Stromraven coming to a chapter near you soon

Although a little late for the storm raven unveiling, I quite like the model. I think it looks quite fitting with the rest of the space marine vehicle range. Certainly the 360 view on the GW site looks fantastic.
The only downside is that I can't use one with my Black Templars, or can I?
According to a rumour that I heard, White Dwarf will be publishing rules for using the Stormraven within other space marine chapters. Given GWs number 1 selling army are marines of various colours and flavours, this move makes perfect sense on their part.
Here's hoping that I can add some Stormravens to my templars at some point.

Tale of (TBC) Gamers

From November 2009 till February 2010 I took part in a ‘Tale of four gamers’ type event with a couple of my friends. Although my end score was relatively low, due to the steep learning curve of the Tau army combined with my slow painting and few opportunities to get practice games in, it was a great motivator to get the majority of my Tau army painted in a relatively short space of time. Far quicker then I would normally have be able to. Although I met relatively few of the deadlines and came last overall it was a fun challenge that I relished.

So when my friend suggested running another one this year, I thought it would be a great opportunity to make a start on my new Tyranid army.

I previously played Tyranids in second addition, though stopped about halfway through third edition, my Black Templars were my new favourite army at this point, although I still continued to collect Tyranids just didn’t put them together. I was tempted to start them on the previous ToFG competition, but fancied collecting a shooty army instead. Hence collecting my Tau. Although my desire to collect another Tyranid army has never dwindled. Unfortunately I sold my big pile of Tyranids a few years ago. So I’ll be starting my army from scratch.

I won’t reiterate the rules here, the event organiser has made quite a comprehensive post of all the details Here. There are a couple of differences for the latest event though. The major one that will help me out is the extended deadlines. With having approximately 8 weeks to complete the 500 point blocks rather then the 1 month which I struggled with previously.

One of my main concerns with collecting the Tyranids for the escalation (if I decide to go) is the first 500 points. Played using combat patrol rules, So no toughness 6+, no 2+ saves, no more then 2 wounds. So no Hive tyrant, no Tyranid prime, no Tyranid warriors, no Tervigon, no Shrikes and no Trygon Prime. Leaving me with only one option for synapse, Zoanthropes. Which aren’t ideal in a combat patrol army. If facing an opponent with a psyker in, they can get shut down far too easily, leaving me without any anti tank.

Any suggestions?

Black Templar FAQ

As per the title, there has been an update of the Black Templars, bringing their equipment more in line with Codex marine armies. I'm highly tempted to dust of my Templars and try them with the new rules.

(Not, image sourced from Warhammer 40K wikia, by Kingmonk I believe, used without permission. But it does look awesome)

The Full FAQ is available here: Black Templar FAQ

I'll go over the highlights quickly.

Page 23 – Kill Them All, Ignore “and follow the normal rules for target priority in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.” in the last sentence.
Edit- Just realised that this means you do have to take target priority tests. as previously. Bit strange though.


Page 27 – Cyclone Missile Launcher Change “as a missile launcher” to “as a heavy 2, missile launcher
With the ability to still take 2 heavy weapons in a 5 man squad, combined with the tank hunters veteran skill, This is going to be quite a nasty squad for about 260 points. Able to fire 4 strength 9 (effectively against vehicles) AP 3 missiles on the move, I may have to start replace my twin assault cannon squad.

Page 28 – Holy Orbs of Antioch Change “, rolling to hit as normal. If the Holy Orb hits, place the small Blast Template over a model in the target unit.” to “. The Holy Orb of Antioch is a blast weapon.
Not really a good or bad change, more chance of scattering but less likely to miss entirely.

Page 28 – Narthecium Change the second paragraph to “As long as the Apothecary is alive, all models in his squad have the Feel No Pain special rule.
Makes command squads a bit more worthwhile, especially if your putting lots of points into one.

Page 28 – Storm shield Change to “A storm shield is a solid shield that has an energy field generator built into it. The energy field is capable of deflecting almost any attack, even blows from lascannons and power weapons. A model with a storm shield has a 3+ invulnerable save. A model equipped with a storm shield can never claim the +1 Attack bonus for being armed with two close combat weapons in an assault.
About time, Combined with Accept any challenge, and furious charge, this is also going to be nasty. Unfortunately increased to 15 points for wargear But I'm not complaining.

Page 29 – Power of the Machine Spirit Change to “The vehicle can fire one more weapon than would normally be permitted. In addition, this weapon can be fired at a different target unit to any other weapons,
subject to the normal rules for shooting. Therefore, a vehicle that has moved at combat speed can fire two
weapons, and a vehicle that has either moved at cruising speed, or has suffered a ʻCrew Stunnedʼ or ʻCrew Shakenʼ result can fire a single weapon
That's more like it, none of this BS 2 nonsense either. This means a land raider crusader can now fire to full effect when moving 6" or less. Including firing the multi melta at another target at full BS. Also, vindicators can now fire their main weapon when moving up to 12" if equipped with the power of the machine spirit upgrade.

Page 29 – Smoke Launchers Change to “SMOKE LAUNCHERS Smoke Launchers are used to temporarily obscure the vehicle behind concealing clouds of smoke, allowing it to cross open areas in greater safety. See the Vehicles section of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook for details.
Ah well, all good things must come to an end.

Page 38 – Transport Vehicles Ignore the third sentence starting “The vehicles described here...” and ignore the last two sentence
Meaning dedicated transports can now carry other units like most other armies transports. How many landraiders can you squeeze into a 2000 point list now. :)

Page 39 – Land Speeder Typhoon Change all 3 occurences of “Typhoon multiple missile
launcher” to “typhoon missile launcher” and change “Range 48"; S 5; AP 5; Heavy 1, Blast, Twin-linked” to
“Frag: Range 48"; S 4; AP 6; Heavy 2, Blast Krak: Range 48"; S 8; AP 3; Heavy 2
That's better. Gives us more flexibility in choice of speeder units.

Page 48 – Shotgun, Strength Change “3” to “4
Making the combat shotgun a worthwhile weapon for neophytes now, Losing a strength 4 attack in combat. But gaining a strength 4 shot up to 12"

There are a few other changes, but these are the ones that I feel are going to have the biggest influence on game-play. Especially your terminators and land raiders (now assault vehicles for sure now by the way).