Post-Conflict North 2010

Evening all,

We've not long since got back from Conflict North and I was impressed to say the least. It was an excellent venue, well organised and very enjoyable. Considering I've been up since 6am on a Sunday morning... you'll have to bear with my memory being a bit patchy!

First off, the list I took was as follows:

- Warboss in Mega Armour, Cybork Body, Bosspole, Attack Squig

- Big Mek with Kustom Force Field, Power Klaw, Cybork Body, Eavy Armour

- 5 Meganobz, 2 with Kombi Skorcha, 2 with Kombi Rokkits in a...

- Battlewagon, Red Paint Job, Armour Plates, Kannon, Big Shoota, Boarding Plank

- 3 x 12 Trukk Boyz with Slugga and Choppa, Rokkit, Nob with Power Klaw and Bosspole, Trukks with Red Paint, Armour Plates, Big Shoota and Boarding Planks

- 19 Shoota Boyz, 1 Big shoota, Nob with Big Choppa and Bosspole

- In a Battlewagon, Red Paint Job, Armour Plates, Kannon, Big Shoota

- 18 Grots, Runtherd with Grot Prod

The idea behind the army was simply to avoid moving tons of models and max out on scoring units.

Game 1

First game was against another Ork army that was along the lines of

- Warboss on foot with Heavy Armour with 7 Nobz

- Big Mek with Forcefield on foot with Ard Boyz

- 20 Shoota Boyz

- 10 Gretchin

- 2 Deff Dredz

- 3 Warbikers

- Lootas

First game of the tournament.... Orks v Orks! The first mission was Capture and Control with Dawn of War Deployment.

I started by keeping everything of mine off the table to avoid fire from the Lootas and Dreds, but also to try and hit his forward deployed armies extremely hard with my units walking on. This initially worked with his Ard Boyz getting decimated by the shooting coming on the board, the Big Mek ran off alone but managed to regroup in a later turn.

However, his Nobz and Warboss hopped out of a trukk and battered my units leaving me with a tough decision to draw firepower towards them to finish them off. Which then caused me to be too far back in my own half, had my Gretchin destroyed from my objective by Warbikers and had Meganobz and a Warboss end up doing not much and getting Power Klaws by the Warbiker Nob.

All in all, the game ended on turn 5. Another turn and I could have clinched a draw if I had survived the shooting from a Dred and shoota Boyz, but who knows.

0 Wins - 1 Loss.

I really enjoyed the game and had a laugh with my opponent. It's also one of the best painted Ork armies I've seen around. Really, really good stuff!

Game 2

So after losing my first game, I moved down to the lower tables where I was much more comfortable after seeing some of the armies that were around.

My opponent was a good guy, and I was surprised to see him playing Black Templars. But I did really enjoy the game against a less used codex, especially with the amount of Marine players playing and that were around the place.

The army was roughly:

- Emperors Champion

- 3 Units of 5 Templars

- 4 Land Raider Crusaders

We played Sieze Ground with 5 Objectives and did the Spearhead deployment type. I bunched everything together as usual to benefit from the KFF and held the Grots in reserve to take my home objective.

All I can say is GO DEFF ROLLAS! Dealing with 4 Land Raiders in a 1,500pt list is crazy, but it was fun. Without the Deff Rollas there was no way I could have dealt with them. 3 were destroyed by the Rollas and the final one with 1 weapon remaining and Immobilised.

At the end of the game I held 3 objectives, 1 was contested and the other held by my opponent.

1 Win - 1 Loss

Game 3

By this time, everyone playing had begun to get a bit tired and careless. My final opponent was another Ork army:

- Warboss and 3 Meganobz in a Battlewagon

- Big Mek in a Trukk with Slugga Boyz

- Ard Boyz in a Trukk

- Deff Dred

- 3 Killa Kans

- 8 Lootas

This game was Kill Points with a standard Pitched Battle deployment. Meaning the scenario I play 90% of the time.

It started very well, I managed to destroy Deff Dred, 3 Killa Kans and 2 Trukks within the first 2 turns, meaning 4 kill points off the bat.

Unfortunately, due to some bad rolling, misjudged distance for the Battlewagon and generally enjoying the game to get it done with.. I ended up getting battered 11 Kill Points to 5.

Have to say, was an excellent game and 2 evenly matched Ork armies meant it was a case of who was able to hit the other hardest.

Win 1 - Loss 2

So all in all, I finished 14th out of 26 competitors. Not bad considering my list was wrote the day before the competition, had only 1 game of 40k within the last 5 weeks and was extremely nackered!

If there's anyone reading this, I would highly recommend visiting Marauder Games in Stockport. Their facilities are a bit bare bones at the minute, but their gaming area is top notch, prices are excellent (we got 15% off just for playing in the tourney) and the staff are excellent.

Onwards to Britcon 2010!

Peace out,
SB

Conflict North - Stockport

Hi all, Angryman here. Taking the lead from Col. Strakens great article I'd like to share my Tyranid army with you all. Hive Fleet Tattybojangles (forgive the picture quality).

First off this is my interpretation of the Alpha warrior. This guy is armed with twin boneswords and devourer. He is also upgraded with Adrenal glands (furious charge) and regeneration (heals wounds). This is a synapse creature

These guys will form a unit with the Alpha Warrior, they are all armed with lash whips, boneswords and devourers and are upgraded with Adrenal glands (furious charge). They are synapse creatures and a scoring unit.

These 2 are my attempt at Tervigons. They will be holding my army together, forming a solid core. They are armed with cluster spines and have been upgraded with Adrenal glands (furious charge), Toxin sacs (poisoned attacks) and have been given the psychic power catalyst. They are synapse creatures and scoring units.

These 2 squads of Termagants will support my Tervigons. They are armed with a fleshborer and are scoring units.

This is my version of the Doom of Malan'tai and a Mysetic Spore. This guy will be kept in reserve and be used to cause damage to enemy infantry with his special ability.

Next up are my Zonathropes. These guys are must for destroying enemy armour and elite infantry. They are also synapse creatures.

This guy should need no introduction, This Carnifex is armed with 2 sets of twin-linked devourers (affectionately known as the dakka fex). This guy can out shoot most units with an impressive amount of high S shots and is no slouch in combat either.

This is my Trygon Prime. This thing is a combat monster and will be spearheading my assaults supported by the dakka fex. I've upgrading it with Adrenal glands (furious charge). As it has the 'Prime' upgrade it has a powerful high S shooting attack and is also a synapse creature.

Last but not least are my 3 objective markers, Ive used 3 infestation nodes glued onto bases.

There you have it. Hive fleet Tattybojangles (1500 points) packed away and ready for Conflict North

Road To Stockport - The Night Before!

After 4 Weeks of painting and playing with my Space Wolves they are finally finished and I thought I would introduce you to Logan's Great(ish) Company and the characters from my battle report story.


First up we have Logan Grimnar (my model of him anyway) in the middle, acompanied by his retinue, containing a Storm Shield and lots of Power Weapons.

Here is my second squad of Wolf Guard "led" by Sergeant Vulkan (not that Space Wolves actually have Sergeants) in the middle, and his Squad containing a Storm Shield, an Assault Cannon, and a Power fist.

Here is Squad Leonis, with his Power Fist, Leading a Grey Hunter Squad containing a Melta, a Flamer and a Wulfen cursed brother.

Here is Squad Lykan (or Lycan, I can't remember how I spelt it) Leading my second squad of Grey Hunters with a Plasma Gun, a Flamer, and a cursed brother.

Here are the Long Fangs under the Command of Sergeant Sven (the only Sergeant I actually have) they are all weilding Missile Launchers and are acompanied by a Wolf Guard with Cyclone Missile Launcher. Their Razorback is more of a support unit for the other units than a transport for Sven's Squad

Lastly we have Squad Lycus (or Lykus), he is a cursed Brother who has controlled the Wulfen and can release it at the right time to be devestating after sneaking behind the enemy lines, he is accompanied by two Power Weapon's and a Melta.

And there you have it, my 1500pt Stockport army, finally painted (finished about 10 minutes ago).

Enjoy!

[Paintlog] Imperial Guard Objective Markers and Khador Warcaster

Hey all,

This week I've been pretty busy with stuff, and whilst trying to find the time to get around to writing a full on article, I've been painting up some bits lying around the paint desk.

First up are some objective markers I made for my Imperial Guard army. I didn't like the Dozer blades being on my Guard tanks, so I began removing them and thought, rather than let them go to waste, I could make these Comms-Radar Dish objective markers.

They're extremely simple and nothing more than a Dozer Blade stuck on a base, but they do the job!

This is my first Warmachine model, which was bought a fair few months back, intending to be the leader of a Khador Wargroup. Unfortunately, due to messing around with the model, I snapped one end of her hammer off.

I avoided the Bronze / Gold look that the Khador stuff normally has, trying to stick to cold silver, dark red and light blue for the winter feel.

I'm quite impressed and I think in all, she took me about an hour or so to paint, wash with Badab Black and then paint the flesh and details.

This is what's currently dumped on the paintdesk. Old Guard Metal Command Squads, Psykers and some extra Ratlings to boost my squad up to 8. They're taking a long, long time to get through.

They've had the Combat Fatigues painted and highlighted in Grey, Metal work has been done and their armour, boots and anything Black has been reset.

Now all that's left to do is the Flesh and minor details and the first batch of the remaining Guarsdsmen is done. The rest of the entire army, I'm hoping can be painted up by the end of August ready for a big Apocalypse game or something.


So yeah guys, any thoughts before I get onto working on my next big article?

Peace,
SB

Road To Stockport Week 4!

Once again, its that time of the week, its the Road to Stockport, if you are wondering what happened to week 3, you didn't miss it, we were busy last week painting, so there was no game! This week, however, once again (due to people being off and other gaming systems) Logans Great(ish) Company faced off against the Tyranids of Hivefleet Tattybojangles. Enjoy! (PS. I appologise that the pictures are out of sequence, we didnt think to take any until turn 4, it got really interesting at that point!)

The Drop pod Rattled around Logan as it screeched towards the Drop Zone, they would be going in hot today. The pod smashed into the ground just in bolter range just as planned, Squad Vulkan was already setting up firing arcs aiming at the centre of the large horde of Tyranids heading towards them. Logan could see in the distance Sven’s Long fangs were already set up with clear fields of fire in all directions and closely supported by Lykan’s Grey hunter squad. A grin crept across his lips bearing his large fangs as he saw the contrails of 6 missiles spear into the Warrior squad blowing one of the creatures apart and ripping chunks out of the largest. The assault cannon of Squad Vulkan was the next to open up, the high calibre bolts tearing chunks out of the remaining warriors. Then the hive mind kicked in and the horde began to move towards the Wolves positions, Logan could see one of the larger creatures churning out more and more gaunts and expected a bloody fight. Their guns opened up and through sheer weight of fire managed to wound one of the mighty terminator clad marines, but it was of little consequence, the Space Wolves were about to get to grips with the enemy, where they worked best.

Logan saw the drop pod for Squad Leonis crash down further forward disgorging his Grey hunters on the far flank ready to burn the foul xeno off the planet. The missiles of the Long fangs opened up again shredding the last of the Warriors, only leaving the largest looking bloodied and bruised from the barrage. The Terminators lumbered forward under Logan’s command and he heard the Assault cannon whine as it powered up and began hurling more explosive shells at the large creature that was disgorging the gaunts. The Grey hunters also opened up on the Tervigon but despite the barrage of fire it remained standing though a few of the gaunts in the path of Squad Leonis’ flamer were not so lucky. Squad Lycus had appeared behind the horde as he was best at doing and charged into the rear of the enemy, but the Hive mind had been prepared for this and quickly tore the scouts apart leaving the remnants to flee bloodied possibly beyond help. The terminators were not quick enough and the gaunts protecting the larger Tervigon poured into them ripping with claws and teeth, but the stoic heroes stood firm and began to beat back the flooding horde. Logan felt the ground shake and heard a great crash and as he turned he saw one of the dreaded Trygons smashing out of the ground in front of the Long fangs forcing them to fall back as their equipment failed from the electromagnetic discharge the creature released. Then the horrid sickening feeling began again and Logan’s hackles began to rise, he knew what was coming, it was the dreaded doom, no matter how many times they killed it, it kept coming back. He watched as it smashed into the ground and immediately began leeching the life out of Squad Leonis killing 5 of his men before they even knew what was happening, one of Logan’s terminators also fell to the psychic assault. Leonis reaped a horrid toll in combat taking revenge for his squad by killing almost every gaunt that charged in against his remaining men.

Logan saw Squad Lykan jump out of their Rhino in defence of Sven’s retreat and bravely poured plasma and bolter fire into the giant Trygon, but it was little use and merely distracted the beast from its prey. Logan wanted revenge against the dreaded Doom and sent his personal squad to assist Vulkan against the pressing horde while he himself charged towards the floating brain. Even as the Doom absorbed more souls from Squad Leonis, leaving the sergeant alone to face the coming horde Logan smashed his great Axe into the creatures’ cranium splitting its carapaced skull and brain apart, hopefully ending its life of terror for good. Squad Vulkan backed up by the remaining terminator of Logan’s squad managed to beat the swarm of gaunts and finish off the giant warrior before it could cause any harm. Victorious the terminators regrouped and fell back towards the pods to bring their heavy weapons to bare and create a solid wall of ceramite as they were the remaining few after the Trygon ripped Lycus and his squad apart.

This was it, the last stop they needed to make before reaching Stockport, and they just had to hold out here. Logan was no coward though and charged towards the Tervigon that had caused so many problems, he took shot after shot and his armour was beginning to fail blood began trickling down through the cracks but on he continued under the supporting cover of the remaining terminators of Squad Vulkan and the remaining razorback, while his own remaining bodyguard faced down against the Trygon and the left flank of the Tyranid assault on his own.

Logan Smashed into the Tervigon crushing its legs under the might of his blows causing it to crash to the ground before bringing his great axe down to cleave the creatures head apart in a furious flurry of blows. He stepped back and bellowed a howl like no other before, then the horde opened up and the living ammunition found the cracks in his armour worming into his wounds causing Logan to falter at the last moment. Vulkan managed to remain standing once again keeping his master safe, Logan would have to promote this heroic figure a promotion soon, he had deserved it time after time. The Tyranids began rampaging through the Space Wolf vehicles as the remaining men fell back, Logan’s lone bodyguard stood firm but the weight of fire took him down eventually, his duty done in delaying the horde for his master he fell to the ground proud in himself.

[Daemons] Second Wave Pictures!

So here we go, the pics we've been waiting for.

Apparently ALL of them are plastic, bar the Fateweaver and Changeling. Which means PLASTIC BLOODCRUSHERS!!!

So what do you guys think? I think I may definitely have to expand beyond the realms of Khorne!

SB

100th Post

So, I thought before someone jumps in with a post, I'd ensure this gets done first... Happy 100th Post!

I know it's not much, but considering last year this blog had about 4 posts spread over the space of 5 months, we've got the ball rolling properly with it, coming up with some ace articles along the way. Now we've reached 100 genuinely good posts, it's something worth noting.

We fully intend to keep it going and try to stick at the momentum we've got gaining more and more followers!

So yeah, a big thank you to the writers of the Blogs and thanks to all the followers we've gained.

Cheers all,
SB

[Necrons] 5th Edition Revisions - Special Rules

Morning all,

Today I've been itching to do a Necron article, but haven't played with them for a while so didn't fancy doing a unit breakdown like my Orks. Instead, I thought I would address some of the things I would like to be seen done to the Necron Codex when it eventually gets updated for 5th Edition.

I think 1 article to cover this will be way too big, so I'm going to split them by Force Organisation and firstly for this article, the army as a whole.

We'll Be Back
We'll Be Back (WBB) has often been a source of misclarification amongst Necron players and their opponents and in my opinion needs simplifying heavily. Now to be clear, I have no issue with how it works currently, save for some clarification to stop people coming up with things like this:

The WBB rules only say if it's Double the Toughness of the Necron. Not if it's over Double their Toughness.

 The main problem I feel that is caused by WBB is that it acts out of sequence and can lead to more hassle than is necessary.

In the 5th edition codex, there is one real solution that everyone is pointing to - which is give them Feel No Pain, which I feel is a valid solution to solving the issues with WBB, as well as streamlining playing the Necrons.

Phase Out
Phase out is another touchy subject amongst Necron players, but has kind of been boostered and at the same time hindered by 5th edition play. Now with more emphasis on Necron Warriors, Phase Out numbers are higher.

However, Monoliths and C'Tan have been brought in to cover weaknesses in the army thus sapping valuable numbers from your Phase Out amount.

Personally, I can see Phase Out being removed entirely from the 5th edition codex, or at a push to try and still have this draw back, maybe an army wide Leadership test - like Kill Team's Bottle Test.

Gauss Weaponry
Gauss got completely bashed in 5th edition, with vehicles becoming significantly harder to kill, along with not being able to be killed from glancing hits (unless absolutely hammered with shots). Whilst this then lead to a lot of the Necron's problem solving solutions then having to be re-thought.

This combined with the ineffective nature of Heavy Destroyers and reliance on C'Tans for example, meant that the Necrons slowly get shelved.

There are 2 ways I can see to mitigate this:

#1 - The Simplest. Gauss Weapons inflicing Glancing Hits will be at -1, rather than -2 on the damage table.

#2 - Gauss Weapons gain Rending.

Both are good options in my view, I feel making them Rending would also solve some of the Necron issues in dealing with 2+ and 3+ saves, but Army-wide Rending I think would attact the beard and cheese that lives on some message boards into pimping this army out.

-1 instead of -2 for Glancing hits on the Damage Table will do me nicely thank you!

Additions in 5th 
- Stubborn
Since Assaults in 5th edition got extremely tough, Necrons suffer... a LOT. One of the ways to get around this, I think would be by making them Stubborn, as opposed to Fearless.

Stubborn is a rule I don't think gets used often enough, and is a great, great help. For example, my Ogryn unit with Lord Commisar that is Stubborn LD10, I personally believe, is miles better than being Fearless.

Afterall, with Stubborn, there is still a chance the Necrons will flee, just a very small chance - as it should be for Evil Robots who just want to Harvest.


Slow and Purposeful
This is one that has caused controversy for a while now, but a lot of people are saying Necrons will likely get Slow and Purposeful USR to combat all these new found abilities. This is something I can take really, as the proposed changes are awesome.

The only thing I do not like however, is basing an entire army around a random movement value, but if it comes to it, I'm sure there will be plenty of new options to mitigate the 'Crons walking anywhere.


Conclusion
I'm going to try and cover each part of the Force Org chart over the next week or so, to discuss changes in 5th edition - both rumoured and my own ideas - and see what you guys think.

Opinions anyone?

SB

[Upcoming] Chaos Daemons Second Wave: UPDATE

After yesterday's post about the second wave of Daemons, I've had this picture brought to my attention from DakkaDakka.com and Warseer:

Plastic Seekers of Slaanesh, supposedly shown accidentally at a Games Day. You can also see the plastic Daemon Prince in the background too.

So yeah, enjoy :)

SB.

[Orks] Waaaagh! Nobrot!: Killa Kans

Hey all.

It's been a while now since I've done a breakdown for Waaaagh! Nobrot! so I thought I'd make a move in getting back into gear with it. Especially when it's been a bit of a slow week in terms of hobby things to take pictures of.

I'm currently working towards a 1,500pt 1 day competition and my aim with the army is to avoid having to move tons of models on the table - I'm very lazy. So I'm looking at taking a lot of armour - specifically Killa Kans.

So first off, I refused to buy metal Killa Kans and ended up with a way of making them that cost me 50p to make each one.

The body of the Kan is made from a plastic Kinder Egg toy container. The feet are the bottom of the Battle for Macragge Pylons - the top pieces went towards making Kustom Forcefields for my Big Meks.

The shooting weapons were made from leftover Chaos Predator bits. Big shootas made from Heavy Bolters and the Rokkit Launchas / Grotzookas were made from the Havoc Launcher vehicle upgrades.

I made the "Visor" and Mouthpiece out of plasticard and the top hatch was made from an upturned shield from Warhammer Fantasy.

So yeah - these cost me 50p each to make and I've now got 6 of them, with another 3 ready to be made to make a Heavy Metal Thunder army. Personally, I'm pretty proud of them and the only issue I have is that the paint chips quite easily off the Kinder Egg plastic and the superglue doesn't hold onto them very well. But for saving £11.50 per Kan (at the time), I'll deal with a bit of repainting or glue work.

Killa Kans to me are awesome. Anything that can be more reliable than Ork shooting in the army is always a good thing. Combined with the fact they're dirt cheap pointswise and come with a Dreadnaught Close Combat Weapon means they can pack a punch in close combat.

The best way for me to run them is in a Squadron of 3, although this means an immobilised result will destroy them, they save 30pts a Squadron on Extra Armour and also saved you buying Grot Riggers. Keeping them close by the Big Mek means they will benefit from a Kustom Forcefield making them even more survivable.

Now, how do they actually get used on the tabletop? First thing is what weapon load outs you would choose to use.

Big Shoota
The Big Shoota for me is the staple of the Killa Kans. Targetting tough infantry to thin them before the Ork assault wall hits. Also, the higher ballistic skill from these means they are far more reliable than ordinary Ork shooting. They're also quite cheap and add valuable long range fire for Ork army.

Grotzooka
Grotzookas are a unique weapon for the Killa Kans, which allow you to field some high strength, blast weapons, which helps against untis like Tyranid Warriors and other heavy infantry. They're also a 2 shot Blast weapon, which is excellent in my eyes.

Whilst they're more expensive than the Big Shootas, they're still very cheap and the good thing is that they can happily be put in a unit of Big Shootas, or other weapons and add some long range anti-horde firepower.

Rokkit Launcha
Rokkit Launchas are a very popular option on Killa Kans, providing a bit more choice, survivability and more reliable vehicle hunter than a Tankbusta unit. They can also be used to target Monstrous Creatures, should there be vehicles on the battlefield.

However, they're 15pts per Rokkit Launcha and only 1 shot per Kan per turn, which with a 50% chance to miss, I'd prefer weight of numbers than single shot.

Kans with Rokkits have their place, especially when tag-teamed with a Deff Dred or Assault Unit - the Kans smash a light vehicle, the Dred / Assault unit sweep in and mop up what spills out of the transport.

Skorcha
Skorchas for me, are a waste of points on a Kan, unless you really, really want a squad of Assault Kans - which is for me, a bad idea!

Skorchas are good for 5pts and can happily thin out horde units, flush people from cover or massacre light units, but again the issue is, you need to be up close to deal with that. And that is where the Kans begin to get crumped by Power Fists or Plasma / Melta guns.

Kustom Mega Blasta
Kustom Mega Blastas are cool on paper, but way too expensive to pay for a full lot of Kans and at that point, a Rokkit Launcha would have done it's job for cheaper. I'd leave these somewhere else and stick with either high rate of fire, or point for point effectivity.

Upgrades
I wouldn't bother using any of the upgrades on this unit really, since you're normally running them in Squadrons - Grot Riggers is useless as there'll be no immobilised results, and Armour plates is effectively already there with the squadron rule.

Forming the Unit
Now - how do we group all these together into a decent unit?

Unit size is the first thing. I always go for a unit of 3 - why?

1 Killa Kan can easily be dispatched by a stray lascannon or Melta gun, and then needs to be upgrades to have Armour plates.

2 Killa Kans are a nuisance, but a bad round of shooting means your wound allocation slowly piles up on you.

3 means there is enough spread out across the unit for allocating hits, it also means there's a lot of firepower that can make it through if there's Shaken results and that they can maximise their power in assault.

Personally I go for the Rate of Fire unit - 2 Big Shootas and a Grotzooka, which weighs in at under 130pts for a unit of 3. This gives me 6 S5 shots, plus 2 S6 blasts which is enough to cripple some units. If they make it to the middle of the battlefield then they can bog down units like Gaunts, Guardians or Guardsmen who will struggle to bring them down, if they can even bring them down at all.

Conclusion
I think Killa Kans are awesome in an Ork force, and once I've made my remaining 3, I'll have a bash at giving a Walker heavy army a go, lead by a Big Mek and his pet Deff Dred, and a Warboss with Meganobz.

What do you guys think about Kanz then? And in particular weapon loadouts and unit size?

SB

[Upcoming] Chaos Daemons Second Wave

So Sunday afternoon I get informed there's an email going round from GW about the second wave of Daemons coming in October. When checking the mail, I'm extremely dissapointed to find there's no pictures of anything new.

In August, the immortal legions of the Ruinous Powers - the Chaos Daemons - will pour forth once more from the Realm of Chaos to drown the Warhammer world and the galaxy of the 41st Millennium beneath a tide of blood and destruction. Even now, mystics are assailed by nightmarish visions of horror and death, the fractured minds of madmen echo with sibilant whispers, and the doomed clutch symbols of their weak gods closer to them.
A host of incredible new Citadel miniatures for both Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Daemons armies and Warhammer Daemons of Chaos armies will soon be released upon mortal battlefields. All will be revealed in July here on the Games Workshop website and in August's issue of White Dwarf magazine, so keep an eye out for more information.

This means pretty soon we should be seeing images of them, although they could just show up unannounced in a GW email, like the Boarboyz and River Trolls did for Warhammer Fantasy.

What can we expect to see in the 2nd wave of releases? Here's my thoughts:

Plastic Daemon Prince

This guy has been floating around for ages. He's showed up a German White Dwarf, if I remember rightly and since then he's been spotted in the Warriors of Chaos army book for Warhammer Fantasy a couple of times, and also another spotting in either Battle Missions or Planetstrike, stood on top of a large building.

What we know is that he's plastic, more Daemonic and less Space Marine looking, comes with option of Wings and has several heads, torsos and weapons.

Likely Factor: 10/10

Plastic Seekers of Slaanesh

[i]Image Courtesy of: http://ameba.lpt.fi/~varrolli/Figut/Deamons/Seekers1.jpg[/i]

Seekers are I think the only unit (excluding characters etc.) that have no available models to represent them so for the last 2 years, people have been having to convert or count-as to get these on the table.

The reason I've said these are likely to be plastic is because of how slender they are. If they're going to make them, I think 5 to a box for £15 would be enough to get people running 2 squads of 10 in regular games.

I think we'll definitely see them released, the debate on plastic or metal is the only clarification needed though.

Likely Factor: 8/10

Plastic Plaguebearers
These, unlike the other rumours above, haven't had anything confirmed other than wild speculation. I think that these would do well like the Tyranids and Necron Warriors used to come, with bases of Nurglings included in the pack. 10 Plaguebearers for £15 with 2 or 3 bases of Nurglings on the sprues and people would lap it up.

Likely Factor: 5/10

Plastic Horrors
Like with the Plaguebearers, I feel getting the 4 core troop choices in plastic would be a good move for GW, allowing more people to branch out from Khorne or Slaanesh, or those who have already invested in Nurgle or Tzeentch to bolster their forces.

It would also kick start people such as myself to move away from mono-God army lists and branch out into a mixed chaos list - something I've considered but didn't fancy paying for lots of different bitz to convert out of.

It would be even better if maybe these were a prime release box, say £18, but the boxset could allow you to make 10 Horrors or 5 Flamers, through some handy multi part section work.

Likely Factor: 4/10


Metal Blue Scribes
These guys can be converted from Blue Horrors on a Disc of Tzeentch. But I think these guys would tie into....

Likely Factor: 4/10

Plastic Chariots
Plastic Chariots for all! I think it would be too much to ask for 4 seperate chariot kits, with upgrades to the riders to allow them to be special characters like Skulltaker or the Blue Scribes. Or the other option is a generic Chaos chariot with a couple of extra parts here and there, Glyphs, Armour plates, etc. Then 1 rider from each Chaos God on the sprues.

Likely Factor: 3/10

The Changeling
A lot of people have made these out of all sorts of models - posessed space marines, chaos sorcerors, mutated Guardsmen etc. But I think GW might just decide to release him as a metal model.

Likely Factor: 3/10

Plastic Bloodthirster
This was an offhand rumour going around some of the forums that GW might bring out a plastic Bloodthirster model. I'm not sure how much of it is wish-listing and how much is the rumour mill but it would certainly be good to see.

Likely Factor: 1/10

Character Conversion Packs
The final thing I can come up with is Metal conversion packs to make some of the named Greater Daemons, such as an extra head, wings, weapon etc. etc. This is very much wish-listing though, and a lot of people have already proved you can make them from the options in the current boxsets.

Likely Factor: 1/10

Personally, I'm really looking forward to this release and what it holds for us Daemon players!

So what do you guys think? Any other ideas or suggestions?

SB.

[Fluff] Manutia - A Planet Under Siege

Morning all,

For a while now, it's been a growing idea that all my 40k forces come from the same planet somewhere in the 40k galaxy. It started on the FTW post about unifying your armies and has evolved from there over the past couple of weeks. Anyway... here it goes...

History of Manutia

During the Great Crusade, Manutia was brought to Compliance by the [IMPERIAL RECORDS DELETED] legion, designated [IMPERIAL RECORDS DELETED]. They faced heavy resistance from Ork tribes on the planet, along with a brief campaign with Chaos worshipping Cultists on the planet.

Imperial Guard regiments became stationed there to recruit loyal followers and over this time, Manutian regiments have grown substantially and are expert City fighting units. During the Heresy, the Imperial Guard stationed there remained loyal to the Emperor and fought off a resurgance of the Cultists and Chaos Worshippers previously found on the planet.

Current 40k Timeline

Necrons tombs have awoken deep inside the planet causing anyone dewlling outside the Hive Cities to either retreat into the relative safety of the Hive Cities or face harvesting. Strange artefacts and structures  have appeared in the Wastelands and the Manutians dare not travel too close to them - all scouting parties sent have failed to return. There has even been heretical talk amongst Manutians of a vengeful God appearing from beneath the planet. No visual confirmation has been made of this "Night God", as no survivors have returned from exploratory missions.

More and more Orks have begun to appear on the planet and nearby over-run planets, flocking to the banner of Waaaaagh Nobrot, looking to overthrow the primary planet in the Manutia cluster and use the Imperial Forges and technology to expand. These Orks roam the wastelands on the outskirts of the Hive Cities, launching constant raids to try and pierce the Defenses of the Manutian Imperial Guard.

Due to the vast underlying element of Chaos that has lingered from the past 10,000 years there are umpteen followers fo Chaos still hiding in the shadows of the Hive Cities and in the wilderness. These form resurgencies from time to time and result in unstable Warp storms and Daemons poring forth in an attempt to over throw the world. Notably the followers of Khorne, but battles with forces of Tzeentch and Slaaneshi Daemons have been ever increasing.

The world is slowly being over run and Imperial forces are dwindling. Not only from Necrons, Orks and Daemons, but also being a large Industrial planet, it is often used as a Waypoint by allies or a raid point by enemies - large amounts of Chaos Space Marines, loyalist Imperial forces and Eldar have come across the planet in recent times and the already knife-edged balance on Manutia is struggling to hold.

Most recently, an Abhuman race known as The Brotherhood of the Forge has helped the Manutians after recieving a distress call and an alliance has been forged. The Brotherhood and Manutians regularly take to the battlefield together and utilise one another's technology to combat a greater foe. There is still not been a clear explanation why the Brotherhood have appeared, nor their motives for helping the Imperium. Some whispers on Manutia say that they are a long forgotten, once mighty race of Warriors who are now resolved to piracy and a nomadic life amongst the stars.

Who knows what lies in Manutia's future, there are increasing rumours of a Chaos Crusade taking over nearby planets and systems, and the once loyal allies of the Imperium seem to become more Heretical by the day. For now, the planet holds... just.

SB

Road To Stockport: Week 2

(Last night was an interesting 3 player game involving the Space Wolves of Logan’s Great(ish) Company, the Tyranids of Hivefleet Tattybojangles, and the Guardsmen of Manutia)

As Logan and the Commander of the Guardsmen discussed the plan to destroy the Tyranid hive, a lone Alpha warrior strode forward leaving its pack behind.
Logan pointed to the Alpha Warrior “See how the Xeno scum believes itself better than us, it doesn’t even deem speech worthy of itself.” He appealed to the Commander.
The Guardsman turned to his squad and began whispering among themselves “I think you are right, but maybe we can discuss a truce so that no-body gets hurt!” he said to the two other commanders.
“That sounds reasonable” replied Logan, “Oi, Bug, I suggest you return to your ships or face the consequences.” The Alpha Warrior just stood there.
“That isn’t what I meant by a truce!” shouted the Guard Commander.
“You are willing to consort with Xeno, you disgust me!” bellowed Logan.
“I wonder what wolf meat tastes like?” were the only thoughts going through the Alpha warriors head.
That’s when the hive started to move, the group of Warriors in the near distance moved quickly to join the feast with their leader and the other creatures surged towards the Imperials. The Guardsmen had little time to react and their Commander was too stunned to move. The Wolves were a little quicker and got both squads of Terminators on the ground immediately, while a Lone Razorback surged forward eager to get the fangs of its heavy bolter into battle. The Long Fangs, securely in Position opened fire on the Imperial Valkyries believing them to be consorting with the Xenos but in the confusion the missiles went wide and missed with every one. Logan found his Retinue and regrouped with them after they launched a volley of bolter fire into the Guardsmen.

Then all hell broke loose. The Tyranids avoided the newly arrived Terminators and rushed towards the Vehicles of the Guard, but failed to do any lasting damage, leaving them open to a counter attack. The Guardsmen opened fire on the Tyranids but inflicted little damage to the large horde, the massed confusion left their ordered guns firing wildly. The Space Wolves got their Discipline back immediately and the Last Drop Pod Smashed into the Ground amidst the Tyranids, pouring Squad Leonis out into the wastes, they wasted no time and opened fire on the Alpha Warrior and his Brood, Terminator Squad Vulkan poured their own fire from the deadly assault cannon into the fray as well, killing off a couple of the Warriors, while the Long Fangs kept their Focus on the Valkyries.

Squad Leonis charged into the Alpha warrior hoping to bring it down with their weight of numbers, while the Terminators of Squad Vulkan secured the chapel with the help of Logans personal retinue. The Long fangs finally took off the weapons of one of the Valkyries. Leonis was able to kill off all the remaining Warriors but failed to wound the Alpha at all, leaving them open to a counter assault from a large swarm of gaunts, which hit them hard and despite a hard effort the Grey Hunters fell. The Alpha warrior took lead of the gaunts and headed towards the chapel under a hail of Lasfire from the Guardsmen. The Ogryns charged fearlessly into a looming trygon, wanting to prove they were worthy servants of the Emperor and through their ferocity almost felled the giant beast before they were cut down leaving the Commisar to face off against a monster three times the size of him.

Then the air screeched as if in pain, Logan Knew the sound, he saw the fleshy pod head straight for the chapel and as it burst open the horrific form of a lone Zoanthrope floated out. He knew that it was no ordinary Tyranid from the way his hackles raised, it was the Doom of Malan’tai. The first waves of Nausia washed over him and his squad and he could see Squad Vulkan suffered the same, he watched as the souls of his warriors were sucked into the creatures body and their lifeless forms crumpled to the ground, he could feel his own will being sucked away. He saw Squad Lykan jump from their Rhino and burn a large number of gaunts to a crisp before charging into the Alpha Warrior determined to avenge their fellow Grey Hunters. Then everything went black, once again, he would have to get used to this. Sergeant Vulkan was the only Terminator to survive defending the Chapel and told Logan how the Guard Squad had blown away the Mycetic Sport before the Long Fangs ripped the Doom apart before it could absorb the last of his soul.

The Guardsmen were not so lucky, the Trygon ripped into the Commisar and moved towards the Hovering Valkyries, and ripped one apart with its razor sharp claws, while the dreaded Zoanthropes used their great minds to blow another apart by sheer force of will. The Long Fangs were not kind towards their would be allies and destroyed one of the Chimeras while the Razorback blew apart a second Valkyrie from behind. Lycus had spent a while getting into position behind the Hive’s base spawning pool and charged straight into the largest creature they could find, which was a hulking Tervigon, Lycus entered a feral rage ripping shreds from the creatures armour and the Melta gun found these weak spots causing untold damage, while the other Scouts darted in and out stabbing and slashing at the large creature, it could not withstand the assault and a final drive into the creatures skull saw it die, but had also sealed the squads fate. The Rest of the Hive felt the loss of one of their birthing creatures and turned towards Lycus and opened fire, killing 3 of the squad, only the Melta gunner remained standing, and protected Lycus like a wolf protects its cub. The Space Wolves held the chapel securely with Vulkan stood sentinel while Lykan moved his squad in support, they had also managed to destroy the Tyranid Spawning pool, but would not be able to hold the area while the Scouts retreated back into the shadows, but it was at a cost and the Imperial guard base had been devoured by the Tyranids. The guardsmen put up a hard fight and destroyed the weakened Trygon with a single well placed Melta Shot, blowing its head apart in a shower of roasted gore.

The Imperials held the Chapel and it would be a long clean up to rid the infestation of Tyranids. The Misunderstanding between the Guardsmen and the Space Wolves was settled and they worked together to remove the foul Xeno from the planet.

[Rumours] Daemonhunters, Witchhunters and Inquisition Forces

Normally, I'll avoid posting news and stuff on here, but a couple of us have been talking about Grey Knight rumours found across the web, so I thought I'd compile them and discuss it properly on here.

Image Courtesy of: http://turin-the-forsaken.deviantart.com/

The first lot is a biiiiiig list of what is supposedly to come with it all:

=][= Inquisition
There will be no new DH/WH books, and there will be a single =][= book
Release window is not 2010 for Codex =][= Inquisition – Rumours are it might just be a release of Storm Raven / Terminators in September
GK and =I= forces are much further along in Development than Sisters and Priests.
All inquisition units to get new models...eventually
Codex: Inquisition to combine all orders of =I=
No allies, but indoctrinated units will include choices from other Imperial armies
Lots of Psychic Nullification Sounds like GK
Lots of Ignore Invul Sounds like GK
Another flyer/transport kit Valkyrie-sized being planned for release Could be a Valkyrie box with options like the LR Crusader kit – This is obviously the Storm Raven
Imperial Assassin now a single unit, Culexus, Callidus, etc all gone. Unit will have numerous lethal options. Very Expensive.
New vehicle : Jetbikes?
New Character/model : A named preacher. New model for Imperial Missionary Jacobus?
New Character/model : Confessor with a big staff with what looks like integrated flamer New model for Imperial Confessor Kyrinov?


Grey Knights
GK being focused on for release, Sisters 2nd wave
GK models may see light of day early tied into another product release. (commentary: I hear rumors of a Space hulk expansion being planned, but they are vague and disorganized, so much salt needed here) – This could be when the Storm Raven / GK termies are released
New GK Terminators 3ups (5 poses, 1 HQ/leader)
New Daemonhunter concept art
New Grey Knight fluff, definitely enough there for a full codex. Much more detail on organization and history. Background on "heroes." Good stuff.
New DH vehicles/support
New Character/model : Looks like a Grey Knight Chaplain.
New Character/model : Grey Knight named justicar, with 2 ended force weapon.
New Character/model : Grey Knight vehicle based character. Grey Knight on jetbike? Earlier refference to Sammael taken into consideration


Sisters of Battle
No faith points Does NOT mean no more Acts of Faith, most likely similar to IG Orders – BOOOOOOOO! Faith Points were ace.
New Witchhunter concept art
New WH vehicles/support
New Character/model : Sister with what looks like twin arm mounted SBs.
New Character/model : New concept for Throne of Judgement, less like a converted dread.
New Character/model : Sister with twin cat o nine tails. Named Repentia Mistress? Sounds interesting but unlikely. Sister Repentia box set being discontinued supports rumour on plastic repentias
New Character/model : Named Seraphim with new jump pack, more marine like (large jets) but retains some archaic details, also has sword and combi weapon



Named Characters : "Around a dozen named characters, incl existing"
WH has Saint Celestine and Inquisitor Lord Karamazov
DH has Brother-Captain Stern of the Grey Knights and Inquisitor Lord Torquemada Coteaz, allso mentions Inquisitor Quixos and Helgrund


Inquisitor Quixos is mentioned in the DH codex but is not a playable character. He´s a radical Inquisitor being the one to create Daemonhosts (one binding the Daemon Cherubael and the other not quite identified but was known as Prohaniti)
He allso mastered the art of creating Soulguards - individuals who were psychic vacuums that could absorb magic and protect those nearby from the baneful energies of Chaos
Wields a daemonblade containing the ferocity of Kharnagar the Deathly, a being he had defeated some decades earlier and whose essence had been boing into his sword
Could invoke the full power of Kharnagar, causing Helgrund to explode into flames and immolate when driving his daemonblade into Helgrund´s guts


Inquisitor Helgrund is mentioned in the story about Quixos who is later killed by him with his daemonsword.
Has Redemptionist priests and an arco-flagellant in his retinue
Wields a Force Hammer, charged with faith and purity
Was able to call upon the Emperor´s blessings and drove hard at Quixos, his force hammer smashing through psychic shields and warp-wards alike (Ignore inv save I take it)

That's a big hefty list there and a lot to read through... but oh wait - there's more!

Changes to Grey Knight weaponry:

Normal Grey Knights/Justicar - Powerweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+.
Grey Knight Terminators/Paladin - Powerweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+ (Possibility may be master-crafted)
Brother Captain - Forceweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+ (Possibility may be master-crafted)
Grand Master - Forceweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+, Re-roll invulnerable saves (Again possibility may be master-crafted).

Also Aegis Armour:

Aegis Armour now gives a 5+ Invulnerable save from Psychic attacks targeted on the wearer(s) and a 4+ Inv. Save for Terminators armoured GKs and HQs.

So what do you guys reckon? Reportedly it will be a Storm Raven and Grey Knight Terminators release in September, with conflicting rumours whether the rest of it will be at that time (including the codex).

Thanks to Librarium Online for me finding the rumours, specifically JarranVanKell and Rhyn0 for posting them on there.

- What do you guys think? There's nothing solid at the min so apply some salt on all this!

SB.

Names and the reasons for them

Hi all,

Angryman here, following a text message from Sanguinius about a guy who changed his name from Richard Smith to Stormhammer Deathclaw Firebrand (quality name change!!)

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/825579-man-renames-himself-stormhammer-deathclaw-firebrand

I was wondering if anyone has given unique names to any of their characters or models and the reasons for it.

[Important] GW Price Increases

Over the past few months I've tried to avoid posting "News" style articles and focusing more on hobby / discussion. However, this is the fastest way to bring all this to attention.

In short, GW are raising prices of stuff around 10 - 15%, most notably Army Books and Codexes along with Tanks and Vehicles - which is sneaky since Spearhead is just on the horizon.

You can check it all out here: GW Price Increases @ Dark Sphere

Understandably people will be annoyed by this, but chill out before posting a comment. The most annoying thing to me personally is the Army Book / Codex price increase, as these are a necessity to play the game and I can see this leading to a rise in people using Scribd and Torrenting the Codexes illegaly.

SB.

[Paintlog] Imperial Guard Valkyries

Hey all,

Another productive weekend on my behalf. Starting one evening this week I made a start on painting my 3 Valkyries I bought for my Imperial Guard army at Christmas. These guys are a nightmare to try and store away and I think they're also the biggest things I've painted in terms of overall area.

They're painted much in the same way as the rest of my Guard vehicles - Adeptus Battlegrey basecoat with a Fortress Grey overbrush layer.

I tried to stick with only a few instances of different colours to try and emphasise certain things - such as the Red warning lights dotted around and the tips of the missiles.

I also found I had problems with the bases of the models. Like the sand I put on just didn't seem to want to stick when it came to covering it in Chaos Black paint, which has resulted in some patchy looking bases. I tried to fill most of it up with Static grass but still...

Overall, I'm pretty pleased. As with the rest of my guard vehicles, I got them painted surprisingly quickly but these guys took a lot more effort. I also found to major annoyance that the Cockpits didn't fit properly after I'd gone to stick them on after painting, so they're a bit lopsided.

Next project is to paint up my converted Lord Commisar to accompany my Ogryn unit :)

SB.

[Paintlog] Imperial Guard Command Squad and Chimeras

Morning all,

For the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to force myself to get my 2,000pt Imperial Guard list painted up, ready to gaming. But one thing leads to another, tiredness kicks in and it becomes a struggle to paint.

This is my Command Squad I've dragged together, built from the plastic Cadian command squad with some extras.

Command Squad:
- Col. Straken
- Regimental Standard
- Melta Gun
- Medic
- Vox Operator
- 2 Bodyguards

First in the middle is my Col. Straken count-as. He was originally a power fist armoured officer fighting Necrons on their home planet when he was almost killed and Necron stasis-held parts were used to repair him. There's more of a backstory here... but I might save it for a fluff writeup.

The two guys on the far left and far right are the Colonel's Bodyguards. They're made from Valkyrie gunners with Cadian heads and arms. I made them have Chainswords and "free" hands, so they're recognisable as Bodyguards.

The guy with the banner in this list, is the Regimental Standard bearer, but he's also my home-planet's countas Jarran Kell. He's a Valkyrie gunner with Power Sword, Standard and the bald Veteran head from the Command Squad.

The Medic, Melta Gun and Vox are all standard Guardsmen. I like the idea of the Medic even though some people will claim he's a waste of points in a Guard army and the Melta gun is there to back Straken up with a bit of ranged Anti-Tank / Terminator firepower.

This is my count-as Guardsman Marbo. Rather than have some Rambo-esque Jungle Warrior, I wanted more of a Solid Snake approach fitting an Urban environment. Hence the Valkyrie pilot's Visor head was chosen, with the Sniper body from the Guard command squad. I finished it off with a Demolition Charge from my Ork Bitz.

I think I'm going to re-paint his helmet Black to match the rest of the armour and also make more sense Stealth wise.

These are my 2 Chimeras which I painted on Saturday evening, the one with the closed Turret is for the Command Squad with dual Heavy Flamers and the other is a taxi for a Veteran Squad.

So yeah, took me a while with everything that's going on in life and I'm not impressed with the paintscheme now on these models in the pictures but oh well... Gives me more direction for painting my next army, whereas these guys are a "Get them painted and onto the table" force.

Join the pledge - unless it's painted, it's off the table!

SB