Saturday Salvo: Space Marines

'Saturday Salvo? What the hell is this Kev? Is this some sort of regular feature you're doing? Some sort of regular feature where you'll share your thoughts of the hobby news gone by? Every week? On a Saturday?'

Och aye lad! Ya got me!

I basically wanted something where I'll take a look at whats happening in the hobby and my thoughts on it while mixing it with updates from myself.

So this very morning, I headed to Cwmbran to preorder this sexy little book.

Only I didn't get to Cwmbran. Upon waking up, I found my face swollen and vision ever so sightly scuppered by the swelling which has taken up residence on my left cheek. Sorta looks like I've been punched by a powerfist, but being a Space Marine theres no pain it just feels weird. Anyhoos, I console myself with the thought of going downstairs, ramming some tablets down my throat and having a read of the new White Dwarf. Only the postman is a heretic and hasn't delivered it. FFS!!!! I then think 'ah well, I'll just ponder the new releases on the GeeDub website instead' when the site goes down to everyone else trying to get on there too. So today, hasn't been the greatest of starts. Luckily though, my good friend Bam is able to head to Cwmbran and is picking me up a copy of White Dwarf ( another mate normally asks me to get him one so he can have mine when it arrives) so I can chat about that laters.

I won't do WD reviews often, as there are some good reviews out there that will do a better job than me but as its Space Marines heavy I'm joining in on the action. I'm hoping to be able to keep up with the painting too, if I ge too far behind then it could mean a tiring week ahead for me which I don't want! Far too much to do for a week Sunday. 

 The last thing I'll be chatting about this morning are the prices for the new Space Marine stuff. The new Centurions weigh in at £47.50 for a box of three. Thats pretty pricey. When you take into consideration thats £15.50 per model, its not so bad... but its still almost £50 in one go. I'm still undecided on these, theres things I like and dislike about the models so it could depend on how effectively they would fit into my force. Vanguard are £25, Sternguard are £30. I find these not bad considering the amount of bits in them and the bare heads in the sterguard are fantasically sculpted. I need me some of these! 

Tactical Squads are now £25, but again it looks like there are new parts inside and some of the parts have been updated, I spotted a new torso piece in there along with a couple of new heads. The AA Rhino's are £40, which seems a little over priced considering they're very one dimensional in game terms. I love the Hunter variant though so I may be suckered into unloading a wad of cash at GeeDub for one of these. he Codex itself is £35, but its much bigger than a regular codex and I know I'll love that book like its a never ending footlong subway steak and cheese sandwich. And I'd love one of those A LOT.

I'm seriously excited about the new codex, I love the Space Marines and making my own chapter is a big part of that so it'll be interesting to see what I can do in there that may help further my fluff.

Apocalypse Progress

Welcome! Heres another look at my progress into painting my army ready for the big apocalypse game on the 8th of September. Its been a busy day, I've built 10 tactical marines, 4 command squad models and finished painting the tactical squad I was working on. Theres also a predator basecoated but I need to switch the sponsons around before I do anymore, and possibly repaint one or two parts as it isn't quite balanced for my liking. Getting there slowly though! 

Tomorrow will consist of hungrily feeding the new White Dwarf into my eyes, rushing down to GW Cwmbran and preordering the codex and also picking up a Venerable Dreadnought for my matey Bam. Then I'll hopefully be able to finish those guys above when I get back! Well, the standard bearer is another story... as I don't know what direction to go in. Do I try some sort of freehand piece or keep it simple? We shall see!

Horus Heresy Book II: Massacre

So book two of the Horus Heresy series is coming soon and it will contain rules for the Iron Hands, Night Lords, Salamanders and the Word Bearers. It also looks like it will be available in limited numbers at Games Day 2013, could this become a yearly ritual? It would make sense so, not only a good place for Forge World to talk about the newest releases but by making it available at Games Day will sell a lot of tickets as keen heresy enthusiasts look to lap up the latest release.

Apocalypse Day Cometh!

So I'm currently planning, painting and getting stressed about putting on an Apocalypse event at our club. Last Monday, I'm thinking '3 weeks to get 40 tactical marines, 10 devastators and 10 assault marines upgraded, and another 20 tactical marines, 10 devastators and 10 assault marines built and painted.' Then suddenly I'm aware that its just a day short of 2 weeks away. Ah tits!

So these guys are now done, and below, you can see the mess that is 40 unbuilt tactical marines, 20 of which are to be used for 2 tactical squads, 10 for devastators with bolters, and 5 for a command squad. I also have 10 assault marines to fix up and sort out. And now its getting close to just a week away!

My progress as we speak currently is one Tactical squads worth is build and only basing needs to be finised, and I've also got a predator about 70% done although I need to pull the sponson lascannons off and turn them around as the previous own had put them on backwards! DOH! I'm hopefully getting another one too by next week to use three as a squadron.... fingers crossed anyways! I'll be preordering the new Space Marine codex on the weekend and I cannot WAIT to pick that book up, I feel like a 5 year old getting Optimus Prime again! Tomorrow I aim to get another Tactical Squad done and the Assault Squad sorted also. Its not gonna be easy but I will have a battle company for the apocalypse day finished!

Incoming: Codex Space Marines. Rumour Thoughts

As a Space Marine player, and creator of my own chapter, the thought of a new Space Marine Codex right around the corner is more than a tad exciting! New models, new rules, new background and gadgetry to immerse myself into. Here I take a look at some of the rumours I'm most intrugued with and what directions I may take my army. 

The combat tactics rules seem like a great idea and a much better way to represent armies. In the current (not for long) codex the only way to add real flavour is by taking one of the special characters. This doesn't lead to an awful lot of variety, hence why I've mostly used my own characters from stock. I can now choose which Chapter to allign mine with, and use those Combat Tactics to boost the skills of my army without the need for a special character.

It seems the points have been reduced for a number of units also. Tactical and Devastator marines have been reduced by 2 pts a model, which is more in line with Dark Angels and Space Wolves. Thank the Emperor for that! In a picture from a battle report I've also seen a dreadnought with twin linked lascannon and missile launcher was 135 pts, and I'm sure thats 10 pts cheaper than it currently is. It'll be interesting to see how it all adds up in an apocalypse force, which I'll be doing for a game the day after the Codex hits the shelves!

White Scars are going to be amazing. I may get more bikes to try them out a little! Hit and Run, +1 to Jink saves, bonus to Hammer of Wrath... wowser.

Theres a lot of talk about the Grav weapons, and I think they'll be great against elite armies with good armour but against hordes, not sure I'd bother. I'm doubtful about taking them either way, plasma has always done a good job of slaughtering termies even if my devastators rarely survive the battle due to overheating!

Flakk missiles for Missile Launchers. Hallalujah! As a huge fan of missile launcher toting devastators this is great news. Some more AA options are always welcome, and I love the new hunter tank with its single rocket launcher, looks fantastic!

Chapter Masters now have 4 wounds and 4 attacks.... more like it! Currently the only thing over a Captain they have is orbital bombardment and some different choices to take. Now they're a little bit better and with the addition of Chapter Relics we should be able to finally take on some of the nastier enemies our foes can throw at us!

Legion of the Damned are one of my favourite units. Not in how good they are, because they're an expensive unit that just take a lot of killing, but because I love the models. And now it seems they're 5pts cheaper and their weapons ignore cover. Thats awesome! Especially now I have one armed with a multimelta, be useful for those Tau and Eldar vehicles that have extr bonuses to cover saves and jinks.

Centurions are still a very unsure thing for me. Do I like the models? A little. Do I like the rules? Not so much. T and S 5 is cool, but no invulnerable? Hmm not sure how good that makes them. I'm sure they will have their uses but I'll wait and see how they are in the codex before judging them.

The final thing that affects me is to do with troop capacity on the drop pods and Land Raider. Both have dropped from 12 to 10, which is also in line with other marine codex books but its a bit annoying. Tactical squad with a character dropping down behind enemy lines cannot be done anymore, neither can you have 5 terminators lead by a chaplain or other character in the normal land raider. I can understand why but it is a bit of a shame. 

All in all however I think we'll end up with a very competitive book, Space Marines are always competitive (at least in my eyes) and I've done well with them so far. Lets hope this continues and I'll love my as yet unamed chapter even more. September 7th, I await you!

Death of a New Era.

Well welcome, to Death By Die! Formally the Evandalists, but now with a new title to show how much more encompassing this blog is, or at the very least will be! Its coming up to two years of this blog being a breathing creature, and today it comes to adulthood with an almighty roar. Not on that, but in the coming weeks my Space Marine Chapter will also be renamed, but that is yet to be decided upon. As my army comes up close to the battle company level it seems like a good time to do so. The Evandalists, as they've been known as, was always a stand in name until I'd thought of something better. Only problem was, I'd forgotten to think of something! So keep an eye out for that.

First of all I need to pass on a huge thanks to Ieuan from Sons of Isis, the guy is a true Hero and deserves some Terminator honours for this tribute!

Last tuesday was my birthday, and Ieuan made me this especially, hes a classy lad fair play, hit his blog up to see his lovely looking army and purple hands!

Next up two weeks ago I took part in the first Apoc game using the new updated 6th edition rules, and had a hell of a blast. Theres a bit of narrative to sort out yet but the pictures are ready, so a post on this will happen fairly soon! All you need to know whoever was just how immense the game was.

There was 24k points in total, and had my marines teamed with Morgans Space Wolves vs the evil duo of Adam and Alun with their Nurgle Marines and Daemons with Traitor Guard. Cracking game and some good moments... more on that in the next week though! 

Next up that I need to tell you about, is this bad boy! Drop Zone is coming out as a boxed game, and I'm incredibly tempted if I can find the money aside from GTAV and the new Marines codex! 

Not only do you get everything you need, but the price is £60 rrp. How good is that?!! Well theres better... My good friend Adam who runs Putrid Painting, has it up on his site for a very nice £50, I'm not even kidding! We'll be getting a copy to try out at club and seeing what its like when its released at the end of September. 

So what else can you guys be expecting with this new name? Well the post I made about the Iyanden Craftworld from a scanned White Dwarf seemed popular, so I'll do this a little more often. I'll also be projecting my thoughts upon new releases, adding my own ideas etc. I'm also hoping to bring to you a new game thats being developed and sculpted by a new member to our club who lives just over the mountain, but that deserves its very own post. For now though I'll let all that and the new name sink in... 

Death By Die.

Legion Damned again, and Batrep!

Welcome back for another batrep and update! This weeks battle report had me and Bam both using marines, my Evandalists and Bams Silver Skulls, versus Ryans Space Wolves and Aluns Eldar. 1k each player and capture the Relic!

We won deployment and first turn and took full advantage. Bams Chapter Master got outflank, and so went into reserve along with the razorback he and his honourguard were in. My Librarian's trait meant if he'd get a bonus point for every enemy warlord killed in a challange. We'll see how that went haha. 

First turn, the librarian comes down with five sternguard in a drop pod. Not where I wanted, but I did then see a possibly chance of first blood and even warlord. Aluns dire avengers and farseer were right at the back of his deployment zone, and I managed to kill four or five and force a morale check. Much to my surprise and Aluns dismay, they ran straight off the board! 2 kill points in one bold move, first blood and warlord! Elsewhere not much happened apart from killing a few of Ryans plasma cannon toting long fangs. They still hurt us though! 

They, in alliance with Aluns dark reapers took out one of Bams combat squads and two of my missile launcher devs. Bams army was hit badly and he lost more troops, but he still had 2 dreads and a combat squad left and his warlord off the table. Ryan than charged into me with his space wolf terminators. Who did I spy in there but Ragnar Blackmane. Do I challange and try to get the bonus point?

You damn right! Ragnar causes a wound, but I'm unable to wound him back. My sternguard are wiped out and no casualties for ryan, luckily the libby stays in the fight. Next turn, Bams Chapter Master comes into play, where the razorback gets damaged but they disembark and are charged by some howling banshees. Who are not eqiupped to take out armour save 2+! They're butchered, and Bam moves into the neaby building to do more killing. Meanwhile, ragnar strikes at my librarian, but I save all wounds. I hit back twice, wounding once. Ragnar takes his armour save, and fails! I then make a leadership test, pass, and the Space Wolf leader is dead! 2 bonus points for me! This puts is in a good position, it'd be hard to lose but draw could still be on the cards.

Bams chapter master and honour guard kill some grey hunters and rangers in the next couple of turns, demolishing their left flank. Then a fire prism shows up and kills Bams unit, ouch! My vindicator kills all but one grey hunter in the centre, limiting the troops units they have to capture the objective hopefully helping us win. 

Little else happens, I make 5 4+ saves with three scouts to keep them on the relic (even though they die next turn haha) and Alun failed another LD10 morale check thanks to some well placed frag missiles.

At the end noone has the objective but we win 4-2, as both of our warlords died. A cracking game though, Bam showed he was a little rusty as he hasn't played for a while but still did well considering how shot up he got. Ryan is still learning 6th edition but he too did well. All in all a good game!

Onwards! For the upcoming Apocalypse game, I'd fancied the Legion of the Damned Apocalypse formation. Didn't think I'd afford to get any though, so imagine my surprise when a guy called Alex turns up at our club with some stuff for sale, among them 5 damned legionaires! I get them for a great price, then the next day I look on ebay and am able to get another 5 saving a few bucks off the normal price, all in metal too matching my other squad! So today, I built them all. Then I decided to undercoat them too.

And then I painted them! All done in just one day, probably about 5 hours work give or take a little. So another unit of the Damned and I'm now able to take them as a formation, awesome! Can't wait to see all twenty drop in and cause havoc!

So thats all for now, I've got a course to go on for a few days so I doubt I'll get much done, but this weekend we'll have our first apocalypse game and a practice for the biggy in september!

Latest and Space Marine Codex

Ok so first of all, lets talk about the SM Codex. Rumours are starting to come out that it'll be out on September the 7th, which is making me excited! New suits of armour, 'Dreadmarine' has even been mentioned. While all this is awesome, if the date is true its all out the day before we have the Apocalypse event at our club! That could mean a frantic Saturday of building and painting! I'm sure it'll be worth it though, can't wait to see how it all works, and I may have to write an apocalypse army the day before we play. This happened when Tau was released, the day after we had a campaign day so I frantically built a riptide, broadside and 8 pathfinders the day before. Manic!

Anyways, onto what I've been doing. I haven't been able to paint much as the main light source in my room has been down, but it was fixed a few days ago and I've been on a mission!

My bikes have been waiting for some attention for a while, so I decided to get the sorted and based. Theres still some details to add, but they look so much better. The Chaplain biker has been converted and isn't too far off from being finished either. The Drop Pod isn't too far from completion, a little detail needed to this and then some black needed inside as at the moment its all metal! Lastly, the Librarian is coming along too. I've decided to use some copper on him, as copper was always thought of as a way of channelling mystic energies, so seemed to make sense.

Whats next? I've got a Rhino to build, and I may be getting another predator to allow me to do the squadron with them. All lascannons hopefully! Then its buy 30 tactical marines, build and paint them. Ouch!