Guard rules previews

So along side the preview of models we have also had some rules previewed and teased in various articles. I'll start with the main preview and move on to some of the teasers found within the various Warhammer Community articles. 

The main preview we got was around how army rules will work. As it stands, you have to choose a regimental doctrine either from the main armies (Cadian, Catachan, Mordian, etc) or create one from the various custom doctrines, going forward it appears that you will just have a list, much like the custom doctrines, to choose from to create your own army wide doctrine and then various units within your army will have there own special rules based on their own regiments, such as the Cadian infantry squad not having heavy weapons but two special weapons. The two examples they give are "Cult of Sacrifice" and "Parade Drill"

 Of these two, I can see "Cult of Sacrifice" being used far more than "Parade Drill", but this does lead into the second part of the post, rules we can infer from WarCom articles. "Parade Drill" turns the lasguns from, we assume, Rapid 1 to Heavy 2, which means that the rumours that the Front Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire order has most likely changed from making the weapons Rapid 2 to Heavy 2, which isn't great.

Additionally, as I mention above, we have been able to see how the army compositional changes are effecting the infantry squads. We know that Cadian squads will have no heavy weapons but two special weapons, both from articles and images but we also know that, despite rumours to the contrary, standard infantry squads will still have the option for taking a heavy weapons team. 

In addition we also know that there will be addition changes to the heavy weapons squads, with the addition of "spotters, loaders, Sergeants and more". Loaders are I suspect just the extra guy we've always had but spotters could be interesting, maybe helping remove cover or similar. Sgts will be helpful for leadership, not that heavy weapons squads tend to suffer much through leadership, but an extra pip of leadership never goes amiss. The "and more" section I suspect will include Vox casters as we've seen them on on the images but I can't think what else they might include under here.

We've also had various references to the Command squads, both in articles and also on the live stream GW did and we know that they will be back to their old format, with a full 5 man squad including the commander. How this affects the squad or the look out sir rules around the commander is anyone's guess right now, as is how orders will work. 

Talking of orders, we have a little bit of information on orders. When talking about the new Castellans, it mentions that Castellans get to issue two orders a turn, which likely means that other officers only get to issue one order a turn. We also know that orders are going to change, but how we don't know but we can guess a couple, as we're told order will "encourage units to hit harder, pin down foes, and surge across the battlefield in mass human waves", so most likely reroll 1's of some sort, a bringing back of pinning tests or reduction in movement, and an updated move, move, move order.

Lastly we have the new Castellans themselves, which reinforces the rumours that you can have mixed armies but stating that "It can be used with any Astra Militarum army, Cadian or otherwise – even the Death Korps of Krieg and the Catachan Jungle Fighters". Plus we know that it will have a reroll bubble for core units, most likely a reroll 1's to hit bubble but maybe full rerolls, although this is unlikely.

So it seems that there will be a few changes. 

Edit: I've edited this just before I posted it as by now we've probably all seen \ heard the leaks. I'll do a full post on these as soon as I can but I'm on holiday so it might take a while.

New models for the wee one!

So in an effort to safeguard my nicely painted models, I decided to ask around at the local club if anyone had any old models or bits that the didn't want and would like to donate to my son. I've furnished him with a few bits and pieces, some models I don't need anymore or have acquired as part of other deals, but that was only a hand full. Thanks to the generosity of a couple of club members we now have quite a little collection for him. 

Some of the good guys.

The old metal chaos dread is mine, as were the blue space marines and the random chaos marine in the middle, the rest were donated and there's some nice models in there, including an old metal lascannon and multimelta. 

The big guns

He was also lucky enough to get a couple of vehicles, two Russ, both in pretty good condition, a turret less Predator and a Land Speeder, minus guns. The Russ's may find their way in to my collection at some point but not anytime soon, as may the Land Speeder, again, not anytime soon. 

Da bad 'uns

Along side the Imperial models, he also got a large number of orks, of various vintage. There's a few old single piece monopose models, possibly from Space Crusade or at least that era, right the way up to one of the modern models. 

Da Grots

There was also some Grots in amongst the orks, just a handful but still, some.very cool little models in there.

 One thing I have to note is the bases on some of the models, they have the weirdest little bases I've seen, just about big enough for the models feet. I don't know what the bases are from but they just about work, as long as the floor your putting them on is flat. I guess on a battle mat they would work fine, but on the floor when my little.one plays a lot, they tend to fall over.

The one I kept

This model was among the collection but I decided to pocket this one for myself! Slightly cheeky I know but I did tell the lad who donated some of the models that I was going to put this one aside for me. I've got a newer version in the AdMech start collecting box but having two would be a good bonus and I 0lan on fielding this guy with my tanks next time I play 

GSC Wyrmblade proxy kill team

The last of my kill teams that I'll paint up for a while, here is my Genestealer Cult Wyrmblade proxy Kill Team. 

I do still have a couple of kill teams paint up, the Tyranids and Vet Guard, I won't be painting either anytime soon. My son said he'll paint up the second half of the vets as he did the first 10 and I'm waiting for a bespoke team for the nids before I start painting. So, what have I actually built for the GSC?

As you can see, these are all Chaos Cultists, with only minor modifications to make them more GSC compatible. Most of them are just standard cultists and I'll run them as a proxy team, saying that they are a cult of existing cultists who have been duped by a patriarch into thinking they are worshipping Tzeentch and the changer of ways, when the actual "change" is the Genestealer DNA doing its thing. Now, being a Wyrmblade team, I haven't had to deal with anything other than neophytes or similar sized models, not aberrants, acolytes or hybrids, which was nice. It also means that the team is actually semi-competitive, as opposed to purely narrative. 

Leader and icon bearer

The leader is fairly basic, a standard cultist champion, but for the game he will have to be equipped with a cult knife for 1ep to make up for the rather large blade that he's carrying around with him. If it was a small knife or something, I could have just ignored it but the sword is a bit big to just ignore I think, so the cult knife equipment sorts that out and gives a small buff to combat as well. The icon bearer to his left is technically incomplete, as he doesn't have an icon at the moment, mostly because I don't have a suitable one in my bits box. I've a large chaos icon but I think not would be to much, I need a sort of GSC \ chaos crossed thing that will need to be kit bashed together from bits I don't own!

The gunners

We're actually a gunner down on the roster, as you can take two of each types but I didn't have a model I could use for either the mining laser or seismic cannon. As it stands, there is a Webber, flamer and stubbed. The Webber and flamer are the same model, just with the barrel of one of the flamers chopped down to make the two look different. Apart from this basic change, the models are again, as made.

The neophytes

The main group are just standard cultists, no modifications or changes, just painted as is with their autoguns. Basic, simple and easy. 

Now, for some reason, I don't have any pictures of the two models that I actually did do some conversion work on! The last two models in the team are a sanctus sniper and a sanctus talon. For the sniper, I took a model and added a barrel extension, extra sights to look like optical and electronic arrays, plus some extra bits. For the Talon, I switched out the pistol for an extra sword, a short sword, and replaced the original knife with a longer blade, giving him a short stabbing \ blocking blade and a longer dueling blade. These guys are a real meat of the team, taking up 4 roster slots between the two of them. They are just basic kit bashing, nothing fancy but they do the job.

While this now give me several xenos and chaos kill teams to choose from, I don't know how much play these guys will get, as I'm just not getting the time to play at the moment. Maybe that will change in the future, but I honestly would hold my breath on that fact, so I'll just enjoy modelling and painting for the moment.

 

Ork kill team

Back to a kill team for a couple of posts! I haven't posted up about kill team in a few weeks but there has been a bit of work going on getting some more kill teams up and running, probably never to be played with! 

This is the Ork Commandos from the Octarius launch box and initially I was going to sell these on, as I'm not a great lover of orks, however, I was persuaded to keep hold of them by my son and I'm glad that I did. Having spent time painting them up, I have found a liking for them that I didn't realise I had. Now, they are not going to become my favourite faction,  not even one of top 3 really, but I do think that they have a wealth of character and are fun looking models. I have gone with a very basic paint scheme, mostly dry brush with a few highlights of colour and I think it's worked out quite well.

The whole gang.

Spot colours popping quite nicely on some models.

The boss and his minions.

Now, the observant amongst you have probably spotted that fact that the grot is not the correct grot model, ninja grot has gone full ninja and disappeared. I'm pretty sure my youngest has spirited him away some where but as yet I have no idea where he is, so a stand in model has been acquired from said youngest's collection. I really like the squig model, as it's such a fun looking model but still easy to paint. 

The gunz, all da gunz!

Next we have the guns, all the guns! Ok, so maybe not quite but it's the Dakka boy and two normal Boyz. The Dakka boy is as intended and is another great model, all all the commandos are but the Boyz are modified slightly, with both models duel wielding pistols. Although this doesn't actually give you anything in game, I thought it looked a lot cooler and more Orky than holding a knife. One of the things like most about these models is the Dakka boyz hat, very reminiscent of the old WW2 commando hats. 

Getting up close and personal

The short range commandos are up next, with the slasha boy, Comms boy and Breacha boy. There's not masses to say about these three, there built as standard for the most part. The only change for some of these are that all the models have a mask or face covering of some description. I've done this to give them a more specialist, sneaky special forces look, similar to the CQB special forces looks you see. 

Da special boyz

The last three are the specialists, the Burna boy, Rokkit boy and Snipa boy. All of these three are built as instructed, so very little to say again. I did add some extras here and there, as with all the models, just to add some flavour.

I really like these models and even with the simple paint job they look good. The red spot colours on they symbols and such also really pop nicely and add some colour to the otherwise quite dull colours. When these guys get played or not is another matter, as I haven't had a game of kill team in ages! I've another team that I've painted up to showcase here then it's on to other projects, mainly my Deathwatch but also AdMech.