Deathwatch Mission Tactics

I love the Deathwatch but one thing I've learnt through bitter, bitter experience is that they absolutely need to do as much damage at range as possible. Once your enemy closes with you and starts causing casualties its basically over for that unit. The battlefield efficiency of a Kill-Team drops drastically with the death of each and every marine.

There's been a lot of speculation the last few weeks on the Deathwatch Facebook group I'm a part of about how the new Codex might combat this. Top of the wish list for most were either better special issue ammunition or some sort of invulnerable save.

As it turns out there is at least one new special issue ammunition type available in the stratgems but the big idea the design team has had is Mission Tactics.

The basic idea here is to choose a type of unit (Troops, Fast Attack and so on) and for the duration of the game most everything in the army (infantry, bikes and Dreadnoughts) re-rolls 1s to wound against the type. There is a Warlord Trait and an item that allow you to change the Mission Tactic mid-game.

Obviously, I'll have to see how it works in game but this is probably the best solution to the problem. Deathwatch excel in shooting and have a slight weakness in combat because of their small numbers (more in the taking casualties area than the number of attacks area, obviously). This boosts the shooting and helps out with the combat problem, making them better at the thing they're meant to be amazing at and papers over one of the few real the army has.

I am very much looking forward to road testing this codex.

Tyranids first (and second) impressions

This past weekend my Tyranids took to the field for the first and second times. They did so closely supported by a Patrol Detachment of Genestealer Cults to make up the numbers (and who I had also never used before). The first game was against my friend Matt's Death Guard and the second against Tom's Imperial Guard. I lost both games but lessons were learnt.

For a start, I need more small things. The list I used included a unit of twenty Termagants, two units of ten Genestealers and a unit of ten Gargoyles. The Termagants did reasonably well in both games. I wasn't previously planning on using them as a deployed unit, the models I've been painting were originally planned as just something for my Tervigon to spit out and I didn't think the Tervigon would be much use with only a pool of twenty to generate. Contrary to my expectation they performed marvelously so it looks like I'll be trawling eBay for more of the cheap little fellows so I can have a unit to set up and plenty for the Tervigon to spit out.

The Genestealers did very well against the Death Guard, finally destroying my eternal nemesis the Blightlord Terminators and even took his Lord Of Contagion down to one wound (a personal best) before I got tabled. Obviously, against Guard they were shot to pieces and of the twenty only three made their contact with the enemy. I have plenty of spare Genestealers thanks to Tom donating an old and long unused Tyranids army to the project so fifteen man (insect) units are definitely something I'm going to work on.

Similarly, taking Neophyte Hyrbids at maximum unit strength would both help them survive and give me more shotguns. The two heavy weapons and two special weapons slots are nice but in a ten man unit you do start taking them off rather quickly. Plus, with only a Patrol Detachment to fill (I don't see the Cults running to a complete army in the near future) a large unit is preferable to two small ones.

I like having lots of psykers! In the army I had a Hive Tyrant, a Neurothrope and a Genestealer Magos. Usually I confine myself to a single psyker but between what I had to hand and the fact its a pretty common character rule in the army I ended up with the ability to manifest five powers and deny three.

I really need to remember that Shadow In The Warp is a rule that exists, however.

Less of a lesson learnt and more a lesson I already knew but had not power to exploit: I need to get burrowing units to exploit the Hive Fleet Jormungandr command stratagem that allows me to set up Infantry unit in their tunnels. That said, I would have lost the game against Tom one hell of a lot sooner if not for the enhanced cover saves from Hive Fleet Jormungandr's inate ability.

I love my Venomthropes but they don't love me. I need to put some real thought into how to best exploit them. They are not really combat bio-forms, I am beginning to feel. Rather than charging them in I need to work out how to best exploit their short range Toxic Miasma and Toxic Lashes abilities. My instinct, especially with an army like this, is to rush headlong into combat. An effective tactic against the Death Guard, to be sure, as it neuters their heavy firepower but Imperial Guard have a hell of a lot more guns and lose a lot less Ballistic Skill when firing Overwatch. I may start looking into some of the Heavy Support bio-forms but that will be after experimenting with the burrowers. Tom is very good at managing his backfield to minimise the places I can deep strike into.

Lictors are fantastic. I have to remember I have one in reserve and they are a bit of a glass cannon but they are fantastic character assassins which is what they were always intended to be.

As to the Genestealer Cults: what I took was pretty much just to paper over gaps in the main detachment. I had no Tyranids Heavy Support so Matt lent me a couple of Leman Russ and an Armoured Sentinel. There's no way I can describe two Leman Russ as a bad power level investment but I feel they'd work better in synergy with more Cults infantry. As it was they were useful but pretty much fighting their own battle separate from the rest of my army.

My Metamorph Hybrids didn't make it to combat in either game and I'm obscurely glad, to be honest. They have so many weapons options and I have no idea what half of them did. I need to have a sit down with the Cults list and properly learn at least some of the basic weapons do for this army.

I love the webber, by the way, which is worth its weight in gold against Plague Marines. Rolling to wound against Strength instead of Toughness is fantastically useful.

Imperial Guard shooting is my nemesis now, which is fine because its meant to be, and I really need to work on neutralising that advantage.

Whatever else I might have learnt (or not) from these games I've learnt that I really enjoy playing Tyranids. The Cults I am less sold on but I admit the spread of units I took for the Patrol Detachment wasn't the best combination or particularly representative of the army's main tactics. The Tyranids are fast and vicious when they get into close combat which is my favourite phase of the game. I need to concentrate a little more on shooting just to keep the enemy busy in the turns before I start clashing them up with talons and claws but I feel I am starting to get a handle on things. 

A Flesh Tearers player's notes on the Blood Angels codex

Seriously, just my personal notes not anything like a review.

I am not blown away by Gabriel Seth. He's not bad by any stretch of the imagination but considering that there are no sub-faction rules in this book I was hoping he would do a bit more to impart some Flesh Tearers character to my army. As it is he has a cool but intensely situational rule that gives a slim chance nearby units might get a second combat round in (it goes off on a 6 on units within 6”) and the usual 6” AoE effect allowing Flesh Tearers units to re-roll to hit.

Blood Reaver, his chuff off massive chainsword, is suitably nasty at Strength 8, AP -2 for 3 Damage and inflicting an additional hit for every hit roll of 6 (and Seth has 4 Attacks so that's good odds).

(By the way, there's a perfectly needless note about unique characters I encourage everyone to ignore about how, for instance, Dante is the Blood Angels Chapter-Master and no one else's so you can't change his or anyone's Blood Angels keyword to be used as another chapter's Chapter-Master. As I say, I'd encourage people to ignore this for the simple reason that there isn't another Chapter-Master profile other than Seth you can use if you want, say, field the Blood Drinkers with their Chapter-Master).

There is also a non-Primaris profile for Lieutenants which is useful for someone playing the perpetually under-manned Flesh Tearers. It makes sense they'd have people leading strike forces who aren't as senior as Captains (of which I think they had four at last count).

Should I ever want to use Primaris Marines (I'm not currently that interested) the Blood Angels get access to the full range. Of more interest to me is the fact that they have access to a lot more armour as they gain Land Speeder Storms, Hunters, Stalkers, Stormhawk Interceptors and Stormtalon Gunships. The fliers and the Storm interest me the most as someone who wants to theme his army around mobility rather than static firebases. I really want a Stormhawk.

That's about it. As I say there are no sub-faction rules so Seth really is the only Flesh Tearers representation the Codex provides. There are some nice pieces of Flesh Tearers art including a picture of a Rhino that almost sells me on that mostly black colour scheme. I might event try it on my Vindicator. 

Hive Fleet Jormungandr (in theory)

I'm making progress painting my Start Collecting set (the old one with the Hive Tyrant) and I've got a few other odds and ends cheap off eBay. The Codex is in hand and thoroughly flicked through for inspiration so its time to think about the sort of army I'm building towards. Thus, a theoretical army list. Nothing extravagant, just 50 power to be getting on with. Here's what I'm thinking:

(anything without wargear are units I haven't built yet)

HQ

Hive Tyrant with scything talons and heavy venom cannon

Tervigon with massive scything talons and stinger salvo

Elites

3 Venomthropes

Troops

3 Tyranid Wariors with rendings claws, devourers and venom cannon

20 Hormagaunts with scything talons

10 Genestealers.

Fast Attack

20 Gargoyles

52 power

As I say, this is mainly a “field what I got” army which is why my tunneling army of ambush contains not one single Ravener or Trygon. That I'm leaving for 100 power and when I start to experiment with fancy tactics after I've mastered the basics.

The Tervigon is probably a bit OP for this size of game but I learnt recently that these sorts of armies need bodies on the ground and some big things to draw fire, both of which a Tervigon is admirably capable of plus being having an extra psyker on the table is always useful. Also, I got a cheap one off eBay for like twenty quid and I am dying to paint it.

I won't pretend there's any great tactical insight in this list its more a statement of intent to give me something concrete to work towards: the point at which I will have something like a useable army. After “useable”, one hopes, comes “good”.

So here;s to embarrassing but educative defeat!

Watch Station Rubicon (a Tyranids side narrative)

Its no use, the not having a story to tell is getting to me. Tyranids are a wonderful army to paint, a fascinating army to play but there is nothing to write. No other army in any Warhammer system offers zero opportunities to personalise and characterise your force. They are completely without personality and whilst I feel sure that once I have a tide of chitinous to unleash on my opponents, once I'm contributing at least to their stories, that will have its charm for the moment it feels a little lacking.

So I'm dusting off my Deathwatch. Like the Mechanicus and Genestealer Cults I was really into the idea when the army came out but ended up making a couple of kits' worth before losing interest. I cannot stress how little seventh edition engaged me as a player.

You know what does engage me? Teams of mismatched individuals who eventually cohere into a closely bonded unit. What can I say? I was raised on Joss Whedon shows and Star Wars Expanded Universe novels.

The idea I talked over with my friend Tom, an Imperial Guard player and one of my most regular opponents, was that I'd make a couple of Kill-Teams and he (or anyone else in the group playing an Imperium army) would leave some space in their army list for a Kill-Team of their choice as an allied unit. The idea being that the Kill-Teams are on a wide-ranging mission against Hive Fleet Jormungandr and these battles are where their operations interact with the longterm deployment of the Guard and other forces in the sector.

And thus I have a story to write.

In particular, the story of Watch Station Rubicon and its commanding officer Watch Master Caldon Gerhardt of the Iron Knights. The team of oddballs, incidentally, will be Kill-Team Germanicus led by the rather mismatched but curiously efficient partnership of Sergeant Yehven Germanicus of the Novamarines (a by the book Codex sort) and Brother Mannheim of the Raptors (the ultimate “whatever works” chapter).

There'll be a Black Shield, of course, because they are too cool not to have; the various members of Kill-Team Cassius re-purposed to be my own characters; and a pair of Space Wolves because I love the background detail that Space Wolves always join in pairs. Oh, and Germanicus' rival is a Sergeant of my beloved Flesh Tearers because I was also brought up on crap animes where a rival on the hero's own side was a prerequisite. 

Flicking through the Tyranid Codex

It occurred to me, when I finally remembered the codex had been released, that I had committed to an army without knowing what it did. I chose to paint my Tyranids as Hive Fleet Jormungandr (well, what I think the artwork looked like, 'Eavy Metal disagree with me, it seems) who were pre-existing but only in so far as they were a name and a completely different colour scheme no mere amateur like me could possibly achieve.

So there was a good chance that GW would write new special rules for them and I had no idea what those rules would be. To be frank, I got lucky because the Jormungandr rules are actually quite cool. As with most sub-factions these days they get an army-wide special rule, a stratagem and a warlord trait. Jormungandr's “thing” it turns out is burrowing. They infiltrate inhabited worlds by landing under cover of meteor shower, burrowing deep down and then undermining the inhabitants' fortifications. They also tend to retain some assets underground so even if defeated they will rise up again.

So how does this work on the tabletop.

To start with the strategem The Enemy Below allows you to spend a command point to set up an infantry unit underground and have it emerge with any Raveners, Mawlocs, Trygons or Trygon Prime. This is an ability usually restricted to the two Trygon variants and that rule only allows you to have Troops choices accompany them. This version allows any infantry unit so that opens it up to thinks like Biovores, Venomthropes, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard and so on.

The army-wide special rule (or Hive Fleet Adaptation) is Tunnel Networks allows any non-flying unit to claim the benefit of cover against shooting unless it advances of charges in your preceding movement phase. Speaking as someone who regularly faces a man who is very, very fond of Front Rank Fire, Back Rank Fire I am very happy with this result.

The Jormungandr warlord trait is Insidious Threat which means the Warlord and Jormungandr units within 3” ignore cover when shooting at enemy units.

At this stage I'm not thinking too deeply about theming the army. I haven't played a game yet and I'm just painting what I could get cheap in bundles or on eBay. I certainly want some Raveners in the initial 50 power list and I'll give some thought to something fruity to spend a command point them out of the ground (Venomthropes, maybe, I like the look of Venomthropes). Aside from that I'm going to wait until I have a couple of games under my belt before I make decisions about where I want the army to go.

Also there will be plentiful Gargoyles because sellers on eBay just can't sell them fast enough or cheap enough to exhaust their supply. 

What to do with all these Tyranid bits?

It occurs to me, building my Tyranids Start Collecting set, that there isn't really much point in keeping the spare parts. Tyranids have a really comprehensive range. If a creature can have a weapon then that weapon is going to be right there on the kit.

A bunch of spare parts are going to my friend Matt who is using them to manufacture Chaos things for his Lost And The Damned. Some of the smaller bits, however, I'm going to hold on to so I can make some Ultramarines Tyrannic War Veterans. I don't want an Ultramarines army, as interesting as I find them I just know I'd end up bored out of my mind painting that much blue. A single unit, though, that's interesting to convert and paint.

I also admit there's a certain pleasure to having a small Ultramarines force made entirely out of a non-Codex unit. Also, as Veterans its another excuse to work on painting white. 

The unique philosophical perspective of the Tyranids

As much as I love the models there was always something that put me off Tyranids: the lack of personality. This extends further than them just not having names or even named characters in the traditional sense. Because Tyranids of whatever size or intelligence are birthed by the hive ships, perform the task they were made for and are then digested by those same hive ships its unlikely that (storyline-wise) your Hive Tyrant in one game represents the same Hive Tyrant in the next.

Essentially, they're the one army where you aren't playing the hero in your own story.

No matter how debased or evil or mad the leader of any other army might be they're still pursuing an agenda. Your Necron Lord wants to rebuild what he sees as the one true civilisation of the galaxy. Abaddon the Despoiler has a whole revenge drama going on even if his ultimate objective is to throw the galaxy into eternal damnation. The motivation might not be nice but it exists, there's a way that the character sees themselves as in the right, no one sees themselves as the villain of the piece, as the old writing maxim goes.

(Okay, maybe the Night Lords.)

In a way this very quality makes the Tyranids perfect for my purposes. I'll be playing a lot of club games with this army as it grows and trying to impose a storyline on that sort of environment is a nightmare. If I can just handwave fighting Tau, Space Marines, Eldar and so on and so on in rapid succession by saying its all different splinters of Hive Fleet Jormungandr all the better.

It'll also be interesting to see what sort of story my more regular opponents come up with surrounding my actions. My friend Tom (a dedicated Valhallan Guard player) and I have been trying to come up with a storyline for us to play through for some time and the classic horde vs. horde or Guard and 'Nids seems as good a story to tell as any.

And if I eventually find myself with a yen to write some personalised stories of the campaign I can always bring my Genestealer Cults into the mix. 

No Battleplan Survives Contact With My Father (Winter Warlords 2017)

Every year the local GW hosts Winter Warlords, a hobby challenge in which us regulars knuckle down to starting a new army whilst the evenings are cold and dark and our relatives need some indication of what we want for Christmas. This year I was going to work on my Black Legion because I have a decent starting force built and whilst they were fun to make and will be fun to play a simple black and gold colour scheme sounds a bit boring to paint.

Then my father happened. Its my birthday this week and my dear old dad bought me a Tyranid Start Collecting set. I've never played Tyranids before, never even painted one aside from a couple of Genestealer Cults models I bought when that army first hit.

It was still a toss up, though. I got home with my big box o' bugs but I still felt it would be the Black Legion for Winter Warlords because I wasn't sure how I wanted to paint the 'Nids. Organic colours are not my usual medium but then a friend commented on a GW Facebook post and thus this image appeared on my timeline:

I love it. It has fantastic contrast between the two main colours. Grey is a colour I know I can achieve an organic look on (as I already managed it with my Nurgle Daemons) and I think I can adapt the bone method from my Tomb Kings for the carapace. En masse I think these guys will look amazing.

First step: build the Warriors from my Start Collecting to test out the colour scheme. 

Black Legion "born of" conversions

One of the most interesting aspects of the Black Legion is that they aren't just a corporate rebrand of the Sons Of Horus. Rather, whilst a lot of them originated in the Sons Of Horus, they're recruited from all nine traitor legions and a few other places besides. Aaron Demski-Bowden in his two Black Legion novels includes in his dramatis personae notes on which world the cast members were “born of”. Since their origins inform a lot of their personality and how they interact with other characters this is a useful list to have around.

It also means that Black Legionnaires can be more than just bog standard Chaos Space Marines (because I hate the bog standard Chaos Marine models).

I had an idea a few weeks aho to build some Chaos Marines using Betrayal At Calth Marines and Raptor heads. My idea was that being on the bottom of the ladder favour of the Gods-wise they wouldn't be that changed. Also because they'd be armed with bolters and so nothing I did to their bodies would be that visible. As you can see, it worked... sort of.

They look good but, probably because I used Raptors, they don't look as “generic” as I'd hoped. Instead, what I clearly have is a unit of Night Lords or, to put it another way, Black Legion born of Nostramo. So, not the replicable conversion I was hoping for but one that gives me a distinctive, characterful little unit.

So I started tinkering. I had a plastic Chaos Lord left over from Terminator Lord Cadre box I got to make some Forge World Plague Terminators and a set of MkIII Space Marines picked up cheap on eBay. The Chaos Lord ended up hybridised with some Chaos Terminator parts (I don't like any of the actual Lord heads) and a MkIII thunder hammer to make my General for missions too unimportant for Abaddon to deal with:

I rather like how the thunder hammer looks, even though I did have to try and get the two hands as far apart as possible so people wouldn't notice the different sizes. I am currently resisting naming him after Donald Trump. Anyway, he's born of Olympia because I rather like the idea of Abaddon noticing the ability of an Iron Warrior since that was the whole motivation for their fall (and because Perturabo is actually really, really bad at noticing the abilities of those serving in his legion because irony).

Finally, I traded for some spare Skullcrusher heads and turned the MkIII Marines into a unit originating in the World Eaters legion. I gave them a long range load out because a) I don't have enough close combat weapons for a whole MkIII squad and I'm not paying Forge World prices for parts that will be distorted beyond use and b) it occurs to me that an Iron Warrior would prize self-control so this squad would have to be not frothingly insane to keep their place in his warband.

He's getting recognition, it might have lightened him up but he's not going to any less of a controlling, micro-managing bastard. He's an Iron Warrior, after all. 

There are 6 Elites choices in a Battalion detachment

This changes everything! I had it in my head that the Battalion was just the old Standard Force Organisation Chart with an extra HQ slot.

Well, this makes army selection a little easier, doesn't it? My only real complaint about eighth edition was the sudden proliferation of buff characters competing for my Elites slots. The Noxious Blightbringer springs to mine or all those mini-characters who used to be mere components of the Space Marine Command Squad who are now independent characters in their own right.

Honestly, I am really glad this is a thing. One of the best things eighth edition Fantasy did was increase the Special Choice limit to 50% of your army. Generally speaking most of the big theme units are in the Special choices. Usually this means units that are from somewhere like Swordmasters of Hoeth or units that represent a specific sub-faction like Plague Monks.

This is less the case with 40k but Elite choices tend to be where the specialists live whilst your Troops choices tend towards generalism (unless the army itself tends towards a specialism). For one thing I imagine Eldar players are happy for the chance to take a wider selection of Aspect Warriors. For my part there are so many cool Elites choices available to my Death Guard and Black Templars that I'm glad I no longer have to skimp on the cool stuff.

Hey, everyone likes more cake. 

Design Notes: the Basic Chaos Space Marine Problem (and a possible solution)

The Problem

One of the real problems of the Chaos Space Marines range is that the basic troops are by far the worst looking things in the range. What's more, I'd be prepared to swear that the sculpts are degrading: I bought a box a year or so back and the armour trim on the legs was barely distinct in several places which made them an arse to paint. 

And I HATE heavy bolter! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Whose smart idea was to have it be a three-part assembly with the heaviest component hanging down from the other two? If Nottingham HQ has a woodshed, take that guy out the back of it, please. 

The Dark Vengeance box set didn't help either. That starter box had a set of amazing Chosen that showed just what could be achieved by applying the modern design sensibilities of Chaos to the idea. To wit: not just Space Marines in Viking hats. Sadly, its been a few years now and the only model to actively benefit from the new aesthetic those models pioneered was the Aspiring Champion clampack character who came out a week later. 

So, what to do, what to do? Waiting has proven ineffective as we've just had a Chaos Marine codex with no model release attached. So its time to kitbash my way out of the problem. 

Keeping It Simple:

A Hierarchy of Mutation

The key phrase here is “basic Chaos Space Marine”. Heroes/villains of legend they may be but they shouldn't be so fancy they overshadow the presence of more elite troops like Terminators, Chosen or Possessed. 

The basis of the unit will be the plastic Horus Heresy Space Marines in MkIV armour. Its simple enough to kitbash, being a Space Marine kit, and has the benefit of being an armour mark most of the Legions would have had in abundance. Its also the closest to “modern” power armour so its easier to swap loyalist or other Chaos parts into than MkIII, which has a much more distinctive silhouette. 

Now, as I mentioned, I don't want to mutate this unit's armour too much. For one thing, it would be hard to do without replacing more parts than I want to spend money on. Keeping legs, torsos and most weapons from this kit intact. Now, I have plenty of old Chaos Marine shoulder pads lying around if I choose to use them but what's really going to sell the conversion is the heads. To be specific, these heads:

Bought off eBay as a set, these are the heads from a box of Chaos Raptors. Mutated, certainly, but also distinctly recognisable as Space Marine helmets (and with a glorious lack of silly, chunky horns). This way the unit gets to look mutated but not overly so. Even if I do the rest of the army straight out of the box the more elite units, the ones higher in the favour of the dark gods, will still look more baroque and changed. 

Its also an easily replicated trick if I decide I want to do multiple units like this. Alternatively, its a look I can easily take in a different direction if I want each unit to look like its own warband. 

Now I just have to wait for the parts to arrive in the post. 

Test Models: Victoria Miniatures kilted legs

I have come to hate the Cadian Shock Trooper. Its not that they're bad models, they're perfectly competent sculpts, pretty user friendly to build and paint. However, they are also immensely boring and I have painted dozens over the years and they are basically designed to be boring. They are literally the “standard issue grunt” recruited in their billions by the Imperial Guard.

So, when I decided to finally revive my old Guard army, the Silvik 23^rd / Metellus 5^th Tactical Support Detachment, I knew I had to do something to make them a little more interesting to look at and paint.

Enter Victoria Miniatures and their Kilted Legs set. They, in fact, do entire figures “Highland Guard” figures who just happen to dead ringers for the Drookian Fen Guard but I did want to keep some of the outline of your classic Cadian Guardsman. Also, the complete figures come out a little expensive and I want a largely infantry-based force. My background for the army always had them (at least, the Silvik side of the regiment) come from a very mountainous world so tanks and such are at something of a minimum. Lots of Sentinels, though, I like Sentinels.

First, though, I'll be painting this Veteran Squad. They are Sergeant Pertwee and his Particulars, the regimental quartermaster's personal scrounging squad whose... extracurricular activities get a blind eye turned to them by Commissar Foster and Stratego Callum so long as the Sergeant is willing to lend the squad's considerable skills to certain behind enemy lines missions. This would be the reason they're armed the way they are: a nice all-round squad geared up to break bunkers and vehicle armour but capable of going anti-infantry if I have a need.

I'm almost certainly giving them a Chimera. It might not have originally been theirs but you can repaint those things pretty quickly if you feel the need and I don't know what you mean, Commissar, there's always been this many Chimeras in the pool, purely a discrepancy in the paperwork we'll get it corrected, just sign here, sir.

Now I just need to decide how to paint them. I don't want to go historical redshirt on them but I have also painted enough green and grey over the last couple of weeks to last me a while.

Maybe something in blue?

A pointless hope for Great Coat Guardsmen

A few days ago, the following image was posted by Games Workshop as one of their Rumour Engine posts:

It shows, as you can see, a las weapon. Obviously, its hard to get an idea of scale in these images and that's intentional but its looks a lot to me like that's a laspistol. I think at the left-hand edge of the image there's a trigger guard and this is meant to be a pistol based on something like a Second World War luger or the like.

So its time to cross all fingers and delude myself into believing that Guard in great coats are coming. If I'm right about the inspiration behind that design it might be Valhallans or Steel Legion, maybe even Death Korps of Krieg. What's more, Warhammer TV's Tip Of The Day used a Forge World miniature for the first time ever and it was a Death Korps trooper.

I really, really want new core plastics for Guard. The Catachan Infantry Squad has been showing its age for years and I am so damn tired of painting Cadians.

What's more, Guard are one of the easier armies to create a new infantry range for. You need three pre-defined kits: Command Squad, Infantry Squad and Heavy Weapons Squad. Beyond that all the tanks and fliers are interchangeable, you just need a couple of extra heads on the Infantry Squad sprue to add some flavour to tank commanders.

I would absolutely love to have a Steel Legion or Valhallan army. Both have such great looks to them in theory but, sadly, in practice they are ancient metal sculpts that look terrible.

(I'd actually prefer Vostroyans to all of it but even in wishlisting this deluded I have to admit that some things aren't even this likely...)

Konor Background: Vectorum of the Seven Hands of Fate

Tinkering away at my Dark Imperium models and a few other bits, I started piecing together who my Death Guard are and how they operate.

My main idea at the moment is that the background will revolve around “The Seven Hands of Fate”, a sort of small council of the Lord of Contagion and his six most trusted advisors. A sort of Mournival or Nurgle. At the moment the composition of the Hands is the Lord of Contagion; two Malignant Plaguecasters; the Noxious Blightbringer; a Warpsmith; a Chaos Lord of the Purge aka commander of cannon fodder); and, an Alpha Legion sergeant in charge of the army's Traitor Guard and cultist contingent.

The composition of the Hands will vary over time, they won't be all the characters in the army but they represent the ones the Lord of Contagion has the most faith in at that moment. Needless to say, being kicked off the council is not a good sign for one's odds of survival beyond the next battle.

The Librarian leading my small contingent of Fallen is constantly trying to maneuver his way onto the council. Right now he is trying to displace the Alpha Legionnaire. I just like the idea of two representatives of the Most Sneaky Legions in a battle of wills.

The Traitor Guard aren't themselves Nurgelesque but my old Chaos Undivided Lost and the Damned army now working as mercenaries being rented out to the Death Guard by the Alpha Legionnaire.

The Purge are feeling happy to be included and blissfully unaware that the Death Guard consider them mongrels barely suited to a station in life as cannon fodder. On a practical level they just exist so I have an excuse to use some units that don't quite fit the strict theming of the Death Guard. Raptors, basically, I want Raptors and the Death Guard don't do dedicated assault troops. 

The Auxiliary Support Detachment and you

The Auxiliary Support Detachment is your one-stop excuse to put whatever you like alongside your regular army. Its a single choice from pretty much any battlefield role, which is generous, but just using the Auxiliary Support Detachment costs you one of your Command Points. Its open to abuse, obviously, but it has potential to create some very interesting combinations. Off the top of my head...

Your Secret Masters

Nice and obvious, your Astra Militarum army is secretly being manipulated by the Alpha Legion and now they have chosen to reveal themselves! Personally, I'd do with a fully tricked out unit of Chosen because if you're going to lose a command point over it you might as well go all out.

Fallen are another possibility. Then, of course, there's Genestealers for when you want to have a proper, full-on Genestealer Cult Regiment instead of the dregs represented by the actual Cults list.

Iron Warriors Basilisk Battery

First of all: yes, I got into playing Chaos under the 3.5 codex and thus remember when Iron Warriors could take Basilisks just because. Also, in spite of being weaker than a Vindicator's demolisher cannon, a Basilisk's earthshaker is always D6 shots and you get to roll two dice and choose the highest, which as far as I'm concerned is much better odds for flattening the servants of the Corpse God.

Xenos Mercenaries

Kroot, Blood Axe Orks and Eldar Corsairs (represented by Guardians, I guess?) all have a history of working with Imperial forces when the money's right and the commissars are conveniently dead. Also, Harlequins have a history of just turning up wherever they bloody please.

Gue'Vesa

I think I spelt that right. Basically, humans who have either defected to or grown up in the T'au Empire. Once upon a time they were a Chapter Approved unit made up of basic Guardsmen with the odd pulse rifle. Now, if you want to lose a command point buying a ten man unit of standard issue grunts or marginally superior veterans... well, to be honest, I've done dumber things in the name of fluff.

Just a few ideas to get you started.

Trying out some alternative miniatures companies

Whilst trawling eBay for cheap Death Guard stuff, I stumbled on two interesting miniatures companies with innovative attitudes towards trademark law. Still, morality aside, they had things I wanted so I decided to order a miniature from each to see how they stood up. My last experience with such things, a Russian maker who did superb BFG ships, worked out well enough so here we go.

First up, “W” Artel's “Inquisitor Gregor”, a 28mm version of Not Eisenhorn Honest Guv. In my case, he'll be getting a head swap and some alternative weapons to become my Xenos Inquisitor Laurento Hex (appropriately enough). The detail on the miniature looks amazing. What's more, I checked their Facebook page and they had a long post apologising for delaying a much-anticipated model from sale because of casting flaws on the first production run, flaws that didn't even seem that pronounced.

And then there's the fact that they have in the works this:

Yes, superbly detailed models for Commissar Cain and Gunner (first class, sort of) Ferik Jurgen. They will, apparently, go on sale later this month or early next and I am absolutely getting them, the Cain novels being my favourite series Black Library has ever put out (yes, I know they're repetitive but they're fun!).

The other company I'm giving a try is Warex Miniatures and the test model will also be for my Inquisition: the Inquisitor Dominator With Power Sword:

That's a fantastic henchman model. Its so over the top with the giant sword and all the augmetics on the figure itself. My concept for this fellow is that he's a duellist who's aged past his prime and the Inquisition have layered more and more augmetics on him to keep him combat effective.

Warex also make a Not Death Guard conversion kit for the Rhino APC which just has to be seen to be believed.

I love all the detail that has gone into this. I mean, between the cost of this set and the Rhino that I won't actually be using much of it will make the thing cost about £60 but since I only intend to have one mounted unit of Death Guard that's a price I'm willing to pay for that much coolness.

Now, hopefully, both test miniatures will arrive in decent condition. 

Reconsidering the Bigly Marines

I swapped my Dark Imperium ones for a Space Marine Vindicator my friend Dave had bought and never built. I don't regret the decision, there isn't much about the DI models that inspires me. They are what they are: Space Marines but bigly and a little less baroque. Standing next to the best models my beloved Death Guard have ever had they didn't wow me.

However, GW just announced a new Primaris Captain model in Mark X power armour and here he is...

He has a lot more of the detailing that I like in Space Marines: cape, loincloth, tassels, toothbrush on the had, the works. Don't get me wrong, I understand why the comparatively new Primaris don't have as much ritualistic gubbins strapped to them as the classic Space Marine does and that works for them even if I don't like the way it looks. It does make more sense for senior officers to have the gubbs, they are still an Imperial faction after all, and so I like this guy a lot more than than the Intercessors and such.

I still don't see myself doing Primaris Flesh Tearers, though, so this fellow will end up a Black Templar. I think he's make a decent enough Marshall model (maybe used as a Primaris Captain, maybe as a generic one, given the larger scale of characters it won't look too weird as either). 

Why are Space Marine tanks STC?

It is actually a slightly oddity. Of course, its one of those oddities that exists for the simple reason that we're talking about a canon written in fits and starts over the course of decades by dozens if not hundreds of people. However, as time has gone on and Space Marines have become more and more special it has become a little odd that their tanks are STC tech.

So, bear with me here: as its always been explained a Standard Template Construct system was basically a massive fabricator that could create anything out of anything. Human colonies would set down on a world, the STC database would evaluate the resources at hand and provide the colony with the best version it of whatever it needed that could be created out of a series of standard schemata that it's AI could adapt to circumstances.

Nowadays, in the grim darkness of the even farther future, the STC patterns are revered as holy writ and there is a very real crossover between technological advancement and archaeology as tech-priests strive to discover lost STC data.

There are even whole bits of background about how the techno-archaeologist Arkhan Land found the STC schematics for what would become the Land Raider and Land Speeder. Further, there was a massive theological divide in the Adeptus Mechanicus when the Black Templars retrofitted linebreaker weapons onto the Land Raider as to whether it was heretical or not (read: a non-STC design or a forgotten STC design). The result of that debate basically boiled down to: “It works, therefore it must be compatible with a heretofore unknown STC or the Machine-God wouldn't allow it also half the chapters in the Imperium have adopted the design while we were debating and they're bigger than us.”.

The thing is, though, that Space Marines are the one place where non-STC tech was prevalent in the early Imperium.

The Primarch Project, the Astartes process, their power armour, their weapons tech and almost everything else was designed personally by the Emperor, the one being who could get around the Mechanicus because of their very convenient belief that he was the Machine-God personified. He was personally able to advance science and technology to his own design because his word on such matters was, effectively, considered itself to be an expression of the STC system.

So why are Land Raiders and Speeders STC designs? Why are Rhinos and all their variants based on the (Dark) Age Of Technology RH1N0 all-terrain vehicle?

Of course, but the I opened the post with the real answer and there's not really a way to reconcile it with modern canon. Though, there is a cheeky part of me that just wants to claim that the Emperor agrees with my complete disinterest in tanks and transport vehicles.

On the other hand, of course, being based on pre-Astartes STC sdesigns would explain why all Space Marine vehicles are actually slightly too small to accommodate the people they're meant to be transporting. 

Flesh Tearers vs. Death Guard: let the 8th edition commence!

Yesterday, finally with rulebook and Index supplements in hand, Matt and I began the first in our first series of games for the new edition. This is our “getting to know the edition” series, naturally, I used my Flesh Tearers because they are my training wheels army (I haven't played regularly since the beginning of 6^th edition). Matt, meanwhile, spent an hour or so gluing his Death Guard together so he could start the edition with an army he has no preconceived notions of (this actually turned out to be a good plan).

So, not our first game but the first outside of using slightly incomplete resources off the internet. Matt had the contents of his Dark Imperium box and I had the roughly equivalent power points Flesh Tearers force consisting of:

Librarian in power armour

Chaplain with jump pack

10 Tactical Marines

5 Vanguard Veterans

Land Speeder with multi-melta

Death Company Dreadnought

This worked out to 2 power points more than Matt's and so he got his underdog bonuses. We had a straight up fight with no objectives just to get a handle on things.

Result: win to me. I had both characters, the Dreadnought and a couple of Tactical Marines still standing at the end, Matt had one Poxwalker and his Plague Champion (who... just... would not... die!). We learnt a few things and we forgot a few things.

Things What We Forgot

Shooting pistols in combat is something you really, really need to remember you can do. The loss of additional attacks for charging affects Tactical Squads' effectiveness a lot more than you think it will so, seriously, remember that they have pistols and you can use them.

Cataphractii armour has a better invulnerable save than normal Terminator armour and the Lord Of Contagion is wearing Cataphractii plate.

You can't deny psychic powers if you don't have a psyker on the table. This is why I targeted Matt's Malignant Plaguecaster early on but we forgot this detail and so some of my psychic powers got denied in Turn Two out of the clear blue sky.

Morale at the end of the turn, not the phase, we did a couple of morale tests at the end of the shooting phase and just had to remember the result for later.

Things What We Learnt

Matt used his twenty Poxwalkers to roadblock my Death Company Dreadnought, a slow and interminable beating I took because my Dreadnought was not in a position to do anything useful by leaving the combat. Given how resilient the Poxwalkers turned out to be (it took me eleven turns of combat to whittle them down to one guy) I dread to think what they might have achieved if they'd reached my Tactical Squad.

Plague Marines: super resilient. Matt was trying to use them to take out my Tactical Squad at range but as I kept failing to kill him from a distance we quickly realised that it would just have been better for him to wade through the bolter fire for a turn or two and charge me. This edition is a lot better for designing units to do what they're meant to do and Plague Marines are footslogging attrition specialists.

My Land Speeder is now a character sniper. The speed meant that in about every turn I was able to ensure a character was the closest possible target for my multi-melta.

Also, Land Speeders are a lot more fragile than I anticipated at only Toughness 5 and 6 wounds. Definitely a vehicle that needs to avoid combat wherever possible.

In an edition where extra attacks don't just materialise out of thin air, chainswords are worth their weight in gold.

On the other hand, I'm not sure meltaguns (or any multi-Damage special weapon) are really that useful in a Tactical Squad anymore. They seem more of a contingency fallback than something you'll get full use of most turns.

Given how poorly it did in the one turn it was fighting my Dreadnought, I think the Feotid Bloat-Drone is more of an anti-infantry thing than anti-vehicle.

Area of effect is better than having buffs that only work for the unit a character is with. My Dreadnought managed to get Litany Of Hate re-rolls just from having the Chaplain nearby. Obviously, though, this is a thing to keep a ready eye and a ready tape measure out for.

I love my Chaplain's inferno pistol. It is a good pistol.

Bonus Background Fact!

According to the main rulebook's appendices, there is still a planet of the catgirls. This joke persists.