Cadians kill team

A couple of weeks ago, a new Kill Team box was released, with Guard Vs Tyranids, or more specifically the Cadians Recon Squad Vs the Red Terror. Now I don't really care about the Nids but the guard is something different. Now, I'm a bit torn, as these are yet more Cadians, and could have been some many other cool models, Tanith first and only, Catachans, or even something like the Armageddon ork hunters could have worked (especially given 11th edition releases). Obviously I would have preferred Catachans, who would have been right at home here given their experiences with Catachan Devils!

The datasheet is a good one and has a few little tricks, which are very useful. There are five things that's jump out at me from my reading through everything. 

First, orders. When an order is issues to these guys, it does not finish at the next command phase as normal but continues until another order is issues, this means you can order it early game and just leave it alone, saving orders for elsewhere. This is really good and eases the orders conundrum. 

Secondly, the Vox-relay beacon. This is another very useful ability, which I can see being used one of three ways. Leaving it behind with some support units, such as mortars or lascannons, so you don't need to leave an officer behind. Place them up and axis of advance, so that units that move more freely away from officers, or sacrifice them by putting them somewhere you want your opponent to think your going to go. Whichever way you choose to play them, they are going to be useful and a reason to take multiple squads. 

The third thing to note, and one I almost missed, the lasguns have the Assault keyword. Now, is this a unit specific thing, a typo or the new lasgun profile? I suspect it will remain unit specific, but I'm surprised they didn't call the weapon something else, like recon lascarbine or similar, like they did with the Scion weapons. 

Next up, is Infiltrate. We don't have many units that can infiltrate, the only ones that spring to mind are Ratlings and Gaunts Ghosts, so a max of 4 units, 3 of which are not great. Being able to infiltrate up to three decent infantry squads will be very useful for us. 

Lastly, the ability for the squad to take twin snipers or a heavy weapon in the squad is also very nice. Personally, taking the missile launcher in the squad is really useful. Placing the unit in a vantage point in no mans land, ready to either snipe some enemy characters or hit a vehicle early game is really useful. You'll probably not kill the character or vehicle but knocking a few wounds off them can really help and give your opponent cause to be more cautious. 

At 80 points, I think they are very well pointed as well. I had thought that they would be more but I'm very happy with where they are. They are not going to be game breaking but they will be very useful, especially early game, while the rest of your infantry move up the board. 

One last thing that WarCom called out was their interactions with some detachment rules, the one they names was Ruthless Discipline. 

With this rule, the unit will pretty much always be re-rolling 1's, as you'll give them an order turn 1 and they will carry that through the game. 
 

Overall, this is a very good units. The main question is how long will it last before it moves to legends? That and what the 11th edition changes will mean. 

11th edition box models

 Let's have a closer look at the new models from the 11th edition launch box. There are the usual assortment of characters and units and for once, there doesn't seem to be a random character that doesn't go with any of the units. 

The Captain is your classic sword and board captain, still he looks pretty cool. 

There aren't many options for the Captain, there is really only a couple of helmet options. It would have been good to see some other options, maybe a power fist or axe. 

This is probably the only character that I don't actually need. I have no need for another captain in the Eagle Knights, and all the other chapters are either Gravis armour or phobos. The exception is the Emperors Disciples, but they already have two captains and also Calgar. Granted it's the old one but it still works. 

Next up is the new Librarian, a update on the old Libby pose and I really like it. 

This is one of the few times that I like the open faced model over the helmeted version, as the helmet just doesn't have the same feel to it. This model will be joining the Emperors Disciples, as I have two Libby's for the Knights already and he won't fit with any other force. 

The next we have the two jump units, the chaplain and vanguard vets. The Chaplain model is a very nice looking model, the vets on the other hand are just lacking a bit of bling for my liking. 

The jump chaplain has a lot of detail, but not to much. Some models can just be a bit to busy. The new jump stands don't look to bad, a few people have criticised the smoke effect and yeah, it's not the best I've seen. I would have preferred to see a bigger, stronger looking connection but I'm sure it will be fine and easier to fix than the flight stands when it does break!

The vanguard vets are slightly disappointing. While they are nice looking models they lack some of the details from the old models. I get that they are more generic models, so will have more options for painting and playing but for me, they are just a bit plain. These models will probably join the Emperors disciples as well, as I have 10 stromcast eternals waiting to be converted for the Eagle Knights. 

At the moment we have not seen any other options for these guys, so no storm shields and the like. Hopefully we will see some more options for these guys further down the line when their multipart kit comes out. 

The new ancient also looks good, very dynamic. However, I have an issue again in that I have nowhere to put it. The only forces it fits in are the Eagle Knights and the Emperors Disciples, both of which have ancients, two in the case of the Knights. 

I will have to see where this model will go but I do want to paint him up as he is a nice model. 

The new intercessors, much like the old one. I'm not sure why they keep bringing out new kits, the old tactical marines lasted for ages! No much to say about these guys, they will be added to the Eagle Knights, bringing the total to 20 intercessors. 

It will be interesting to see what options come in the box, whether they will be the same as the current kits or reduced down again. 

The new Eradicators will be joining the Brazen Hawks and the other Gravis armoured marines. I am planning on getting some of the melta armed Eradicators as well, alongside some Aggressors. 

I do really like these guys and hope that we will see more versions, as I would like to see these guys take over all the Devastator roles. I really don't like the desolation marines, not only do they look rubbish, I feel that these marines fit the bill a lot better. 

Lastly we have the new land speeder, which I really love. This just brings the spirit of the previous model firmly in to the new era. This will go straight in to the Dark Guardians, taking up where the two old models left off. 

It will be interesting to see what happens to the other three speeders that the marines have, will they go in favour of more variants of this one? I don't know but this will fit nicely in the Dark Guardians, supporting the bikes and inceptors. I'm still not sure what all the weapon options are. I get the multimelta and Gatling cannon, plus there looks like a flamer option and missiles (what type? Don't know, I assume frag and krak) but what about the little things either side of the underslung weapon? Are these guns or sensors?

So, the new models are all very nice models, with some standing out from others. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on all of them though!

11th edition box

 So, we know most of what is in the 11th edition launch box now and it all looks pretty good. 

The marine models are all very nice models, even if some of them such as the Vanguard Vets are a little bit plain. I do really like the new speeder and it will be interesting to see it up against an old version to see how much bigger it is. Noticeable bigger would be my guess, as they wouldn't want you running your old ones now would they!

The core rule book looks a little thin to me. I guess that they will release a big rule book like they normally do. I'm on a bit of a mission at the moment, collecting some of the previous rule books, so far I have 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th. I will get 7th but finding a complete 3 book version with cover is difficult, but more on that at a later date. 

Also within the box are data cards for the various units plus the new missions cards, so everything you need to get going. The box is a good box overall, with lots of models and a nice variety of units. I have my name down for preorder at my FLGS, or toyshop as it actually is. Hopefully I've been early enough to get to the top of the list and get me a copy. 

Imperial Guard detachments

This post is going to be slightly out order. I had planned on posting about the new inquisitor model and then the Space Marine detachments, as I thought we were getting the Orks and Space Marine ones only, but they have dropped the Guard here as well. I assume them that we will get a similar set for all the armies over the next couple of weeks. 

There are a few things to say about these detachments but there is something I just got about all the detachments, that they are not detachment restricted. By this I mean, that if you choose the first detachment here, Absolutist Principles, it doesn't just effect the Commissars in that detachment but all the Commissars in the whole army. This makes me think more about the old way of army building from 8th and custom regimental doctrines. This does come with a minor concern, that there are going to be more powerful combinations than others and everyone will just default to the same detachment rules. The one benefit to this system over doctrines I guess, is the ability to increase the cost of the detachments if one proves more powerful than the others. 

The first detachment here is, Abhumam Auxiliaries, affects a humans and commissars, but it's the commissars that really matters. Giving commissars the Take Aim! order is huge and makes them actually worth while taking, in my view anyway. Being able to order Abhumans is useful but not as useful as take Aim!  

The enhancement is pretty good, but only really against precision shooting really. Most of the time you'll be in a squad and so able to hide, so if your commissars getting shot, then it's because it's a precision shot or your bodyguard squad is dead. 

The stratagem Low Profile, is actually quite good, as it sorts one of the biggest issues with Ratlings, the fact that they just get shot off the board, due to T2. Being able to shoot and not get shot will help them immensely. I think this will be best used, dropping them somewhere in you deployment or to the board edges, hugging some high ground and sniping characters and such. 

All in all, I think this detachment will be quite useful and will probably get some use. The next detachment, Designation Force, seems less useful to me. The main aim of the detachment revolves around extending the detection range of units, which while it sounds good, adding only 3 inches to the detection range doesn't sound very useful. Moving the range from 15 to 18 inches isn't that much, if it pushed it to 24 inches, that would be very useful. I understand them at they are trying to keep this from being to powerful but it still requires you to get close and if your 18 inches away, you might just as well be 15 inches away. 

The stratagem could also be useful but it strikes me as putting the sentinel outside of it's useful role. Of your infiltration up the table, your going to be to far forward to use Designated Targets as you'll be to far forward and probably out of line of sight from the units that will take advantage of the increased detection range. 

I like the stratagem they show as well, it gives the whole combined arms feel to an army and rewards screening your vehicles, far more that just avoiding combat. 

Overall, I think this is the weakest of the three detachments here, it's good but I just don't think the benefits are good enough, although true judgement will have to wait until we have all the rules. 

 The last detachment I want to mention is the Bridgehead Strike detachment aimed at Scions. Sounds familiar? Yep it's the same one we got in Grotmas a few years ago, but with a few tweaks it seems. Firstly the detachment rule has changed slightly. We retain the battle line and +1OC for a Scion warlord as was but the rest has changed. The other two rules have been smushed in to a single rule with the +1 to hit now only affects Scion units. Scions have lost the re-rolls for arriving\disembarking and the rest of the AM units have lost access to the +1 to hit. 

The enhancement shown has had its wording changed and simplified but is basically unchanged from the current one and is still a must take for a Scion squad in my mind, possibly even more so now you can just take a small force of Scions in a larger army. Dropping 15 Scions turn 1 (command squad plus a full 10 man unit) armed with plasma and volley guns, will be enough to ruin pretty much everyone's day. 

Especially if you throw this on them too! This again is a carry over from the current detachment and has always been useful. 

This last detachment gives us quite a few clues about how things are going to change for 11th I think. I haven't had a good look at the Marine, Orks, Tyranids or what every other army focus articles are out by the time this is published (probably a lot of them) but I haven't seen any existing detachments apart from this one, possibly as this was one of the Grotmas detachments and so is not pay walled by GW. Anyway, it shows that existing detachment are getting redone and not just moved over as is. It also shows that they will be restricting down the detachments, really focusing on singular elements, such as the Scions, removing any base AM units from the rules in this case. Lastly, I assume this means that lots of the stratagems and enhancements will be changing for the current detachments. For example in this detachment, one of the four enhancements and five of the six stratagems are not Scion specific, although a couple of the stratagems focus on deep strike which is basically only Scion units anyway. 

I also realise that a post that came out last week is now wrong. I had a look at the various current detachments and gave my thoughts on what the points cost per detachment was going to be and I think they will be mostly wrong! I had thought this detachment was going to be a two point detachment and if it had stayed the same it probably would have but with the changes it's dropped to a one point detachment. 

It will be interesting to see what the full changes to all the detachments and their stratagems and enhancements, but so far I'm looking forward to 11th, far more than I was for 10th.