Just a Quickie

I must stop forgetting to roll for Red Thirst!

 

 

That is All

£15 Wayland Givaway Comp @40kn00b

 

Want a chance to win £15 of goodies from Wayland Games? Hell Yeah! I hear you say.

 

Well head on over to 40n00b’s site. In celebration of  getting over 150 followers he is offering the chance to win the aforementioned sum to spend on whatever your heart desires (as long as it costs less than fifteen quid and Wayland sell it that is!)

 

Hell I would love £15!

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.

Not the most thought out of comments!

 

I just read the review of Space Marine for PC over at PC gamer and noticed the following in the comments section:

“I feel the same way, the whole of the demo seems to have that "rinse and repeat" element about it. Deffo not on my purchace list. I had really high hopes for this game having played 40K since Rogue Trader days but it's just meele spam at the end of the day :(“

 

Melee spam? If you ask me that would fit in with later versions of 40k perfectly!

lol

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.

Cites of Death Campaign pt 3

 

Well I have built my Manufactorum and I am quite pleased with the result. If I get a chance I will be adding some detritus to the base before the campaign starts but this also depends on available funds.

 

Should look quite good when it’s painted up, need to get more Bolt Gun Metal though unless I get all unorthodox and try something weird with Tin Bitz.

Disaster!

Argh! I've run out of Boltgun Metal. How will I survive?

Codex Cityfight

On a trip into town today I managed to pick up a copy of the old Codex Cityfight at an Oxfam bookstore. Neat find for just a couple of quid eh?

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.

Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought

Spotted this little fella at the GW site today:

That there is a Contemptor-Mortis pattern Dreadnought with Kheres pattern Assault Cannons, Cyclone Missile Launcher and a Helical Targeting Array. First seen (and sold I believe) at Games Day Germany and the latest Dreadnought to come out of Forgeworld.

Looks like a mini Titan to me and gets a 9.3 on my cool as F**K! scale

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

Assault on Black Reach Scenario 2

 

Scenario 2 v1.0

Sacred Brother Quintus.

Tactical Squad Thestus of 5th Company were not the only members of the initial assault to run into difficulties during landing. Brother Quitus entombed in one of 2rd companies Dreadnoughts had also been blown off course by the winds in the upper atmosphere and had found himself in the middle of a large flooded delta to the east of the main landing zone. Although he was able move clear of the drop pod he soon found himself stranded and immobile in the muddy terrain of the delta. Squad Autronius of 1st Company was teleported into the vicinity with orders to rendezvous with Quintus and await extraction by Thunderhawk.

 

Space MarineForces

AoBR Terminator Squad

AoBR Dreadnought.

Ork Forces

10 AoBR Ork Boyz, 9 with Sluggas & Choppas1 with a Rokit Launcha.

10 AoBR Ork Boyz, 9 with Sluggas & Choppas 1 with a Rokit Launcha.

(Use the Big Shoota Models as a “proxy” for the Rokit Launchas)

3 AoBR Deffkoptas with TL Rokit Launchas

Table & Terrain

At least a 3’ by3’ table if possible with a light scattering of terrain.Areas of Woods and Impassable terrain would be best for the scenario. One player can deploy the terrain the other picks their table edge.

The whole table is classed as difficult terrain

Deployment

The Space Marine Dreadnought starts the game Immobilized in the very centre of the board (facing the Ork players side). The Terminators enter the board from the Space Marine players side at the beginning of turn one.

The Orks start the game within 6 inches of their table edge, The Deffkoptas start the game in Reserve

Objectives.

The Space Marine Player wins if brother Quitus Survives to the end of the game. The Ork player wins if he kills Brother Quitus. The game lasts for a random number of turns as explained in the main rule book.

 

Look out for more scenarios soon.

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.

Assault On Black Reach Scenarios.

When I purchased AoBR and got back into the hobby, despite being amazed at the amount and quality of the models you got in the boxed set, I was a little disappointed that there were no scenarios in the set to get me started. I have very fond memories of playing through the Armageddon scenarios in the 2nd edition boxed set in my bedroom many years ago and wished I could do something similar with the new set. So I have decided to have a go at writing some scenarios for those gamers who are new to Warhammer 40k and would like to get a few different games going using just the contents of the AoBR box. To play these all you should need are the contents of your AoBR box, a table and some terrain.

If you have a go at these scenarios let me know how they go,

In some of the scenarios, some units weapons will be different from what is on the model, this is known as a proxy and will be kept to a minimum to avoid confusion.

These scenarios are intended for those who want to get a little more from their boxed game before needing to splash out on more models.

Scenario 1 v1.0

A Rough Landing.

During the Ultramarines initial landing during the assault. Two drop pods carrying Tactical Squad Thestus were blown off course from their assigned LZ. They found themselves some kilometres away from their assigned position and had to quickly cover the distance to take their place in the initial landing perimeter defence. However their decent had not gone un-noticed and a small group of Orks had seen the drop pods fall.

Space Marine Forces

AoBR Tactical Squad split into two 5 Marine units of the Space Marine players choice.

Ork Forces

10 AoBR Ork Boyz, 9 with Sluggas & Choppas1 with a Big Shoota.

10 AoBR Ork Boyz, 9 with Sluggas & Choppas 1 with a Big Shoota.

Table & Terrain

At least a 3’ by3’ table if possible with a good scattering of terrain. the standard 25% of surface area covered by different terrain is a good way to get started. One player can deploy the terrain the other picks their table edge. Roll off to see who goes first.

Deployment

The two space marine units start the game within 6” (or 3” if your table is small) of their players table edge and at least 12” way from the other Space Marine Unit. The Ork player can deploy one of his units within his half of the table at least 18” away from a space marine unit. The other must be held in reserve.

Objectives.

The Space Marine Player wins if at least one of his models exits the table on the Ork players side or kills all Orks. The Ork player wins if he kills all the Space Marines. Any other result is a draw. The game lasts for a random number of turns as explained in the main rule book. The games lasts for a random number of turns.

Look out for more scenarios soon.

We Live in Interesting Times

 

Well the community is still getting to grips with the latest examples of Games Workshops PR ( i.e GW shooting itself in the foot). Mantic have announced (through Beasts of Wars Turn 8 Program) that they are indeed entering into the Sci-Fi large scale battle market with a new game this year called Warpath. All that we know at the moment is that it is due out after the summer and it’s rules are based in part on the Kings of War ruleset. This is definitely one to watch.

So what does this mean to me as a gamer? Well at the moment not much, 40k has always be an expensive luxury to me and other games systems from other companies have never really interested me that much… until now. This week I received through the post a copy of Flames of War Open Fire and I am busy reading through the rulebook at the moment. I am very impressed and can not wait to build up a company or two and get some games going. I am also looking forward to catalyst games new project Leviathan. I will be getting that when it comes out (already have the beta rules, just waiting to get a new printer cartridge to print them out and give it a go). As well as Leviathan I am also looking at getting the anniversary edition of Battletech. Always had a soft spot for Battletech and the new boxed set is just glorious. I am also looking at buying a copy (if I can find one) of Mantic’s Dwarf Kings Hold. An excellent looking Dungeon Crawler I think my Fiancé would like.

 

Could something like this re-direct my GW budget? Hell Yeah!

Simply put, just at the moment that GW have disappointed me, there are a whole load of other games that I want to spend my hard earned cash on. That Storm Raven is going to have to wait, I have Tigers, Leviathans, Dungeons and Mechs to buy!

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.