's too hard to achieve, as we currently tend to play on similar sized Infinity boards. 

For less than a tenner I managed to get an almost complete box of arena. The only thing I appear to be missing is the bits to go on the board, such as doors and boxes. I have some of these spare, siluch as boxes and barrels, plus I have other bits that can easily stand in for the pipes, it's only the doors that might be a problem. However I have a solution, these things;

I reckon that a couple of these, printed on paper and stuck on to card, with some appropriate stands should do fine as stand in for the doors. Ok, so they'll not be as detailed (they'll be black and white as well, as the wife's work printer only prints black and white) but they will serve the purpose well enough for what we need. I'm hoping I can get this all sorted this weekend and maybe even have a trial game with the young man at some point but we will have to see if time allows. 

I'm actually quite excited about this. I had been looking at a way to get Space Hulk tiles sorted and printed but it became a lot more complicated than I thought it would be, as the tiles we're all different scales and would need printing and adjusting several times to get them all to match up properly. Something I wasn't able to do. Getting hold of these boards is great, as it gives me what I want cheaply and without any of the hassle. 

Brazen Hawks

Next up for the "new" Marines is another chapter that had some coverage a while ago, it even had a test model painted up! Sadly, the chapter got shelved and the test model got dumped in Detol. I've still got a few pictures of the old models but the new scheme will be quite different.

Old Brazen Hawks colour scheme.

This new Brazen Hawks will still be an Imperial Fists successor chapter and the fluff, rather than changing will be progressed. The new Hawks will represent the chapter having completed it's penitence crusade, down to a dozen or so battle brothers, who come to the aid of one last cry for help, only to find they were not the only ones to answer and that a sub-fleet of the Indominus crusade's Tertius fleet had also answered the call. This led to the chapter re-establishing contact with the wider Imperium and also receiving a much needed in flux of new Marines, in the form of several companies worth of Primaris Marines. The chapter will keep it's new crusading ways and the new colours to mark a new beginning. The new scheme will be quite a radical departure from the old scheme;

I'll go in to the updated fluff more when I redo the chapters lore but basically the change is because those that remained of the old chapter decided that the bright bronze\copper of the old chapter was too flashy and represented all that was wrong with the old ways and a new duller, less flashy scheme was needed. The chapter will also move closer to the Fists way of wageing war, with long range weaponry, although they will still retain there passion for stealth and subtlety.

The actual 500 point army will consist of just 4 units. A captain in gravis armour, a tank of a unit, designed to bolster the fire power but also act as counter punch to protect the two shooting units. These units will be a 5 man stalker bolt rifles equipped Intercessor squad and a 5 man heavy plasma incinerator squad. This means that they both have 36 inch range and can threaten enemy units right from the off. Yes it's at the cost of total shots but I think it will work, both as a stand alone list and as part of a bigger list. The last unit and the only one I don't yet have, is a unit of flamestorm Aggressors. These are here as part of the counter punch, to deal with any units that get to close. It might not sound much, 3 Aggressors but 6d6 12inch auto hitting shots is not to be sniffed at, especially when they can be used in overwatch as well. 

This force will form the firebase for the larger force, a sort of mini castle. I'm aware that there are lots of better options out there for primaris marine castles, such as Redemptor dreads and Repulsar tanks. The Redemptor could be an option for the future but the Repulsar is not really viable in a 500 point list, when the cost is between 314 and  365. Plus with the cheapest HQ being 75 points, with just these two your looking at a minimum of nearly 400 points just for two units. 

So this will be the second force to build and paint, as it's the second most complete. I will get some Aggressors at some point but I'm not in a hurry as I still have a lot of stuff to build and paint!

I'm not sure who's up next, possibly the Stone Dragons or Dark Guardians, although neither of these forces are anywhere near complete.