Spartans!!

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, life and my current project have taken up all of my free time, no time for blogging. However thought I would post a few photos of my (finally) completed combat patrol force for Winds of War 2011 run by Bracknell Forest Gamers.
My team mate and I came up with the idea of doing Halo themed space marine armies, about 8 months ago, so me being me decided to start building and painting my force about 3 weeks ago. Given the average speed of my painting (painfully slow) this was probably a bad move on my part. However without further ado, here is Spartan II Wolf Company:

Gauss Warthog (Counts as Razorback with lascannon TL plasma)

Standard Warthog (Counts as standard Razorback)

Blue Squad (Grey hunters; meltagun and mark of the wulfen)

Red Squad (as blue)

Green squad (long fangs 4 x missile)

Gold Squad (wolf guard x 3)

So that's my halo themed space wolf army, comments / constructive criticism welcome)

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).

Bad advice?

Unfortunately due to work commitments, I haven't have much time for anything hobby related recently. I did manage to get a re-match against my mate for the last game of escalation and managed to have a relatively decisive victory, although the scenario was in my favour from the start so kudos to Ginge for agreeing to a rematch (we will have a slightly more balanced game next time :-P).

Which brings me onto the topic for this post. While I was down that way I popped into the local gamesworkshop to pick a few bits up,  naturally the guy working there started talking to me, asking what armies I collected etc. When I mentioned I play Tau, he started asking me what I thought of them. I responded saying that they can be quite good with a few tricks but could do with a new codex.

Saying I mainly played a battlesuit army with as many suits as I have, small squads of firewarriors, pathfinders and hammerheads. I was told that this was my problem, at this point I wasn't even aware I had a problem, I was advised that I should really take less crisis suits and broadsides, and more firewarriors and drone squadrons. Stating that one of the regulars at their shop filled up on stealth suits with firewarrior support.

At this point I wondered if the local Tau players had ever won any games, or were just considered the baby seals of the store. Is this the advice that employees are giving out to people who they think are struggling to win games?

I don't considered myself a WAAC player in the slightest, slightly competitive in so much as I play to win, or stop the other guy from winning if my dice fail me :-P. But I have enjoyed some measure of success using my standard army list against most of the newer codexes. I've beaten, and lost to, Guard, tabled Blood Angels a couple of times. Given I rarely get the opportunity to play I think my win/draw/lose ratio has been pretty favourable. However were I struggling and getting frustrated at the 'poor' performance of my Tau would his advice of helped at all?

No, firewarriors are one of the weakest units in the Tau codex, drones are on the same footing. Better advice could be found at places like 3++ is the new black or many other sources of solid tactical advice on playing the game. Stacking up on the weaker units of an army is a sure way to lose, sure you can get more feet on the ground, but they are more likely to be running away at the first sign of trouble instead of inflicting damage on the opponent.

In a Tau army, crisis suits and broadsides are the heavy hitters, missile pods, plasma guns and railguns the tools of their trade. Cram as many of these in as you can and always remember the dead can't claim objectives. That would be my advice at any rate :-P

Book Review: The First Heretic

The First Heretic is the latest novel in the long running Horus Heresy series of books written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. The book explores the history of the Word Bearers legion, starting with the Emperors castigation of them for worshipping him as a god and ending with them preparing to assault the Ultramarines at Calth. 

Over the course of the book the information about the origin of the Primarchs and the events leading to their dispersal throughout the galaxy is explained in more detail. There is a lot more background information on the nature of chaos and the enmity between the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines. 

The book describes the fall of Lorgar from the Emperor and his turn to chaos. As he seeks to find something to worship, you get to see the fallibility of the primarch as the ultimate architects of his, and the legions, downfall is revealed. 

Overall, this book is fantastic and certainly one of the better books of the Horus Heresy series so far. 

5/5 - Awesome must read for fans of the series. 

Black Library

Black Library have just started to offer free Ebooks. Which I think is absolutely brilliant. There are current 3 for free click here for the ebooks.
If you go to the amazon site, you can download a free e-reader software PC software here. All you need to do is download the .mobi version of the ebooks from the black library website and open them from your download file.

Thanks to Black Library for providing this content. Remember to check the site every friday for another free ebook.