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

Painting at the Ragged Edge

I have always waxed and waned in my 40k habit. I started playing 15 some years ago and have probably picked up and put down the hobby 5 distinct times. It is what I love about the hobby because it always has something to come back to and my models are relatively timeless. I think I might be on my last legs of this run. I am just having a tough time staying interested in painting.

This current push started when I closed my Warhammer Online account early in the year. I made a conscious effort to improve on my Chaos army. In that time I have accomplished the following tasks:

• Finished painting two noise marine squads
• Painted two chosen squads (one heavily converted CC squad and one all melta squad)
• Painted a possessed squad
• Expanded my 'nilla CSM squads from one squad and some change to two full ten man squads
• Added two rhinos and a vindicator (previous incarnation of this army had no vehicles)
• Modeled and painted 2 out of 3 objective markers
• Painted a squad of plaguebearers
  
• Touched up and sealed all of the army

Quite an impressive feat if I do say so myself. On top of everything mentioned above I am currently working on the following items:

• My 3rd objective marker
  
• A terminator squad modeled and based
• A cultist squad modeled and based
• A squad of demonettes modeled and based
  

The issue now is that I am just having a tough time finding the motivation to finish the army. My goal is to push through the cultists and maybe the terminators and put down the paintbrush for a while.

Rix

Diversity In Your Gaming Space

Results from the tournament are in…..I didn’t win. Not a big surprise, but I would have liked to have seen a little more details on how I placed overall. Biggest comment: I need to get out more. I defiantly felt the pain of playing against the same army over and over again in my casual games.

Game 1 – Dark Eldar
Results: Loss
This guy was really nice and fun to play against. He had an unpainted and not completely modeled army, but it didn’t bother me because he was so casual. We played a table corner kill point game. I chock this loss up to my own ignorance more than his tactical brilliance. The first thing is my setup was flawed….I completely didn’t account for dark shields. He was able to take out a lot of my anti-armor threats before he moved into range. Next was my lack of focus fire. I probably shot on 3-5 different squads in the early game, when I should have been shooting till completion. Last thing is we spent a lot of time looking up rules, and we ended up hitting the round time at turn 3. This really hurts my army, I run a shooting army so I am never going to win in one turn, I always need time to let my shooting work.
Game MVPs:

• Chosen – I caveat this by saying they never shot, and died trying to bury their noses in the ground. But regardless of their output they always sit on the board as 150 points of “Gotta Deal with Me” on a flank somewhere. They accounted for diverting half of the assaulting force just so I didn’t get around the back of my enemies transports.
• Demon Prince – He countercharged 10 Wyches and killed over half of them in two turns. Warptime >>> Lash of Submission, nuff said.
  

Poorest Performers:

• Vindicator – Taken out first turn....and it only took one shot

Game 2 – Eldar
Results: Win
He walked in thinking he was gonna lose….self-fulfilling prophesy. This was an objective based game, one in his deployment zone one in mine. I surprised myself by realizing that as an elder he could run the entire table to my objective but I would never get to his if it was far away. I set my objective as close to his as possible. I set around my objective and waited for his initial push. My game plan (for most of the tournament actually) was to wait for the first push, let it break over my shooting, then counter-push late game. He ran at me haphazardly, and I tore him up with my shooting. His striking scorpion infiltrators were murdered by noise marines, obliterators and a CSM bolter line. He then unloaded his transports with fire dragons, howling banshees, and his independent characters. Again they got murdered by shooting, mostly plasma cannons rocking on tightly packed troops. At the end, with his back broke, I secured my objective and ran a suicide run of a vindicator and a rhino to contest his.
Game MVPs:

• Obliterators – Plasma cannons rock

Poorest Performers:

• Vindicator – Scattered off with the first shot, got killed after. He seems to be underperforming.

Game 3 – Marines
Results: Win
This guy was cool, but was on the wrong end of a 20 hour gaming marathon. He played with a lot of troops, a lot of assault marines, predators and dreadnaughts. It was a dawn of war setup for kill points. I set up in a defensive position and let him come at me. By the end of the second turn I had almost my entire army was in position, he had very little on the table. As his army came on piece meal, I was able to hit his transports and force him to run. Then I was able to break him down with templates, even if the opponent is spread out, these rock. Especially when they are at least AP 3 like mine are. I broke him down till he capitulated, probably because he would have rather been sleeping, but I had him pretty much beat.
Game MVPs:

• Noise Marines – They killed transports, chopped out holes in marine squads, and then even pinned them. And that was just one weapon….when they get in close the sonic blasters are like supper bolters.
  
• Chosen – came in from the side killed fools with meltas and then locked up another squad.

Poorest Performers:

• CSM squads – Didn’t really do anything, that’s tough at 600 points total. I guess they would have done a lot more if he got closer, but you always like to see 255 of your force actually contribute.

I’m not sure if I will update this list because I doubt I will be playing a lot of 2250 lists. The only thing I am iffy about is my vindicator. He was always meant to be a close gun support on the defense or a column head on the offense. With my new wait out an attack and push later strategy I doubt that I will be using him as a column head. He seemed a little to fragile to really pump out fire support. It’s surprising because I have seen them used to great effect by other people.

Rix

If You Can't Smell Your Own......

I am heading out to the local battle bunker this Saturday for a 40k tournament. Its 2250 in one force organization and no super-heavies. I have been working feverishly to paint the odd models to finish out the list. I think I might take a break from painting after I finish this off.....but we'll see.

I am bringing my Alpha Legion army. It is mostly undivided but they have fallen a little toward Slaanesh. One day I will post some fluff about this army. The list looks like this:

2250 Pts - Chaos Marines Roster - Xeshinish's Balance

Kit'makardarr the Betrayor (1#, 160 Pts)
1 Daemon Prince @ 160 Pts
Close Combat Weapon; Fearless; Wings; Mark of Slaanesh; Warptime (x1)

Xeshinish Master of the Ritual (1#, 145 Pts)
1 Chaos Terminator Sorceror @ 145 Pts
Force Weapon (x1); Combi-melta; Lash of Submission; Mark of Slaanesh

Squad Tremellius (4#, 160 Pts)
4 Terminators @ 160 Pts
Chain Fist (x1); Power Weapon (x3); Twin Linked Bolter (x3); Reaper Autocannon (x1)

Squad Mlivantus (5#, 155 Pts)
4 Chosen @ 155 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x4); Bolter (x1); Close Combat Weapon (x4); Meltagun (x3); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate
1 Aspiring Champion @ [53] Pts
Bolt Pistol (x1); Meltagun; Power Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate

Squad Graviticus (11#, 290 Pts)
9 Chaos Space Marines @ 290 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [60] Pts
Combi-melta; Twin Linked Bolter; Extra Armor; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

Squad Allectus (11#, 295 Pts)
9 Chaos Space Marines @ 295 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [65] Pts
Combi-melta; Twin Linked Bolter; Daemonic Possession; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

Squad Olcinius (6#, 215 Pts)
5 Noise Marines @ 215 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Blastmaster; Bolter (x1); Sonic Blaster (x3); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Fearless; Personal Icon; Mark of Slaanesh
1 Noise Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs; Fearless; Mark of Slaanesh

Squad Gracchus (6#, 215 Pts)
5 Noise Marines @ 215 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Blastmaster; Bolter (x1); Sonic Blaster (x3); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Fearless; Personal Icon; Mark of Slaanesh
1 Noise Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs; Fearless; Mark of Slaanesh

Plaguebearers (7#, 91 Pts)
7 Summoned Lesser Daemon @ 91 Pts
Close Combat Weapon; Fearless

Squad Volcatius (3#, 225 Pts)
3 Obliterators @ 225 Pts
Power Fist; Obliterator Weapons; Show Weapon Stats; Fearless; Lascannon; Linked Flamer; Linked Meltagun; Linked Plasmagun; Multi-Melta; Plasma Cannon; Slow and Purposeful

Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 140 Pts)
1 Vindicator @ 140 Pts
Demolisher Cannon; Dozer Blade; Extra Armor; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

Heavy Support: Obliterators (2#, 150 Pts)
2 Obliterators @ 150 Pts
Power Fist; Obliterator Weapons; Fearless; Slow and Purposeful

Total Roster Cost: 2241

Before I go any farther, I have to talk about my plaguebearers. My Alpha Legion Army is an army that has Slaaneshi leanings. I started doing this because troop choices in the New Codex are tough. I have been attempting to buy some demonettes for some time but wanted to get the OOP metal ones. In their place in the army I have thrown in some plaguebears, and will replace them as soon as I have painted deamonettes. I do not believe in mixing chaos sects.

I am thinking about painting up some Plague Marines and changing over to a Nurgle leaning army (he was always my favorite). But thats for another post.......

Rix

Flavors of Heroin

So since this blog is mostly about MY addiction I guess I should start off with my armies. I currently have 3 playable 40k armies and another under development. I think that is pretty respectable....problem is that I have an eye to expand them all to much larger forces.

Space Wolves

This was my first love. Back when I was in high school I worked in a store that sold gaming products (D&D, MTG, Warhammer and others). During downtime the boss actually encouraged us to read the material so we could sell it better (man! he was a great boss). I loved 40k the moment I started reading the fluff. But the army I most liked was Space Wolves. A bunch of drunken bad asses, with fangs tearing through the galaxy tearing peoples faces off.....whats not to like? I currently have about 3k points, but unfortunately they are all kitted out with 3rd and 4th edition wargear. I have a goal to expand to a great company, but I don't think I will be doing to much with them till I see a new codex (btw).

Alpha Legion

Remember that awsome Chaos Space Marine codex where you had to pick which of the legions you were going to play as? I do to. I spent damn near a month deciding which of the legions I wanted to play. Death Guard (I do love pappa nurgle), Word Bearers (faith based initiatives), Night Lords (terror as a weapon...yes please). I decided on Alpha Legion, hell I even painted an ass load of cultists. The new codex is an epic fail but I still enjoy my purple monsters (oh and WTF GW, changing the damn color scheme....don't get me started). I have about 3k of them to and are the current focus of expansion.

Tomorrow, my other two armies.....................

Rix