First Game of 6th Edition. Blood Angels vs Wolves and Guard

 

Hi guys it’s been a while but I thought I would share a short battle report of my first game of 6th edition.

It was my Blood Angels vs. Graham’s distinctly chaotic looking Space Wolves and Imperial Guard Alliance.

1500 point army lists were roughly-

Blood Angels

HQ

1 Epistolary  with jump pack (Biomancer)

1 Epistolary (Telepath)

Troops

10 man assault squad

10 man tac squad with HB razorback

10 man tac squad

Heavy Support

Storm Raven

Predator

Fortifications

Bastion with Icarus

………………………………………………………

Space Wolves

HQ

Logan Grimnar

Troops

5 Wolfguard Terminators in Drop pod

5 Grey Hunters (with plasma) in drop pod

Heavy

Long Fangs with Multi Meltas in drop pod

Allies (Imperial Guard)

HQ

Primaris Psyker (Telepath)

Elites

Psyker Battlesquad in Chimera

Troops

Imprial Guard Platoon with Auto Cannons

Fortifications

Aegis with Quad Gun

 

Mission was purge the alien on a Vanguard Strike, Terrain heavy board.

Commander Traits were rolled for Logan got Master of Manoeuvre (useless) and I got Master of the Vanguard (a little better)

Blood Angels won the roll off deploying the bastion in the centre of their deployment with good fields of fire, one Tactical Squad was split with one half in the bastion and the other on the battlements. predator was deployed next to the bastion with some ruins as cover and the razorback parked at the back of the bastion. The Assault squad and Librarian 1 were in reserve for deep strike and the Storm Raven with Tactical Squad 2 and the other librarian was in reserve.

Space Wolves Deployment saw the imperial guard turtling up behind the aegis defence line and some ruins with the Grey Hunters, The Chimera conveying the Psyker Battle Squad was surrounded on three sides by aegis lines the Primaris was also with the Guard. Three drop pods were in reserve, one with Logan and the Long Fangs, one with the Wolf Guard and one empty.

Turn One

Blood Angels

Not much happened The predator moves forward 1 inch and is promptly immobilized by a crater! The Tactical Squad missile launcher, Predator and the bastions Icarus fire at the Hull Down Chimera with no results.

Space Wolves

Two Drop Pods arrive within inches of the bastion one with Logan and the Long Fangs which immediately put the floundering Predator out of its misery (First Blood to the Wolves, 2 Victory Points) and start pouring fire into the bastion to no avail. The wolf guard advance from their drop pod  towards the bastion. the Psyker Battle Squad cast Weaken Resolve on the Tactical Squad on the battlements which reduced their leadership to 2! Auto cannon fire from the Guard lines tear into the battlements but only succeed in downing one marine, no leadership roll needed!

End of Turn One: BA 0:2 SW

Turn Two

Blood Angels

Storm Raven Turns up on the Imperial Guard Platoons flank dodging AA fire from the Quad Gun, fires two blood strikes at the chimera stunning it and pours some fire into the Guard lines downing several. The Assault Squad Deep strikes in more or less the same location. and starts firing at the Guard Command Squad (not realising that on the level below, there is a plasma equipped Grey Hunters Squad!) The units at the bastion start a spirited defence taking down one long fang and the drop pod that delivered them (1 Victory Point)

Space Wolves

Third Drop pod Doesn’t turn up. The Wolf Guard Turn back toward the guard lines, Logan and the Long Fangs split their fire between the bastion and the Razorback, knocking out the APC’s Heavy Bolter and causing a catastrophic breach in the Bastion. The Psyker Battle Squad gets out of it’s stunned transport and again casts its nasty Weaken Resolve spell on the Assault Squad. the whole of the Guard lines and the (sneaky hiding) Grey Hunters open fire on the terrified Assault squad downing only three (and losing two Grey Hunters to gets hot!) but its enough to get them scurrying back towards their home lines)

End of Turn Two BA 1:2 SW

Turn Three

Blood Angels

The Assault Squad Rallies and heads back towards the main Guard Lines pouring fire over the aegis defences and then charging into a maelstrom of fire. The Librarian immediately hacks down the Primaris Psyker (1 Victory Point) and the rest of the squad start dismantling the quad gun and the guard around it, surprisingly the guard make a good stand and the combat is a draw. The Raven switches to hover and disgorges its Tactical Squad who set about the remains on the Guard Command Squad annihilating them (1 Victory Point) and the raven minces the Grey Hunters (1 Victory Point) at the bastion, one more Long Fang is downed and the Razorback runs for its life.

Space Wolves

The third Drop Pod Arrives giving the Wolf Guard some cover as they run back towards the under siege Guard. Logan and Long Fangs (sounds like a band name doesn’t it) finally annihilate the bastion, the survivors try to get as far away from the great wolf as possible. The Psyker Battle Squad again attempts some nasty stuff but the Blood Angels Epistolary in the Assault Squad Denies the Witch! The on-going assault sees another draw with minimal casualties on each side although the Quad Gun is destroyed.

End of Turn Three BA 3:2 SW

Turn Four 

Blood Angels

The Storm Raven Takes to the Skies and tears into the Wolf Guard downing two of them. The Assault Squad decimates the remains of the Imperial Guard, drive the survivors off the Board (2 Victory Points) and consolidates towards the Chimera. The tactical Squad turns towards the advancing Wolf Guard but their fire has little effect. The survivors from the Bastion try to escape the advancing Logan.

Space Wolves

The Wolf Guard continue to advance towards the Tactical Squad in their own deployment zone but are just out of viable charge range. Logan and the Long Fangs advance around the ruins of the bastion and gun down the survivors. (2 Victory Points) The Chimera carrying the Psyker Battle Squad drives up over its own defences to escape the advancing Assault Squad.

End of Turn Four BA 5:4 SW

Turn Five

Blood Angels

The Tactical Squad open fire with everything including the Librarians Psychic Shriek to destroy the three remaining Wolf Guard (1 Victory Point). The Combined Fire of the Assault Squad and now hovering Storm Raven Finally pop the Chimera (1 Victory Point) exposing the Battle Psykers to a nasty turn six if the game continues.

Space Wolves

Logan and the Long Fangs split their fire between the Storm Raven and the remaining Razorback, they manage to immobilize the Razorback. The Psyker Battle Squad fail their Psychic test and are left in the open between the Strom Raven and the Assault Squad.

End of Turn Five BA 7:4 SW

The Game Continues…

Turn Six

Blood Angels

The Tactical Squad destroy one of the Drop Pods (1 Victory Point). The Storm Raven Remains in a hover, pops the final drop pod (1 Victory Point) and then Scythes down the Psyker Battle Squad with it’s Assault Cannon and Hurricane Bolters(1 Victory Point). The Razorback pops smoke.

Space Wolves

With just Logan and the Long Fangs remaining they again split their fire between the Storm Raven and the Razorback, although unable to  draw a bead on the Razorback in the smoke they finally manage to bring the Storm Raven crashing to the ground (1 Victory Point).

End of Turn Six and End of Game

Blood Angels 10:5 Space Wolves

So based on this I am loving 6th Ed (winning always helps!) Star of the Show was the Storm Raven and I could seriously be tempted to run two of them although the possibility of allies gives me too many options to think about at the moment (ooh a Blood Angels Carcharodons force could really upset someone’s day!)

 

Ben

Just a Quickie

I must stop forgetting to roll for Red Thirst!

 

 

That is All

The Codex Astartes is a Lie!

 

After the terrible events of the Horus Heresy it was Robute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines that would have the longest lasting effect on the remaining loyalist Astartes Legions. In his legendary tome the Codex Astartes, he covered all aspects of Astartes warfare. From squad organisation, heraldry and unit markings, tactics and deployment. However the greatest effect he would have was his decision to see the once proud Legions decimated into Chapters of no more than 1000 marines.

Ten thousand years later the majority of the estimated thousand remaining Astartes Chapters claim to adhere to the Codex. Some like the Space Wolves, Black Templars, Dark Angels etc do have minor deviances from the Codex but very few stray very far from the 1000 Battle Brothers commandment.

However this figure of 1000 Battle Brothers is a grossly misleading figure and the number of fully trained Astartes a Chapter could bring to bear could be much much greater.

As an example we will look at the Blood Angles Chapter.

After the fateful events at the end of the Horus Heresy that saw the Blood Angels decimated and leaderless, the Sons of Baal were believed to be one of the first Legions to adopt the directives of the Codex, seeing it as a way to return stability to the now fractured Legion.

Today the Blood Angels are for all intents and purposes a Codex chapter, they have ten companies, each with one hundred Marines organised into the correct number of Tactical, Assault and Devastator Squads. It must be noted that the Blood Angels do have several extra and ad-hoc units such as the Sanguinary Guard and the mythical Death Company, this is not a particularly relevant fact and the reader will soon see that the finding in this text can be applied to any Chapter.

Anyone with access to Codex Blood Angels will note in the Chapter Ordering of the Host that we have a full Order of Battle for the Blood Angels Chapter. It is on this page we see the unravelling of the Codex Astartes.

These hidden Marines can be found in those non Company organisations within the Blood Angles Chapter these will be broken down by element.

1) The Armoury

36 Techmarines, these are ALL fully trained battle brothers.

144 Vehicles including Stormraven Gunships, All of these vehicles need multiple crew to operate and even with a conservative number of one Marine per vehicle we already have an extra 144.

2) The Librarius

31 Librarian Marines. This alone is a staggering figure

3) Fleet Command

64 Space going vessels including Battle Barges as big if not bigger than the larges Ships of the Imperial Fleet. Again with a conservative estimate of three marines per ship we gain another 192 Battle Brothers

4) Reclusiam

14 Chaplains

5) Sanguinary Priesthood*

22 Sanguinary Priests

*This is a unique organisation to the Blood Angels however in a codex chapter it would be substituted with an apothacarion either as a separate logistical organisation like the Priesthood or integrated into each company at command level.

 

By just looking at the logistical part of the Chapter we have found an extra fully trained, equipped and deadly 467 Battle Brothers. Not only that but this figure includes specialist formations including trained psykers and veterans. Also this does not include any crew of transportation vehicles assigned to the battle companies themselves. This figure could easily put the number past five hundred.

In conclusion the actual force a Space Marine Chapter can deploy could be upward of 50% of the Codex standard. This could possibly explain the extreme reluctance the Inquisition has in declaring even heavily deviant Chapters Excommunicate Traitoris. As seen with the Astral Claws during the Badab war, a Space Marine Chapter with its back to the wall is a terrible thing to behold.

Blood Angels vs Tyranids 750 points.

Popped down to Gloucester GW yesterday and had a quick game of 40k with a nice chap (can’t remember his name sorry but I’m rubbish with names) I brought 750 points of Blood Angels. The army list I was intending on using for the Cities of Death League next month. He managed to come up with a 750 point Tyranid army from a huge army he had just completed.

The lists were roughly:

Blood Angels

HQ – Librarian with Jump Pack.

Elite – Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack, Hand Flamer, Power Weapon

Troops – Tactical Squad (10) Flamer, Missile Launcher

Assault Squad (5) Melta Gun, Sgt with Powerfist, Plasma Pistol

Assault Squad (5) Flamer, Sgt with Plasma Pistol

Scout Squad (5) Heavy Bolter

Tyranids

HQ – Hive Tyrant, (death spitter, lash whip I think) with 3 Tyrant Guard (boneswords)

Troops – Tyranid Warriors (3) not sure on weapons, no ranged though

Termigaunts (30) flesh borers

We set the table up for a Cities of Death game but decided to just play a standard mission.

We rolled Dawn of War and Annihilation.

Things went badly from the start for me. Tyranids deployed first and dominated the centre of the table, Tyrant and Guard on my right, Gaunts in the centre and the Warriors on my left. I decided to deploy my Tactical Squad in the centre at the back and infiltrated my scouts to his rear table edge keeping my Assault units and characters in reserve.

Turn 1.

Tyranids – Warriors and Gaunts turn to confront the Scouts, both units run and end up aprox 8 inches away, no shooting, no assault. The Tyrant and Guard advance towards the Tactical Squad and take two down with some precise shooting from the Tyrants Death Spitter.

Blood Angels - The scouts are doomed but they decide to engage the Warriors at ranged combat doing 0 wounds. (10 dice all crap!). The Tactical squad (also doomed) make a stupid move sort of away from the Tyrant, rapid fire and would one Guard.

Turn 2.

Tyranids – Gaunts and Warriors advance on scouts, the Gaunts take down two with shooting and the Warriors munch through the rest in the assault phase although the scouts do take one of the down and wound another. The Tyrant and Guard advance and chomp down the remains of the Tactical squad in the assault phase. I have no units left on the table (there was some debate as to if this was the end of the game but as I still had units in reserve the game was still on).

Blood Angels – Ok so I can’t really win but I will see what I can kill. I make my rolls for reserves, no units arrive this turn (honestly I rolled so many ones it was unbelievable)

Turn 3 -

Tyranids – All units move back towards the centre of the table.

Blood Angels – I roll again for the decent of angels,The unit with my Librarian turns up and I deploy it to the rear of the enemy behind the Gaunts and the Warriors, (far too close as it turns out) I get zero out of the shooting phase and can not assault. The second unit deploys but scatters into the swarm of Gaunts, rolls a 6 on this mishap table and goes back into reserve!

Turn 4 -

Tyranids – The Warriors and the Gaunts munch through the Librarian and his unit with no problems.

Blood Angels – The Sanguinary Priest seeing the demise of the Librarian and his squad decide to deploy some distance away from the enemy and in cover. using a run move to spread out.

Turn 5 -

Tyranids – All units move towards the last remaining Assault squad, the Tyrant and retinue smashing their way through the central ruin.

Blood Angels – Jumping out from cover the Marines do a suicide attack on the whole Tyranid army. Downing over half of the Gaunts in a torrent of Flamer, Bolter and Chainsword madness. The Gaunts however do not run due to the sigh of their Tyrant looming over the shoulders of the Space Marines.

We rolled for random game length and the game continued.

Turn 6 -

Tyranids – Well the Tyrant moved in and between it and the Gaunts the Marines got chomped.

Final Result:

Blood Angels 0 - 6 Tyranids

Aftermath – after shaking hands with my opponent I went through the list of things I did wrong.

1) Deployed my starting units in stupid places. The scouts were dead the moment I placed them on the table, the tactical squad wasn’t much better either.

2) Didn’t roll for Red Thirst (I keep forgetting this)

3) Deployed my first Assault Squad too close to the enemy. Again I have made this mistake a couple of times.

4) Didn’t use a single Psychic power. This is the first time I used a Librarian and need to be confident about the rules.

5) Underestimated the effect of a large unit.

Well you live and you learn. I will be tweaking my army list for the start of the league as I didn’t really have anything that can take down big monsters and I will focus on using my units far more effectively next time.

Cities of Death Campaign pt 2

A quick update on the upcoming Cities of Death campaign at my local GW. The point value has been upped from 500 to 750. We also have to bring along a piece of Cityfight Terrain.

This give me a great opportunity to finally buy some terrain. The piece I have decided on first? Why the Manufactorum of course. The Shrine of the Aquila came a close second (and may be an additional purchase soon)

I have also tweaked my Army list:

HQ

Librarian with Jump Pack 125

Elites

Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack, Melta Bombs, Hand Flamer and Power Weapon 95

Troops

Assault Squad. Sgt with Powerfist, Plasma Pistol & Melta Bombs + Meltagun 155

Assault Squad. Sgt with Plasma Pistol & Melta Bombs + Flamer 125

Heavy Support

Stormraven Gunship with TL Multi Melta, TL Assault Cannons, Hurricane Bolters & Extra Armour. 245

I’m hoping it all acts as a hard hitting elite assault force.

Birthday stuff

 

Well it was my Birthday this weekend and it brought with it a whole host of Wargaming goodies:

1) A Stormraven Gunship from my Bro, well looking forward to building painting then weeping as it gets destroyed in the first round of every game it plays.

2) R.U.S.E. This I bought with some extra money I had. It’s a great idea for an RTS and I like the overall command table aesthetic the main game has.

3) Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team. Oh yeah! For when you absolutely need to kill every Ork on the Kroozer.

4) Battlefield 1943, Nice to get a classic.

5) Cities of Death Book.

6) Some Imperial Guard and some grey paints. I’m going to try me some urban camouflage on them maybe this could be the start of an Imperial Guard army who knows.

7)… and I will be placing orders this week for some Warhammer 40k Terrain a Librarian and a pre-order for Space Marine.

 

was a good year.

Cities of Death Campaign

 

I popped into my local Games Workshop today to kill some time and ended up chatting to the new manager. Turns out he is a pretty cool guy and not as pushy on the sales front as other managers I have encountered in recent years. Anyway in September they are running a Cities of Death Campaign and I think I’m going to have a crack at it.

It’s all pretty standard fayre. You start off with 500 points and you get and extra 250 to add each week. Other requirements are the Cities of Death book (obviously) and one CoD terrain piece.

So first off here’s my army list:

HQ

Librarian 100

Troops

Assault Squad 100

1 Sgt Plasma Pistol, Powerfist +45

5 Marines, Bolt Pistol & Close Combat Weapon (2 marines + 36)

1 Marine, Meltagun +10

191

Assault Squad 100

Sgt Thunderhammer +30

3 Marines Bolt Pistol & Close Combat Weapon

1 Marine Inferno Pistol & Close Combat Weapon +15

Trade Jpacks for Razorback with TL Lascannon, Search Light and Dozer Blade +61

200

497

 

Obviously you are very limited at 500 points with any Marine force but I think this is a well rounded Blood Angels force and can be easily built upon.

Whatdya guys think?

 

Ben

Scibor’s Archangel, a decent Sanguinius model?

 

Spotted this on Table Top Fix’s feed. A fantastic looking Archangel in armour from the crafty folk at Scibor. Take at look at this:

 

Might have to pick this up in the future.

New Blood Angels 1500 point list.

 

This is my current goto 1500 point force, easily tailored for a specific opponent. More Fluffy than Netlist but fun to play.

HQ

Dante 225

Elite

Furioso, Dreadnought, Heavy Armour 140

Sanguinary Priest, Hand Flamer, Melta-bombs, Jump Pack 90

Troop

Sanguinary Guard, Chapter Banner, Death Masks, Inferno Pistol. 265

10Tactical Squad, Flamer, Missile Launcher (Melta Bombs) + Rhino, HK Missile 175 + 60

5 Death Company, 2x Power weapon, Inferno pistol + Razorback, TL Lascannon, Storm Bolter 195+100

10Assault Squad, (Power fist, Plasma Pistol, Melta Bombs), Flamer, Meltagun. 250

= 1500 points

Blood Angels Dreadnought Weapon Options

 

When most people think of Dreadnoughts in a Blood Angels army they of course think of the Furioso and it’s two variants (The Librarian and the Death Company) However I still think there is a place for the regular Dreadnought in a BA army list and purchased a Venerable kit some time ago just for this purpose (I much prefer the venerable model to the standard)

But what weapon options should I take?

The Twin-Linked Las-Cannons are a good option for long ranged anti-armour work but is sitting my Dreadnought at the back  un-Blood Angelsy™?

Assault Cannon, Now there’s a weapon, great at most jobs and can even crack heavy armour if the dice smile on you. very Blood Angelsy™.

Plasma Cannon, hmm not sure on this one. A little too random maybe? Could be good vs other power armoured units or am I better off with the Las-Cannons?

In the long run I hope to do a Rifleman conversion on this (or possible another AoBR) Dreadnought as I just love the look of those arms, gives the Dreadnought a great Battletech look.

Ben

Blood Angels Update.

Here are some new shots of my Blood Angels.

 

My Razorback:

This was originally Black to go with my Death Company but it just didn’t gel with the rest of my force so I decided to redden it up.

Next A Rhino:

I never go anywhere without my trusty Hunter Killer Missile quite a few kills it has now!

 

And finally my Furioso Dreadnought:

A nice simple conversion of the AoBR Dreadnought with some Forgeworld Dreadnought arms I got on eBay.

Introducing Captain Florian, Blood Angels Third Company

Just a quick introduction to my current army Commander, (the late) Captain Florian, third company commander at the start of the second War for Armageddon. Remember the fluff about Tycho replacing third companies commander? Well this is him.

Another Blood Angels (and other stuff) Update

Well I spent last night putting together my Sanguinary Guard, I have gone with my original plan of building the unit with the Chapter banner and one Inferno pistol and am just waiting for the delivery of a couple of paints (Gryphone Sepia and Burnished Gold) before I paint them.

I have also ordered a Venerable Dreadnought, after watching this BeastsOfWar vid and seeing what was in the kit. It looks immense and I just can't wait to build it. At some point in the future it will be kitted out as a Rifleman Dreadnought using the Forgeworld Mortis arms but that is a project for the future.

I have also started highlighting the rest of my Blood Angels, a technique that until now I believed beyond my abilities. So far I have done my Tactical and Terminator squads, my Rhino and Black Reach Dreadnought and am pretty happy with the results.

Now ever since my first eary encounters with the 40k universe in the late 80's and early 90's I have been a true Blood Angel fan, no other Chapter of Marines has lured me from the path of Sanguinius, that is until now...

I am proud to announce that my next 40k project will be to build a small (800-1000 point) army of Carcharodons. In reality this choice is down to one model, Forgeworlds fantastic Tyberos the Red Wake:

This is one of the best 40k models I have ever seen. I just love the blend of Mk V Heresy armour and Terminator Armour, it just screams out bad ass and those weapons look vicious! This model is begging for me to buy and paint and is my next 40k purchase. So over the last few days I hoovered up all the info I could get on The Carcharodons chapter on the web and finally managed to take a look at the Badab War books (it will be a while before I can afford a copy mind). Their background is wonderfully mysterious and they have fought alongside the Blood Angels during the 7th Black Crusade making them a nice ally for my existing army. Yes sir they should be a great project for me to try out some more advanced painting and modelling techniques on. Roll on my next pay day.

I leave you with a wonderful quote from the equally wonderful second Badab War book:

Extract from: Addendum: [Archivists Note] - The Nature of the Carcharodons Enigma.

"A Space Marine fundamentally is a superhuman engine built, bred and trained for war; an Angel of Death - a monster by any other name. In the case of the Carcharodons, it is well that such monsters belong to the Imperium rather than are counted in the ranks of its enemies"

Sanguinary Guard

Well after my defeat at the hand of Robs Iron Hands last week I decided to to take the plunge and buy some Sanguinary Guard for my Blood Angels. Not that the defeat had anything to do with the purchase (I doubt they would have been much help anyway) It was always a unit I planned on purchasing and last Thursday in GW Cheltenham seemed like a good opportunity.

Upon opening the box I was again struck by the current quality of GW's plastic kits. The models are fantastic with some beautiful detailing and some great building options. It almost seems a shame to let my sub par painting techniques anywhere near them (not that this will stop me).

Codex wise I think I will be building them as follows:

Saguinary Guard. [200]

Death Masks. [25]

Chapter Banner [30]

1 x Infernus Pistol. [10]

All that for a total of 265 points. I know it's a lot but hey I'm building a theme army and that's what I want :P

Blood Angels vs Iron Hands report

well instead of giving a finely detailed report on the ins and outs of the battle I will give a nice concise report

I got my arse well and truly whooped!

I made a few significant errors during the game which lead to my army being destroyed by what I still think is an inferior force.

Error 1)

I got entirely fixated by a Land Raider Redeemer, throwing unit after unit against it when if I had kept my distance it would have posed very little threat.

Error 2)

Not understanding the rules made me ignorant of how dangerous flamestorm cannons are to even power armoured infantry. I also underestimated how hard it was to crack the armour of a Land Raider or Ironclad Dreadnought. wasting precious troops in assaults they had no chance of winning.

Error 3)

Well to be honest there isn't an error 3 as the first two mistakes lost me the game. If I had concentrated on getting troops on objectives instead of charging down the barrel of a flamestorm cannon it would have been a more even fight. I also think that some more anti armour units would be a good idea as I had real trouble with the aforementioned Land Raider and an Ironclad Dreadnought, I have already got a bike squadron on its way from ebay (it's going to need some TLC though judging by the pictures), fitting them out with melta guns is the way I'm going with them maybe add an attack bike at a later date.

As a whole it was an enjoyable battle and I will take away a number of hard learnt lessons from it but hey you can't win them all right?

BA vs IH

Tomorrow will be the first battle for my full 1500 point Blood Angel force. My opponent will be Rob and his Iron Hands and I'm really looking forward to it. It's been a good few years since I've played in a decent size game of 40k and I can't wait to see if my Blood Angels perform as well on the tabletop as they do in my head.

I hope to make some notes during the game, maybe take some pictures too so I can write a nice battle report.

2011 so far

Well so far this year I have been without internet at home for six weeks, the reasons are multiple but mainly due to the incomptent company known as Talk Talk. Needless to say when normal service is resumed, my ISP will no longer be Talk Talk it will be BT (best to deal with the organ grinder as they say, or the owners of the infrastructure in this case).

My Blood Angels are growing at a steady pace with 1500points of the little blighters ready for battle, financial issues are preventing from picking up the new Storm Raven :(

The Traveller game I am running is into it's third week and the players seem to be having fun. I think people like the feel of the system compared to the more structured system of D&D (or maybe its the haphazzard half arsed way I run RPG's, who knows!) either way its going well.

Due to the afore mentioned financial problems I have, I havn't bought any new games in a couple of months, rather I have revisited some older titles I nver really gave the attention they deserved. The three games I have mainly been playing are Madden 10 on the 360 (inspired no doubt by the Super Bowl the other week), Command and Conquer 3 on the 360 (mainy skirmishing) and Wipeout Pulse on the PSP.

As a further note my older brother has recently moved in with us for a while bringing with him a love of old PS1 games. He spends the nights playing C&C Retalliation, GT2 and Panzer Generals. Our family has taste (except my mother when it comes to hats!)

Anyway I hope to be fully back on line in a fortnight with more info on the Blood Angels (and news of a new job I hope)

- Ben

Santas Sack

Well Christmas has been and gone and despite earlier belief that I was getting some Warhammer 40k goodies I got... none.

Thats right not even a single Space Marine! However I did get some other awesome stuff and a bit of spending money (which has been promptly spent on a Razorback and a squad of Death Company!)

This with a little bit of shake-up of my current Blood Angels army list gives me just under 1400 points of red painted, power armoured lunatics to throw around a gaming table. What makes the purchases even better is that all the fantastic extra parts I won't be using in the Death Company box (and some left overs from my Space Marine Battleforce) also allows me to create my own custom Sternguard Veteran squad and another 5 Assault Marines, these two squads need a few other extras but I should be able to get these by spending less than another £15. At the moment budget constraints are preventing me from throwing any more cash at the army until the end of February, by then I should have a few more battles under my belt just in time for the predicted launch of the Storm Raven and a new Furioso Dreadnought.

I hope everyone else had a good Christmas and is ready to tear up 2011 with some 40k Carnage!

Land Speeder Squadron or Attack Bike Squadron?

So as I was looking through the Blood Angels Codex at various options for future purchases my eyes settled on the Fast Attack section of the Army list. Now with options like a Vanguard Veteran Squad and the Baal Predator you would think there would be no contest in what options to pick but my eyes were drawn to the Land Speeders and Attack Bikes. Now I should first make it clear that when assembling an army I think about four things in this order:

1) Cost, how much of a hole is it going to leave in my wallet?

2) Does my force look like a real detachment, i.e. is it 'realistic in context'?

3) Does it look cool?

4) How much whoopass is it going to dish out?

Now cost wise an Attack Bike is

£15ish and a Land Speeder £18ish so the Attack Bike at first

looks like a winner, however you seem

to get a lot of cool accessories with the Land Speeder and more options (more on this later)

As far as in being realistic in context, either of them could fit in with my army theme. Maybe the Land Speeder is a little more Blood Angelesque (tm).

Looks wise I used to hate the current Land Speeder model however over the years it has grown on me. The Attack Bike still looks as cool as it always did.

Now onto the Whoopass factor, the Land Speeder has a couple of advantages over its land bound cousin. it is a skimmer, it can deep strike and it has more weapon options if an upgrade can be afforded. The Attack Bikes main attraction here is it is cheap.

After all this I can not make up my mind, I seem to be leaning toward the Land Speeder but it would be far to easy to load them up with extra weapons and spend more points on them than I want.

Any Ideas?

Blood Angels 1100 point force.

Ok so it's not the 1500 point list I promised but I keep changing my mind with that hypothetical list. Instead what I am posting is the force I would use tomorrow if I had a game. Bearing in mind my collection is still small It is basically all the models I currently have.

HQ

Captain, with Power Weapon and Inferno Pistol.

Elite

5 Marine Terminator Squad with Cyclone Missile Launcher.

Troop

10 Marine Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher and Flamer.

+ Rhino Dedicated Transport with Hunter Killer Missile and Extra Armour.

5 Marine Scout Squad with Heavy Bolter, Melta Bombs and Locator Beacon.

5 Marine Assault Squad with Powerfist and two Plasma Pistols.

Heavy Support

Dreadnought with Multi-Melta and Heavy Armour.

5 Marine Devastator Squad with one Missile Launcher.

Ok so all pretty standard early Space Marine army fayre apart from the underpowered Devastator squad. My reason for including this is that another 5 marines with a missile launcher is a useful little squad to have, Much more useful than a bolter armed Combat Squad in my opinion. I'm happy to trade the ability to capture objectives for a Missile Launcher + Re-roll. It can also be added to as and when.

So what do folk think? It's unlikely to see action this side of the new year by which time there should hopefully be some mechanised reinforcements provided by Santa.