THE 512th CADIAN

New Year, New Knights

2012-01-26T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here at the Cadian 512^th blog, we’ve begun 2012 fresh in anticipation of February. No Wednesday Night Gaming for this month of Jan as real life concerns have gotten in the way, but as soon as next month rolls along the Campaign games will resume anew.

In the meantime, I’ve been slowly beavering away ‘refurbishing’ my Grey Knights.

For readers who remember, a chance bid on the Bay of Ecastasy resulted in me picking up a brand-spanking almost new army! It surprises me how many GK players (band-wagon jumpers or not) picked up what has been arguably GW’s biggest sales release for a while, bought the presumed auto-win armies, sprayed them silver, then dumped them when they got bored.

As a result of these quick paintjobs that I have inherited, I resolved to paint my GK models an ‘angelic’ white, figuring them for White Knights of the 41^st Millenium. In many ways this was brought about by my reluctance to go all-silver as per Codex, and that mutually we here at Wednesday Night Gaming have very colour-coded armies, e.g. my IG are black and grey, Laur’s Marines are Ultra-blue, and Nid’s Pink with white, and Doug has yellow & black Orks, with Red Khornate Chaos Space Marines.

I had initially considered Green, or maybe even just Black to tie in with my IG, but I embraced White, and boy is it a struggle! White is a tough colour to paint on, relying on coats upon coats of the colour, and very often with my lack of finesse, sometimes looks caked-on, even having a stone-like texture.

I start by re-undercoating the models White, touch up the paint with White, then have a Chaos-Black wash to fill up the recesses and bring contrast and shadow to the models. Then I go over it again with 2 more coats of White, while colouring up the rest of the model a la traditional Codex scheme, e.g. Black weaponry, gold highlights and trim, some red & blue here and there. So far, so 4 months on, here are the ‘finished’ results:

Strike Squad

Strike Squad (Extra members)

Purgation Squad

Terminator Squad

I’m really proud of the Electric Blue weaponry that my GK's wield, despite it looking nowhere near as good as the Codex. Still, from a gamer’s poV, it’s a better than average TableTop quality!

With the exception of the Purgation Squad which I built straight from sprue, all my other models are mostly as-builts purchased, and repainted, to the models you see today.

I’ll just say I like my Knights to have ‘White-Marbled’ armour, and leave it at that, as I still have plenty more to paint..

Piece of the Puzzle

2011-12-23T03:07:00.000-08:00

I’ve been busy scouring the Internet, trawling over at the Bay of Ecstasy and rummaging through the piles of bitz websites to put together my vision of Grandmaster Mordrak, the Haunted Knight.

Some are pretty good, some sublime, and some... okay,

Apart from the fluff description, GW has given no artwork or released a model for Mordrak, so it’s up to us Grey Knight players to use our imagination and piece him together ourselves in a way that would fit our vision. However, dear readers, I present to you this:

Exhibit A

The artwork for the ‘standard’ Grey Knight grandmaster is using the rarest of Inquisitorial weaponry, the 2-handed hammer! While the GK plastic terminator kit is designed with enough bits and customisation options to create Librarians, Psycannon-equipped Inquisitors, or even other Grandmasters, there is degree of skill involved to convert a 2-handed hammer, namely swapping a hammer bit with that of a halberd. And to those eagle-eyed amongst you, the hammer itself has an Iron Halo of it’s own, so I’ll be able to produce one using the same method from the tutorial I made earlier. Easy-peasy!

The aforementioned piece of artwork, along with the following bitz that captured my attention below, has spurred my imagination on:

Dark Angel hooded Sergeant Head

Chaos Terminator chain skirt with skull

Chaos Terminator skull-head shoulder pad (this one took me ages to find, and eventually buy)

These pieces gave me the idea of the ‘haunted armour’-feel that I wish my Mordrak model to have, my aim is to have the model covered in a fine balance of Skulls as to not look so –‘Chaos’-y, but just enough to make you think he might be on the verge of tipping over in his quest for vengeance to silence the Ghosts that haunt him.

That and the double-handed master-crafted hammer I intend for him to have. Sweet!

So I have now managed to put all the pieces together in one big pile, as follows:

And now with my leftover Terminator bitz, I’m aiming to put together my version of Mordrak as a 2-handed hammer (with Halo)-wielding warrior monk, in haunted armour, around Xmas time.

To be continued...

Wotan’s Night Campaign – First Tier Report

2011-12-19T06:52:00.000-08:00

We finally finished off the last game of the first tier, Grey Knights vs. Space Marines.

THE GAME

Rosters as before:

Laur’s Sternguard with Rhino taxi, Jump-pack equipped assault squad & scouts were up against my Strike & Purgation squad both in razorback taxis. However, this time my Psilencer-carrying Purgationeers were Relentless!

We rolled off and got Dawn of War...

Here was the result:

1^st TIER – BATTLE 01

Grey Knights Vs. Space Marines: I stole the Initiative and went first, result was a Grey Knight victory (2 Killpoints over 1 Killpoints)

Deployment: Laur deployed his scouts dead centre of the board in cover, hoping to use his Stealth USR to give himself a 3+ cover save while sniping my men and their taxis, hoping to shred them with Rending. Laur’s Sternguard were hidden away in a Rhino partially obscured to grant him a cover save, with Deepstriking Assault Squad to enter the fray later. Not wanting to get shot to sh!t, I elected to reserve all my guys and was surprised to find myself successfully stealing the Initiative. Why I had not chosen to have my men roll out my 1^st turn I still do not know why, but after skipping the first round mutually, my men started to come on the board.

Highlights:

Purgation squad’s taxi zoomed ahead first and deployed the GK’s out of sight. They let rip with their now-Relentless Psilencers and with 9 saves having to be made, I killed 3 of Laur’s scouts, a good round of rolling! He was (un)pleasantly surprised to learn his Stealth USR counted for nothing from Astral Aim, hence an accusation of Codex Cheese! Was lodged and duly noted, but hey what can I do about that?

The Purgation squad’s lazer-taxi got immobilised then blown up in an assault. Surprisingly only 1 of my Purgation squad was killed by the S4 blast (having got back on after the round of shooting), but the S3 blast ended up forcing Laurence to roll 5 saves for his Sternguard, and lost 3!

Jump pack squad arrived by Deep Strike, my Strike Squaddies hadn’t managed to get Warp Quake off as they weren’t on board yet, so an opportunity wasted there. They helped blow up my Lascannon razortaxi, but lost 2 guys from a round of shooting from my newly-arrived Strike Squad, and the remaining Sternguard were wiped out having to make another 9 saves from massed Psilencer-fire.

Laur’s Scouts were shot by my TL heavy psybolters, losing another and resulting in his last scout running away, regrouping, and hiding for the rest of the game.

His remaining Assault Squad members (3 of them) charged into my Purgation squad, but surprise surprise! After 2 rounds of combat, I didn’t lose a single guy and he lost the remains of the squad. I note it didn’t help the first round of combat he forgot to factor in his extra charge attacks. The 2^nd round of combat he forgot his Sergeant had an extra attack, but the game had progressed so far on from these events this ‘schoolboy error’ proved irrecoverable. I note Laurence failed to contact with his ‘to-hit’ assault rolls, only occasionally forcing the odd save here and there. On my part, my Purgationeers pistol-whipped the assault squad into submission although my Justicar wiped himself out on a double-1’s Perils of the Warp roll activating Hammerhands, and yes, stranger things have happened (e.g. in a past game a 4-wound power sword Captain charged into a 10-men shotgun vet squad, fluffled all his rolls and was killed in return)

My taxi-fire was pretty underwhelming. A few rounds of shooting with twin-linked psybolters and lascannons only resulted in an immobilised and weapon destroyed result for his single Rhino by the end of the game, but again with enough time I would’ve wiped that out too.

Once Laur lost his Assault Squad, he wished to concede the game and cut his losses. With enough time I would’ve definitely wiped out his last 2 units for the last 2 killpoints, as my Purgation squad would’ve killed off his last scout despite being out of sight, and his Rhino was literally a sitting duck with nothing to fire at me, or even scratch my last Psy-back taxi with a fresh squad of GK Strikers.

Summary: In the first game of this tier, Dougie had pretty bad luck. In the 2^nd game of this tier, my shooting and assault rolls were piss-poor, so I had pretty bad luck. In this last game, Laur’s assault rolls and armour saves were really, really bad.

So bad luck does move around in a complete circle!

It was a bit weird that my attempts to list-fu the others with a longer reach (lascannon) never came into fruition, but my now Relentless Purgation Squad was now the MVP of the game considering I was going to drop them off my army roster in the next tier for a more points-efficient Psyfleman Dread.

VETERAN ABILITIES

The overall rewards now stand as follows:

Space Marines – Rhino (Ability to ignore Shaken results), Scout Squad (Fearless)

Chaos Space Marines – Chaos Space Marines Squad(Furious Charge & Counter Attack), Chosen Squad (Tank Hunters)

Grey Knights – Purgation Squad (Relentless, Tank Hunters), Strike Squad (Hit & Run)

As Laur’s Scout squad lost over 50% of it’s unit strength, his Night Vision/Acute Senses vet ability was lost as per the BRB’s Veteran Abilities rules. In turn, he re-rolled and gained Fearless! (which again, he wasn’t too thrilled by). It seems likely the Scouts are going to be the first thing to go in the next tier roster.

Having won my game, I rolled for a Strike Squad and gained Hit & Run, which I suppose is more useful in a halberd-heavy melee build, which I will consider for the next tier. After having witnessed the ‘bogging-down’ attritrion style warfare of dice-rolling between MEQ’s, any advantage would be most welcome! I will be able to disengage from combat with a more bulked-up squad, pump fire back into my attackers and re-charge them to gain the extra dice I will need.

My ‘Relentless’ Purgation Squad is now worth taking in the next tier. Combined their new Tank Hunters veteran ability with Psybolt ammunition as an upgrade, and re-equip them with Psycannons I now have a squad capable of pumping out effectively strength 9 shots (S8 + 1 during armour penetration) at other Rhinos, behind cover without needing LOS. W00t!

Needs moar dakka

That’s 16 shots (relentless, not counting Justicar’s stormbolter), hitting 10.66 times, glancing 8.88 times / penetrating 7.1 times (Rhino front/side being AV 11). Them’s very, very good odds and without a doubt a shoe-in for them to be included in my following games next tier!

THAT’S A WRAP

Last year we ended 2010 with a mega-Apoc game in progress. This year we’ve closed 2011 with our first foray into a Campaign game. We hope to build up to the Grand Finale in the early quarter of 2012, so thank you for reading & happy holidays to all!

Wotan’s Night Campaign – Draft First Report

2011-12-12T08:39:00.000-08:00

We had our first night on campaign, fighting battles of Tier 1 from the campaign aid. This was to be the preliminary engagement over the Frost Plains of the world of Wotan’s Night, where our mutual forces would jockey for an early advantage and test out the Veteran Abilities rules from the BRB.

We only managed to fight 2 of the 3 games from this first tier, 400-point Combat Patrol being fast, furious, but still taking roughly over an hour each filled with the usual rules checking, messing around, checking LOS, toilet/smoke breaks, squabbling, etc.

THE GAMES

Here are our army rosters:

Click to embiggen

Laur went with a roster relying upon the cheapest troop from his codex (Scouts), followed by a pimped-up Sternguard Squadron, and a jump-pack assault squad for flexibility.

Dougie went for 2 squads of Chaos in Rhinos, one of which is 6no. troops with increased toughness due to the Mark of Nurgle, something he never usually picks! The other unit is a squad of 5 Chosen, armed to the teeth with Plasma guns.

I went for the long range game, choosing 2 Razorbacks, one with TL lascannon, the other in the Psyrazor format (Heavy bolter with psybolt ammo). I had to take 1 troop unit of SS grey knights, but have opted to experiment with a unit of Purgation Squad, hoping to use their bullet-curving abilities to get those cheaper Psilencers spammed out and hopefully out of sight when shooting.

We each rolled off, Space Marines had the highest roll, followed by Chaos Space Marines and my trusty Grey Knights at the last. The loser of the first battle would play against Grey Knights (to keep things fair in terms of the inherited Veteran Abilities), who in turn will fight the winner at the last.

Space Marines (Laur) was up against Chaos (Dougie), and thus Grey Knights (me) played against Chaos.

Here were the following results (so far):

1^st TIER – BATTLE 01

1st game - Space Marines Vs. Chaos Space Marines: SM had the 1^st go, result was a SM victory (3 Killpoints over 1 Killpoints)

Summary: Both players made ‘schoolboy errors’ such as trying to shoot from a Rhino that had moved at cruising, or failing to gain enough reach when firing a Rapid Fire weapon at assault range. However, Laur had sh!t-hot rolling, producing 5’s and 6’s on demand, with the Scouts and Sternguard popping Rhinos and mowing down marines like nobody’s business. He did have to sacrifice the Jump Pack squad initially, but all in all it was a decisive victory to the Space Marines when Laur’s luck trumped over Dougie’s.

2nd game - Grey Knights Vs. Chaos Space Marines: GK had the 1^st go, result was a tie (2 Killpoints to 2 Killpoints). Due to campaign rules, we rolled off and Dougie won the Dice roll, counting as a Victory.

Summary: I thought my plan to keep Chaos at bay and use my lascannon and psybolt fire to pop his taxis, and mop up with psilencer fire was a good one. Alas it turned out so differently, as my luck was as bad as Dougie’s on his 1^st game, and his luck was as good as Laur’s..

Despite a good torrent of fire from my Razorbacks, every cover save however minute was passed by Doug, and every penetrating hit resulted in just shaken or weapon destroyed effects. At a crucial moment when the 1^st Rhino was popped, I killed 2 of the 6-strong squad in shooting and charged in expecting to do some damage but didn’t inflict a single hit, thus losing 2 of my own in the process. Dougie’s Chosen came running in and helped out the charge, and I lost my Grey Knight Squad.

But at least my Purgation squad was well-hidden and I sprayed away with Psilencer and Stormbolter shot. Of the 26 possible shots, I scored 16 hits (just below average), 8 wounds (exactly half), but he saved every save. D’oh!

It didn’t help that Purgation squad Psilencers are heavy (I considered Psycannons for the Assault profile, but was hoping weight of dice numbers would do me well), so they only shot once in the whole game which was a huge drawback. My Razorbacks got charged and 1 blew up, so the game was a definite tie with me having popped his taxis, him popping one of mine and wiping out my Strike Squad.

VETERAN ABILITIES

Using the Veteran Abilities ruleset from the BRB, the winners of each game was allowed to upgrade 2 surviving units with random abilities, the loser just 1.

The overall rewards as follows:

Space Marines – Rhino (Ability to ignore Shaken results), Scout Squad (Night Vision/Acute Senses)

Chaos Space Marines – Chaos Space Marines (Furious Charge & Counter Attack), Chosen (Tank Hunters_

Grey Knights – Purgation Squad (Relentless)

As I had only ‘lost’ my only game, I was allowed to upgrade a single surviving squad and received ‘Relentless’ for my efforts! Thus, my Purgation Squad now have the ability to sling their Psilencers when loading/off-loading from their Razorback taxi. Woohoo!

Dougie's Chaos Space Marine squad has become a real beast of a veteran unit, with their stackable combat abilities. Laur's vets are perhaps a little less fearsome. That's the roll of the dice for you.

Looking forward to our last game of this initial tier, and the last game of the year, and am hoping my now-relentless Purgation squad make it through the next tier. I know Purgation Squads are rarely ever taken in GK lists (Psyfleman being more points-competitive), but now with Relentless (totally free!) they may just be worth it. Maybe they’ll even shoot more than once! Maybe..

To be continued...

Wednesday Night Gaming: 3-Player Campaign

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here at Wednesday Night Gaming, we’re big fans of the Broken Alliance 3-player battle setup, as there are 3 of us in the group, this being me (Imperial Guard, Grey Knights), Dougie (Orks, Chaos Space Marines) and Laur (Space Marines, Tau, Tyranids).

While in most of our games 2 of us face off, with the odd one out invigilating, setting up the terrain and/or doing some painting on the sidelines and resolving rules queries, but all in all we do enjoy the anarchy and fun factor when it comes to the brilliant 3-player battles, especially the randomised game turn which is prone to abuse, with hilarious results.

Lately we’ve been noticing something missing in our games. We’ve been busy playing each other, adapting, list tailoring, but we’ve noticed a stagnation, a lack of development if you will.

That in mind, I was flipping through the BRB and noticed other alternative scenarios and aspects of the game I hadn’t realised was there, lurking in the background being cheerfully ignored. Particularly the rules for ‘Veteran Abilities’ (pg. 262 BRB) and the idea of going on campaign for our troops and units to gain experience, each victory and defeat adding a new element to subsequent battles.

A campaign we will embark on!

OFF ON CAMPAIGN

The rules in the BRB for going on campaign using the standard mission scenarios and deployment set-ups were clear, concise and easy to apply. It’s easy to see how this will work in a 2-player setup, but then... Someone will miss out in our group of 3!

How to apply the BRB campaign basic rules in a 3-player setting?

The best way I felt to achieve this was to have a total of 3 battles per ‘tier’, where each player individually has faced each other once. Each tier takes place in the respective locations, with the terrain set up to model the locations as accurately as possible, as per the following battle map:

Each player commits to a list per battle tier, without making any changes to the army roster per tier to ensure the game is fair* to all, AND to encourage more generic ‘take-all comers’ lists.

* the exception being the Veteran abilities, which carry over from each battle to battle, unless of course the army roster is changed so significantly the Veterans ‘disappear’ and cannot be brought back. If you don’t use ‘em you lose ‘em!

The results are then tallied, and we end up with a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd placing, which in turn gains respective victory rewards.

So basically just like in the rulebook, each game is played then replayed 3-times to determine rankings which affect the later games. The major tweak I’ve made is introducing Combat Patrol and changing the final game.

After each battle we give any surviving veterans abilities as per the rulebook. The rest is adapting the streamlined campaign rules from the book, and adding in new elements for the rewards like ‘Strategic Assets’ from the Apocalypse rulebook, just to mix things up a bit.

To justify the ‘rankings’ and reconcile this notion with the BRB setup, the overall 1^st-place winners are deemed the ‘Attackers’, while the 3^rd-placings become the ‘Defenders’. The 2^nd-placings are the ‘Saboteurs’, and all the victory rewards have been amended to reflect this.

The final battle will be fought Broken Alliance-style to determine the ultimate winner of the campaign.

So without further adieu, here is the campaign aid I've produced for our upcoming games:

>Click on image to embiggen<

The idea is that the World of Wotan’s Night (see what I did there?) is a frozen hive world strategically important to the Ultramarines 4^th Company. Chaos Space Marine renegades have sought to reclaim this world for the Dark Gods, while a strike cruiser of Grey Knights returning from a successful daemonic repulsion are on-route to wipe out both sides to elimate all traces of the taint of Chaos...

The 1^st battle tier takes place tonight, a night of Combat Patrol games for the Wednesday Night Gamers.

Wish us luck and let us know what you think about the Campaign Aid!

Wenesday Night Gaming: ORKS GALORE! Plus, a query.

2011-12-05T04:23:00.000-08:00

Last week I had a game with Dougie, pitting my Ghostwing against his (dusty) Orks. Dougie fancied a change from his usual Chaos outings, so out came the Green Tide from the shelves and onto the tabletop. So follows a mini-batrep...

Note: There’s a rules query that puzzled us here at Wednesday Gaming Night, calling all Grey Knights and Ork enthusiasts for assistance! (scroll to bottom if you want to skip the mini-batrep)

Here were the lists:

Envy the tide of green!

We both took our ‘take-on-all comers’ lists, with some tweaks (e.g. double psyfleman for me and Interceptors, to replace a squad of Termies and give me flexibility, 2 squads of Killa Kans for Doug) and had a bash. We rolled off and again, the game was Seize Ground + Dawn Of War, just like my last game with him, with the objectives right in the middle! Dougie went first, and it was no surprise to anyone that his Orky models outnumber mine over 3-to-1.

THE RESULT

In short, it was a fun game where we both rolled loads of dice, and the game dragged on to Turn 7 in which I was completely wiped out, and Dougie had his Lootas, Tankhuntas, and a squad of Boyz left sitting on 1 objective. Dougie’s consistent dice rolling, and numerous bodies ultimately won the day.

Had the game ended on Turn 5 or 6, I would’ve won but alas them’s the breaks!

THE HIGHLIGHTS

All in all it was a fair, and fun game with the following Orktastic highlights:

1. Zogwort failed his Psychic test on the 1^st turn, rolling double 6’s.

2. Zogwort managed to turn my Librarian into a Squig. D’oh!

3. Lootas, Tankbustas and a squad of 20 Boyz managed to Destroy! Both my Psyfleman, and 4 out of 5 of my Termis in Turn 4. Termies died when I failed all their armour saves, rolling 4 ‘1’s consecutively. Good luck for Dougie, bad luck for me.

4. Looted wagon arrived very late in the game and all shots missed and scattered, bar a critical template hit that killed 4 out of 5 of an Interceptor squad in Turn 6.

5. A single Interceptor chased a fleeing Ork Mob (with Zogwort) almost 6 inches away from the board. Thinking now would be a good time to charge the fleeing cowards, with a 50/50 chance of destroying them outright, the Orks rallied (rolling double 1’s) and regained dominance of the objective, prompting a bitter fight to the end in which an objective was left unclaimed by all due to mutual wipe-out (Damn you insta-gibbing Nob Power Klaws!).

This proved to be a costly mistake which I paid for dearly, and will remember for future use.

THE ANALYSIS

Also in hindsight my mistake was in my strategy. In my first game with Dougie (him being Chaos) I hit upon the ‘refused flank’ technique, overwhelming one side of his forces in a first turn alpha-strike from which he couldn’t recover. I tried this technique again against Laur but was completely ringfenced and effectively contained by a cordon of Rhinos, and thus the deployment of my Modrakwing was shockingly bad.

This time I tried spreading my eggs in many baskets, having independent forces spread far and wide to force Doug to commit one side or another, relying on my combat-squadded teleportation shunts to redeploy when needed but also playing conservatively (hanging back and letting rip with my piss poor Stormbolter and Psycannon shooting, rolling below-average), but alas I began to run out of steam eventually as the game dragged on longer and longe, and the lack of LOS=blocking cover meant my GK’s were shot at by all and sundry.

Note to self: Grey Knights are not meant to be spread thinly.

No doubt that the Grey Knights made mincemeat of all they attacked, with the combo of Stormbolter fire and force weapon attacks, they did manage to shred all they came in contact with and I dominated the objectives for the 1^st 5 turns, but Mordrak himself did not cause enough of a dent to the Orks to cripple them sufficiently to prevent a resurgence in the later parts of the game.

That and the silly mistakes I made (see Highlights above).

THE QUERY

Calling all Grey Knights and Orks players! Help Wednesday Night Gaming, in our hour of need!

Our query is this, one which a Google search has failed to provide an answer:

Q. How do Psyk-Out grenades affect Old Zogwort?

Zogwort being a Weirdboy is definitely a Psyker (as stated in his army list rules). His Initiative and Attacks are both 2. However, he has a piece of wargear called ‘Nest of Vipers’, that is worded accordingly:

“Nest of Vipers: Old Zogwort has an additional D6 Attacks at an Initiative of 4. All of Zogwort’s attacks are poisoned attacks that always wound on a 2+”

Ignoring the poisoned attacks portion, this means Zogwort, can have 2 attacks (3, if on the charge) at Initiative 2, and a potential +D6 attacks at Initiative of 4.

But how does this work with Psyk-Out grenades? Psyk-Out grenades reduce any and all Daemons/Psykers Initiative to 1, if assaulted.

Therefore, ANSWERS:

1. Are all of Zogwort’s attacks reduced to Initiative 1, including the Viper attacks? This is my reasoning, he’s a Psyker and therefore his Initiative is reduced to 1 from the grenades, irrespective of wargear.

2. Psyk-Out grenades should not affect Zogwort! “Mixed initiative attacks, too complicated! Psyk-out grenades should not work, Grey Knights are too cheesy! Oh wait let me turn your independent character into a squig... “ – This is an argument as put forward by Dougie.

3. Should Zogwort’s 2no. base attacks now be at Initiative 1, while his ‘Viper’ attacks (+D4) stay at Initiative 4 as per the wargear description. Do the ‘Vipers’/wargear, not count as a Psyker in itself, an argument put forward by Laurence?

Answer no.3 is how we continued playing, to keep things fair. Please let us know if we got this right.

This quandry belies a further question: Do Psyk-Out grenades affect wargear that changes a unit’s Initiative?

At first I would argue of course it won’t, as Psyk-Out affects Psykers, not the wargear they carry. Equipment should only affect other equipment if it stipulates it in the rules, e.g. Ulumeathi Plasma Siphon.

But then I read the recent Grey Knight FAQ, which presents us this puzzle:

“Q. If a model with a Nemesis Force Halberd has had his Initiative reduced to a fixed number by an ability/special rule, do they still get the +2 Initiative from the Halberd? (p54)

A: No.”

Obviously someone’s been playing Grey Knights Vs. Grey Knights!

By implication a Psyk-Out grenade will render a Psyker so useless, they can’t lift their polearm to give themselves +2 to their Initiative, and their wargear is now irrelevant. Reading between the lines, Psyk-Out WILL reduce all Psykers to Initiative 1, any wargear they had that could affect their Initiative is now ignored.

Or is it? Zogwort’s wargear doesn’t give him +3 Initiative to his D6 attacks, these extra D6 attack just stays at an Initiative of 4. The vipers are attacking at Initiative 4. Are the Vipers Psykers? Can wargear be Psykers? Arghh.

Does a ruling in one army’s FAQ affect another army entirely? Double Arghh.

Again we played it re: answer 3, with some of Zogwort’s attacks at Initiative 1 and others at 4, to keep things fair.

But what do YOU think?

Wednesday Night Gaming: How Not To Play Ghostwing

2011-11-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

Had a game last week where I faced off against Laur’s Ultramarines (again).

In my very first outing with my new Grey Knights, I had a Strike-squad Razorback list, with Coteaz and a henchmen base, with the Dreadknight & a squad of Teleporting terminators, all my cool new toys to play with for a 1000 points! Laur went with a real rock list of Lysander, Terminators in a Landraider, with a Devastator squad, and 3no. 5-men MSU squads. Laur went 1^st and the game was more or less equally matched but ended up to the point where the best dice-roller (not me) won in Killpoints, having blown up most my Razorbacks to edge over a victory with Killpoints.

Cue the re-invention of my Grey Knights as a Ghostwing force. Will they fare better against Laur’s notoriously competitively-listed and well-played Ultramarines? At 1500 points, I present to you a mini-batrep..

THE FORCES ARE GATHERED

I’ve toyed with the idea of bringing a Draigowing force, but for the now I was convinced to stick with the Ghostwing. After all, they had done so well against Dougie’s Chaos, hadn’t they?

We rolled off for both mission type and deployment, which was Capture & Control (5no. objectives) and Spearhead. Laur rolled off to go 1^st which I thought was alright (as my deepstriking force is built primarily for the 2^nd turn to negate a round of shooting) but had niggling doubts over the objective-based nature of the game. With only 2, potentially 3 scoring units in which I knew exactly how my Grand Strategy would remedy this, I realised the odds were going to be stacked against me until then the curtain was pulled back to reveal Laur’s army...

Welcome to the Ultraspam

To my horror, Laur elected to bring a Tactical-squad spam army, with no less than 4 tactical squads, some to be combat-squadded and some not, and a total of 6 Rhinos, with 2 Librarians for Psychic Hood goodness and Psy powers to give himself and squads a 5+ invulnerable save, as well as forcing me to re-roll successful invulnerable saves. Looks like someone definitely boned up on their anti-Grey Knight tactics the past week!

With mobility, numbers, steadfastness and plenty of dangerous small arms and plasma fire to his side, all I could hope for is to deepstrike, survive, deploy the rest of my Terminators, and hopefully crunch face in the assault to overwhelm my opponent, like I did in my last game.

THE BATTLE COMMENCES

5no. objectives are placed pretty sparsely and far apart in equal zones, bar the middle board which has 3no. objectives pretty clustered, and Laur deploys his Rhino car park in such a manner where they’re parked up pretty tightly to this centre, due to Spearhead. Oh how I wish I was using my IG Manticores at this moment!

My Dreadknight, psyfleman and Mordrak himself I make scoring, and deploy them far enough to get shots in, and hopefully close enough to assault with my Dreadknight on the 1^st go, everything else will come in on reserve.

The game starts and Laur’s Rhinos are spread out a bit. Mordrak deploys into ruins, to give the squad a decent cover save against the plasma spam. The Dreadknight rushes ahead but falls short of an inch for a required assault, which is then paid in kind with a Sternguard squad unloading their combi-plasma to take it down. Ouch!

Mordrak and co. take a thorough beating with 4 squads full of tac fire as the rhinos rearrange their layouts and unload their passengers, but after an efficient round of shooting manage to pick off 2 Ghost Knights. I roll for my leadership test and horror of horrosr I get an 11, and Mordrak and Librarian starts getting chased off the board by the multiple Rhinos and squads being in (too) close proximity, thus I am unable to regroup with ATSKNF.

The rest of my Terminators do come into play with the homer before Mordrak, Librarian and Ghosts, disappear, but with their efficient shooting Laur uses Combat Tactics to force a Fall back movement on his own squads, and thus I am unable to assault any of them until the closing stages of the game (there is so much difficult terrain in the table and my low rolling for moving through it results in groups of terminators moving 2, 3 inches and failing to close in Assault range.) Any assaults that do occur are negated by Psychic Hood rolling, and while I rely on cover saves as a remedy against the plasma, there were crucial moments where Laur's ability to force me to re-roll successful invulnerable* saves tipped the balance to his favour.

All in all, a pretty dire game for the Grey Knights (Psyfleman has lacklustre shooting, only shaking Rhinos here and there and ends with a standoff against a contesting Rhino & tac squad on his own objective he had been babysitting the whole game), but Laur almost throws the game away (how I wished) when a few of my Terminators manage to assault and chase off tac squads off their objectives (which they eventually recover to re-contest).

Game ends with him holding 1 objective to my none (him and I are equally contesting 2 others), and only 1 of my Terminators survive the game, the rest having been shot to pieces by rolling ‘1’s on dice to mass bolter fire. A definitive win for Laur, whereas the whole game I’ve scrabbled to chance a draw, a complete mirror image of the game between me and Doug!

LESSONS LEARNT

A hard lesson learnt by me, again from our resident competitive player. In my attempt to do what Grey Knights do best (Assault the Shooty, Shoot the Assault), I failed to take into consideration the Ultramarines Combat Tactics which allowed them to fail Morale tests when required, which Dougie sympathised with me at the game’s end as he regularly falls foul of this being our resident Chaos Space Marine player.

What this game taught me is:

1. Ghostwing: There is such a thing as a bad mission & objective-style matchup.

My Ghostwing list is designed to dominate and overwhelm, especially in Annhilation missions. In Objective games, I would’ve again relied on killing opponent’s troops to give myself that edge (as would Draigowing) but in this instance I failed miserably. Conversely the opposite is true, as Laur could not hide his glee in getting a multiple objective-based game and his masses of meched-up, flexible and survivable troops which put me on the backfoot before it even started.

2. Ghostwing: There is such a thing a putting all one’s egg in the same basket. And if you do so there's a time and place for it.

Ghostwing as I perceive it, is designed to go big or go home. All Terminators, all-deepstriking, all supporting Mordrak, but this precisely played into Laur’s strategy. He would cordon off Mordrak and deploy his Rhinos and tacs in such a way to deny me my assault. Mordrak buggering off due to an unlucky roll was just icing on the cake as he would’ve gotten a 2^nd turn assault and put a spanner in my opponent’s plans but alas that was not to be. Low but elite bodies means every model counts as a GK player, and unfortunately a third of my force is instantly negated on a bad roll, which had the domino effect of me losing the game, which in turn changed from a ponderous, tense deepstriking assault game into a ducks-in-a-barrel shooting game, to my opponent’s delight.

A clever opponent will always be able to see, and counter, the trick that holds together a trick list.

3. Ghostwing: There is no such thing as point-and-click. Use with caution.

Laur and I have this habit of experimenting with army lists due to the variety of models that we have in our collections. Laur has done biker lists, drop pod lists, predator spam, Landraider rock-lists, and now tactical marine spam. But every time he does so he wields these one-sided lists with a degree of precision and admittedly some good luck, in which he has consistently won most of his games against both Dougie and me. I, on the other hand, have tried this ‘trick-list’ method but have never quite managed to get above winning 25% of my games with Laur. This, obviously, did not help that I was the resident punch-bag Imperial Guard player, which of course made every victory sweeter when it did occur!

Now with GK, and with the wisdom of the Internet behind me, this should have changed right? Well, maybe it has and maybe it hasn’t, but what I do know is that I will have to start wielding Ghostwing with more finesse. Maybe NOT deploy Mordrak and all the Terminators in at once offering them up as a large target, changing my strategy depending on each opponent, matchup, deployment and mission, which brings me to my last and final point.

Thinking I could play Ghostwing point-and-click was a weak strategy. Letting Laur lull me into thinking I had no other choice but to play it point-and-click (congregating it onto the cluster of objectives and trying to survive a war of attrition) was another failing. Never again!

4. Ghostwing: Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you have to.

Mordrak’s First to the Fray is a great ability, a human Drop Pod. Combo him with a Librarian and Teleport Homer and you have a great, fluffy, fun, competitive, and playable army methodology to bring forth time and time again. But in this instance, my opponent was ‘ready for it’. What could I have done?

I could’ve played more defensively instead of going all-out aggressive. I could’ve used the natural advantage of GK’s being king of the midfield, wielding my psycannons and Stormbolters to stun, shake and wreck the Rhino car park to my advantage. I could’ve taken him apart in a piecemeal fashion, focusing fire on his stragglers and minnow down his numbers. Instead, that was what he had done to me, as I felt that I had not really any other choice but to charge right in and hope for the best (come on 2+ armour!) but alas luck was not on my side.

I could’ve split my Terminator squads, deploying some on the board to provide a distraction, lumbering forward and capturing objectives the traditional way while Draigo flys in with deep strike attack on a weak point, as opposed to forming a desperate beachhead in a hotly-contested piece of land in which the player with the weaker luck will ultimately have to give ground, which is what happened to me!

I could’ve mixed up my list a little maybe introduce a unit of Interceptors for greater flexibility in my games. After all, Annihilation is only 1/3^rd of the game, right?

5. Ghostwing: Just because you're part of the new hotness doesn't mean the old hotness can't still burn you.

Ultramarine tactical and rhino spam, and maxed-out librarians? Despite all the fancy new bling the GK can bring, good old Ultramarines can still bring their 'A'-game and combos to play amongst the big boys. In many ways proof that the old Space Marine Codex is still a force to be reckoned with, and one of the (many) codices that can still prove fun, playable, and versatile in the modern 40K game.

SUMMARY

Obviously, should Mordrak have passed his Leadership test things would’ve turned out a little different. Obviously had I realised that Laur would manipulate his squads with ATSKNF I would’ve refrained from shooting, then assaulting them. Obviously I would’ve played my Dreadknight more carefully should I hav known it would fall foul of combi-plasma spam. Obviously!

Ultraspam. An acquired taste.

‘What-ifs’ aside, I played a risky strategy and it didn’t really pay off, especially against an opponent who is quite prepared for it. I should’ve finetuned it, tweaked it a bit, and played Ghostwing in a fashion that can still exploit its strengths but undermined my opponent’s simultaneously. Because I didn’t do that, despite all the ‘what-ifs’above, I know in the back of my mind I would’ve still have had to struggle, or have been incredibly lucky, to pull off a victory, let alone a draw (I mean 8 possible scoring units Vs my 3 potential units? Ouch).

Live and learn!

*correction, thanks to eagle-eyed reader!

Wednesday Night Gaming: The Ghostwing’s Introduction

2011-11-15T05:09:00.000-08:00

Mordrak: I see... Dead people!

Ghosts: Lay off dem pills ya daft junkie

This is an expansion upon my previous article, a more detailed battle report giving interested readers a more play-by-play account of what happened in my Mordrak ‘Ghostwing*’ outing.

My reason for dictating this battle report is that while I’m a keen fan of the fluff and playability of Ghostwing, I am saddened by the lack of detailed battle reports showing how a Ghostwing army is to be applied in games, so I thought I’d give it a go for others to read!

*For those not in the know, the term ‘Ghostwing’ is a Grey Knights army list that utilises Grand Master Mordrak and his Ghost Knights as the lynchpin of the army strategy, backed up by as many hard-hitting Terminator bodies as possible.

The denoting term ‘-wing’ comes from the Dark Angels codex e.g. Deathwing, Ravenwing, etc, to denote army types befitting their force composition, being mainly terminators, fast attack, etc. Since then we have alternative Space Marine builds such as Lysanderwing from the SM codex, Loganwing from the SW codex, Nipplewing from the BA codex, and even the Dustwing (Tzeentch automatons) from the CSM.

This is a standard 1500 point game I will be discussing. Note: No photos taken this time, but plenty of good ol'-fashioned battle graphics to enjoy.

LIST ANALYSIS

Click to embiggen the goodness

My army composition, as previously discussed, involves getting Mordrak for the first turn deep strike with his First to the Fray rule, having a Librarian for shootyness and the teleport homer, then Psychic Communion to bring in the rest of the forces, these being Terminators to asymmetrically overwhelm the enemy on his flank and steamroller him slowly with a Termie-advance. Psyfleman for some long range capability, and a Dreadknight for a big distraction.

Dougie has brought his general take-all-comers list. Note that while his Havocs lack plasma death goodness, his normal marines and Oblits are capable of pumping out the plasma spam. His Landraider is at it’s most basic (lascannons & h.bolters only), but it’s cargo of Abbadon and his 5 Termie buddies are certainly a force to be reckoned with.

TERRAIN ANALYSIS

The terrain is deliberately sparse as this is our first Wednesday Gaming Night battle in a long time and we are all eager to get started asap. Laur has set the board for the both of us, and in the good old days of the Imperial Guard I would’ve asked for a LOT more cover, but for now am eager to see how Mordrak fares in this circumstance.

We roll off and the mission is Capture & Control, with 2no. Objectives placed. To keep it simple we agree to nominate the central ruins as our objectives. Dougie gets the first go and opts to take the north half of the board, and the deployment is Dawn of War.

CSM DEPLOY

Dougie opts to trot everything out on the first turn but holds his Oblits in reserve. One unit of marines in a rhino is parked right up to the eastern objective.

I opt to hold everything in reserve, but my Dreadknight and Dreadnought, which will trot out on my first turn. Using Grand Strategy, I nominate my Dreadknight as scoring, as well as Mordrak himself (I am aware the Ghost Knights can’t be picked as scoring, but as far as I’m concerned Mordrak should be able to. He’s NOT a Ghost after all) I opt NOT to seize the Initiative, so away we go!

TURN 1 CHAOS

1. All but the Oblits trot onto the board at full speed. Dougie’s Havocs deploy into, then above the building (open-topped) while his rhino taxi passengers disembark into the ruin.

TURN 1 GREY KNIGHTS

1. The Dreadknight and Dreadnought come on. NDK runs as far as he can (rolls a 2), Psyfleman destroys the Havocs building, 1no. of which killed in the rubble. Damn, 2no. twin-linked Autocannons with increased strength at 135 points = Very, very good.

2. Mordrak arrives with his Ghostly gang. I deploy them in away to give them a cover save from the Havocs, just in case as they’re all nicely bunched up. Instead of running, I opt to use Warp Rift on the Marines in the ruins, 4 of which fail their Initiative test. Another 2 killed from mass Stormbolter fire, but they hold firm. As an added bonus, the Warp Rift shakes the Rhino.

TURN 2 CHAOS

1. Oblits fail to arrive, so the Rhino and Landraider edge forward cautiously. NDK gets shot by the Havocs, ‘Raider and Rhino, managing to cause 2 wounds in total.

2. Chaos Marines in the ruin fire all they’ve got into Mordrak, namely 4 rapid fire plasma shots. They succeed in causing 2 wounds for me to save, I apply one on Mordrak to try t sprout a new one but alas he passes his Iron Halo save. 1 Ghost is killed though.

TURN 2 GREY KNIGHTS

1. NDK moves forward, and runs (rolling a 1) to close the distance for assault in *hopefully* the next turn, and if it survives possibly score by claiming the objective for itself.

2. Mordrak uses his Psychic Communion successfully, and the rest of the 3no. squads (1 squad of which is Combat Squad-ed into 2) deploy, then run to spread out.

3. Modrak himself gets into position and the squad assaults the remnants in the ruins, swinging a cheeky Daemonhammer hit onto the Rhino, which in turn is combo-ed with the Librarian’s Hammerhands and Might of Titan. SPLAT!

4. The Psyfleman chatters away it’s payload into the Havocs, killing 2. Not bad!

TURN 3 CHAOS

1. Oblits still don’t make an appearance, so Dougie manoeuvres his Rhino round the ruin (just in case). The passengers fire their plasma, and the Landraider pours lascannon and heavy bolter fire into the NDK, finally felling the mechanical monster!

2. The remaining Havocs fire their Krak missiles at Mordrak’s Ghosts, making contact but Modrak makes hi save again, and 1 Ghost is slain. Yet they hold firm!

TURN 3 GREY KNIGHTS

1. My northernmost Termi squad pours it’s Stormbolter and Psycannon fire into the Havocs, finishing them off

2. The rest of my forces run forward as far as they can go, but are restrained by the low rolls. One squad embeds itself in the ruins to definitively claim the objective. The Psyfleman tries to crack AV14 of the Landraider, but doesn’t succeed.

TURN 4 CHAOS

1. The Oblits finally make an appearance, firing their Plasma cannons. The shots scatter, but still manage to kill a Ghost Knight and a Terminator amongst the ruins.

2. The Landraider repositions itself, and lets off it’s lascannon shots to thin down the Terminator numbers. It manages to only kill 1.

TURN 4 GREY KNIGHTS

1. One of my Combat Squads surges forward. While the rest advance carefully firing away at their targets.

2. Psyfleman and Psycannon shots bounce off the Landraider’s hull. My other Psycannon destroys the last Rhino taxi, killing 2 of the passengers, while Mordrak’s mob kill a further 4 with their wrist-action Stormbolters. Nice.

TURN 5 CHAOS

1. Dougie positions his remaining troops behind cover, but rolls 1’s for his difficult terrain and running rolls.

2. Oblits fire at Mordrak’s Ghosts, killing 1 more.

3. Landraider disgorges Abbadon and his men to attempt to roadblock my GK from ruining his chances of a draw. Both the landraider and Abbadon’s crew let rip, but only manage to kill 1 more Terminator. The Chaos elite then charge into my Grey Knight Terminators, who pull off their Hammerhands psychic ability and with their plethora of Halberds, kill 2 more of Abbadon’s men and wound the Despoiler himself before they strike!

2. Abbadon himself generates a further 4 attacks with Drach’Nyen, thus his 9no. attacks slay the remaining Grey Knights. However, he and his men only consolidate an inch away, leaving themselves open in the next turn, if there is to be one!

TURN 5 GREY KNIGHTS

1. Psyfleman finally cracks that AV14, and the Landraider is stunned.

2. Mordrak’s remaining forces fire away at Abbadon. Psycannon, Stormbolter shots and Warp Rift take another wound from Abbadon, and kill 2 more Terminators (he now has 1 left). While the Warp Rift template does not fall anywhere near Abbadon, it scores a Penetrating hit on the Landraider, immobilising it!

3. Mordrak, his Librarian and a single Halberd-wielding Ghost Knight charges in, activating Hammerhands and Might of Titan. The Ghost himself slays both Abbadon and his last Terminator retinue, and the group consolidates closer towards the last objective.

The die is cast, and Dougie has his fingers crossed for the game to end to pull off a draw, but the result swings to my favour, and we play on for another round!

TURN 6 CHAOS

1. Dougie’s Oblit try to dislodge my Terminators entrenched in the eastern ruins, but fails to scratch them.

2. He moves his remaining men forward in desperation, firing off their plasma. One gets hot! and scorches himself, but another manages to score a wound off my Librarian.

TURN 6 GREY KNIGHTS

1. Psyfleman and Psycannon fire again try to blow up the Landraider, but AV14 just proves too tough!

2. My last Terminators turn their attention to the Oblits. They fire away, and get a wound off one of them.

3. Mordrak’s squad gets the charge in, and with 2no. Hammerhands and Might of Titan activated, the Chaos renegades are well and truly pounded.

Final Score. Grey Knights win, controlling 1no. objective, to Chaos’s zero.

GAME ANALYSIS

As stated before, Dougie’s low-rolling really did let him down. The last-minute appearance of the Obliterators was well and truly too late, in addition to spacing out the Terminators carefully to shrug off the inevitable AP2 weaponry.

Dougie’s lack of Plasma or Lascannons on the Havocs certainly didn’t help either. To be fair on him, his army force, composition and deployment in no way anticipated for the tricks and uber-abilities of the new improved Grey Knights (e.g. bunching up his Chaos Space Marines in a ruin, not knowing the dangerous potential that is Warp Rift, and now that he has my measure our next game will surely be different.

He did note that the game was mine to throw away, and I certainly lucked out by having another turn. Should the game ended on a 5, I would’ve drawn the game (though the moral victory would’ve been mine. Final total ‘killpoint’ scores if the game was Annihilation would’ve been 2 to Chaos, 7 to Grey Knights.

The Landraider was difficult to crack, and in these 1500-point games will always be difficult to crack in any circumstances.

My weaknesses were the fact that my force is a footslogging ponderous beast, and with lack of cover on the board this would’ve been easy to exploit. This battle will prove to be a useful learning experience for the both of us.

Both Dougie and I did learn that Ghostwing is a list that strikes suddenly, strikes, fast, and strikes hard when it appears, but will generally run out of steam once you give it some distance to travel. Ghostwingers in turn, have to make sure their alpha strike damages the enemy irrecoverably so that they spend their subsequent turns staggering about playing damage control.

The NDK did what it did, which is to draw fire away from Modrak and prove to be too big and too dangerous to ignore. Should Dougie have committed to removing Mordrak, the NDK would’ve rampaged through his other flank unscatched. Still, it is hard to say what would’ve truly happened if he DID ignore the NDK, leaving the Chaos squad to fend for itself. Maybe next time.

Where and how you deploy Mordrak is key to Ghostwing, and make sure you back it up with big juicy distractions to amplify it’s use.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the read, any queries/feedback is welcome!

Mordrak's 'Ghostwing'

2011-11-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

OR: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Mordrak Bomb

There have been a few prominent army lists, or playstyles, that have developed from the Grey Knight Codex to name a few: Coteaz + Henchmen, Purifier + Psyrazors, Draigowing, Greywing, Psyflemen Dreads, Psycannon spam, etc. These are the catchy namesakes for the ‘stellar builds’ you see bandied about to identify the competitive varieties of Grey Knights you get in today’s game.

But why no love for the Ghostwing?

For the uninitiated, Ghostwing, a.k.a Mordrakwing, a.k.a Mordrak Bomb, is the utilisation of the Grey Knight character ‘Grandmaster Mordrak’ to build a Deathwing-esque (Terminators only) army list, making full use of the character’s First to the Fray 1^st turn instant-and-no-scatter Deep Strike abilities to get up close and personal to the enemy, and bring the fight straight to their deployment zone. Variations of this include either bringing an extra Grandmaster for exotic grenade goodness, a Psycannon Inquisitor for firepower, or a Librarian* with a teleport homer for flexible psychic shooting options and to form a beachhead beacon for further Terminator drops, especially coupled with a Grandmaster’s ‘Psychic Communion’ power.

*The variety with the Librarian is the one I will be discussing in this article.

From what I can tell on the Interwebz chatter, Ghostwing is regularly dismissed as a one-trick pony, an interestingly fun, possibly fluffy, ultimately gimmicky list, and inferior to the likes of the versatile hordecrunching meta-gamed meched-up Purifier Psyrazor spam or even the tournament-busting steamroller that is the Draigowing. People tend to try it, like it for a little bit, then dump it once their opponents get wise to the tactics of First to the Fray and army-build and/or deploy accordingly to negate this ‘human drop pod’ methodology (as I like to call it).

For all its’ detractors, I will grant that the Ghostwing is not for the faint-hearted. Sure, it’s very in-your-face, to be used as aggressively as possible for the win, but the main downside to First to the Fray is that once Mordrak and his mob are placed on the table, they become a fire magnet so that all manner of shooting be it small arms fire or AP1, AP2 weaponry, come crashing down onto it.

The key to playing Ghostwing is to think of the big picture: Army build to maximise Mordrak’s capabilities, then deploy as strategically as possible, then apply suitable tactics in accordance with the enemy and mission goals (this usually means an overwhelming Terminator-rush, but don’t forget to put in some good Stormbolter, Psycannon shootin’). If you're going to go Modrak, you have to go all-out Ghostwing, otherwise what's the point?

In my opinion, Ghostwing is an army build designed to play on the 2^nd turn, leaving your opponent 1 turn of non-shooting to put him at a disadvantage. Even if you win the 1^st turn, let him deploy, and go first, so you can amend your tactics accordingly. A ploy both psychological, and practical too!

Right, enough chit-chat. This is what I’ve built so far, as a 1500 point-list for starters:

MY ‘GHOSTWING’ ARMY LIST:

HQ:

- Mordrak + 4no. Ghost Knights – 3no. Halberds, 1no. Hammer

- Librarian – Nemesis Warding stave, Teleport Homer, 3 powers (Might of Titan, Shrouding, Warp Rift)

TROOPS:

- Grey Knights Terminator Squad (9 no. + 1 Justicar) – 8no Halberds, 2no. Hammers, 2no. Psycannons

- Grey Knights Terminator Squad (4no. + 1 Justicar) – 4no. Halberds, 1no. Hammer

HEAVY:

- Nemesis Dreadknight – Nemesis Daemon Hammer

- Dreadnought (Psyfleman combo) – 2no. twin-linked Autocannons + Psybolt ammo

TOTAL POINTS: 1500 points

HQ:

No Mordrak means no Ghostwing, so in he goes in the HQ slot. Opinions vary as to the no. of Ghost Knights that should accompany him. Some like to max. out 5, and others like to take him as a solo Grandmaster (insanity!) in the hopes he’ll pop out some new Ghosts when he takes a couple of wounds. Personally I would never rely on his ability to sprout out new Ghosts as a given (the average he’ll sprout out is 2 per game), so a ghostly retinue is a must. I myself like 4no. just to get a nice neat squad of 5 (Mordrak is after all the ‘Sergeant’ of the group), and also because of the relatively low 1.5k points level.

Be careful not to apply instant kill wounds on Modrak otherwise you lost all the Ghosts. No Eternal Warrior means you have to play him carefully.

One of the downsides of Modrak’s mob is no psycannons, so a mix of halberds and possibly a daemonhammer is good, being free on offer after all.

The downside of the lack of dakka is supposedly mitigated by Stealth, as given by the Ghost Knights. You would think this would mean it would be advantageous to deploy Mordrak into cover (and hopefully pass the dangerous terrain tests, but if not, maybe sprout a free Ghost), or forgo shooting the Stormbolters when deploying Mordrak, but to run him and his mob into cover to avoid being pie-plated or plasma-cannon’d.

That would depend very much on your Librarian!

I personally prefer teleport homers over servo skulls, so a Librarian attached to Modrak’s mob is a must. Warding stave is utterly important for the lynchpin of this strategy, as he’ll need to stay alive for the homer to work and is more likely to snuff it from combat rather than shooting. Powers like Sanctuary to discourage assaults, or Shrouding to give other incoming Deepstrikers a better cover save, are useful. But bang for it’s buck, Warp Rift I find is the most useful of powers.
It’s Jaws of the World Wolf, but in Template format? Me likey. This will cause instant penetrative hits on vehicles, and will instantly remove as casualties anything that fails an Initiative test (Carnifexes and Nurgle Greater Daemons beware). Bear in mind even if you have say Initative 6 +Eternal Warrior characters, they can still fail this on a 6, thus a 1 in 6 chance of being removed from play. For MEQs with Initiative 4, this is a 1 in 3 chance of being instantly killed with no armour, invulnerable, or even cover saves allowed. Great for use against bunched-up squads hiding in ruins!

Obviously if you do decide to carry a Librarian along for the ride, and you do decide that shooting the Warp Rift is well worth it, you have to man up and take your lumps when the inevitable mass firire you attract comes crashing down on your scrunched up rosette of Terminators. That’s when you have to start making those all-important 2+ saves, or 5++ in desperation.

Back to the issue of the teleport homers. They don’t work with Summoning (for now until they reverse the FAQ), so don’t even think of it. It would’ve been great if it did, but it doesn’t. It also doesn’t work with Nemesis Dreadknights RAW (again for now, until they reverse this with an Errata), so there goes another good possibility. Still, combo the teleport homer with Mordrak’s Grand Strategy, and you’ll be getting in your squads of backup Terminators into play in subsequent turns to overwhelm your enemy with all those 2+ saves! While YMMV, I find No Scatter a must if you intend to play an effective Deepstriking list.

When it comes down to it, how you deploy Mordrak and his mob is the keystone of Ghostwing. There is a balance to be achieved, deploy them too out in the open and they get shot. Deploy them into cover they might fail difficult terrain tests. Deploy them then run you don’t get to shoot. Or forgo all this and deploy them where you’ll take out the juiciest of targets. The choice is yours!

TROOPS:

The key here is to bring as many bodies as possible to the table, as you’ll be footslogging. I’ve gone for a whole 10-men squad with the option of combat-squadding for objective games, and also to bung in 2 psycannons into one squad should I feel like it. Give them all halberds for +2 to initative, if I had the points I would’ve given psybolt ammunition but for now stick a couple of Daemonhammers (1 per every 5 guys) to make up for the lack of melta.

Personally if you really must have melta, go for a Naked Dreadnought (comes with multi-melta). Don’t consider melta henchmen in Chimeras if you‘re playing Ghostwing, otherwise stick with Imperial Guard yeah? We’re trying to play with the strengths of Ghostwing (Terminators!) not muddy the waters here.

Keep them in reserve and bring them out with Mordrak’s Grand Strategy. Deepstrike the Terminators in close to Modrak with the teleport homer, or far away if you’re desperate or foolhardy enough to risk a 2 in 3 chance of scattering. I’ve always had bad experiences with scattering me, hence my hesistation in doing so. The option will always be there though.

Having overwhelming masses and masses of high quality, Initiative 6, 2+ 5++ bodies WITH grenades (the only basic termies in 40k to get them thanks to their wrist-mounted Stormbolters) is difficult for any army to deal with. Just remember, you have to bunch them up in a ‘flower’ formation when deepstriking leaving them vulnerable to Plasmacannon plates, so chances are you’ll want to run them immediately after deploying them, otherwise if this isn’t of urgency you can have them fire away with their dakka dakka.

The idea here is like with Mordrak, you deploy them and hope they last long enough so they can pit the serious hurt with shooting and assaulting in their next turn.

HEAVY:

In this list I had either considered 2 psyflemen, or 1 with a dreadknight.

Suffice to say the virtues of psyflemen have long been extolled by all GK players. To recap, a psyflemen is a Dread with 2no. twin-linked autocannons, with psybolt ammo. That’s 4no., twin-linked shots at S8. All with Fortitude (psychic power to ignore shaken/stunned) and at 135 points total. A real winner that’ll crack mech’ed up armies.

The reason why I’ve not gone for 2 of them is because these dreads are most effective in their role as anti-tank/anti-mech and will thus be deployed as far away as usefully possible, leaving only Mordrak and his men as a valid target. Having a Dreadknight however, means my opponent will be forced to deal with a looming S6 T6 W4 monstrous creature bearing down on his army, which with Modrak’s Grand Strategy you can upgrade to a Troop or even give Scouts to really pump up it’s usefulness. Splitting fire with an even bigger fire magnet than the Ghost Knights will increase Mordrak’s survivability.

I take my Dreadknight naked, or with a cheap Daemonhammer, as I’ve found all the expensive gun options useless. I’ve also found the Personal Teleporter to be useful, but overpriced, as the Dreadknight will get shot to bits anyway, so I take it as slim as possible.

PUT IT TO THE TEST:

Enough listhammer, I’ve recently tested out this list against Dougie’s Chaos Space Marines. Here’s what he had:

DOUGIE’S BLACK LEGION ARMY LIST (1500 points):

-Abbadon & 5no. Chaos Terminators &Landraider
-10no. Chaos Space Marines – Powerfist, 2 Plasmaguns, Rhino
-10no. Chaos Space Marines – Powerfist, 2 Plasmaguns, Rhino
-5no. Chaos Havocs (Missile Launchers)
-2no. Obliterators

GAME:

A sparsely populated board meeting the 25% cover minimum requirements, the deployment was Dawn of War, mission was Capture & Con trol (1no. objective each). Dougie won the 1^st turn and I elected not to Seize the Initiative.

In short, I won the game by having 1 objective while Chaos had none. It could’ve been a draw had it ended on turn 5, but it continued to turn 6.

I had lost 1 Terminator Squad to Oblit’s Plasma Cannon and eventually Abbadon’s assault, lost my Dreadknight to small arms, Havoc, and Landraider fire, and Mordrak’s squad was down to 1 Ghost Knight (the Grandmaster and the Librarian were in full fighting health though, so more Ghost Knights could have potentially appeared).

Compare Dougie, who lost both Rhinos, both Chaos Space Marine squads, the Havocs, immobilised the Landraider, and Abbadon stabbed himself with his own Daemon Weapon on a roll of 1. Only the Oblits were left unmolested, while I still had plenty of Terminators strewn across the board.

Highlights were the Libby with his Warp Rift that killed 4 Chaos Space marines on it’s 1^st appearance, a Chaos Terminator and immob’d the Landraider. The Dreadknight was tough, but eventually fell, so it did what it did. The Psyfleman was a great performer too, destroying the Havocs building and both the Rhinos (Psy-autocannons destroy something every turn!) Dougie was certainly on the backfoot by turn 2 when Mordrak psychic communion’d the rest of his Terminator mob arrive to dominate one half of the table, and the game was mine to throw away if I hadn’t successfully footslogged my boys from one side of the table to the other. *phew*

Abbadon and his crew could have stopped this, but below average rolling plagued Dougie the whole game, and the extended turn really proved to be in my favour. A narrow draw turned into an clear victory.

If you asked Dougie he would tell you GK codex creep what done him in! Grenades on Terminators, counting as troops, with Initiative 6 (2+ from halberds) and Strength 5 (+1 from Hammerhands)? 5^th edition Vs. 4^th edition codex? Utter Matt Wardtastic!

But don’t let that put you all off though, we’ll have a rematch soon. Chaos must be avenged!

IN SUMMARY:

OOGA BOOGA BEWARE OF CASPARWING

Let me address the concerns of Ghostwing:

Footslogging? If you don’t like it, stay away and keep with the mech’ed up wheeled bunker metagame. Otherwise, welcome aboard! Ghostwing makes a nice addition to the rest of the ponderous tac-dread armoured family, Draigowing, Loganwing, Nipplewing, Deathwing, etc. After years of pushing IG boxes about, this makes a nice change.

Gimmicky? First to the Fray may appear to be a one-trick pony, but I can assure you the permutations of this tactic aren’t as limited as one might think. As a psychological tactic this forces your opponent to deploy in a manner to anticipate Mordrak (e.g. castling up, but not bunching too closely, or meching up completely), which in turn you can always counter. Just because you can Deepstrike doesn’t always mean you have to! For a change, one can always have Mordrak starting on the board itself for a budget Draigowing steamroller, or even in a Landraider or Stormraven.

Fluffy? Most definitely. Mordrak’s rule completely fits in with my vision of a surgical strikeforce that teleports in to deal with the nasties and slaughter all in it’s wake. Just how I envisaged the Grey Knights to be, prior to the release of their 5^th edition codex, and I’m not disappointed at all.

All in all, I’ve found Ghostwing to be a really fun, versatile, and quite effective way of playing elite Terminators, and I can't wait to test it out Vs. other armies. Don't knock it 'til you try it!

Melonhead Reborn

2011-11-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

Melon*-headed Feline Limecat Internet Meme

Vs.

Rogue-Trader Era Grey Knight Terminator 80's Design Classic.

Who would win?

*technically a Pomelo.

Ahh. Dem crazy Rogue-Trader design style, pre-dating, anticipating and inspiring lolcats everywhere.

I received one of these 80's-style Grey Knight terminators through the post recently, coming along as an added freebie to a Dreadnought I purchased off the Bay of Ecstasy. Lo' and behold, it was quickly painted up in the Mordrak's Mob aesthetic and is now the latest addition to my Ghost Knights, completing the circle at last.

I added a plastic halberd from the new GK termie plastic kit, as it came with a Nemesis force sword which didn't suit my squad weapons load-out, and placed a larger base at the bottom.

The Grey Knight Codex still surprises me with the versatility of the potential army list builds, as well as the character entries themselves. Mordrak, in particular, I would consider a real gem of a character in that through him one gets to completely revitalise old, classic Terminator models in one's collection with a fresh coat of paint, and field them in a vry unexpected way.

Can't wait to field the completed squad on the (gaming) table!

EASY CONVERSION! GREY KNIGHTS IRON HALO

2011-10-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

OR: How to pimp-up your Grey Knight Grandmaster!

The Grey Knights codex is littered with images of our favourite Silver-tinged ubermarines taking names, kicking daemon-butt, and chewing bubblegum in the name of the Emperor.

All of that, and looking pretty stylish too, with their glowingly emblazoned spiky halos of light reinforcing their saintly status.

Even the Dreadknight has a blazing golden disk attached to it's back!

But how to represent this in modelling terms? Well, one can always easily pick up the iron halo bitz from the space marine commander sprue.

Image from modelbits.co.uk

Thing to note is this bit, despite being what it says on the tin, is a mere semi-circle of an iron halo and doesn’t quite fit in with the ‘whole circle’ type of halo you see in the lovely fluff pictures in the codex. Maybe a half-moon is good enough for the plebian Space Marine commanders, but it is certainly not acceptable for the Grey Knights!!

Only the spiky full moon variety will suffice for Titan's Finest.

This is where the ‘easy conversion’ bit comes in:

Step 1: Say Hello to the Nemesis Warding Stave. I bet you'll have a few lying about if you're a Grey Knights player.

Step 2: Close-up of said Warding Stave, focusing on the exact bit we want.

Step 3: Chop off carefully the bits highlighted in red. You can certainly use more leftover Inquisition-branded skulls to decorate the base, armour, and trophy racks of the not-Chaos-at-all Grey Knights!

Step 4: Apply to back of your favourite custom bespoke Terminator, to make him stand out from the rest of the other average Terminators. Like I have on mine.

Step 5: Act all smug when you realise how versatile the new Grey Knight Terminator plastic kit is.

Ta-daa! My GK Grandmaster, with Halberd, Psycannon, and Iron Halo, of course.

Here are some pictures of other people’s attempts at giving their Grandmasters the Warding Stave Iron Halo.

Mordrak & Ghost Knights by Rumbles

Modrak, by Argyle (who's left his skull in)

Note: All images used without permission

Ghost Knight Busters: The New Look

2011-10-05T02:30:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody, thought I'd update the look of the blog as it's been over a year since I last did so, complete with new header to reflect my current army interest of late!

As a bonus I've posted onto here a few choice images (floating round the Tinternet. All credit given to original posters/modellers where possible) running along with the theme of Ghost Knight Busting. Enjoy!

Ghostbuster Imperial Guard conversion, by Soulfire (BoLs Lounge forum)

Ecto-1 Rhino conversion, by Negativezach (Mybatallion.com forum)

Imagine these bad boys facing up against Mordrak! Just don't cross the proton streams...

"I ain't afraid of no Ghost Knight... "

- Inquisitor Ray Parker Jr.

Images used without permission.

MORDRAK’S GHOST KNIGHTS – AN EASY TUTORIAL TO MODELLING/PAINTING

2011-09-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

If I'm completely honest, the one unit that sold me to play the Grey Knights is Grandmaster Mordrak, and his Ghost Knights.

Mordrak is a real standout unit in the Grey Knight Codex, a real boon to all old and new Grey Knight players alike. There is nothing quite like him in any other codex, and everything about Mordrak really clicks for me: from the fluff perspective (vengeful, haunted Knight of Mortain out to get his arch-nemesis, Huron, with psychic manifestations of his guilt / actual ghosts?), rules perspective (Ghostly Bodyguard for the win!) the gameplay perspective (First to the Fray and Grand Strategy really appeal to the Deep Striker in me!), and most importantly for me, the modelling perspective.

Modelling perspective? But wait, GW hasn’t released actual models for Mordrak. Perhaps during the 2^nd wave?

Part of me thinks perhaps this will not be so. The reason for this being the same as of that of the lack of Grandmaster model. Sure, many players will use Draigo or even Stern as a counts-as Grandmaster, but all the bits in the Terminator kit can be utilised to make one’s own personal Grandmaster equipped with all matching wargear as per the army list (and indeed I have done so!). Likewise, the same reasoning with Grandmaster Mordrak, but that is not the reason as to my posting.

I am posting because of my love for the ‘Ghost Knights’. The lack of models + the fantasticly crazy fluff and rules (thanks Matt Ward) means there is a huge opportunity to create a real ‘pop-out’ unit that stand apart from the homogenous Grey Knight silver dudes (or in my case, Stormtrooper White!) all Grey Knight players collect.

I have seen some great conversions and painting schemes, and many players have hit upon the idea of re-using their old metal Grey Knights termies for Ghost Knights, some have even used the Rogue Trader era GK’s, and others have even gone for Zombie/Skeleton Knights !

There are plenty of crazy cool Ghost Knights out there that one can find with a quick search (e.g. here and here)

I have decided to mix all these ideas up and have come up with my own take on the Ghost Knights that I am pretty pleased with, AND easy to paint.

Easy to paint?

You heard me. Ghost Knights are as easy to paint as they are to model!

I’m no Golden Daemon winner by any stretch of imagination, I have a busy worklife and time is of the essence, as I barely get enough 40K time nowadays. So here’s how I did my squad of Ghost Knights:

HOW MANY GHOST KNIGHTS?

From my understanding of Mordrak’s entry (someone correct me if I’m wrong), the max. allowable number of Ghost Knight models one can have on-the-board is 8. That’s 5 for the squad, and a possible 3 more from Mordrak’s rules, provided he gets some good rolling each time he loses a wound per phase. Of course, part of the rules is if you don’t have the appropriate models, Mordrak no-spawn the Ghosties. So while it’s unlikely you’ll have the max. possible squad at any one time, let’s just pretend that you *would* havei t that way, given the choice.

So you will need max. 8no. models in total (I myself have 7), or less.

MODELLING

1. Use any old metal Grey Knight Terminators you have lying around.

2. And/or use any old Rogue Trader-era metal Grey Knight Terminators you have lying around.

3. And/or make your own Zombie or Skeleton Ghost Knights from scratch! I mean they’re ghosts = dead right? So go creative! Build your Ghost Knight termies from the plastic Grey Knight termie boxed set, but try some really simple headswaps. The Warhammer Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts have a great range of ghoul, zombie, and skeleton heads. Of course, you can just use the plastic Termies as they are and paint them Ghost Knight-style which is cool too, but I think this is too good an opportunity to pass up to have some crazy cool models in your army.

I mean, Zombie Terminators FTW!

I have used a tomb guard head, necropolis knight head, and zombie head for my conversions, thanks to Let the Dice Decide for the bitz.

PAINTING

You will need 2 colours. Skull white, and whatever you like.

I have gone for a LoTr Army of the Dead-style paint scheme (handy tutorial here). That means monochrome, no glowing eyes, but with a spectral, otherworldly look. I’m trying not to achieve marble statues, but a more creepy look, with patches of brightness and darkness to really make the models pop! so your opponent takes notice and will try his darnedest to kill them before the rest of your army arrives (you brought a Librarian with a tele-homer with Modrak didn’t you?)

From left to right: My basic Grandmaster recently spraycoated as an example, a Zombie Knight just-washed with enchanted blue, and a Skeleton Knight just-highlighted with skull white.

1. I undercoated all my Ghost Knight models skull white, and touched them up quickly with more skull white if I missed any spots.

2. Take your favourite ‘Ghost’ colour. It could be Green, which I had certainly considered. Loads of people prefer Hawk Turquoise, a bit like this (which inspired me to go for my paint scheme). I went for simple, good ol’ Enchanted Blue, as it matches with the Force sword colour scheme of the rest of my army.

Proceed to wash with thinned down Enchanted blue. Feel free to experiment! Go really thin, with just a sliver of paint and loads of water. Go really thick with loads and loads of gobs of paint, then just add a wet brush to spread it around and let the natural darkness of the paint fill in the recesses.

3. I then re-highlighted with Skull White at certain sections of the models to make parts of it stand out, e.g. fingers for a bony effect, any skulls and seals, and certainly all the words emblazoned on the armour. Again this is an intuitive process, and you just go with what you think works. The more white highlight you apply, the more that bit will 'pop'.

The best thing is if you make any mistakes you can just re-wash the areas again with blue (or other) and start all over again.

This is a fun, and easygoing process. I only wish I could paint the rest of my army in this paint scheme, as it only took just less than a day to paint the 7 models I’ve made!

4. For the bases, mine are just simple painted black to match the rest of my army scheme, but I have let the blue-paint wash spill over onto the base for an ‘ectoplasmic’ spillover effect (that’s just me being too lazy to clean it up. I think it looks good!)

5. For the weapons I just paint mine to match the force weaponry of my army, so whatever you think works!

THE RESULTS

Re-conditioned for the 42^nd Millenium!

Obviously a smaller Terminator needs a bigger base.

Not-Modrak in the middle, surrounded by the cast of Thriller!

I am most pleased with the results, and can’t wait to set them loose upon mine enemies! Now, if only I can just get around to building a proper Modrak myself...

Thanks for reading!

Note: Image at top of blog used without permission.

GRAY FOR GREY KNIGHTS

2011-09-12T03:42:00.000-07:00

100^th post here, so time for a re-cap of what’s been going on:

For the past couple of years we here at Wednesday Night Gaming have had run the gamut of games from the variety of armies the 3 of us have accumulated. Laur has a core Space Marine army which he wields successfully and often, has dabbled in Tyranids and is recently pursuing his love for the Tau. Doug on the other hand started out as our resident Ork player, but has since been fully aligned to the forces of Chaos. He even has an Eldar battleforce gathering dust somewhere, no doubt to remain in cold storage until their next, brand new codex comes around.

Apart from a one-off foray into the old Daemonhunters codex, I am a fully-committed Imperial Guard player, but recently I’ve found myself close to ‘finishing off’ my core IG collection of models that suited my playstyle, if you know what I mean (once I finish off my still-in-progress Valkyrie in the building that is).

I found myself hungering for a new challenge, a new army! A different playstyle, but I didn’t want to go down the Marine-spinoff 3+ save route, that being the Blood Angels, or the Space Wolves. I quite liked the fluff and look of the models f the Tau, but already had that. Would Dark Eldar be a possibility? They’ve a very radically different playstyle, but I must admit despite the recent facelift, new codex, etc, I’m not a big fan of the models. Same with the Necrons. But I really did feel that the game was becoming stale, and predicatable.

I had to try something different.

Then one day surfing around the Bay of Ecastasy, I picked myself up a 2^nd-hand army, as a starter Grey Knight battleforce, along with a copy of the codex, and I must say I am hooked! So yeah, despite going down that precise route which I said I had initially wanted to avoid, the Grey Knights army is still a breed apart from the standard Space Marine codex and playstyle, with a variety of competitive builds I’m coming to terms with and have had great fun painting, building, list-making, and playing as well. I had already given Daemonhunters a shot (using my own IG force and models to bolster it), so why not?

That and the great wargear, psychic powers, and fun models (Dreadknight!)

So 100^th post on, here’s my Grey Knight army I’ve collected so far in a nice, family album shot!

From left to right, starting with the back row furthest in the picture, with all squads in MSU 5no. config:

1. Razorback, Grey Knights dreadnought, Nemesis Dreadknight, Razorback

2. Razorback (unbuilt), Strike Squad (metal), Strike Squad (metal), Interceptor Squad.

3. Strike Squad, Strike Squad, Purgation Squad

4. Terminator Squad (unbuilt), Paladin Squad, Librarian, Strike Squad, Purifier Squad (unhelmeted headswaps for that heroic look)

5. Culexus (unbuilt), Vindicare (unbuilt), Crowe (unbuilt).

You’ll note that some models have been undercoated white with a wash applied. Those were from the first battleforce I bought , along with the Dreadknight and the models still in packs, as I intend to paint them all an angelic ‘white’ look (bloody hard, harder than orange!) for my White Grey Knights. Everything else I’ve been buying piecemeal as and when the fancy takes me.

I’ve managed to paint a 5-man squad, though that’s taken 3 weeks! (but it’s worth it as the models are so fantastic I want to do them justice). It’s also been great fun modelling them, I’ve managed to build some perfectly good magnetised Pysfleman arms (courtesy of this tutorial from Gone to Ground), in addition to providing headswaps for my Razorback driver, making a ‘veteran’-looking Purifier squad, and building a Purgation squad to provide Psycannon models for my Strike Squads when I need them.

Price-wise, in terms of what I’ve spent picking up items 2^nd-hand for a new starter army? Let’s see:

Starter battleforce (Librarian, Culexus, Vindicare, Crowe, Paladins, Strike Squad, Strike Squad, Purgation Squad, Nemesis Dreadknight, Codex) - £110

Razorback - £15

Razorback - £12.50

Razorback (unbuilt) - £12.50

Grey Knight Dreadnought - £22

Dreadnought - £18

Terminators - £22

Strike Squads (Metal x 2no. squads) - £25

3no. Squads (plastic Strike Squads and 1no. Interceptors) – £22

Total cost: approx. £260 (not inc. posting/packaging costs)

Not bad! I must have spent 3 times that amount on my Imperial Guard, what with the tanks, planes and masses and masses of little plastic soldiers I have.

So there you have it, 3 years on returning to the fray as a dedicated 40K Imperial Guard player, I am now a Grey Knight convert. Every one of us on Wednesday Night Gaming now has a 3+ MEQ army, though the Guard will always be my one, true passion.

But for now, I shall shunt and rad grenade about as I please as I test out my shiny new toys, but don’t worry, this won’t be a mere shrine to the Imperium’s Finest Finest (the name of this blog lends itself to be a shrine to the Guard, though my posts are now always about them).

Disclaimer: Images above used without permission.

I have embraced the monstrous..

2011-08-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

A chance bid on the Bay of Ecstasy has resulted in me picking up a 2nd army! (much to my girlfriend's chargrin. More toys to paint!).

Clue's in the tee-shirt..

AYO GORKHALI 40K!

2011-08-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

Better to die than live a coward - Gurkha saying

Further to my last post, here are the initial mock-ups of my counts-as Gurkha conversions, using the assembled kit of parts (dark elf daggers, cadian bodies, Catachan vox backpacks, some alien suns arms, and maxmini Anzac heads). I think they’re looking pretty sweet!

Getting the Kukri knife to look right as a big concern of mine, but the curved darkling daggers has that right look I feel, as seen hanging on the backpacks . I know the shape isn’t right at all, but the curved, otherworldly and menacing form is the intention here.

Obviously I had concerns on how to achieve an ‘unsheathed’ Kukri-blade, but I hit upon the idea of using a chopped part of a Dark Elf Cold One rider helmet (as seen held by the model to left of photograph. I have a ton of Cold One rider parts from an old Xeno-rough rider project I have yet to finish... One day!) as the infamous knife, which obviously doesn’t resemble the Dark Elf daggers shape-wise, they are in fact a little bigger, but who cares! I am pleased with the result!

Can’t wait to assemble them all and paint them up!

To be continued.

NOTE: All images used without permission.

GURKHA 40k?

2011-07-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

Bought myself some Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) heads from maxmini.eu, courtesy of wargamersworld.com, and am very pleased with my purchase, for you see I fancied making myself 40k-counterparts of the Gurkhas to scour the battlefields of the 41^st millennium! (For those not in the know as to the fearsome reputation of the Gurkhas, please see here, here and here).

I will admit that in this day and age, modern soldiers wear whatever uniform and kit given to them typical of the era (thus modern-day Gurkhas wear much the same kit as say British soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan), and using the Anzac heads with the slouch/ floppy hats may seem a strange ‘counts-as’ of Gurkha soldiers to some, but given that said Anzac heads are an approximation of the ‘Gurkha hats’ (Hat Terrai Gurkha) that I’m more familiar with as the image of the traditional Gurkha dress uniform as seen below (e.g. at parades, or as still-worn by the Gurkha contingent of Singapore), I think I can be forgiven!

(Obviously should someone else decide to make Anzac 40K soldiers that would be mega-cool too, but for my own purposes the intention is to enlist Gurkhas in miniature-form to supplement my Cadian 512^th collection).

What I’ve done so far is I’ve collected the following bits with the intent of assembling them together as part of this new modelling project:

1. 2^nd-hand Cadian bodies from the Ecstasy Bay, marked for refurbishment/

2. A squad’s-worth of Cadian voxcasters (for backpacks)

3. Curved dark elf daggers – an approximation of the distinctive Kukri knives that the Gurkha’s are famous for using.

4. Said anzac heads to be used as ‘heads with Gurkha hats’. I'm hoping the heads/hats will work with Cadian bodies, as Catachan bodies with their oversized muscles don't seem to fit too well as seen in the picture below.

Image found on Google for 'Anzac head conversions' on Catachan bodies. Credit to 'Death By Monkeys'

I plan on using the finished result of my Gurkha 40k-‘counts as’ as either Penal Legionairres (to respectfully represent their combative prowess ,disregarding all fluff reference to the criminality of the Penal Legion unit entry), or either Vets or Stormtroopers. Going the Penal Legion route is the most likely, as my intended Gurkha-esque miniatures are to the a newly formed assault strikeforce for the 512^th Cadian regiment: ‘The Throatcutters’.

One thing though: I’m having trouble figuring out what colours should I paint their uniforms/armour?

Should it be the traditional all-over tan/khaki? (e.g. British army)

Or dark blue with tan hats (e.g. Singapore contingent)?

Should I stick with the 512^th colours (black uniform & grey body armour), with tan hats, this being an acknowledgement that Gurkha’s normally wear the uniforms of whatever regiment their attached to?

Or perhaps go with tan hats and uniform, but with grey body armour to tie-in with the rest of my army, but remaining distinct from my other soldiers (my Penal legion do the same, with their orange uniform/jumpsuits, but with Grey body armour).

I’ll paint up a test model to see if I’m happy with the result.

To be continued!

NOTE: All images used without permission.

Clementine Convict Cadres Complete!

2011-07-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

A follow-up to my previous post, I’ve finally completed my 3no. squads of Penal Legionnaires. I know Orange uniforms have been an utter b*stard to paint, but am happy with the results despite the slapdash approach, and have had great fun testing them out in small (750 point) games against Tau and Chaos Space Marines.

Highlights include consistently running roughshod over Tau Firewarriors in assault (not many people get to say that about Guard!), killing a Daemon Prince (after 3 full turns of combat, the sole survivor being my Overseer), and losing a whole squad from taking a single casualty after charging a Broadside, not their finest moment! Lesson learnt from Penal Legion? Results May Vary with Hilarity.

Whether or not I’ll take them in more serious, competitively fine-tuned lists remains to be seen, but I have been delighted at their overall performance and fun factor whenever I bring them into more relaxed battles (e.g. their next appearance on the table will probably involve a mass-assault-themed army, with Straken, Ogryns & combo platoons for hilarity), and they have been a real joy to model and play. A real credit of a unit to the Imperial Guard codex and a must-try to all IG players everywhere!

Here are some photos, see if you can guess the breakdown of the individual headswaps for each Legionairre! (answers below):

Squad One

Squad Two

Squad Three

Answers:

Squad One (l to r): Empire Flagellant, Bretonnian Knight, standard Catachan, Dark Elf Cold One rider, Cadian Command Squad, Bretonnian Bowmen, Catachan Command, Bretonnian Men At Arms, Empire Flagellant, Alien Suns Cthulu-head.

Squad Two (l to r): Vampire Counts Ghoul/Zombie (?), standard Catachan, Cadian Command, standard Catachan, Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard, Empire Flagellant, Vampire Counts Ghoul /Zombie(?), Bretonnian Artillery (?), Bretonnian Bowmen.

Squad Three (l to r): Alien Suns facemask trooper, Alien Suns gasmask trooper, Alien Suns damaged masked mutant, Bretonnian Artillery (?), Alien Suns topknot mutant, Pig Iron Kolony HQ, Catachan Command, Empire Flagellant, Cadian Command, Alien Suns masked mutant.

Note: (?) denotes "origin unsure". Anyone care to help identify these ambiguous heads?

Thanks to the following websites for their bitz and assistance! Bitz box, Let The Dice Decide & Wargamers World!

Prisoners of War

2011-07-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

Photo of the test models for my Penal Legion. Am pretty happy with the way they have turned out painting-wise, as it was a slapdash multi-coat affair to get the Orange to work with blackundercoated models. I then applied my standard Cadian Grey pads, armour plating and weapons, washed everything quickly with black ink for a rough n' ready dirty look, then picked out highlights and added in a splash of green for a bit of contrast.

Models-wise I've refurbished old Cadian models I got off Ecstasy Bay (and when I mean refurbish, I mean cut their heads off, apply a headswap then undercoat black), with a bunch of heads-bitz I've bought off loads of bitz sites (e.g. fantasy flagellants, bretonnians, catachan heads, even the c'thulu head from the Alien suns sprue for a bit of 'mutie goodness), resulting in each model having it's own unique look and possible backstory, much like my vet models. All part of the fun!

Still 27 more models to go! Despite applying a quick-n-easy speedy approach to the painting and stopping and spending more time to carefully pick out facial details, it has been quite an uphill struggle (bloody orange) but the results so far have been worth it!

The Future Is Orange

2011-06-30T03:48:00.000-07:00

Back from holidays, fully recharged! Now getting onto the serious business of incorporating squads and squads (and squads) of Penal Legionairres into the Cadian 512th.

I picked me up a bunchload of Cadians from the Bay of Ecstasy, undercoated them, and have now proceeded to slap on coat after coat of Blazing orange to get that right shade of Bay of Guantanomo jumpsuit. Damn, orange is a tough colour to paint!

Funny thing is, while it was a conscious choice for me to make my criminals of Cadia dress in the most cliched of high prisoner fashion (as opposed to black & white stripey boilersuits, domino masks and bags of 'swag' swung across their shoulder), I've opted to keep the same colour to the armour, helmets and weaponry as the rest of my army (Grey) to maintain some consistency and have noticed the resulting effort is going to come out a little like this:

Serendipity?

I'll post pictures of the resulting Imperial Rebel Alliance troopers in due course (if I don't already develop an innate hatred for Blazing Orange by then)..

Disclaimer: Images used without permission.

Jungle Vacation

2011-05-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

The Cadian 512th is off on it's summer holidays for the fortnight! In the meantime, here's a couple of shots of the Jungle-fightin' division of the Cadian 512th in action.

Cadian-Harker loves the smell of promethium in the morning..

See you all in 2 (weeks)!

Plastic Fantastic Stormtroopers

2011-04-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

Check out the plastic. yo

I love Stormtroopers. I really do.

Despite my deconstruction of the latest iteration of Stormies, I have always had a soft spot for the Imperium’s finest and I’m not talking about those geneseed-augmented super hominids clad in powered armour, I’m talking about the orphans schooled under the Schola Progenium, drilled and trained to be the best a man can be.

Having ‘hellguns’/hot-shot lasguns and looking super cool also helps.

I’ve always loved the beret-troopers, and it helped that the Kasrkin grenadier-look is also what I expect the best of the Imperial Guard to look like, (less said about the moon-suits the better).

Here come the Men in Black.

When I first saw the rumours of the plastic stormies/arbites upgrade, still a distant possibility, I would seriously consider collecting them, despite their relative uncompetitiveness under 5^th edition (non-scoring making a huge difference). Atrotos over at Rules Manufactorum suggests a Storm Trooper Officer as such a fix, and similiarly, thinking about the current 5^th edition IG codex I would suggest in future changing the ‘Lord Commissar’ entry to do just that: perform as an upgrade to allow the taking of Storm Troopers as Troops.

Seems a natural fit, and an easy fix. Sales of Stormies go up, people will actually start taking a Lord Commisar into games (sales of them will go up too). Job’s a good ‘un. But that's another discussion for another day.

The 'rumoured' plastic stormies release, since debunked as portfolio photos for a 'test' model

Alas, it’s years on and still no sign of the elusive plastic Stormtroopers. I had to take matters into my own hands.

Sure, there have been many attempts (notably here, here, and here and last I checked definitely here) at making them, but I wanted a unique take that would fit into the look I’ve adopted for my Kasrkins/Berets, but would also make them stand out on their own, to get that ‘Wow, where did you get that pose?’ quality, but also would be easy to use and adapt with my existing bits and bobs (plenty of Cadian surplus).

Wargames factory to the rescue!

Do you like 28mm gas masks, Nazi helmets, greatcoats, shotguns, railguns? If so, please consider the contents of this box.

Their ‘Sci-fi Greatcoat Infantry’ from the ‘Alien Suns’ range seemed to me, the perfect match. With their variety of weapons included in the sprue (easy pump-action shotguns for my vets, and unique ornate-looking railguns that I could use as Hellguns), the ease of use and adaptability with Cadian parts, and most importantly, Greatcoats!

Pumping your action? Vets ahoy! CHIK-CAK pew pew pew

Combined with a set of Forgeworld Cadian respirator heads I had lying about, and adapting surplus voxcasters (plus having those 'railguns' double as the hot-shot lasguns) I think I’ve managed to achieve that look and feel of a certain Mr. Goodwin’s concept art. What do you guys think?

Concept sketch (2nd edition) Imperial Guard - Jes Goodwin / GW copyright

I really must say that for the budding Imperial Guard player I cannot recommend the wargames factory sprues highly enough (you get real bang for your buck, real cheap too compared to current GW prices as you get plenty more figures for the comparable price hence the incredible value for money). Understandably there will be issues with the usage of non-GW sanctioned products kitbashed together, but in friendly games who gives a feth!

Group shot at the Library

Slap on some Pig Iron heads and you could end up with great looking Death Korps of Krieg / Armageddon Steel Legion / Valhallan Ice Warrior / Adeptus Mechanicus Skittari, but for the now the versatile and high-quality bodies and parts have found use as my new Stormtroopers, giving one an even greater range of poses from the standard IG parts.

Point before you pew pew pew

I’ll be slapping on the black paint and detailing them up soon, ready to take them out for a spin with my beret and Kasrkin stormies!

Wednesday Night Gaming: Stop Da Breakout

2011-04-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Here at Wednesday Gaming Night, Laur has convinced us to give the recent GW Armageddon mission supplements a go (variations of the existing standard missions).

So being the IG player and Doug being the Orks, naturally we had first crack at this ‘Stop the Breakout’ mission.

Unlike an objective-based game, this is a twist upon Annihilation with following summarised points:

Da Humie Rulez

1. IG get a point for every unit they successfully get off the board (at the Ork player’s edge), and half a point for every unit still left alive.

2. Also, any IG unit broken and fleeing can rally (even under 50% strength)

3. IG get to deploy, and go on the first turn, deploying in full and running desparately from a packed urban cityscape edge across into the ash wastes of Armageddon.

Da Orkz Rulez

1. Orks in turn deploy only 2 troops and 1 HQ a la Dawn of War, everything else in reserve coming in at any table edge (as long as the resulting move ends up 12” away from any IG unit) as per reserve rules.

2. Orks can steal the initiative on a 5 or 6, and they get a point for every IG unit killed.

A twist on the normal Annihilation mission! (to fluffily represent the fictitious event of the Hive defenders of Armageddon attempting to break the Ork line and flee into the ash wastes in order to regroup later for a counter-assault, which features only Blood Angels. I know, it doesn’t make sense whichever way you slice it but hey ho, that’s 40K fluff for you). For more information check out GW’s website and PDF rules.

A disclaimer

As blog activity is rather sporadic of late due to Real Life (tm) concerns (e.g. work, more work, and even more work) which has resulted in me falling behind on my painting and blogging, I’ll present to you a cribbed battlereport unlike the long rambling play-by-play accounts with diagrams and in-depth list analysis and whatnot.

So just highlights and photos. Sorry to disappoint!

Escape From Armageddon! Da Playerz

Point limits were set to 1500 each.

The IG list (mine) was based around mobility, mech, and throwing in an Ogryn squad for some hard-hitting action, as follows:

Primaris Psyker (HQ)

Vet Squad, 3 Meltaguns, Chimera

Vet Squad, 3 Grenade Launchers, Chimera

Vet Squad, 3 Flamers,, Powerfist, Demolitions (Demo charge, Meltabombs) – riding in Valkyrie

Ogryn Squad – 1 Bone ‘Ead & 5 Ogryns, Chimera

Valkyrie Gunship – Multiple Rocket Pods, Heavy Bolter sponsons

Hellhound

Sentinel Squad – 3no. Scout Sentinels

Punisher

Hydra

The steel cavalcade

Ork list (Doug) was built around getting as many bodies on the table, as follows:

Big Mek, Shokk Attack Gun (HQ)

Wazdakka Gutzmek

Shoota Boyz – 20no. boyz (inc. 1nob, 2 Heavies)

Tankbustaz – 8no. boyz

Lootaz – 7no. boyz

Grot Artillery (Big Gunz) – 3no. boyz

Looted Wagon

The thin green line

A hard and tactical game was then fought between IG and Orks, a game of cat & mouse where IG were trying to get off the table and Orks trying to contain, and massacre the humies. Both sides had a very thin, spread deployment (IG relying on mobility to reposition themselves late and drive in a wedge through the thinly spread Orks). After 5 turns these were the noteworthy events:

Ork Highlights:

1. Stealing the Initiative, going first and deploying Tankbusterz to the rear of the Valkyrie blowing it up on the first turn (despite it going full tilt during its Scout move)!

2. Demolitions vet crew killed by Ork small arms fire immediately after

3. Looted wagon removed the Hellhound’s weapon, and destroyed it eventually.

4. Tankbustas immobilise a Chimera, forcing my Grenadier Vets & Psyker to dig in deep in cover.

5. Ork boyz destroy another Chimera and kill all the Meltavet passengers. (they and their ride had launched themselves into the mass of boyz killing loads and forming a traffic block to buy some time for the rest to escape)

6. Ork boyz further overwhelm and kill the squad of Sentinels (again the Sentinels had provided fire support and formed a subsequent traffic block to buy some time)

Tankbusta-proxies (Eldar guardians) on the Valk's 6.

Kablooey

IG Highlights:

1. Hydra takes out the Big Mek on it’s first turn, and causes a weapon destroyed and immobilised result on the Looted Tank later on.

2. Combined arms fire take out a squad of Tankbustas and eventually 1 squad of shoota boyz (20 Orkz).

3. Punisher takes out the other squad of Tanbustas but is then consistently Shaken! By the Lootaz.

4. Ogryns chew through an impressive amount: charging, then killing Wazdakka, followed by a squad of 20 boyz, and then finishing off the Grot artillery before them and their transport scoot off the board, losing only a single Ogryn throughout !

Ogryns commence their Orkish massacre, starting with Gutzmek

The result:

Orks had 6 points outright (Valk, 2 Vet squads, Chimera, Hellhound, Sentinel squad)

IG had 5 points (2 for the Chimera & Ogryns escaping, ½ points for the Punisher, Hydra, Chimera (Immobilised), Chimera, Grenadier Vets, Psyker)

Orkish Victory!

To be fair on both myself and Dougie, it was a hard-fought battle and we both played a tad on the conservative side, holding back and fighting a war of attrition before really going for it.

I would test the line, shooting and testing for a weak spot. Eventually Doug’s flank consisting of tankbustas, artillery, the looted wagon proved to be just that, and I rammed the Ogryns straight through!

Unfortunately, despite the Ogryn’s stellar performance (yes, you heard me right!), the rest of the crew lagged behind too badly and time ran out before they could make their escape. In hindsight, everything I had on the table should have gone out at full throttle, pushing ahead desperately and forming more effective tarpits to stop the Ork onslaught.

Obviously if I had decided to take a couple more Hellhounds would’ve tipped the balance! The Orks getting the first turn also didn’t help my cause (taking out the Valk from the get go I felt really tipped the balance in the Orks favour)

Final Analysis:

All in all, this twist in the game parameters proved a welcome change to the standard Annhilation missions. No sitting back and taking pot shots at the enemy for the Imperial Guard! A total re-think of the list has to be considered, focusing on tough sacrificial units, hard-hitting line-breakers, and fast, mobile mech units to give yourself the edge (of course I couldn’t resist including a Hydra in the unlikely event of Nob Bikerz).

So if you’re an Imperial Guard player and fancy something different, give ‘Stop Da Breakout’ a go!

The Orks stop da breakout

Xenos On A Plane

2011-03-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

Enough is ENOUGH! I have had it with these motherfethin' 'stealers on this motherfethin' plane!

Easy Conversion! Basilisk / Medusa / Manticore / Hydra

2011-03-09T06:10:00.000-08:00

Ever since modelling up my 1st Valk/Vendetta, I’ve been feeling a bit more confident with using magnetised bits (thank the Emperor for Neodynium magnets) so I set about wondering pondering a solution to a problem I had: How do I stop proxying medusas/ manticores/ hydras/ etc , without having to spend extra monies on more models?

The solution became obvious when I realised I’ve already been using my basilisk models (I have 3) as proxies for other IG heavy support options. After all, the all share the same Chimera STC chassis.

Each of my basilisks have no ‘front shielding’ (the front plating that would protect the crew from the recoil/blast of the big gun) which is the way I like it, so I decided that although one had an earthshaker cannon already fixed in place, the other 2 I could easily remove the gun barrel and trim the length of it to suit my purposes (cutting it to a midway length between what one normally gets between a basilisk and a medusa). So my medusa proxies were solved. They're both as long as I tell my opponent so!

Basilisk / Medusa

I then realised that I could apply 2 small magnets to each end of the gun supports, and using the bits I had prepared for my Valks/vendettas, these are the results:

Naked

Manticore

Manticore (Fire away!)

Whirlwind. I mean, 'counts-as' Hydra!

Obviously when I have the time to prep a set of twin-linked hydra autocannons for my Hydra, I would, but for now the Valk rocket pods I think are a pretty good proxy for my 'Hydra'.

All in all, I think this weapon-swap method is a pretty easy, workable, and convenient solution to proxying, without relying upon buying many different flavours of tanks.

Escape Artistry

2011-03-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight at Wednesday Night Gaming the group has decided to give the Armageddon Scenarios a go, so my IG are going up against Doug’s Orks at 1500 points tonight, with the other match-ups (SM vs. Orks, and SM/IG vs. Orks) to follow.

Group shot! (Note: Ogryns packed in Chimeras like sardines)

So in anticipation of Mission 1: Stop Da Breakout, I had to come up with a lean, fast, mobile list that can satisfy the mission conditions (a point for every unit escaped to me, a point for every unit killed by my opponent).

Also I had been challenged by local Marine player Laur, to come up with a list with elements from the Codex I haven’t tried yet, so I thought I’d give Ogryns, a Hydra, and a Punisher just for giggles.

Here’s the list I’m bringing tonight:

- Primaris Psyker

- Vet Squad, meltaguns, Chimera with ML, HF & heavy stubber
- Vet Squad, grenade launchers, Chimera with ML, HF & heavy stubber

- Vet Squad, flamers, demolitions, power fist (riding in Valkyrie)
- 6no. Ogryns, Chimera with ML, HF & heavy stubber
- Valkyrie gunship, rocket pods, heavy bolter sponsons
- Hellhound
- 3no. Scout sentinels, autocannons
- Punisher Tank, heavy bolter hull & sponsons
- Hydra

Points total: 1500

I’ve used Ogryns in the past (3rd ed. codex) and I’m pretty impressed by their overall performance, but remain convinced that their an uncompetitive points-sink. Still, I intend to throw them to the Orks and see how much damage I can inflict, and use them to tie-up elements of the enemy.

I’ve taken a Punisher before against ‘Nids, and their great fun with all that dice! But again, points-wise could be better spent elsewhere but since we’re playing a fluffy mission I thought I’d trot this bad boy out again.

Never used a Hydra before, but 2 twin-linked Hydra autocannons (Therefore 4 shots re-rollable at Str 7 AP4 ignores boosted cover saves? Sweet...) with my autocannon Sentinels mean plenty of Dakka to kill me some greenskins!

Looking forward to seeing how the Valkyrie performs, with it's ability to Scout move, move 12" and still fire 2 rocket pods and it's multi-laser. Definitely something to be reckoned with.

Other elements (Hellhound, meltavets, Psyker) I have brought to bring in fast, punchy units that I know can bring plenty of bang for my buck.

Wish me and Doug luck!

Billy the Shiv, the Marbo Spiv

2011-02-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

In recent games I’ve started using my Catachan Jungle Captain model (Arnie as I call him) as a counts-as stand-in for Straken. Makes sense to me, with the power fist and the bad-ass paintjob.

However, this left me with a lack of a model to use as Marbo, the Human Lictor. So what did I do next?

Relying on the same Predator/Rambo themes that GW have clearly lifted, I mean have been inspired by, for the Catachan range, it struck me that the old Last Chancer ‘Shiv’ model is channelling the ghost of Billy and thus a suitable model for Marbo (I’m not too keen on the official one).

And I’m not the only who thinks so! Sandwyrm has long used his Shiv model as Marbo, and is painted to fit into his Tallarn theme.

I’ve painted the Shiv model in quasi-Catachan colours to distinguish him from my normal grey & black Cadians. His arrival on the battlefield is always hotly anticipated by my opponents (and they rejoice every time he gets killed by his own demo-charge, which happens a lot more frequently than you would expect even with BS 5!) Apt really, as I would say the Cadian 512th's Marbo is as effective as the real Billy from Predator!

At 65 points, Marbo is a real bargain and a lot of fun to play, even just for the psych-out factor. Despite the use as a suicide bomb/free KP unit, I have also found that his Ripper pistol – assault with poisoned weapon-hit & run-repeat combo to be quite a useful harrassing tactic, and thus my opponents always seek to quash Marbo wherever they find him (wisely enough).

Dissident Aggressor

2011-02-21T05:14:00.000-08:00

One of the many imports from Ecstasy Bay has risen through the ranks of the Cadian 512th, leading the glorious Infantry Blob Platoons through many a battle!

Brother-Confessor Hackett lives up to his name!

I had converted and painted up this Ministorum Priest from Empire Flagellant bits, some grenades and a Sentinel chainsaw for an Eviserator (why Sentinels don't have Power Weapon attacks like Marine Dreadnoughts, I will never know). This has resulted in a complete change of playstyle, veering away from Full-mech to a mixed list using combined arms and tactics.

Bubble-wrapping artillery, transports and tanks, or using them to intimidate opponents on the 1st turn charge with Straken, the fun is endless! Plus I'm pretty stoked how the model & painting turned out.

More to come!

What Menzies Did Next

2011-02-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hello all! The Cadian 512th's been quiet of late, but that's only because I've been buckling down at the job, earning monies for more disposable cash to pump into the game of 40K, that game we all know to be a blackhole of money by which plastic crack will always tempt.

I've been pretty busy going on a mass painting spree to bolster my Cadian force and diversify my tactics, and the game itself of late. I'll follow this post with a few picture highlights, but here's the first! My fully-painted result of coming 2nd place to a certain competition...

Yup! This is the fully-painted Valkyrie (seen here with my count-as Vendetta options), a first for the 512th! Thanks bsmoove!

Admittedly, this kit has been a joy unbeholden. The hardest kit I've ever had the pleasure to assemble, paint, reassemble, repaint, detail, magnetise (for both Valyrie pod & missile options, and Vedetta twin-linked lascannons), and repaint! *Phew*

But it is worth it, truly a thing of beauty (in my eyes. After all, anything painted in the 512th colours or black, white and grey will always find favour in my eyes). 2 weeks worth of modelling and painting! But it is such a fun toy to have in an Imperial Guard army, and opens up a whole realm of playing possibilities, I sometimes think to myself "Why did I not get one sooner?"

True, it's definitely a fire magnet, and it's made it's maiden voyage and promptly got blown up the turn after it arrived, but it was so much fun to make and play, I do love it!

Thanks again Bsmoove! The Cadian 512th, we salute you!

Wednesday Night Gaming: A Glorious Mess

2011-01-31T09:13:00.000-08:00

As per the last post, these are some photo highlights of the first Apocalypse, and last game of 2010 (that carried on into 2011!). Enjoy!

It was a 6000 point game, Laur with the Ultrasmurfs, and me and Dougie with 3K each, a Chaos/Traitor IG alliance. (this was because Dougie had been building his Chaos force from the ground up slowly, while Laur & mine's colllection dwarfs his, but we fancied an all-out all-inclusive game)

In the end, Laur's first go, spread out deployment (we were forced to castle due to Apocalypse table division rules), better unit synergy and better dice meant he achieved a near total wipeout! (with the exception of Straken, who survived a pounding from Marines as seen from the picture above).

Wednesday Night Gaming: Season's Greetings!

2010-12-29T05:12:00.000-08:00

Prawn cracker smoke! The tasty snack you get a cover save from.

The 40k-bloggosphere is usually pretty quiet this time of year, so the Wednesday Gaming Night guys hope that one and all had a great Christmas, and a greetings of Happy New Year to everyone!

We've also had our first foray into Apocalypse (playing a massive 6000 point game, throwing all our toys onto the table) which was plenty of fun, though a bit on the long side! (2 nights on, and it was still Turn 2!).

See you all in the New Year!

Frequent Internet Spelling Mistakes: Blood Angels Vs. Blood Angles

2010-11-25T05:11:00.000-08:00

Awakening Ynnead have a piece regarding 'hoard' vs. 'horde' (and other frequent Internet misspellings). This has inspired me to present the following:

First off, this is a Blood Angel:

And this is a Blood Angle:

Get it right!

After all, you wouldn't want to mess with those fearsome Space Marine chapters, the Right Angels, the Reflex Angels, the Complementary Angels, Acute Angels, Obtuse Angels, Straight Angels, the Irrational Angels, the Angel-Saxons, etc, etc.

F.A.Q YOU, IMPERIAL GUARD!

2010-11-23T12:19:00.000-08:00

Ur doin it rong lulz

More rules queries from us here at the 512th Cadian (on behalf of Wednesday Gaming Night), that will hopefully tickle your inner rules lawyer! These questions come in Imperial Guard flavour, but there are a couple of Daemonhunters-related ones as well. As ever, your input is very much appreciated!

Aten-Hut Soldier! Answer Me This!

Q1. Can you fire Mortars (an Ordnance Barrage weapon) from a fire point when inside a building?

Seems silly, and it’s more reasonable to assume that the mortars are being fired from the top of a building (rooftop/battlement/parapet), but there’s no specific ruling that says you cannot.

Q1.1 What about firing Mortars from a Chimera then?

If a squad is embarked in a stationary Chimera, can it fire the mortar from it’s ‘fire point’ (the hatch)? Recall that the previous 3rd edition IG codex had a rule in which if models fired from the Chimera’s hatch, it counts as open-topped (a rule which has since been scrapped).

Q1.2 How about firing them from under a ruin?

Can one argue that the upper floors will block the trajectory of a mortar barrage? Will it still be able to fire?

Q2. Imperial Guardsmen cannot receive orders if they are already in a transport (Pg. 29 IG Codex). But can Imperial Guard receive orders if they are already embarked in a building?

Does a building count as a (stationary) transport since it uses similar rules, e.g. damage chart, embarking, disembarking, or is it something else unique entirely?

What if the units in a building are ‘on the rooftop/battlement/parapet’, and therefore count as being open-topped? Can the unit take orders in the same fashion that a unit deployed in a ruin can?

Q2.1. Imperial Guard Officers cannot give orders if they are already in a transport (Pg. 29 IG Codex). But can Officers give orders if they are embarked in a building?

Basically the same questions as Q2. What do you think?

Q3. Can a unit of Ogryns be issued, and carry out, Orders?

Are they exempt from Orders as (fluff-wise) they are considered too stupid to follow the simplest command? Nothing in the rules says they cannot follow orders.

Q4. When deploying Marbo (as per ‘He’s Behind You! Pg. 61 IG Codex) can Marbo be deployed in impassable terrain?

I ask this if Marbo can effectively ‘move’ into impassable terrain in the same way Jump Infantry can access impassable terrain by ending their movement on it (not deepstriking onto it, as this is disallowed) and counting it as dangerous terrain? E.g. appearing on the rooftop of very tall buildings previously considered impassable.

Q5. When deploying Marbo (as per ‘He’s Behind You! Pg. 61 IG Codex), is this considered a ‘Deep Strike’ method of deployment?

There is nothing in Marbo’s special rules entry that says it IS a Deep Strike, but if so, can a Daemonhunter opponent with 2no. Mystics in an Inquisitorial retinue take a ‘free shot’ at Marbo? (Pg. 15 Daemonhunter Codex). Fluff-wise it would seem reasonable (e.g. predicting where the enemy will appear).

Unless as a counter argument, the mind of Marbo is so unknowable even by the best Psykers to be able to prepare for his unique deployment style!

Q5.1 If Marbo's deployment is NOT a Deepstrike, can he then deploy INTO a Building or Transport (presumably a Friendly-player's transport!), e.g. He's been in deep cover inside a building waiting for his moment to pounce!

As discussed in the previous post, Pg. 95 of the main rulebook says Deepstriking units cannot deploy INTO a building/transport (this covers both occupied/unoccupied), but if Marbo is NOT Deepstriking in his 'He's Behind You!' deployment, does 'deploy anywhere on the table more than 1" from the enemy' mean he CAN deploy into empty buildings/transports?

Q6. Does Commisar Yarrick have an Invulnerable Save?

Old One-Eyed Yarrick’s Force Field wargear (Pg. 63 IG Codex) reads fluff-wise like a Refractor Field, but nowhere in his profile is it stated he gets an Invulnerable save. Does that mean if Yarrick gets smacked by a power weapon/fist, or hit by a weapon which has an AP greater than 4 (Yarrick’s carapace armour save), he doesn’t get an Invulnerable Save?

Q7. Does the ‘Astropath’ regimental advisor count as a Psyker?

Despite being one (fluff-wise) the IG Astropath does not have a ruling specifically stating it IS a Psyker in its relevant bestiary profile (Pg 31, IG Codex), unlike say a Primaris, or Sanctioned Psyker.

So I’m assuming that despite the fluff, the Astropath is NOT considered a Psyker in game terms, as it does not require a Psychic test to enforce it’s ‘Telepathic Relay’ ability, nor is it affected by rules such as the Culexus Assassin’s ‘Animus Speculum’ wargear, or ‘Psychic Abomination’ special rules (Pg. 27 Daemonhunter Codex).

Q8. Does the ‘Mystic’ Inquisitorial henchmen (see Daemonhunter Codex) count as a Psyker?

Fluff-wise they ARE Psykers, and some Mystics are even Astropaths! However, for the game I would say they are not, as per the reasonings given re: Astropaths in the previous question.

Q9. If an Inquisitor is equipped with a ‘Null-Rod’ (Pg. 18 Daemonhunter Codex), does that mean a Mystic cannot use his (fluff-wise) Psychic abilities? What if said Inquisitor joins a Command Squad with an Astropath, is the Astropath’s Telepathic Relay ability nullified?

Again I would say the Null-Rod works as intended by it’s Codex rules, but as stated previously regarding the game mechanics for Q.7 and Q.8, the Astropath/Mystics remain free to use their abilities.

I know I’m really being very pernickity here, but thanks for reading, and any comments/help is much appreciated!

- Menzies

WH40K FAQ Update: Rules I Want Answered!

2010-11-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who commented on the previous post re: sniper rifles and the new GW FAQ rulings. I, and my comrades here at Wednesday Night Gaming very much appreciate everyone's input into the battlereports, as well as any advice/comments given regarding the rules queries that pop up during our battles! (cue: much animated and heated discussions during our games between me, Laur and Dougie when the inevitable rules clash arises).

Recently I've managed to squeeze in 3 games with my IG against Laur and Doug, and I promise battle reports one day! But for the now it looks like this:

Game 1 - IG Vs. 'Nids: A revised 1250pt list where I take a command squad, a 30no. men platoon blob with priest & commisar, 2no. manticores, chimeltas and a Hellhound against the very same list I fought against recently. It was Pitched Battle, Capture & Control with me on the first turn, the result: IG Victory! (thus breaking my losing streak. It was 1no. objective controlled, vs. no objectives for Nids.)

Game 2 - IG Vs. Space Marines: I take the same list as Game 1, but with a Banewolf instead of a Hellhound, against Shrike + Terminators infiltrating, Tac squads, a Jump pack assault squad, Pred & Dread. This was also a Pitched Battle, Capture & Control game, with me on the first turn, the result: Marine Victory! (With 1no. objective controlled by the Marines, and mine own objective successfully contested).

Game 3 - IG Vs. Chaos Space Marines: I've taken a double-blob platoon list (60no. men in total!), led by a Primaris Psyker, 2no. Banewolves, & 2no. Basilisks, against 3 Chaos Tacs, Dred, Pred, Terminators & Daemon Prince. It was Dawn of War, Seize Ground, with me on the first turn, the result: Technically a stalemate with both our objectives contested (at time of writing, Doug and Laur agreed to play out the rest of my game on my behalf on subsequent turn 6, 7, etc, so am waiting to hear the true and final outcome).

As with all games, we ended up with rules questions that we hope that the readers of the bloggosphere can come to our rescue! As the new FAQ update has failed to touch upon these many instances, here are the questions we here at Wednesday Gaming Night have for you all

Dare you try to answer? Read on below:

GENERAL

Q1. Can a walker that has been immobilised pivot to shoot?

I had damaged a dreadnought in my shooting turn, and in the next turn we had a long discussion on whether Laur's dread can pivot to shoot. Ultimately we decided to just let it be, and the dreadnought shot a target in front of it anyway, but we've heard the many arguments such as : a) A walker is a vehicle, as vehicles cannot pivot when immobilised ergo a walker cannot. b) But in combat, an immobilised walker is said to be flailing wildly (akin to pivoting) and thus cannot have it's rear attacked, but minus 1no. Attack profile. c) Like with glued guns & sponsons, if a model has the appearance of being able to pivot (e.g. at waist level like a dread) then it can. But oh, Ork dreads cannot? Etc, etc.

Help!

Q2. Can a unit that has deepstruck near a building or vehicle access point also embark on the turn it arrived?

The rulebook states that in Pg 95, once they arrive (via Deepstriking) these units may not move any further, other than to disembark from a deepstriking transport vehicle.

In the last game I played against Dougie, his termies teleported near a building access point and raised the query. We said no, but now I think that actually there is nothing in the rules that says you cannot have a unit that has arrived via deepstriking embark onto a transport/building if they all comply with the access point rule.

Is this correct?

Q3. Can jump troops or deepstriking units 'enter' a building in a non-standard way? E.g. Not embarking a building via an access point, but jumping/deepstriking directly onto the building?

During Game 2 where Laur queried if his jump pack assault troops can jump directly onto a building, we agreed that occupied (friendly or foe) buildings count as impassable, thus jump packing onto an occupied building was a no-no, and deepstriking counts as a mishap. But when the building is unoccupied, the main rulebook helpfully tells us to 'Use Your Imagination!' (Pg. 80), even informing that perhaps jump packers COULD, if house-ruled, get onto occupied parapets to assault.

However Pg 95 says a unit may not deepstrike INTO a transport/building (assumed this means both occupied/unoccupied), which will count as impassable terrain as normal. But what about ONTO (a building), for instance onto the parapet/battlement/rooftop? The rulebook isn't exactly clear.

I stated that by allowing this, this opens up a huge can of worms when it comes to other corrolary effects e.g. If jump troops or deep strikers are then deployed onto rooftops, do they get a 4+ cover save, or do they count as having 'embarked' the building and thus use the buildings AV when shot at, counting as open-topped? Do they, by effect of the Pg. 95 ruling, can only deepstrike straight onto the rooftop, and CANNOT 'enter' the building immediately after deepstriking? This got very complicated, but we stated as a house-rule that jump packers CAN jump onto rooftops, counting as being on the roof, open-topped, using the AV of the building, etc, BUT they had to do a dangerous terrain test first.

Don't get me started on whether a jump pack unit, ON a rooftop, can jump direct from a rooftop thus incurring a further dangerous terrain test, OR they disembark, get an extra 2" and avoid a dangerous terrain test, AND jump their full movement. Urg.

Rules meltdown!

TYRANIDS

Q1. Can a Hive Tyrant that has joined a unit of Tyrant Guard bodyguards be pinned/Go to Ground?

The good old 'Monstrous creature joining a unit of infantry now becomes an ambigiously-sized creature' issue raises it's head again!

Infantry can go to ground of course, but Pg 51 states that Monstrous Creatures cannot. So can this unit of mixed-up monsters can or cannot? After all, the Tyrant benefits from the cover save potential of being in an infantry group, or wound-distribution potential of having bodyguards (as RAI), but can it also then break the game by going to ground to max out it's cover save?

Error!

IMPERIAL GUARD

Q1. Does the Order 'Bring it Down!' work when shooting at a Hive Tyrant that has joined a unit of Tyrant Guard?

As the Hive Tyrant does not stop being a Monstrous Creature, we ruled that the order does work, and that the successfully ordered unit gets it's weapons twin-linked (as it would do when shooting against vehicles or other monstrous creatures).

What do you think?

Q2. Does Knight Commander Pask's ability 'Crack Shot' work when shooting a Hive Tyrant that has joined a unit of Tyrant Guard?

As with the previous question, we feel the logic applies here too, therefore Pask's crack shot does work, and any hits that failed to wound may be re-rolled.

Or does it not?

Q3. When does a Ministorum Priest's 'Righteous Fury' re-roll their any failed 'To Hit' rolls in close combat?

Just seeking clarification here. When the rule (IG codex Pg. 35) states '... in close combat on the turn in which they assault', does that mean:

The term 'turn' is specifically the owning player's turn when they initiate the assault! For instance, it is my turn and I charge my Priest + Platoon at an enemy, therefore I get to re-roll my failed to hit rolls. But if it is my opponent's turn, and he charges his enemy unit into my Priest + Platoon, I do not get to use this ability to re-roll at all!

Also this means if the Priest + Platoon get assaulted, they do not benefit from re-rolls, as they're merely retaliating in close combat, but not 'assaulting'.

Is this right?

SPACE MARINES

Q1. Can Shrike, an Independent Character, having joined a unit of Terminators, Infiltrate with his Terminator retinue?

While seemingly not fluffy, can't find anything that says Terminators cannot infiltrate (they cannot do a Sweeping Advance, yes that's true!) so we played it that way.

Would you?

CHAOS SPACE MARINES

Q1. Chaos Dreadnought 'Fire Frenzy' - Discuss!

Dougie went with the INAT clarification, which I believe is consistent and fair considering GW has failed to address this over and over.

We've heard it all and the phrase is bandied about on Pg. 40 of the Chaos space marine codex: "At the beginning of the shooting phase it must pivot on the spot towards the closest visible unit (friend or foe!) and fire all of its weapons against it - twice)."

The query here is what is a walker's visibility? Is it 360 degrees like infantry? Is it only the arc of fire (45 degrees) from the guns? Is the emphasis on the term 'visible' and therefore if there's a target within this arc of fire, I pivot, then shoot at the closest target in the arc of fire?

Of it's the 360 degrees like infantry example, you literally measure which unit is physically and geographically close (e.g. friendly units right behind the dreadnought), therefore the emphasis is on the term 'closest', pivot it round to face it, and fire away?

We agreed that as walkers are included in the vehicle sub-heading, it's guns should fire like a vehicle, and thus we rely upon the gun's visibility arc.

But is this how you would play it?

When playing 40K, my inner rules-lawyer does his best Zoolander face.

Thanks to all who's read, and a future thanks to all for the future comments!

WH40K FAQ Update: Sniper Rifles Nerfed?

2010-11-19T06:21:00.000-08:00

New FAQ? Ratling snipers are not amused

Hi everybody, I've been busy moving house so apologies for being all quiet on the 512th front.

Anyway, the Internet seems to have cracked in half with the release of GW's new FAQ, and everyone seems aghast at the possibility of embarked passengers dying instantly should their transport be blown up while they're still in it... When it's destroyed at the same turn it moves flat out. Now everyone's been arguing over the definition of turn (to me, it means 'owning player's turn'), and thus the only instances I can think of of a flat-out transport going kaboomey is if it's ramming, or a trap of some sort (scout mines, etc) explodes underneath it as it moves, but people seem to have forgotten a new FAQ update that has slipped under the radar.

Yesiree, it's about Pinning tests, which I now quote as such:

" Q: How many Pinning tests can a squad firing multiple Pinning weapons cause on the enemy it is shooting? (p31)

A: Each unit can only cause a maximum of one Pinning test on each enemy unit wounded, per turn, regardless of the number of wounds caused, unless specifically stated otherwise. "

- source: Pg 2/6 FAQ 40K v. 1.1

Compare said passage from the main rulebook, also quoted:

" If a unit other than a vehicle suffers any unsaved wounds from a pinning weapon, it must immediately take a Pinning test. This is a normal Leadership test..

As long as the tests are passed, a unit may be called upon to take multiple Pinning tests in a single turn, but if a unit has already gone to ground, no further Pinning tests are taken. “

- source: Pg 31 WH40K main rulebook

Prior to the release of the latest FAQ, I had always assumed that the fact that EACH pinning weapon can cause a pinning test (if it caused an unsaved wound), and the fact that the rulebook includes a line informing of the possibility of Multiple Pinning tests can be applied to a unit/target, ergo a single unit, with Multiple Pinning Weapons, should be able to cause Multiple Pinning Tests.

e.g.

A unit of 10 Ratling snipers fire their weapons at an MEQ unit (10no.), 7 hits, 4 successful wounds, and say the 4no. MEQ's fail all their armour saves. Therefore 4 Pinning tests have to be taken! (this is how I've always played it, and I've heard the for & against arguments countless times over, but me & the Wednesday gaming night buddies all agreed the emphasis was on No. of Pinning Weapons, causing No. of Unsaved Wounds, Equals No. of Pinning Tests)

Now with the new FAQ ruling, this theoretical 1no. unit of Ratling snipers can only cause 1no. Pinning test (1no. test maximum per unit causing any number of unsaved wounds), even if they did indeed cause 4 unsaved wounds from 4 different Pinning weapons. To force more than 1 Pinning test on a unit/target, you will need more than 1 squad of Ratlings/Scouts/etc now.

For an IG player such as myself this is not good news. Ratling squads take up 1no. Elite slots, and I'm unlikely to take more than 1 of these in the 1500-2000 point games I tend to play (mostly for shits & giggles, sometimes to create synergy with the Psyker Battle Squad, also an Elite). But with this change in the rules, putting to rest the confusion created by the rulebook wording, it would seem my Ratling days are over!

Are weapons with the 'Sniper' profile now effectively nerfed?

Are Pinning weapons taken in multiples (e.g. Squads of Mortar launchers, or any vehicle squadrons with Barrage-capable weapons e.g Manticore squads) now nerfed?

What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Spec Ops: Killzone – Artwork (Cover)

2010-10-27T04:12:00.000-07:00

The completed cover, featuring an Imperial Guard Stormtrooper Kill-Team (the classics, not Kasrkins which I'm equally fond of, nor the moon-suits, which I detest), for your enjoyment!

I also intend to start work on a new piece of art, as a contribution to the ongoing Spec Ops: Killzone project. Watch this space!

Note: All illustration work depicted here is fan art which is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Ltd.

Spec Ops: Killzone - Artwork Tease!

2010-10-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

Note: All illustration work depicted here is fan art which is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Ltd.

MISSING: Soul Reapers, Have You Seen Them?

2010-10-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

With a heavy heart I’m spreading the word that Big Jim’s personal army, the Soul Reapers, have been stolen!

Follow the link here for the original report.

When I read the sad news that his van was broken into and his stuff nicked, I felt really sorry for him. I even told my girlfriend about how the personal 40K collection of a person I’ve never even met in real life going missing in this fashion had left a sour taste in my mouth, and she helpfully replied that in a way she knows how it feels as she’s a keen gardener, and this is the equivalent of someone going round the house and tearing all her precious plants, flowers and herbs she has tended to and grown with loving care.

At first glance, this may seem a ‘mere loss’ of a collection of toy soldiers, easily replacable with enough time and monies, I’ll insist here and foremost that this is not about missing possessions. Our beloved 40K collections are an investment of our time, sweat, memories (and yes, money admittedly), and a lot of love goes into our ‘hobby’, and to have something so personal be taken away just like that is shocking.

Sure the models can be re-collected, re-built, re-painted, and re-played, but they will never really be the same again. The Soul Reapers were a unique custom collection, works of art that showcased many of Jim’s brilliant painting, modelling, conversion and homebrew talents and their loss will be keenly felt, especially by this blogger (I owe the Soul Reapers a great debt in that they were the ones that got me back to 40k-blogging and artwork).

I note that perhaps this eulogy may be too hasty! I urge all readers to keep a close watch on Ebay, local gaming stores, tournamentsm and dodgy ads from perhaps an unscrupulous ‘trader’ looking to offload his loot to some unsuspecting buyer to gain maximum value from a product that will only sell to a specific market (e.g. us). If you see anything suspicious please report it back to Big Jim!

Also, there’s been a ray of light though in all this gloominess, Magilla over at Table Top War has organised a drive, both on his blog and other places to assist Jim at his hour of need.

The Soul Reapers may have been lost to the warp by the evil upstart Mammon, but please show your support and be vigilant!

Homemade Terrain

2010-10-18T02:18:00.000-07:00

Which tastes better? Bastion, fortress, or ruin?

(Picture source here)

Just a quick post here, I recently found some discarded ‘molded pulp’ packaging (for a mobile phone of mine) such as so:

I turned it upside down and thought: “Hmm.. This would make a nice 40K building?”

Do you guys ever find yourself looking at a stack of rubbish and thinking to yourself, “I could use that in my games!”. Especially electronic-goods moulded pulp packaging. Instant 40K terrain!

I know I do, much to my girlfriend’s annoyance as I hoard bits and pieces of rubbish in a corner somewhere, like some sort of 40K-terrain-hamster.

In the grim darkness of the Far Future, there is only empty Pizza boxes.

Still, sometimes she helps out asking me “Could you use this in your toy soldier game?” before she chucks anything out with the recycling. How thoughtful!

Anyway, here’s a picture of the result, with my ‘counts-as’ models (PBS, Harker, Straken/Marbo) giving them a sense of scale after I’ve brushed the building/ruin/outpost with a liberal splotch of Adeptus Grey.

Enjoy!

Wednesday Night Gaming: The Devil’s Biomass

2010-10-12T04:19:00.000-07:00

Chaos Vs. Tyranids, Who will win?

What ho! Welcome back to Wednesday Night Gaming, where this time we see the fearsome cronies of Chaos against the unending tide of Tyranids, in which both Dougie and myself play Chaos Space Marines, vs. Laur on ‘Nids (the reason for this being Doug being the original player, played for the first 2 turns, and I continued the game for him on a later date when he was unable to attend Wednesday Night).

As per lately, this is a 1250 point game. Let the Battle of the Bad Boys &; Bugs commence!

LIST ANALYSIS

As with his last outing, Dougie has stuck with a very comparable army list to his last outing, helped very much by the fact that his Chaos collection has grown very slowly and thus, a limitation of models he can take without having to proxy the lot. The big bad Daemon Prince is present and accounted for, but this time Doug’s opted for only 1 Rhino transport for a squad, but features a Land Raider ride for his Terminators as a premium. A footslogging squad of Chaos Marine troops stands at the ready, and as backup he has 2no. Obliterators and a Chaos Predator.

Laur similarly has tweaked the list from his previous outing, with Tyrant & Guard, Tervigons and termagant troops making a repeat visit, but has increased the amount of Hive Guard he has, along with footslogging Zoenthropes and 2no. infiltrating Genestealer squads instead.

TERRAIN ANALYSIS

For this battle I set up the board, putting a fortified corner at one end, and a more open grassland feel on the opposing corner to capture a feel of an assault on an aspect of a castle (almost like a Planetstrike game).

Of course, should the deployment be spearhead it’s pretty obvious which side of the table is preferable (depending on army composition) but all in all I feel it is an interesting mix of buildings, difficult terrain, hills and LOS-blocking features to give a variety of differing combat situations.

Dice are rolled and the nature of the game is Seize Ground with 4no. Objectives placed. It’s to be a Pitched Battle setup, and Laur (Nids) get to go first!

Laur carefully places his objectives over the table ‘half’ he’s chosen (the one with the fortified quarter of course), one near some difficult terrain, the other on a building, while Dougie quite casually places his objectives one by the corner of a large LOS-blocking building, the other by a hill out in the open. Interesting strategy!

TYRANIDS DEPLOY

Laur decides to spread his deployment throughout his half, (from left to right) with the Tyrant & Guard at the flank, Hive Guard behind a hill, troops near his objectives, Zoenthropes in a ruin, and the rest by the tower at the corner.

The Tyranid line holds fast!

CHAOS DEPLOY

For Dougie’s counter-deployment, he decides to place (from left to right) a Predator at the edge, followed by his Rhino transport, the Daemon Prince, the Landraider, and his Obliterators and footslogging troops within some bushes near the objective.

When it comes to objective based games, it always seems (to me) that he who has most troops has an advantage over the one who has less, particularly if they are better protected (e.g. in transports). Doug’s choice of footslogging basic Chaos troops is a curious one, but I can see he has opted for this selection to test out the more elite slots (packed with Termies in Landraider!) for an emphasis on aggressive close-combat domination, with an impervious delivery system to get his armoured assailants from point A to B.

What Dougie didn’t know is that Zoenthropes have lance weapons that reduce AV 14 to 10...

With nobody reserving anything, Laur then puts his infiltrating Genestealers as close as possible to the enemy, with one group of ‘Stealers in particular 18” away in full sight, aiming to get that first turn assault charge with lucky run rolls due to fleetness.

Still, as fortune would have it, Dougie steals the initiative (much to Laur’s groaning consternation after having just put his ‘Stealers out in the open. A 1 in 6 chance! Who would’ve thought it?) and away we go!

TURN 1 CHAOS

1. Chaos takes advantage of the first go, surging forward and popping smoke where possible (Rhino).

2. Predator takes aim with its arsenal, as does the Landraider with one of its lascannons, at the Tyrant and Guard, managing to inflict 3no. wounds, killing one of the Guard and wounding the Tyrant once.

3. Lone Obliterator fires its plasma cannon at the group of skulking ‘stealers, killing 3 and wounding the Broodlord once. Everything else remains out of range.

The advance of Chaos

Zero KPs so far, but Tyranids control both of their objectives.

TURN 1 TYRANIDS

1. Retaliation! ‘Nids advance to face their opponent, as Mama Tervigon sprouts 13 little ‘nidlings, but roll a pair of 5’s to close down the baby factory.

2. Massed Termagants, Zoenthropes and Hive Guard fire at the troops of Chaos, killing 4, while an Obliterator takes a wound!

3. The ‘Stealer duo tries to attack the Daemon Prince, but due to the size of the objective blocking their path (the broodlord’s base fails to squeeze through) this means they have to take the long way round to assault, and as their out of reach they fail to do so! Still, they seize an objective, having abandoned one during their advance.

4. The larger group of ‘Stealers are more successful, managing to get into assault with the Rhino and immobilise it!

Gah! I'm stuck!

Still Zero KPs, Tyranids control 2no. objectives.

TURN 2 CHAOS

1. Chaos fights back! Or tries to, as both Obliterator receive Gets Hot! results as attempt to fire a salvo of plasma cannon blasts.

2. Landraider presses forward, a lascannon wounding the Tervigon.

3. Dougie’s 5 troops still hiding behind a line of barbed wire fire at a group of termagants, killing 5! ‘Dem’s good shootin’.

4. The Predator pumps out its firepower at the Tyrant, but wounds the Guard accompaniment.

5. The 7-men flamer squad disembark and scorch the group of ‘Stealers! However, they only manage to kill 2.

6. Daemon Prince swoops over a building in a single bound and launches into an assault with the Hive Guard. Unusually, both sides fail to even scratch the other leaving the combat a draw.

Confidence is high, with the troops ahead of the Mighty Beer-can Dreadnought.

Still Zero KPs, with Tyranids controlling 2no. objectives.

TURN 2 TYRANIDS

1. Tyranids do some shifting about, resulting in the smallest group of Termagants sitting in a building and an objective, with Hive Guard shifting positions with the Zoenthropes, and Zoenthropes out in the open edging closer to the Landraider.

2. 2 of the Zoenthropes fail a Perils of the Warp test but are okay, one fires it’s warp lance and makes contact with the Landraider! But at reduced AV10 (lance), Laur rolls a ‘1’ and fails to penetrate. The Hive Mind screams in anguish.

3. Termagants and Hive Guard lay down the mass fire. No shots get through to the Obliterator, but the rainstorm of barbs and spikes take down 2 more Chaos renegades.

4. Tyrant and its Guard charge into assault to assist the Hive Guard. The Daemon Prince ends up taking two wounds, and it’s not looking too good for him!

5. ‘Stealers charge into the fray to assist their brother ‘Stealers (losing control of an objective). They lose 1 more, and the troop of Chaos lose 3, but they hold fast.

Conga!

Yet Zero KPs, but with Tyranids controlling 2no. objectives.

At this point Dougie and Laur call it a day, and the game will resume some time later in the week (with me at the helm of Chaos!)

TURN 3 CHAOS

Now I bring the touch of my generalship taking over the helm of Chaos, will I succeed in carrying out Doug’s plan to stem the alien horde?

1. Terminators disembark and plow into combat to assist their Daemon Lordship!

2. Predator steams ahead 12” to seek new grounds, and the Landraider comes to the rescue of the diminished troop squad as they seek shelter in the mobile bunker!

3. Obliterators take aim at the Zoenthropes, but plasma cannonfire only wounds one, and barbeques a stray Termagant.

4. Immortal Kombat! Tyranids fail to cause any wounds on the beefed-up Chaos mob. The Traitors then manage to fell the foul Tyrant Guard and their leader. Moo-hoo-ha-ha!

The Beast is slain! By.. the Beast.

5. Meanwhile, the melee between tank, troops, and (s)tealers continues affray! The troops are wiped out, the Rhino wrecked, and a group of ‘Stealers manage to pull away and consolidate closer to the speeding Predator.

Kill points-wise, both myself and Laur have 2 each. Tyranids still control 2no. objectives.

TURN 3 TYRANIDS

1. Genestealers overwhelm the Predator with attacks so numerous, despite needing 6’s to hit, they manage to destroy it.

2. Surprisingly, the Hive Guard slay my Daemon Prince (sob) and run away, I mean consolidate away, not being in contact with any attackers having taken out the Independent Character.

3. Hive Guard shootin’ takes out the Obliterator, and the Zoenthropes wreck the Landraider, forcing a disembarkation of the troops! (who are not close enough to be assaulted by Termagants).

Score is still 2 KP’s to Chaos, but a massive surge of 6 KP’s to Tyranids, I control 1 objective but the ‘Nids now control 3no. objectives!

TURN 4 CHAOS

1. Things aren’t looking very good for me, so I go for the long shot and attempt the draw! My obliterator switches to the risky lascannon mode, and aims for the Termagants in the building, hoping to take them all out in one fell swoop (and force an objective to be lost). He succeeds, and destroys the building along with all the Termagants but one! (can’t win them all)

2. Terminators decide to abandon their Hive Guard prey to try to takedown the Tervigon, attempting to kill off another scoring unit. Using combi-plasmas, they miss all their shots (Somewhere in the warp, Khorne groans softly).

3. My last 3 troops pull back, but just close enough as to be within holding distance of their objective. They take aim at the fast-moving group of ‘Stealers closest and with their guns they kill one of the ‘Stealers, but a Gets Hot! result kills one of my own! (Khorne groans ever louder).

Wobbly Zoenthrope models on ruins. Fun!

Score is 2 KP’s to Chaos, 6 KP’s to Tyranids, with Chaos controlling 1no, objective, ‘Nids controlling 3no. objectives.

TURN 4 TYRANIDS

1. Nid’s launch their shooty attacks at the Terminators and the weight of fire and amount of dice rolled means that 2 of my Terminators are cut down.

2. ‘Stealers split off, one group holding back to keep possession of an objective, and the other rushes to assault my last troop, but fails to reach (rolling ones during their running move).

3. A group of Termagants assaults my Troops, but the duo of Chaos manage to kill 4 of the little scuttlers before losing one of their own. Out of synapse and having lost the combat, the Termagants retreat (and I fail to run them down).

Score is 2 KP’s to Chaos, 6 KP’s to Tyranids, Chaos control 1no. objective, ‘Nids control 3no. objectives.

TURN 5 CHAOS

1. My lone Terminator fires at the threatening group of ‘Stealers, killing the Broodlord and it’s offspring. Success!

2. My lone troop (Sarge) hides behind the bushes. They can’t shoot me if they can’t see me! Oh wait..

3. Obliterator tries to take out that last, pesky Termagant, but the shot deviates.

Score is 3 KP’s to Chaos, 6KP’s to Tyranids. Chaos have 1 objective, ‘Nids have 3 objectives.

TURN 5 TYRANIDS

1. Hive Guard takes out the last Terminator! (he will not be back...)

2. As does the other group of Hive Guard, taking out my last Sergeant.

3. The rest of the ‘Nid horde swarms forward, while Zoenthropes lay down the hurt on my last Obliterator, wounding it once!

Score is 3 KP’s to Chaos, 9 KP’s to Tyranids. Tyranids control 3 objectives!

The die is cast, and it’s play on for another round!

TURN 6 CHAOS

1. Dougie would never forgive me if all his men were completely wiped out, but I HAVE to try to claw back an objective. Oblit fires it’s plasma cannon again, but yet again it deviates off-target.

Score remains 3 KP’s to Chaos, 9 KP’s to Tyranids, with 3 objectives to the Aliens.

TURN 6 TYRANIDS

1. Laurence will now attempt to pull off a total wipeout! His troops surge forward but as ever, just not enough to carry out any assaults! Zoenthropes AND Hive Guard fire, hoping to pull off that last final wound, but to no avail.

The cheese stands alone.

HA HA! Take that Laur!

Final Scores: 3 KP’s to Chaos. 9 KP’s to Tyranids. Tyranids win, controlling 3no. objectives.

GAME ANALYSIS

Chaos falls to the unending alien swarm. Live on pay-per-view. Oh the (in)humanity!

Doug and I always extract the Michael when it comes to how long Laur takes when playing a casual game of 40K, notably during choosing table edges and deployment, and even deployment of Objectives.

But as this battlereport shows, that is indeed the key to success!

Careful placement of forces, objectives, and creating a synergy between units (as Laur’s list is built) meant that he had stacked the odds against Doug, even when he lost the objective!

Notably, both sides had good rolling and bad rolling, but Doug did himself no favours by his piecemeal approach at army deployment AND objective placement (something he admitted to me himself later on in the week when he reconsidered that his tiredness after a day’s work and his ‘let’s just get on with it and play’ mindset meant he was punished by sloppy strategy and sloppy tactics.

Despite putting Laur on the backfoot by him going first, from what I can see (and this is my opinion) Doug made these mistakes:

1. Walking one squad of troops: Either put the footsloggers in a Rhino, or don’t put them in firing range of a tonnage of tiny guns.

2. Unsupported units: Throwing his Daemon Prince to assault a squad of Hive Guard was in theory, a walkover, but the high toughness of the unit meant a potential game-saving unit which could’ve been used to wipe out Genestealers when his Rhino-carrying troops was immobilised was needlessly tied-up.

Doug was unlucky that his Oblits underperformed, getting both Gets Hot! rolls which could have changed the game for him, but left his troops high and dry.

3. Objectives ‘out in the open’: Understandatably, Khorne demands an aggressive mindset in which to go attack or go to hell, but clearly the God of Slaughter isn’t a God of Strategy (that’s Tzeentch’s job). Laurence put his objectives in such a way that he can at least benefit from having cover as a fallback and combat buffer, Doug placed his near LOS-blocking terrain, but it just meant that the weight of the alien horde beckoned threateningly closer.

WARNING! EUPHEMISMS APLENTY: Still, easy for me on my high horse being a Johnny-come-lately, taking over the reins of the horse and blaming the last ride for breaking it’s back!

All in all, we all had fun, and we all have a degree of respect for the Tyranids as they are a force to be reckoned with, when ‘played right’.

QUESTIONS

1. Do the Hive Tyrant, and the Tyrant Guard unit together, still count as separate Kill Points? The rulebook isn’t very clear on this because of the wording, and the GW FAQ seem to imply that the Tyrant Guard forms a ‘retinue’ (they even use the word!), and thus, IC’s and retinue rules are inferred to apply, therefore 2 Kill Points. Is this wrong/right?

Thanks for reading!

- Menzies

Artwork: Table Top War

2010-10-11T03:36:00.000-07:00

A shout-out to the top wargaming blog that is Table Top War! An army re-branding effort by Magilla Gurilla meant the blog had to follow suit, so check out the results:

Angels Encarmine Gorilla!

Mock-up for something special..

A revised banner.

Note: All illustration work here is fan art which is completely unofficial andi n no way endorsed by Games Workshop Ltd.

10/10/10 - Killzone Revolution

2010-10-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

It has begun.

Note: Apologies to all for only the teaser image. Real-life gets in the way of these illustration projects, but I hope to have complete artwork submissions (yes, not just this one!) for the group effort that is Killzone in the very near future. Watch this space!

Note: All illustration work depicted here is fan art which is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Ltd.

New Arrivals!

2010-09-29T01:53:00.000-07:00

Guess what's arrived here at the 512th orbital fortress, fresh from Ecstasy Bay?

To be continued...

Spec Ops: Killzone - Artwork

2010-09-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

More images produced for Big Jim's homebrew extravaganza Special Operations: Killzone! If you haven't already checked it out yet, please do! I'll eventually introduce it to my local gaming crew (The Wednesday Night Gaming mobs) and I'm in-between juggling art projects, but for now, here are some 'shopped images, courtesy of the generous sonsoftaurus.

Enjoy!

Dakka dakka dakka urrrgg

Khorne cares not from where the blood flows..

To be continued..

Gifts From The Gifts Gods

2010-09-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

Guess what came through the post today for me?

Goodies goodies goodies

A ‘Gentleman’s Ones’ T-shirt and a freshly-boxed boxed-fresh unassembled Valkyrie!

Now that I have 2no. still-boxed Valkyries in my Cadian 5t12th battleforce, maybe I will finally be motivated enough to assemble them to test out flying cavalry tactics!

Thanks again to b.smoove for organising a killer competition!

Wednesday Night Gaming: Bad Bug Infestation

2010-09-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

They’re coming outta the goddamn walls!

What ho gentle blogosphere! The Wednesday Night Gaming Dudes (that’s me, Laur, and Doug) present to you another battlereport from beyond the furthest regions of the galactic rim.

That’s right! Tonight it’s Imperial Guard VS the hungry Tyranids, facing off, again, for the first time!

Read on if you wish to find out if I achieve the following:

1. Stop taking a novelty Imperial Guard army list

2. Break my (so far) 3-game losing streak?

LIST ANALYSIS

So far on the battlereports of the Cadian 512th, I have brought to you the pleasures of Tank spam, Stormtrooper spam, Banewolf spam, and even Infantry spam!

I exaggerate really, for when I bring these armies on the table what I really mean to do is key my overall strategy around the ‘novelty list’ to test out their effectiveness, with varying degrees of success, or shall I say a single success (tank spam, the toughest spam to crack!)

Today, against the Nids I have opted to table as much artillery as possible in 1250 points, so yet another novelty list I call the ‘Guns of Cadia’! Not being familiar with the ravenous foe that is the Hivemind of Laur, I again have opted for a core of 2 lots of Chimeltas led by a Primaris, one with all it’s meltas replaced with flamers which some say is a waste of BS4, others say 3 flamers is a huge advantage, but this time there’s a double duo of Hellhounds (2) and Basilisks (2), with a Manticore and a Leman Russ Punisher for funtimes with weapons!

I note that a Punisher isn’t regarded as being cost-effective, which I agree wholeheartedly. But since it’s last outing, it did quite well wiping out a large group of Termagants, so I thought I’d bring them again.

Never used a Manticore before, so I reckoned now’s the time to try one out. D3 templates sound pretty hot and tempting. Basilisks are an old favourite, and with AP3 it would help with those Nidzilla-esque 5th edition lists. Hellhounds to lay down the template hurt, Boom Boom BOOM everywhere! So what could go wrong?

Laur’s first official outing against the Guard (he’s run Tyranids on 5th edition mode very rarely, preferring Marines usually) features a Hive Tyrant, a pair of Tyrant Guard, a pair of Hive Guard, a Tervigon, 2 lots of 10no. Termagants, Zoenthropes in a Mycetic Spore, a Brood of Ymgarls, and a dreaded Tyrannofex!

On reflection, Laur has composed quite a synergistic list, in which each of his components are pretty reliant on each other, but working together as a well-oiled machine it should be able to tackle most situations e.g. anti-mech, counter-assault, drop-assaults, hold down objectives, soak up wounds, etc. Looks like I might have my work cut out for me!

TERRAIN ANALYSIS

As Doug was away that day, Laur and I ‘randomly’ distributed a decent amount of cover, area terrain, hills, LOS-blocking, etc, picking up bits we liked and plonking them on the table, rolling a scatter die to see where they would ‘land’.

This time though, for the battlereports I’ve opted to give the usual grassland battlescapes a more alien, ‘purple haze’ feel, just to emphasise the otherworldly sci-fi landscapes of the 41st millennium. Or it could be I’m just getting bored with green grasslands.

The green green grass of home

We make the rolls and the deployment is Spearhead, with the mission being Capture and Control (2no. objectives), and Laur gets to go first.

Laur selects the more built-up quarter as his deployment zone, and I get the converse quarter which is more open. He then places his objective within a ruined refinery (on a lower level to avoid blast barrages! The sneaky git), and I decide to place my objective adjacent to some area terrain, reasoning it would be more secure in the far corner of the battlefield.

TYRANIDS DEPLOY

Again in sneaky git mode, Laur deploys a squad of Termagants within the ruined refinery, hidden away at lower levels and in a widespread formation to discourage ordnance barrages, a perfectly legitimate, or frustrating, defensive technique. Damn I shouldn’t have deployed a multi-levelled refinery as a piece of terrain!

As it is spearhead and he gets the first go, he deploys the rest of his armour-cracking, combat-monster Big Bugs up front and centre, with Tervigon and Termagants ready to rush forward to take advantage of the jungle of area terrain to the south of the table. His ‘big guns’ are placed in a cautious manner slightly behind LoS-blocking terrain ready to pounce out to take potshots at my deployment zone, but hidden enough just in case I steal the initiative.

Ymgarl and Zoenthropes in Drop Spores remain in reserve.

IMPERIAL GUARD DEPLOY

Realising that Laur has forced me to take the less advantageous deployment zone, there is naught to do but crowd my Artillery section in the corner, hoping they survive long enough to take a lot of bite out of Laur’s Nids before they deliver that anticipated pummelling.

I note here that in my slight overconfidence in my artillery’s ability to pump out firepower, I did not have a definitive strategy in this game other than ‘take pot shots at Nids, and hopefully some at his Objective-grabbers, to win the game’, so I’ve noticed in hindsight that my following deployment is sloppy, bordering on atrocious!

Traffic was murder in the 41st Millenium.

Instead of ‘screening’ my artillery section and committing my troops in a true hunkered-down, defensive castling formation, I opted for a ‘cautiously optimistic’ deployment in which I hoped that my melta and flamer-armed Chimeltas would rush forward when given the all-clear to molest his Objective-bugs, but in a position close enough to fall back if need be, hence leaving my Artillery rather open from the ‘sides’ (North and East). Also I crowd my Hellhounds behind the LoS-blocking terrain to ‘prevent getting shot’, not realising the hive Guard’s Impaler Cannons’ reach is very long and do not require Line-of-sight (meaning my deployment is redundant and I’m just offering up nice juicy targets to be shot), but at the time I really did think the closer the better and I could run my Hellhounds aggressively to lay down Template Hurt from the get-go! (more on this later).

Thinking that I have ‘not anywhere else to put it’ I foolishly place my Punisher up front and centre, obviously within range of Laur’s Big Bugs and Big Guns. What I have now done is both taken away many of the advantages of a gunline list (distance, LoS, firepower) while not committing enough resources to defend my own Big Guns successfully.

Take note readers! A game can be lost not only by having a ‘bad list’ (my usual excuse), but definitely in deployment, and having a muddled, non-committed strategy.

At the starting blocks I fail to steal the Initiative, and Laur’s off!

Note: Despite being an Objective-based game, Killpoints are still being counted for this report.

TURN 1 TYRANIDS

1. Laur’s small bugs rush forward to amass themselves in the alien jungles, and spawns a impressive 18 Termagants! (note that this is a mistake made on Laur’s part, as 18 would entail triple 6’s! I think he really meant 15 [a 4 result, a 5 result, and a 6 result], but we played on regardless not realising this mistake) which proceed to hug the building in the centre. In addition, the Tervigon successfully casts the Catalyst power and grants FNP to the same unit of Termagants, increasing its’ survivability for the inevitable round of bombardment.

2. His Big Bugs manoeuvre forward, when the Tyrannofex lets rip it’s Rupture Cannon, scoring a Glancing hit despite it’s thick Front armour, managing to Shake my Punisher.

3. Hiveguard let rip with their Impaler cannon (only one is in range), it scores a penetrative hit and upon rolling a ‘6’ on the vehicle damage chart, it wrecks it!

Score is 1KP to Tyranids, we both control our objectives.

Wise men say, only Zergs rush in (Note: Ogryn proxies)

TURN 1 IMPERIAL GUARD

1. With the Hellhound wreckage causing a traffic jam, I decide to ‘swamp positions’ of my 2 Chimeltas and pop some smoke, with my melta-vets and Psyker going up to the front ready to take on the Hive Tyrant and his retinue, and my flamer-boys taking on a more defensive stance.

2. My Punisher moves out of the way at full speed, hoping to clear it’s Shaken result next turn. But I forget to pop it’s smoke. Oops.

3. My lone Hellhound scoots round and fires it’s deadly Inferno in such a way to kill some Termagants, the Tervigon and the Tyrant group! This results in causing 4 dead Termagants and a wound to a Tyrant Guard.

4. Boom boom time! 2 Basilisk templates and a solitary Manticore blast (I rolled a 1) land on a single Termagant each and every time with no scatter, again covering the large group of little bugs and all the Big ‘Uns. I manage to kill 7 Termagants, and wound the Tyrant and Tervigon once each, a seemingly good result.

Score is still 1KP to Tyranids, but only Tyranids control their objective.

TURN 2 TYRANIDS

1. With the Tyrant’s ‘Hive Commander’ ability adding +1 to his reserve rolls, all of Laur’s Reserves come to play, with the Ymgarl popping up at the hill, and the Zoenthropes scattering more or less in the position they were due to come in on. Looks like my vehicles are in for a smackdown, but confidence is high that they will survive this drop assault tactic.

2. Big bugs move forward and the Tervigon generates another 6 termagants, but unfortunately rolls snake-eyes, and stop producing any more little ones.

3. Hive Guard shoot the side of my shaken Punisher, scoring a Glancing hit and again Shaking it!

4. Tyrannofex turns it’s attention to my smoked-up Chimera, firing at it with it’s assault 2 Str 10 deadliness. With 1 Penetrative, it manages to Immobilise my hard-as-nails Chimeltas, as I fail my cover save!

5. Zoenthropes pass their Psychic test, and lance a Basilisk, wrecking it!

6. Termagants swarm my Hellhound and with the benefit of the Tervigon’s Adrenal Glands (Brood Progenitor) granting Furious Charge, they have a resulting, 15 assaults at Str 4 against AV 10, they score a single Glancing hit and Shake it!

6. Ymgarls rush forward, being fleet, and assault my beloved Manticore. Having been stationary previously and only shooting off one of it’s Rockets, it is well and truly wrecked.

Big yellow skypoops bring Death!

Score is now 3KPs to Tyranids, only Tyranids control their objective.

TURN 2 IMPERIAL GUARD

1. Not much I can do now as Laur has the advantage, having either taken out the bite of my artillery section, and neutering their support into disarray. My Punisher again tries to get out of range of those pesky Impalers, forgetting to pop smoke (Daarrr), while the Hellhound surges forward in an attempt to see if a last-minute objective contesting move is possible.

2. My Chiflamer moves over the objective and tries to block the passageway to prevent the ‘Stealers from reaching my last artillery piece, popping smoke and disembarking dudes. I opt to lay the flamer and shotgun hurt on the Zonethropes and manage to kill one!

3. My lone Basilisk attempts a daring move, shooting a barrage at the Ymgarl. A direct hit! Which kills 3 of the squid-faced buggers.

4. Immobilised Chimelta shoots all it’s got at the Big bugs, but either miss or fails to wound. At this point the small arms guns of the passengers are out of range, but I forget to power up my Primaris! Duhh.

Green plastic Bwoosh!

Score is still 3KPs to Tyranids, but we both control our objectives.

TURN 3 TYRANIDS

1. Big bugs chunder ever closer, savouring the time it will take to finally get into combat.

2. Zoenthropes and Hive Guard take aim at the poor Punisher, succeeding in Stunning and Shaking it. Guess I really should’ve popped that bloody Smoke!

3. The swarm of Termagants and mama Tervigon overwhelm the Hellhound, the combo of multiple hits (20no.) with Furious Charge at AV 10, resulting in a single Glancing, Shaking it again!

4. Tyrannofex decides to aim it’s Rupture Cannon at the Smoked-up Chimera on my objective. Guess what? It fails both it’s cover saves from 2 Penetrative shots, and it’s Destroyed, leaving a tiny crater. Uh-oh.

5. 2 Ymgarls go toe-to-toe with 10 vets. They lose 1 but I lose 2, and but the squad doesn’t break so I won’t be able to shoot it. Double-uh-oh.

Score is now 4 KP’s to Tyranids, and we’re back to only the Tyranids controlling their objective, and contesting the other!

TURN 3 IMPERIAL GUARD

1. At this point I have lost all hope at even recovering for a win in this game (even losing my temper at one point, very ungentlemanly! Cursing my luck, my list, my deployment, and my poor playing, plus the fact that I have lost every game for the past 6 months, this being the 4th), but continued to go through the motions for Laur’s sake. The Hellhound moves, edging closer to it’s prey.

2. Chimelta has only one target to shoot at as I can’t get to the Ymgarl. I aim everything at the Big Bugs, but miss my shots. And what ho! I am still out of range from shooting my Meltaguns. Again, I forget to use my Primaris.

3. And I forget to pop smoke for my Punisher.

4. Nothing for it, I try to fire away at the Big Bugs with my last Basilisk. It scatters.

5. Melta vets are in combat with the lone Ymgarl. It kills 3 more, and the squad breaks, almost running off the board.

ARGGG

Score is still 4 KP’s to Tyranids, only Tyranids control their objective, and contest the other.

TURN 4 TYRANIDS

1. My broken squad doesn’t recover as it flees off the table edge. Big Bugs get even closer than ever, but still not enough for assault range.

2. Joy of joys! The Tyrannofex shakes my Chimelta. So now I definitely cannot shoot, unless I commit to deploying 10 men and a Primaris against a WS 8 T6 W4 creature. Hmm.

3. Hive Guard fail to stun and shake my Punisher, finally! However, the Zoenthrope gets a Weapon Destroyed result under it’s belt, and I lose my Gatling Cannon. So that’s another toy I never got to test out in this game.

4. The Termagant swarm tries again, but this time their out of luck (finally) and fail to score any Glancings.

5. Ymgarl destroys my last Basilisk.

Score is now 6 KP’s to Tyranids, only Tyranids control their objective, and contest the other.

TURN 4 IMPERIAL GUARD

1. Having lost heart at this, yet-again-another 40K travesty, my Punisher pew pew pews it’s heavy bolter at the Zoenthrope, missing all its shots.

2. Hellhound moves away at full speed, but this time I have a working Inferno cannon, ha-HA! I fire it, and kill 11 Termagants. GREAT SUCCESS.

3. I decide to just leave my men in their tank, sulking away, just like me.

Score is 6 KP’s to Tyranids, but now a sweet, solitary, single 1no. KP to Imperial Guard! However, Tyranids still control their objective, and contest the other.

TURN 5 TYRANIDS

1. Hive Guard and Zoenthrope finally wreck my Punisher.

2. Tyrannofex decides to play it safe and move to engage to Hellhound, in the off chance it manages to contest and pull off a cheeky draw!

3. The Ymgarl destroys my Chimera and the Tyrant Guard and it’s retinue gobble up the Psyker and the entire squad. Yum yum.

4. Tervigon and 7 termagants manage to pull off a Weapon Destroyed and Immobilised result.

It's definitely all over now.

We roll off, and the game is due to last another turn! But seeing that the tracks of my last Hellhound is busted, I finally throw in the towel. About time!

Final Scores? A walkover victory for Tyranids, with an impressive margin of 10 KP’s to Tyranids, with a consolatory 1KP to Imperial Guard. Tyranids control their objective remaining successfully unmolested the whole game.

GAME ANALYSIS

Bringing back memories of Dog Day Afternoon, but in a different way, this was a terrible game for me (although the former was certainly worse than the latter). Sure, it wasn’t blown apart by a gunline before even warming up the engines, but I was definitely surprised by how quickly it was all over by my opponent’s Turn 2.

Laur’s Tyranids took my guys apart, surgically and with skill, planning ahead and letting painstaking deployment and unit synergy. Whoever said ‘Nids are crap (that’s you Dougie) is just plain wrong. With a good list and good playing, I can see them being pretty competitive, although perhaps predicatable as a synergistic playstyle does mean taking the same sort of units each and every time to remain competitive.

On my part, my ‘Artillery’-based list, I can say presses an advantage on the First Turn. You can even say it’s Built for the First Turn (a la Leafblower), but with vehicles being straw huts that fall down when anyone sneezes at them, this one trick pony really needed some proper screening!

TEMPER TEMPER

Apologies to Laur (who was quite a gracious opponent) for my ungentlemanly outbursts of £$%^, *&^@. ^%&*$ and $^%& during turns. Understandably, I really did feel like pulling my hair out throughout this game.

In 40K, the Imperial Guard are my passion. I like them. I like the fluff, I like the models, I like painting and collecting and converting them. But I also like to win when I play.

I dislike losing, but of course in this game there are winners and losers, and we can’t all be rock stars, I understand that. But what I really hate is losing badly, e.g. being throttled by bad luck, or bad meta-gaming (taking a close assault list against a gunline army on the second turn putting all my toys on the table to be shot at in the first go? What the f*£k was I thinking?), and especially bad generalmanship (this one, in terms of deployment and strategy). Losing badly is just no fun.

ARRRGGG

Credit to Laur, he did bring his ‘A’ game (bringing a finely-tuned list, anticipating me with anti-mech elements, placing his objective to his advantage, using the terrain and table to their best) and he systematically tabled me (again), but I tell you I’m getting sick of being Punchbag Menzies, as I was back in 4th edition Imperial Guard where Wednesday Gaming Night used to laugh at me for playing normal ‘toy soldiers’ in a landscape of sci-fi-superaliens.

GGRRRAAA

QUESTIONS

Anyway, here are some Questions for those of you still reading at this point! Very ‘Nids heavy questions here, as even Laur our resident Nid expert could not find any definitive answers online, so I thought I’d ask the following:

1. Is the Hive Tyrant a Monstrous Creature?

2. Are the Tyrant Guard infantry (not Monstrous Creatures)?

3. When the Tyrant Guard ‘joins’ a unit of Tyrant Guard, can he still be singled out in combat/shooting, due to being a Monstrous Creature? Or does he ‘lose’ the Monstrous Creature status by joining a unit of infantry?

4. Can Tyrant Guard, if definitely infantry, gain a cover save? (e.g. area terrain)

5. Lastly, can the Hive Tyrant, a Monstrous Creature itself, gain a cover save, by being in a ‘squad/retinue’ of Tyrant Guard, all of them being in area terrain?

Thanks for reading! And pray to the Emperor that I achieve Victory next time (if ever)!

- Menzies

Artwork: A Gentleman's Ones

2010-09-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Pop down over to B.Smoove's blog, "A Gentleman's Ones" for the results of the banner contest. Well done to the winner, Karitas of Excommunicate Traitoris!

Here were my submitted entries, riffing on the eternally gentlemanly theme of wargaming, top hats, and gruesome brutality!

"I say!"

"Bloody good show, what!"

Note: All illustration work here is fan art which is completely unofficial andi n no way endorsed by Games Workshop Ltd.

Project Big Kahuna: Battlefield Sighting

2010-08-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

1st completed member in action!

To be continued...

Spec Ops: Killzone - Artwork idea!

2010-08-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to be involved in Big Jim's latest project, the fan-produced Special Operations: Killzone supplement for skirmish games of 40K. Check it out!!

As ever, real-life concerns (job, money, girlfriend, etc) means ever less time for the blog, less time for games of 40K though I'm doing well in that area at the moment with Wednesday Night Gaming sessions, and obviously less time for projects such as mine own, and others.

What I have done is volunteered my services as and when I can, to help out with 'graphic duties', primarily creating maps for scenarios and objectives with my personal battle-reporting system, and offering worked-up freehand drawings for submitted artwork (e.g. watermarks, illustrations). Again, time is an issue!

However, Karitas over at Excommunicate Traitoris is doing a wonderful job doing the heavy lifting of graphic duties (call him the 'Art Director!') so much so that I feel a bit guilty just occassionally flirting with the idea of working up something... Anything! Just to contribute to Big Jim's wonderful project.

Ideas for artwork I find are always difficult, and for me, I require a real flash of inspiration to spark the process of gritting my teeth and getting down to it. Fortunately, I was trawling through my files and redundant 40K codexes, it occured to me a model/unit I've always loved has never really been captured in an awesome freehand drawing (bar the one) which I shall now seek to do it some justice, in the hopes that it will capture the spirit of this project.

To be continued..