New Tyranid Codex Thoughts and Batrep

So the new Tyranid Codex has been released, and there is much talk floating around the internet about the book and from what I've encountered its pretty negative. I've never used the Nids before, and only ever played against them once with the old Tau codex and got hammered. With the release our Tyranid player Jacob offered me to a game, and choosing my Krohmus Guard I duly accepted. First of all, thoughts on the Codex pregame.

Jacob mentioned that a fair whack of the codex had been copied and pasted from the previous dex. This is unfortunate, but it is a nicely put together book regardless and I'm sure if you're a newcomer to gribblies, you'll enjoy the book immensely.

Rules wise its hard to offer much as I don't have much experience with them. I've always felt that things with a toughness and wounds beats out armour, as its incredibly hard to kill them on one turn unlike vehicles where you can penetrate and explode them. Many of the big nasties in the nid book are toughness 5-6 with 5-6 wounds, thats a lot of firepower to down these beasts. To me, a mix of big and small nids would be the most appealing army, perhaps not competitively but just for fun. Lots of little guys being goaded forward by synapse seems like a great image, tearing their way towards an unfortunate gunline where they either get shot down or overwhelm the defenders. 

As always, the art is fantastic and this piece with the nids taking on orks really caught my eye. The map of tendrils attacking areas of space was nice too and theres plenty of eye candy in the book. 

 So onto the battle then. We'd decided to do 1500 points, and not having any idea what Jacob was taking I went for a list designed to dent them early on and hopefully deal out enough firepower to slowly mow the numbers down as they advanced. My list was:

Barebones librarian, 2 tactical squads, one in a drop pod, dreadnought with TL heavy flamer and heavy flamer in a drop pod, predator with AC and HB's, 8xdevastators with 4 missile launchers, 10 scouts with rifles, missile launcher and telion, 5 bikers with two gravguns and combi grav and ten legion of the damned with flamer and heavy flamer. 

The basic thought was to use the bikers to pick on something big and take it out in one go, with some supporting fire if needed. The dread would come down and torch a big unit of gaunts that are closest to my main block of troops and the legion of the damned would either act as a screen coming down near my main force or deepstrile behind to try and distract and cause as much damage as possible. 

I deployed and Jacob set up his force. 3 Tervigons, 3 Zoanthropes, about 80-90 termagaunts, an exocrine, and deathleaper stood across from me or were in reserves. 

 First turn and the Dread droppods near a huge guant unit and torches a good 12-15 of them, but the nearby Tervigon charges in and damages the dread. I was lucky not to lose it in one turn as Jacob had two pens but didn't get to explode it. The bikers revved forward and unleashed a torrent of gravfire at the right most tervigon, killing the beast. My scouts targeted the Zoanthrope to the right, a krak missile finding its mark and instant killing the xenos. I managed to take a couple of wounds off the exocrine but it regenerated back up to 5. The nids rushed forward, gaunts mainly running forward to close ground to get ready to attack. One tervigon however rolled a double to spawn and would be unable to create anymore, whereas the other created 9 guants.

Tactical squad in drop pod deployed to the west, hoping to pile in some firepower using the Tactical Doctrine. The firepower tore apart guants but 9 still stood and charged the tactical squad in return. The bikers redployed and unleashed more graviton firepower, this time at the exocrine. Fairly poor dice rolling only took two wounds off, although the scouts managed to take another two off leaving it on just one wound. The predator fired and failed to do anything. The only thing left that could do anything was a lascannon toting tactical marine. I unleashed the shot, hit, but rolled a one to wound. Dammit! The Exocrine regenned two wounds to take it back up to 3, and blew up a few of my devastators, cover saving them from all being wiped out. The main Tervigon finished off my dreadnought and stormed alongside the gaunts assaulting my tactical marines. It managed to kill one marine after Jacob rolled badly but I did no damage back, mainly through a power that took my WS and BS down to just 1! I did kill a couple of gaunts and lost another marine. 

The Legion of the Damned appear at the back of the Tyranid line engulfing some gaunts in prometheum, then get assault by a tervigon and later on two units of gaunts, one from reserve and one spawned by said Tervigon. True to legend, they sponge up a tremndous amount of attacks and I only lose three for the rest of the game. They take out a unit of gaunts, leave the other with just a couple of models and keep a Tervigon locked in combat. Distraction and spongeness complete!

The bikers got assailted by a huge unit of gaunts, and I lost two in the first turn of combat but managed to kill a few in return. The gaunts were having a lot of trouble wounding the T5 bikers though so I felt safe they'd survive. A drop pod stormbolter killed a last gaunt to get a kill point, and the exocrine was finally finished off before it could wipe out my devastators. They however had a huge unit of gaunts and deathleaper to worry about. I advanced my Librarian and tactical squad out of the ruins on the right to back up the other tactical squad. I'd gained Iron Arm for the libby and was confident he could deal some damage to even the bigger beasties.

Deathleaper and the gaunts assaulted my Devs and took them down to two models, while my bikers stood resolute and unharmable almost to the other unit of gaunts, but only managed to kill a few due to lack of attacks. The Tervigon to my right was unable to cause enough wounds to the tactical squad to wipe them out, and the game ended before my libby could test his strength against something juicy.

We ended the game and I was up about 8-2, I was close to losing a couple of units but I'd done enough damage to blunt the Tyranid attack... for now!

Jacobs overall thoughts on the army is that they've been nerded, and I can see what he means. However Jacob hasn't played very often and is a little rusty of the rules. I think diverting a tervigon away from the main advance to take care of my legion of the damned wasn't a good move, but I don't think he realised just how durable a unit they are. Taking out a tervigon and zoanthrope in the first turn was inlucky too, but now he knows how deadly Gravguns are and if he has the choice will take the first turn to try and deal with them. After he's had a few more games it'll be interesting to see if he still has the same view or not. Hopefully not and he'll have found his footing witht he army again and get back to his biomass collecting ways! 

From my perspective it was an enjoyable game, seeing a wave of gaunts and some bigger beasts across from me was unnerving, and I did wonder if my force would be any good. It proved to be fairly effective however with most of the units doing well. I look forward to more games against Jacob as he's always fun to play against, and when he gains some confidence I'm sure his tactical gribbliness will be hard to beat!

Rats and Bolt Pistols.

So far, my hobbying in 40k has been all Space Marines and Tau. Well the other day, I fancied cutting some plastic up and making something more... well grotty and dirty. So this, is what I came up with

Yep, we've got a Chaos Skaven Marine! Although the obvious direction would be Nurgle, I'll be keeping undivided as worshipping one God doesn't interest me. Will this be the start of something bigger? Quite possibly, as I've got some ideas for other units. I've always fancied doing some beastmen based Chaos Marines too, so a feral wild warband could be due. Rat Ogre Obliterators come to mind and making weapons is always good fun, plus it'll make me learn how to use green stuff a lot more too. 

At some point on the weekend I'll have a larger post coming with a small game of X-wing to report on, and some recent purchases. Cheers for reading and any thoughts please share=]

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)

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!

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!

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!

New additions and Giveaway!

So Death From The Skies has arrived rather quietly from Games Workshop's side of things, although we've known it was coming for a couple of weeks. I'm incredibly intrigued about the rules for flyers, and of course being a Codex Space Marine player I'm rather excited about the Stormraven being available for my Evandalists. Which is why...

I've got one for myself! Many thanks to Nurgle Command for his heads up that on the Hobbycraft Facebook page you can get yourself a 25% off voucher, so I indulged in this lot=] 

I've had a flick through the painting tanks book, and theres some great tips in there I'm looking forward to trying. I grabbed myself and Bam some spray, he wanted some white for his Orks, the Temple of Skulls and some woods to add some variety to our gaming tables at club, and of course, the Stormraven. Working out the price I paid just £31 for it instead of the hefty £50 at GW, amazing! Cracking deal fair play so head over there now as the offer lasts until the 24th I believe. Special thanks to my lady for taking me to pick these up!

The giveaway winner will be announced on the 26th of February, I've had some great entries so far so please keep them coming! Photos of you and your favourite miniature from any game or system to be emailed to vandalworks@hotmail.com

£20 GW voucher to be won so get on it!

Sternguard and Terminators Update!

So its been a wee while since I've shown you much progress with my Evandalists, but this past week or so I've been busy on these beauties. I've always fancied Sternguard, the thought of the elite Marines from the 1st company still armed with power armour and (special ammo issued) boltguns made an evocative image and was something I needed. I scoured what I had, and trawled through Ebay. I had decided that as the Sergeant torso was reasonably distinctive with its high collar, ten of these were added to the shopping list. What else? Phobos pattern boltguns! I picked up 9 of these, and also a Ferrox pattern bolter for the sarge to make him stand out a bit more. Also added were parts from a command squad I bought at the Cwmbran GW and plenty of veteran shoulder pads!

 The colour scheme is much the same as my main army, although a few new things were done. With the Veteran pads I did them silver, and when painting the armour after everything was basecoated, I covered the entire model except the face with nuln oil. I wanted a bit of a dirty grimy look to them, and I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out. So much so that I may revisit other squads and repeat this technique!

Heres two of the Sternguard, as you can see I went for a black skin tone with two of the guys and then a more white tone with the others. I think the black skin tones came out well, and I shall be doing some more! 

Heres the Sergeant with a Powerfist, armed to take out the trickier things these guys may come across that their ammo may not hurt. How I use these guys I don't know, either as a nice defensive unit using the Kraken bolts, or drop pod them down to take out power armoured enemies. I look forward to fielding them though!

Ah Terminators! I've bought 5 ranged Terminators before, but they were the Assault on Black Reach ones and posing them isn't much of an option. I got myself a box of these at Firestorm Games in Cardiff and looked forward to fixing them up.

I posed the Assault Cannon Termie to look like he's balancing against the recoil, and I think its worked ok. Its so nice to have chainfists at last!

Two of the regular Termies. You'll note that I've not done the Chapter badge on these or the Sternguard, this will come when I've practiced it a little more! 

I'm quite happy with how the Sarge's face has come out. I love using Khemri Brown as a base, washing it and then adding little amounts of white 2-3 times to build up the highlights. 

Lastly is my other regular armed Termie, and I've posed this guy twisting as if reacting to a new threat. Needless to say its my favourite one, seeing such a bulky guy in a more dynamic pose is why I wanted to build some of these guys for myself! 

So there we go, some progress to show how the Chapter are growing. I'm still planning on getting some pics of the entire army set up, so eyes peeled for when I pluck up the courage to try and organise this. Don't forget, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate 20k views on my blog, so click here for details! I've got a couple of well known people in the world of gaming entering, so fingers crossed we should have a great gallery. So whats stopping you gettng a self portrait of yourself and your favourite miniature?

Chaplain Kitbash.

Ah, Kitbashing. Worthy of a capital letter. I love Kitbashing me, my Librarian, Chapter Master and Master of the Forge all created through various kits. Well, seeing as my Chaplain was old and hidden under a couple of paint jobs, I decided that a new one was needed.... but where to start? 

I began browsing Ebay for various bits. Theres some great sellers on there, and I found some great parts! 

The head was donated by friend Bam from a Venerable Dread, the chest torso was an Iron Hands torso I thought looked cool, the Power First was from a Tartaros Terminator, and the Crozius was a combination of a DA Power Maul and a standard top. Standard Tactical Squad legs with some honours from the tactical sprue and also the attack bike sprue.

I'm quite happy with the pose, the idea being he's just finished his litanies and is pointing upwards as a symbol of the Emperor for all to see. Its not finished yet, he has no backpack and the wires need tidying up but he's about 80% done. Can't wait to use him in our all dayer... Which is SUNDAY!!!

The Squat and the Boarding Captain.

First of all, in case you read that title and hoped for some fan fiction where a Squat and an Imperial Freighter officer fall in love, you'll be more than a tad disappointed. As amazing as that story would be, this is about the limited edition Forge World Boarding Captain.... and a... Squat.

The Boarding Captain was obtained by a swap with one of the greatest examples of gentlemen I have ever known, and someone I've mentioned before on this very blog. You may remember a James, who, after taking time out of sculpting to chat to an over-enthusiastic giant from Wales and gave me a sculpted Empire Elector Count head he'd done. We kept in touch, and he happened to mention if I'd picked a certain something up this year at Games Day, I of course did, so he asked if he could buy or swap... and mentioned the Boarding Captain. I knew he was a pretty cool model so happily agreed. A few days later this guy pops up in the post! I've only now got to painting him, as I wasn't sure whether to use him for my chapter or not...

But then I couldn't resist. I mean, look at the model, he's stunning! The Storm Shield I actually looked into getting when kitbashing my Chapter Master together, but glad I didn't cause it looks superb on this guy. You may have noticed he has an old Mk V Jump Pack. This was originally intended for a Chaplain I'm working on, but then put it on this guy and thought it looked too good not too! I'll hopefully be able to magnetise it so I can switch with his regular backpack if needed. But I'm pretty happy with how he's looking so far! Not finished yet, as I need to blend a couple of bits together a little more and the base needs finishing, but so far so good!

Next...

You may or may not have seen some fluff I'd created for my chapter in which they fight off a Chaos Warband from an unknown planet, and find that it is inhabited with a small clan of Squats. They decide to take them to Mars where a great sense of machinery would help the Adeptus Mechanicus. Some Squat lobbied that they should be able to fulfil tradition and pay a debt to my Evandalists and help them, whether it be as crew to the battle barges or elsewhere. I wanted to include a couple in my force, and began to look at ways to do so.

One obvious thought was as a Techmarine. I picked up a techpriest squat from Ebay, but could'nt decide on how best to use him. So thoughts turned elsewhere, then inspiration struck during a battle. A few months back I'd had a go at using the rules for Telion, and really enjoyed what he did. Hes a great little upgrade for snipers, especially if you really need that Rocket Launcher to hit a vehicle or to try and take out those special weapon squad members! So, what about a Squat version of Telion? I looked through some of the back catalogues of Squats, and they all looked a little too old school to fit in my force. Then I saw the one! RATLINGS!!!

And here he is. I picked this guy up on Ebay, and was able to some sort of success, sculpt a beard on him to make him more Squat-like. I think it looks pretty good! He still needs a little work on him, but he's at the point where I can try and get some other stuff done and he looks alright. Pretty chuffed with the guy! I'm gonna make up some fluff for him and give him a name, but I can't wait to field him with my Scout snipers, who I need to add I also have to finish! Bad habit this not getting things done malarky. 

So thats what I've been doing last few days, I've got a couple of bits coming to sort out my two Chaplains, the biker and foot ones, and then it'll be a case of painting as much as I can before the all dayer in just over a weeks time. Cannae wait!

Talisman Preview

I saw this rumoured about many moons ago, and then a teaser for it not so long back on the GW website. Well now we actually have some gameplay footage!

It seems very much a straight adaptation of the board game, which will please most people no end, me being one of them. I never got to play the board game, so this is something that really intrigues me. 

I've always considered myself as a wee bit of a videogames fanatic, as I co-host a videogames radio show at our local station BRfm where we have a two hour show every fortnight. As we know, GW have lisenced their games out before, with varying degress of success. Space Marine I felt was a great game, which borrowed from Gears of War as much as Gears borrowed from the 40k universe. I still own Final Liberation, a turn based stragey game based on epic, which I had immense fun on even though it not being that good. There was Shadow of the Horned Rat, Fire Warrior, Warhamer Online, Blood Bowl, Kill-Team and probably several more. It seems surprising in some ways that GW games haven't caught on more.... I look at the background for the games and its so rich and detailed I'm just waiting for a developer to come along and lap it up into what I've been waiting for. A pure triple A game. 

Will it happen? Maybe one day... but then again I've never been happier saving on batteries and rolling my bright orange dice.

Kit Bash Librarian.

So lately I've been playing games and most people seem to be including psykers. I've never used them myself, but wondered what they were like. First of all, I'd need a model! I was tempted by the standard Terminator Librarian you can get in Games Workshop, cool model, 5+inv save, not a bad choice. But then I looked at the rest of my force and most things have been converted or kitbashed in some way. Oh well, lets get to it I though! First of all, what to use? I studied my slowly shrinking bits tin and found a few pieces. The missile launcher steadying arm would be perfect for an out-streched hand, no doubt power flying from it. I'd need a straighter arm however.... Oh hello biker arms! Sorted. Legs, I wanted something a little more dynamic than usual so went for some assault marine legs. The torso was just a tactical torso, with wires on the front and the force sword a simple power weapon from the assualt marines. The head, was from a Grey Knight that I saw on Ebay, score!

Now Librarians have psychic hoods, and I remember thinking many months ago that perhaps a shoulder pad cut up may work. Lo and behold, over on From The Warp, the legend that is Ron also used this very thing so I set about cutting bits up. Heres how he looked!

Not amazing but I'm pretty happy with him, little bit rough but I'm not that great as you may have well seen at converting but for tabletop use I'd be happy. I used some green stuff to make a rear tabbard like parchment, and created a small hill on the base for him to look a tad more imposing than a regular trooper. He looks a little more together undercoated.

 

As you can see, he doesn't look too bad at all. I then set about getting him painted! Like with my Master of the Forge and Techmarine, I use the typical uniform colour (this time being blue for a librarian) for prominence, and then added the red and purple in and around. Theres still some tidying up to do, especially looking at these pics! Overall though I'm pretty happy with the little guy. So please meet,

Shiori Kiyoshi. This is apparantly Japanese for 'bookmark pure', which is highly appropriate.

Evandalists Stormtalon: so far!

Complete and utter work in progress but the colour scheme is there, tidying up then highlighting and detailing. I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far, can't wait to get the pilot painted and canopy put on top. Still a fair way to go but I'm not rushing, shall take my time and hopefully have it done in the next 2 weeks.

In its first game it performed fairly well, hopefully it can continue or at least soak up a lot of fire and leave other elements of my army to do well. I'd love to see a squadron of these.... could happen!

Breaking in the Storm Talon!

So Mondays game was against the Blood Angels of Mike. I was up against Assault Termies in Stormraven, 5 assault troops with jump packs and accompanied by a captain and jump pack, 9 terminators, predator, devastators, a tactical squad, and two dreads. Myself, land raider with assault termies and chaplain, 2 tactical squads with rhino's, 2 scout sniper squads, dread, vindicator, predator, legion od the damned, and the brand new storm talon.

Capture and Control, and we placed our objectives in opposite corners of the battlefield. Land Raider, and tactical squad to try and capture the opponents, while the scouts, dread and vindicator held mine. Everything else, reserve! 

My vindicator advanced and managed to destroy the one dreadnoughts assault cannon, which meant I could target faster elements while he trundled towards me. The land raider and rhino advanced the full 12" to close the gap. I managed to knock a few devastators off but my Land Raider was then immobilised, meaning my termies would have to trek a wee bit. They managed to get into combat with the other dread, but when Mikes terminators got involved w had a long drawn out combat, eventually wiping my guys out. Mikes dread was left immobilised and only one of his terminators left. Not bad by my guys!

My predator arrives, and manages to immobilise Mikes Rhino, but my vindicator misses. Then Mikes assault guys deep strike down amongst my lines, yikes! During the next turn the vindicator wipes out the assault troops and the Legion of the Damned turn up and manage to wipe out the captain with a well placed meltagun shot. Phew!

Storm Raven arrives! Shoots over, immobilises my vindicator, and dumps down the assault terminators on my objective... nasty! They wipe out the first scout squad and look to threaten the second who still hold the objective, but the Damned marines are able to make it into combat and after 3 rounds of combat whittle down the termies until none are left. Phew!

On the other flank, my other tactical squad arrives and advances up to support the other tactical squad whose rhino had been blown up. They are able to assault Mikes tactical squad who hold the objective after the second TS whittle them down with rapid fire. The Storm Talon was able to kill one terminator, and used its supersonic move to contest the objective in case turn 5 was the last. In turn 6 it too poured fire into the tactical squad. The first tactical squad was then able to assault the remnants and take the second objective. Game won! Close mind, but the Storm Talon is fully bloodied. It may not have killed an awful lot, but its supersonic move could have potentially won me the game and its shooting then helped to wipe the Blood Angels out. Score!

Thoughts on the Stormtalon

So the fliers have officially been announced and the models showcased. Its hard to get a real grasp of the Stormtalon until a game has been played with one, which I do intend on doing. First things first though, aesthetics.

I'm unsure as to how much these fit on with the current range of Space Marine vehicles. Its influened by the Stormraven obviously, but theres just something lacking for me about why it doesn't quite work. The Stormraven is markedly different but does have design details in common with other vehicles, such as the assault ramp, and the overall aesthetic of it looking like a baby Thunderhawk. But this just looks a wee out of place. I'm hoping someone covers one in chevrons so it'll look like a bee.

 

The side view shows the underneath boosters, which I do like, and also shows off the tail better. Its funny though how the Ork fliers look more aerodynamic than the Space Marine flier. 

Rules wise its quite an interesting prospect. AV 11 all around, which makes it a little more durable than landspeeders, getting them shot at by boltguns and suffereing glances isn't fun. Points wise its 130 basic with TLAC and TLHB, which isn't too bad when you factor in the great speed it has at its disposal and its ability to escort a unit. The Skyhammer Missile Lancher also seems like a nice prospect, 60" range givesit the ability to fire on most points of a battlefield if it somehow isn't fast enough to get there to use the assault cannons. Money wise, at £27.50 I don't think thats too bad when its a similar size to a dreadnought and in game terms costs more too. I'll be getting one on release and hopefully get a game in soon after to share my thoughts. 

(images from Games Workshop)

Special Post for Geek Pride Day

Its Geek Pride Day didn't you know? And to show it, two of my geek-loves come together as Optimus Prime helps finish off a Dreadnought. He loves my red, blue and purple colour scheme.