Armageddon!!!

So it was a early start this morning, my boy woke me up early so we could head to town and pick up this;

We're going to be splitting the box, with him taking the Oro half and myself the marines, with the rest being shared between us.  

 As for when I get to build all this, well that's another question, given I still have two Hippogryph's to build and a whole load of models to paint! My boy on the other hand, well by the time this post goes live, I think he'll be well on the way to building his half, with a large chunk already built! 

Landspeeder

 On last datasheet to look at, just in time for the release of 11th! The new Landspeeder is here, and it looks good. Very similar to the old one with a suitable scale upgrade with some additional weapons. Along with the Terminators, the new Landspeeder shows how's they should have done the SM refresh, well, apart from the Gravis models, cos they look good as they are. 

Anyway, the new Landspeeder looks good better than the other versions, the Storm speeders. 

It has the classical armament, with melta and "assault" cannon, with the option for a flamer. As with the original version, I cannot figure out why you would want a flamer. To me this unit is a fast moving fire base, designed to skirting around the battle edge, lending firepower where needed, not to be getting up close and personal with the enemy. 

The rules for the unit are good, with the move-shoot-move, even if the second move is not guaranteed. Popping the nose out of cover by and inch or two will prob work, as you can usually bank on getting at least a couple of inches of movement. I like this unit and he will be joining the Dark Guardians and the outriders. 

I guess that we will eventually see a number of versions of this, along the lines of the old versions, with missile pods and the like. There seems a lot of chat about this being the edition of bikes and cavalry, so I also expect we'll see some additional bike characters as well. The only thing I might pick up is the ATV, if it's still around. 

Alongside the model, we also had some rules for flyers or rather the FLY keyword. They seem to have taken a few hints from the old pivot rule, but actually made it make sense here! So flying units can declare that they will fly, subtract two from their movement and then be able to move anywhere in range, which is nice. 

This actually means that flying units will have a lot of versatility and actually be easy to use and understand. Sanguinary Guard have fly and a 12 inch move, so with this rule, they will effectively be able to move anywhere within ten inches regardless of any terrain or enemy models (taking care of engagement range though). No more worrying about movement up or down ruins or trying to figure out if it's better to go round or if the ruin is 2 inches or less. Just straight up and over, ten inches and done. 

I do like these new rules and this is one of a number of rules that I think are good. There's one or two that I still have to get my head around but we're still a week or so away from the actual release, so when I get my hands on the actual rule book, some of them may make more sense than they do right now. 

Knights

 Just a very quick one this time. 11th is just over a week away and I'm still playing catch-up with the previews!

I wanted to highlight this one detachment for the Knights, as it's the only one that I actually care about. Questor Forgepact is the one detachment that allowed you to bring admech and knights together. Having just finished building some more skitarii, to boost my force to 4 squads (more on that in a later post), I now have the ability to field the full 500 points for this detachment. 

The rules have changed a bit, but not as much as you might think. While the knight ability seems to have changed completely, hey have actually just swapped to be Admech ability, which actually makes more sense. The Knights aura has changed quite a bit, although it does have basically the same affect. The models gain the +1BS all the time and heavy when you don't move (very far). In theory, this means that the skitarii guns will hitting on 2+'s. There isn't a wound modifier but I don't think that a major issue with 11th, as it's the hit modifier that's modified by cover now. 

The enhancement has changed slightly as well, although it's really only the wording that's changed, what happens and why is still the same. 

The given stratagem has changed as well. No longer do we get lethal hits but re-rolls to wound, which is still useful but not as good a lethal hits. Most of the time the unit that destroys a Knight is going to be pretty tough, so most likely we're going to be wounding on 6's. Lethal hits would definitely have been the better option here but any help is always welcome. 

Overall, the detachment hasn't really changed, the only question is how many points this detachment will be worth. I don't see it being a 3 points t detachment, 2 is more likely to me. So will I have to choose another Knights detachment or will I be able to fill it with an Agents of the Imperium detachment? I don't know how these will work yet and I don't remember seeing a faction focus for them either but I might just have missed it. 

Space marine Detachments

So a bit late, but here are the detachments for the marines, that were shown off a number of weeks ago. There is a lot that can be said about each one of these, and you can spend hours going in to details on each unit within each detachment and how they they work together. I'm not going to do that, at least not yet. I might do a deeper dive once 12th is out and the various detachments for Guard and Blood Angels are out but not right now. 

Fulguris Task Force is based around the various speeders, including the new land speeder. This basically means that speeders can deep strike. For a lot of people this is not going to be useful, unless your running a few of these units, which is possible given the relatively low cost of the units. (Points wise, money wise their actually quite expensive!). Overall I don't see this being used very often, unless the new speeders are cheap both points and money wise!

Librarius Conclave is the classic psychic detachment. This hasn't changed from the current version, as far as I can tell anyway. This detachment now actually makes sense, as before it could only be applied to a handful of unit, nine if you maxed out the psyker options (not including epic heros, but then it only really went to 10 units), however, this requires you to take three terminator and three phobos, which limits unit options. Now you can take your three Libby's and not really loose access to an actual army rule that will benefit the majority of your units. I can see this being the third detachment choice for a few people, probably me included. 

Subversion Assets applies to phobos and scout squads, giving them the ability to increase the detection range of enemy units by 3 inches, pushing it from 15 to 18 inches. This is similar to the Guard detachment that grants the same bonus to scout sentinels. I think this works better for scouts and phobos units rather than sentinels, as they are a smaller unit and have greater ground coverage, plus the some units have infiltrate, meaning you can take advantage of this detachment from the start. As yet, I don't know how important the hidden rule will be, so I don't really know how important this ability will be but I suspect this will get a fair bit of use. 

The Blood Angels: Wrath of the Doomed detachment seems good on paper but really doesn't do it for me. Your basically loosing one marine, possibly even two, for advance and charge. If your running 5 man units, it's pointless. If your running 10 man units your loosing up to 20% of your force before you even swing a blade. No, it's just not worth it for me. If it was battle shock, even with the new battle shock rules, it would be better but as it is, I just don't think it's worth the sacrifice. 

The Black Templars: Living Miracle is a very narrow detachment, because as far as I know, you can only include one Emperors Champion in your army. The only real use I can see here is the enhancements. If they are good enhancements, you could have several extra in your army, buffing more units and characters than usual but until we see the enhancements, I think this detachment is probably one of the worst on this list.  

The Dark Angels: Dark Age Arsenal on the other hand looks like a main stay of any Dark Angels army. Having +1 strength to all plasma weapons is always useful and really helps out on a number of fronts. The base strength going from 7 to 8 is the main bonus, as it wounds T4 on 2's now. There is less effect on supercharged, as it only goes from 8 to 9, going up to 10 would have been better. I think as a base detachment though, it's a good one. 

 Lastly, the Space Wolves: Champions of Fenris detachment. This is based around characters, which is useful, as you generally have a few characters in space wolves armies. Heroic intervention is not a bad stratagem, especially if you have a combat orientated army. If your going for a shooty army, this is pretty useless. Depending upon the army, this will be either good or bad, for most proper space wolf army players I suspect it will be pretty good. 

Overall the detachments seem pretty good, there are obviously some that are better than others, but I think it's a great start and look forward to seeing the rest of the Detachments. 

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 rules - missions

 So this is the last of the rules posts for 11th that I'm going to post. There have been more previews, leaks and reveals but I'm not going to go through them all. Missions is something I want to talk about as there have been a few changes that I think will be good but until we see the full list, it's kind of hard to really tell. 

The missions are now split up in to five categories, and you'll now pick one as your primary and your actual mission will vary depending upon what you opponent picks. 

I don't know yet whether there will be any restrictions on which mission type you can take depending upon armies but I suspect not. I also wonder if there will be faction specific mission decks as well, where you replace either the whole deck or maybe just a specific mission sets. 

So the new missions work by pairing up cards from certain missions sets, the set you've chosen and the set your opponent chose, such as the cards above and below. This will, in theory, change the primary mission every game, unless you and your opponent always choose the same missions! 

While I have only seen 3 missions I think there will be a good range of missions, and there will be something for everyone, although I suspect that out of the 5 missions in each mission pack, there will be at least one mission that won't suit and will be the one you dread coming up. 

Until we see the full range of missions, I'm still positive about this change. It gives you a little more control over the mission selection, which is always good. 

11th edition rules - terrain

 This time we're looking at terrain layouts. This isn't going to be some deep dive into the layouts and stuff, there are plenty of people out there who have done this already and they are probably far more qualified to talk about such things than I am, there are even terrain packs available for the new rules, despite the fact we haven't actually had them yet!

The new terrain layouts require more terrain, with 16 pieces Vs 12 for 10th, although by my calculations the total area of terrain has actually decreased. There have also  been some changes to the shape and size of the terrain as well, with the introduction of triangles and long, thin rectangles. 

The new terrain is as followes;

Four large rectangles – 7” x 11.5”

Two large right-angle triangles – 8” x 11.5”

Four medium rectangles – 6” x 4”

Two long lines – 10” x 2.5”

Four short lines – 6” x 2”

Which by my calculations covers an area of 608 square inches

The old terrain of;

6″x4″ – 4 count

12″x6″ – 6 count

10″x5″ – 2 count

Covered an area of 628 square inches (I think, I failed A-level maths spectacularly,  17\150 or 11%) 

So while the new layouts give more variety, and more line of sight blocking terrain, the actual area covered by terrain is less. 

The new boards also seem to offer more movement options for bigger vehicles but I'll let someone more experienced confirm that. 

I don't know if it's just the way the maps are displayed or what but I really like the two new maps we have seen. The central terrain piece looks good and the lay out is clear and easy to see. I do think that they are, as many people seem to be saying, leani g towards being assault favouring boards but we haven't seen all the boards yet, so that might just be these two boards. I suspect not, but we shall see. 

Talking of terrain, the new rules around units being hidden looks quite good. Being able to jump in to terrain and bed down, keeping your troops safe. This makes sense to me, not just for avoiding first turn alpha strikes but also for opening up more options for taking and Holding objectives and terrain. Had this been in 10th it would have changed a few of my games, with my troops trying to hide in terrain somewhere but being blasted by long ranged firepower, despite being deep in a terrain piece but unable to get out of line of sight. 

So far there rules previews that I've seen have all been good, I honestly can't think of a change that I don't like. Changes to terrain, assault and objectives have all been positive. I am still waiting to see what the full mission deck is going to be but from what we've seen so far, and I'll talk about that next post. 

11th edition rules - armies

 There have been a number of changes made for 11th and I'm not going to cover all of them, just the ones that I think are most interesting to me. So in that vain, I'm going to have a look at the changes to army composition. 

In 10th you picked a single detachment and built for that, but now it looks like you be able to pick multiple detachments to form your army, albeit all from the same faction, so still no guard and with marine allies. 

However, this does mean that we should be able to tailer our detachments to best suit our various forces. Detachments will be pointed, between 1 and 3 now, with the strongest being 3's and weaker or more specific ones being 1's. Now we don't know quite how this is going to work exactly but we know the basics. 

So, at 2000 points we'll have 3 points to spend and the standard rule of three still exists as well, but not just for each detachment but across the army. This means no fielding 9 units of something, with 3 in each detachment. If you field two in one detachment you can only field one in another. 

We also know we're getting a whole load of new detachments, which I guess will be a mix but mostly smaller, more specific detachments to fill out the one point detachments. But how will this affect the guard? Well based on the detachments we have, hopefully in a good way. We currently have nine detachments, that cover everything from Scions to super heavies and my guess is that a most will be 3 points detachments and some will be 2's but very few will be 1's

Based of basically nothing, mainly my own understand and also sites like Stat Check, these are my predictions;

3 points detachments;

Combined arms - because it effects basically every guard unit

Recon force - based off how well it's doing in the meta right now. Low player count but high win rate. 

Grizzeled company - again based of it's place in the meta. Lower win rate but greater player base. Also, it's an army wide detachment rule. 

2 point detachments;

Siege regiment - while not a powerful detachment, it has an army wide effect. 

Hammer of the emperor - partly due to the meta data, as it's one of the more played but also it affects a number of very good units.

Armoured infantry - a new detachments, so it's hard to guess but I think this will be pretty good and effects quite a few units across the army. 

Bridgehead strike force - despite the nerfs this received, i still think this will be pretty strong when combined with an artillery or supporting detachment. 

1 point detachments;

Steel hammer - it's new so not any data but it only really effects super heavies, so fairly limited application. 

Mechanised assault - this relies on units getting out of transports for any meaningful bonuses, so is fairly restricted, will be useful supporting something like Hammer of the Emperor though. 

So there are my random guesses, we'll see how correct I am when 11th comes out, I suspect not very accurate but some will be right by sheer luck though!

I am really excited by this change as I think it opens up a lot more options and possibilities, including the ability to make proper fluffy lists. I would love to be able to make a 3 detachment list with armour getting one bonus, infantry another and Scions dropping in with a third. Not likely but you never know, maybe Combined arms will be a 2 point detachments and Bridgehead a single point one!