So Games Day UK is happening right now, and unfortunately I can't make it this year. But there are siome snippets of information coming through and a couple of images!
New Chaos Kharabidys Assault Claw.
Sunday 29 September 2013
Saturday 21 September 2013
Saturday Salvo: Aint No Dice in Los Santos?
Lets not beat around the bush, this has taken up most of my time this week.
GTA V was released on Tuesday and I've actually been really enjoying it. Videogames have bored me a little over the last coupel of years but this has enough variety to keep me entertained. The little random events are great, theres a guy opposite Shandy Shores who had me in hysterics for ages... an old hick dancing to various country music and he never seems to stop. Classy game Rockstar... although I'm gutted the characterful manual has gone!
What else has been happening? Well the Gorgon is coming out!
This, THIS is beautiful. The way he links up with Fulgrim is lovely, but the amount of the little details in this guy is absolutely astounding. I'm kinda thinking FW should create some sort of Primarch Hit Squad for people who paint the Primarchs terrible, it just should not be allowed.
Personally hobby wise I've picked up a box of Sterguard and a box of Vanguard. Gonna create some honour guard out of the sternguard using some vanguard parts but also a new Chapter Master, as my current one has had his sword broken in two.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Not sure about the rest of the vanguard yet but I may even build and use them as vanguard, we shall see.
Also, matey Adam has sponsered a comptition on Eastern Fringe, go here to win some zombies by making a zombie! May have a go at entering myself if I can pull myself away from GTA... not an easy prospect! Battle report in the next couple of days, again against Alun and his crafty pointed ears but in a much larger 2500pt game... it was a wee brutal too! Anyways, thats it for this Saturday Salvo, what projects are you guys working on? Been torn away from your hobby desk to make millions in Los Santos? Tell me about it!
Sunday 15 September 2013
GW 40k Gaming
So this Friday just gone, myself and Alun travelled down to our most local GW store in Cwmbran, which is still half hour away! I had planned to play store manager Etienne, all round nice guy and we'd been bantering for a while about who was going to win.
Firstly though I had to take a picture of this. One of the guys painting to my left, a gentleman by the name of Shaun Beckett, was working on a contemptor in Imperial Fists colours, and while chatting he'd mentioned he'd finished one already and took it out... and I was blown away! Not only my most wanted fit if I get a contemptor of dual Kheres pattern assault cannons but nicely painted too. I'll definately be keeping an eye out for more of his miniatures when I visit the store!
So onto the game. 1500 points and 4 objectives in a modified version of the scouring. I was facing Necrons, and I should have been more fearful of this than I was! I took an assault based army using the white scars tactics again.
Early going, I moved up to the right with my bikes but failed a fairly long assault attempt. My jump packs did charge the wraiths however and in two combat turns I'd killed them... relief! Then all of a sudden Etiennes necron troops teleported away from my bikes and threatened the four point objective... I didn't know they could do that! Anyway, bitter fighting took place, my captain tried to take on a necron lord, I did wound but mindshackle scarabs made him wound himself and eventually killing himself. For 15 points they're horrible, its hard to believe a Necron player not taking them. My assault marines were brought down by another warrior squad with Obyron and a cryptek and I just didn't have enough to budge them away.
If the game ended on turn 5 however I would have sneaked a win just by contesting and positioning units, but I ended up losing 12-3 I think... ouch! Those necrons have so many special rules, the death ray on the necron flyer is insane too, and they're just hard to keep down. Especially with 2 special characters and some more in the warriors and immortals... very cheesy!
I still enjoyed it though, and I've learnt a little more about necrons. After the game myself and Alun played a 1000 pt game of Relic. Alun, who'd just built up his harlequins took eldar, and I used Marines again.
This game ended 1-1, I went after the objective straight away and managed to get it back towards my deployment zone but the rhino carrying it was blown apart and the lone tactical squad member carrying it was shredded by dire avenger fire. I did get first blood however, when my bikes and captain blew up the fire prism. Aluns point from slay the warlord after I rolled three ones on 6 saves. Eugh! Just wasn't my day dice rolling wise but thats how it rolls sometimes... heh.
Next up are using the new Sternguard box for a new chapter master and possibly some honour guard, when I can get a vanguard boxed set too. I've got some ideas with what to equip the new chapter master model, so keep an eye out for some WIP pictures in the next couple of weeks.
Thursday 12 September 2013
October: Boxed Game?
Theres been speculation for some time now about an all inclusive boxed game coming out from GeeDub. Last year rumours for Blood Bowl were rife. Three teams, seperate sculpts, bit of a story... I was incredibly intrigued to say the least. But then rumours dissipated and new murmourings became visible.
Inquisitor.
Rumours for this was that GW wanted to get back into the skirmish games market, where other companies had been doing well GW had given up on its specialist games market due to poor - mediocre sales despite a cult fanbase for all its games. 28mm, 3-4 warbands in the box all sound good for a new version of Inquisitor, and if theres one thing that could back this up is that in White Dwarf we've seen hints at future releases... Matt Hutsons Black Templars having units added to it and then Space Marines coming out next? Jes Bickhams Tyranids could well be getting some love after he'd kept adding to them.... So the hint for Inquisitor? Blanchitsu wasn't in the last issue, but in the previous few months every single Blanche article was about Inquisitor warbands in 28mm. Yes, this kind of model does have great scope for conversion, so it would be a prime target for modellers... but 4+ months in a row? Surely this is GeeDub quietly introducing new people and reminding us veterans what Inquisitor is.
What if we have been totally fooled however, and GW are doing something different?
What if the secret release turns out to be Necromunda? Its ideal for getting back into skirmish games, plus with the technology that could go into making the terrain it'd sell to 40k players too just to get their greedy mitts on some underhive terrain! Add on packs could easily work, picture this. For £70 you get a boxed game with three or even four gangs inside. Goliath, Orlock, Delaque, and Escher. Thats four playstyles and something to appeal to female demographic. You also get some nice terrain, and all the bits and counters you need to play. 6 months down the line, an addon pack comes out. Van Saar and Cawdor are included, a few more rules, and a bit more terrain. This keeps people interested in the game but also getting purpose to use the terrain for 40k gives added incentives for people to buy it. Another 6 months and you get ratskins and redemptionists and so on.
The most likely scenario is that the Inquisitor game is released, which could also work well with expansions down the line. Myself? I'd love to score some touchdown or earn me some creds....
Wednesday 11 September 2013
Space Marine Codex Batrep
So after the huge brutal but fun game of Apocalypse on Sunday, Andrew, who'd been unable to play challanged me to a game the following night against his Death Guard. This mean I'd be facing lots of toughenss 5, a maulerfiend, and the Defiler he'd been ovingly painting up over the last month or so! With the new Codex, I fancied trying a different Chapter Tactics, so while looking at my models and seeing my bikes, I plumped for the White Scars. The benefits of this is Hammer of Wrath attacks are ST 5 from bikers, Hit and Run and auto-passing difficult terrain tests. 1500 points each, and this was my rough list.
Captain, bike, artificer armour, storm shield, power axe.
Chaplain, bike
Bike squad, 5 bikers with meltagun, flamer, attack bike with multimelta
5 man tactical squad with lascannon
10 man tactical squad with vet sarge, powerfist and a meltagun in a rhino
10 man assault squad
5 vanguard with powerfist
predator with lascannons
dreadnought with plasma cannon
5 devastators with missile launchers
Legion of the damned with power axe and multimelta.
Deployment!
Mission was capture the relic, and we had the narrow deployment type. This basically turned the 6x4 table into a 4x4 which meant death guard would be more concentrated... ouch! I won the roll off to go first... so deployed as seen as above. As you can see on the image at the bottom underneath Andrews army is a dice roll of a six. Yes, Initiative seized!
Andrew pushed forward with most of his units, large unit of cultists with sorceror, maulerfiend, decimator and some of the death guard. Shooting casualties were light although I'd left my lascannon as the nearest model in the 5 man squad so he died.
I sent all units forward, bikes shot at the cultists ripping many apart but failed the charge. Assault squad moved into the centre ready to get stuck into the centre and the vanguard swung across to the left flank to charge the maulerfiend and try to cripple it with kraks and a powerfist.
The missiles and pred failed to do much, and this was followed by the Vanguard unable to damage the maulerfiend but only lost one of their number.
Andrews death guard advance once more, my bikers get charged but my assault squad move into the cultists. I lose the challange between the sorceror and my sarge as expected but kill off the cultists to gain first blood. I destroy a weapon and immobilse the decimator, but andrew claims he'll roll for both to be fixed in his next turn due to its ability.
He rolls the dice, and gets the results he needs! Decimator mobile again and now storms in to finish off my vanguard. The bikers and captain have trouble wounding the death guard, T5 proving hard to break especially with FNP, but andrews plague knives are poisoned and he does whittle my bikers down... then I remember hit and run! Typical ha! Meanwhile my tactical squad jump out of the rhino and get into contact with the relic.
The decimator finally meets its end, and I take off the last hull point. The Legion of the Damned lower their multi melta at the maulerfiend and take that out too, which is a huge help as we both desperately fight for the Relic! He takes out my tactical squad with the Relic by shooting them with heavy bolter toting havocs and plasma guns, but I'm able to get the last four of my 5 man squad onto it.
This is what was left at the end of turn 6, which was the end of the game. Andrews unharmed Havocs were also left, as was 4 missile launcher devs and predator in my deployment game... but this had been intensely brutal! Legion of the damned had got stuck in to try and tip the balance but were too late to save my chaplain, and while my captain didn't suffer a wound he didn't kill an awful lot either as Andrews rolls to save for armour or FNP were amazing! So the game finished... who won?
Well we'd both got into contact with the relic, so no points for anyone there. No Linebreaker, and no Warlord... so it was down to the First Blood point I had earned by killing the cultists that won me the game. I do however use the term 'won' very loosely, it was that close! It was also incredibly fun, Andrew is always a great opponent and its great to play him after such a long time.
So what do I think of the new codex?
Well, when I remembered hit and run it helped a lot, if you can get some good resilient units into combat, then hit and run you can pour firepower into the enemy unit before getting stuck back in and stopping them returning fire. If I'd have remembered I could have had another turn to shoot the maulerfiend which would have helped a lot. I also forgot Hammer of Wrath quite often, so this had very little effect. Auto passing terrain checks was good though when I did remember hit and run as I could rush back into cover and then leap back out without worrying about armour saves.
It'll be interesting to try some of the other chapter tactics too, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists tactics seemingly pretty useful, as is the Ultramarines one. I've got another game or two on friday so I'll see what lists I come up with.
How are you guys finding the new Codex?
Tuesday 10 September 2013
APOCALYPSE!!!!!! Photos...
So the Apocalypse event at the Tredegars has come and gone, and it was a hell of a lot of fun despite a few minor obsticles! Firstly when I arrived at our venue at 7am the floor was covered in sleeping bags and half awake kids... It appears there'd been some miscommunication regarding the date! Luckily a lovely lady who was organising it said that the parents would be picking their kids up in an hour so we wouldn't be held back too long. We did have a couple of people fail to show up too which hurt one table a lot in terms of points, but both of the guys who were left seemed to have a good laugh regardless.
On our table we between 22-24k each, with the Imperial side having 2k more but the otherside had two super heavies... the Necron Obelisk, and the C'tan gargantuan creature... Uh oh! I had 8k of Krohmus Guard, and was allied with Morgans Space Wolves and Aluns pic'n'mix, which consisted of Black Templars, Eldar, Dark Eldar and Imperial Guard. Against us arrayed Chris with 5k of World Eaters and Death Guard, Liam with 8k of Night Lords, and Duane with 8k of mostly Necrons but some Tau also. We decided to speed things up by picking traits and powers, as we'd more likely remember them than looking at notes all the time. The Imperial side also won the chance to deploy and go first, and barely got everything on the board! Although, as is often the case I forgot about my scouts and Master of the Forge... Oops!
Duanes Obelisk was deployed opposite me in the centre, which I didn't mind as my Predator assassing squadron acquired it as its target. I faced mainly nightlords however and one of the best units of chosen I've ever seen... more later! The bulk of Duanes army faced Alun, and Morgan snarled his canines at the red and green of Chris' army. All that was left to do was commence play!
Tank Commander Chronus lined up his predator first at the Obelisk, and could see firepower being forced into it but most of it doing nothing. He opened up with all three lascannons ordering his comrades to do the same but they needn't have worried... Chronus' shots all hit which became a SD hit and took its 4 remaining hullpoints off. It exploded and promptly took out a wee chunk of Liams army... not much but it was something and the Obelisk couldn't now harm our sides flyers which was nice!
My Chapter Master led an assault squad across the board into combat against a nightlords squad, where he hit twice against a champion who did nothing against the great hero but I failed to wound both times due to rolling snake eyes... I think he forgot to charge the thunder hammer or stick some fresh batteries in.
My asset allowed me to allow all friendly deepstrikers to land exactly where they wanted with no scatter, with my Legion of the Damned formation coming across to the right flank to aid Aluns force and act as a road block to protect the objective there in the open. And that they did extremely well!
Brutal fights broke out across the board as the importance of controlling objectives was huge. The Space Wolf force lunged across the board eager to get to the world eaters and death guard while the right flank tentatively advanced while unloading enourmous amounts of fire at the enemy. Then fire was returned.
One of them had also taken the same asset as myself, which allowed Duane to deepstrike this monolith right in amongst mine and Alun#s army, with the gateway weapon they have facing Alun's seer council! Only three were dragged in screaming, but one was Aluns Farseer, painful loss!
On the left flank, and after my Sternguard had blown up Chris' land raider its occupants emerged from its charred heretic frame and stormed out to exact revenge, among them was Kharn. Needless to say the sternguard had no chance as they had lost their armour saves too! Typhus and 10 death guard terminators appeared too, and things looked a little dire for Morgans armu.
Heres a shot going up the board from the left flank, we played on a 12x4ft table with enough terrain to allow cover for advancing units but not too much to bog the game down. I couldn't help but pause at certain moments to just take in the scale of the game with how many models we had on the board, definately a rewarding sight!
This is how my centre was looking like around the end of turn one.
More accurate deepstiking allowed Duane to unleash an attack on the
Space Wolves which tore their armour off, leaving them with invulnerable
saves or nothing! Morgans face and poise said it all!
Heres the right flank, Legion of the Damned still holding up after being shot at and charged by Praetorians, Alun holding up well too although some Necrons flayed ones and Tau battlesuits appeared behind his lines. Hiding behind the Stormeagle was C'tan, this guy was horrid! Apoc blast and ST 10 ordnance, although it did get weaker as the blast stretched out.
Morg's Long fangs get decimated by deepstriking deathmarks, and my command squad come out to play from the land raider crusader with a librarian and two chaplains. Both those and my now free Chapter msater storm into the Wraiths where a desperate struggle carries on for 2 combat turns... my guys eventually killing the wraiths before a Tomb Stalker jumps into the fray!
Liams chosen unit, all bearing corrupted loyalist colours were stunning, although I had no qualms in trying to kill them!
Enjoying a bit of a break among the dice rolling to see how much carnage has happened... Morgan activates something where some huge castrophies happen and end up with a huge piece of space debris lands on the table. I think Morg had something against me as he ended up causeing 3 wounds on my chapter master from a rampant Vortex his rune priests had called upon! The Tomb Stalker was then able to finish him off. Gutted!
Legion of the Damned doing what the do best, getting in the way and taking an age to die! Love these guys!
More of Liams Chosen, these are stunning!
This was the casualties after a turn and a half or two of fighting... and this was just mine and Chris'!
Another shot from the left flank looking up the battlefield. My thunderhammer temries take care of some deathguard, Morgs blood claws take care of Kharn, and Arjac knocks down Oberon THREE TIMES.... more on that towards the end though! They had a brutal fight on the objective on the left.
This is looking towards my deployment, Liams upright Defiler commanding an evil presence over the proceedings. This would get blown up by my Stormtalon however! Duanes C'tan had floated across the board into our deployment, and unleashed another apoc blast that took two of my predators down hullpoint, and blew up Chronus' own tank. Several tactical members where also taken out too! My tacticla squads that had been in Rhino's had also been set upon by Chaos and Necrons, but they took down a lethal amount of scarabs and some Chaos Marines too.
The Legion slowly being whittled down but holding on to an objective. Aluns Grey Knights are able to take down the C'tan after I'd wounded it with an Orbital Strike, the resulting explosion of the energy-based C'tan taking loads of models around it. A virus outbreak happens where every unit on foot on the board suffers a S3 wound equal to how many models are in the unit... this doesn't do an awful lot but in the last turn this turns into ST 10 ap 2... and it takes a lot out including several vehicles! Many comments such as "Why are we fighting on this planet again?" were muttered and laughed about as the catastrophies tore everything apart.
Legion of the damned holding the line, although there was only a few left at the end! Due to being extremely tired I didn't take any photos at the end, but the board was pretty empty due to the ST10 ap2 strikes hitting everything, and we called it game. Oberon, who had stood up 3 times promptly finished Arjac off to claim an objective, and at the end Chaos had four and we had two... the final victory points however had shown we had 11 points, due to killing big things and claiming objectives at the first break. Also Morgan killed Kharn while in his finest hour give us more points. The end total was 11-11!
What an immense game. After all that brutal fighting it had finished a draw, and I think it was great that it did. Both sides would have struggled to field a five a side team after all the killing that had taken place, and we'd had so much fun that no matter how the points would have been we all won from it.
For me the highlights were just seeing this epic sight in front of me and holding my own. I'd forgot to use some of the new Codex rules and the Ultramarines chapter tactics I'd taken, although I don't think much difference would have been made anyway! It was great too that noone was wiped out, with us all having at least a few models left on the board at the end. The C'tan blowing up was hilarious, as was Alun failing his first shadow field save, Morg woudning my chapter master into the bargain and his space wolves losing their armour! I'm also incredibly happy with how well my Legion of the Damned did, with about 4 surviving holding the objective til the end. I love this unit! After re-writing my army list the day before taking exactly the same I'd saved about 500-600 points... the new codex is such a delight to use!
So what of the other battle? Well here it is!
Byron's huge amount of metal terminators took on Jacobs Tyranids, his Warhound was taken out on the first time and it was all downhill from there. He put up a valiant effort though and both players could be heard laughing throughout the day at Byron's predicament. Plus it looked awesome!
Jacobs Tyranids are insane, he has about 20k all painted with all these monstrosities! ~We're hoping to take some army pics soon and have them all deployed on show, I think more for Jacob to see what he has more than anything!
I'm sure I've missed a bunch of details from the day but so much happened its hard to keep track of unless everything is written down, and that would likely bog the game down. We finished on time as planned though so it all went well!
I can't wait to do another of these or another campaign day, they're both so much fun. Huge thanks to everyone that attended, especially Liam and Duane who are both from Castle Gamers in the Bridgend area of South Wales, go look them up if you're down there as they're genuine gents and great people to play against. I'll have my first battle report coming up in the week too from the new Codx, so keep your eyes peeled!
Friday 6 September 2013
Codex Space Marines: Nerdgasm!
So Codex Space Marines comes out tomorrow on the 8th of September... well being a lucky son of a Primarch I've got my copy today along with the Damnos Warzone book! I've had a nice little thumb through and can safely say this is the book us vanilla players have been after. Although 'vanilla' doesn't really describe the book with just how many Chapter Tactics and rules are in here.
The covers for both are lovely, and as nice as the limited edition books are the cover for the standard edition is stunning in its own right. Many people have shown some disdain for the book costing £5 more than the other codex books, but when you consider theres an extra 70 or so pages in here, thats not too far off double, its a very worthy fiver to spend.
As usual, theres a nice amount of background in here, not just for the main Chapters but also the making of Space Marines, some of the successor chapters and some of the conflicts Space Marines have fought in over the milennia.
Obviously the founding chapters are the stars of the show, and its great to see them all have some limelight. From the Iron Hands to the Raven Guard, theres background for all and a little on their successor chapters IF they have any! One of my favourite images so far is of a Thunderhawk storming through enemy fire in Raven Guard colours, I didn't want to spoil it though so enjoy it yourselves when you get the codex!
Chapter Tactics are a huge addition in this book, and they really help add flavour to the Chapter you use. White Scars players in particular must be revving their bikes up in anticipation to getting ST5 hammer of Wrath attacks and hit and run, great combo!
For me however the biggest thing was points. I've often looked at other Marine Codex books and noticed how much cheaper other chapters get things for... well thats changed. 5 Devastators with 4 missile launchers used to cost me 150 points, but now its just 130! You lose the veteran sergeant but he is just ten points but the regular sarge still gets the signum. A tactical squad can cost as little as 140 points with no upgrades, and if you want the classic loadout of a veteran sarge, missile launcher and flamer its still 170 pts, the same as in the last edition of Codex Space Marines. Legion of the Damned, Predator equiipped with lascannons and several other units all getting some nice cuts in prices.
Onto the Damnos Warzone book, and for anyone who doesn't know this is an apocalypse book for using Ultramarines and Necrons. It details the first Damnos war along with the Ultramarines return in an attempt to rid the Necron threat. Another hardback book, theres some nice background in here that gives a good sense of the battles fought and gives you some ideas into how you should fight them. Theres a few missions that look like great fun, new strategic assets and over 20 formations for the Space Marines and Necron forces... and it states that these can be used in any Apocalypse game will many people will be happy about!
The new formations have some old favourites and some new ones too. Centurions get a formation if you have 9+, the Vindicator Linebreaker Squadron makes a nice return plus theres rules for the Necron Pylon. One of the assets I'd love to use allows Marine units that come on from reserve to charge on the turn they arrive... awesome!
So in all both books have been totally worth the money to me. If you're not intot he Apocalypse scene you may not find much about Warzone Damnos to interest you, but the Space Marine Codex has been a book I'm having trouble putting down. I now have an 8000point apocalypse list to write for Sunday and I'm genuinely excited about it! Let me know what you guys think of the Codex and/or Damnos and post it in the comments!
(all images in this post are taken from Games Workshop print, and belong to them)
(all images in this post are taken from Games Workshop print, and belong to them)
Thursday 5 September 2013
Battle Company and Chapter Name Reveal!
So the Evandalists have now gone. Its now offical, that I have finally found a permanent name for my own custom Space Marine Chapter.... Behold...
The Krohmus Guard it is! The reason I've gone for this is that the word Krohmus is a twist of the original word that 'chroma' comes from, which is the value or effect colour can have. It seems very apt considering the colour scheme I chose for my force! Enemies shudder as the might of the Space Marines approach, but why are they so colourful? Surely they cannot be the Emperors finest? As the enemies are confused the Krohmus Guard strike to full effect! This effect for me is part of the idea behind the name, and its here to stay!
Also, you'll have noticed that I've got a big Aocalypse game coming up on the weekend and one of my aims was to get a battle company. Well, here it is!
The only thing not done is the Standard, but thats mainly because I'm certainly not rushing into painting something that should be a centrepiece for the army! I did find my old apothecary, but decided to get some bits to make a new one. Heres the command squad below!
Here are the three dreadnoughts that will be part of the company, although I may switch the heavy flamer toting dread to one with a lascannon as I can bring him down in a drop pod and torch a lot of heretics or Xenos!
My two assault squads, units I've not really used much before but I'm getting to grips with them and finding them very useful.
The other formation I wanted to do for the Apoc game was the predator assassin squadron. And what a deadly bunch they are! If all weapons on a predator hit you can exchange the three lascannon shots for a single strength 'D' hit. Yes please!
I also made this guy, as one turret I obtained was missing a hatch. I think he looks pretty good and the pointing hand works well as he acquires the target to bombard with lascannon fire!
So as you can see I've been pretty busy, now I just have to wait until I get my big mitts on the new codex and get a list written! Can't wait to see how these, plus my other units will do in game and what Chapter Tactics I'll go for in the big game this coming Sunday. Whatever I choose, the Krohmus Guard shall eradicate the enemy!
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