2000pts league list

 So I have decided to take part in a league at the local club. The league is a 2000 point, Arcs of Omen detachment list playing 5 games over a 2 month period. With the recent release of the new guard codex (let's not talk about the impending release of 10th!) I thought that it was a perfect opportunity to crack out the guard and get some games in. 

As with most things like this, the more you play a list the better idea you have of how it will work and so I embarked upon this journey with no games played and no knowledge of whether this list will work or not. Having played a couple 9f game before writing this post, I can safely say it does work but mistakes were definitely made. 

I'll post the list first then talk about the mistakes and changes I would make.

Arks of Omen Detachment - Astra Militarum 9CP,

Compulsory Type: Troops

Regimental Doctrine: Born Soldiers

+ HQ +

Platoon Command Squad: Relic: Finial of the Nemrodesh 1st, WT: Old Grudges: Ogryn Bodyguard:Ripper Gun, Slabshield, Platoon Commander: Warlord, Veteran w/ Master-Vox, Veteran w/ Medi-pack, Veteran w/ Regimental Standard, Veteran w/ plasma gun

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Veteran w/ Master-Vox, Veteran w/ Heavy Flamer, Veteran w/ Flamer, Veteran w/ Grenade launcher

Primaris Psyker: 3. Psychic Barrier, 4. Nightshroud,

+ Troops +

Cadian Shock Troops: Sergeant w/ Drum-fed Autogun, Trooper w/ Flamer, Trooper w/ Grenade launcher

Cadian Shock Troops: Sergeant w/ Drum-fed Autogun, Trooper w/ Flamer, Trooper w/ Grenade launcher

Cadian Shock Troops: Sergeant w/ Chainsword and Bolt Pistol, Trooper w/ Flamer, Trooper w/ Grenade launcher

Death Korps of Krieg: Medi-packs, Trooper w/ Plasma Gun, Trooper w/ Meltagun, Trooper w/ Grenade launcher, Watchmaster w/ Chainsword and Plasma pistol

Infantry Squad: Guardsman W/ Plasma gun, Guardsman w/ Vox-caster, Heavy Weapon Team w/ Missile launcher

Infantry Squad: Guardsman W/ Plasma gun, Guardsman w/ Vox-caster, Heavy Weapon Team w/ Missile launcher

Infantry Squad: Guardsman W/ Grenade launcher, Guardsman w/ Vox-caster, Heavy Weapon Team w/ Mortar

Infantry Squad: Guardsman W/ Grenade launcher, Guardsman w/ Vox-caster, Heavy Weapon Team w/ Mortar

+ Elites +

Commissar

Commissar

Regimental Enginseer

Regimental Preacher: Autogun, Autopistol, and Chainsword

Regimental Preacher: Auto Pistol, Servo-stubber and Power Maul

+ Flyer +

Valkyrie: 2x Multiple Rocket Pods, Militarum Multi-laser, 2x Heavy bolter

+ Lord of War +

Hellhammer: 2x Twin heavy flamer, Knight of Piety

Militarum Tempestus Detachment:

+ HQ +

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: WT: Drill Commander, Tempestor Prime, Scion w/ Hot-shot Volley Gun, Scion w/ Plasma gun Scion w/ Master-Vox, Scion w/ Medi-pack

+ Troops +

Tempestus Scions: Tempestor: Plasma pistol, Power sword, Scion w/ Plasma gun, Scion w/ Plasma gun, Scion w/ Hot-shot Volley Gun, Scion w/ Hot-shot Volley Gun, Scion w/ Vox-caster

Tempestus Scions; Tempestor: Plasma pistol, Power sword, Scion w/ Meltagun , Scion w/ Meltagun, Scion w/ Grenade launcher , Scion w/ Grenade launcher, Scion w/ Vox-caster

The list on the whole, in the two games I have played so far, has performed pretty much as I expected, although in the first game against Imperial Knights I was thoroughly thrashed without being able to actually do much in return. In the second game things worked a lot better for me and the elements performed a lot more how I had anticipated.

The Hellhammer worked perfectly, picking up whole squads of Marines at once, except when I needed it to in turn 4, but that was down to my opponents saving throws rather then the big guns performance. 

The Valkyrie also worked well, enabling me to get some much needed mobility, although it is proving to be quite vulnerable and not as resilient as I had hoped for. Even with the -1 to hit, being only t7 and 14 wounds it has proven easy for my opponents to take out.

So, what are the actual "mistakes" I made with this list. I say mistakes but there really hasn't been anything so far that hasn't performed in someway or another, I just think that I could rejig things a little and get some better results or better abilities that would just nudge the overall power of the list up slightly. I'll go top to bottom on the list, as I don't really think there are any more important changes than others. 

The first thing on the list is the command squad Ogryn bodyguard. He currently has a shield and ripper gun, which I would swap of a maul. This would reduce the firepower of the squad but significantly increase the combat power. The squad shouldn't really be shooting at much anyway but may and has been used to counter change things, where a maul would be a lot more useful.

In all Cadian squads I would probably switch out the flamers for another special weapon, probably a plasma gun but maybe a couple of meltas for some variation. The flamers don't take advantage of either special rule, born soldiers or shock troops but another special weapon would be able to use the born soldiers rules.

I would also look at replacing the DKoK with a Cadian squad. So far they have not really loved up to their hype or their extra expense. As such I would probably replace them with a Cadian squad.

Drop a commissar. With the born soldiers giving out a leadership bubble the need for the commissars bubble is less. Also squads tend to either survive fine or be wiped out, so the need for the summary execution rule is also reduced.

The weapon load out of the preachers would also be ammended. At present I have one with the basic load out and one with an upgraded load out, with a maul and stubber. I would switch both units to the basic load out, as the extras are not needed.

The Valkyrie may loose it's heavy bolters. This is sort of linked to the next change, as I would look to add extra sponsons to the Hellhammer and thus wouldn't need the Valkyrie bolters. Also the platform is proving quite fragile and doesn't turn up until then 2 at least, so the amount of times the bolters can fire is limited 

As mention above I would add a second pair of sponsons to the Hellhammer, this one with the twin bolters, adding some extra ranged firepower and punch with the additional lascannons. I would also drop the Knight of Piety upgrade either entirely or for the veteran Commandeer upgrade. This is because the tech priest can confer a 5++ anyway and I don't think mortal woulds are going to be a big deal. With the veteran Commandeer upgrade I would probably take the Trophy hunters or elite sharpshooter traits, although heirloom weaponry would also be good 

Lastly I would drop all the vox-casters from the Militarym Tempestus squads. This would give me an extra hotshot lasgun in each squad and I would add a grenade launcher to the command squad. It doesn't sound like much but it adds more chances to roll those prescious 6's.

So there you have it, just a few simple changes, nothing to dramatic. Most of these changes are just little tweaks to the list rather than a complete rebuild, which I do t think is needed. As a list I think the basics are in place, against the Knights list I had no hope, as I'll go in to in a separate post but against the wolves I think I had a good chance and everything worked well. I shall see what happens against sisters and eldar in the next couple of weeks and then there is just the match against the Orks to arrange!

Field ordnance battery

 One of the new guard units, the field ordnance battery, was high on my hit list for new models as soon as I saw it, only the new rough riders were higher. As with most of these models they have multiple options when it come to building them and for these you have the choice of the lascannon, gun or missiles. For this particular build I went for the lascannons, or rather heavy lascannons, as these will be going in to my Dagr Ormr forces as a separate unit, as opposed to the gun and missiles which will both be in the Hjaltland LI list together. The latter two options will be built using other parts, namely the Zinge industries mandrill static platforms but I'll come on to that later. 

For these two guns I have takes some inspiration from the British WW2 era light guns, namely the QF 25 pound gun

Not the best example, dull paint and flat tyre but only one that was colour and not watermarked everywhere!

I have also gone for more subdued colours on the crew to make them stand out from the gun itself. 

The crews are very visible against the guns.

I've tried to create little mini dioramas behind the guns.

Gun era both looking at targeting screen, as they should.

Possibly my favourite of all the crew is the crouching gunner covering his ears on the right.

The guns need finishing off, with some transfers adding to the guns and crew and then they all need a coat of varnish to seal them up. I plan on using the quickshade for this, but need to figure out how to actually do it. 

As for the other two guns, or rather four guns over two units, I have decided to get the Zinge industries bases for them, rather than some.more boxes of the Field ordnance batteries. I will get these bases for the simple reason that the army is supposed to be a mobile infantry army optimised for jungle or rainforest warfare, where vehicles or wheeled access is very limited. That's where these bases come in, they have the right look for air dropped weapon systems and fit to story that these guns are underslung on Valkyrie and Vendetta aircraft and dropped in place when needed to provide close support. 

I will need to find some crew and mounting brackets for the guns but I have plenty of spare heavy weapons crews and I'm sure I can create a plasticard or green stuff mount for the guns. I'm not sure when I'll actually get around to sorting these guys out though, I'm currently trying to sort out my first born marines and get them all painted, just I time for them to be removed from the codex.

Dagr Ormr play style

Despite all the changes to the Dagr Ormr list, the army still functions if a very similar way, a sort of hammer and anvil approach, with the scions being the hammer to the guard units anvil. 

This is the list as it stands;

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Hot-shot Volley Gun, Plasma, Master-Vox, Medi-pack

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Flamer, Master-Vox, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Ogryn Bodyguard

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Plasma gun, Hot-shot Volley Gun, Master-Vox

Tempestus Scions: 2x Hot-shot Volley Gun, 2x Plasma gun, Vox-caster (X2)

Tempestus Scions: 2x Grenade launcher, 2x Meltagun, Vox-caster (X2)

Tempestus Scions: 2x Hot-shot Volley Gun, 2x Flamer, Vox-caster

Tempestus Scions: 2x Grenade launcher, 2x Flamer, Vox-caster

Platoon Command Squad, Platoon Commander, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Flamer

Platoon Command Squad: Heavy bolter, Heavy flamer, Grenade launcher

Primaris Psyker

Cadian Shock Troops: 2x Meltagun (X2)

Infantry Squad: Grenade launcher, Heavy bolter (X2)

Commissar

Ratlings

Regimental Preacher

Field Ordnance Battery: Heavy Lascannon

Heavy Weapons Squad: Mortar (X2)

There's a lot of different units to keep in mind here but it operates very simply. To start with there is the main firebase and castle that will form up on the home objectives which consists of the two mortar squads and the FoB lascannons, the two infantry squads with heavy bolters and the command squad with heavy bolters. As you can see there are a lot of heavy weapons here, all with the objective of putting out as much firepower as possible every turn. Also somewhere near by will be the ratings, positioned somewhere to give the maximum view for their sniper rifles. They are more of a distraction unit than anything else these days, as there is only 5 now, although they do have the capacity to do some decent damage over the course of a game.

There is also a second element to this anvil, a more mobile section, comprised of the other command squad and the two Cadian squads, who are now armed with a melta and grenade launcher, as per the new FAQ. These units will act as a mobile reserve and counter units, to deal with any enemy that get to close to the firebase, either by deep strike, transport or just running up the table. They are not necessarily there to kill the enemy, more act as a roadblock for the heavy weapons to have time to unload on to the enemy units. 

The last elements of this force are the characters, the psyker, preacher and commissar. These are not fixed to one section of the other but will sort of float around to where they are needed. They may stay with one part of the anvil for the whole game or they may jump back and forth wherever they are needed, it will change from game to game but they will always aim to be where they will give the most benefit.

So that's the anvil part of the list, formed of a castle and mobile reserve. While it contains the heavy firepower, it's not the main damage dealers, that's the hammer element, the scions.

The hammer element is really 3 hammers, which can act independently or as one, depending upon the nature of the battle and enemy. All 3 elements will be dropping out of deepstrike, if possible, I need to check what the latest rules for reserves are and how much you can put into reserves before a match. 

The first element is the main strike units, consisting of the plasma\Volley gun squads and the command squad with plasma\volley and medic. This group will spearhead any assault, going to the prime targets, such as an elite unit or HQ, hoping to cause as much damage as possible in as short a time as possible.

The next section is the third command squad and the two melta\grenade launcher equipped squads. These units will be dropping in to try and eliminate or at the very least cripple any heavy armour that maybe sitting in the enemy back field or even creating up the board.

Lastly we have the main command squad and the two remaining Scion squads. These units form a sort of close assault or counter strike force, with their close ranged flamers and ogryn bodyguard. Now, as far as I know despite the addition of the ogryn the command squad can still deep strike but I could be wrong. If I am then the ogryn will move to the guard command squad and perform much the same counter strike role there. 

So the scions basically will drop in to the back field, or at least as close as they can, and cause as much damage and chaos as possibly as quickly as possible before the inevitable punch back. There are several stratagems and orders that will come in to play for the scions to increase their damage potential but they are still a bit of a glass hammer. If the dice god's don't play ball they could find themselves out in the open without any hope of survival. 

This is probably going to be the most challenging of the three armies to play as it could very quickly go completely wrong but I really like the idea of the army. I have thought about adding some vehicles, maybe taurox's to add a ground mobile element but for the moment I will leave things as they are.

Dante!

 So, despite having a different post lined up for today, I couldn't resist talking about the new Dante! I have to say straight off that I love this model, I think that it is stunning and so much better then the original and every bit the model that Dante should have. 

There are several things about the model that I like and only one that I don't. The main thing I love is how faithful it is to the original. 

New Dante

As you can see from the images above and below, there are so many similarities, from the shape of the axe, to the intricate armour panels of the chest, legs and even the toes! This is great, as I was worried that GW would try and "update" the armour and it would be horrendous.

Old Dante

However they have updated a number of areas, such as the iron halo, which looks so much better, as does the laurels. The addition of the loin cloth and flowing purity seals also look good and really fit with the model and its position as leader of Imperium Nihilus. 

Details

One of the other bits that I'm really excited about is the jump pack. This is the first time that we have seen proper jump packs for primaris intercessor type marines. I am hopeful that this will be the beginning of proper assault intercessors with jump packs. If it is I will be upgrading all of mine and possibly getting more, as my army is all about movement and speed. It was one of the areas I lost when I moved from first born to primaris marines. 

There is only one bit of this model that I don't like and that the tactical rock, or rather mountain that he's leaping from. I do t like this for two reasons, firstly I just feel that it's going to break and will be a paint to repair and secondly it makes him a big target. It's not the end of the world but I might look at shrinking it down a little on mine.

Lastly I really hope that he has rules that allow him to be fielded with any Blood Angels army, successor or original, as I would love to be able to run him as a supreme commander in my Eagle Knights army.

The leak

All this obviously started from the leak that appeared on Facebook the other day, when someone appears to have been sent the model by mistake. I'm not sure what they ordered but if it was me I wouldn't have complained, just ordered another one and kept quiet about the model. I'm looking forward to seeing what is released in the upcoming previews, we know there is likely terminators but I'm hoping for jump pack equipped marines and some.more BA specific units.

Dagr Ormr

 The Dagr Ormr are my Militarum Tempestus based army with a supporting element of guard. This force is the only one that saw the purchase of new units in order to make the list legal. This army also saw a big reorganisation in order to bring it up to 2000 points. The biggest issue facing this list however is the looming of 10th and the Arks of Omen detachment restrictions. While it is possible to run this list under the AoO detachment, you have to run it all as one and can't split it. With the way the new codex works this isn't a major issue, it's just annoying.

Anyway the old list did not consist of max units, but rather was filled with available models, meaning that four of the squads were only 9 men strong with two special weapons a piece, and even the ten man squads only had 2 rather than 4 special weapons, as shown below;

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)

The army also relied of several units that no longer existed, such as mono weapon command squads, special weapon squads and veteran squads. The idea with this army was the guard elements would set up on the home objectives and sit there, not moving and just providing a base line, while the scions deepstrike in either on objectives or to target specific characters or vehicles. While this did work well in the few games I played (about 2 I think!) a lot had to change for the new list;

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Hot-shot Volley Gun, Plasma, Master-Vox, Medi-pack

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Flamer, Master-Vox, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Ogryn Bodyguard

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Plasma gun, Hot-shot Volley Gun, Master-Vox

Tempestus Scions: 2x Hot-shot Volley Gun, 2x Plasma gun, Vox-caster (X2)

Tempestus Scions: 2x Grenade launcher, 2x Meltagun, Vox-caster (X2)

Tempestus Scions: 2x Hot-shot Volley Gun, 2x Flamer, Vox-caster

Tempestus Scions: 2x Grenade launcher, 2x Flamer, Vox-caster

Platoon Command Squad, Platoon Commander, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Flamer

Platoon Command Squad: Heavy bolter, Heavy flamer, Grenade launcher

Primaris Psyker

Cadian Shock Troops: 2x Meltagun (X2)

Infantry Squad: Grenade launcher, Heavy bolter (X2)

Commissar

Ratlings

Regimental Preacher

Field Ordnance Battery: Heavy Lascannon

Heavy Weapons Squad: Mortar (X2)

As you can see, all the Scion squads have increased in size to ten men and have swapped some standard scions for special weapons. This was due to the change in rules that meant you had to have ten men in a unit to have two of the same weapons, which necessitate the purchase of a new box of Scion. This enable a third command squad to be built and also left a number of other scions, 12 to be precise, left over. These were mostly standard scions that had been booted out of squads for special weapons.

In addition to these extra scions, there are now a number of extra infantry squads. In the original list, there was just one vet squad, although I was planning on adding a second. Now there are 4 squads, two Cadian and two infantry, although you notice that the Cadian squads are both equipped with twin meltas, which are now a melta and plasma I believe. The need for twin meltas was a little bit of an overkill and the melta \ plasma mix is probably better for their role as counter units, especially when you consider the new heavy lascannon equipped Field ordnance battery, which should take care of vehicles no bother.

One other option I did consider, was using Catachan squads instead of Cadians, with their twin flamers, as a counter unit, as they could close and engage in close combat as well but their rubbish at it, so didn't bother. I really do wish that Catachans had received either an extra attack or S4 base, even better would have been +1A and +1S on the charge. That and a rule for the Sgt's big knife\sword.

Anyway, with the heavy weapons squads, the FoB and the infantry squads heavy weapons, there is now an even more formidable base line for the scions to strike from.

Hrossey MY play styles.

This post is a bit later then planned, snow days and school closures put a bit of a spanner in the works. Anyway, as I mentioned I the last post, there are two ways of running this list, superheavy and sans superheavy, however both play in a very similar style, with the superheavy version being a little more direct in approach. (Edit: so with the new FAQ last week, things have changed slightly, the DKoK squads have had a minor rejig, to follow the updates)

The non-super heavy version is formed as such:

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Plasma gun, Grenade launcher, Ogryn Bodyguard, Astropath, Master of Ordnance

Platoon Command Squad: Missile launcher, Heavy flamer, Grenade launcher

Tank Commander: Battle Cannon

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Grenade launcher (X2)

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Meltagun

Commissar

Regimental Preacher

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Demolisher

Leman Russ Vanquisher

Wyvern (X2)

Chimera (x3)

The main focus of this force is movement with supporting artillery. The Leman Russ Tanks, plus chimeras and hellhound push forward as an armoured spearhead, sticking quite closely together to enable the units to bring their combined fire power to bare on a target. There are several different types of tank, with the two general purpose battle cannon tanks being the main fire power, with the demolisher to crack open the biggest targets, like transports and the vanquisher for taking on the big targets, like monsters or hq units.  The hellhound and the chimeras, two of the three have double flamers, are there to act as anti infantry screens, in addition to battle taxis for the chimeras. There is not many troops that can stand up to half a dozen heavy flamers! The troops are mostly there to disembark and take objectives as the armour moves past them, the will still have some bite with melta guns and plasma, but are at the end of the day, Imperial guard troops. The Wyverns, a grenade launcher squad and second command squad will be sitting back holding the home objectives and, in the case of the wyverns, lobbing stuff at any infantry hiding in or behind building holding objectives. 

Now the edit! As you'll see above, there are two units of DKoK with dual grenade launchers and a squad with dual meltas, these will have to change, probably with two squads with melta and grenade launcher and a squads with grenade launcher and flamer, but I will have to raid my box of spare guardsmen. 

The alternative build, the super heavy build, has a very similar way of functioning but with different units;

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Plasma gun, Grenade launcher, Ogryn Bodyguard, Astropath

Tank Commander: Battle Cannon

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Grenade launcher (X2)

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Meltagun

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Demolisher

Leman Russ Vanquisher

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer 

With less infantry units and loosing the wyverns for indirect fire support,the main issue is holding the home objectives. This role, surprisingly is actually going to be taken by the Hellhammer and there is method to this madness. The Hellhammer will gain the Knight of Piety tank ace trait, meaning that when sitting at the back, he'll have quite a commanding view of the battlefield, with a 2+, 5+ and depending upon mission and objectives, the Astropath may be there to help with nightshroud, if he can roll high enough. The other unit will move up the board as before, taking the fight to the enemy. Again, the DKoK squads will be rearranged the same as above, as they are based off the same force. 

The general point of both of these lists is to take the fight to the enemy, using the mobility and firepower of the tanks, plus the ability to not get locked up in combat due to the turret weapons rule. Overall there is one big weakness to this list and that is the lack of numbers. These are only a maximum of 49 infantry bodies in total in this list and a maximum of 10 vehicles, less in the second list. This means that there is less redundancy within the army but hopefully it can punch hard at the beginning and not have to worry to much about the punch back.  

A little bit of old hammer!

 Recently I decided to paint up some.old metal models that have been hanging around in my bits box for a while, I've had them a while but I've never really had a need for them and still don't but I thought I'd paint them anyway.

Back shot first, not sure why?

I do have to admit that I love the older sculpts, while there is no doubting the high quality detailing on the new models but there is just something about the expressions and personality of the old models that just isn't there in the new ones. 

The more interesting bit.

These 5 are Imperial army soldiers, 4 men and 1 woman. They are all armed with lasguns and one looks about ready to slit his own throat. It's funny when you look at these 5 models, you can really see where the Cadian aesthetics came from, with the helmets, chest armour and boots all having a very similar feel to them. 

I went for bold colours as well,to really show off the models, they will be given a coat of quickshade to finished them off and protect them 

Another rear shot up first

Next up is an old commissar model, slightly broken but still very usable. The commissar should be holding a sword aloft but currently he's holding just the handle, the blade having gone missing quite a while ago. 

Commissars or officer?

I do like this model a lot, it has that same retro feel that the other models here have. I've got for a non typical commissar look, as I could also run this as a castallan or similar but mostly likely it will be a commissar.

The gang

As I said, I really don't know where these guys are going to live, but I really enjoyed painting them. Hopefully they will find a home somewhere at some point.

New guard FAQ.

 So the new guard FAQ is up and while there's nothing earth shattering in it, there are a few annoying points.

First on the list is that Cadian and DKoK can no longer take two of the same special weapons. It's not a massive surprise that this is the case, however, I was really hoping that it wouldn't change,as it did keep some of the Veteran Squads rules and playability alive. With this change it has completely removed any last bit of the old guard platoon structure.

The next few changes are simple clarifications or just cleaning up wording. Plasma cannons now do mortal wounds to units not individual models, thus no longer break the only one model per unit taking wounds rule. The Valkyrie charge \ being charged rules are brought in line with everything else, I'd have to check what it said but this is what I assumed it would be anyway. The third is changing the new aegis defence line to obstacle terrain rather than area terrain, which makes a lot more sense and is a lot more playable. 

The last change is to correct the wording for the tempestor's weapons options in the Militarum Scion squads. 

So nothing that going to significantly change anything for me, just annoying that I'll have to rejig some of my squads again to get them to fit the new 'new' squad options.

The questions are actually pretty sensible questions for once, although only two of the questions are really relevant to me. The first is the mobile command ability of chimeras and confirmation that you can issue orders when in the chimera and also the one when you disembark, which is nice. This means that you can get addition orders off from your command squads, which can be useful. The other question, or rather two questions, that is useful relate to the field promotion stratagem. Now this is how I viewed the answers but at least it's nice to have confirmation. So, with the stratagem you need to choose a completely new warlord for your new commander. In addition, there is little point in choosing 'old grudges' as it doesn't let you select a target for the grudge, as that happens at the start of the first battle round. 

One other question that might come up occasionally is about abilities that let you choose additional doctrines for units, such as Kasrkin. This clarifies that you can pick one of the doctrines, trophy hunters, even though it normally takes up both doctrine slots, so effectively you could have the equivalent of 4 doctrine slots on a squad or vehicle. 

The last question is about Creeds orders ability and basically states you can't have your cake and eat it. If the order that triggers the ability stops for some reason, so does the ability, which seems pretty straight forward to me and seeing as I don't plan on using her anytime soon, not something I have to worry about. 

Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry

 The Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry are my armoured force, comprised of mostly vehicles with only minimal infantry, in the old force these were here to just help hold objectives or they were specialised troops with very specific roles. The old list, shown below, was mostly about the objective secured Leman Russ Tanks.

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

However, like then other lists this needed to change and unlike the other two list which changes to make them better or more efficient rather then out of pure necessity, this change mostly out of necessity. The new list, while retaining many elements of the old list, is quite different;

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Plasma gun, Grenade launcher, Ogryn Bodyguard, Astropath, Master of Ordnance

Platoon Command Squad: Missile launcher, Heavy flamer, Grenade launcher

Tank Commander: Battle Cannon

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Grenade launcher (X2)

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Meltagun

Commissar

Regimental Preacher

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Demolisher 

Leman Russ Vanquisher

Wyvern (X2)

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer

This list is around 2500 points in total, there are really two ways of playing at 2000 points. The first is without the superheavy hellhammer, while the other requires the removal of the wyverns, preacher, commissar and the second command squad, along with the master of ordnance from the first command squad.

The biggest issue with the change has been the troops. Before I had 2 vet squads and a command element, all of which fitted in the three chimeras. However, I now have 3 squads and two platoon command squads, which do not all fit in chimeras. This isn't too much of an issue, but it does mean that at least one unit will be sitting at the back. Overall this won't make to much of a difference to the way the army plays as the main armoured elements are still present. 

The big issue I have at the moment is with the hellhammer. The rules changes mean that one set of sponsors are free and I really would like to add a second set, however, I don't have a second set and I don't want to fork out a load of money to get a second set. In addition the wyverns moving across from the Hjaltland list is more in keeping with the armoured style of this list, but I'm less sure of the rules for these units now, as although the strength and ap got better, loosing the rerolls to wound will hurt.

I think overall that this list hasn't felt to much of a change in terms of overall firepower or ability, as there really haven't been that many changes. The play styles will be discussed next and will be a longer post due to the two way this list can be built but overall I'm still happy with this list and the options I presents.

Toddler issues

Having Children can be s wonderful and enjoyable experience, most of the time any way. Sometimes however, it is less enjoyable, like when they "make your tank beautiful"

Beautiful tank, after the worse and still wet paint has been removed!

Paint everywhere!

So, you can image my surprise following my littlest in to his bedroom to find my prized super heavy sitting on the floor, covered in yellow and red paint. While I was busy washing the still wet red paint off, my wife was more concerned with the paint on the carpet, which to be fair probably was a more pressing issue.
Luckily I have varnished this tank, although it was with GW's spray varnish, so I'm not sure how it will react when I try and clean the paint off. Being kids paints the easiest way of removing the paint it to wet it and then scrape it off, as it becomes soft. This was done by placing paper kitchen towels all over it and soaking them with water. After leasing it for several hours, I started scraping the paint off with a bamboo skewer, chopping every so often to keep a sharp-ish point on it. 

After a few hours work in front of the TV, the results are not to bad, not perfect but not bad.

As clean and tidy as can be

Some remnants still visible

Hard to remove paint

Some areas, especially the hard to reach ones like the engine and in the gaps between the various hatches and panels, paint is still visible and also around all the rivets, while not hard to remove, were very tedious. I probably could have done more by soaking the whole thing under water but the varnish and paint held up very well with this technique and I didn't want to push things and ruin the whole thing! As far as I'm concerned, it's back to a usable condition, so I'm happy.

Still handless!

The only other issue is that the commander is now missing a hand! He originally had his pistol out but it's disappeared somewhere in my son's room and I cannot find it, it's most likely be sucked up by the hoover and binned.

I think we have moved past the painting daddy's models stage as we're quite happy painting every spare model that can be found, usually blue, red or green and occasionally yellow, even though he has a whole tub full of paint pots collected from various craft activities in a whole range of colours more extensive than my own paint collection!

Hjaltland LI operation.

 So last time I talked about the updates to the list and which units have changed or been removed and now it's changed again. After writing the last post and pondering a few options I have decided to go with most of those options, dropping a command squad, and changing the 4 infantry squads for 2 Cadian and 2 DKoK squads. The army now makes more sense and the way that it will (hopefully) operate will be a little closer to how it operated before. Below is the "final" 2000 point list that I will most likely run in games:

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Master-Vox, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Heavy Flamer, Master of Ordnance, Officer of the Fleet, Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Grenade launcher, Flamer, Plasma gun, Sniper Rifle 

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Grenade launcher, Flamer, Plasma gun, vox-caster

Primaris Psyker (X2)

Cadian squad: 2x flamer, voxhcaster (X2)

DKoK squad: plasma, 2x melta 

DKoK squad: voxhcaster, 2x grenade

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Vox-caster, Autocannon (x4)

Commissar

Regimental Preacher (X2)

Scout Sentinels (x3)

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Bombast Field Gun

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Malleus Rocket Launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Missile launcher

Valkyrie

Vendetta Gunship 

Now, let's go through the various elements of the list. 

The main command squad, the one with MoO and OotF, and the non vox equipped command squad plus the 4 heavy weapons infantry squads and all the heavy support options sit at the back in my deployment zone early on, only pushing up later in game, say turn 3 onwards. In addition one of the psykers and preachers also remain back to give out buffs where necessary. This section form the anvil, the solid line of guns that pound the enemy by shear firepower. They will look to role up the field later in the game, once the other units have done their jobs. 

The second section formed of the last command squad and the Cadian squads, supported by the commissar, preacher and psyker will look to move up early game, at least turn 2 if not turn 1, and more in to the centre of the board, either to hunker down on an objective or harass the enemies units. 

The last section is the mobile part of the list, the two flyers and their DKoK cargo. These units are for either pinpoint drops in the enemy rear, character assassination or even late game objective grabbing. 

In addition to these sections the Sentinels will be stalking around. Their job is mainly pre and early game, pushing forward in deployment to push the deep strike bubble out as far as possible and also causing a distraction by grabbing objectives in the middle of the table or absorbing enemy fire.

In theory the game should play out something along these lines;

Deployment, sentinels push up to form a line in the middle table, pushing deep strike or enemy infiltrators back up the table, away from my lines.

Turn 1, base line units hammer away at anything and everything they can see or hit, doing maximum damage through Born Soldiers and orders (take aim or FRF,SRF). The Cadian section move up slightly, while also lending their lasguns to the fight. Sentinels hide if possible, keeping the deep strike bubble going. 

Turn 2, base line keeps firing. Cadians and sentinels push up in to the middle, taking objectives where possible and ensuring deep strike denial. Flyers drop on to the table and  start picking on high priority targets.

Turn 3, the base line starts to move up or pivot to start taking more board space. Cadians keep holding the midfield objectives. The flyers keep circling and picking on high priority targets. The DKoK may drop out to take back field objectives or character hunting.

Turn 4, moving to the end game and the base line continues pushing up the board, the cadians leave the midfield as the base line moves to take over l, and push up into the enemy deployment zone. The DKoK move to claim enemy home objectives. Flyers continue to circle and support.

Turn 5 and all remaining units move towards objectives and consolidate, hunkering down for the end 

And if it ever goes as simply and as well as that I will be delighted! However I suspect that things will not go according to plan very often and most of the time I will be having to react on the fly. In this case both the cadians and DKoK become counter punch units, moving or dropping in to fill holes or counter enemy movements.

I'm really looking forward to trying out this list and seeing how well it will work. 

Dagr Ormr reinforcements

As I have mentioned a few times, with the new guard codex there have been a few changes to my armies, mostly just shuffling units around but the scions needed a little bit extra. As such a new box of models were purchased and a plan was hatched.

The reinforcements

So, a number of extra models were needed, most of which were special weapons or equipment, as I had all the basic riflemen that I needed.

First up were some new leaders, one of which will be a Tempestor Prime, even though they cannot take two weapons these days! One will definitely be a standard Tempestor as the primes can't take power fists!

Plasma!

Only two new plasma were needed, as I already have a number of plasma gunners. I quite like the plasma gun strapped to the back and how the coils are "cool" and dark, compared to the other gun being held and readied.

Hot Shot Volley Guns

There are also only a few hotshot volley guns needed, due to already having several spare from the old command squads.

Bio Titan!

The "new" kittens are very cute but also very inquisitive! He tried to sit down just after this was taken and took some persuasion to go and find somewhere else to sit!

Flamers

While flamers are useful and I like them, for scions they are a little bit subpar. They don't make use of the higher BS skill or the higher ap of their other weapons but I feel like some flamers are needed, especially if I come up against other guard, tau or similar T3 models.

Grenade launchers

The biggest group of weapons was the grenade launchers. There are 6 of these guys, who will be split across 3 squads to add some longer ranged light anti-armour or anti-light infantry. 

Modifications of the grenade launcher

One thing I found was that I didn't have enough grenade launchers for my ideas and after hunting around for bits, both in my boxes and online, as well as searching for alternatives I finally settled on the spare DKoK grenade launcher I had. Having only one gave a bit of a problem, however some green stuff and Blue molding material later, I had a number of launchers to pick from. Not wanting them to all have the same pose, I cut and spliced several to get a number of poses, from the original (just on the left above) to open but empty (middle) and closed ready to fire (on the right). I think these launchers are actually more suited to the scions than the big magazine'd versions that are standard across the guard.

A couple of specialists

 Lastly we have a couple of specialists, a second medic and a vox caster for a command squad. The medic is an almost exact copy of the current medic and the vox is using the DKoK vox set as it was the only non-catachan one I had spare. 

With all these models now complete, apart from there dip in quick shade, the scions are now complete for a second time!

Hjaltland LI

 So to start my talk through of the changes I've made to my armies, I will be starting with the Hjaltland LI, the original guard army I started many many years ago. Now, I will warn you that this and the various posts to follow will most likely be very wordy, with few pictures. Hopefully you'll be able to follow along as I ramble about my little men.

The old force was considerably over the 2000 point mark, up to about 2500 points I think and had a number of units that didn't really get used much but I had for the versatility. I t eh force were:

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 

For reference the numbers before (eg 3x plasma) mean the number of something in the squad, the numbers after (x3) means how many of that unit.

The new force however looks very different in places but very similar in others:

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Master-Vox, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Heavy Flamer, Master of Ordnance, Officer of the Fleet, Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Grenade launcher, Flamer, Plasma gun, Sniper Rifle (x3)

Primaris Psyker (X2)

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Vox-caster (x4)

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Vox-caster, Autocannon (x4)

Commissar

Regimental Preacher (X2)

Scout Sentinels (x3)

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Bombast Field Gun

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Malleus Rocket Launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Missile launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Heavy bolter

Valkyrie

Vendetta Gunship 

This force is actually just under 2100 points so some units would be dropped to get under the 2000 point mark. Most likely to be dropped are a command squad or heavy bolter heavy weapons squad. 

There are some key changes to note, the introduction of the field ordnance Batteries is far more thematic than optimal, as I always thought having two vehicles in a fully infantry list was not ideal but I have nothing that I could replace them with but with the FOB's I do! I don't know if these will be as effective, mostly as the rocket launchers don't have the ability to fire indirect, which is a shame. This means that I only have the field guns to take out troops hiding in cover but it should be an overall increase in firepower.

In addition to this the loss of the plasma command squad and the melta wielding vets is a big hit and I don't really have anything in this current list that can replace them. These units were core to the operation of the list and had a big role in how the army played. One option that I have is to replace the 4 non heavy weapon infantry squads with other squads, namely 2 Cadian and 2 DKoK squads. The two Cadian squads would be equipped with two flamers, to act in the same way the the standard infantry squads did. Why Cadian and not Catachan if their carrying two flamers? Well, because Catachan are more expensive and you loose the exploding 6's to hit when shooting, which is better than exploding 6's in the combat I will be avoiding. The two DKoK would be armed slightly differently, one with plasma and melta and one with vox and grenade launchers. These would be DKoK squads to get the extra special weapon in one the squads and the extra rules to make them a little more resilient when they attack. 

The three command squads are also very sub optimal and I really don't know if I actually need that many. With the way orders now splash across units I could probably cut down the number of command squads by one or even two. The command squads weapon options are also very sub par, being made up of what I as to hand, rather than what would have been good. I really wish I could get more snipers in there, as one sniper is just useless, with at least 3 it might actually be worth while taking. I may have a rejig of some of the command squads anyway to try and get some more vox casters in there, to give me some redundancy for pushing orders out further if needed.

Overall the whole feel of the army has changed, moving from an elite core supported by massed infantry to a more general infantry list. I am not sure that I like this new feel but there is little else that can be done with the guard codex to change that feel without significantly changing the composition of the army or the idea behind it. 

Techpriest and servitors

 Following on from the AdMech post last time, I thought I would.post about my new Techpriests and attendant servitors. 

I have always wanted a techpriest to go with my Mechanised forces, namely the Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry but I've had to wait a while to get some and so now I have two! I have gained one of these through the start collecting box, mentioned in the last post and I also gained a metal one in amongst the models donated to the wee one. 

Alongside the wish to have a techpriest, I have always wanted to have some servitors, as I always imagine them.like little worker bees following along at the heels of their master. However, with the cost of proper servitors, I have never felt that I could justify buying them and I didn't have any ideas about how to build them. With the start collecting box and coming across some Valkyrie door gunner bodies I had a bit of a brain wave. One of the things that I do not like about the proper models is the robotic arms, which always seemed far to big and chunky to be of any actual use when fixing engines or equipment. So with this in mind, I went down a different route and dug through my AdMech bits box and found some suitable arms, mostly half mechanical ones, but at least 1 full mechanical. 

I also decided to add some firepower to the unit, just for the fun of it, so I also dug out a plasma gun, to act as a plasma cannon and the melta gun from some vehicle and placed it as a multimelta. Granted they don't look the same, but they are obvious enough that people won't get confused.

So there we go, a couple of techpriests and some servitors for the collection, just in time for servitors to be completely useless! 

Astra militarum army updates

 So, I have finally go around to getting all my troops out and rearranging them in to their new homes, which are mostly the same as their old homes just shuffled around squads. There have been a few promotions, a few demotions and a few sideways steps but in general there have not been many new additions or losses. 

I think overall, there has only been one squads added to all three armies, adding another squad to the Dagr Ormr's supporting PDF forces. A couple of other squads have been reassigned to a new army, mostly from the Hjaltland LI to the others, as with the loss of the veterans, there were some extra troops that needed new homes. 

There have been some losses overall, about half a dozen troops have now been placed in to reserve, mostly as they are specialists, either with special weapons, Sgts or vox casters.

I'm not going to go through all the changes here, as this is simply an introduction to the next series of posts that will come out over the next 6 or so Tuesdays listing all the details of the old and new lists and how these will have changed the armies and how they operate.

I'm also working on a number of posts going through all the various units, both new and old, in the codex and my thoughts on the new rules. I did this when the last book came out, many many years ago and I found it quite helpful and hopefully some others did as well.

AdMech reinforcements

 So, I have finally got around to building my AdMech start collecting box that I brought months ago, just after they released the updated start collecting box, before they released the combat patrol box! 

This box, the original start collecting bix

I wanted this box rather than the newer box as it has the tank \ transport in it rather than the dune crawler. I had initially thought I would run it as the transport but have since decided that the tank with the more anti-infantry weapon is the better option, as I'll be running this with my two armiger warglaives, which are very much anti-armour platforms. With this box I will be able to field the Scorpius Disintegrator, two 6 man vanguard squads, two 10 man ranger squads, two techpriest Dominus and two armiger warglaives for a 1000 point army. 

I may look to add some more vanguard to boost those units up to full 10 man squads and I may also look at add some additional units, such as electro-priests or sicarians for some additional close combat ability. I don't envision this force getting above the 1500 point mark, at least not with out the addition of a knight and some more armigers.

Anyway, the new troops;

The Rangers are made up of basic troops to boost the existing squads up to 10 men and enable to multiple special weapons that exist. There is one alpha and 9 rangers.

The vanguard's are a lot limited in number, only 3 in total and are there as I had addition troops to use up. These will just be added to squads to boost the numbers up a little bit. In hind sight I maybe should have built one of these as a skitarii marshal and to be honest I'm still tempted to go back and do it, as it shouldn't take much effort to do.

The Scorpius Disintegrator, to add so longer ranged heavy anti infantry capacity, although with the design of the weapons, you can easily switch the main gun back and forth between the two options. I have also just noticed that I haven't painted the missiles at the front or the head lights! I will have to go back and paint these.

Lastly we have the two Dominus. One for each section of the army, armed (hopefully) with corresponding weapons to support their troops. 

One thing you might have notices is that all the units are different colours, not like the standard AdMech force which is all one colour defined by the forge world. I have finally settled on some lore for these guys and they are not going to be a main forge world but a knightly household detachment, once part of a forge world but now split and operate solely on the behest of the household (namely House Vandrad, the Laird's of Tunglland, loyal servants of House Krast.) The difference colours are defined by their roles in the house both by tradition and also to make it easier to identify for the Knights pilots. I'll need to write up a proper lore for the AdMech and Knights some time soon, alongside all the other lore updates I need to write!

Points updates

 It's been a slow start to the year for blogging, mostly as a few DIY projects have taken priority. The replacement windows were finally delivered and installed for our conservatory and the upstairs hall floor has decided to finally give up, so the only thing stopping the kids putting there foot through the floor is the carpet. As a result the conservatory renovation and hall floor replacement have taken the front spots for occupying my time and hobby activities have had to take the back foot some what. 

Anyway following on from previous post, where I talked about the new Arks of Omen detachment, I'm moving on to the points updates and new guard codex changes. In this I'm just going to focus on my overall points changes, as well as mention some changes to my guard lists but I'll go in to them in more details in a separate post later and I will also do a break down of the units once I get myself a codex in the coming days! 

We'll start with a look at the old points, pre update;

You can ignore the kill team list randomly in the middle, that's only there to remind me of what teams I've built as proxies. Most of these lists will remain the same, with only points changes taken in to account, the guard lists however have had a complete reshuffle, including the removal of entire detachments in some cases! This does make it hard to do a straight comparison in these cases but overall you can see that the total points have changed, from 6274 to 6550 but this includes 390 points of models I've yet to buy.

Edit: Eagle Knights is actually 1570points

So, overall there are points drops across the board, I don't think that one of the armies has gone up in points. Some of the drops have been substantial, well over 200 points in some cases. The guard points are very hard to compare as there have been so many changes from the old to the new codex that some of the armies bare little resemblance to the old versions! I do like the fact that the points have dropped by I won't be buying anything extra from any of the armies to take advantage of the points drops, I'll be sticking with my plan to buy just the field ordnance battery and a couple of vehicles for the Eagle Knights.