Thursday 24 February 2011

The Journal of Keeper Cripias

Hi all, Angryman here.

Its been a while since i've posted anything so I thought I'd quickly share something with you. I found this link the journal of Keeper Cripias the other day.  Some of you may have read it, others not.  I also found this fan fluff

Let me know what you think.

all comments welcome

Monday 21 February 2011

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!



So with the release of the Grey Knights approaching alot of people are screaming Codex Creep and threatening to quit the hobby because of another "Broken" Codex. My question is, is it really the end of the world?


Well I am going to break it down and prove that it really isn't (and if anyone still believes it is, please stop moaning and just quit the hobby).


Firstly, there is alot of complaints that two wound models with a 2+ 5++ save and FNP are overpowered and going to kill us all, but don't they already exist in the form of Mega Nobz with Mad Dok? sure that will put you back a good few hundred points, but I am sure that the Grey Knight Version will too.


Next is the complaint of Henchmen being overpowered for the cost. From what I can gather they are going to be cheap, but they aren't troops without a Special Character (which means one less HQ) and they are T3, plus they come basic with a 5+ save, and WS3, they aren't even Vet Guardmen standards!!!


The Dreadknight is a big scare, but is it not just the Grey Knights answer to Mephiston and the Trygon?


There are several other complaints but I can't remember from the top of my head, if you have any questions I will justify them as best as I can.


Now, lets look at Codex Creep in general


Alot of people scream Codex Creep every time a new Codex is announced (even before the rumour mill starts) and sure, some Codex's have been upped a notch, but then every other follows suit. At the end of 4th Ed alot of the Codex's had specific gimmics and their own tricks, Dark Angels had Termie troops, Dark Eldar were fast and fragile, Imperial Guard were slow and shooty and Eldar were Psyker Masters.

With 5th Ed Dark Angels were ousted with Space Wolves getting Termie Troops and now the Grey Knights get them too, Dark Eldar became a bit more survivable (not much) and Guard became Faster, Eldar were pushed off top of the Psykers by Marines. But we are looking at all the 5th Ed Codex's and comparing them to 3rd and 4th Ed Codex's. Which means, we will see all the Codex's get some new gimmic plus strengthen their weakness's, GW seem to be working on everyone having something similar to everyone else, plus a bit more, I am sure this is to partly increase sales and partly to settle the cry of "Codex Creep" but still the Internet Mobs persist until it is their armies turn for the new and shiny.

My general Point therefore is that if you feel cheated, wait your turn, it will happen and then everyone else will moan at you just like you moaned at them.

Any questions or comments please feel free to leave them and enjoy a discussion

Thursday 17 February 2011

What do you want next for your army?

Morning all,

Again, I'll try and keep going with the updates here and there, in between bouts of overtime at work.

Last night, I was flicking through the Imperial Guard codex to have a nosey at some units and started thinking about what I'd like to buy next for them, to move me away from Mechanised transported squads and utilise more of the Imperial Guard book.

First up, there's a few more characters I want in the army...

Commisar Yarrick
  First up, the only named Independent Character in the book (well, one without being bought in a command squad to start with?). I've already made a plastic Commisar Lord from the Cadian command boxset, but next up would be to make this dude.


The idea being, that I've got plenty of Ork power klaws lying around, waiting to lop off his hand with. Add a storm bolter to the other, and his bale eye, and we're there. My Manutian equivalent of Yarrick.

Captain Al'Rahem
There's something I like about this guy as an upgrade to my Platoon command squad. Mostly because he's got better orders than a standard Platoon commander (Bring it down and First Rank, Second Rank), bigger order range, a unique order which lets you shoot, then run. And on top of that a plasma pistol and an instant death causing power weapon. So he's S3, big deal, he only needs 1 wound to land on a Carnifex for it to go pop. He's got plenty of fodder around him to take the hits!


As for converting Al'Rahem, the best thing to do is get his iconic weaponry - the plasma pistol and Claw of the Desert Tiger - and make him look a bit rugged and worn. I'm hoping a Dark Eldar power weapon and standard Guard plasma pistol can do the trick there, along with a goggled Catachan head and a cloak from Empire pistoliers. Job done... hopefully.

Commander Chenkov
I'm a pansy for special characters, I like to use them all over the show, just for the variation they can bring to a game. I'm intending on buying the bits for Al'Rahem, so it seems daft not to also do the other Platoon Command upgrade - Commander Chenkov. The main reason I was to use  him, is to back up a big Conscript unit. I

A Manutian version is going to be a bit awkward to do. His defining features are his cloak, greatcoat and sword. The only problem with that is I've used exactly the same gear for my Commisar Lord (excluding the bolt pistol). There's a few WHFB heads I can use for the beard and whatnot, and I should have plenty of broadswords lying around.

Conscripts
Continuing on from using Chenkov, I've always wanted a big meatshield unit of Conscripts. Literally to worry people about a 50 strong unit heading towards them and for the satisfaction of knowing they're pretty much just a suicide unit. The only problem I've got with that is painting and buying all those Conscript models...


I'm not sure how to make my Conscripts yet, I intially wanted to use the Catachan models as inducted Manutian Gangers, but having found no decent deals on the older boxes of models via eBay... I'm thinking I may as well just use the Cadian models.

Sentinels
Sentinels have always been a cool little unit, I like the thought of these scouting walkers to support Infantry units or tag along with mechanised infantry. I also like the amount of weapon options available to them, from anti-vehicle, anti-infantry, anti-terminator, anti-light vehicle etc. The only question is scout or armoured?


No change here, I'd love to just use the GW models as standard, hopefully magnetising the weapons and being able to swap the cockpit top in and out to swap between scout and armoured variants.

Rough Riders
Rough riders are my absolute favourite unit in the Guard codex. So much so that I've been hanging fire on building them, just waiting to see what new models are coming out for all the GW ranges, for what I can convert them from.

My initial idea for them came from an article in White Dwarf about Abhumans, with the use of Xeno mounts. At that time, using the very old and chubby Cold Ones. I didn't have an issue with those models, just that they were a pain to get hold of in bulk. So at the moment, I'm toying with either using Dark Elf cold one knights for the Xeno approach, or go the classic horse way and use Empire pistoliers.

Psyker Battle Squad
I know, I know. The internet loved / loves these guys and everyone else hates them... but I really, really like the idea of a Psyker squad. I love Psykers in 40k and think they're really, really underused. Mostly because they're competing for better slots in some armies (Weirdboys in Orks, for example) or whatever other reason. But I do want to try and force a squad of them in, to accompany my Primaris Psyker.

The intention for them is to have this rogue and tattered look about them. Probably using Empire Flagellants for them, or Bretonnian men at arms. However, when making my Primaris Psyker I did think about using Cadian Shock Troops with Empire bits to maintain the similar look - although maybe they'd be too similar for other players?

Hardened Veterans
The next thing on my list is to have some actual models for my Hardened Veteran units. The aim is for these to be my Chimera mechanised squads, and my current Mech squads can sit inside the Valkyries / Vendettas.

Now these guys are Wargames Factory sci-fi Infantry, but I really like the Killzone Helghast thing they've got going on. Plus they're pretty cheap. I think it's about £40 for 54 of them. Which is more than enough and with all the special weapons to boot. They're different enough from Cadians to get away with and also could be used to show Carapace armour?

Hopefully over the coming months I can start chipping away at the tons of units I want. Maybe before the end of this month I can look into that Psyker Battle squad, or the Platoon command special characters and Yarrick.

Next month's project is to start some Rough Riders!

Peace,
SB

Wednesday 9 February 2011

[40k] Grey Knights Rumours from BOLS

Here you go guys, copied and pasted from BOLS for a bit of discussion...

Unit Breakdown
Special Characters:
Lord "Draigo" LR cost.
Grand Master "Mordrack" Storm Raven Cost
Brother Captain Stern
Castellan Crowe

Inquisitor Corteaz
Inquisitor Karamazov
Inquisitor Valeria

HQ
Grand Master
Brother Captain
Brotherhood Champion
Librarian
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor
Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor

Elites
Techmarine
Purifier Squad
Venerable Dreadnought
Paladin Squad
Callidus
Eversor
Vindicare
Culexus
Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband

Troops
Grey Knight Terminator Squad
Special Upgrade Character - Justicar Thawn
Grey Knights Strike Squad (the regular GK's)

Transports
Rhino
Razorback
Chimera

Fast
StormRaven

Heavy Support
Purgation Squad
Dreadnought
Nemesis Dreadknight (MC)
Land Raider (and variants, including redeemer)

Unit Notes
Grand Master Rumors
Pick D3 units during deployment and giving them a special rule:
Makes them scoring (kinda neat for dread and or elite paladins)
Makes them re roll 1s to wound all game
Makes them have counter attack USR.
Makes them Scout
All these units are affected by the one choice.

No Drop Pods
But GK strike squads are supposed to be able to take personal teleporters. This makes them jump infantry. And once per game it is rumored to allow them to make a 30" move, just move... not a on table deep strike. they Can shoot when they do this, but not charge.

Paladins: 2 wounded terminators (they can have an apothecary in the squad)

Purifiers: Grey Knights that have a lot of anti horde options, they are the ones with the power that will do a wound on every engaged enemy model in cc on 4+.

Terminators equipped with frag and krak grenades.

Psychic Powers
Hammer Hand: +1 strength in Close Combat
Warp Quake: Any deepstriking unit that lands within 12" suffers automatic mishap.
Holocaust: S5 AP - Large Blast 12"
Quicksilver: Unit becomes Initiative 10
Warp-Rift: Template that auto removes models from play
The Summoning: A single friendly unit that is anywhere on the table is placed within 6" of the librarian and counts as deepstriking.
Smite: As C:SM
Might of Titan: Beginning of librarians assault phase. Unit within 6" gains +1 str and extra D6 armour pen vs vehicles. Bonus is cumulative with hammerhand.
The Shrouding: Opponents shooting phase. All units within 6" gain stealth (minimum 5+ cover in the open).
Mind Blades: Start of any assault phase. One enemy unit within 6" loses 1 toughness for the rest of the assault phase.
Vortex of Doom: As C:SM
Sanctury: Enemy assault phase. Enemy units wishing to assault any Grey Knight within 12" of librarian must make a difficult AND dangerous terrain test.
Psychic Communion (Grandmaster and Captain only): Take a psychic test. If passed, you may modify any reserve rolls by + or -1.
Heroic Sacrafice (Champion only): During any assault phase and when the "chaplain" dies. If the psychic test is passed, make one attack against any one model that is in base to base with the champion. If the attack hits, the model is removed as a casualty with no saves. If it misses, there is no effect.
Cleansing Flame (Purifiers only): Start of any assault phase. All enemy models that are part of the same assault suffer a wound on a 4+ before any blows are struck with saving throws allowed. Casualties count towards combat resolution.
Astral Aim (Purgation Squad only): Shooting Phase. Unit and attached characters may fire at any unit in range and regardless of line of sight. Target automatically gets a 4+ cover save that cannot be modified.
Reconstruction (techmarines only): Beginning of techmarine's movement. Re-roll any repair roll.
Fortitude (Vehicle only): At the start of Grey Knight player's turn, removes any shaken or stunned results.
Zone of Banishment(Captain Stern only): During Stern's assault phase. All models (friend and foe, but NOT stern) within 6" make a strength test or are removed from play. Demons must re-roll successful tests. 
They sound awesome (as they always did), but with just a lot more options and even more heroic. The thing I like with these is that hopefully they'll be a quick army for people to start and get properly painted, since they should be very small in number.

I may have to get some to ally with the Guard (if it's still allowed) and if not, I've now got a hell of a lot of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers lying about...

What do you guys reckon? Especially Col. Straken..

Monday 7 February 2011

[40k] Balancing Your Armies

Morning all,

It's been a long while since I posted a blog on here and I've not had much time to do some hobbying, due to work and family commitments. Thought I'd do a quick one to ease us into the working week.

I took part in the doubles tournament at the Northwest Gaming Centre, along with Farseer Jordan, but in order to do so, had to use my Imperial Guard to ally. Now, I've had the Imperial Guard for a long, long time - infact, they were my first 40k army. However, I've never really given them much time over the past few years.


One of the main things for me, with not having much time due to work, is the "Pick up and go" factor that some armies give me. I know that I can probably leave my Ork codex at home, I know the stats that well, therefore they're very easy for me to go in the house, grab the boxes and not have to pre-think much before I go to the club.

So, that got me onto thinking about balancing my playing time with armies and how people go about that (if they even do?)...

Imperial Guard:

As I said earlier, my Imperial Guard were my very first 40k army. I started them back in 2003/2004, with a few boxes of Cadian Shock Troopers, but assembled them all without looking at a Codex. So I was left with very impractical squad setups and extremely limited choice.

In recent times, I swapped a Chaos Marine army for a lod of Guard stuff from fellow MAWS member, Col. Straken. With that I got enough Guardsmen and tanks to give me some flexibility within, it was just a matter of painting them up - which the recent doubles tourney gave me a kick start into doing.


Tournament Entries: 1 (Marauder Doubles 2010)
Playing Frequency: Very frequently lately, before that, probably less than 10 games.
PAG Factor: 8 out of 10. I know the units being used pretty well, and quite familiar with others.

Orks:
Orks are my go-to army. They're quick to play, all packaged up for transport and I knew the codex off by heart, meaning it's quick to make a list and easy to play on the night. I think they're my first real "I'll look at the codex before I start this..." army, which means I didn't end up with pointless squad setups or hamstring my self with army variety.


Tournament Entries: 7 (ish)
Playing Frequency: Practically solid for 2 years.

PAG Factor: 10 out of 10. I know the codex really well, everything is packaged up into relevant units.

Necrons:
Necrons were my first attempt at an army after the Imperial Guard, when I had a good grasp of the rules and also using the codex. They were chosen since they're super quick to paint and a change from the horde mentality of the Imperial Guard.


Tournament Entries: 3
Playing Frequency: For 6 months solid, then about 3 times since.

PAG Factor: 8 out of 10. Easy enough to pick up the codex and make units and transport. Hard to grasp.


Chaos Daemons:
These are my most recent new army to get on the table, and I've really not played using them enough. They were bought as another excuse at an all plastic army and something I'd not seen used a lot - all Khornate daemons. I wanted an all out assault army, no faffing around camping on an objective or rapid firing the enemy - just run at them and kill.




Tournament Entries: 0
Playing Frequency: Less than 5 games.

PAG Factor: 5 out of 10. Think I'm still yet to win a game with these guys, and just never fancy getting them out of the box.

Brotherhood of the Forge:
These are my brainchild, an attempt to use the Sisters of Battle codex, along with an excuse to get Dwarves into 40k. I'm capped at the minute to 400ish points and needing to buy a lot more to get them up to a full army. Think I may need to start buying some more bits for them this month...





Tournament Entries: 0
Playing Frequency: 2 Games.

PAG Factor: 2 out of 10. I've read the codex a fair bit, but very rarely used them on the table.

Dark Eldar:
I've still yet to get these guys on the table and they're not even painted yet... (some are still to be undercoated!) so these aren't getting much love at the moment. I'll hopefully get them painted up and on the table soon enough.




Tournament Entries: 0
Playing Frequency: 0 Games.

PAG Factor: 5 out of 10. I've read the codex a lot, since the day of release, just need to play games!


So what do you guys reckon? How do you balance your playing time and do you have unloved armies, that sit in a box for years, come out to be slaughtered once in a while in an Apocalypse game, then go back to the dusty darkness....

Peace,
SB

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Doubles Tournament at Marauders

Firstly, I appologise for the lack of pictures as I completely forgot to take any.

Over the weekend the MAWS group went to Marauders in Stockport for a well run weekend doubles tournament. It was very enjoyable and Marauders also provided lunch on both days included in the ticket prices. Now onto the actually tournament, the scoring system was 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw and 0pts for a loss.

We went in three teams, I teamed up with Angryman using Tyranids, Brother-Captain Uriel Ventris and Sanguinius teamed up using Ultramarines and Blood Angels, and SuicideBadger teamed up with Farseer Jordan using Guard and Eldar.

Here is a quick rundown of Mine and Angrymans list:

HQ:
Alpha Warrior with twin boneswords.

Parasite of Mortrex.

Elites:
3 Hive Guard

1 Venomthrope

The Doom in a Spore

Troops:
5 Warriors - one with Barbed Strangler

4 Warriors with Lashwhip boneswords

10 Termagaunts

1 Tervigon with Toxin sacks, Adrenal Glands, and Catalyst (Feel No Pain psychic power)

7 Genestealers and Broodlord with Scything Talons and Adrenal Glands

Fast Attack:
19 Gargoyles with Adrenal glands and Toxin Sacks

Heavy Support:
Trygon

Onto the first game, we were drawn against a Mech Guard army with 4 Demolishers, 4 Chimeras (2 vet squads and 2 Command Squads) 2 Devildogs, a Medusa and a Deathstrike missile. It was Pitched battle with 3 Objectives.

It was a close game with us hugging cover while trying to advance under a hail of Str 10 pie plates. and the guard holding two objectives next to their own deployment zone and we had one just infront of our own. The Parasite managed to shake a Chimera in combat before being Lascannoned and flamered into next week. Not much happened until the later turns where we finally reached combat but it was too little too late, the Guard managed to hold one objective and contest another in their half while due to time limits we were unable to remove the Lone Guardsman that was contesting ours, he was just a Leadership test away from breaking but we were called to a halt just as he was picking up the dice. It was close and we lost due to time limits, but it was fun and was alot better than we thought when we saw all the tanks lining up.

Second game, and we got drawn against a stand-in team of 1 person, using Necrons. This game was Capture and Control (two objectives) and spearhead deployment.

We started with the Genestealers and Broodlord in reserve along with the Parasite and Trygon, the Necrons kept the Monolith, a unit of Scarabs and 10 Warriors in reserve. For the first few turns we were pounding the Necrons to dust, but they kept getting back up and the parasite failed to inflict any damage on a unit of warriors. The tide turned slightly when the Monolith arrived as we had very little that could reliably hurt it. We made a final push for the objective in the last turn to contest it but ended up being mere millimetres out, unlucky but another hard fought game.

The third game was Kill Points against another Tyranid army but with a completely different build.
They had a normal Zoanthrope, two large units of Genestealers but no Broodlords, and they had three Carnifex's.

We were looking forward to this game as it should be fast and brutal. In our turn two, our Genestealers turned up and quickly got stuck in with some hormogaunts along with the Parasite and gargoyles. The doom managed to wipe out two Carnifex's after a nasty turn of eating souls and the trygon charged the Zoanthrope. The opponents Genestealers soon turned up and ripped the gargoyles apart leaving just the Parasite and a few rippers he had made to try and fend them off. After a few turns of killing and then being killed and killing again there was little left and the game drew to a close, we managed our first victory 8-5, luckily our units refused to die outright and we were left with alot of one or two man (alien) units.

The fourth game was back to capture and Control (two objectives) but Dawn of war this time. We were facing our clubmates UltraBlood.

We only managed three turns of this game due to a late start and alot of chatting. I also can't remember much of it, it did however end in a loss as we couldn't get to their objective which was defended by cassius and 5 Sternguard and we failed to kill the Dreadnought sitting on our objective. There was an upside though as we managed to kill his Stormraven with our Hive Guard and Mephiston with our Alpha Warrior!!!

Game five, Objectives, once again we had 3 objectives, but we got to place two of them. We were facing down 3 Land Raiders a unit of Terminators and two librarians, along with two Tacticals a unit of sternguard and a unit of scouts.

At first we were having problems as we couldn't get the men out of the Land Raiders, but after the trygon appeared (and then died) we had managed to rip open one Land Raider, and had coaxed out the Terminators. This game was where the Venomthrope proved itself not just as a support unit but in combat too, it killed two Terminators but unfortunatly it wasn't enough to get his men off the objective but it still ended 1-0 to us thanks to the Doom killing all his troops!

Game six, the last game of the day, and once again we were playing Tyranids in Kill Points.

we had learnt from the last game and we made a good start using our Hive Guard to insta-kill his warriors we held back ready to get the counter-charge and set ourselves up to be aggressivly defensive. The doom managed to kill a Carnifex and wound a second which was promptly killed by his spore. Our Genestealers came on and tore a unit of Gaunts apart, but then their genestealers came on a tore our gaunts apart in reply, along with wounding the Tervigon 4 times, but the Parasites special ability meant we got to make a few rippers for them outflanking, the Rippers then hid so that we didn't give away easy kill points. It was a Draw all the way through until the last turn, where he charged my remaining two Genestealers which were locked in combat with a Zoanthrope and his Alpha warrior and 3 other warriors. Unfortunatly for him I put all my attacks on the gaunts killing 6 of the 8, his attacks then managed to inflict 3 wounds, which were saved by some miracle, causing him to take 6 no-retreat saves on each unit, killing off the gaunts and the Zoanthrope giving us a 2 Kill Point lead! Our Alpha Warrior the killed off a unit of Genestealers giving us a lead of 3. And thats where it Ended.

So all in all, 3 wins, 2 draws and a Loss, good going. When the results were read out we were 8th with 7 points, they hadn't counted two of our games... when we worked it out we should have come 3rd, but oh well, it wouldn't have made a difference because only first and second got prizes, these went to a team of Dark Eldar and Orks, and our own UltraBlood respectivly. Well done Sanguinius and Ventris, keep it up. It was all enjoyable and we did alot better than expected, hopefully we can do better next time and bring home first and second to the club!