Be careful what you wish for....

After the release of Battle for the Abyss, I was thoroughly disgusted with Black Library. Some of the Horus Heresy books that had been produced just seemed sacrilege. Somewhere Dan Abnett and I understand each other because none of those authors made return trips to the 30th milena.

Now I am kicking myself. I am still happy with the decision mind you, but I am just pining for some more 40k books. It's going to be 7 months between Fallen Angels and Prospero Burns, I'm starting to DT..........

Rix

Bad Assery 101

www.redknuckle.com

So over Thanksgiving I was having a conversation with RC about Lysander. RC raved about how powerful he was and how he was really at the pinnacle of his power. His assertions were: Eternal Warrior and four wounds is unheard of, thunder hammer and storm shield are undercosted in SM codex and they tear shit up, and he works awesome with one of the strongest units around: assault terminator squads. I decided to give him some more thought for my Fist army.

My first concern was that I didn't want to break my fluff goals with the army. The army was made to be a half-company, and would not include any attachments. So I was not going to be adding a terminator squad. The only model I could see having some terminator armor was the Captain. Well the good news is that Lysander counts as a captain, so I can even keep my command squad.

So, I started to weigh the benefits of Lysander compared to the added cost. First off we know he is a bad ass stat wise, but being in a squad it gets watered down a lot. Compared to another commander the biggest difference is the strength 10 thunder hammer. Bolter Drill will be useful since my command squad all have bolt pistols. Bolster Defenses is another surprising good one with this army as I always have one squad in cover in the backfield (devastators or at least a combat squad). Lastly I was very interested in using Chapter Tactics, since I was relatively underwhelmed with Combat Tactics (at least for my style of play).

He seemed like a winner so I wrote up my list. I had to change out my command squad razorback because of Lysanders terminator armor, so I went with a drop pod. I also had to lose the devastators rhino to make up some points. No real bother as they are usually stationary anyway.

So after one game I was floored with how much of an improvement it was. The first thing that was apparent was how much better the drop pod was than the razorback. My command squad is meant to be very survivable (storm shields and an apothecary) but they weren't as big of an impact after my razorback got immobilized at half field. Now, turn one they are a factor. As survivable as they are I was not scared to unload in front of some pretty heavy firepower. The enemy was forced to deal with them. My rhinos zipped across the field at record speed. There was a lot of synergy going on there (yes I work a desk job). I will venture to say that I like the drop podding command squad more than I would like a deep striking assault terminator squad. The drop pod comes in first turn and doesn't have to worry so much about mishaps. So I don't need so much stand off distance.

The other big takeaway from the battle is how much more I like Stubborn than Combat Tactics. I know Combat Tactics can be very useful. Woe be the player who shoots at a combat squad before assaulting. I am just not the kind of player who dances around a board like that. I find that I am much more likely to go where I want to go and plant my squads. Seems like it falls in line with a certain chapter I know about. Every time I got into combat and had to roll leadership I was reminded how much more I like Stubborn. My army definitely feels more like Sons of Dorn.

And with that one game, I shelved my space wolves and started getting back to painting my Fists. I am actually in pretty good shape with my to-do list:

• Since I am not tweaking my space wolves anymore, I don't have anything on them to do (I'll chalk that one up as a painting win, since the codex came out a month ago)
• I only need to paint a drop pod, Lysander, and finish my assault marines to finish the 1500 points
• I only need to paint up one more tactical squad, their rhino, and five bolter wielding devastators to finish off the half-company

I think I will be set for a Jan tyranid release :D

Rix

Meh

So after a month of living, breathing, tweaking, and playing my space wolves I am officially bored with them. I have struggled to figure out why. Here are my best reasons:

• I always thought I loved Assault lists (my first love), but after playing all different types of armies I finally figured out that assault armies are pretty one dimensional.
• I settled very quickly into what I believe is the best list possible (given my already painted units)
• Allocating ICs and Wolf Guard between a mech list is confusing and annoying
• Lysander drop podded into my heart

More on the last later. But overall I have been very pleased with the way my wolves performed, very content with the viability of my list, and very bored playing it. I used to love setting up my Space Wolves for battle, they sat on my side of the table mocking my opponents "Do what you want, but my wolves are coming across to whop your ass!!" Now when I set up I feel like I am on the losing side of a battle of wits. My opponent has all kinds of tools at his disposal (reserve forces, combat squading, deep striking) and I am just looking to meet him in the middle without losing to many transports.

On another positive note, I like my list. I have a healthy number troops and some real punch in close combat without having to spend 750 points in HQ choices. The units all fit into my great company scheme (one of these days I'll get around to finishing that). But that cut out one of my favorite parts of the game, critically thinking about the list and doing some hard core tweaking.

Lastly, I do really like the ability to attach wolf guard. It's a poor man's combat squad. But trying to figure out between 4 squads which 3 should get a leader, which of those should get the special weapons, and then try and figure out which should get ICs, oh and also some are in razorbacks and some are in rhinos.....it all gets pretty confusing. I always end up just throwing some units together and deploying them haphazardly, which in turn I feel like I am always screwing up deployment.

For all of these reasons, I am Meh on my puppies and have shelved them for now.

Rix

The Burning of Prospero

Had my second round of matches with my Space Wolf force. This time I think my force was pretty close to final form. I am liking the direction it is heading.

My first two matches (a month or so ago) were strictly trial forces. I wanted to get the feel for the different units and characters. Both times I played against RC's Thousand Son force. The first was a two Land Raider army that hit you like a truck using The Great Wolf. I packed Blood Claws in one LR and Wolf Guard termies into the second. It was effective but very one dimensional and very light on the troops. My second was more of a medium infantry force with Grey Hunters in Razorbacks, some Blood Claw assaulters, and Njal. Best result from the game....making RC cry as Njal wtfpwnd Ahriman. While I learned I like the medium infantry army, I did admit that Njal is a little overpowered if he can beat Tzeentch's Champion so handedly.

I took the month to work on the list and update some of the painting on my older units. My list looked like this going into this weekend:

Rune Priest (Chooser of the Slain, Saga of the Beastslayer, Living Lightning, Wolf Spirits)
Wolf Guard Battle Leader (Wolf Claws, Saga of the hunter, wolves x2)
Wolf Guard x4 (Thunder Hammer x2, Combi-meltas x2, Power Weapons x2)
Lone Wolf (Melta bomb)
Wolf Scouts x5 (Meltgun, Plasma Pistol x2)
Blood Claws x10 (Power Fist, Flamer)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Razorback w/ TL Las)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Flamer, Mark of the Wulfen, Razorback w/ TL Las)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Rhino)
Land Raider Crusader (Meltagun)

First Game was an annihilation against the Thousand Sons. RC was attempting to move away from the heavy weapon prevalence in his army and add some more troops. We both felt that it did little to help him, as he had less capability to deal with transports and the massed troops was no match for the incoming of the Space Wolf fury. He called it after he had killed my Battle Leader, Scouts, Lone Wolf, a squad of Grey Hunters, and 3 vehicles. I had the advantage as I had killed most of his force and was wading around with about two turns to dish out some more punishment.

Lessons for the Game: Battle Leader with scouts moving behind enemy lines is cool, but you are not going to make up the points of losing your character after a turn or two. Also, the Lone Wolf seemed to suck.

Second Game was take and hold against a mech Dark Angel force. We rolled dawn of war. Night fighting came in handy....but I really sucked it up on my deployment. It was the first time in 10 years I didn't deploy my Space Wolves all together to charge the field. It threw off the rest of my game as I could never amass enough forces to push in his territory. I ended up fighting a tactically loosing battle as I couldn't even come close to his objective and he was all over mine. Good news was that my army was able to assault its way into re-securing my objective.

Lessons for the Game: My Lone Wolf sucks (and shall be removed). Living Lightning is an amazing vehicle killer. I could use a tinny bit more stand off firepower.

I am working on updating the list now. I am looking at dropping the Lone Wolf, Swapping the LR Crusader for a regular LR, somehow adding a three man Long Fang squad.

Cheers,

Rix

Pack Mentality

Before I delved into my Space Wolves Army list I wanted to give a rundown of the different wolf packs and how I think they are best used. The following are the organization of the packs that most space wolves will spend their entire lives in.

Blood Claws

For those unfamiliar with the fluff, as soon as a group of initiates can wear power armor they are sent out with the main army as assault troops. The blood claw pack represents the marines they will be with until they die or individuals are selected for special assignments. Blood claws can have pack sizes up to 15 marines to represent the large size of initiate units before they start to take casualties.

I like to take one unit of blood claws as my main assault force. I figure no matter what I do with the rest of my army their is always going to be one unit who hits a line, even on defense. Yes they are easier to hit, yes they shoot like crap, but I am getting an extra 10 hits if I charge. I want to front load as much damage as possible.

I always put mine in a land raider so you can pretty much guarantee the charge. I like the power fist over the power weapon, I figure 3 str 8 hits on the charge are better than 4 str 4 hits. I also give one a flamer, mostly because its free, but its a good way to thin out infantry if I am against a horde army.

Grey Hunters

After a good amount of campaigns under their belt, and some character building casualties, the blood claws pack will graduate to be grey hunters. They are blessed with the holy bolter, and are the main maneuver force for the Wolf Lord. Usually they number 5-10 marines at this point

For my army they are my objective takers, fire support, and decent assault support. Without combat squads I rely on they to be the versatile part of my army. As such they are all essentially armed the same and any one squad can fulfill any number of roles.

I think a good commander needs at least 3 grey hunter squads. I like mine at 5 marines in a razorback, so I can add a wolf guard veteran. My standard load out is power weapon, melta gun, and mark of the wolfen. I do switch out the melta for a flamer every other grey hunter squad. I figure if I am holding objectives they are cheaper, but it can be invaluable against horde armies. I also usually upgrade to the twin-linked lascannon...its so expensive, but its usually the only long range firepower I have.

Long Fangs

As the pack grows older and more experienced, they are eventually entrusted with the company's heavy weapons. They understand the ebb and flow of battle and are expected to be resolute under all battle conditions. At this time the pack is usually down to 2-5 members.

I don't usually use long fangs, I think they are to static and my Space Wolves are based on mobility. If I did I would either go for the cheap 2-3 man tank killing squad (ML or LC), or the bulky 5 man split fire squad. Then I would probably mix lascannons and plasma cannons.

Lone Wolves

This is a new edition in the Space Wolf codex. The lone wolf represents the last man of a pack that was either whittled down by attrition or decimated by casualties. Since a pack never gets new recruits it is on the lone wolf to find a glorious end.

Most of the net traffic has lone wolves in terminator armour with thunder hammer and storm shields. From a fluff perspective I don't like the idea of a non-wolf guard taking terminator armor. I equip mine with nothing but a melta bomb, because it makes them cheap as hell. The idea is simple, he is going to wade into battle and force your opponent to direct some attention to them.

Rix

Space Wolf Review

I will admit that I haven't played with my space wolves very much. The two games I played I won handedly, even prompted the ever elusive RC post. I will focus this post on fluff and what seems to be general playability.

Overall

I like the codex. I think it is a step in the right direction from the no fluff, bland codices of yesteryear. I know everyone is in the OMFG mode right now, but I think they will generally fit in line power wise with the last three codices.

Army Organization

I think they are a good trade off between the tactical flexibility of the codex marines and the strong assault forces you see in other codices. In my mind you trade:

• Combat tactics for counter charge
• Combat squads for either a close combat weapon or a +2 charge bonus
• A heavy weapon for a power weapon

As I build my lists I kept on getting the feeling that I had to rely on assault to make my marks. Assault is a funny thing. If you do it well you can have great success...till you meet someone who does it better than you. Then you have a lot of points sitting in transports. Or worse, someone who is good at taking out vehicles. Then you have a lot of points sitting in the middle of the board trying to leg it to make up their points.

I don't think that they can go pound for pound in a shooting war. Granted I can make a Grey Hunter/Long Fangs/vehicle list that is arguably more cost effective than Codex Space Marines, but the lack of tactical heavy weapons really hurts. I miss being able to add a combat squad of marines to the list of shots from the backfield, while maneuvering a Sgt and 4 other marines under fire to snatch objectives.

Favorite Things from the Codex

Lone Wolf - I think it is a really cool idea, and fits the fluff nicely. I wish they didn't have terminator armour, I don't think it really fits the idea that they come from a non-wolf guard pack

Wolf Scouts - They were always a favorite, I like how they made it fit with the current scout rules.

Sagas/Oaths - Most people like the sagas and hate the oaths. I like having a player a player be somewhat accountable to the fluff without having it be a huge detriment to the game. Rules come and go, we play lots of games, but your damn strait I still make fun of RC for running his Khorne Bezerkers away from Ragnar 8 years ago.

Fenrisian Wolves - Purely from a play perspective I think a cheap outrider choice that can get into close combat is exactly what any space marine army needs.

Dislikes

Thunderwolf Cavalry - I think they are a cool idea, I like the fact that the fluff says they are mythical, but I dislike the fact that they are just a normal unit in the army. In fact, most of the Internet buzz I am hearing right now involves using them. I think they should have been a unique or 0-1 choice. I think they should have been a strong unit but maybe a little less tactical (e.g. less weapon options, headstrong, or maybe some sort of injure yourself roll that has to be passed).

Pack Fluff - There seems to be some inconsistencies on the way they describe the packs in the fluff. Sometimes they talk about packs staying together for life (the way it was in the old codex), sometimes they mention things like individuals getting promoted to Grey Hunter. Its a little annoying, but I am a fluff whore, I make no apologies for it.

No Wolves - There are no less than 6 unit choices that can have or are wolves. There is not one acceptable wolf model in the GW lineup right now. I guess I will have to look cooler because I actually still have two old school dire wolves.

Next post, my sample army list,

Rix

Overpowered?

Recently, I had a heated discussion with Rix about his Space Wolves and how they absolutely destroyed my Thousands Sons in our last two games. I called them "overpowered" and Rix called me a whiner. That got me thinking about when is something overpowered and when is it just sour grapes.

Well, that's a good question and one that I've had a hard time quantifying. Well, obviously something is overpowered if it has an unfair advantage but what does that mean in 40k? When does something become unfair and is there any such thing as a fair advantage?

An army with 2 Land Raiders has an advantage against an army with little to no heavy weaponry but finds itself at a disadvantage against armies with lots of tank busting goodness. So, is the advantage fair because it's balanced out by other army compositions or is it situationally unfair depending on the opponent? What if the Land Raider were mis-costed at fraction of it's current points and simply led to a balanced game against heavy tank busting armies? Would it be unfair then, even though it still led to balanced games against certain armies?

Well, all of this leads to a lot of relational comparisons and leads to nothing more than opinion really. Whereas I might think my Thousand Sons are balanced considering that I've suffered both crushing defeats and stunning victories with them, that's not the way it appears to the poor mech space marine army I just tabled on turn 3 (and it wasn't amazing rolling either). It doesn't make a difference if I tabled them with my "balanced" Thousand Sons or my Army of Space Lazer Doom, he got tabled and it didn't feel like much of a fight. So, obviously the determination of something being "overpowered" is really just a perception that differs by person.

So back to the thing that started it all, my discussion with Rix about his Space Wolves and their trashing of my Thousand Sons. The first game we played was a 2 Land Raider list against my all infantry line up. I knew that the game was going to be a loss simply due to the compositions involved (I have a hard time with armor 14) and the fact that I am troops light. I lost by a good margin and accepted the loss for what it was, a learning experience.

The next game was something else entirely, enter Njal Stormcaller ("Nigel"). Ahriman and his cabal were single handedly shut down by Nigel and to add insult to injury Ahriman's impotence was answered by being inta-killed by Nigel's storm power. This game literally made me angry, I felt like not only my army was raped but so was the fluff behind it. After taking multiple showers I still couldn't get the feeling of violation off me or my plastic army men.

So, I cried foul and made what I thought was the shockingly obvious call that Nigel was "overpowered". Rix simply called me a whiner and told me to man up. This led to the heated debate with both of us trying to quantify why we were right and the other was wrong. Rix ended up agreeing to never play Nigel against me again and I grudgingly accepted the fact that he'd still play a rune priest (which has Nigel's abilities, but watered down a little).

So in the end, it didn't matter whether or not that Njal was overpowered (which he is, btw). It simply mattered that I did not enjoy playing against him and got nothing but frustration from my game against him. Rix, as a good opponent, has agreed to my request never to face him again with my Thousand Sons. However, the jury is still out on whether the rest of the wolves are overpowered as well. If I can't win a game against them with any of my armies, I don't think it will be too long before they too are shelved or Rix needs to find some new opponents.

The Grand Return

After my month long vacation base jumping with the spider monkeys off Guadalajara (hey it’s the internet I can say anything right!!), I am back to update you all about my 40k projects. I know that you all have been waiting with baited breath to find out how I organized the rest of my Imperial Fist Army.

Squad Severus



When I first started making my Imperial Fists I wasn’t sure that I was going to expand it to be an entire army. I started with a tactical squad and I figured at worst it would look good in a display case. Because I hand’t quit thought about tactics yet, the load out was not very optimized for the army. It was more just the standard option from what I have seen other vanilla marines take over the years (mostly during 4th edition). I took a power weapon, a plasma gun, and a missile launcher.



In retrospect the squad is not very optimized for the way it plays in the army. The plasma gun is way overpriced, and without a melta or power fist I need to add melta bombs to the Sergeant. I like the missile launcher as a tactical heavy weapon but overall doesn’t pack enough punch to be a stand back heavy weapon.

Overall I see this squad as having an identity crisis. It is not quit strong enough to charge in, not quit powerful enough to stand in the backfield, not quit enough single punch to split 2/3 special weapons into a combat squad. In creating my army I tried to give all of my squads some personality. With such a non-focused weapon load out I decided that this was the youngest squad, and specifically had the youngest Sergeant. The Sergeant hasn’t quite figured out his identity and as such his weapons are non-optimized. In effect he has the “standard” tactical load out. I chose this to be the 6th tactical squad being the lowest on the pecking order.



In trying to give more personality to the Sergeant I tried to remember how I was back when I was a young/new leader in the military. In short, I was an asshole. I imagine the Sergeant as a strict authoritarian, but this masks his lack of experience. He is in no way inept (I mean he is a freaking space marine Sergeant by god), but against his other Sergeants he hasn’t quit found his way.

Tomorrow (OK maybe next week) my 2nd tactical squad.

Rix

Quality Control

I am officially done with GW primer. After spraying half of my assault squad I noticed some cracking in the primer. Thinking that it must have been my spraying technique (to far, to close, or something), I went about stripping those models and soon afterwords sprayed my razorback. SAME F!@%ING THING. If I'm anything I'm persistent. So I tried it again on a devastator squad. Yea you guessed it, imagine that.

After finally wising up I pulled out some random bits and attempted lots of different spraying styles. The conclusion, the primer was bad. I could understand if it was an old can, but I had just bought it. In my mind this is just inexcusable. For a company to put so much effort into putting out great models to then allow the PRIMER to destroy them......

Thank god for simple green. I think the models will come out OK, but the vehicle has too many long flat surfaces and I don't think it will come out right. We'll see.

Anyone know any good primers?

Rix

Everybody Throw Your Hands in the Air

Up next in my WIP Imperial Fist army is my ironclad dreadnought. Honored Brother Gaius Decius Avitus (maintaining the naming convention from last post) is typically armed with a dreadnought close combat weapon and a seismic hammer. As I am still getting the feel for the ironclad's capability and how he works in with my army I decided to make the arm load outs exchangeable.

All of the Arms in the Ironclad Box

To do this I added rare earth magnets to the arms. The dreadnought shoulders are inset with a standard size machine nut. Each magnet has a small nub of plastic in the center. This fits into the hole in the machine nut and keeps the arm in the same place while handling/playing. I noticed without this the magnet tended to move off center from the shoulder.

The All-Up-In-Your-Face Load Out

So far I have used him as a spearhead with the command squad. He soaks up a lot of anti-tank firepower that would normally be directed at my rhinos. Its a 50/50 shot for him to survive till close combat, but typically he can take out whatever vehicle or monstrous creature I aim him at. The problem is that he has to run to get there, he usually lasts only one turn after that, and is easily swamped if my opponent throws a large squad at him.

I have noted I may play him as a big missile, which is pretty one-dimensional. I am looking to experiment with the hurricane bolter. I have loved them on Land Raider Crusaders but I don't know how well they will field on a dreadnought. It would involve holding him back a little farther in the battle.....One of the reasons I don't field that many dreads is because they seem like one-punch-chumps. Any stray missile launcher shot just stops him dead in his tracks, and he is easily brought low by meltas. I always feel like its a waste unless the big fellow uses his high strength.

More Dakka

Its really very freeing to not be bound by my weapon load outs. Especially this early in getting used to my army. If I decide that what I really need is some range I can easily pick lascannons and missile launcher sprues and outfit them with magnets. There really is nothing that marks him as an ironclad so later I can use a venerable to see how his survivability plays out. Or even go cheap and play him as a regular, I'm sure I can find a use for another 35-50 points. In fact this will probably be the one area where I make up points in my army depending on adding/removing wargear later.

You Got a Little Something On Your Face, Here Let Me........

Rix

The Emperor's Long Walk

While reading the Horus Heresy novels, I often finding myself speculating about the nature of the 40k universe. What would have happened if Ferrus Manus killed Fulgrim? What was the true goal of the great crusade? Why did the Emperor choose Horus to be the Warmaster. One of the questions that keeps coming up, and seems to be necessary for any true speculation, is the nature of the Emperor's divinity. Did the Emperor see the coming of the Heresy and the fall of his civilization? Did he become blinded by another task, and simply miss what was happening?

Here are some thoughts:

The Emperor is a great man, but is still just a man.

There is certainly enough in the stories to back this up. His Great Crusade centered around the Imperial Truth, which denounced the idea of religions and mysticism. What possible benefit is gained from this if he knows it to be false (because there are in fact gods.....bad ones, but whatever). Arguably he could have avoided the whole Heresy if he wouldn't have been a bad critic to Lorgar's first published book.

Emperor on the Lectitio Divinitatus:
Don't quit your day job Lorgar

Lastly, the Emperor seems to suffer from something very human: a time management issue. He leaves the crusade in a hurry to work on his special project. Why not see the crusade through? From all of the fluff it seems that Malcador the Sigillite's sole responsibility was to pester the Emperor on all the other shit he was supposed to do (e.g. maintain the Astronimican, protect the imperial palace, etc.). At the end I get this vision of the Emperor being annoyed having to go up to kill Horus because he needs to get back to work.

So where does that leave us? It means the Emperor chose Horus because he thought he was the greatest warrior he had. He probably underestimated the jealousy a primarch can feel, even being subservient to some like the Emperor. He pretty much got pwnd by the chaos gods, and his empire is on a long slow decline till it breaks. YAY humanity.

"...and I for one, welcome our new Chaos masters."

The Emperor is Truly Divine

How to diafy a man who expressly forbids it? Well we can certainly try. So the seeds of this is planeted in couple of places. First of all lets throw out all the stuff from the 40k universe, his divinity is taken as fact then, and there are countless stories in the canon about how "the Emperor Protects." But even in the 30k universe:

• He seems to be immortal
• He beat a C'Tan, which are basically living gods.
• His psychic power is so great to look at him is to be cowed and he single-handedly powers the Astronomican

There is also one story in Tales of Heresy which point directly at it. In The Last Church the Emperor has a religious discussion with a man on earth. It is set right before the time of the Great Crusade. During the conversation he describes the long narrow path humanity must walk to survive, and how he above any other human knew the path. It certainly is different from the very deliberate tasks he sets about completing over the next two plus centuries (conquer the galaxy, fix that stupid warp business, live happily ever after). In fact the path that the empire is following right now seems like more of a long narrow path. By this logic it seems like the Great Crusade was more of means to an end than the road to humanities greatness.

What if the emperor wanted the Heresy to happen, what if it was all part of the plan.? Does that mean he planned on being interned in the golden throne? Is there a rise again scenario? It is certainly the light at the end of the tunnel explanation, it also gives humanity something to look forward to besides endless toil before an eventual defeat.

A slightly happier ending

So what do I believe.....unfortunately this is a tough one. From a fluff perspective it is nice to believe that the current state of the empire is all part of a great plan. Unfortunately this does not allow much insight into the rest of the universe. Any questions about how or why something happened can only be chalked up to divine presence.

I guess I would have to say that the emperor is indeed divine. But in a universe where there are multiple divine entities he is fighting a hard fight against the other gods (specifically the chaos gods). So in my mind he planned the Heresy to happen, but could not really see past the point where he was basically in direct confrontation with the Chaos Gods (i.e. fighting Horus). This was a "Shadow Point" where he could not plan past it, but things may or may not have gone the way he wanted them to.

One very interesting thought spawns off of this, what if he planned to die? What if the inquisition is fouling his plans by sustaining him. Beings with psychic presence can maintain their sentience in the warp, that's why the Eldar are scared shitless of dieing without a soulstone. The Emperor's psychic presence would certainly put any eldar's to shame. What if his real rebirth was to be in the Warp as a truly divine being. Its an interesting thought.

Rix

The Hersesy Will Not Be Televised

(Spoiler Alert)

It will be talked about on the Intewebz. I love me some 40k books. In fact, in the decade plus that I have been playing it has been the one consistent part of the hobby for me. When I was deep into WoW, WAR, MTG or MTGO and had no time/desire to paint miniatures I still picked up all the novels I could. Words can not express how happy I was when they started to write the Horus Heresy series, and for the most part they have not disappointed. Here are my rated list of the books so far:

Did not place: Battle for the Abyss

Not only was it a poorly written story, it had little to no impact on the Heresy storyline. Besides some off-references to 30k characters, I think this book would have been just fine as a 40k book. Its best quality was the depiction of the Thousand Sons Marine, its worse quality was the annoying way it tried to depict the Space Wolves.

and now on with the list......

10. Descent of Angels

It seemed like the author had never even read any 40k books, much less should write about the Heresy. I think the Lion is an annoying fancy pants just as much as the next guy, but come on, he seemed pretty weak and annoyingly moody in the book.

The Lion preparing for a fight

9. False Gods

To be fair, Graham had a tough act to follow. Abnett built his characters beautifully, set the stage wonderfully.....and then handed it over to Mr. McNeill. But, this is the point where Graham really drops the ball. His characterizations of Horus are all wrong. And the dream sequence where Horus makes the decision to side for chaos.......... This book could have been so much better if they would have put an extra page in there where it actually seems like Horus had a moment of doubt when he chose to betray his father and everything he stood for.

8. Mechanicum

I don't have a lot to say about this, I just felt like it was a bit much to make the c'tan canon.

7. Flight of the Eisenstein

My issues with this book is more about timing then content. I thought the book was well written and told a good story. This book was the first time I realized that they were going to draw out the Heresy for longer than 3-5 books. I'm happy with the decision, but I remember being very disappointed when I read a book that paralleled more storyline then it actually expanded on.

6. Fallen Angels

Mike Lee should be commended for bringing the Dark Angels out of the emo morass that Descent of Angels left them in. I'm not sure if he better explained what the DoA author was trying to get across, or just made shit up, but he did a good job. I felt the Lion finally had some character. I also really liked how the Sons of Horus were portrayed as experienced elite. So often authors fall into the "my army is awesome the rest can suck it" trap. Looking back, I really liked this book, the fact that it scores so low in the list says a lot about what is left.

5. Galaxy in Flames

I'll be honest I don't remember much about this book, besides it saved the series from False Gods. I tried to reread them all but ended up putting them down after 50 pages of False Gods. Has it come across yet that I didn't like False Gods? I remember wanting more when I was done with this book.

4. Tales of Heresy

Short stories have always been my favorite 40k books. Often time you get a really cool concept that teases you without having to read 350 pages. I really like the little teasers cause they get the imagination running. This book had great stories on some very interesting topics:

• Angron and Kharn are two of my favorite characters in 30k cause I just don't get them at all in 40k and would like to see how they got there
• A great Custodes story (the first of its kind I think)
• A great pre-history to the Sisters of Battle
• An amazing piece with the Emperor as a central figure

3. Legion

Alpha legion was my second army, I love the subtlety and intrigue. Then Dan Abnett writes my Heresy book!!! He did everything right, made the XXth legion unique and on top of that answers some questions that have always been in 40k lore. I need to reread the book cause I am sure I missed half of it, but that's what I should expect with the Legion right?

2. Fulgrim

I came into this book with a lot of trepidation because of False Gods. I liked the story. But OH MY FUCKING GOD the ending!!!!! One of if not the best endings in a 40k book ever.

Fulgrim gets PWND

1. Horus Rising

"I was there the day Horus killed the Emperor...." I still remember how giddy I was when I first read that. I can't remember a time that I was so excited to read a book. It was masterfully done. The characters, plot devices, everything was just amazing. In my mind this book single-handedly saved GW. I think they were on the long slow decline as they were milking their IP for profit without bringing anything new to the table (seriously, go look at White Dwarf before this book came out there is almost no 40k). I think what happened with this book and the series made the company realize that storytelling is the true draw of the 40k universe.

Rix

For Dorn, For Glory!!!

This is my first installment for my Imperial Fist Army. They are my current WIP. As I discussed before I am creating them as a codex company. There is a certain amount of freedom to creating a codex company. First of all it has a much more fluffy feel to it, I feel like I am creating characters, instead of a list of plastic models to win games with. The second thing is that it takes a lot of the min/maxing out of my hand. I am only taking what is in the 3rd company, and that does not include any attachments from the 1st or 10th company and nothing from the armory.

My first squad to display is my HQ choice. It consists of my company commander and his command squad. The commander has a relic blade and a storm shield. The squad has 4 storm shields, 2 power fists, a company banner, and an apothecary.

Marcus Decius Regulus and Praetors

I tried to push the Roman theme, so I have named all the characters as if they were roman citizens. Decius is the gens or clan name and I have used it as an honorarium for the entire company. The last name is the cognomen or family name and will be used to identify each squad based off of the squad leader. As the command squad is all rulers in their own right I have given them the title of Praetors.

Here is a closeup of our noble leader:

Marcus in all of his glory.

I have used a lighting pattern throughout the army. This can best be seen on the storm shields. The storm shields are converted resin ones made primarily for Salamanders but they gave me a good pattern for the lightning bolts.

The Praetors charging forward

The apothecary Brother Caeso (who I have named simply because he is his own line item in Army Builder) can't have a storm shield which sucks for game play. But obviously he still brings a lot of survivability to the squad. This shot you can really see the detail of the plastic bases. Far superior to the resin ones I have bought in the past because I can still add weight to them.

Brother Caeso

Lastly is my standard bearer. I am particularly proud of this paint job. The banner was painted by hand. I am still deciding if I should add some lightning features to the fist, but I figure there is no rush on that. I also can't figure out where to put his storm shield. Its painted and ready to go but it doesn't fit on the power fist as easily as the rest of the squad.

For Dorn, For Glory, For Decius!!!

From a gaming perspective they play as the rock my army rallies around. They go in toward the thick of it, and allow my tacticals to maneuver behind them. They can soak up a lot of hits with the 3+ invulnerable and Feel No Pain. I play a lot of MEQs (damn you and your love of army Rob!!), but I think this would be the perfect answer when someone is trying to barrel some scary greater demons or carnifexes down my throat.

Rix

From Noob to Rookie

So its been a couple of weeks since I started playing blood bowl. I have tried almost every non-gay army (e.g. no humans, dwarfs, or elves), started and canceled a handful of campaigns, and actually stuck with one campaign. I have taken my Orc army, the "Teef Stompas" through 3 tournaments.

The game has gotten really fun but I have to admit I play it less and less. I think there are two basic reasons:

1. The games take so long there is not as much instant gratification while "leveling"
2. With so many characters, and the names being so confusing (at least for orcs) I feel really detached from the leveling process
3. Orcs are a starter army so once I had played a couple of times the tactics don't change that much.

Don't get me wrong, last night I pulled out a miracle pass run combo to win a game in overtime and was ecstatic. I just think I need to move on to a different army in order to change p my game. I am thinking Chaos or Skaven. I really like the idea of mutant teams. I just hope I can start identifying my team members, because the names are not gonna get any easier to understand. Perhaps seeking two heads on one of them would be enough to help distinguishing him from the pack.

One of the best things about the game is how much it falls in line with the GW version. Go to the Blood Bowl Website and look at the form for strategy tips. You will most likely get sent to actual blood bowl forums that have been serving the community for 10+ years. How awesome is that. Its not just a new game that someone figures out the most unbalanced team/strategy and posts overnight. But a game that has had over a decade to balance.

Rix

Fu-ball Season

Ah its about that time.....Saturday mornings with a purpose, tailgates, daydrinking as a rule.....yup its football season. In the midst of all this I have found a gem of a game. Blood Bowl. Go download it, its worth the price even at 50 bucks.

The game is an old school GW miniature/board game so its dear to my heart. IT has all the elements of a great Warhammer game. You can build your team any way you want to, buy team related bonuses, and change the look of your team. On the computer it brings some Madden to the game. Campaign modes allow you to level your team members making it just enough RPG to hook me.

I have only played Turn-based mode but so far its like Final Fantasy Tactics meet Warhammer Online meet Madden.

More to come.......

Rix

Game Changers

Game changers are something you bring to a battle that fundamentally changes the way your opponent planned on playing. A game changer may be an offensive unit that your opponent has no way to deal with, or a way to move across the battlefield that a normal opponent could never react to. Either way they somehow make your army list more effective and your opponent less effective giving you an advantage (see the tie in to last post). Here are some advantages that I have seen various armies use:

Space Marines

Storm Shields - 3+ invulnerable saves pretty much invalidate anything your opponent can throw at it, storm shield units are great at tying up your opponents unit he thought was going to win with. Add some CC punch back and you have a nasty survivable unit.

Land Raiders - There is so little out their that can deal with armor 14. I am toying with an army that uses multiple land raiders. Basically the thought is no matter what your opponent brings you can comfortably turn it into a long range shooting match if you don't get out of your transports.

Chaos

Lash Princes - I know everyone hates them, but it changes a fundamental rule of gaming: moving your opponents army. Most people use them to group squads for blast markers or getting into assault quickly.

Inferno Bolts - I found out the hard way inferno bolts suck. "I'm sorry you thought you came to the table with an army of armored supermen.....instead they have the armor save of a gaunt...oh wait worse than a gaunt. I rapid fire for 18 shots."

Demons

The entire army changes the way you play, messes with your deployment tactics, hits you with AP 3 templates, strength 8 super gods. I think they made the army specifically to through opponents off their game.

Nids

Carnifexes - The nid version of a tank, but with 4-5 structure points. And you better have brought AP 2 weapons or its like they have void shields too. Most people handle these with meltas or small arms fire, but if they get to close the fex can lock you in close combat unlike a tank.

Well that's enough for now. Rem member you can't account for these but they may highlight overall weaknesses in your army. Try and come up with alternative strategies on how your army would deal with game changers. How would it be different if you went for the tie instead of the win?

Rix

Fighting Your Fight

Every battle ends up with one side having had the advantage in the fight. That does not mean that the winner is predetermined, it just means that a series of inputs allowed one player to have the upper hand. How they exploited that advantage or how they maintained it is another mater entirely. Today I want to go over a number of reasons that a player can gain an advantage.

So lets get some simple ones out of the way. The following advantages you have no control over (or at least shouldn't):

• Mission/deployment selection
• Terrain
• Luck
• Opponents army list
• Opponents tactics

Next are pretty obvious ones:

• Your tactics - I'm sure that the netz are ablaze with info on the best tactics. Obviously more than I can fit into a bullet point. Me I just try not to fuck myself with stoopid tactics cause me not so smart sometimez.
  
• Your army list - This is what I love most about the game. You have to have a good army list if you plan on winning. This means you have to follow the fundamentals: lots of troops, use units that compliment your weaknesses, have a solution to compete in every type of mission, etc. This is an area that is very personal to the army, but again is more detail than I can go into in a bullet point.

So the final two are what I would like to discuss most and what I think are the most important in a battle:

• Your tactics vs. your opponents tactics
• Your army list vs. your opponents army list

These are really the fundamentals of the actual game play, and goes beyond just the simple planning. Its not just how you plan on winning the game, its how you plan on winning the game after you see what your opponent is gonna do. Its not just how good of a list it is but how well it stacks up to your opponents list. A good example is no matter how great your list is, if it is fundamentally weak against marines every time you fight marines you are gonna be at a disadvantage (and you may see more than one marine army in a tournament....)

The good news is the way to get an advantage in these match ups is to always, always "fight your fight." What this means is that your army list and your tactics are always designed to play a game the way you want to play it and that is how it wins. So following along that track here is some advice for achieving that.

Be balanced, or be REALLY good at something - A balanced list is key if you want to take all comers. A more flexible and balanced list will enable you to modify your tactics after you see what your opponent is going to do. The flip side to this is be the best at what you are gonna do. Usually this means a very shooty or a very assaulty army, but it may be a huge hoard army that is gonna swallow an opponent. What ever it is make sure you are the best, or intrinsically have a good fallback plan (OK maybe my Space Wolf assault force is not gonna beat 100 genestealers..... OK boys its back to bolters). This is really how you define "your fight" and sets you up for the advantage you expect to see.

Balance your list by bringing everyone to your level - Minimize your weaknesses using your army list. If you are a very shooty army, take units that murder transports that give you more time to shoot at them. If you are assaulty, take lots of strong transports that make sure your not legging it. If you are a balanced force, maximize your unit count so you have a lot left over after an attrition war. This is when you start to see your advantage take place during game play (e.g. you just unloaded your assaulty army in front of your opponent, your opponent is on the other side of the table and you have superior firepower, you have the numerical advantage after an attrition fight).

Bring a game changer - This is one of the more overlooked aspects of the game. Bring something that is gonna fundamentally change the way your opponent has to play. Put it out front and make sure he has to deal with it. What you are doing is putting you opponent on the back foot as they try to deal with this unstoppable Juggernaut, and all the while you are letting the rest of your army do what it does best (whatever that may be). This is where you are gonna maximise your advantages, either you break your opponents back with these or they have spent so much time dealing with these (or running away from them) that you are in a position to win the game. I will go into some ideas for these in a later post.

Find your tactical groove and stick to it (Unless you are gonna lose) - I played an assaulty space wolf force for a long time that deployed, moved, and assaulted the same way every game. It was a very feared, and was a great example of being REALLY good at something. It took awhile to get the list and the tactics in line but once they were, I wasn't afraid to use it over and over again. Remember that if you don't have a plan that has a good probability of winning when you show up than you are doing something wrong (even if your plan is to formulate your plan after you see your opponents, i.e. a balanced list). The only time you should change is when you see you are obviously outmatched (see 100 genestealers above), but if you find yourself doing that to much than you need to rethink your army list. This is how you make your advantages repeatable.

Rix

Trickonometry

Well, my Thousand Sons list is underway and I thought I'd take a moment to go over the army list and concept. Based heavily on an infantry gun-line, this is my second one-dimensional army and a major reason I started it was to really contrast with my mechanized-assault Nurgle army.

First, as a fluff purist I always try to adhere to the background first and optimize the killyness of an army second. Now the reason I chose the Thousand Sons for the army was that the two most interesting aspects of the 40k universe to me are the spirituality and the psychic themes. With my Dark Angel army satisfying the spirituality theme, I was left with trying to find an army that embodied the psychic theme. I was originally leaning towards creating a craftworld Ulthwe army, but after much consideration I decided that I really couldn't get behind an army of girly men (don't read into that). The exclusion of the eldar plus the fact that I just love Space Marines led me to humanity's greatest psykers, the Thousand Sons.

With that in mind, I wanted an all-Thousands Sons list that I based on Ahriman's exiled sorceror cabal. Based on the background the Thousand Sons are composed of only two types of marines, sorcerers and rubric marines. So with a whole two options open to me for army creation, I had to start getting creative or risk a creating a force that would be dead on arrival for competitive games. So I started browsing the intrawebz for some inspiration and found what everyone does on the internet, lots and lots of bad ideas and paint jobs. But there existed a gem among them, the usage of Terminator Sorcerer Lord models in a counts-as Obliterators fashion. This idea was the spark that chained into allowing me a a good chunk of the Chaos codex while still adhering to the fluff.

The magic counts-as weapons angle would allow me to take pretty much any infantry unit I wanted in the codex. So with that I started to build my army in earnest and ended up with the following list:

1500 point Chaos List
1 - Ahriman
1 - Pyromancer Coven (Chosen x5 w/ 3 Meltagun/3 Meltabomb)
2 - Rubric Squads x9 (Sorcerors w/ Gift of Chaos)
1 - Sorcerer Lord Coven (Obliterator x3)
2 - Warmage Coven (Havocs x5 w/ 4 Autocannons)

Now the modeling of this army was gonna be fun with making a lot of sorcerer conversions. Instead of painting up a lot of weaponry, I'd have to get creative in making dynamic poses for sorcerers mid-cast. Seeing as how I'm not yet half-way through the army I'll wait until I'm finished to go into further detail on the modeling and painting aspect (with plenty of pictures). However, the ability to easily change army composition by simply switching the counts-as components makes this a very fluid army design.

Having played only one game against Rix, I can't really speak a whole lot about the effectiveness of the army. But I can say that based on it's composition alone, I foresee this army being really good in some circumstances and sucking bad in others. For instance, I loaded up on autocannons to pop rhinos so I could in turn give the AP3 bolters plenty of marines to kill. The inclusion of up to 7 Gift of Chaos attempts per turn also provides a lot assault countering ability. However, I imagine the army will fall victim easily to Walker Assaults (DS-ing Dreads) and Mass Firepower (hello IG!). I've tried to mitigate these factors as best I can but due to the expensive point costs of the units I really can't counter all army types. So I'm just embracing the inherent strength this army provides (coincidentally against all Rix's armies) and ignoring its weaknesses (I mean really, who plays IG? :P).

Hopefully, I will finish this army up in the next two months in time for the blood feud wars I will surely have with Rix's Space Wolves on their codex release. Until then, I guess the only thing to post is the many victories I will claim over Rix's Imperial Fists. :P

I'm Back Baby

After playing 40k over the last two weekends, its official I'm back. 40k has starting infecting my mind. I start mentally trading off adding storm bolters to my command squad instead of that extra rhino my devastators never lose. I have multiple bids on ebay. I can feel my avarice toward social situations rising. Like a bad 80's werewolf movie, the nerd in me is breaking through.

The focus of so much of my attention.....my Imperial Fists. Not only is it a challenge to paint, but building a viable force inside of codex company is very challenging to say the least. I am an assault player, my mind always wanders toward rhino assaults and frag grenades. Trying to keep my wolves in check with tactical combat squads......grrrr. My army goal is a half codex company, with no armory or specialist attachments. That means no terminators, librarians, land raiders, land speeders....nothing.

My planned army force will consist of:

Commander and Command Squad
3 x Tactical squads
1 x Assault Squad
1 x Devastator Squad
1 x Dreadnought

Fun, right?

Rix

Hurumph

I am writing this post in protest. As my co-writer informed me I have not posted for an exceedingly long time. Mostly because I have been trying desperately to avoid all things 40k for a while. Not because I am done with 40k but I am trying to keep myself interested.

As I finished my last squad, a group of Alpha Legion cultist conversions, I felt my interest in 40k waning. I just couldn't bring myself to pick up a paint brush. At the same time I received my last bits necessary to assemble my 2nd Emperor's Fist Tac squad. On one hand I was excited on the other I had no energy. I decided the best thing possible was a long vacation.

Enter Bioshock....

Never being an early adopter I decided to play Bioshock, mostly because it was only 20 dollars on steam. What a great game!!!! It was the first game in a long time that I found myself completely immersed. I find myself looking over my shoulder because of the great audio effects (lots and lots of creepy voices). I find myslef rushing in rooms mouselooking wildly becasue I am so nervous about being snuck up on. In addition to the immersion factor, the weapons and abilities have enough customization to have some RPG aspect to it. It has all the elements that I have never felt like it was a grind when I play, but am not running back home in the afternoons that I HAVE to play it (i.e. WOW, WAR, Portal).

As I come close in on beating the game I have felt the familiar siren song back to 40k, so hopefully my vacation mission was accomplished. I will let you know after this weekend after I tear some pathetic Nurgle army a new arsehole.

Rix

Join Us...

Well, my Nurgle army is pretty much done and as you can see it features a metric crap-tonne of zombies (70 models). I originally did not intend for this army to become a huge zombie host but Nurgle must've guided my thoughts and that's where I ended up.

It all started when Rix and I were driving back from a tourney a little over a month ago. I was starting to yearn for a more H2H army that I couldn't really get with my Dark Angel Battle Company. So Rix and I starting having a discussion about me starting my Nurgle Black Legion Army back up (it had been on hiatus for many years). We came up with a preliminary list and I got to work pulling my old models out and modeling new ones. At that time, the list featured a squad or two of lesser daemons but they were almost an afterthought.

As my modeling and painting went along, I finally got to the point where I needed to stand up those lesser daemon squads. I needed 21 daemons total and I only had 10 plague bearers in my bits-rumaging box. Now I'm not a big fan of metal models and I did not want to have to drop a bunch of money for 2 more boxes of plague bearers so I decided to use some zombies in a counts-as fashion from a left over zombie regiment box and old cadian squad box.

Now, I've never been much of a speed painter and I was always perplexed by how people stood up horde armies under any sort of timetable but these zombies sure enlightened me. In fact, I daresay I went a little overboard and was borderline addicted. You see, I gave myself a whole weekend to model and paint the 3 squads I needed for my army. After the first half of the first day I worked on them they were done. The sense of productivity I felt was intoxicating, so like any sort of drugged-up junkie I went and bought another box of zombies. Rix also supplied the habit with his leftovers from another zombie regiment box he had. At the end of this frenzy and 1 full days work I had another 7 squads of zombies bringing my total to 10 7-man squads.

Here's the results of my 1 month bender:

Full Army


Zombies


Plague Marines and Transports


HQ's and Wound Counters

At some point along the way, I did the maths and figured out that I'd have to run a 2000 point list just to fit in all the zombies I wanted. So, that's exactly what I played against Rix when he next came over to my house. It was an objective based game and the details of the game may or may not be covered in a different post because I don't have the time to post them here. However, I will say Rix got donkey punched by the zombie horde. After playing and list-tailoring against my Dark Angels for so long, he simply didn't bring enough guns or bullets to deal with the endless tide of dead.

All-in-all, this army was a blast to paint and I'm sure I will have a lot of fun playing it more in the future. I learned a lot more about the usage and effects of washes but most importantly I learned how to turn out a horde quickly.

Next Project: Thousand Sons Strike Force or Finish the Cathedral Board

More Ramblings on Dual Use

I had another idea that I had to put up here. A friend of mine was investigating putting together a Thousand Son army. In conversation about how to create the army we came up with idea of painting up alot of sorcerers and using them as special and heavy weapon troopers. I just think that's a great idea from a fluff perspective, but from a modeling perspective it would make all your troopers a kind of internal dual use. You wouldn't need to worry about modeling missile launchers, lascannons, and meltaguns and swapping them out if you want to change out weapons. Just give them different sets of posses so that you can distinguish them on the battlefield and you can write as many different lists with them as you want.

Dual Use Armies

I am often very interested in creating an army that can be "Dual Use." The idea is that you create an army that can be used for two different codices. Often my ideas have centered around adding an imperial guard contingent to space marine forces. In a perfect world I would have enough money to create a steel legion army.


They look great. They are darkly Gothic. Organized enough to work as regular gaurdsman but menacing enough to look like they could be chaos. I would play them as auxiliary units to both my Wolves and Alpha Legionaries. But then I realize that forgeworld is ass-expensive and I would probably pay more in shiping than a normal army costs.

A friend of mine beat me to the punch on this though, he used warhammer zombies to create A LOT of "counts as" lesser demons (like 70 of them). After creating so many he decided to try them out as plaguebearers in a codex demon army. I haven't played against it yet, I will be interested to play against it.

Some other interesting ideas have been popping into my head, though, about how to get more out of some of my units. I recently purchased a renegade militia conversion pack to make a squad of cultists.



I used them as "counts as" for lesser demons. Works great with the fluff as Alpha Legion are alot more likely to utilize cultists than demons (I gotta give credit, though, it was a random guy at a tournament that gave me the idea). While doing it I wondered if I couldn't expand the force and create a renegade guard army and supped them as cultists for my larger Alpha Legion force. I might have to do more investigation to see what that army would like.

Rix