2022 review

  

As we move from 2022 to 2023 it is time to look back at all the objectives that I set myself at the beginning of the year and see if I have been able to complete many of them. Last year I set myself a fairly easy list of things to do, in order to break the cycle of failing the majority of them! I have also made more of an effort to paint in the evenings this year, rather than just collapse on the sofa in front of the TV. This has made quite a difference in think, in terms of how many models I have managed to get painted.

1) kill team.

I had a number of kill teams that have been on several to do list over then last few years and I have finally got around to finishing quite a few of these! 

a) Deathwatch - painted a whole kill team roster plus several more models to complete a 2000 point plus army. Some of the army was already pre-painted but still, all Deathwatch models are now painted with just a couple of transfers needing applying before varnishing them.

b) Tyranids - the only kill team not finished. This is because I decided to wait until a proper bespoke team was released, rather than paint a team and then have to repaint it as a bespoke team.

c) Sisters - all done, including some addition models to act as count as sisters to bring them inline with the new rules.

d) Scout Marines - done ready to varnish

e) Chaos - sort of done. The original chaos team was binned and the new legionary team constructed, built and painted.

f) DKoK - these are half finished. One box of 10 is painted and done (by my son) the other 10 are built and primed ready for him to paint, but he's been busy building and painting his Tau recently.

g) Ork Commandos - all done ready for varnish.

In addition I have also built and painted a GSC wyrmblade cult list and a 10k sons Warp coven list, which were not on the cards at the start of the year.

So despite building and painting all these teams, I haven't actually played a single competitive game of kill team this year!

Anyway, I'm counting this as a pass!

2) No new models (with the caveat that when the new guard codex dropped I'd buy at least 60 conscripts, 20 scions and 3 or 4 taurox's.) 

Well, I have actually managed to stick to this one, as long as you take the caveat in to account! So the new guard codex hasn't technical dropped yet, but I have brought a box of models that I use as scions. With the changes to the new codex I will no longer be buying the conscripts but will instead look at the new Field Ordinance Batteries, which i will likely get two of. As for the taurox's I will have to see as I do plan on getting something but I'm not sure they will be taurox's.

I think that this has sto go down as a pass!

3) Paint Marines

Done, done and done, with a majority of them also varnished. All 1000+ points of the Eagle Knights, 500+ points of Dark Guardians, Emperor's Disciples, Brazen Hawks and Stone Dragons have been completed. At this point I have no primaris marine or dreadnoughts left to paint. I have a number of first born marines left to paint that are in storage and I will probably look at getting these out of storage and painting up at some point this year.

So this is definitely a pass!

4) Catachan characters

So I got gifted Marbo and I brought Harker and Straken with the Warhammer+ voucher. I have painted these three models up and actually spent a lot more time on these models than I have spent on pretty much any other.models I own. All three are now painted and varnished.

Another pass!

5) Knights

These two got a very basic but decent tabletop paint job. They are now ready to play after several years sitting on the shelf. 

Another pass!

6) AdMech 

I wasn't sure I would get around to this one, as it was low on the list but having done the two baby Knights I was glad that I was able to get it done. They still need varnishing but they are painted, giving me the option to field a 1000+ point force of AdMech and possibly build towards a bigger force with a knight or two in.

Yet again this is a pass!

7) Update pages

This is something I have been meaning to do for a while. There has been several changes to the lore surrounding my forces and there will be a couple more coming up with the changes to the guard codex and reworking my armies, as well as bringing my son's Tau and his friends Necrons in to the picture. However, I have not actually started on any of this yet! I will try again this year, and with less models to paint up, I might actually get around to it!

This is the only fail on the list.

Along side all of these bits I have also worked on a couple of other projects, such as additional inquisitors and retinue, sorting the Ork kill team terrain, 

So there you have it, six out of seven completed! This is the best result I think I have had for my resolutions list and I'm quite proud of what I have managed to achieve this year. Now I just have to work on next year's list!

The holiday season!

 

Merry Christmas everyone, hope your having a wonderful day!

The Dagr Ormr plan

 

So I thought I'd have a closer look at the plan for the Dagr Ormr scions, mostly to help me get my head around what I actually will need to build. Let's go over the current list;

Tempestor Prime (x2)

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x Scion, 2x HS Volley Gun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 10x Scion, 2x Meltagun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x Scion, 2x Plasma gun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 10x Scion, 2x HS Volley Gun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x Scion, 2x Meltagun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x scions, 2x Plasma gun

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: 3x Hot-shot Volley Gun, Vox-caster

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Flamer, Medi-pack, Platoon Standard, Vox-caster

This gives me;

2x Primes

6x Sargent's (or Scion equivalents) 

8x Vox casters

1x standard bearer

1x medic

1x flamer

7x HS volley guns

4x plasma guns

4x melta guns

32x scions

So, to bring these squads in line with the new codex and expand them with the new models I am looking to build the following;

3 command squads;

1) Prime, Flamer, Medi-pack, Platoon Standard, Vox-caster

2) Prime, Vox-caster, HS Volley gun, medic, plasma gun

3) Prime, Vox-caster, HS Volley gun, 2x Scion

6 scions squads

1) Sgt, Vox-caster, 2x plasma guns, 2x HS Volley gun, 4x scion

2) Sgt, Vox-caster, 2x plasma guns, 2x HS Volley gun, 4x scion

3) Sgt, Vox-caster, 2x meltagun, 2x grenade launcher, 4x scion

4) Sgt, Vox-caster, 2x meltagun, 2x flamer, 4x scion

5) Sgt, Vox-caster, 2x HS Volley gun, 2x grenade launcher, 4x Scion

6) Sgt, Vox-caster, 2x flamer, 2x grenade launcher, 4x Scion 

This would give me three command squads and 6 legal squads, even if I'm not 100% sure about the composition of some of the squads. For this build I would need;

3x Primes (+1)

6x Sargent's (or Scion equivalents) 

9x Vox casters (+1)

1x standard bearer

2x medic (+1)

5x flamer (+4)

8x HS volley guns (+1)

5x plasma guns (+1)

4x melta guns 

6x Grenade launchers (+6)

26x scions (-6)

Meaning I gain 15 models, but now have 6 spare scions. If I was to add extra special weapons to the third command squad, most likely a flamer and grenade launcher, I would gain 17 models and have 8 spare scions. I would also have 3 spare bodies, enough to fill out a 7th squads with a Sgt and two special weapons, most likely plasma guns. However, another option that I am toying with is to build these last few models as two 5 man squads, so building two sgts and running two of the squads a bare bones objective grabbing or action making squads and making the last body into an addition special, either plasma or another meltagun.

One of the main areas of this plan that I don't like is the meltagun squads. I have one paired with grenade launchers and one paired with flamers. While I'm happier with the flamers, as it works well with the short range of the meltaguns, neither is very good here. The hot shot lasguns are S3 AP-2 and D1, flamers are S4 AP0 D1 and grenade launchers can be either S3 AP0 D1 or S6 AP-1 Dd3 and while flamers and the frag profile of grenade launchers gets more shots, up to 6, there profile really doesn't match up to the loss of two HS lasguns. In the squad with two flamers and two grenade launchers it makes sense as you could get 4d6 shots, up to 24 but average of 15, compared to 8 lasgun shots. When paired with the meltaguns however, neither is very useful. If the Krak grenade had better AP, say -2 like the missile version, then it would pair a lot better, as it is I am actually leaning towards giving both squads HS volley guns, with its S4 AP-2 D1 and with it now being Rapidfire 2, a straight 4 shots to the flamers d6 and one more shot over the Krak grenade from the launcher at range and 3 more up close. The only real advantage that either of these weapons hold over the volley gun is that fact the flamer is auto hitting. Dumping both these in favour of the HS volley gun though would mean I have a total of 12 volley guns in the force and the feeling that I'm getting over reliant of a single weapon system.

So, what do I do? Well, firstly I'm going to build the models I know I need, so that I can build everything but the melta squads and then I will have a rethink, possibly based on what weapons I actually have to hand, as I think that I might struggle with grenade launchers and maybe even flamers, I shall have to have a good root through my bits box to see what I can come up with as I really don't want to have to break any models apart. 

While I love the fact that we have a new codex, it can be quite infuriating at the same time!

Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus strike force

 

The Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus strike force is the last of the guard armies to look at and again there are a number of issues. While this seems to be the easiest to fix on paper, it's going to require the most amount of modelling to get sorted as there are going to need some extra Scion models building and painting.

The smallest of the forces, it currently consists of:

Tempestor Prime (x2)

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x Scion, 2x HS Volley Gun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 10x Scion, 2x Meltagun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x Scion, 2x Plasma gun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 10x Scion, 2x HS Volley Gun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x Scion, 2x Meltagun

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 9x scions, 2x Plasma gun

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: 3x Hot-shot Volley Gun, Vox-caster

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Flamer, Medi-pack, Platoon Standard, Vox-caster

Company Commander (x2)

Primaris Psyker

Command Squad: Heavy flamer, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Flamer

Commissar

Ogryn Bodyguard

Ratlings

Special Weapons Squad: 3x Grenade launcher

Veterans

Heavy Weapons Squad: Lascannon

Heavy Weapons Squad: Mortar (x2)

For a total of 1464pts.

Now I did have some plans for this army, including slotting in 3 blobs of 30 man conscript units. However, with the removal of conscripts from the codex, this is now no longer possible. While it does save me some painting, it also leaves me some issues. So this army is also split into two distinct sections, the scions and guard. I'll look at the guard section first as this is possibly the quickest to work through. 

To start with, the three heavy weapons squads will remain as they are, as they are still legal, as will the ratling snipers, primaris psyker and the commissar, who doesn't need a demotion this time around! 

The command squad is also going to be quick to fix, as it's fine as is for once, all it needs is the addition of one of the commanders and the Ogryn and we good to go. It's from he one that things get a bit dicey. With one commander left, a special weapons squad with 3 grenade launchers and a squad of bare bones vets. My plan is to split the special weapons squads up and put a grenade launcher in to two squads and a command squad, alongside a guardsman, I'll also split the vets up, meaning I'll have two squads of 7, so will need to add in some addition guardsmen from the left overs of the other forces. I'll also add in any special weapons I have around, including the heavy flamers from the Hrossey Yeomanry, which will join the command squad. 

This will give me 2 troop choices for this detachment, so I will have to pull in another infantry unit from else where, most likely from the guard kill team, which has been superseded by the bespoke vet guard team. 

This will fill out the guard detachment legally and even add a few points as we move towards the 2000 point target. The militarum tempests half of the list also need a fair bit of work. Starting with the HQ elements, I currently have two Primes and two command squads, however, only one of the command squads is legal now. This means that I need to form a second command squad. This isn't as much of a problem as it could be as I need to bolster some of my other squads and I can do this with two of the HS volley guns of the second command squad, adding two new members from the additional troops I'll be building. I will also be looking to add an additional command squad to the roster.

Of the six squads I currently have only two are legal, as all squads contain two of the same special weapon but only two have the ten men required to field them. Now, with the addition of the two HS volley guns from the command squad, I can fill out a plasma squad to 10 men, plus that gains me an extra body. This could give me 4 legal 10 squads and shuffling the others around I could form another 10 man squad, a 5man squad and fill the rest of the command squad but I don't intend on doing this. What I intend on doing is a little more complex. With the extra box I have brought I intend on building more special weapons to form two squads with HS volley and plasma, two squads with melta and grenade launchers (this might change), one squad with HS volley guns and Grenade launchers and one with grenade launchers and flamers. This actually gives me 10 spare scions to form into two more squads, with additions probably with one being flamers and grenade launchers and one being HS volley guns and flamers, although these will wait until I have all the other squads and command squads sorted.

Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry

 

Next up is the Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry and the army with probably the biggest problem. This list is quite small but still potent. The current army contains;

Primaris Psyker

Tank Commander

Master of Ordnance

Ministorum Priest

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tanks (x3)

Company Commander

Lord Commissar

Command Squad: Heavy flamer, Regimental Standard, 2x Plasma gun

Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Commander

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Meltagun

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Grenade launcher, Missile launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: Heavy bolter (x2)

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer

 All for a total of 2,325pts.

Not this list doesn't have a massive amount of issues. Most of the vehicles are fine and can stay as they are, as with only one tank commander and three other LRBT'S it is still codex compliant. The hellhammer, hellhound and Chimeras are all fine and will continue on. Other units that are able to continue on are the primaris psyker, priest and heavy weapons teams, as these mostly remain unchanged.

The rest of the list however needs some serious work. I have two commanders, one platoon and one company and only one command squad, which contains two plasma guns. I can change this command to contain a heavy flamer, standard, plasma and melta, by taking a melta out of one of the vet squads. Not very efficient but legal. I will most likely have more of a rejig between all the different armies at some point, to try and balance up all the options but for now this is a good start. This squad will also include one of the commanders along side the Master of ordnance and Ogryn Bodyguard. 

This then leaves me with one commander and two vet squads that need adjusting. The first answer that springs to mind is to move the heavy weapons team, heavy flamer and a grenade launcher from one squad to form a new command squad and then mix up the remaining special weapons and add in some additional troops to from two Cadian style squads with a melta and grenade launcher each. This will leave me with a heavy flamer extra but I'm sure I can find a space for him somewhere. 

That just leave me to demote the lord commissar to regular commissar and we're all done.

This means that all my troops should fit within the new codex structure but unfortunately they won't fit in to the Chimeras, with the Ogryn bodyguard taking up too many spaces. I could drop this unit but he looks to much fun for that! I don't really want to get another chimera but I may have to look in to it at some point.

Hjaltland Light Infantry

 The Hjaltland Light Infantry was my first completed army and has probably been the most used force over the last few years. Now, there is a slight caveat to this post, the guard codex is not out for general release yet and I don't have a copy, so I'm going on what information I have gleaned from leaks, YouTube and various other content sites and so some.of it may not be correct.

The force currently includes;

Company Commander (x3)

Platoon Commander (x2)

Command Squad: Heavy flamer, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Vox-caster

Command Squad: 4x Plasma gun

Primaris Psyker (x2)

Lord Commissar

Master of Ordnance

Officer of the Fleet

Ogryn Bodyguard

Commissar

Ministorum Priest (x2)

Infantry Squad: Flamer (x4)

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Autocannon (x4)

Veterans: heavy flamer, 3x Meltagun

Special Weapons Squad: 3x Sniper Rifle

Special Weapons Squad: 3x Grenade launchers (x2)

Special Weapons Squad: 3x Flamer

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Missile launchers

Wyverns (x2)

Scout Sentinels (x3)

Valkyries

Vendetta Gunship 

All for a grand total of around 2227pts. So what's the problem? Well quite a bit actually. We'll start with the command elements, the company and platoon commanders with the command squads. 

Currently there are three Company Commanders and two Platoon Commanders but only two command squads, one with the full works (Heavy flamer, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Vox-caster) and one loaded with specials (4x Plasma guns). So, I will now have 5 commanders but only 1 legal command squad. This poses a big problem, as I don't really want 4 castellans roaming the battle field, ideally I only want one, so I need to form at least 3 more command squads. 

This is where another of the issue units come in to play, the special weapons squads. As it stands I have 4 squads, two with grenade launchers, one with flamers and one with sniper rifles. So in total I have 12 guardsmen, 6 grenade launchers, 3 flamers and 3 sniper rifles, which would fit quite nicely in to 3 command squads each with a sniper, grenade launcher, flamer and guardsman as a vox caster. Not very optimal I know but it would solve the problem. It would also leave me with 9 guardsmen and 3 grenade launchers to fine homes for. 

One option would be to add the three grenade launchers in to three of the infantry squads with flamers using the new Cadian rules, which would only leave 12 guardsmen (the 9 from the special weapons squads and 3 from being replaced by the grenade launchers) which is not a big problem, as I'll come to in a bit. 

But first let's take a little step back to the command squads, as I also have an officer of the fleet and master of ordnance in the list, as well as a ogryn bodyguard, all of which will now be attached to the original command squads with standard et al. 

The last couple of HQ units in the original list were the Primaris psykers and lord commissar. The lord commissar is easy, he just drops back down to a regular commissar and carries on doing the emperor's work. The primaris psykers, are as far as I know, still in the book and so will continue as they were, although I'm unsure as to whether they are still HQ units or not. 

The last unit in the list that is a problem is the veterans. These guys are no longer in the codex and with 3 melta guns and a heavy flamer are not able to be swapped to.anything else. The heavy flamers could be put in to one of the command squads, which by my reckoning leaves me with a total of 19 guardsmen and 7 special weapons (3 melta and 4 plasma). This means that I could form 2 more Cadian style infantry squads, leaving me with just 3 special weapons, a melta and two plasma, and 3 guardsmen. Which isn't too bad, although it does mean that I've lot a significant amount of high end firepower, with the loss of the vets and plasma command.

The rest list will continue as is, with the exception of the Wyverns. The general plan for this list has always been an infantry based army and the Wyverns were the only exception to this (apart from the flyers) and I have often thought about replacing them but didn't really have anything to replace them with. However with the new Field Ordinance Batteries I think I have. I would like to get at least 2 units, one with the missile pods and one with the field gun, which would give a drop in overall shots, would actually increase firepower. The possibility of a third unit with the lascannons to bolster the anti-tank firepower is also an option.

So there will be quite a few changes to this list overall and I think that it may not be quite as good a list as it was. I know 9t has never really been a highly optimised list but it functioned will and the various units had their roles, now that has been slightly diluted and some of the units are going to have to multitask, which isn't great but I think it should still work.

The new guard, definitely not the same as the old!

So the new guard codex is sort of here, I mean it is here, it's just not here for everyone yet. I'm not going to go off on a rant about how I don't like the format of special boxsets and early issue codices, as that's a whole post in itself. What I am going to write a out is my first impressions of the codex on to my own forces and how it's going to impact them in general terms and then I'll go into more details over the next few post on each individual army list and talk about how they are each going to have to change and evolve. 

Now, a quick recap, I have three main army lists, my Hjaltland Light Infantry, Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry and Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus strike force. All these forces are formed differently and have a different method of waging war, however, there are a number of units that are shared across the forces. 

The main unit that can be found in all three are the veterans. With the disappearance of this unit from the codex there is a whole in all the lists, although they for filled different roles in each list, from specialist tank and monster hunting units through to basic protection and blocking troops. For two of the lists, the yeomanry and scions, these forces can be switched across to one of the various new infantry options, the Hjaltland LI are a little harder to deal with as they had a very specific roll that can no longer be done by any squad apart from a full 10 man Scion squad maybe.

This issue with the veterans in compounded, especially for the Hjaltland LI, by the changes to the command squads. Previously these had been either fully fluffy units with all the options or very specialised units with special weapons. Now, with the restrictions to the special weapons, a lot of these units are now out the window. For the Hjaltland LI the melta armed vets were supposed by a plasma armed command squad, forming a potent strike force dropping out of Valkyries. Now I'm really going to have to have a retying about how to form a tank and monster hunting party in the Hjaltland force but also how to form counter punch and specialist units in the others as well.

The third biggest challenge is the loss of conscripts, although this really only affects the Dagr Ormr scions, as I was planning of running several squads to act as an screen and base line to support the scions when they dropped in. I will now have to look at what options I have available from the four infantry options instead, although this is likely to drop the overall number of troops by half. The change to scions, from troops to elite is actually not much of a problem, as they were being run in a separate detachment anyway and so will be able to stay as they are, which is helpful. 

One other change that is going to affect me but in a lesser sense, is the loss of special weapons squads. Now, I have several of these built but I rarely use them, usually defaulting to command squads, due to bs3+ and having 4 weapons. The fact that I have about 7 or 8 of these squads spread across my three armies means that I now have a significant amount 9f special weapons that will need a home. 

There are a couple of other issues that I will need to work around, such as commanders without command squads and the scions special weapons loadouts but these should be solvable. I'll go in to more details with the Hjaltland light Infantry and the issues and possible solutions.

New guardsmen scale

 So the new guard are here and as lovely as they are, there are a few problems with them. The biggest problem for me.is that there are no new Catachan! If any kit could do with an upgrade it was the Catachan models and this shows in their rules, which quite frankly, are rubbish. Anyway, the new Cadian sculpts are here, as well as the new Kasrkins. I had a quick look around the net for comparison photos and found a few around, some of which I've copied across to here.

First up is a look at the new Kasrkins, which are huge! A standard Cadian guardsman is about a head shorter than the new Kasrkins. This was the first comparison shot that I saw, before the models had been released and I was slightly worried that all the new Cadian were going to get the Primaries treatment. The proportions of the new Kasrkins look good and it looks like a very nice model overall but I do time how tall it is compared to the Cadian. That said, it doesn't look as bad next to the Krieger. I don't actually recognise the other model, maybe a GSC model?

The next two photos are of the new Cadians and when I finally got a look at these pictures I was pleasantly surprised. The new Cadians, while different in proportion are very similar in size. They are more "true scale" and less of the old Heroic scale, which is just going to make the Catachans look even more comical! In the picture above you can see that they match up in height quite nicely to all the similar human models, with various examples of guard, a heretic and AdMech skitarii, with a Primaries marine for scale. 

I do like these models, I think they are very nicely done, they match nicely with the old models but are updated to take advantage of new technologies in plastic molding and modelling.

Finally we have this guy and WTF? If I was worried about the Kasrkins, what the hell is going on with this guy? He looks to be a clear head and shoulders about the guy standing next to him and yes, I see he's on his tactical rock but still this guy is huge! The models looks very nice but the size difference just doesn't do it for me. 

Overall I am really impressed with the new guard models, even if I have no plans on getting any of them. I am hopeful that we will get some new Catachans soon and when we do they will look every  bit as good as the Cadians.

Evolution of an army - Deathwatch

This is a wander through the process of building my Deathwatch army, as despite putting all my first born marines in to hibernation, I seem to have ended up with a 2000 point army of first born Deathwatch.

The story starts where many good stories start, the "for sale" section. Someone at the club was selling half of the Deathwatch Death Masque boxset, the Deathwatch half obviously. The original intent was to just build a kill team with some spare options, however, things kind of got out of hand! 

Although there is only 5 models here, I think I actually built 6 models. The Death Masque box came with 5 marines and Artemis. I'm pretty sure the other guy I built was a infurnus heavy bolter. I built these to fill out the requirement of a kill team from the 2018 rules.

I added the psyker next, I don't remember where I got this model but it came fully painted and based, ready to play. 

Next up I added the dread, mostly at the insistence of my little one. I've painted up all three options for his weapon arm, with plasma, lascannon and assault cannon. Luckily there was no need to magnetise anything as there is a peg that sticks out that the arm just push fits on to. 

Three marines missing, infurnus heavy bolter, bolter marine and a blackshield with storm shield

Once I had done all that I was left with loads of parts, which seemed a waste to me, so I decided to use up a bunch of bodies that I had lying around from the Betrayal of Calth box. Using these bodies and adding in all the various bits and pieces I managed to make up a number of extra bodies, for a total of 21 (including the Libby). An at this point I thought I was done.

And then came the Kill Team: Elites expansion and so I dug back in to the bits box and pulled out the vanguard vets that also came with the Death Masque box and put together 5 vanguard vets to fill out the elite slots that were now available in the game. And then i was certain i was done.

a couple of guys missing here, another heavy bolter and a marine

The thing is when you have little ones (or not so little ones at this point!), they sometimes want to join in the hobby. So I had a few spare bits lying around and my eldest wanted to build some models, so I game him the bits he wanted and let him get on with it. Later he decides he actually want Tau and so the marines he build are now surplus to requirements, and with no where else for them to go, they get folded in to the Deathwatch, adding half a dozen of so extra guys.

It's at this point that I looked at the force and thought, I've quite a little force here and I could probably put together a nice little 500 point force or so for 40k but I've only one real HQ. So a rummage though the bits box and 8 bash together a Lieutenant and Captain with jump packs.  

Then you remember you  had a reshuffle of your kill Teams a while back and there's a bunch of models without a home at the moment, so you fold them in as well. This however means a little bit of a reshuffle is needed within the Deathwatch and you realise that there are a couple of extra models that are missing from the collection and could be useful, so you raid the bits box again and build an ancient and champion to fill out a full command squad. 

So that brings you up to 48 models total and 1988 points. Bu wait! When reading the codex you realise that you can take a squad of terminators with mixed assault and ranged weapons and you have 5 termies laying around from an old kill team. Now technically these are actually part of the old Dark Guardians army and so are only on loan until I get around to digging that army out of storage and finishing it off, but that might be a while at this rate!

So there it is, going from a small 6 man kill team force to a fully fledged 2000 plus points (2170points) army, with out any real plan. Now some.may have noticed that there are some non black models in the pictures and these will remain painted in their original colours and I will fudge together some form of lore to allow them to be there, something like them being there at the direct request of the inquisitor.

 

Catachan characters finished

 A couple of weeks ago I posted up about my Chatachan characters, two of which came from my Warhammer+ subscription and one I got for my birthday. I have since cancelled my Warhammer+ subscription, mostly as I don't think there is enough content on there to justify it. But anyway, the characters. 

I spent a lot more time on these three guys than I would normally spend on models, even characters, and used a number techniques that I don't normally bother with, as I really wanted them to be the centre piece models they should be. 

Colonel Iron Hand Straken was first up, as the only HQ choice here. With his arm and flesh to do, he was probably the hardest one to paint up as well. I went for a base coat on all colours, followed by a wash and a dry brush of the base coat. After this it was in to highlights and edge highlighting along side some detailing work. 

Personally I really like the results and am pleased with how well I think I've done with them. There are a few bits I think I could have done better, such as the sword pommel, which looks better in person but not as good as the skull he carrying around. I also think the silver edge highlighting could be improved, especially on his shotgun, but with the wash and dry brush step you can still see all the details. 

Sly Marbo was up next, sort of, as I actually painted all of the in batch until it came to the final bits and pieces, like the Ork head. The first think that has to be mentioned and possibly the most obvious thing on the model is the eyes. Yes they are very, very squiffy. I have still not yet mastered eyes, I tried several times to get the eyes to line up and look normal but this was one of the best I could manage and they are still rubbish, part of the reason I usually don't bother with eyes. Again the main points of improvement are the silver on the gun, as I think I could have done it better and made it pop more. You'll probably notice that all the guns are just bare metal coloured, I did this as I thought that, as jungle fighters, they would just keep there weapon very minimalist, as not bother with anything but basic aesthetics. The other thing I could improve on is the edge highlighting of the packs and webbing. Unfortunately I didn't have that wide a range of colours for it, so I had to do the best I could with what I had and I think I could have done with a brighter brown for the every last highlight. The same could be said with the greens, as I only actually have two different greens and a third one would have been useful, either has a mid colour or a bright highlight.

Gunnery sergeant Harker is the last model. This model has some different challenges to the others, with the mass expanses of flesh and the high gun that dominates the model. The process with this model is exactly the same as the other two and again, I think that I could have done some.more to emphasise various elements. The muscles turned out quite well I think with some good definition, likewise with the trousers. The gun is the weakest point of the model, not including the very wonky eyes, I seriously need to get better at doing eyes. The gun could have been edge highlighted more as it's still quite dark and while the shading on it does give definition, brighter edge highlights would have made it pop a little better. 

All in all I do really like these three models and I'm quite proud of them. They will hopefully be hitting the table top in the not to distant future, once the new codex comes out.

Other models that I've been working on are my Deathwatch and head a little preview;

Yes, I know it's not black but there's a reason for that, which I'll go into in detail in a later post, but this is the standard bearer for the Deathwatch fortress. A veteran of many battles, Scion of Sanguinius, brother of the Eagle Knights, beholden to Inquisitor Sophiana and Ancient of Watch Fortress Abyss.

Lord solar Leontus

 Ok, let’s get this out the ways now, I think the horse is stupid. I like the idea of this model, just not the sculpt. As some one on YouTube (on the Kill Team Casuals podcast) it looks like a rejected AoS hero model, with some bionic legs and I have to agree. While I appreciate it is a very detailed and beautiful looking model, I just don't like it. If I ever get one, I will paint it up very differently, a lot darker with only a hint of gold.

There is no doubt that it looks better in the battle scene below, but most of that is probably due to filters and lighting that you won't get on a tabletop.

As I said the detail is amazing, there are so many fine details throughout the model, from the gloves to the holster and on to the base. It really shows off the level of detail that GW can get in their models these days.

However, I still just don't like it. If I was to make one of these models, I would look to use one of these models as the base;

I really like the stormcast beast, but I suspect it will be to big. Any of there 3 models will add that sci-fi look to the mount far more that a robot horse does. Anyway, I doubt I will bother with this model either way. 

Rogal Dorn tank

 The new guard tank has had a big reveal recently and as usual I’m a little late to the party. Now I’ll be upfront about this tank from the beginning, I am not a fan of this thing. I think that it is very in keeping with the whole guard aesthetic and will fit in quite nicely with the other tanks, as shown below but I just don’t like certain elements of the design and I really don’t think it was what the guard range really needed. The guard are really lacking in Fast Attack options and there are two very obvious vehicles that could fill the gap nicely, the Taurus ( along side the venator version) and the centaur scout vehicles. Anyway, that’s for another post, let’s have a look at this beast. 

There is no doubt that this tank is going to be s pretty good model to have on the tabletop. It’s going to be trouble for your opponent and an asset to you, however I just don’t quite see yet how it’s going to be significantly better that having leman Russ’s on the table. I know it’s got more wounds, 19 to 14, and it’s battle cannons are better but I still think at the moment that is rather have three russ’s than two dorns. 

There are also several design elements that I don’t like, the main one being those stupid stunners on the front. They just look silly and pointless and even if I get one, I will not be putting them on there. One of the other bits I don’t like is the stubbier gunner on the back. I know it sort of fits with the WW2 / Vietnam aesthetics but I just think it looks silly. If I do get a tank, I’ll be kit bashing it so that it has 3 stubbers being used from the copolas. Other bits I don’t like are the oversized gunshield and the fact that someone’s put the exhausts on upside down. I know it’s the 41st millennium but I still think gassing your own infantry as they follow your tank is a bad idea. 

On the other side of things, there are parts I do like, the biggest being the fact that the tanks sits nicely within the existing range. Overall it’s a nice looking tank. 

As I mentioned, it fits very nicely in the current range of tanks, both in size and design wise. 

I still think that redoing the Macharius tank from forge world would have been a better idea. Anyway, talking of the baneblade, we got a little bit more information on the new data sheet and it is a nice little buff. 

A few extra wounds, a bit more toughness and the turret weapons rules are going to mean that this monster is getting close to where it should always have been. I have always enjoyed fielding my Hellhammer and I will again with the new stats, especially as the sponsors are now effectively free!

Boarding action walls

 Another short post today, catching up with the previews that were shown off several weeks ago now! A lot has happened In these last few weeks it's been difficult to keep.uo.with everything that's been going on. Anyway, this is one of the things I have been most hyped about out of the previews we saw. I have always wanted a Zone Mortalis type of setting and have spent many hours trawling eBay, shapeways and other sites looking for affordable walls to make a board with and now GW have released there own version. 

It's not the cheapest around, it's GW, it never was going to be but its definitely not the most expensive or the worst looking set I've come across. That I also like is the fact that it contains the boards as well, even if they are slightly weird sizes. I don't know what it is with GW and their board sizes but why they just can't stick to one set of sizes and be done with it I don't know. 

I would.love to be able to get two sets of this but I think I can only justify buying a single set, maybe I can pick up some of the kill team stuff going cheap at some point but I doubt it. Even 500 point battles will be good fun I think and be a real change from the normal missions. I don't think I will bother with the book that's supposed to accompany the terrain, I'll either just pinch the rules from somewhere else or just make up the bits I need to to get it to work. Either way I'm excited about getting this set and getting some games it. 

Kill team shadow vaults

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rough riders!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guard leaks - Rogal Dorn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guard leaks - additional information

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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