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