Review: Death From The Skies

So my copy of Death From the Skies has arrived, and what follows are my thoughts. Theres been a fair bit of controversy around this by it being Direct Only, so lets see exactly how much it matters.

The first thing you notice that makes this different to the other releases in the 40k collection so far, is that its softback. Yes, the book bends! This matters little but it did catch me by surprise

Theres not an awful lot in here in relation to artwork, although it is nice to see this Helldrake illustration in a larger format than it is in the Chaos Codex. We already know this book is a compendium, so don't expect anything original.  The photography is pretty good too, some nice compositions and angles but again, I don't see much original.

So when the Stormtalon and Ork jets were released, there was an article in WD featuring a Necron, Ork and Space Marine campaign. Thats here again, although it feels a little larger and not having that WD to had is hard to compare. If you havent seen this already you'll enjoy the read however. What follows this are 4 new missions that take flyers into mind. Theres some nice ideas here including a couple of different deployment zones that I'll look forward to trying out. One mission, 'Scramble!', has the defender nominate 3 landing spaces or 3 skyshield landing pads where 3 flyers are given for no points cost, and these are grounded.You launch these flyers depending on the roll of a 6 or more, by adding the turn that you are on. The attacker gets D3 VP's bonus for each of these that are destroyed. Sounds like a great laugh, and reminds me of a battle report from a few years ago between a drop-podding Black Templars army and an Ork army that was set after the Armageddon campaign in WD.

So the missions are a great little addition. The rules for dogfighting are also included from Crusade of Fire, and should be a good laugh if you have a number of flyers to try them out. While there are no new flyers in here, it does mean that now my Space Marine chapter can take Stormravens.

This is a good feature, and having bought one several days ago I'm looking forward to putting it together and using it on the field. The only difference I can tell so far between the vanilla SM's and the BA's Stormravens is that the missiles vary a little. While both are ST8, the BA's are ap1. The Codex Marines are ap2, but are concussive. Minor difference, but it seems like a useful weapon. Stormtalons are now 10 points cheaper than they were originally, which is a good thing as they were'nt used that often, even though I love using them! The book also features the rules for the other flyers currently in the game, its just a pity they couldn't fit a new one or two into the book. 

Overall thoughts then.... Is the book worth £20? This all depends on how much of the material you already own. If you don't have the WD with the rules for the StormTalon and Ork jets in then you get the rules for these plus a story revolving around three armies and their flyers. If you already have these, you're paying £20 for slight changes that lets be honest, shouldn't cost that much. Why they couldn't put this update into a WD or on a PDF on the GW website I'm unsure, but it would have been a nice gesture to try and balance the feeling a lot of people have against Games Workshop. The GW online store has some bundles where you can buy multiples of flyers, but these offer no savings over buying them individually. Why not do these bundles and throw the book in for free? Come on GW, give the customer something back! 

Its a nice little book that will add to your games if you're an avid pilot in the skies of 40k, but you will feel its overpriced for what it gives you.

Blood Angels vs Space Marines BatRep 2000pts

So being a little late this week at club we pretty much got right into the game. I took a fairly different list this week. This is a rough list...

Captain on Bike, + 5 bikers and attack bike

Chaplain leading a tactical squad

2 other tactical squads, one in rhino

3 dreadnoughts, one in drop pod

2 dev squads, one all missile launchers and one all plasma cannons

storm talon with typhoon missile launcher

Mikes Blood Angels list is roughly...

Dante and 5 sanguinary guard

8 assault marines

10 death company in rhino

tactical squad

devastator squad, 2 plasma 2 lascannon

baal and autocannon predators

dreadnought

stormraven with 5 assault terminators

Mike won the roll off to deploy and go first, then I set up. I went for a static left flank and centre, and the right would advance aiming to take out the dakka pred. Otherwise we'd see what happened!

First turn, no first blood but a couple of models killed either way. I glanced the baal and DC rhino twice each but couldn't get the first blood, but if I could weather the second turn of incoming fire I could pick one of those off to get a vital bonus point!

Mikes storm raven comes in and adds fire against the bikes and devs but fails to really do anything. Mikes assault squad manages to make an 11" assault into my central tactical squad, and a combat erupts! In my turn, I'm able to destroy the Baal and the DC rhino. First Blood!

Also in my second turn, my bikers advance even further and fire all their melta weapons at the dakka predator, and promptly blow it up. Another victory point! 

Ouch! As you can see in the following pic, the assault termies come out of the Storm Raven and slam into my tacitcal squad... this won't last much longer! The Tactical squad makes it to my turn with just a sarge and chaplain left, but then they can hold on no longer. I start losing more too, with my dread dying in the centre of the field.

My storm talon comes on and shoots at the devs. I manage to kill 2, but they hold firm. As I mentioned the assault squad and termies butcher my chaplain and tactical squad and consolidate towards my left flank. My bikers advanced again however and melta spoke death to the dreadnought, melting it to slag. For their efforts however Dante is finally able to enter play and charges them with his sanguinary guard. My captain challanges Dante who accepts, and a very close fight erupts between the two Space Marines heroes! The bikers however are unable to hurt the sanguinary guard and all bikes are killed after two turns of combat.

 Last turn heroics needed! At this point neither of us knew the points, so we kept fighting and decided to count up after the battle ended. Mikes 3 assault troops leapt into my left most tactical squad, but overwatch took one out and then I killed another without a loss. The sarge retreated, and Mike was able to save himself a point as his last terminator charged in. In my previous turn I'd shot at his termies with a lot of firepower and killed four... So close! The termie however misses with all but on attack... then rolls a one to wound! I failed to penetrate his armour however until my dreadnought stomps in and deals the fatal blow. Termies killed! 

I'd manage to whittle down the death company slowly but there was a couple left, so a vp denied. Dante and my captain was a close fought fight however, and the game ended with them still fighting. Captain Torgeaz had 2 wounds left, whereas Dante had one. Turn 5 was the last however, and we counted up victory points.

Counting up the points I'd won 7-6, first blood proving crucial! We knew it was a close game as we were playing, but that was incredible, I really like not knowing until after the battle and it proved an entertaining affair. Heck of a game fair dues, Mikes getting to know his army fairly well.

Elswhere at club a game of Gorkamorka went on, but I have no idea what happened apart from hearing much laughter from the table... must have been a good time!

Khorne to the Curb

Battle report time! I was up against Chaos again this week, but in the form of Chris' Khorne Bezerkers. Last time we played it was fairly close, and fielding the new Helldrake this promised to be a difficult affair! I did however have a couple of new tricks up my sleeve..

In my last game against Louis, I borrowed a drop pod off Bam, and it worked ok considering the scatter was well off. So I decided to treat myself to one... along with a second Storm Talon! Chris had bantered that his Helldrake would 'bend the Storm Talon over' so when I showed Chris the two of them I mentioned he'd be having a threesome. His look was priceless! Just had to make sure my dice would do me justice... Yoinks!

2000 points, Crusade, and Dawn of War deployment.

Looking at Chris' force, the Daemon Prince and Helldrake scared me. Daemon Princes can be taken down by mass bolter fire, but I'd planned on using rhino's so would either have to disembark to take care of it and then be left open to attack or counter it with my termies and captain. The Helldrake I could take care of, however I knew even in one turn of it being alive its Baleflamer could do a lot of damage. The Bezerkers themselves were Chris' weakness as these were his only two troops choices, so taking these out would stop him from capturing objectives. Kharn was in one of these units, but I'd taken plasma cannons to take infantry and rhinos out. My dreadnought in drop pod would disrupt part of the enemy battle line, and rhino's wait for the right time to surge forward and capture objectives late in the game. 

This was deployment, and on the first turn my Land Raider was immobilised. This meant the termies had to come out and look to assault asap. My Rhino on the left flank was blown up and I lost three marines from the explosion, so they took position up on the left most objective. The Daemon Prince came down but I couldn't ground him to charge, so had to try and charge some bezerkers whose rhino I had managed to wreck. Failed! I then got charged by the DP and Khorne Bezerkers, pain! I managed to take out half the bezerkers and took two wounds off the DP but lost my captain and termies. 

The helldrake came on, and as predicted, its baleflamer did pain. Wiped out my devastators with plasma cannons, and also a tactical member from a nearby squad. Just over 200 points killed in one fell swoop! Luckily, my Storm Talons came on (surprisingly reliably) and the first shots with an assault cannon took it down, almost blowing a Khorne Rhino up. Payback! I couldn't have this surviving too long, it would slaughter my troops! 

Wrecking both of Chris' rhinos meant exposing his troops, and the unit with Kharn was heavily fired at. I managed to Kharn out with a couple of Krak missiles by a Storm Talon and whittle the squad down over two turns. The other Bezerkers moved back to hold the objective, and after Chris had wrecked my Rhino I advanced carefully firing as much as I could.  The Vindicator took out 7 of the 9 marines, but the two survivors held fast as I tried to blow the Vindicator up. Going into hovering mode, the Storm Talon unleashed its firepower and tore the vindicator apart.

The game ended 10-2, but going into turn 5 Chris lead 5-4, and it was a hugely close game. Chris' lack of troops meant destroying two units stopped him from capturing objecives, whereas I took three tactical squads and broke one up into combat squads, giving me 4 scoring units which was well worth doing. The predator didn't do a whole lot, managed a couple of hull points on one Rhino, and took a couple of Bezerkers down. What it did best though was attract enemy heavy firepower, surviving 4 shots from a demolisher cannon and numurous lascannon shots from an obliterator. 85pts well worth it! The Storm Talons worked a treat, although I'll rarely use both again in this sized battle. The Termies and Captain stopped the Daemon Prince from running rampage, who was promptly gunned down by a disembarked Tactical Squad. I love boltguns! 

Great game in all, close til the end and Chris is really starting to get the hang of his army. He does need to be a little mroe aggressive, but thats something that will come with experience. 

Now, a quick word about projects! In less than two weeks we have the all dayer, and I've got about 6k of Evandalists I want to field but some work to do first. I've got two chaplains to build/convert, the biker and a running one, I've just got my ratling sniper to convert into a Squat to use as Telion (will explain more when I cover this) plus a limited edition Boarding Captain that I swapped the Games Day BA Captain for. I've got an old school jump pack I may use for him and the chaplain, and it looks amazing on him, so we shall see!

Keep tuned for more details, not just on my stuff but also some of the club members who I'm bugging to send WIP piccies of their mini's.

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)